I live outside the US and struggle with a good mapping solution... I make a point to stick with Apple Maps on my phone but sometimes I am forced to resort to Google Maps to find some place I know exists but Apple Maps doesn't have it :/
So I just tried Mapquest and it had the same problem :(
Google's mapping dominance outside the US is really only challenged by Bing maps... which I can't get on iOS. Nearest is HERE maps but it's not quite the same product.
I've used Here WeGo in several European countries and it didn't fail me yet. I would use OpenStreetMaps but I couldn't find any OSM app with public transport included as an option.
To avoid deep binges into youtube. First of all, youtube thumbnails are cancer anyway, so blocking them is one step towards a Lower Information Diet. And the first step to being able to quit any addictions to youtube.
YT pressures content creators into doing all sorts of stupid shit. They are made to think they don't really have a choice unless they want to risk their monetisation.
One memorable particularity was YT prompting the content creators to make thumbnail images with grimacing faces, which IMO is cancerous. yt/user/theCodyReeder talked about it, but I cannot find the video any more, this was about two years ago.
When YouTube (actively or not) incentivizes that style of thumbnails you cant really blame the creators. I've heard something like 20% more viewers based solely on having a more "creative" thumbnail.
It drastically reduces the occurence of me clicking another video.
If I want to see a video I have to read all titles and it gives me a chance to think if I want to stop watching.
An added bonus is that it takes me at least a couple seconds to find a video to watch when I open the front page and I don't end up subconsciously clicking the first interesting thumbnail.
PS: Also let me add that I'm using youtube signed off with no cookies in a browser that doesn't remember history so the front page is usually the same videos that I don't want to watch for a couple days or a week at a time.
Not sure if this would qualify, but last weekend started teaching swimming for my 2year old. He enjoyed it the most and learnt to move in water (with float) albeit short distance on his own. I learnt swimming when I was 23 and even now freak out when I'm in water. Proud moment for me as his teacher.
When I first heard about it, thought the person was making stuff up. Then I got directed here - http://gemini3.spacelog.org/00:01:52:26/#log-line-6746. Also learnt that there was questioning about the incident by appropriations committee.
I tried this as an exercise when they were pushing Google+. Created a new account, was very cognizant to read through all settings and ensured that nothing from my old account can be traced back to this new one. I'm not joking when I say nothing from my old account and tracking:
1. I timed my move (to different city inside bayarea)
2. Changing ISP to wave from comcast
3. Bought new computer
4. Closed my old phone account and only started using work phone. Never used hotspot in my work phone
5. Even changed my coffee drinking habit + free wifi access locations from Starbucks to Peets.
Only thing I couldn't change was my name + SSN. Serious paranoid level of things for my online life, but they still populated my digital life with same info and recommendations. After about 10-15 days of doing all this, I enabled Google+ (because at that time to use youtube account, I had to enable it). You know who the first contact recommendation that was there for me under my family - my brother who is living in a different country. I just gave up at that point.
Probably I did something wrong during the setup (or) slipped and used the accounts for some period of time on same computer or browser (or) the data companies which sell my offline data have really rich data about me. Whatever the goof-up was, it was just disheartening to learn that after all that work my online privacy just lasted at the max 15days. I really wish there were better ways. Considering the number of security/data breaches (e.g. recent equifax one) I feel like, I have little to no control on things.
