5 Things You Should Know – Part 282

Here are 5 things you should know.

1. The “Terms of Service; Didn’t Read” project rate terms of service, and provide bullet-point summaries for consumers.

Image credit: tosdr.org

Most people don’t read terms of service. ToS; DR’s goal is to boil them down to a handful of important bullet points, so you can check them out before you make an account, and know what you’re agreeing to. They also have Chrome and Firefox extensions, so you can see ToS summaries in real time.

It’s pretty useful, and most sites have decent summaries.

Negative:

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold the service harmless in case of a claim related to your use of the service Discussion
The service can delete your account without prior notice and without a reason. Discussion
This service ignores the Do Not Track (DNT) header and tracks users anyway even if they set this header. Discussion
The service may use tracking pixels, web beacons, browser fingerprinting, and/or device fingerprinting on users. Discussion
This service gathers information about you through third parties. Discussion
The service uses your personal data for advertising. Discussion
Third parties may be involved in operating the service. Discussion

Positive:

The service promises to inform and/or notify users regarding government inquiries that may involve users’ personal data. Discussion
The service is transparent regarding government requests or inquiries that may involve user data. Discussion

2. A 12-inch pizza is almost one-and-a-half times the size of a 10-inch pizza (44% bigger, to be precise). You should always order the bigger pizza.

At first sight, you might assume it’s 20% larger, but it’s actually much more.

It’s a simple mathematical concept but is often overlooked. The area of a circular pizza is πr^2. The π bit cancels out, so we can forget it, but the r² bit is what matters. The pizzas have radii of 5 and 6 inches respectively. 5 ² =25; 6² =36. To get 36, you need to multiply 25 by 1.44. i.e it’s a 44% increase.

It’s always better to go for the larger pizza.

The same idea applies to things like car exhausts. The difference between a 2.5″ exhaust and a 3″ one is also 44%.

Article continued below

3. You can bypass most article membership gateways online using outline.com.

If you’re trying to read an article online and it requires you to signup/pay to read the thing, just type outline.com/ before the URL and you’ll get taken to the full article text. You can also navigate straight to outline.com and from there type in the URL of the article you’re trying to access. Here’s more info about it as well as other features.