DigitalDilemma @ digdilem @lemmy.ml

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2

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549

Joined

2 yr. ago

Truthfully, it’s just an excuse to assuage the guilt arising from refusing to support these organisations.

Sometimes.

Sometimes it's a pretty accurate statement.

I used to run a medium-large charity. I have a fair bit of experience in fundraising and management. Most donators would be shocked at how little their donation actually achieves in isolation. Also at the waste that often goes on, and certainly the salaries at the upper tiers.

And I could also say that guilt is exactly why people donate. It's to feel good about themselves, they're buying karma. Central heating for the soul. I won't say that's a bad thing, but it is a thing. It's also exactly how charities fundraise, because it works. That's why your post and tv adverts are full of pictures of sad children crying. Every successful charity today is that way because it knows how to manipulate potential supporters. Is that always wrong? Of course not, charities couldn't do good things without money. But sometimes the ethics in fundraising are extremely flexible.

I actually took a look at Wikipedia's accounts last week as I remembered that campaign when I saw the latest campaign and did some due diligence before donating. I didn't donate, but I'm still glad Wikipedia exists.

What I remembered: That hosting costs were tiny and Wikimedia foundation had enough already saved up to operate for over a hundred years without raising any more.

What I saw: That if that was true, it isn't any longer. It's managed growth.

I don't think they are at any risk of financial collapse, but they are cutting their cloth to suit their income. That's normal in business, including charities. If you stop raising money, you stagnate. You find things to spend that money on that are within the charity's existing aims.

Some highlights from 2024: $106million in wages. 26m in awards and grants. 6m in "travel and conferences". Those last two look like optional spends to me, but may be rewards to the volunteer editors. The first seems high, but this is only a light skim

Net assets at EOY = $271 million. Hosting costs per year are $3million. It's doing okay.

If you're curious; https://wikimediafoundation.org/about/financial-reports/

It's not an uncommon view:

Cuba, which was considered Second World but remains Third World economically. - https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-a-third-world-country-definition-examples.html Some countries in the Eastern Bloc, such as Cuba, were often regarded as Third World. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World

That said, developing world is now the more commonly used phrase since it has fewer political connotations, and anyway, this study is specific to Sustainability targets.

Never heard of those or seen them for sale, and I'm in the UK

Eneloops are about the best rechargable AA and AAAs you can buy, they last close to forever. I've got some that are a decade old and still in use after thousands of uses and still about 80% of original. You chose well.

And it's fine. I used to use them a lot for GPSrs. A pair of eneloops lasts about 8 hours in an Oregon. A pair of decent branded Alkaline AAs lasts about 7-8.

The voltage is not an indicator of charge life when you're comparing different chemistries. The reason you're seeing low charge is that your device is not calibrated for rechargables. In things that are, they have settings for both so you can select which you use. If your thermostats don't, then they'll always removed about anything other than Alkalines.

You stole my design!

Ignorance is bliss - dogs are the happiest people I know. We should all strive to be more like dogs.

This post permanently lowered my IQ

How we've done it recently:

1. Put domain on cloudflare or another registrar that supports an API. Generate a token with the right privs.
2. Use certbot with the cloudflare plugin, and that token, and generate whatever certs you need within that domain using the DNS01 method.

No need to have port 80 open to the world, no need for a reverse proxy, no need for NAT rules to point it to the right machine, no need to even have DNS set up for the hostname. All of that BS is removed.

The token proves your authentication and LetsEncrypt will generate the certs.

Rather a cycnical take here, but perhaps that's what's coming and these jobs are going to be made redundant shortly so they're filing a claim while they still can.

I agree, Grub is horrendous and one of the most complex systems in linux. Grub2 is even worse, and searching the web for help is difficult as the two are named interchangeably, despite being hugely different in design.

Random files spread over the filesystem. Some you edit, some are done automatically, some are done by kernel upgrades, some you need to run yet more commands for them to work - and it all differs from distro to distro. The sooner more distros move away from this, the better.

The taste and quality of tap water varies hugely where you are. I find hard water particularly unpleasant.

Really good answer.

wade through hundreds of AI generated pages of useless information

I personally find the best use of AI is to read those pages of useless information and summarise what I actually want to know.

Google: " hugo, show total number of posts not including pages " = advertising, a billion pages of partially but not entirely relevant information that takes ages to wade through.

Gemini: same question: Clear explanation and working examples in seconds.

They're both google, but one knows what I'm actually trying to say and doesn't (yet) push advertising at me.

Joe Pasquale sings it

I'm so sorry.

He ain't going to be the only one. US President can threaten anyone with impunity, the courts have already shown that.

Vote better.

Gizmodo flying a bit close to the libel laws in that article.

Despite saying they can't confirm it's genuine, then saying stuff like " it’s pretty clear that Mangione was motivated by the tremendous injustices regularly perpetrated by the healthcare industry in the United States."

Was he? Did he write those words? Is he the shooter? Doesn't this kind of reporting compromise the chance of a fair hearing?

Surely he deserves the right to a trial before being found guilty, as per the Sixth Amendment?

Adults saying "poop"

Am British where it's what kids call it. For adults it's poo or shit.

Walking on Dartmoor one cold, gray and rainy winter's morning.

A young man in a sodden T-shirt and shorts emerged out of the mist on the same moorland path I was on. He was carrying a tesco carrier bag with a ram's skull sticking out and what looked to be the spine stuffed into it.

Sheep die out there all the time so it was probably a chance find - but walking in what were difficult conditions so poorly dressed, but with a carrier bag...? I still wonder what he was going to do with his prize.

Oh, and that time when I drove around a corner to find five pirates pushing a horse and carriage up a hill. (It was a themed wedding and the horse was slipping on the way to the reception so the followers got out of their cars and helped push - but it earned a second glance)