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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)NJ
Posts
29
Comments
570
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • I had a Google GSuite account from back when they advertised it as a free for life solution for families who wanted to use their own domain. They stopped offering this a long time ago, but kept us around. A few years ago, they tried to end it, but walked that back after facing resistance. We were among the earliest adopters and many of us shilled pretty hard for gmail over the years. Not only would they have gone back on their word, but my app and media purchases would be tied to a crippled no-email account (identity only) because they didn't have a migration path to normal gmail. That means multiple logins. Also, the gsuite inbox doesn't have the inline ads or anything while the regular one does. I've been working to move away from google because I imagine they'll try to end this again later, but also just because we understand better who google really is.

    The site the greedy little pigboy runs was instrumental to the resistance but since it's enshittified, we may not be able to resist again. Its fine to say something is for a lifetime, but you have to honor that or you've been dishonest and no one can trusts thing you say.

    The only reason I still have google around is android. When we finally get a linux daily driver phone that meets my minimum needs, I'm migrating the remainder of my stuff. I'll happily give up some functionality to do it. I just hope they can keep their free for life promise until then.

  • Free™ with the purchase of a second item of equal or greater value. Free™ iPhone when you sign up for a 2 year contract.. Unlimited™ data. Free™ tax prep.

    Nothing is truly free and someone needs to buy these corporations a dictionary. Maybe a couple of government agencies could look at those dark patterns and offer some Free™ rides to a correctional facility for these marketing teams?

  • US rule

    Jump
  • Yup, the Yeti and my ages old DSLR are the only remaining mini-usb devices in my home. I thought it was the other way around though. I thought mini was fragile and micro was smaller and stronger. I may have been wrong.

    In any case, did you ever see the microUSB cables that could be inserted either way? I don't think it was ever standards compliant, but my chosen USB cable supplier at the time did this and it's was my favorite micro cable for years until it died.

    My current frustration is devices that appear to be usb-c, but will only charge if the other end is usb A. Usually when you are on a trip with only USBC to USBC. :'''-(

  • I find that many desktop sites scale just fine, and as you stated, the most common issue is simply that the elements may be sized a little strangely. The desktop sites tend to be way more functional. I miss my old Windows Mobile PDA with the stylus that could tap the smallest of links without a problem. With most phones I've had in recent history being at least 1920x1080, there's no reason a site shouldn't be able to display in desktop landscape mode.

  • Yeah, I hate that. At an old job, sometimes people would go around and take lunch orders before running to Wendy's, Hate Chicken, or Chipotle. I'd way rather give my coworker cash and let them have the bonuses and discounts and crap while I maintain the privacy afforded to cash-only Chads. It's still an L though because we're still giving the companies money.

  • I will never throw it my mother in law's stove or washer or dryer. I think all are 1950s-80s and repair parts and manuals are available all over online. Rather than fighting LG or Kenmore or Samsung or whoever and getting screwed after spending big $$$ on a smart appliance, I just buy a part, usually <$100, and fix it myself. I have a few more delicate items that I wash in my parents washer because it is more gentle, but it also doesn't clean as well as the old machines. Power consumption doesn't matter so much in this case because there's solar on the roof offsetting the extra usage, and from an environmental perspective, replacing a machine and disposing of an old one has a cost as well.

  • I saw this. It seems the app just shows you a picture of which quadrant you should be brushing and how to move the brush. I bought the appless one and it just vibrates every 2 min. or so to let you know you can move on to a new area of your mouth. No app required. If anyone thinks a glorified brushing timer is worth your privacy, might I suggest an egg timer instead?

  • Recently got a notification when visiting m.facebook.com in a Firefox based browser that my browser will soon be unsupported on Facebook and I should download the Facebook Lite app. I haven't had the FB app installed for over a decade and for much of that, I've been using the version designed for dumb(ish)phones that hasn't had the experience enshittified the same as the full mobile site, the desktop site or the app. You can actually still see a list of your friends, potentially even in alphabetical order. Even the feed seems to still show real stories from your friends and not all the other crud. If the simple mobile site goes away, I will probably stop using FB except checking once a month to see if far away friends and family sent something. In no case will I install the app. It's bad enough that I have an account there at all.

  • I would also add that apps allow companies to more closely control your behavior. If I use amazon in the browser, I can open up 20+ tabs and save things to my browser bookmarks rather than storing my "likes" server side with their list feature. I also can't copy text or save images in many apps, even something as simple as an order number.

    I see the dark patterns you reference fruequently. Two-thirds of apps seem to abuse notifications now. It got to the point where I literally turn off all of them except phone and messaging. I just put a repeating task on my to do list to check email and such. I don't need every app on my phone to spam me over every little thing, but the companies that made them sure seem to need that to happen. My attention is sacred.

  • You have more knowledge on this than I did. I enjoyed reading about Freenet and Ceph. I have dealt with cloud stuff, but not as much on a technical-underpinnings level. My first freenet impression from reading some articles gives me 90s internet vibes based on the common use cases they listed.

    I remember ceph because I ended up building it from the AUR once on my weak little personal laptop because it got dropped from some repository or whatever but was still flagged to stay installed. I could have saved myself an hours long build if I had read the release notes.

  • Yeah, the projects I've heard about that have done something like this broke it into multiples.

    For example, 1000GB could be broken into forty 25GB torrents and within that, you can tell the client to only download some of the files.

    At scale, a webpage can show the seed/leach numbers and averages foe each torrent over a time period to give an idea of what is well mirrored and what people can shore up. You could also change which torrent is shown as the top download when people go to the contributor page and say they want to help host it ensuring a better distribution.

  • Yep, that seems like the ideal decentralized solution. If all the info can be distributed via torrent, anyone with spare disk space can help back up the data and anyone with spare bandwidth can help serve it.

  • He totally would. Tech bros reinventing the concept of a temp agency. How revolutionary and disruptive! /s I worked at a company once that would hire temps to work alongside the regular employees when attrition was too bad to meet headcount. We direct employees were getting $10-15/hr for a $25-35/hr job (higher for some roles) and the temps were getting even less, usually because they were desperate or unemployable in the mainstream for whatever reason. I more than doubled my salary when I left there.

    I lean more and more towards us all being guilty for every time we've put up with this shit as employees, tolerated other employees being treated poorly, or done business with a company that mistreats its employees. Exploiting your employees should elicit the same response as a fraud scandal. We watched them build these prisons and took money to put our smiling faces at the face of their customer experience. We all tell ourselves we can't do anything alone but we are so disconnected socially that only the already unionized few can truly demand their employers compliance.

  • I haven't heard of this. Is this plan available still? I'm on TMobile, but like my previous comment I have limited minutes. This works great as an excuse not to talk to people, but I have had to add minutes when I have to deal with someone, for example an insurance company, on a repeating basis. I pay $30 a month which is ridiculously good compared to the plans they advertise. I didn't think the 100 min limit would be an issue, but it occasionally is. If I could carry over my unused minutes I would be 100% okay.

  • I've been doing the same. It makes traveling easier too. It costs way less to get a local sim for an unlocked phone you own than to pay the carrier to allow you to use a locked phone overseas.

    At home, MVNOs, for me, were basically what the rest of the world had. The big carriers kept pushing phones, the MVNOs were simpler, quicker, and less scammy. Eventually I found a non-MVNO T-Mobile prepaid plan that gave me unlimited SMS, 100min. Talk, and 5-6GB data (which they deceptively call unlimited 👎, but was more than enough for me)

    The site run by the greedy little pigboy used to have a "nocontract" community for discussing the best plans, they had a big google sheet and lots of research, but it seems someone infiltrated it because they no longer list the best deals.

  • That's so dirty and unethical. I hope their conscience tortures them for years, but I realize that's wishful thinking since there is a good chance they've so completely repressed any concept of ethics or morality that they would sell their own mother into slavery for an extra tenth of a penny.