Metallibus

I'm genuinely surprised there hasn't been any significant effort made to make it more readable.

Quite the opposite. They've tried to make it better, and in turn, they've made it worse.

They used to have a pretty straightforward Linux file structure, and you were expected to put things in the external Pictures folder. And downloads went to the external Downloads folder. Back then, internal storage was small and SDs were large, so apps couldn't really afford to store these things locally and the SD structure was well enough defined that it was pretty clear where pictures would go.

Now, Google has pushed against SD cards. They also started requiring more permissions for external storage. They've added some "documents" APIs that were supposed to make it easier to tag/find files, but it's a tangled mess and most apps don't touch it. And they've rewritten their storage model multiple times at this point. If you're writing a new app, it's unclear which model to even follow anymore because Google has created a giant cluster fuck of options and paradigms.

Google is actively making this problem worse and worse. I wish they had never tried to "fix" this in the first place.

IMO the thing is that people don't care about their privacy. Sure, some people around here do, but your average person owns an Alexa, has a FB/Instagram account and constantly posts their location, uses the same password on many sites, uses TikTok, doesn't block cookies, etc etc etc.

Most people don't actually care. Some claim they do, but then can't even be bothered to stop using Instagram etc because of the "inconvenience"... So do they really care?

Some companies (Apple, etc) push their products under a narrative around safety and security, and people will repeat that point as a way to justify a decision they already made, but if they actually cared, they would be doing other things too. But they don't.

The number of us who do actually care about privacy and security is actually very small.

I agree, but I just wish it was easier to find interesting communities. Sorting by "hot" definitely dredges up more content, but they're all like 0-5 comment posts. Sorting by active shows the same few posts for a few days. I've been trying to sub to communities that seem interesting in "hot" content, but there just doesn't seem to be a lot of content yet? I may just be spoiled by the scale of reddit, but this seems fairly low and feels a little empty.

Am I just missing good communities? Is there somewhere to find them? Or are we still just really "too early" where most content is only getting 5-10 comments?

Should Trump be convicted, I think it will alienate a group of voters into full disbelief of the existing system.

Good? Our existing systems across the board are entirely fucked. Straight white men generally benefit the most from these systems and have generally continued to turn a blind eye to these problems, as it's easy when you're in the "winning" position. If this somehow wakes them up, maybe we can actually fix something.

It's closer to the hardware. Generally harder to update. It's less frequently updated. And it's less fault tolerant.

Idk, sure, it's technically software. But it's pretty clearly at least a distinct subsection that deserves it's own moniker.

Yeah, my main problem so far has been finding communities actually worth following/joining/contributing to.

If suddenly tons of average people join, they won't really find communities, they'll deem that their analysis of Lemmy, and leave with tiny chances of a second chance. It'll just boom and bust in it's current state. Most people aren't interested in starting or growing a small community.

Meanwhile, if we stay at this size for a while, communities may form/grow, and as people trickle in, they'll grow bit by bit.

A lot of these are just standard things that things like crash reporters pull. In other words, Discord probably included a crash reporter in their app, and it pulls things like memory usage, device state, os version, what orientation the device is in, etc so that when a crash happen, it can tag those to the developers. Those are all useful variables to the developers to understand what is causing the crash.

Tons of apps use crash reporters to keep their app stable. I'm sure most apps will pull the vast majority of this information. That doesn't mean that they're using it to track you.

Aircon plus solar panels for the win? Other than the initial manufacturing cost, it's a fairly good solution.

Can't tell if you're thinking this is anything more than an emergency stopgap for people that can't bear living in their home, but.... All A/C does is spend energy to move the heat back outside, and also produce some more heat on the side. So it isn't a sustainable solution or fix, even if your energy generation is somehow perfect.

And swamp boxes are basically just a fan with extra steps that puts a miniscule amount of heat into the water. They feel a tiny bit better, but they're not really fixing anything either. That warm water still needs to go somewhere etc.

For me, it depends on the website.

Twitter to Mastodon is easy. I've never understood short form text social media. I never made a Twitter account but I have a Mastodon account so I guess that says something. But I still don't use it.

Instagram to Pixelfed has been a hard sell. I enjoy photography but have hated Meta. I hated Instagram and ended up making one just because it's the only real active community, even though it's compression, resolution, and aspect ratio garbage are all awful for actual photography. I've tried 500px, Flickr, Vero, and a bunch of others and they all have problems. Pixelfeds UI and community just both aren't great so I can't buy in yet. And I'm not even using Instagram much these days anyway.

Does YouTube count? I don't comment/post much, but I have very little faith in PeerTube or any of the others ever gaining reasonable traction. So many other attempts at this have failed and the content is too important.

Reddit to Lemmy has been a mix. I completely axed Reddit apps and don't check it daily and instead use Lemmy. Been having a hard time filling the content void. And when I want hive mind type feedback on obscure things / recommendations / tech problems, you just can't beat reddits 15 year history of content and opinions. But I am actively posting/browsing on Lemmy instead.

I disagree with most of the other bits too. They seem to be tendencies of cats people don't take the proper care of.

I've owned two cats for over ten years. They've destroyed a couple things. My parents have had 5 cats for about ten years and they've barely had anything destroyed. My neighbor who has had a dog for about a year and a half has had multiple pieces of furniture ripped, and many things around her house ruined/destroyed.

Cats are solitary predators and not pack animals, so they are motivated more by their own needs and desires, but saying "don't care about you whatsoever" just sounds like someone who's never had a real relationship with a cat or doesn't understand the way they exhibit their care.

I've trained like 5 different cats to fetch, multiple cats not to go in certain areas of the house, not to chew certain things, etc. Most people try to train cats like they would train a dog - through showing disapproval towards behavior etc, which, as mentioned above, is just not what motivates a cat.

I've seen YouTubers also say "nothing else has any users". I think this is generally the public sentiment and the reason people stick around. I would say that even if there's no alternative, just leave but... Unfortunately people feel like they "need" Twitter.

And people say social media isn't addicting.

I would much prefer having smaller/fewer things to carry and not having to keep my phone tethered to an extra box over having to wait like 15 seconds. How is 15 seconds without a phone a problem?

People who don't even use tiktok are scared of it? Goodness gracious.

I mean.... If you're scared of something, why would you use it?

Together we can fight at least 1% of the carbon emissions from top 100 corporations in the world :)

I wish our choices had a 1% impact.... That seems extremely generous.

Most of them you don't have a choice. There are fans that light up when the fan has any power at all. Motherboards have integrated lights. GPUs have internal LEDs...

Sure, you could desolder some of them, but that's harder.

This is one hundred percent sensationalism. Just because the app pulls it doesn't mean that it's being used to track you down. It's probably just for crash reporting etc.

As long as the paper is not easy to access then in all ways this is better then software.

You have to log into a website. Enter the password from the sheet of paper. Now log in again with a password manager that has autofill.

Paper is not better in "all ways" and that's why this thread is being downvoted.

Foldables are the only interesting thing to have happened to smartphones in the past like 6-8 years. It's kind of sad.

Google is dead as a company now that AI is taking over the search process

That's some copium right there. The company has been doing AI for years and they are synonymous with search. Their primary income is advertising where they're basically unrivaled. You're kidding yourself if you think they're going anywhere.

The official one doesn't. I've used a couple others that didn't.

Ahh, that's where that went.... I couldn't find it in my apps and figured I'd removed it.

Googles already been doing this for years.

My point is these are just making you feel better at best. Even a perfectly efficient split system running off a perfectly efficient power source which was manufactured out of thin air without having any effect on climate change is still moving heat around. None of these address the core problem with the climate. Even at perfect efficiency they're just building you a small bubble to feel better in.

I'm in the same boat. Been trying a few different Instagram alternatives for a few years but the user bases are all too small. Pixelfed and Vero seem decent but too much of a ghost town to feel it's worth continuing to post.

There are a slew of Android TV remote apps that do all this and more, like including home/back buttons, integrated search etc. They also pair easier. The first party Google TV app covers this smoother than a BT keyboard/mouse app.

Or, put another way, this is the coldest summer in the entire remainder of your life.

As someone pursuing a career in health care I became more and more concerned because some store patient files and notes in unsecured text files/apps like notion, google docs and even excel.

This is just the beginning - the medical space is notoriously awful and also a place where you probably really care about privacy. But using secure alternatives is too annoying for most medical staff and they just see it as ankther hurdle. Actually getting people to use secure software that's not the software they're already used to is way harder than it should be.

People just don't understand or don't care. Convenience is way more important to people than anything else.

While I agree with your position of current reddit comments, the OP was comparing to old reddit. I feel like it's only been true in the past 5-8 years of reddit. And while that's not what I'm looking for, the low amount of engagement here is a bit too low where I start considering just getting like a news aggregator app. I'd prefer something with SOME discussion as that was part of the value of reddit for me.

I don't know why Google hasn't put this feature directly into Android. It's honestly one of the biggest pushes away from Pixel devices for me and it's absolutely silly.

What do you mean? Didn't you see how well the DeSantis presidential campaign announcement went?

Maybe my interest are too niche, but the trending communities stuff has felt too.... Bland/general for me. I'll keep trying it though, thanks.

The stuff I've seen has had communities with many posts but only a handful of comments. Maybe that only exists in those larger, more general communities for now though.

Also here because Sync is dead. Desperately awaiting your Sync for Lemmy release. Was considering making a Sync-like Lemmy app if you didn't...

Apple: Your honor, everyone has an iScrew and a MagicHeat and an iOpener and a MagicPryer. And if they don't, we even offer a full bundle for only $300! These are very common tools.

Your battery doesn't drop from 80 to zero instantly. If you're going to be "playing a game" or "watching a video" for over an hour and your battery is already at like 40 percent, you can just swap it before you start. If you're burning through a full battery and can't be interrupted...

The reboot takes like 20. Swapping the battery with a full door does literally take 15. So yeah, maybe like 45 seconds? Is that really such an inconvenience?

And sure, a spare battery is a box. But a charging brick is a bigger box. And it needs a cable.

Honestly, this is more bad "charging hygiene" than anything else. I thought this was the case too until like 10 years ago when I learned how Li-on batteries worked, and since then, I've had negligible battery deterioration after 3+ year old devices.

The TLDR is don't charge your phone past ~80% except on rare days you need the extra juice, and by extension, definitely don't leave your phone on the charger overnight. Most people do exactly that and it absolutely murders your battery health.

If you're on Android, AccuBattery is helpful with charge alarms and detailed info if you want to learn about it.

If you have a Samsung with the "protect battery" quick option, it's a god send and makes this all super easy.

Pretty sure this is root only. Normal apps don't have access to the charge controller and I've never seen an app that claims to do this without root.

How is Apple "independent"? You're just trading one mega corporation for another.

It's not Chromium specifically, but it has basically the same issues.

with newer, faster, better tech being available year after year

Let's be real here - this hasn't been the case for smartphones like 5 years at this point. Barely anything has changed in that time frame besides like a "telephoto" lens and foldables.

People are just sold on the idea that things are changing.

Even if apps store stuff internally, and other things can't find it, the owning app can give temp access to another app. Ie, if you click on it in the torrent software, it should be able to find the relevant media player etc and open that media player playing the file.

Not defending this though, it's fucking stupid for them to do it that way, but just pointing out it's not totally useless as long as they allow you to tap/open it from within their app.

people seem blinded by their cuteness even when every other personality trait is negative

Yeah, that's not just a preference.