I've told this story before, but about a decade ago I had banked enough PTO days that I was able to take off every Wednesday in the summer (with my boss's permission, natch). So I effectively worked no more than two days in a row for four straight months. Off weekends, work monday/tuesday, off Wednesday, then back to work Thursday/Friday.

The first month went about as expected - "yay! Wednesday off!!". But I wasn't expecting to experience what I did by the second month of my experiment: my mental health and attitude towards work had changed. That "Monday blues" you get was gone. Every work day felt like a "Thursday" or a "Friday" to me - because the "weekend" was no more than a day away. The dread of Sunday evenings knowing work was starting the following day disappeared.

By halfway through my experiment, I was happy to go to work because there was stuff I wanted to accomplish and thus was more efficient at my job. Nobody ever complained that I was gone every Wednesday for four months, my work always got finished on time (or ahead of schedule).

But I really was shocked at how my mental health improved by NOT working five days in a row.

I fully support a four day work week and wish everyone has the opportunity to experience what I did.

That partially already happened at the start of the war. There was a massive "brain drain" among the higher educated part of society, which did include a bunch of hackers. Why live inside russia these days when you can move elsewhere and get paid better?

I was a Netflix DVD subscriber before they released a Wii streaming disc then started streaming Netflix back when it was glorious with all your favorite shows. Eventually I downgraded to the cheap $8 plan for a single user at 1080p resolution which was fine - my old television is still 1080p native resolution.

Then they quietly raised the price.... and dropped the resolution to 720p without telling me. Finally I had enough - after more than a decade I finally cancelled my Netflix account last year and haven't looked back.

I don't miss their "netflix originals" which only last for one or two seasons before getting canned because netflix needs more viewership to justify the investments.

Truth be told, I don't watch must television (or even youtube) in general - I have better things to do with my time than vegetating on a couch watching a tv screen.

Funny, during the boycott of Reddit when squabbles was growing, I signed up and created two new communities - one for earbuds and one for vaporents (dry herbal vaporizing).

My earbuds community was quicky approved, but the vaporents group took almost a week before it was approved. It's almost like the site's owner (since back then he had no mods or admin team) was hesitant when it came to something possibly clandestine in nature. I guess drugs aren't cool, but hate speech is?

Cool - forcing ads into the start menu, forcing edge on users. Guess like Win10 is where I leave windows forever.

I downloaded Mandrake Linux back in 1992. I've always fiddled with linux over the years but could never fulfill all my needs. But things have changed recently. I've started using ChatGPT to help me when I hit roadblocks with Linux, and it's REALLY helped work around the various barriers that have kept me from fully adopting linux. Honestly, I am looking forward to switching entirely over to Linux for my business - I'm tired of Windows. And I've been here since Win3.1!!

Is that his f*cking blue steel look? Wonder how long he spent practicing that expression in the mirror this week.

Barns are red because of exploding stars - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/barns-are-painted-red-because-of-the-physics-of-dying-stars-58185724/

Donald Trump is a poor man’s idea of a rich man, a weak man’s idea of a strong man, and a dumb man’s idea of a smart man.

You're f*cking human like everyone else. Real talk - most people don't pay attention to other people half as much as you think. Imagine your last trip out to the grocery store - do you remember what everyone wore that walked past you? Of course not. You're more self-conscious of your looks than anyone else.

Who the hell cares if you "pass" or not in your mind. Stop doubting yourself and be who you want to be.

It takes massive courage to step up to society and say "this is who I am." - so many people in society can't. You're a bad-a$$ for being brave enough to take that leap. Why stop now? People like myself admire you for being yourself. Rock it!

Please stop beating yourself up - I know society wants you to doubt yourself but stop.

no no no, they don't want you to use google. They want you to use Reddit search instead, because it's so awesome!

Except more than once recently he's been caught in a lie about the developers of Apollo and RIF and his communications with them. He's not honest and he's proven that multiple times

Well, well, well, look who's defending their beloved billionaire. It's truly fascinating how some people can overlook glaring issues and defend questionable decisions. Let's dissect your defense, shall we?

Firstly, you claim that since Twitter is now in private hands, there's no need to paint a picture for the public. Ah, yes, because transparency and accountability are such outdated concepts, right? Who needs the public's trust when one person can make all the decisions behind closed doors? It's not like Twitter is a platform that millions of people rely on for news, communication, and information.

You also applaud the efforts to make the platform more economical, but conveniently ignore the consequences. Sure, reducing the team might save some money, but what about the impact on content moderation? By firing a significant number of content moderation staff, Twitter has allowed extremist content to flourish, tarnishing its reputation and driving away advertisers. But hey, who needs ad revenue when you have a billionaire at the helm, right?

Speaking of advertisers, you seem to brush off the importance of brand safety and the impact of hate speech on ad placements. Advertisers understandably don't want their brands associated with extremist views or hate speech. By failing to address this issue effectively, Musk has driven away advertisers, causing a significant loss of revenue for Twitter. It's not "childish" for people to criticize such negligence; it's simply holding a company accountable for its actions.

And let's not forget Musk's refusal to pay rent on Twitter's offices. It's truly admirable how he thinks he can just disregard contractual obligations and leave property owners high and dry. Such behavior shows a complete disregard for the law and basic decency.

Oh, and the whole bedroom installation in the San Francisco headquarters? That's just downright creepy. Who in their right mind thinks it's acceptable to convert a commercial space into a residential one without proper zoning? Musk's actions in this regard are not only inappropriate but also demonstrate a lack of respect for regulations and the communities in which his company operates.

While it's true that many billionaires own media outlets, that doesn't excuse Musk's questionable decisions and mismanagement. Controlling the narrative should never come at the expense of allowing hate speech and extremism to run rampant. Musk's actions on Twitter are not the signs of a genius businessman; they're the actions of someone more interested in their own ego and power.

So, before you rush to defend your beloved Musk, take a step back and consider the real consequences of his decisions. Twitter deserves better leadership and accountability, not blind adoration from its defenders.

No. He didn't pay anything (as usual). Wealthy elites who want him re-elected have been using super PACs to funnel money to help cover bills like this one. Thanks to the loophole of PACs, they can basically throw as much cash as they want at someone beyond the legal personal contribution to a politician.

This PAC is the one who's directly paying the bills, not the orange clown.

It begs the question - were they always thinking this stuff and now feel entitled to say it out loud? Or are they being coaxed by propaganda generated by some of our nations enemies in order to break apart our country? Is this all one big state-sponsored psy-ops attack by a foreign country?

I don't know. But it sure as hell scares the hell out of me.

Remember when downloads could not be paused/resumed. Back in the day if your download was interrupted, you'd have to restart the download. Then apps like Downloadzilla and other programs let you download large files and resume as needed which was critical for large downloads that took hours/days to complete.

Very true, but we'll see if there's any actual recourse. So far teflon don has thumbed his nose the law every way possible. I'm not holding my breath

Crazy how people are still finding new things to cram doom into. I remember when that was a popular thing to do twenty years ago haha

But I'll admit, stuffing it into a keycap is pretty damn impressive, albeit useless haha

Dang, that stinks - I actually enjoy the steering mechanics in this game. It's the only mobile game I have played in many many years because it's easy to play a race or two and put the game away.

Yeah, I certainly won't use any product associated with that muskrat.

I'm not back, I don't miss that place - kbin/lemmy has been awesome and getting better every day.

This place reminds me of Reddit 10+ years ago

Cool, can't wait for the first season to drop, everyone be pissed that it's not the original office, and then the series is abruptly cancelled after two seasons if they even make it to season two.

Just last month I came across a cd I burned with Mandrake Linux that I had downloaded - 26 years ago!

I should try and install that on a virtual PC and see how it feels/looks hahaha

I've been around long enough to have witnessed the internet go through many stages of development. From the early days of dialup internet (back then AOL Online was essentially a walled-off version of the internet - it was a big deal when the AOL software actually let people visit other websites). We had a different local dialup service so I had the full unadulterated internet.

Back in the mid 90's, nearly everything on the internet was paywalled - without a credit card there was very little you could do. Even Encyclopedia sites (like Microsoft's Encyclopedia Britanica) was behind a paywall. I don't miss the slow speeds of dialup and I don't miss the slow downloads (back in the day there was no way to pause and resume a download so if you lost connection, you had to restart!).

Of course real geeks know about newsgroups and how they fileshare so this was a moot point going back a very long time, but for the average internet user this wasn't a thing for quite a while.

I spent a lot of time on the IRC (internet relay chat) which I used to fileshare. It was where I learned to download calculator games for my Texas Instruments graphing calculator that ultimately introduced me into programming my own games which gave me a foundation that I've used ever since in various careers over the decades.

What I miss is the civility of the internet pre-2008. When it was harder to get on the internet. Not everyone had a PC or knew how to use it to get online. Now with iPhones any troll could get online. That's when I noticed a big shift in online communities.

This is some grade-a shitposting, and I'm here for it

I've been so tempted to make and sell custom flags printed with pro-Biden/LGBTQ themes, then have pro-trump messaging printed on top using a water-soluble ink so that these idiots would hang the flags proudly like they always do........only to have the flags change completely the first time it rains hahaha. I'd love to see them frantically trying to pull down a flag in a rainstorm 😂

For one brief moment, stocks were at an all-time high......... What else could matter?

/s for anyone who can't grasp sarcasm

Crazy to think it was only about fifteen years ago the small Data-storage server reseller I worked for was selling their own in-house server racks - a whole 52U rack filled with Supermicro drive bays to store a petabyte of data was $300k and that was a steal of a deal at the time.

Sure, that system was redundant and this is a single pbSSD, but still crazy to see how fast things are evolving

Yep. You know how hot your phone gets when charging? Or how hot a playstation gets when gaming for hours at a time?

That's due to heat-loss generated by the circuits. Superconductors would allow them to run much cooler generating essentially zero heat. Which means they can run more efficiently or faster without the need for larger heatsinks or complicated expensive cooling systems.

Pretty sure the story I heard is that one time while doing a lot of blow, he apparently scrawled "My Pillow!" on every surface in his kitchen (or bedroom? I forget). When he woke in the morning, he took it as a sign to start a pillow company and "find Jesus".

But I can't find a source for that story at this point, aside from saying he was a cocaine addict - that is pretty well documented.

20 years ago, I had an insurance plan with AT&T. For $30 I could "replace" my phone under the insurance policy (once per year). Then the plan changed it was a refurbished phone not new..... then eventually the insurance plan went to a surcharge of $200 to replace with a refurbished phone.

Back in the old days I simply upgraded every one or two years under the insurance plan. But that was the days before smartphones really took off.

These days I don't have that insurance plan, and simply hold onto my phones as long as possible. I don't get it either.

I have a Galaxy S9 that I've had for five years and it just won't die on me. Not that I'm complaining, I honestly have no clue what I'll buy next. But I don't get the need to upgrade annually.

Wow, who could have ever seen that coming. What's surprising is that it's being reported..... must be a desperate effort to call people to action to support their nation?

I was curious about that 6.5 mile claim, and you are correct - while large chunks were thrown thousands of feet away, the plume of concrete dust expanded 6.5 miles away.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-04-26/spacex-starship-explosion-blasted-concrete-up-to-6-5-miles-away

Quake itself was ok. The multiplayer version was fun. But the real fun started when people began modding the game. The original Team Fortress was actually a free mod for Quake which I'm pretty sure quickly became the most popular instance of the game for online play.

Funny random tidbit, I actually remember playing the game with one dude who specifically had to brag about having a high powered 1ghz processor as his username in the game (something like 1gigahertz or something cheesy like that). Pretty sure back then I was still rocking a 700mhz AMD Athlon Thunderbird processor.

Lemmy has very limited content right now - don't like it? Start creating your own content, maybe it'll make it to the top of all as well

From the article

The charging decisions in the indictment reflect smart lawyering by the special counsel Jack Smith and his team. The beauty of this indictment is that it provides three legal frameworks that prosecutors can use to tell the same fulsome story.
It will allow prosecutors to put on a compelling case that will hold Mr. Trump fully accountable for the multipronged effort to overturn the election. At the same time, it avoids legal and political pitfalls that could have delayed or derailed the prosecution.

And further down

A conspiracy requires two or more people who agree to participate. This indictment lists but does not yet charge or formally identify six Trump co-conspirators. Mr. Smith clearly has enough evidence to charge those unindicted co-conspirators but has chosen not to — for now. This, too, is a smart tactical decision.

and in conclusion the author states

This indictment presents detailed and overwhelming allegations. It reflects sound legal and tactical decisions that should allow the government to move quickly and put on a powerful case.

It seems the feds already know exactly his his game, and wrote the indictment to head off as many avenues of delay that he may try to take.

Remember, Trump has decades experience fighting in civil court. Federal court is a very different ballgame.

This is intentional - they're trying to lay the groundwork for Trump's Jan6 indictment defense: He was simply taking the advice of his lawyer in good faith that he believed he had actually won the election.

What they don't realize is that this is a trap by Jack Smith - because that enables the prosecutors to look into Trumps communications with his lawyers - https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/jack-smith-has-set-a-trap-for-trump?sd=pf

Thank you - that's the money shot I wanted to see.

Few ideas -

• Avocados (great texture, not very sweet so other flavors would still stand out)
• Greek yogurt (easy choice for any smoothie with or without bananas haha)
• Mangoes (some varieties are fiberless and blend smooth with a nice consistency)
• cooked sweet potatoes (let cool down to room temp before blending!)
• coconut cream (a small amount can add a creamy texture)
• peanutbutter (or other nut butters) can add thickness to a smoothie.

Name one. Excluding mixed economies and state run capitalist countries.

History absolutely has examples of recessions occurring in non-capitalist countries. Here are a few instances:

• Soviet Union (1980s): The Soviet economy experienced a period of stagnation and recession during the 1980s. A combination of factors including inefficiencies in central planning, declining oil prices, and a lack of technological innovation led to economic troubles. This culminated in the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union.

• Cuba (1990s): After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the loss of its economic support, Cuba entered a period known as the "Special Period in Time of Peace." This was characterized by a severe economic downturn, shortages of basic goods, and a drop in GDP. Cuba's economy is based on socialist principles.

• North Korea (1990s): Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and a reduction in aid from communist allies, North Korea faced a period of economic decline in the 1990s. This was marked by food shortages, famine, and a decline in industrial production.

• Venezuela (21st century): While Venezuela has been characterized by a mixed economy with elements of socialism, it's worth mentioning due to its economic troubles. The country experienced a deep recession starting in the mid-2010s, driven by falling oil prices, mismanagement, and political instability.

• Cambodia (late 1970s): After the Khmer Rouge regime took control, Cambodia's economy suffered a massive collapse due to forced collectivization, execution of professionals, and isolationist policies. The country went through a period of severe economic depression.

• Maoist China ("Great Leap Forward", late 1950's): While China under Mao Zedong's leadership implemented communist policies, it's important to note that there were periods of economic turmoil. The Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) aimed to rapidly transform China's economy through collectivization and communal farming, but it resulted in widespread famine and economic setbacks.

Not exactly world news related.........

My favorite part of the story of Ludwig II was that he basically bankrupted the region building these castles. He was found dead floating in the moat surrounding the castle, and there was basically no investigation. Everyone was like "meh, case closed" and moved on with life hahaha.