centof

@centof@lemm.ee
5 Post – 243 Comments
Joined 11 months ago

Currently browsing from alexandrite.app an alternative lemmy frontend.

Relevant Section under Gift economies:

The expansion of the Internet has witnessed a resurgence of the gift economy, especially in the technology sector. Engineers, scientists, and software developers create open-source software projects. The Linux kernel and the GNU operating system are prototypical examples of the gift economy's prominence in the technology sector and its active role in using permissive free software and copyleft licenses, which allow free reuse of software and knowledge.

Essentially the line of thought is that open source software is an example of mutual aid and the gift economy.

I realize you may just be venting but consider complaining to your college administration either via your student council or by yourself.

It should not be the norm to have to tell a stranger where you are to eat food.

You are paying for your education even if you are doing so via a loan and that gives you the right to tell them how you feel about them invading your privacy. In college and in jobs authority figures routinely try to control you and it is worth learning to take a stand against such abuses.

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Dean Phillips got right around 20% even with the fact that Biden did a write in. I'm honestly kinda surprised it's that low. I would have expected there to be more than that considering the write-in.

Not that it matters since the DNC took away New Hampshire's say in the matter by nullifying their delegates. It is kinda horrifying that a private organization (the DNC) can just decide who has a say in choosing which candidates of the 2 we get to choose between.

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I hate how they call it a "bizarre race". Since when is an Incumbent Mayor defeating a MAGA White Supremacist 'bizarre'. Wake me up, when they throw Trump in jail. I'm tired of this grandpa.

expands the definition of “gravely disabled” to include people who are unable to provide themselves basic needs such as food and shelter

So if you can't afford rent in CA, you are gravely disabled.

Sounds like a 'great' idea. All cops have to do is say you misuse drugs or alcohol or get a someone to diagnose you with a mental illness and BAM your no longer free. I see no possible way for this to be abused. /s

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Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden

Based.


All Hail Lilith, The sacred mother of Feminism ::: spoiler Tone satire :::

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would be hung

This is the the Free speech the right so desperately fights to say in the internet discourse. Either thinly veiled threats or dogwhistles.

Unfortunately for them such speech has consequences for them outside of their small bubbles.

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Now why do I doubt that anyone of the bosses responsible for this hiring will be held personally accountable? I have a sneaking suspicion some measly fines (compared to company profits) will be the result of the vast majority of these 'investigations.'

I hope I'm wrong.

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RCV does have a name recognition and a perceived 'hotness' that other voting systems haven't really matched. And in politics, name recognition matters. I think it is counter productive to attack it to push another voting system. Instead, imo it makes more sense to push the alternative voting system by comparing it to FPTP, our current voting system.

Change the url to old. instead of www. and you can bypass it.

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Reposting from PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com in Technology@beehaw.org

Here’s an AI outline because this was actually a good talk:

How Platforms Die
    The speaker introduces the concept of platform decay or “enshittification” and how it leads to the death of internet platforms.
        He defines platforms as firms like Uber, Amazon, and Facebook that connect users and business customers.
    He outlines a 3-stage process called enshittification where platforms:
        Are initially good to users
        Abuse users to benefit business customers
        Eventually abuse business customers to only benefit shareholders
    This results in the platform becoming a “pile of shit” that dies.

Facebook Case Study
    He uses Facebook as a case study of enshittification’s 3 stages:
        Initially attracted users by promising privacy protections and custom feeds
        Then broke promises and sold user data to advertisers and flooded feeds with publisher content
        Finally, reduced value to users and fees for publishers to extract all value for shareholders
            This led to an angry user base and brittle equilibrium

Causes of Enshittification
    Lack of Competition
        Weak antitrust enforcement has allowed consolidation across industries
        Companies can use predatory pricing to undercut competitors
        Mergers eliminate competition
            Example: Google relying on acquisitions rather than in-house innovation
    Unrestricted “Backend Tweaking”
        Tech platforms control the algorithms and systems behind their products
        They can arbitrarily change these to alter user experiences
            e.g. Facebook reducing visibility of publisher content in feeds
        Done without transparency, oversight or accountability
    Bans on Reverse Engineering
        Laws like DMCA 1201 and CFAA criminalize circumventing DRM and terms of service
        Makes it illegal to reverse engineer platforms to enable interoperability
        Tech companies use IP laws to prevent modding and adversarial interoperability
            e.g. Apple using IP laws to prevent iOS modding

Solutions
    Strengthen Antitrust Enforcement
        Block anti-competitive mergers
        Break up existing tech giants
    Pass Privacy, Labor and Consumer Protection Laws
        Comprehensive federal privacy laws with private right of action
        End worker misclassification through gig economy
        Apply consumer protection standards to platforms
    Allow Adversarial Interoperability
        Roll back laws criminalizing modding, reverse engineering
        Use government procurement to incentivize open ecosystems
        Appoint special masters to oversee platform legal threats
    Keep Interoperators in Check
        Bind interoperators to the same privacy, fair trading and labor laws
        Determined through democratic process vs corporate policy

Conclusion
    We need to prepare and spread these policy ideas to capitalize on the next crisis
    Efforts are underway to enable a better internet through this approach
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For me it was when I was watching Soul with some friends and eventually came to some emotional realizations. I realized that I only had a superficial understanding of how to communicate. I could discuss ideas in the abstract, but I had trouble with expressing myself emotionally and personally because I was always conditioned to repress how I feel. I guess like 22 in the movie I only saw myself as a casual observer. It took a couple rewatches for me to process the difficult emotions I was feeling into something I could explain but when I did it really helped my overall mental outlook on life.

investment platform

What a fancy way of describing real estate.

It's much more accurate to call it, exploiting poor people's basic needs to get ahead. But of course then you'd be reminding them they aren't the goody two shoes they like to cosplay as. Can't have that.

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Because they control the FTC and any other regulatory agencies. It's called regulatory capture. The only other way they can be held accountable is through the pay to play court system which is biased towards them because they can drag it out until the other party gives up.

You've got to remember that these are just simple voters. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons.

No! There are dozens of us! Dozens

But to be real, I hate how automatic updates just assumes the newer version will be better than the current. Enshittification is just as real in apps as in web services. And automatic updates help enable Enshittification by making that assumption. Of course, It's more applicable to the app store or play store than to f-droid.

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It also works with nsfw content they put behind an appwall.

YoU HaVe tO UsE tHe ApP To ViEw ThIs CoNteNt.

STFU with that BS.

Relationships are discouraged through school, in favor of competition, so we can be more effectively exploited by the elites (and all hierarchical societies). That is by design. Healthy individuals with good relationships are harder to sell to and to exploit. It's relatively hard to convince someone who is satisfied with their life and image to buy something. It's a lot easier to convince them to instead seek emotional satisfaction through excessive buying (escapism). Each new item (or service) you get can temporarily fill the emotional void and provide a fleeting sense of excitement or comfort.

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NH literally had to break either their own state law to move the primary, or break DNC's rules to have a primary that counted. And their republican state legislature would not allow them to move the primary. So they literally had no choice in the matter.

How is it in any way fair that 2 private organizations get to decide if the American people even get a say in the 2 (realistic) choices they have?

P.S. I'm assuming you mean might where you put 'foundy'. I don't know how that got there but I'm guessing a phone keyboard.

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what might everyday people use to set up forums as relatively easily and cheaply as their Discord servers, and not have them riddled with ads or other clunky elements?

Discourse is a clean open source forum software that is commonly used for application support and well suited for it.

Or if your a real die hard for the fediverse, you could set up a lemmy instance for application support. There's even a phpBB frontend for an oldschool forum look and feel for it.

Usually everyday people don't setup forums, that's the responsibility of the application owner(s) or provider. In this case, the easy option is also the shitty option if measured by discoverability of the content.

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Do not go to sci-hub.se! Can you believe someone had the audacity to allow access to government funded research papers for free? Everyone knows that only elite institutions deserve the benefits of publicly funded projects.

Support your local capitalist by paying them for the content they rightfully stole.

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It seems like it would make for a great replacement for Tape Backups that are currently used for long term storage. They are easy to write to but hard to read from and restore. It'll probably be a great technology to put backups on especially if it lasts as long as they say. The challenge will probably come in with the specialized reading and writing laser / microscopes being expensive.

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Socialist policies are popular in polling. But as soon as they get called out as socialist, people shut down and revert to their mass produced programming. Capitalism good! Socialism Bad!

I don't doubt that RCV has flaws. But we know that FPTP has flaws. So the question then becomes, Is RCV or FPTP the better voting system? If RCV is a better voting system than it should be pushed for and supported because of that fact.

Perfect is the enemy of good. It is relevant in life and in politics.

For example, If someone is so obsessed with making sure your comment is completely accurate and factual that they end up deleting and never posting the comment, then that comment will not help anyone. Or for another example, I shouldn't wear a mask because it won't fully protect me or others from coronavirus. Doing something even is if it is an imperfect improvement is better than doing nothing.

I believe an RCV system is better than FPTP and therefore support it. I also would support STAR for the same reason.

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If anyone, I guess we have Torvalds or Stallman. But if they were here, I doubt they be stupid enough to admit it.

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I call it virtue signaling. It's the same idea, just a clearer term for it.

Do those mythical organized thieves really exist? I think 80+% of crimes are crimes of opportunity done by vulnerable people like crackheads, mentally ill, or other low income people.

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Anybody got a TLDW;? Or did all of you just comment on the title and the snippet?

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Meanwhile said CEO is the one that intentionally promotes 'clueless' people (Read overtly offensive) people as leaders and then paints the workers that are coerced to humor them as in the wrong when they don't put up with it.

It is literally ~60%-40% as of right now. I would hardly call that a crushing blow.

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Nearly every organization a person is in from ages 5-25 is hierarchical. There is always a authority figure you have to at least pretend to listen too. And if you tick off that authority figure by doing something they don't like, they punish you in some form.

So people learn to ignore authority figures as much as they can and rarely challenge them directly as there are usually consequences for challenging someone in certain contexts. This leads to everyone pretending to agree and pretending to care about what leaders care about to avoid conflict. It is simply easier to cater to those who can and will make your life miserable than to challenge them successfully without creating grudges that might come back to bite you.

It is also worth noting that we are never taught to lead others, We are just expected to figure it out by trial and error or not figure it out at all.

TLDR; It's learned behavior from the institutions we are exposed to. It's easier and more encouraged to follow than to challenge authority figures.

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Blocking some of the meme communities is a big help in that regard.

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Politicians passing laws based on things they don’t understand?

aka virtue signaling

I agree with the sentiment, but if no one ever complains things are guaranteed to not change. At least this is, at the very least, an exercise in explaining your own viewpoints and understanding the workings of an institution. That is a skill and lesson that is valuable in the professional world.

I did just for you. Hope that makes you feel better.

“The cells of death row are filled with guys who had nothing to hide.” - Kenneth Eade

imo there isn't enough content on Lemmy to only whitelist certain communities. I prefer to just block the extra stuff I don't want. All is fine if you take out most the low effort communities. I only have 10 or so communities blocked and it makes a noticeable difference. Much easier than subscribing to a bunch of communities for me.

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It's more the sociopaths running the companies that are shit. They don't give a damn about the people they exploit and the harm they cause. And every institution's got their share of them, not just businesses.

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This article is devoid of real info. It just goes over the bickering of politicians.

The program is not ending yet, It will continue until it runs out of funds. Those who are already enrolled will keep getting benefits until at least April 2024. If (Big if) Congress agrees to provide further funding before then it would be extended. New enrollment for the program is ending February 7. Source: https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/us-news/personal-finance/2024/01/21/65ad1fe4e2704ef0658b4588.html

Never heard of the Battle of Seattle. What was it about?

I would focus on it the from a different angle. Instead of tracking grocery spending, I would set a number that you aim to not go over for a given month. Based upon the numbers you provided you spend an average of $700 per month on groceries. If you, for example, aimed to start with reducing your by 50% to $350 per month you would save $4400 yearly. That's a sizable sum of money that you could put towards a vacation or a buttload of smaller purchases.

As far as how you could go about saving that much, I would advise setting a limit on both how many grocery trips you make and how much you allow yourself to spend on each trip. So lets say you decide on about 4 trips a month (roughly weekly). In that case, spending $80 per trip would safely stay within the budget of $350. There would even be ~$30 leftover for a couple of mini trips for one or a couple items.

To help stay in the budget, it might be helpful to take a small notepad along and log how much each item costs at as soon as you put it in your cart. You can stretch your dollar further by buying the products that tend to be more out of sight and less convenient. The products that are highly visible like the endcaps of aisles and that are at eye level tend to be the more expensive options since they are usually rented by the brands to get the prime attention real estate. Stores with a less than traditional layout, like Aldi, are also a great way to save since they are usually cheaper and let you get more bang for your buck.

Another useful practice might be a simple grocery list. After you write it out but before you go in the store, you could order the items based on how important they are to have. Something like sweets < Potato chips < crackers < fruit < veggies < presliced meat < spreads / oils < bread. If it seems like your running total for the trip won't cover all that's on your list then you could forgo some of the less important or more expensive items. When calculating the running total keep in mind that there's usually a ~10% tax on that will be added to the total. So $70 worth of groceries would end being ~$77 after checkout.

As far as apps, I've tried some of them and I found they were too tedious for my taste. Even receipts often obscure what the actually product is your getting with a product shorthand that is illegible. That's why I have ended up breaking out a smallish notepad for tracking purchases instead of using receipts.

I guess this comment got a little long winded for lemmy, but oh well.