There is no good strategy or good outcome with Huawei. CCP virtually controls any Chinese economic entity and has appetite for "secrets" of the West. Embracing Huawei would've been as bad as outcasting it. We're at the point where I hesitate to buy most things that originated in China.

manufacturer may very well integrate add and update endpoints so that it's rather hard to distinguish. For example, say Samsung decides to serve adds and updates. Doing so through https://serives.samsung.com/{ads,updares} they leave you with 0 handle on what's going on, since the only thing your routers and proxies can see is "samsung.com" and differentiator is "hidden" after that. So TLDR; is: you either allow internet access or you do not, there's no "a little bit"

Best AI rant hands-down. I can agree with every word there.

All kinds of conspiracy theories are running through my head in light of further departures.

1. Board has asked Altman to do something shady, he said he'd do it but really he didn't and they've got pissed firing him. Folks who were viewed as his "clique" naturally got worried and left before their names get tarnished.
2. Altman and a group of supporters were up to no good, board got a whiff of it and fired him, and everyone involved saw the writing on the wall and resigned
3. Board was shaping things up for acquisition, Altman opposed and was shown the door. Folks close enough to him understood the consequence and quit with their resumes clean of what's to come. ...

so many things will remain unknown for the nearest future it's hard to tell who's lying about what.

Trouble is: Koch brothers are very much into the same things as Trump is but they want to be able to control POTUS not having to deal with lose cannon that shoots everything and everyone and is only predictable in his unpredictability. So I'd think that the same policies would be pushed forward but without as much drama and publicity. In the end everyone will end up just as screwed.

@mgdigital, first thing I'be noticed: reliance on "heavier" database stack (pg + redis), at least from the first glance at docker-compose. My suggestion would be to have an option for minimalist setup with sqlite and without redis if possible. That would work better for those of us flying with minimal hardware (rpi, old PC and such).

self-hosting is great but that still means datacenter someplace. I've been using GitLab for some time now and CodeBerg "feels weird" to me. But then it could be my biases and "muscle memory". I'd say whatever feels right for you.

Unlike other big name Git hosting company who chose to use AI to "steal" from hosted projects other two did not stoop that low. So there's that.

that's "disaster capitalism (read N. Klein for full understanding of what that entails) mixed with a real sh#tty situation in Gaza that was brewing for a long time. For all I can tell selected elite (on both sides) lines their pockets nicely while people are bring brainwashed and dying on both sides. On some days I really despise humanity...

I'm in the same boat. So I kill two birds with one stone when I shop for used dumb TVs - they are cheap and available as general population craves "smart". Can't loose there. I got 42" for $25 and larger ones can be had for under $100. So even if you'll buy a lemon once or twice you're still ahead

gigantomania is a thing in Austin, so, yeah, oversized gavel comes with the territory

form Ars

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/11/openai-president-greg-brockman-quits-as-nervous-employees-hold-all-hands-meeting/

According to reporting from Kara Swisher and The Information, it's looking like the ouster of Altman stemmed from an internal disagreement over the direction of the company with regard to a focus on profits over safety... wasn't too far off

despite my socialist views I'm also a realist: no elected government in Canada or US would socialize real estate. None. Within current economic and political system it's a surefire recipefor country implosion. The only feasible solution is taxing "luxury" properties and diverting that money towards subsidized/public housing. Demand outpaces supply and supply is being choked by corporations and individuals scooping up properties and not releasing them back either as rentals or for resale. Make it passable for them to sell and impossible to hold and we can bring market to some shaky equilibrium. Build more affordable housing and you may stabilize the market. There are no other options on the table as far as I know.

Whatever you've done to UI must be some atrocity as I do not experience issues with FF. You've never specified which FF extension you've used that had slowed down your browser.

Chrome (and by extension) Chromium and all derivative browsers are Google's lever to truly control and shape internet to their liking. Multiple people said it already.

Personally I find Chromium UI very cumbersome and dislike it a lot. Which is to say we all have our own preferences for UI.

In your case you'd have to weigh your repulsion with available performant FF UIs vs future of internet and choose which decision can you really live with.

Right, thats where the line has been drawn. Lets not overwhelm penal system with privileged white jackasses, lets keep it for underprivileged to prevent them from getting ahead.

"Appall the supreme Court" . There, I fixed it for ya

it doesn't have to. main reason for this war being this long is reluctance of western partners to deliver equipment necessary to keep initiative in present state of war. As a result - Ukrainian army get decimated while russians are getting better and everything awful they do: war crimes, defences, offense etc. Time is running out to help Ukraine and calls to "bust give up now" are self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm a pacifist at heart but in this case there is no way of stopping russian expansion (present and future) than to supply Ukraine with all necessary to win. Otherwise 1-2yr after "negotiations" we'll have v2.0 where russia chomps off next piece of Ukraine (or other bordering country) while the rest of the world will keep repeating "what's the point? we gave in last time, might as well save ourselves the trouble and give up now". Solution by escalation is still possible as russia still has upper limit they are bumping against, but they keep on raising it so soon enough nothing will help, and that's what russians hope for.

to memory comes previous anouncement of supersonic missile... which ended up being destroyed over Ukraine with reasonable degree of accuracy. So yeah, same posturing from russia but k owing what we know after (almost) 2 grueling years in Ukraine it's just that - posturing. They failed to attract talent but they've succeeded in scarying or destrying talent. So their only option for technological advance is espionage. Even then they'd need high caliber specialists to replicate whatever has been stolen. What they are really "good at" is brute force and dirty tricks. But any technological superiority is off the table.

Your optimism is inspiring, but IMO misplaced 🙁 Here in Canada conservatives like to use the same trick election after election: they strip "safety net" bare all until ~6mo before election. Then they throw a few one-time cheques before election and... voila: all is forgotten and forgiven. Same here in reverse: any downfalls just before election would define voter behaviour, not the systemic view at ability to govern.

don't stress out about it - you're on the right path, so just keep exploring. For music, depending on your location, there are various internet stations that broadcast indie and other stuff that is not mainstream. Also go to local concerts and buy CDs from artists - they actually need it. You should've been prepared to forfeit ownership of anything on amazon prime, kindle etc, for amazon has long history of denying people access to stuff they assumed they owned. For movies we collect DVD/Bluray disks as I don't trust any of the streaming providers, nor do I want to share with them my viewing habbits (downside: you need storage space for those). For podcasts I love AntennaPod on Android. For books we always opt for unencumbered epubs, sometimes pdf which are abundant. Audiobooks through librivox are a thing as well. I will repeat myself: don't stress out. Take it as a wild safari and go hunting for new and exciting things that are not entangled with big corps that suck the soul out of everything : artists, consumers, employees, shareholders, etc.

Right now every participant in conflict has committed numerous crimes. There is ho moral high ground for anybody. Every side is lying through their teeth to achieve their goals. People of Israel and Palestine are dying while selected few in Israeli and Palestinians get richer and consolidate power in their hands. Both sides have been solidly brainwashed against each other. It'd take enormous effort to stabilize things. I have not seed anyone fitting the bill.

depending on where you are in phone replacement/upgrade cycle I would recommend Fairphone or looking into e/OS.

Like others mentioned don't expect to do a wholesale jump. Slowly replace services with alternatives: Proton mail, NextCloud, Box, Dropbox, Lemmy, Mastodon to name a few services. There are numerous apps that can interact with those services so you'll be spending some time going over those sorting what works for you.

To get the apps FDroid coupled with Aurora you can get most apps (that do not have explicit dependency on Googleware). Amazon App store is a possibility too for some commercial apps. For Youtube there are several alternatives like LibrePipe and NewPipe (but there are more). For existing social media site apps there are thin wrapper browsers that would "sandbox" each site allowing you to still use them while you slowly detach yourself: SlimSocial, RedReader, etc.

I've been Google-free for a bit now but I went with LineageOS+microG setup which may be challenging for you at this stage.

Treat it less as a crusade and more like multilevel challenge when upon completion of one challenge you get to complete another. It could be fun and liberating.

democrats are very efficient in shooting themselves in a foot. He's not getting on the ballot as he doesn't represent established clique. None of the progressives got anywhere because of Democrats top echelon. US needs an nee party with all progressive Democrats moving there. Maybe then there's some chance for a country.

thanks for the tech details. It sucks that there's no endpoint for upvotes (yet). I find favorites/saved and upvoted to be distinctly different at least the way I use it. Upvotes communicate to me (and others) that content is of value or that I agree with it. However Saved/Favorite may mean that I disagree with content but I'd like to keep reference for future times. That latter is a private info too so nobody benefits from me "saving" that content other than myself.

TLDR; I'd have to get used to hitting upvote and "save" buttons on content of interest and learn to filter through my "saved" stuff while devs are comming up with endpoints for upvotes.

So lets put it all in perspective. Some established facts first:

• Russia is pretty open with it's declaration of love to HAMAS
• Iran really wants to "give it" to US
• Russia is sanctioned and desperate in it's war with Ukraine, hoping biggest weapon supplier would stop supplying weapons
• Russia is best buddies with Iran
• Iran wants nukes
• Russia used to be buddies with Israel (esp. military-wise, which was cited as one of the reasons no military assistance to Ukraine came from Israel)
• Israel has it's internal political problems.
• all the nations that now so keenly support Palestine and violence towards Israel never sent any significant investments or humanitarian aid to Palestine to beat Israel economically
• Israel was behaving as an a-hole towards Palestine for quite some time
• HAMAS has not moved Israel-Palestine relationship an inch and needs to show some activity

So, to me all of the above kind of adds up to: Palestine was used by everybody else to achieve goals absolutely unrelated to Palestine survival or prosperity.

If I were to make up a conspiracy theory, I'd say: Russia needed diversion real bad, they talked to their Iran buddies to stir dhit up in Gaza. Mossad snifs it out and does.. nothing, opening door to unspeakable acts that followed, but also giving a pretext for "outrage" and rallying the nation against existential threat. Arab world leaders quickly jump on a familiar train of antisrmitism boosting their ratings locally and doing diddly squat to help Palestine (I mean help, not entrench them further in conflict)

In sum: both sides were comfortable sacrificing their own people (without people's consent) to achieve political goals.

Disclaimer: I did not buy smart TVs recently. However from my research and experiences with other "smart" appliances - manufacturers now offloaded the most basic functions to the cloud and they LOVE IT. This gives them leverage in any extortion scheme they desire (just look at Toyota making some of their fob functions "subscription only" retroactively. This is a new era of digital extortion and the only way to shift is to avoid participating in a market of "smart things". Corporations certainly capitalize on that, but if there is no market for smart things or it's not lucrative enough they'll begrudgingly cave as they need to sell. We're not the majority though so unless we educate others this is the new reality.

there is some truth to what you say, at least "just enough to keep Ukraine alive as long as possible but not to actually let Ukraine win".

However I would disagree with over-generalised statement "Nobody actually cares about Ukraine except for russia". Poland, for example, very much does not want to have common border with russia, esp. after this war. While US has a luxury of being able to ignore what's happening it is not the case for some (most?) EU countries. Which also explains why some contribute enormously when comparing their contributions to respective country's GDP. Ukraine independence also can be used by US as leverage against russia in the future, so while not humanitarian in principle, US has huge interest in Ukraine status.

There is a chance for Ukrainian win on battlefield without foreign soldiers, but it means lots of equipment. That window is quickly closing and then, yes, the only way to move forward will be foreign intervention.

not quite. Palestine never got it's independence and never had government concerned with Palestine development rather than external threats. I do not recall anybody attempting to aid Palestine to become independent. Israel's "aid" was used as means of control.

I'm talking about two countries going their own way. That never happened.

How is it a farewell if you're still consuming Youtube content? Only exodus of consumers from the platform will prompt content creators to look for a different platform and maybe, MAYBE, force google to rethink. If you don't like their practices, move off the platfrom, not just change the client.

funny thing is: "Eternity" looks like it shows totals for my upvotes on posts/comments but not showing what those are

Just came across HAMAS leader openly enumerating benefactors: https://www.memri.org/tv/hamas-leader-abroad-khaled-mashal-russia-october-seven-chine-taiwan

"For your information, Russia has benefitted from our [attack], because we distracted the U.S. from them and from Ukraine. China saw [our attack] as a dazzling example. The Russians told us that what happened on October 7 would be taught in military academies. The Chinese are thinking of carrying out a plan in Taiwan, doing what the Al-Qassam Brigades did on October 7. The Arabs are giving the world a master class."

I've got Acer Nitro5 this year on sale ($800) and love it. Hidden perk: memory can be bumped to 64G. I do play slightly older titles so can't say for newer ones.

The problem is that I do not see solution with Hamas and current right wing government in Israel in power.

agreed

Unfortunately adding "2 + 2" I come to the same conclusion. The only chance for this to stop is external force. Whether it's weapon supply to Hamas or them getting ostracized by Arab world (I mean Hamas, not Palestinians). Democratic shift in Israel is a necessary prerequisite too however it can't come with a weakening of Israel or we'll be witnessing Holocaust v2. Most of my life I despised Israel for what they did to Palestine however in light of recent events I believe militarily they ought to be strong to prevent any further attempts at genocide of Israelis and they should stay within their own borders

you can read experts advise as something pointed ad policymakers and manufacturers: "people can't afford what they need to live, do something!". What's really annoying that city planning in NA is geared specifically for cars and not public transportation, so it's a mess created by designers and regulators. And our governments on every level allowed them to get away with it. Now those same government structures would have to get their collective a$$es im gear and do something about the fact that people can't afford to.live in such an environment. (that's BEFORE we start talking overall cost of living and housing affordability). We're really back to 20's which factories owning dorms and allowing workers live there (for a price) basically doubly owning them: owning means of production, and means for living, really..

can someone enlighten me what prompted those threats?

yeah, recent revelations seem to point that way

Either it's my client or my eyes but I did not see mentions of "Gaza strip" in your previous messages in this thread. Sorry.

it's a game of influence and data collection. Even when you work at McDonalds they still can use you either as data point or leverage information gathered influence/coerce you to do things on their behalf. Look at their control level in China - your behaviour is constantly monitored and your life options get limited in life if your behaviour does not align with CPP expectations. Given that lots of stuff originates in China, would you like prices online be higher for you just because you've criticised CCP? Or, more invasively - some content disappearing from your device while bring substituted with some form of fake news etc? Randsomware is still a vector as well. Opportunities for benefiting CCP are endless once they own key device(s) in today's economy: your smartphone, that is used for company logon, bank operations, personal information storage. Imagine dataset they can feed AI yo simulate you and sll the fraud they can perpetrate under your name. Or they can wipe you off internet, closing your accounts pretending to be you and intercepting all communications. India and China already been proven using coercive powers to silence dissent abroad. So, no, it's not just specific industries. It's collective Western citizens.

thank you for such a detailed response. I would love to contribute however at the moment my capacities are rather limited but otherwise I'd be willing to add sqlite adapter. From your description it sounds like currently architecture is narrowly locked on PostgreSQL features. In my daily job I love PostgreSQL for big apps and stacks but I'm also aware how "hungry" PG can be, which is why I'm wondering whether it's "too big of a hammer" for this particular problem. Also, setting up single service is easier to novices vs maintaining several. Docker compose is nice but it has it's limitations.

not at all

from what I've observed so far outsourcing does not preclude proxying external entities through existing trusted domain.