g0zer

Honestly, poor political moves seem to be all the man is capable of. And his base (unfortunately) always seems to have just enough cognitive dissonance to eat it up and pivot/shift the goalposts.

More and more, I come to the conclusion that the only way forward is to stop fighting them, and instead focus on strengthening us.

The one thing MAGA republicans have in spades is a sense of unity and community, which is something we on the left need to foster (instead of infighting and segmentation).

Reality tv is hit or miss depending on popularity and how old it is. Retention plays a part is this too, but most Usenet providers worth subbing to have crazy long retention times.

I personally use Sonarr for tv and it’s stupid easy to use (once everything is set up!), you just search for your show and it knows when it airs and auto-grabs new episodes. You can also tell it to look for past seasons.

The whole “getting Usenet setup and running” is a little more complicated than I’d like to get into with this post, but you’ll need the following: a Usenet provider, an indexer (both of these will cost money but it’s not a lot and annual payments, or lifetime, is usually the way to go), a newsreader (I use SABnzbd), and a web app to track shows and initiate searches (I use Sonarr, as previously mentioned).

I’m sure someone else here can post a link to a good guide to getting started with Usenet if that’s the direction you want to go.

TLDR: it depends on the show

While it might seem that the Russian population could disconnect under such dire circumstances, history shows that Russians have the capacity to rise against oppressive conditions imposed by their own government. The Russian Revolution of 1917 is a prime example. Amidst widespread dissatisfaction with the Tsarist regime due to economic hardship, military failures, and political repression, the Russian people ultimately overthrew a centuries-old monarchy.

Similarly, the protests and eventual collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s highlight the power of their collective action. The combination of economic stagnation, political corruption, and a desire for greater freedoms led to mass demonstrations that ultimately brought down the regime.

These historical precedents suggest that while disconnection and passivity are possible; they are by no means guaranteed. When the consequences of government actions become too severe—whether through economic hardship, loss of life, or a perceived betrayal of public trust—the Russian populace has shown that it can indeed mobilize to demand change.

I wish Democrats would just lean into this shit. Since anything that benefits the working class is “communism”, might as well start nationalizing airlines and electricity companies.

Give them something to actually complain about…

I grabbed a bunch of smaller games for my steamdeck that I’ve been wanting to try:

Noita - you’re a wizard in a rougelike physics sandbox environment

Super Meatboy - precision platformer ($1.25)

Cave Story+ - old Metroidvania platformer I never got around to finishing on console years ago

Fez - 2D/3D puzzle platformer

DIG - “Spelunky meets Enter the gungeon & Broforce” action rougelike platformer

Super Blood Hockey - old school arcade style hockey, pixel graphics (and has multiplayer split screen)

Binding of Isaac - never played it, gonna see what all the hype is about. Action rougelike

Tunic - old school LoZ style RPG

Pizza Tower - sonic the hedgehog on crack

Dave the Diver - dive, catch fish, sell fish in restaurant, buy better gear, dive, catch bigger fish, repeat…

Cursed to Golf - deck building rougelike with golf mechanics

Monster Sanctuary - 2D Pokémon platformer

Resident Evil 3 - cause it was $10 and I just finished 2

Protests are largely only effective if they’re disruptive. That’s kind of the point… a protest you can easily ignore isn’t going to change anything.

And the point isn’t really to gain support, it’s to force change.

Edit: To expand on this, there are much more effective ways to gain support; mainly through community interaction, conversation and education. Which should be seen as separate action vs. protesting.

Edit 2: Upon re-reading my comment I would like to amend my statement that the point is to force “change”. While change is the desired outcome, the point of protests is to force awareness.

I still visit a few subs that haven’t really built a solid community here yet, so I’m still on Reddit a good bit.

You can already see a change in the user base and they way people talk in the comments. Reddit has changed a lot over the years but man, it really seems like most of the interesting conversation has left the site; outside of very niche communities.

Just my 2¢

While I feel we mostly are in agreement, I have a problem with the verbiage you use. Specifically the idea that the desired outcome is to force the population at large to “obey” protesters.

While no one should be forced to “obey” a protest, the disruption itself is often necessary to make the issues visible and impossible to ignore. It’s not about the right to be heard and obeyed, but about ensuring that the issues at hand cannot be easily dismissed or overlooked. Disruption, when done with purpose, has historically been a critical tool for marginalized groups to bring about the changes that polite appeals often fail to achieve.

Grand Heft Auto - like Crazy Taxi but you are driving your obese aunt around town to run errands while taking shortcuts and avoiding weigh stations (which are in a town for some reason) Racing/puzzle mashup

While universities have a duty to maintain order and educate, they also have a responsibility to be spaces where free thought can challenge existing norms. Disruption, though uncomfortable, often serves as the catalyst for meaningful dialogue and progress. If protests were only allowed to occur within strict confines, they might lose their power to inspire the kind of reflection and change that has historically made educational institutions breeding grounds for progress.

Balancing the need for order with the need for protest is tricky, but history shows that sometimes, it’s the disruptions that push us all forward. In my opinion, those (often powerful) institutions should be tempering their response to these disruptions; rather than asking their student body to temper their actions.

There is no greater opportunity for the exploration and development of radical thought than by allowing students to be a part of that future history (should they choose to).

I already use ComicRack, but I wish there was a better digital comic media management program. A cleaner UI and easier to use (or “smarter”) scraping process would be amazing. I also wish there was a standardized way to embed metadata in CBR/CBZ files…

It’s just an archive, so I don’t see why there couldn’t be a hidden file the reader ignores that just holds the metadata… I’m sure there’s a reason it’s not handled that way, but still.

On a similar note, I love Calibre but it’s so ugly and clunky. If it wasn’t so good at what it does, I’d never use it for aesthetics alone.

It’s not a 14 page paper, it’s two references to widely known historical events. I feel like I’m going insane…

Prompt: In 1-2 sentences, summarize the Russian revolution”s impact on social unrest.

Responses: Amidst widespread dissatisfaction with the Tsarist regime due to economic hardship, military failures, and political repression, the Russian people ultimately overthrew a centuries-old monarchy.

I’m not saying “create me a story about Russian people revolting”. I’m taking an event I’m already aware of and asking for it to get boiled down to a simple statement.

I would know if it’s lying because I paid attention in high school and college & I know what the Russian revolution is.

This is being blown way out of proportion because people see “LLM” and freak out. I use LLMs constantly in my day to day life for shit like this (and I’m not going to stop). I also feed it things I’ve written and ask it to check grammar and tighten it up. The LLM isn’t “creating” anything in those cases either, it’s just making things easier to read/understand; acting as an editor.

Sorry if that scares you.

Strange how it seems to work for me…

I know precisely what I want to say, I’m just asking for the information to be condensed into a concise 1-2 sentence statement.

There’s a big difference in asking it to generate something wholesale vs. feeding it information and asking for that information to be summarized in a clean and easy to understand format.

I would argue that is the best way to use LLMs; it’s basically acting as an editor.

It’s a rougelike so you’ll die a lot… I think it’s really fun but it can be punishing. There is a ton to do and lots to explore though so if you can push through the difficulty curve it’s pretty rewarding.

Controls could be better but it’s not unplayable with a controller. Definitely made for KB+M though…

You’ve made some really good points and I’ll be thinking on them in the days to come.

I don’t have much else to add, but I do want to say that I really appreciate the honest and nuanced discussion here.

At the end of the day, we don’t always have to always agree on every specific detail and these kinds of discussions allow us to explore our biases and will shape our collective responses. And that is good for the community as a whole…

Before you get married and have kids, just do a bunch of shit. Fail a lot, figure out what you like and what you don’t.

I had like 30 jobs between 17 and 23. I was a roofer for a couple days at one point (I do project management now, as a comparison).

Just try stuff and take advantage of the fact that you’re young and you can say “I’m figuring things out”. It’s a lot harder to make that fly when you’re 30.

So you don’t have an actual argument, you’re just going to prop up the LLM strawman instead?

Is what I said wrong? Or are your feelings hurt because I used a tool to summarize something?

Are you incapable of grasping that the LLM wrote a total of like 3 sentences in a 3 paragraph comment?

And yea, the fact that you can’t seem to google 3 words and read a couple articles instead of being purposefully obtuse reeks of intellectual laziness.

Sorry, not sorry.

Your argument is intellectually lazy, I stand by what I said.

I’m only mirroring your attitude friend, ban me if you want. Plenty of other places I can take my opinion. You would think as a mod you would want to foster participation in the community, and not get hung up on something so petty.

You came at me aggressively off the bat; if you can’t admit that, then we aren’t ever going to see eye to eye.

Screenshotting this whole thread.

Switzerland does it best

Probably not the answer you want… private trackers.

A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924.

Orlando Figes, 1998

Go read it and tell me what you learn; happy?

I don’t know what to tell you. You can pretty easily look up the agreed upon causes of two pretty impactful and well known historical events. We aren’t talking about some small conflict in some small village in sub-Saharan Africa; the events in question are the Russian revolution and fall of the Soviet Union.

I’m sure you can find dissenting opinions, but what I commented is largely agreed upon.

Had I not been honest about using LLMs to summarize a few sentences, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. If you want to play devils advocate, provide a differing opinion. Your only hang up seems to be that I used a LLM in any capacity.

I’m not even saying it’s the only cause, just that it contributed…

I’m perfectly capable of pasting a link to a website; I chose to use a source from a book I read in college and is sitting on a shelf at my house.

I’m not obligated to do a Google search for you.

And again, the LLM isn’t doing my research for me; it’s summarizing an event that I’m already aware of.

If you can’t be bothered to spend 5 mins looking something up then you’re welcome to believe whatever you want.

This isn’t a court case, we’re having a conversation in an Internet forum. What you’re calling a “burden of proof”, I’m choosing to call intellectual laziness.

Lmao, what authority do you hold?

So, calling out blatant logical fallacies is not being civil?

Ok buddy, you do you…

And that’s different from this in what way?

-"I wasn't being lazy because I only used the lie machine a little bit."

Practice what you preach.

I feel like old af now that I’ve watched two huge sites implode due to mismanagement. I was a Digg refuge way back, and now here I am on lemmy…

Probably not the answer you want… private trackers.

Full disclosure, the text is my own but some of the historical references were summarized through LMM and copy/pasted.

While Russia has avoided a complete economic collapse, the average Russian is facing a harsher economic environment with higher costs, reduced income, and fewer consumer options.

The long-term impacts of these sanctions and economic adjustments are still unfolding, but they have undeniably made daily life more difficult for many in Russia.

Has it reached a point that matches the historical instabilities that fostered revolutionary action in the past? No; but I do think the potential exists if the current sanctions and poor battlefield performance continue.

Two things are very hard to deny, even with heavy-handed propaganda: the cost of bread & loved ones returning home in coffins.

Prowlarr, Readarr, SABnzbd and Calibre work amazingly together. MAM and altHub accounts will cover you for 90% of books.

Libgen and similar sites are great but I like having everything in one place (Readarr) and being able to monitor authors and, with one click, have the book in my library.

Once it’s all set up it works very similar to Sonarr or Radarr (if you’re familiar)… the only thing to remember is that Readarr will not auto grab previous releases if the author is monitored; only new (future) releases.

If you want old stuff, you need to go into each author individually and select the books you want. This is actually the best way, seeing how many books have multiple releases and get compiled into anthologies and whatnot.

I know I’ll catch shit for this but I kinda don’t mind shorts. Sometimes I don’t have anything specific to watch and I just wanna waste 10 mins…

The content quality varies wildly and it doesn’t seem to have a very good algorithm but it succeeds in helping me burn 5-10 mins while I’m waiting on someone or something.

I think YouTube expects people to burn hours on it like TikTok but I don’t see that happening.

Lmao, we aren’t talking about some obscure, niche topic. You asked for a source and I gave you one…

Stop moving the goalposts; if anyone is arguing in bad faith it’s you my friend.

Google “russian revolution 1917” and read the first academic article you see. Your lack of research is not my responsibility…

Understandable if the comment is entirely LMM generated, but to imply I should post a disclaimer every time one is used for summarizing content is a bit of a reach IMHO.

LMMs are a tool to be used, like anything else.