Pay billions for a userbase, then drive away the ones that aren't Nazis or bots.

I've been getting into primitive technology lately. It all started when I looked at my back yard and thought hey, if we call it red clay, then I should be able to make it into pottery. I take dirt from my yard, levigate it, add grog and wedge, hand-build pots, and fire them in my fire pit. Been making sharpening stones from river rocks. Crafting replicas of Roman machines. That sort of thing.

Those fools. I'm not sure anything can save Reddit (from its admins) at this point.

Even worse, just making money isn't enough: you also have to become a fucking global monopoly.

Ah yes just like the "perjury trap" we heard about so many aeons ago... The kind of trap where you just get called on your bullshit and then.... then that's it. That's the trap.

Given how modern suggestion algorithms seem to be poorly moderated, unregulated black boxes aimed at keeping users engaged on site above all else.... I won't be surprised if/when we learn that this has literally happened.

That is by far the most likely scenario. Hell it's already happening with the AI we do have. Teslas driving into walls, facial recognition mistaking an innocent person for a criminal (mentioned in the article).

Doomsday science fiction is fun to toy with but it usually involves a lot of hand waving.

Last night I grabbed a bunch of audio files for country songs that contain the phrase "ice cold beer," then I edited them together so that all the "ice cold beer"s lined up amidst the cacophony of about 5 songs being played at the same time. I thought that would be funny but it just didn't sound as good as I thought it would. Maybe if each song faded in one by one... I dunno.

Where I work just switching into a TTY would be enough to keep anyone out.

Me at 11pm: why on earth would I watch a long video deep diving into obsolete incandescent headlights?

Me at 7am: hey did you know that headlights used to be so standard you could just drop in a generic replacement and.........

Bear shits in woods. More at 11.

Dude was compromised by Borat. I wouldn't be surprised to see him on a street corner holding a cardboard sign that says, "will do treason for Scotch."

Thank you for this explanation.

That sucks, Internet friend. Want to talk about it?

Sure there are edge cases and whatnot, but just go ahead and move the drive over. If it doesn't work I'll buy you a beer.

Grievance studies (Critical race theory, queer theory, and other ideologies based in post modern belief systems), for instance, are eroding many useful and productive enlightenment ideas.

Have you studied any of these yourself? Or are you relying on characterizations of them you heard in media?

Color blindness is a legitimate way to reduce racism.

In theory, sure. But in practice it often gets used as a rug to sweep racism under.

Instead, leftists believe they should elevate group identity at all costs, thereby expanding and heightening racism.

Keep on mind this is a society where certain groups have been marginalized and terrorized for decades or even centuries. "Elevating" them is only a reaction to that long-entrenched bigotry. But (what's that quote?...) when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. Attempting to bring historically marginalized groups into equal footing with mainstream groups probably will look like they're being "elevated" to the people who enjoy the privilege of being accepted broadly by default.

Perhaps it's not an outright positive/negative moral action, but I'd call it a moral action in the same way the trolley problem is.

Unless you think "from scratch" sounds nice.

Where there's smoke, there's... mirrors.

Trumpism is a cult. Plain and simple. This is cult behavior.

I realize that's very dismissive, but in this case I think that's a good thing. You could spend years debunking their every claim, anti-fact, and bad faith argument--and there's a time and a place for those discussions--but there's no need to burden your mind with the mountain of their nonsense. You don't have to read the whole Time Cube page to determine that its author isn't worth listening to for astrophysical insights.

I'd love to share it. I'm not sure what the best way is. I'm still new to the Fediverse but I feel there must be a way to do it Fediversally.

Ah yes, but every time--past, present, and future--is fated to be someone's good old days. Every change comes with positives and negatives. We tend to remember more positives from the past while focusing on the negatives of the present.

Okay but when speaking do we call it "dubs-get" or no?

Have you ever gotten GNU/Hurd running on hardware?

I was in 6th grade and wanted to know more about computers. I thought being a computer programmer would be a cool job one day. I'd heard Linux was difficult to install and use and thought hey, that'll help me learn. So I had my parents get me a copy of Mandrake 6. It was perfect because I had the free time to play with it and figure stuff out by making mistakes and fixing them without the pressure of having to do really important work.

I do preach the good word of FOSS, but only to those who are in a position to appreciate the suggestion and benefit from it.

Woah there chief! Lemme tell everyone a little story...

Back when I was on Reddit, I followed any and all Trump news (and especially Jan 6 investigation news) on an unhealthily regular basis. These kinds of Eeyore comments were extremely common and usually voted up to pepper through the top ⅓ of all the 'best' comments. It got so bad that some subreddits explicitly banned them, though it didn't really end the practice.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine. All the disparaging comments ceased immediately. The frequency absolutely fell off a cliff, because all those comments were being served up to us by Russian bots. Russia wants nothing more than to further destabilize the US as well as any other democratic institution.

I'm not saying this comment right here is a Russian bot, but it's definitely doing a Russian bot's job by trying to undermine any confidence we might have in the concepts of justice or democracy.

The humble grep.

RIP

I've got 3 main computers because I'm a tech hoarder. Ubuntu MATE, Linux Mint, and Pop!_OS with XFCE. I've also got a little craptop for distro hopping, currently it's got Debian 12. My work provided a Windows laptop but I only have to bring it to meetings.

I dunno. I like to have a fresh start sometimes. Take your documents, maybe just your fav config files, and plop them into a fresh install. Not everyone's cup of tea but I like it.

Ja, das ist loss.

I had amazing luck getting Linux running nicely, way-back-when, with an Acer Aspire One. I've stayed with that product line for all my laptops and so far it's paid off. But then there's also options like System76 for nice machines with Linux pre-installed.

Coffee salute!

I love getting years of good service from old computers, but I do want to add something: old laptop means old battery, and if they're not producing the same form factor anymore, then even a replacement battery will probably be old stock that's been degrading for years. Unfortunately I don't know what company's models have the best longevity here in terms of battery form factor.

Aww hell yeah that looks nice. Can't wait to try it out.

That's a really good point. Use the AI to bridge gaps and for short segments. Probably a good way to get around some writer's block.

I was always curious but never got around to it. No better time than now!

Stephen's dad, is that you?

"given how they're practically used..."

You're assuming they will be used in the conventional way instead of, say, breaking out the submunitions to drop individually with drones.

Gonna get real interesting when an angry mob calls the cops on a homely woman trying to use the women's restroom.