MasterBlaster
@MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
- Comment on ‘Another internet is possible’: Norway rails against ‘enshittification’ 4 days ago:
GenX entered the chat.
Sufficient enshitification results in us simply reverting to how we did it in 1990. I am using actually useful software, but when that becomes unavailable, I will walk away like I already did with so much.
I’ve been using Linux since 1995, for this very reason.
- Comment on ‘The world is transitioning away from fossil fuels’: Gulf oil investors turn to African renewables 4 days ago:
Agreed, but my 401k is in agony because the sheep are fixated on oil. By sheep, I mean the world’s power brokers.
This will accelerate investment in the right places.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 6 days ago:
It’s happening, but do you really believe a bunch of nonprofit low income “woke” “DEI” loving hippies are going to lobby more effectively than billion dollar corporations - er, sorry, PEOPLE - will lobby? These people literally bankroll candidates for office to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars and have hundreds of lawyers to pick apart any resistance.
Sure, lobby. Just understand we are just continuing the fight on principle, not because it will have any impact.
We can’t give up, but we aren’t going to win, short of a literal uprising and even then it’s probably just going to remove the lipstick from this political pig, and the pretense of “for the people” will fall away.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 6 days ago:
We were hyped over the tech and the “punk” aspect. That’s the rebellion against the dystopia, not embrace of it.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 6 days ago:
I think I’m past the principle. I’ve been fighting for my privacycfor decades. I think we are beyond any hope now. Not only is it relentless, but it is happening on every front imaginable. I think I’ve checked out. Nothing short of total collapse or ground up revolution will change anything.
As “the kids” say, we’re cooked.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 1 week ago:
For sociopaths like Musk, yes. The rest of us, not so much.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 1 week ago:
I actually commented on that somewhere. Cyberpunk is a good example of authors warning us of dystopian possibilities, not glorifying them.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 1 week ago:
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 1 week ago:
You’re implying there is an option other than not owning a TV. Please send us specifics so we can join you.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 1 week ago:
Yep. My LG is not configured for internet. I updated it once with a USB stick. There is no reason to connect tv or speaker to internet. A good antenna gets me critical stuff.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 1 week ago:
We are already there, but with cars.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 1 week ago:
They do not exist. I looked.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 1 week ago:
This is the way. Bonus with HDR, Dolby vision, Atmos.
Steam Deck looks and sounds awesome with this setup.
- Comment on Hisense TVs force owners to watch intrusive ads when switching inputs, visiting the home screen, or even changing channels — practice infuriates consumers, brand denies wrongdoing 1 week ago:
I still remember adjusting the wrabbit ears on our black and white tv to get one of 4 tv stations.
I am perfectly happy with walking away from video entertainment once my work-arounds fail.
The world will continue spinning when the media manipulators go broke because nobody watches their tripe any more.
I hear these things called books are pretty entertaining.
- Comment on Who Will Remember Us When The Servers Go Dark? 1 week ago:
What mean “we” round-eye?
I built my life around tech, but I never believed it was anything this article claims “we” believed.
Tech is a tool, not a panacea. Apparently “we” never grew up watching Star Trek, or reading the many authors’ works that fully explored the folly “we” are building (Fahrenheit 451, I, Robot, Ender’s Game, any number of cyberpunk books, et. al.)
Holy Fuck. A child could see this coming. I know because I saw it coming. Decades ago.
- Comment on Over 300 Malicious Chrome Extensions Caught Leaking or Stealing User Data 1 week ago:
Well there’s a difference between the rendering engine and what’s included with it. Take a look at Cromite. They do quite a bit of work hardening Chrome. I think avoiding chrome-based browsers on principle is self-limiting. Evaluate the product before discarding it. I’m a Firefox guy, but I know it has its problems.
- Comment on Windows 12 Reportedly Set for Release This Year as a Fully Modular, Subscription-Based, AI-Focused OS 2 weeks ago:
They’re just trolling now. Nobody is that tone deaf.
- Comment on Over 300 Malicious Chrome Extensions Caught Leaking or Stealing User Data 4 weeks ago:
Firefox and hardened forks, possibly Cromite. All you can do is harden your defenses as much as possible and try not to go “oooooo shiny” when looking at extensions.
- Comment on Unsealed Court Documents Show Teen Addiction Was Big Tech's "Top Priority" 1 month ago:
Unfortunately, they’ve been so successful, we won’t be able to get our kids to read this report.
- Comment on Unsealed Court Documents Show Teen Addiction Was Big Tech's "Top Priority" 1 month ago:
This gave me a sudden flashback to the days when I had a program on VAX VMS that would spit out ASCII art to a chat console from a collection of dozens.
This was also huge on the old WWW III and other BBS Systems over various networks like FIDO. What a time.
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
I’d love to hear the logistics of making that work well in the current world.
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
TIL Sortition. Thanks. Your since you don’t believe in democracy, what form of governance do you feel is best?
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
Oh, you were serious! Well, I think what they need is Democracy first, then unions. Communism theoretically eliminates the need for unions, but the reality is that it’s just a dictatorship. Unions in China would likely either be co-opted by the Communist party through subterfuge, or through “reeducating” the misguided leadership and defining the unions - thus landing them right where they are, with a new bureaucracy.
Unions represent the spirit of the checks and balances envisioned in the U.S. Constitution. It is only by being of near equal power to the company that employees can negotiate for fair compensation and treatment. Without that, they’re just resources.
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
Oh, I forgot to address the Dr. Strangelove reference. Did you know that was parody and sharp criticism of not just The United States, but of the power structures of the whole (first) world at the time? If that kind of criticism were made in the U.S.S.R. or China, Cuba, etc., of their leadership, the film would be banned and everyone involved would be imprisoned or disappeared. We’re allowed to criticize stupidity in leadership over here (for the moment). We believe it is a useful tool to try to make things better, or at least a bit more sane.
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
Hey, how come you didn’t get the snide arrogant insults for saying the same thing I did? I’m jealous! ;-)
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
I was implying nothing about any other type of societal organization. However, since you mention it, I will point out that Capitalism (which is an economic, not political philosophy) can become horrific for the same reasons Communism becomes horrific - People. Communism was a response to naked, mercantilist Capitalism. Marx’s heart was in the right place, but he was describing a Utopia.
I think Democracy (in its many forms) designed with checks and balances is a viable answer to the problem. It ain’t magic, though. People still need to ensure it remains balanced. We’ve been having some trouble with that lately. It took fifty years of planning for the authoritarians to get us here. It’s a good sign it was so difficult, but now we have to work hard to fix the mess.
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
Yes. I simply found it somewhat ironic that someone would point out that a Communist nation would need unions given the definition of Communism. It was to me a Monty Python level of dry humor to suggest that, and I felt my response should match that dry humor.
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
Thank you for the assist. You are correct. I made the fatal assumption that most people discussing such things would have the context of Mao, the long march, the various purges, the decades of poverty, the suppression and outright murder of minorities under their belt and would recognize that the statement was so obviously false that it could only be taken as sarcasm. Unfortunately, I didn’t account for people having arrogance and a sense of other people being ignorant morons by default.
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
sigh. I know what communism is. I also know it’s never been implemented in real life and never will be due to the nature of a subset of humans inflicted with various personality traits like Narcissism, Psychopathy, and Sociopathy… not to mention simple greed and basic envy.
I find it interesting that you first assigned to me the characteristics of ignorance and arrogance, and then pegged me to a certain nationality, thus revealing your uninformed bias against an entire nation containing over 300 million people - many of whom probably fled whichever morally superior country you call home - simply for living there.
Now, as for the assertion that government control of the means of production is the antithesis of communism, I give you first a description of Karl Marx’s vision:
Karl Marx envisioned communal ownership on a large scale through the abolition of private property, particularly in the means of production, advocating for these assets to be owned collectively by society. He believed this would lead to a classless society where resources are distributed based on need rather than profit.
Now, has it ever crossed your mind how this could possibly be implemented? I mean when you literally have millions of people collectively owning everything and therefore whatever is needed must be somehow made available wherever it is needed. Where will things be stored, and who will manage it? Who will ensure nothing is stolen from the people? Who will ensure item or resource “A” is transited from somewhere to the place it is needed? Word of mouth? Telegraph? What if nobody feels like manning the telegraph or decides not to relay the message to the next person? Heck - how do they know who the next person is?
In any sufficiently large group of people, some form of “government” has to exist merely to facilitate meeting the needs of the people being governed. So, I put it to you that the U.S.S.R. was in fact “implementing communism” by being the “people’s government” and thus, by their logic, everything is “owned” by the government. They have to know where it is, how to protect it, how to ensure there is enough of it to meet needs, etc… Unfortunately “power corrupts”. Or in the case of the Red revolution, it decapitates a revolution for freedom and democracy the moment it wins power and takes its place.
- Comment on 32-year-old programmer in China allegedly dies from overwork, added to work group chat even while in hospital 1 month ago:
Sounds like American Evangelism. I bet they coordinate.