lol how is capitulation the answer to authoritarianism but decentralization isn’t? I feel like I’m missing something from your arguments because it just seems circular and all the while condemning the very infrastructure you’re currently using on Lemmy (with obvious benefits) over centralized social-media.

the irony of posting an amazon link…

It’s kinda sad, I’ve been back and forth with online ordering actually being a “logistical god-send” for our chaotic consumerism. I mean think about it, one full delivery truck that can bring in a full neighborhoods worth of goods for the week/day versus every single car being driven to only transport a portion or less of a trunk (sometimes driving out for even one item).

In a perfect “non-monopoly/Amazon couldn’t exist world” where everyone could plan ahead and have everything shipped, you could save on store/display costs (including environmental) and just have a smaller distribution center from semi-trucks to box trucks for local deliveries. Could even go from box truck to local end point distribution (biking,etc) so city spaces could go car-less. Keep the local farmers/co-op markets for socializing/freshest produce-shipping and bob’s your uncle.

Instead we have the worlds most horrific amalgamation where you have underpaid people in fucking V8 trucks delivering a few bags of groceries someone has “door dashed” from the local grocery store or just a burger from a local joint so they don’t have to cook because they only have an hour of free time a day.

It’s so bad and cyclical while just being unavoidable in some areas. On the map, you’ll notice how heavily populated northern europe is compared to a lot of sparse areas which have less options. I’m in a relatively normal size town and there is one big box choice and maybe one defunct “local” store that’s barely getting by.

I had to beg a guy in a corner shopping center “repair shop” for a small syringe of thermal paste when I ran out (I’m not fucking kidding, there’s just no electronics store anywhere nearby, losing Radioshack was fucking hard). Dude at the shop was the only reason I didn’t have to go online and wait a week (he wasn’t selling it, just had spare for his own use). My trades and hobbies make this a common occurrence throughout the week. Most places now are forced to sell on Amazon to remain competitive (Amazon dominates with shipping cost reduction alone for large items), finding a local or even nationally based company through search algorithms becomes harder and harder as they can’t pay to keep up with SEO bullshit. You can try to keep it all legit but with competitive monopolies everywhere you just eventually find out your favorite company no longer really exists.

There are some suppliers I could shop with but each one is an hour drive in different directions and 80% of the time they’re ordering the same shit through the same companies I would be using if I went online. It works sometimes, but takes so much effort it becomes it’s own full-time job that no one has the ability to keep up with.

Here’s my dilemma:

• Been without cell service since the pandemic (eventually stopped using the smart phone altogether)
• All my digital needs are satisfied, devices and functionality in every room for every purpose I need
• Have multiple forms of solid and satisfactory communication channels (don’t need a cell number)

I’ve thought about buying a model I could jailbreak, but again it’s just to use a system that’s abusive. “Download our app!”, “Use our digital coupons!”, “Link your phone number!”, “Scan our code!”, “Let us track your location for your convenience!”.

I’m really a niche subgroup though, I already need other devices while at work that a phone wouldn’t suffice for. I kinda see more people going this route though. If your transportation has a computer, then what’s the endpoint in carrying a phone? If your job requires digital devices, the phone is basically reduced to a large brick of a communication device. I see more and more equipment being specialized and having added communication aspects for more complicated machinery, cell phones are not going to keep up with it in a general sense.

tldr: cell phones are just a fad with an abusive system that will die out one day and be remembered like rotary phones. They’re generally subpar for any specific task and are only a place holder till we figure out better systems.

I guess I’m just legitimately confused about how to feel about it all. Lemmy is free, signing up on an instance is free, people are posting/creating content for free, moderators are taking care of the space for free. No one’s locking in to get “fed” through the entire chain. The arguments about abandoned apps doesn’t really compute since plenty paid and advertising friendly apps go under/stop developing further as well (and the entire Lemmy eco-system is free so silly points of “capitalism better”). There’s also the crux of “Apps just replace a webpage”, they’re really not reinventing the wheel here.

But, if people prefer paid apps, if the developers want to construct the apps in that manner, have at it. I do think spreading awareness of what apps are out there is important, and how they operate (this is YSK after all). I also wouldn’t spend time in my day coming into defend organizations that want to monetize on open source community projects either.

Have you, as a foreigner, been caught up by the American political-polarization bug^tm!? Here are a few warning signs that you may be affected.

• Do you find yourself often injecting “left-wing” or “right-wing” into titles?
• Do you have a perceived notion that anything negative being said must involve a certain political party?
• Do you feel the need to bring Trump up in a post that has nothing to do with him?
• Do you find yourself in the comments blaming “sides” without having read the article or watched the video?
• Have you found yourself demanding answers or change that’s addressed in the post? (he literally brings up Dahl as his first example)

If you suspect that you or a loved one suffer from this syndrome, please turn off the devices and go outside.

I think the analogy will hold only because the problems you’ve presented should get worked out over time. I feel the same with how fediverse links work and how it interacts with your Lemmy account (like it’s super easy to link a fediverse comment/post, just a little harder to get from your account instance to that link where you can interact with it).

My first Lemmy account was on a little instance where I had to go through subscribing, like you said, for those instance feeds to pop up. I also see that as just another wrinkle that will be ironed out over time, as the setting up and hosting of instances becomes more mainstream (well from at least it’s current state).

really? I thought the canadian connection was the relevant part (shop and promote companies in your area), but the walmart drop kinda confuses me lol.

@JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml commented above with a good experience of why it’s a crappy idea (I was thinking a randomzier would be good too.

I just clicked the first option it showed, which (for me) was a non-English instance. The second option was that LGBT-focused instance that defederated with lemmy.world a few months ago. Of course I didn’t know anything about either community so I just picked randomly.

I could see that happening a lot. I’ve messed with other randomizing systems and sometimes you forget how many niche or non matching picks can pop up when you really look at it. Even a 10% match with language barriers wouldn’t be good for a reliable system of placement.

I also don’t like the “what harry potter house” do you belong to quiz stuff or anything that asks to crawl or input your data (no thank you). Definitely more complicated than I thought.

You know, I had the shitty thought that at least back before chat communication, a robber baron (or it’s equal kind) had to actually hire thugs and henchmen to cause local chaos. Now it’s just some tech oligarch with some bots or a paid anonymous service causing disruption.

We really got fucked over on this one. I’m really not sure how America pulls itself out of this one with the state of education and political polarization. The federal part of our government definitely isn’t offering up any solutions.

For anyone looking for other cool ideas or videos about speed of light etc

What Is The Speed of Dark? - Vsauce (13m:31s)

• Cool older vsauce video going over shadows and light speed etc

The Faster-Than-Light Guillotine - Because Science (w/ Kyle Hill) (14m:19s)

• Basically goes over the “FTL Scissor action” that a lot of people have covered but he does a good segment covering it.

I live in an area where there is a monopoly of power supply by one of the worse polluters in American history, in a small area within a county there’s an existing co-op power company that was basically grandfathered in because it’s been in existence for so long while no other competitors are allowed in the area.

That co-op when I lived in the area was about half the cost of the monopoly company, a relative gets actually paid to be a member because they received their fathers account when he passed away and extra funds are distributed among all the members based on how long they’ve been with them (a little weird, but at least better than shareholders getting the profit).

You are absolutely right that the electric companies as a whole have failed, they’ve been allowed to amass too much influence and coverage while squashing any kind of competition. Why electrical needs aren’t considered a national resource is mind baffling to me. Our country and citizens way of life would literally grind to a halt without it.

couple of things to note:

1. Not every balcony is southern facing
2. Most older European homes don’t have A/C yet, so electrical costs are more during the winter months (that trend will change though I imagine)
3. I think the numbers @Valmond@lemmy.world was asking about involved power output, that of course depends on the size of your array, daily/monthly/yearly differences in weather, and all sorts of little nuances that’s hard to say without averaging out years worth of data.

Eh, I would argue you’re only using the servers to access the content creators data. Youtube is the interface, algorithm, advertisement, comments, etc. If it’s just the creators data being accessed with no additional contribution from youtube then I would just treat it as any ol’ host server.

lol I don’t think you’re the target demographic if you can’t imagine any scenario of this having a good purpose to exist. It’s apparently rated by the Department of Defense, definitely has some applications people are interested in. Hell, you could recoup costs on harddrive failures alone over your child’s lifetime, just need a reader. Would be a pretty neat present to give someone as well filled like a photo album with personal media/ favorite games/ music/ whatever you want backed up for your kids. People spend a lot of money on multiple backup options so this is just another ace in your deck along with other safeguards.

I’m not sure if I share the exact same sentiment as @mint_tamas@lemmy.world, but I honestly did have the thought of, “Who (or For Whom), does this format work for anymore?”

Like I get it, it’s classical and all. A call back to a historic time where action was taken (just don’t look into it too hard, you’ll get disappointed if you learn outside the “Americuh” version). But, now it just feels a little … disingenuous? Idk the exact word/feeling, maybe because it’s been co-opted by so many bad actors or maybe that we’re talking about social media websites.

I guess this format gives off a dude’s “Love, Live, Laugh” version of righteousness, that even though the message may be correct, it just feels like a weird marketing technique.

That’s weird, I see it’s been edited but there’s no “been edited” icon next to it.

TSMC execs spoke shot a our the user workers uhhh…what?