I migrated from Instapaper to Omnivore, which was open source and had Instapaper’s free features. That was acquired by the parent company of ElevenReader and shut down, although the source code still exists for self-hosting. ElevenReader reads the articles but doesn’t have the highlighting and other useful features of Instapaper and Omnivore.

The code is one thing. 300 skilled developers is another. Most of those could be full-time too.

Despite those choices, I’m not sure there were many other directions that could ever bring in the profits that Google does.

I agree. I’m not thinking about USA at all.

As for the EU, we should fund a federated or decentralised system. I think it works well on Lemmy. For example I know not to trust feddit.org for anything related to Palestine. Content on other servers shows their pro-Israel bias.

I think a system like that could benefit the US to a point, at least until the government block all external news and commentary.

You’re right 🤦🏻‍♂️

I had no idea. You’re right. It was a $15B business in 2019. https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121207/youtube-google-alphabet-earnings-revenue-first-time-reveal-q4-2019

Makes the ads seem even more obscene now that I know that.

I think it’s running it at a loss too. But there’s no reason these platforms couldn’t be publicly owned.

Cover the windows from the outside (not inside) to stop sunlight raising the temperature through the glass. I use tinfoil.

That would be so good if they had a competent author.

USA are searching people’s phones for signs of criticism of government policy. They are detaining and deporting people (even citizens). China is not the sole bogeyman you think it is.

If we feel good about it, we’re primed to continue the dark pattern. The first step is acknowledging the problem. If you remove the first step, subsequent steps can’t happen.

I get where you’re coming from. I see land acknowledgements used in colonies like NZ, Canada and USA yet treaties remain broken. I think (IMO) the answer is “all the things” rather than some. But we’re not even shuffling the deck yet as a population so making first steps accessible is important in my own experience. Too much in one go and peoples eyes glaze over.

Good question. The first step with any endeavour is mindset. So when people ask “where do we go from here?” my first thought is that we should stop the glorification of exploitation. Stop wearing brand logos. Stop showing our new devices to people with enthusiasm. Stop celebrating the “winners” of capitalism.

I don’t think we should despair - that doesn’t scale well. But we should (IMO) buy these things with a sense of regret or realism. We should normalise the discourse. I want us to be as up to date on this as people who follow sports.

Otherwise, not only will we never think of ways to fix this, but we won’t even recognise the solution when it’s in front of us.

We need to become conscious and informed of the dilemma of people who look different to us and consider them our brethren. That does wonders for the exploitative appetites we’ve developed.

I find it difficult to respect the way we exist in society. Most of us in the west enjoy what we have because someone elsewhere is being exploited. The general pride and vanity we have is unjustified and we should be using that power for good instead. We are focused on the right wrong things.

You could say that this opinion isn’t unpopular, but just try bringing it up in conversation. Many don’t want to know.

I tend to not reply because that will just draw more attention to them. I will post a separate top level comment rebutting their statements without referring to them.

I stopped reading the register about 15-20 years ago because it was so sensational and misleading.

I never knew what it was because I’m a bit desensitised to new apps / app names.

Edit: using https://phtn.app/ has made Lemmy extremely pleasant to use too. I haven’t had a better experience on any platform.

I’d need to be able to choose a non-US server too. And even then, all the major tech firms breached EU laws by later transferring data back to the US. But if I had to trust an American company Mozilla would be among the better choices.

I know people, who should know better, that don’t know who to believe. This is when faced with both a verifiable source with a track record of accuracy, and an obviously cunning lone wolf with no substance to their argument.

For every genuine source, there is a dishonest one churning out disinformation faster than the genuine sources can because quality takes longer.

I use https://www.sendbig.com/ I haven’t read their privacy policy, though.

For the less tech savvy, Mutable on iOS/macOS works well too