coalescedstardust

[screenshotsofdespair]

[markadoo]

one time at boarding school the woman from the office was taking some prospective-customer parents on a tour and came into our classroom and asked me in particular what i thought of the school. and i said i more or less liked it but also that i know she picked me because im literally the only one here who likes it. so i'd like to give the floor to the other students. and everyone started shouting about how terrible a place it is.

[hydrachea]

> turns on my computer

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> opens my email

> disables a new AI feature that was turned on by default

> launches a software

> disables a new AI fea

[sluttygrandpa]

Honestly, at this point, if you're still bitching about AI but not moving to open-source and nonprofit software/tech/services, you deserve it. Shut up or stop using it. Those of us who've put in the effort to switch to non-evil tech are sick of the purposeless whining.

[hydrachea]

I've been nicely letting everyone suggest open source on this post because it might genuinely be useful to someone but because you've decided to be a condescending little bastard- this might be a hard concept to grasp, but some of us actually have jobs. Some of those jobs also provide us with computers equipped with an OS we have zero say over, to use software we also have zero say over. Kindly get off your high horse and suck my dick.

[sage-nebula]

As someone who has worked in IT for the past 17 years, I'd also like to say that there is often a higher barrier of entry for open-source software / operating systems when it comes to technical knowledge and ability, and those who can't jump that barrier still deserve to not have AI programs installed on their devices without their knowledge or consent. Someone who struggles with Windows is not going to be able to just hop into Linux, especially when they probably have other things going on in their lives and don't have the time to sit down and learn a brand new operating system. Someone who doesn't even recognize that there are different browsers, much less open-source ones that aren't Chromium forks, isn't going to be able to seek out one they can both a.) safely download, b.) install, and c.) use instead of the shortcut they know as The Internet.

And sure, you can dismiss these people as lazy, as stupid, as being elderly and so who cares. But from my 17 years of experience, I can tell you that technical instinct and ability varies widely across the entire adult spectrum. And I can also tell you that people have different strengths, and that just because someone isn't good with computers doesn't mean they aren't smart as hell.

And I can also say, again, that it really doesn't matter.

Companies like Microsoft and Google sneaking AI software into devices and software without the consent of those using the software or devices is wrong. It's invasive and raises major security concerns. People should not have to learn entirely new operating systems to escape this nonsense. It's an unreasonable expectation, and it fails to hold companies like Microsoft and Google accountable for their malicious behavior.

[prismatic-bell]

As a Millennial, I'm also going to point out that my generation (at least the second half of it) was taught in school how to use computers.

Gen Z did not get that privilege.

They were called "digital natives" and people assumed they'd "just pick it up" without ever considering that everything else we ever "just pick up" is taught to us. We don't just sing the alphabet one day, someone taught us the song and that the letters mean things. We don't just start talking out of nowhere, we learn it by observing how the people around us do it, which is why you do not see a Mexican toddler spontaneously speaking Chinese.

At the same time that we decided we could throw Gen Z to the digital wolves, companies like Microsoft and Apple started making their software harder to access. When I was a kid, we could (and did!) poke around our computers' virtual guts for fun. We learned to download custom desktop icons and screensavers and where to put those things to make them work; we ran Napster and Limewire and had to sort the resulting files; we had to know where stuff went because autosave didn't exist yet.

Today's kids and teens are not having that experience. Indeed, today's kids and teens don't know how to access hidden files because there's no toggle for it anymore. I met a teenager last year who had no idea what "local memory" was because her entire life she'd been encouraged to "save to the cloud." If she had to set up Steam she'd be fucked.

A lot of the younger generations literally don't know they can do this, because they've been let down by an educational system that decided you could learn computer literacy the same way you learn to walk. And megacorps have taken advantage of that all the way to the stock market.

For fuck's sake don't be an ass to people who don't know. Teach them. Or direct them to someone who can.

Somebody had to teach you, too.

[thecryptkeeper]

i know the way people talk about their pets now is probably how we’ve been doing it for all of history. a cat owner in ancient rome saw their cat lounging on the dining pillows and commented “he thinks himself to be the senator claudius 🤣”

[library-seraph]

The first attested cat in Japan was given to a young 9th century emperor and his diary about it includes such gems as 'I affixed a bow about its neck, but it did not remain for long.", "The color of the fur is peerless. None could find the words to describe it, although one said it was reminiscent of the deepest ink.", "When it lies down, it curls in a circle like a coin. You cannot see its feet. It’s as if it were circular Bi disk." and "I am convinced it is superior to all other cats.” Basically posting about how his void is the best little void and so good at getting really round

[f4therlesssss]

nvm i’ve said too much #unknowme

[yuumei-art]

Celestial Oak I painted this over a month ago and totally forgot to post it lol

I love the idea of each acorn containing it's very own universe 🌌 I've also been designing some acorn lanterns, photos coming soon!

[nortism]

This remains, to me, the most poignant Les Misérables quote

[sadhoc]

when i was in elementary school, i thought that the reason we were supposed to capitalize the first letter of people’s names was as a sign of respect, so i always refused to capitalize the name of my fourth grade teacher or george bush, because i did not respect them

[catbxy]

lower case (derogatory)

[atrusovaartist]

acrylic, canvas 50*60 cm “Magic of the Sunset”. 2024

[girldraki]

$300 swarovski bok choy

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Grocery prices these days...

[its-arson-time]

type prevs url with your eyes closed in the tags

[makeitrightthistimebaby]

[random-personal-blog]

fuck that, me, myself, and I are friends, and we're getting through this shit together

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

i will try again tomorrow. i will try again and again and again, because that’s all i can really do.

[sivavakkiyar]

Eugene Chadbourne, “I Hate The Man Who Runs This Bar!”

[catchymemes]

[56kilobits]

people treat it like a blackpill - younger people especially - but it's a sign of maturity that sometimes things that seem "worse" are better because they are not mortgaging short term frictionlessness for the cost of long term stability

Thomas Midgley Jr invented a lot of fantastic products that solved a lot of problems and unfortunately those inventions were dangerous. the alternative to chemicals like Freon are a little bit shittier for the end user but are better in the long run

Uber/Lyft/Doordash/etc were dirt cheap for the first couple of years of their existence because the companies were actively losing money on the service. they were being kept alive by constant infusion of venture capital during zero interest rate periods because the idea was if they obtained total market domination, they could then safely raise prices. which is, indeed, what happened.

TVs have become so stupid cheap because all your user data is being sold by the manufacturer, which allows them to sell the TV to you at or even below cost. a TV that does not sell user data will necessarily be more expensive than one that does, because you will not be benefiting from the subsidy.

apps are free because you are not a customer, you are the product: the customer is advertising platforms and data brokers. if you want an app that is free, where you are the customer, your options are 1) paid service where the costs of building and running the app are funded directly by you, the user, or 2) completely free software run by unpaid volunteers in their spare time where new features are limited to how much free time Anders or Lunameow0 have that month. you can complain about how much those alternatives suck compared to Profit-Driven Platform but hosting 4k video for all of your friends gets really expensive fast. part of the cause of the data center explosion is due to the significant storage+delivery demands of 4k video lol

part of the reason modern society is so [gestures] is because frictionlessness is like the One Ring and humans will absolutely sell out their privacy, safety, health, and the environment to have as little friction in their lives as possible

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

It would do all of us a lot of good to actually ask the question, "How can they afford to do this?"

Because as we're seeing now with, say, Youtube and its onslaught of ads, it's exactly as above. And the moment they no longer can afford it, the moment they need to actually start making money, everyone else gets it in the shorts.

[tonysopranoproskater69420]

[tonysopranoproskater69420]

would you eat it

yes

no

Remaining time: 23 hours 6 minutes