*badly lipsyncs in the background* @memyfandomsandi - Tumblr Blog

abandonware should be public domain. force companies to actively support and provide products if they don't wanna lose the rights to them

omikronsoul

Game companies hate emulation, but none of them seem to understand that a lot of us would just buy ROMs from them directly if we could. I don't want a fifth remake of Final Fantasy IV, I want to pay five bucks for the 3MB file you already made bank with thirty years ago. Nobody who wants to play something for the purpose of retro gaming is going to consider a $40 remake as the alternative option, and we're certainly not going to let the original dissappear. They're crying about opportunity cost for a product they're not even selling.

justletmeremember

op i know you're probably talking about like, video games, etc, but this is also critical for research science - my lab has so much abandonware, either because the company's out of business, or the company decided to not maintain it, and it's a fucking nightmare. we have two windows 95 computers that are CRITICAL for performing experiments/data analysis because the software needed is abandonware. one of the main roles for a guy in my lab is to maintain these little dinosaurs because if they go out, we lose access to ~20 years of raw data for research. part of why is that these companies also make their own file types, and make it difficult-to-impossible to convert those file types without their specific software. by habit, i convert all research files to more generic versions (txt, pdf, tif, etc) so that i minimize risk of losing my shit, but some stuff can't be converted.

for example, we have a microscope that is perfectly functional, good microscope, but its software is abandonware because the company refused to maintain it. the company is still in business, still makes essentially the exact same software, but they made all of the old tech incompatible with new software to force people to buy the new microscope tech. it would cost a quarter million dollars to replace this microscope. this perfectly good microscope.

so like, i know a lot of people look at the original post here and go "well op just wants old video games to play" (which is valid! games companies should not be able to push shit to abandonware and then close it off) but also this is critical for like. biomedical research. if y'all had any idea how much basic infrastructure built on science relies on shit that is technically abandonware, you would probably be horrified.

jollysunflora

#there is so much abandonware just...out there being used and carefully maintained#because nothing quite replicates the functionality

messengerofmechs

Hey everyone. There's a new youtube feature that rolled out just yesterday that's raising some privacy concerns.

People in the U.S., U.K., Brazil, and Singapore can now share videos and chat with friends directly within the YouTube app. The update bring

This post talks about a new DM feature in youtube. What it fails to mention is that as part of this new feature is that when you send someone a link to a video, and they open it in the youtube app, they will see who sent them the link. Specifically, your channel name.

If your google account name is your real name, so is your channel name by default.

This means the new default behavior is that everyone you send a youtube link to will see your full name if they open it in the mobile app.

To turn this off:

Go to your youtube app settings

Go to Privacy

Turn off "Channel visibility for shared links"

Trimming the source id (the stuff after the '?' in links) will also prevent this from happening.

agnesmontague

ive invented (note: dubious claim) something i call the bear diet which is mostly fruits and vegetables with fish as the main protein source and something like once a month you eat a few hyperprocessed foods of your liking because that is when you, the bear, raid a dumpster in the suburbs

thevampirecrow

fellatio sounds like a supporting shakespeare character rather than oral sex on a penis to be honest

tiktoks-i-enjoyed

Clip of Lucy Dacus on the Las Culturistas podcast.

saul-tortellini

This is how 40k works

edgar-allan-possum

Reading this post renders you unable to get legally married by Cocaine Bear

rohirric-hunter

Reblog to render your followers unable to get legally married by Cocaine Bear

littlefingies

Sorry for us politics posting, but we have until May 22, 2026 to submit public comment to the FCC:

More info from GLAAD:

https://glaad.org/fcc/

They have some good tips about writing a comment and protecting your privacy which, fuck it, I'll just paste here:

Providing an email address is optional. If you have concerns about privacy, you may use your initials or public address in your local area, such as City Hall. Do not use a joke name. It diminishes the comment’s credibility.

Your submission does not need to be long. A single, well-reasoned paragraph is sufficient.

Do not copy/paste a template comment. The FCC values unique perspectives, and an original comment carries significantly more weight in the public record. You can explain why this matters to you without revealing private or sensitive personal information.

Here's what I said:

“Free speech is a fundamental American freedom. I do not need a warning about seeing queer people, much like I do not need a warning about women, veterans, or any other group of people.”

Here's the link to submit your comment by May 22:

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express?proceeding%5Bname%5D=19-41

whimsical-catacombs

why are time loops always only like 1 day long?

the real horror is a months or years long time loop. no speedrunning your torture here. you have to sit with the consequences of your actions for a loooong time before the release of knowing the consequences and actions have been erased.

but oh, all the actions and consequences are gone. those relationships you built? empty. you can never build them again without the constant guilt of knowing that it's not as real the second, third, thirtieth time when you already know all their secrets and they none of yours.

but you can't hide. you can't isolate yourself because what if this is the time the loop breaks and then what? years gone by of missed chances with people who have changed you a thousand times and now circumstances have changed. you can never build back what was washed away by your own inaction. they'll never be able to meet you like they did the first time if you don't choose to meet them the first time every time

eedweiz

Grace insisted on putting Carl's name on the most important paper of the century 🎉

ralfmaximus

Drug arrives years after pandemic’s peak, but could still offer protection to vulnerable populations.

An antiviral pill has, for the first time, been shown to prevent COVID-19 in people exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus at home, according to trial results published today in the New England Journal of Medicine1. The drug could be a lifeline for those who still face real danger from the virus, such as care-home residents or transplant recipients on immune-suppressing medication.

There are good things happening in the world.

lleyksie

brown bear, black bear

starlightomatic

i feel like when people get exposed to the media and social landscape they’ve been getting exposed to the last few years it turns things from “this country has serious problems” to like. a full on dystopian hellscape where you will get shot for trying to make any change

starlight-shadowbanned

like i just saw it in one of those godforsaken i-94 metlife stadium fifa discourse threads. the post was saying americans are not defending the situation, we’re just warning people. then various europeans in the comments were like “so why don’t you do anything about it” which like obviously is dumb bc it’s not that simple. change takes years and people are working on it.

but with that being said there were probably dozens of replies being like “we can’t, our government doesn’t care what we think” “what do you want us to do? we already voted” “we can’t go on general strike, we’ll be fired” “if we try to resist we’ll be labeled domestic terrorists”

and guys i get it. i am not trying to deny the very real fact of activists, mostly Black activists, being shot or assassinated while trying to make change. i’m not trying to downplay that we are in a serious time right now and that the US government has and will cracked down severely on protestors.

but we’re talking about different things. and there are a lot of different levers i think people are not aware of. and there actually is activism being done for walkable cities and doesn’t generally involve the tactics these folks are talking about. and im realizing that a lot of people don’t realize there are forms of activism other than protests, civil disobedience, and general strikes.

firstly, creating walkable cities mostly does not happen on the federal or state level. it’s local. in my city, it looks like this:

- there is an advocacy group that focuses on walkability and bike infrastructure. they meet once a month, and their board meets every couple of weeks. they discuss the projects they want to focus on and what their strategy will be.

- we have a city council that, among other things, votes to plan and approve new infrastructure in the city.

- some of the projects the advocacy group has focused on are ones where a street will be restriped to remove a travel lane and/or parked car lanes, and replace them with bike lanes. the other goal of removing lanes is to reduce car speed so that it’s safer for pedestrians to walk and bicyclists to cycle, bc the faster a car is going, the harder it is to stop for a pedestrian or cyclist and the more severely they pedestrian or cyclist will be injured if there is a crash

- it is slow and unglamorous work, but there are victories. most of the work involves speaking at city council meetings and meeting with city councillors to discuss issues. there are opponents in the city who believe in car-centric low-density lifestyles and also oppose measures to make housing more affordable because they believe it’s their right to pretend they live in a suburb, to hell with everyone else’s needs. so the fight is basically a battle with these folks — attempting to win over the council.

- once sympathetic city councillors and council candidates are identified, part of the fight is endorsing or campaigning for those candidates. these elections are often decided by a margin of a couple hundred votes, so it’s absolutely possible for a few people to make a difference in this. and this also means that even if you don’t have the time or energy to get involved in this kind of activism, your vote really matters.

- the city councillors are not far away out of touch figures who don’t are about us. they’re part of the community; they and the mayor show up at community events. i’ve seen them at the farmer’s market. they are not even full-time city employees; they all have other day jobs. they absolutely do care about what people think, and that’s why people have the opportunity to speak at their meetings and be listened to.

this is the kind of walkability activism i’m familiar with. none of these actions are illegal, none are civil disobedience, and none will endanger your job or your life. i understand that this may not be something you have the time or mental capacity for (i don’t), but i think it is well worth knowing about, in case you do find yourself with the capacity, and also just so you can have a better idea of where these levers are. and because i don’t think it’s particularly helpful or healthy to throw up our hands and say “there’s nothing we can do, we’re powerless.”

gwydionmisha

People have been working on this a decade or more where I live, though it only is really obvious the last five or so because converting streets is a slow process and housing isn't build in a day.

Elections over the course f this century in my small city pushed city council further leftward over time, first focused on an immediate emergency involving water infrastructure that really motivated people because they wanted tap water that was safe to drink. People were really worked up and over time kept voting for candidates who had the best clean water plan which also over time involved environmental activism because of issues involving watersheds (lakes, streams, wetlands, anything involved in the water cycle), which continues to this day involving rewilding and runoff policy and infrastructure.

It turns out the same sort of city council members who are apt to work on those things are easy to get interested in things like air pollution, bike lanes, walkable city infrastructure generally and things like environmentally friendly affordable housing at a time when people are fleeing here in droves because climate and political disasters in other states.

Because the same people who turn up to vote in local elections vote the whole ballot, the people who get sent to the capital to be state level legislators also tend to care about things like water infrastructure, air pollution, walkable cities, affordable housing, etc., we have state level funding to help cities and towns all over the state do these upgrades and it keeps snowballing.

You have to be willing to work at the project long term, but you can do it. start local. start with things like city council. Remember you can go to meetings and make comments. You can visit city hall. You can vote. Maybe you can even run for local office yourself depending on time and resources.