That’s part of the reason why new community oriented projects are way more interesting to me now than most software. There are some outliers in the space who still have dedicated people in their craft rather than for money but it is fewer and farther between.

Imagine if they pulled that on the idle timeout pause screen too…

Welcome to the club!

I really feel this especially related to mobile (cellphone and tablet) communications: (Google Pixel is the only device offering substantial support for alternative OSes, Mobile Payment Processors rely on one of the big names like Google, Apple, Samsung etc., other projects becoming unmaintained and supporting 10 year old phones, etc.)

In the personal (laptop and desktop) computing space we are in a much better place. You are much less beholden to companies’ interest in harvesting data on every aspect of your life.

Sure, we can lament that most people don’t care. But look where we are now: I have daily driven my Linux box for a year to play all the games that are in style with my friends without Microsoft constantly over my shoulder. I’m on Lemmy and other Fediverse platforms, unbeholden to specific corporate policies. I use Beeper which means I don’t have to have Meta apps harvesting interaction behaviour directly on my primary cellphone. I can’t win every battle for my privacy and freedom, but each conscious choice I have that I make is a statement of resistance, and one step of many towards my ideal of the computer world I wish to be in.

Tech has evolved to intentionally give less and less choice to the user. Tech skills have declined on average as a result.

I guess part of it is that each platform wants to be specific to the purpose of its own network/platform. Mastodon as a Twitter/Tumblr like microblog site, PixelFed like Instagram, Friendica like Facebook, so on and so forth. Align all terminology to one set of terms I think takes away from the uniqueness of each platform. If you want the truly neutral default cross-Fediverse term, then just use the one from the ActivityPub spec. That pleases every Fediverse platform equally, i.e. not at all.

Users = Actors. Upvote/Favourite/React = Like. Post/Note/Toot/Thread = Object. Happy? Didn’t think so.

When one network interacts on another, the target will do its best to translate your actions into the way it does things. That’s why Link posts from Mastodon appear so wonky in Lemmy, and you can only reply to Mastodon users who posted in a Lemmy community.

I can’t have a chill movie night at home with friends without being able to pirate movies for free.

Refusal to comply with local laws suggests social media company ‘considered itself above the rule of law’

Seems like a correct observation to me.

Add me to the “dunces on Lemmy” list if someone starts one!

If you want to save 1000ksh but you need to hail 3 or 4 drivers to take your price, then that annoyance is the cost.

Uber’s algorithms make it difficult for drivers to cover the cost of doing the driving unless they can get high tippers or lucrative fares regularly.

I’d also learned that since Uber doesn’t want to tell people they can’t find a driver, they will start at a terrible price, then if no one accepts the trip, the payout gradually increases until someone acquiesces. Unions would break this system of shortchanging the drivers by not accepting anything under the minimum level.

The legislator tried pressing the button on the monitor but the computer kept whirring!!! It’s alive and has a mind of its own!!!

Aww I feel bad for SungWon but I’m glad he has covered the slow and steady demise of YouTube one step at a time. He should do a whole history of the reddit, twitter, other social media’s enshittifications as a series of his skits.

I’m more partial to the pentagram/star ⛤🌟 shape of the current fediverse logo. It would be nice to have a monochrome and emoji form in unicode, just have the pentagram encased in a pentagon.

There are some ads that I’m fine with, but they have to be clearly an ad, and related to the content on the site, not based on my previous interactions, nor using tricks to disguise ads as part of the content.

On documentation pages: sure just have a thing related to CS courses, on pirating and streaming sites advertise VPNs, on horny sites advertise horny stuff, and casinos and sports advertise gambling and sports betting. But DON’T make the ad look like a section in the documentation, like another download button, like another horny video on the site, like another casino game or segment of the sports analysis. If I want to explore the ad I will, stop trying to trick me else I will try to block and avoid you entirely! If I figure out that are you spending more effort trying to trick me the less interested I will be in the product you offer.

At least you can tell your boss “I’m working on it!”, sit on your ass, and every 6 months add one more little UI or formula change which “finally stops adblockers” but is defeated within 3 days.

By continuing to display Disney advertisements on my computer and within my field of vision after September 1st, 2024, Disney hereby waives all right to force binding arbitration just because someone signed up for a free trial.

(Oh and also brings jurisdiction to British Columbia, or anywhere there isn’t a sizeable portion of numbnut judgets who would entertain the stupid argument Disney is making.)

Big freight train spends a lot on bribing too, to avoid needing to spend even more from being required to improve their services.

Why do you think so? HVDC cables are not unusual nowadays, and in fact excel both in economic and technical terms over long distance.

https://www.electricaldeck.com/2021/08/comparison-between-hvdc-and-hvac-transmission-system.html

This cable length is 765km, but in the Canadian province of Manitoba we have a 900 km transmission line built 50 years ago and still running strong for the most part.