Corgana

Corgana , 1 day ago

Well said. I like how the communities on Lemmy have a lot of tech and FOSS people who are able to recognize (and call out) a repackaged sales pitch. I understand most mainstream publications have to pay the bills, but so many of the "journalists" are just caught up in the hype cycle.

Corgana , 1 day ago

In my experience it's been quite the opposite. The press release will be "here's some shiny new big deal" and the comments in this community will point out that it's not only nothing new, but often actively working against users' interests.

Like Meta totally joining the Fediverse or Apple ""fully"" adopting RCS despite both those companies having a long history of anti-interoperability practices. There's a lot of BS that comes out of silicon valley, and there aren't a lot of good journalists able (or willing) to rightfully understand what's being said, so they repeat the big claims without proper context.

Corgana , 1 day ago

I am not a programmer or anything and I've been using Zorin full time for a while now after trying it as an experiment. I would go so far as to say it's on par with Windows or Mac in many (not quite all) respects. Assuming you're not dependent on some proprietary software the only switching cost these days is... learning to navigate a new system.

Just as an aside, I find it interesting that people using LEMMY of all things for social media would perceive FOSS systems as inferior. I guess that's a testament to how far along ActivityPub development has come.

Corgana , 1 day ago (edited 1 day ago)

I won't dispute that fanboyism is thing, but also I don't think many evangelists as it were view Linux as a "silver bullet", just as the most ethical option given the alternatives. And they feel very strong feelings about this, that come across as Weird and Scary to people not used to seeing software treated with the same enthusiasm as politics.

Also, I should add that many view open source software as having the potential to one day be the "silver bullet" in a way commercial software can never be due to it's structure.

Corgana , 1 day ago

If your barometer for "potential" relies on market share, then you don't really understand what motivates a person to contribute effort to a FOSS project in the first place.

Corgana , 1 day ago

Great question. I'll answer with "At achieving the task it was designed for." Because unlike corporations, open source software has no goals outside of being what it is. Let me put it another way: from my individual perspective, the "Year of the Linux Desktop" was 2022. I do not think it's correct to say that Linux can have "market share" because it exists outside the market. By not using proprietary software we are exiting the market.

I'm not making the argument that Linux should not be accessible or attractive for new users, but that "popularity" has no real bearing on determining success because it's success as a tool can only determined by the individual. Describing Linux as "competing" with anything only makes sense if you are a company trying to make money from an operating system. Popularity itself is only important insofar as it helps with attracting new and better devs.

Corgana , 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago)

My hot take is that r/startrekgifs kinda sucked. 90% of it was meta inside jokes that had nothing to do with trek

Corgana , 3 days ago

I don't disagree with you, but open source has a long history of this sort of hostile forced-interoperability. Look at stuff like uBlock, there's a real case to be made that it shouldn't need to exist, and yet someone built it. Hostile "patching" of proprietary systems is not ideal, but fix barriers help in the short term.

Corgana , 3 days ago

Very cool thanks!

Corgana , 3 days ago

Right? There is an argument to be made for bot-submitted content to be used for jumpstarting news-oriented communities (the kind that are essentially RSS feeds with comments). But anything else just feels like speaking into the void.

Corgana , 5 days ago

This essay took a spin around social media last week

Corgana , 5 days ago

If she’d allow you, you could always put a little pihole ($10-20) on her network (with the bare minimum lists so that it doesn’t break things too often). Wouldn’t change anything about her computer.

Corgana , 6 days ago

How do those extensions that skip download countdown timers work then?

Corgana , 5 days ago

Sure but my point was if there’s a practical way to do what the guy above me was proposing, then I would assume those sketchy ass sites would employ the same tactics. Not a programmer though.

Corgana , 6 days ago

+1 for Libation. Very easy to use.

Corgana , 6 days ago

Looks like Midjourney or similar.

Corgana , 6 days ago

Pretty sure it’s AI generated anyway. Look at the rank insignia, the weird cuff bars, the weird delta shield, her knuckles, etc

Corgana , 7 days ago

“Greeter” is such a messed up job position. Like instead of paying your miserable workers a living wage and actually smile at work, it’s cheaper for Walmart to just hire someone to stand right at the entrance giving a “happy” first impression.

Corgana , 7 days ago

Soon it’s going to be boner pills and prepper gear like Alex Jones.

Corgana , 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

Not really, each Mastodon or Lemmy instance still has its own culture and rules. Federation just allows you to travel across borders with your same passport.

Corgana , 9 days ago

Yeah you’re not wrong, but just because they choose to be similar doesn’t negate the ability to be different if desired, something not afforded to people who ran communities on commercial platforms.

The concept of Federation ensures the ability to do ones own thing if desired, not negate it.

Corgana , 7 days ago

Admins can block them though. Infinite communties in infinite combinations makes a lot more sense when you think about content moderation. Like- imagine if the only politics community Reddit allowed was run by the r/conspircacy mods.

The fediverse is basically like PhPBB forums with a single login.

Corgana , 9 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

The closest chargers are at least 50 km away in other towns

Most people would never use a charger only 50km to their homes, since they charge it overnight at home. Most EV owners only use public chargers a handful of times a year, actually.

Corgana , 13 days ago

how do I manage audio AND ebooks?

You need two versions of Readarr. Yes, that’s just how it is. Just like if you wanted a 4K and non-4K radarr.

Corgana , 11 days ago

If you’re sharing with other people who don’t have a 4K screen or don’t have the bandwith to stream 4K, it uses a lot of system resources to transcribe 4K content down to something manageable, so some people find it easier to just keep two copies.

Corgana , 13 days ago

What are you paying for Google storage that it’s cheaper than NAS storage?

Corgana , 18 days ago

I’m actually impressed by the reasonably coherent (though nonsense) text. If you think about how generative AI works it’s very surprising it could form words in images.

Corgana , 19 days ago

HoloISO is SteamOS for non Steam Decks. That would be great option for something that “just works” and is designed for use from the couch with a controller. I haven’t tried this but I’m sure there’s a way to install Kodi for media too.

Corgana , 19 days ago

Thanks for educating me, what’s the difference between the three?

Corgana , 21 days ago

I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure the upper, lower, and middle management at IBM is entirely different now.

Corgana , 22 days ago

I imagine they’ll probably keep the blue bubbles and some features exclusive to iMessage users, but this is still great news.

I wonder if this will encourage Google to allow Fi users to have RCS while texting from PC…

Corgana , 22 days ago

Beeper too. They got a lot of buzz a while back for a similar feature.

Corgana , 22 days ago

I finally deleted my WhatsApp account and it feels good to not have any Meta tentacles on my device.

Corgana , 22 days ago

It’s my understanding that they need a bunch of Apple hardware to serve as an intermediary, hence the extra monthly cost for… blue bubbles. Doesn’t seem like something that can be engineered without it.

Corgana , 23 days ago

Screw whatever “AI moderation” means, A simole “Automod for Lemmy” would be nice!

Corgana , 23 days ago

You’re saying a bot can pose a discussion prompt (taken from some rss feed or whatever), a totally reasonable (if perhaps not ideal) observation.

A lot of the people in this thread seem to be assuming you’re talking about GPT or whatever making up threads whole-cloth.

You did say “ai” though, so this is kinda on you.

Corgana , 23 days ago

I’m rocking this right now with Ubuntu and it’s really nice. I’ve actually run into a lot of weirdness but it’s entirely the fault of Ubuntu (keyring doesn’t recognize fingerprint reader?) and I’ll probably switch to something else soon. That said, the build quality is top notch and I can’t believe how fast the 7040u is, especially considering it fits in a laptop.

I’ll probably put Windows on a usb drive for photoshop and a few other things but I don’t think I’m ever going back to it as a daily driver.

Corgana , 25 days ago

It’s nothing to do with that, they made the AT protocol because is structured in a way that ensures that bluesky (the company) will always control the network. They wouldn’t be able to keep control with ActivityPub, it’s the same reason Threads will never implement it.

All the stuff about account portability is a distraction. Think about it: where would one move an account to anyway? Another BS node? Why? Unlike Mastodon instances there is no functional difference.

Corgana , 24 days ago (edited 24 days ago)

First of all, “enshittification” refers to monopolistic business practices, not… account portability or whatever you’re trying to say. It can’t be engineered away. Mastodon (the company) is nonprofit, BlueSky is for-profit. Furthermore, unlike Mastodon, there is no functional difference between BS servers, so the “freedom” to change is a moot point when bluesky (the company) controls everything.

Also the CEO cut her fintech teeth on cryptocurrency. Saying she’s not a fan of crypto is just plain wrong.

Corgana , 24 days ago (edited 24 days ago)

My instance doesn’t have Nazis

Corgana , 24 days ago

Here’s a doc for ya: rys.io/en/167.html

Corgana , 24 days ago

Ugh so true. I frequently describe Mastodon as “community-led nonprofit” to help get it through to the people who think Threads or BlueSky will be different.

Corgana , 24 days ago

Yes, you’ve hit the nail on the head. It’s contextual moderation that makes a space worth being on. This is a good piece that sums up the differences.

Corgana , 24 days ago

The network is the thing that’s controlled by BS, a for-profit company who’s CEO is a crypto fan.

Corgana , 24 days ago

the more that instances grow

If an instance grows beyond it’s ability to quickly identify and ban Nazis then it’s bad at moderating itself and will probably be defederated from by instance admins that are good at moderating.

If the users are driving out Nazis as you say, then it kind of implies that the admins are either OK with them being there, or didn’t get to them quickly.

Corgana , 24 days ago (edited 23 days ago)

If the users are the ones chasing Nazis away it demonstrates a failure (or lack) of moderation, yes.

Corgana , 24 days ago

nobody said they did

Corgana , 24 days ago

And no rules against it apparently