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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • Yeah, it’s just the old classic of choosing between doing the right thing or the self-sustaining thing. Choosing the right thing will probably be extremely unpopular once it catches up and it’s time to pay, and it will destroy a lot of your political capital. But it is the right thing to do.

    Choosing political self-preservation over the right thing isn’t meaningfully different from choosing the wrong thing.

    I get the instinct to signal that you know the other side of it is evil, unethical, by abstaining, but it’s the same net effect in practice. It will pass, it would’ve passed either way, you chose the wrong side of history, even if you thought you were clever, for… what? When this shit finally after decades and centuries catches up with us and we have to face our actual, real legacy, try to make it right though it never can… you can then say, to your constituents, that you didn’t vote for this?

    It’s such a fucking cynical thing, the political landscape of today.

    I get that there’s no winning play here, politically, if you are one of the oppressors of the old, but exactly one of the ways this could’ve gone, and could go in future too, is actually ethical and proper. Everything else is just playing for minimal political points for self-preservation that changes nothing other than small, irrelevant local things in this grand scale.

    All this to say I get what this is and why it is done, but it’s just so cynical it almost makes it worse than straight out voting no like the US. At least they aren’t being a rat about it, straight up own to their stance that it was all good in their opinion. At least that’s shooting straight, not ratty.


  • Yeah, but it’s not obvious right now how. But Linux has good bones, comparatively, no reason it wouldn’t other than existing giants having a lot of incentive to maintain their hold on the market.

    But should that ever change, one reason or another, Linux seems like the lowest friction alternative. It already exists and is robust.

    Personally I think it’s almost inevitable, too, just not obvious right now how it’d happen.



  • Oh I think it’s even standard practice to do just that. But when the bully swings their dick and says there’ll be war if the don’t get their will, what’s the target supposed to do? Just bend over without at least trying something first?

    There’s no motivation for the bully to see any reason there, their stance is that if they wanted, they can just take all they want, they are more powerful. Any “peace talks” before actually testing the merits of that assessment in real battle consist entirely of them demanding whatever they want and only path to “peace” is the smaller one just accepting to get fucked.

    So, then when the bully comes around, it’s only sensible that the one in the right there defends their rights to exist and their right for sovereignty and all.

    Just reflecting on Russia vs Ukraine here, but I suppose the same is true for Iran vs Israel/US too.



  • Wardruna - Helvegen (and the Kalandra cover) Bendik - Stille (all of the old albums before the style pivot are amazing)

    Those are immediately on my mind and needed to share them in case someone else might enjoy! There is a lot more, those just popped right up without even thinking

    Edit: Ekkolodd - Perler too, Asgeir - Heimförin!

    These four songs are a solid intro to the bands if anyone’s interested!

    Edit2: Well fuck me, I did mention Kalandra, but the absolute best from them in my opinion happens to be in Norwegian (I think?): Kalandra - Virkelighetens Etterklang!

    Tldr:

    Wardruna - Helvegen

    Kalandra - Helvegen (cover of above)

    Bendik - Stille

    Ekkolodd - Perler

    Asgeir - Heimförin

    Kalandra - Virkelighetens Etterklang


  • Yeah, but you do not seem to grasp that good service and agreeable progresses e.g with proton and the nice hardware is worth the money.

    I don’t really get your point. Epic already offers free games and more money to devs, but isn’t working out. Steam isn’t forcing exclusivity on third parties here. And they’re not using tricks like the crazy good (for the devs that’ll find it hard to say no to easy money) exclusivity deals or paying for the free games in desperate attempt to get anyone even look their way.

    If my reliable old grocery store that says hi to me every morning and always delivers when I ask them for anything, add nice features to make the shopping just feel smooth and welcoming, then also, on the side, made huge contributions to open source in a consistent basis, being one of the sole corporate interest driving the current Linux gaming paradigm forward…

    If they suddenly had a shop pop up next door with cheaper prices and free food stuffs every week, I would be very fucking suspicious. Nobody greets you there either. No nice features. It’s cold and lacks accessibility features. Goes out to buy all the bread from the old reliable shop and then sells them with big signs on the sidewalk saying “this is the only place to get bread!”, I would 100% not go there. Ever. Just from principle alone. They can give out all the free shit they want, do whatever sleazy tricks they want, but I’ll go shop in the place that is friendly, listens to me and others, helps the community and does not go buying other shops out of bread as a cheap ass trick to force customers there. It may cost more, they may pay a little less to the producers, but it’s very rarely just about money. If the volume alone covers the producers’ wants and needs so they are happy to remain, and customers are more than happy not getting free shit or occasionally having to wait a year or so before they can get bread again because the fucking rats next door keep buying some out of existence anywhere else.

    Sometimes it’s just a service question. Money isn’t everything. This is true almost everywhere. I almost exclusively shop in co-op groceries where we the customers are owners. It’s more expensive, but I have a say in everything, it’s inclusive, does not do sleazy marketing or exclusivity tricks or other ratty stuff, so I’m more than happy to pay the premium for it.

    And I’m not the only one. Not by a mile.

    Same’s true for steam, at least for now.

    The second they sell out or stop contributing good around them or start ratty shit, I’ll be looking to shop elsewhere. But that’s still not going to be the rats next door…


  • Yeah I wouldn’t work under questionable and actively disingenuous leadership, especially if they’re also ethically clashing with mine, so I get their reaction extremely well.

    I couldn’t do it, so I can’t expect others to, but it’s a sad and bitter fact that it just leaves more room for the rot to fester.

    But I personally think that the more the rot spreads, the more immediate the threat will seem to most, the more obvious the need for change, then perhaps that’ll encourage more action elsewhere. At best, the rot spreads too fast for its own good and ultimately kills the host. Once the ship goes down, the people can get together to rebuild. With more safeguards and more robust systems.



  • This is so interesting, since I simply can not tell a difference between the aspartame/acesulfane and actual sugar in fizzy drinks. I guess I have it easy because of that, but I have a somewhat keen sense of taste otherwise, I cook a lot and can detect what the taste is missing or has too much of pretty consistently, and know the “opposite” tastes/ingredients to apply. And wines and such, it’s sort of a synesthesia thing too, since I kind of feel them as something close to colors. But sweet things I have trouble with. I thought, not sure why, this was a human thing, but it’s interesting to hear someone can detect the sweet things granularly! Cool!



  • At this point I would not be surprised if steam built on top of the deck idea and the support it already provides for fairly responsive and configurable inputs, touch screen included, to launch a steam phone or something.

    I mean deck isn’t all that far from having such a device. For the actual phone network stack they would likely just partner up with someone already in the space.

    They’ve already had to tackle powering a lightweight portable device with a touch screen and adapting the UX for a small screen and non-kbd input. They’ve already established they can source parts and mass produce a competively priced device.

    But realistically I can’t see it being that much better than the recent Linux phone offerings.


  • Yeah, the fundamental issue here too, ultimately, condenses down to tolerance and acceptance. Of other faiths, of other customs, of foreign ways to present or identify, of anything your faith or culture might not allow or actively do.

    Just being able to accept or at the very least tolerate others, as they are, without trying to turn them, or, kill them if they won’t turn…

    I can’t figure out why this is so hard for us humans, the majority of us at least, when it seems so… easy? Unless the difference is offensive to you, which, again, is just intolerance of difference. Just let them be and be your best self yourself. I can understand having a few words to try and sway them to be saved according to your faith or whatever, but failing that, just live your best life and I don’t know… maybe pray for them on your own or something if you’re truly worried about their soul or something. But dont go bothering them with that shit if they aren’t receptive. It seems so simple?



  • I have personally never seen a bill of more than 60€ per month. I have some friends living in bigger houses, not apartments, and they tell they can get over 100 fairly frequently, the bigger ones more in the North can get over 200 in the winters, but even still, I’ve never even heard of anything reaching 300.

    But I’m in my thirties and don’t really know anyone from beyond upper middle class. That might help explain my experience if it happens to be the outlier, but just reading the responses to this, I might not be the outlier here.

    Anything four figures is just crazy surreal to me. I can not even imagine what it takes to reach that kind of electric usage. Or maybe it’s just extremely expensive, not the usage itself being crazy? I would think living in a place where sustaining one’s existence requires that kind of resource usage would be very hostile against settling and building in general?

    But if it’s just personal usage rather than the regional climate or whatever, and an insane price of electricity isn’t the main reason, then I don’t even know what to say. That’s crazy.


  • Even if it still feels a bit wrong, I can somehow reason with there being wealthy people and the motivation of potential lavish life, since some seem to really need it to make any effort in society. It’s somewhat understandable at least. Talking about tens of millions, with a bit of stretch hundreds - okay, I can stomach it even if it still seems extremely excess.

    But billions… that’s already ten times more than that. How anyone can stomach that, I don’t get.

    While my heart disagrees, my brain can get, with some effort, behind what this guy says. It kind of makes sense at least. Retaining your humanity and giving up such an inconceivable amount of money for that, really sounds pretty good in this world we’ve been living in lately. Sounds fucking weird to feel good about someone still having such excess in comparison to all the people struggling with next to nothing, but at least there’s some amount of backbone and clear thought involved.

    Not sure what to think still. Like someone else commented, better reserve outright okaying this until we know how the money was given away.

    But if it turns out to be sensible and humane, I can honestly say I’m fine with the kind of millionaire this one is. It’s not ideal, but it’s tolerable and in some niche sense, justifiable. If it’s all good, I even wish all the millionaires were like this… if we have to have them, as a compromise with the part of people who need all that, the “dream” to strive for, for whatever reason, at least let them be sensible and moral in some way, such as this…



  • That’d be perfect.

    I can’t believe how hard it is to find people willing, even on a completely theoretical level, to live in a little bit more closer knit community with some shared facilities and land for common goods. Even if I say it need not be the cliche hippie commune, it can just be people living co-operatively and having just a bit more together time, simultaneously even saving some money and resources, by having shared facilities and lands. Most recognize just one thing about it. Energy and water treatment self-sufficiency seems to interest people, but not enough for them to even consider a shared community “hall” with a kitchen and room for everyone to eat, so that a every single house need not have a full, everything included kitchen. Same for bath and toilet stuff. And electricity utility rooms. Or anything, really, that isn’t your own personal and private as usual living quarters with the basic facilities so you don’t need to be social every time you need to pee or have a breakfast.

    I recognize this is practically just an apartment building, but in a horizontally laid out format, I guess, with some space between the apartments for personal space even outside, and some extra niceties like an all-inclusive kitchen with a full set of tools and facilities to cook practically anything, without everyone having to buy all of that individually and also with a fraction of the cost for being shared between all. And some crops for a bit more self-sufficiency, same for electricity and water facilities.

    People are fine with large apartment buildings where you can practically always hear your neighbors and have some minor shared stuff like saunas and very basic recreative rooms and the usual utilities like electricity and water and yard maintenance handled by someone else.

    I feel like a close knit community — with shared spaces for stuff you don’t need 24/7 but rather only occasionally and in limited periods each day, and increased self-reliance and independence and more national-catastrophe-resistant facilities, with the understanding that some of the lots are saved for specific professionals like an electrician, farmer, animal handler, plumber, etc and require minor extra investment, shared between all, to pay for them handling the day-to-day — would win in almost all fronts against an apartment building, except maybe in that it would have to be a little more remote in location because extra land needs and need for appropriate soil for crops etc. But a commune like that could easily just have a shuttle or two and arrange co-rides even each day to the nearest town or city. Could even save on personal cars by having that.

    I don’t know, I’m rambling now.

    I get frustrated because I’m probably not seeing the value other see in living alone, separate from others living alone all around you. Or the proximity to more densely populated areas maybe? Or whatever it is that makes people not even consider a community such as the one described. There must be a lot of things I’m not seeing that normal people see, and it makes me so anxious that I can’t see them. But then again I’m not neurotypical. Not the first area of interest I seldom get to share with someone, anyone.


  • Fair enough. I’m not going to, nor do I want to, dissuade you from continuing your search and believing what you believe, just wanted to get a better understanding on how you reason about these things. And initially I had hoped also to spark some questions and maybe second thoughts on your part.

    For the record, I’m not entirely following your chain of thought here, and I do not believe as you believe, nor do I really see the the distinction you posed just now, but who knows, maybe I’m wrong and it turns out you’re right.