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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 21st, 2023

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  • as a media professional i can tell you that the non destructive editing features are huge. that used to be the first thing I’d point out as a specific reason i didn’t use gimp.

    the ui/ux is still the biggest problem, but honestly THIS was a big part of the issue. how tedious is was to make itterarive adjustments.

    may the kindly lords of foss save you if you did work for a client and they wanted you to change something minor. if you did it all destructivly in gimp, you basically just had to start over. now you can organize by linked layers and vector layers to create layer masks and adjustment layers. it’s most useful for photo manipulations and composites, but I’m sure most advanced users will find it solves something for them regardless of what they make.

    this isn’t enough to get me to switch, but it’s a great step in a good direction. I’ll always be supportive of that.


  • well as i understand it, concentration camps are defined as places you concentrate “undesirables” to get them out of society while you figure out what to do with them long term.

    like, definitionally, we’re undeniably already there. the first nazi camps were supposed to be deportation camps too.

    problem is no country will actually let you dump people on them like that. the only truly viable long term answer for this kind of plan is to kill them in the end. however, that’s distasteful, so they usual end up staying there until they all starve because at least then no one had to give the order to kill.




  • hmm it’s more like if the supermarket closed… you still need food (social interaction). so where do you get it now. like you ate out sometimes before, you let others cook for you every so often. but for many, discord is their primary means of keeping in touch. you need to find something to replace it. so we’re all debating if we grow our own food or drive 4 hours to the next closest which already has going out of business signs up.

    not wanting to use a platform that someone prefers is the easiest way to lose touch with someone these days. like i struggle to socialize with tiktok people these days just because i don’t get their references and they can’t send me their memes. if they’re also an imessage diehard we probably just haven’t talked in a while.





  • well that’s why most people use apps instead. the real internet is so hostile without a guide.

    especially now that you can’t use the mainstream browsers and do it. the barrier to entry has gotten so high that i don’t blame kids for being put off by computers and prefering their phones for everything. tiktok has annoying ass ads, but no apps are as bad as the average news website…

    it reminds me of trying to learn about cars growing up. i didn’t learn about cars growing up. i tried, but everyone i tried to learn from spent the whole time complaining about all the anticonsumer practices that made cars shitty these days. all the hoops you have to jump through to work on them yourself anymore. how the manufactures went out of their way over the course of years to take what used to be a fun tinkerers hobby for the everyman and made it incredibly difficult and expensive to do yourself.

    my take away was “I hate cars”. so when i hear teenagers these days say that they hate computers i get it. they fucking suck now and there’s this 8 foot fence of knowing how to make them suck less before they can even start wanting to learn about them. but it’s going to take them a very very long time to get good enough with the computer that they can accomplish anything on it better than on their phone. so we have trucks full of ladders that can scale that fence, and even if we lose our ladders we know how to scale that fence barehanded if we gotta. but the kids just walk around the fence because they don’t value what’s inside. why would they?

    so I’m just waiting for the old pc based intent to slowly wither away as we age with it… places like this becoming out last bastions in a world that requires validated apps on phones.


  • yeah, they really lost their early edge on the granny gamer market lol. they’ve all jumped ship to those bejeweled like games and virtual jugsaw puzzles. maybe wordle if they’re bookish.

    i think there are little things you can play in some of their messaging platforms, but they change so much on those so often that these kinds of users probably ignore 90% of the interface. i think those hit more with the gen z and gen a younger crowds. especially when it can also become social media content. tiktok is great at that.


  • i guess, but it woulf require the least likely people to adopt a new and expensive technology. think about how long it took for the older generations to catch on to the internet and smart phones. they may be glued together now but it took 20 years and every single other person on earth getting one to make it happen.

    warcraft for your lonely aunt is a fine idea. making that vr was poorly conceived. it would have to work on a phone AND be more compelling than just taking on call or text.

    but also, the early adopter types that are more or less necessary to get something like this off three ground were never going to like it. that’s us. you can’t create a new tech market segment that wasn’t explicitly asked for without at least considering the nerds. meta has negative trust among nerds. we all saw this as the marketing and data collection tool that it is meant to be.

    it was never going to happen. at least until they have full control of all of our devices and platforms and can just say we need it to continue existing in society now. that or b2b contracts are the only ways i could see this ever taking off. it would take some serious marketing voodoo bullshit to convince any sizable businesses that this would increase profits.






  • you don’t have to ignore with whom the problem lies, you have to keep going.

    that’s not the end of the puzzle. that’s not a solution. it’s only anger and blame. demographics aren’t a goal or an answer. they are a guidepost with which we can do further research.

    pointing fingers does nothing. we need ACTIONABLE solutions. otherwise you’re just spreading hate and division. the who is useful to figure out the how and why. but if you stop there all you’re going to do is incite blood feuds.


  • ok, so WHAT’S THE SOLUTION.

    if it fully falls to the feet of a race and i an to blame, what’s the solution?

    reeducation camps?

    people’s skin color didn’t make them this way. to believe that IS racism. no matter what direction it’s pointed.

    I’m not saying white people didn’t vote overwhelmingly for Trump. I’m not saying it’s not their fault. I’m saying that assigning fault is inherently the wrong strategy. it’s not a solution oriented mindset. it’s just anger.

    so, that’s why i say we need to focus on the HOW and the WHY not the WHO. yes, the who can help us understand the how and why, but it’s not the end of the path. it’s just lazy to get to “the white people did it” and stop.

    and would you seriously argue that racism hasn’t gotten worse in america since 2015? because as bad as it might have been, it’s gotten so much worse. the political right finally figured out the internet and are using it to turn as all against each other.


  • or perhaps making generalizations about people based on race and sex is the inherent logical flaw of racism and sexism even if you feel you have the moral high ground.

    trying to find who to point the finger at is the conservative solution. the problem lies deeper. it’s in our social media, our news, our socio-economic struggles, and our culture of “rugged individualism”.

    like yes, the racism was always there but it was waning before billionaires got their claws into our social media feeds. and that issue goes WAAAAAY beyond America.

    just like when Trump was crazy for saying covid was a hoax aimed at him even though it affected the whole world, it would be crazy to blame this GLOBAL shift to right wing authoritarianism on any one race. are white people responsible for modi?

    blaming white people or men could only possibly serve to Make people angry. it’s not a solution oriented approach unless you’re willing to go full genocide.

    -a white male who despises Trump among others and has worked hard to fight against him and is tried of somehow still getting blamed.