SnotFlickerman

SnotFlickerman , 24 days ago

Maybe we shouldn’t have played with the idea of “starter homes” and maybe its okay for people to live in one place.

Maybe housing shouldn’t be a fucking investment vehicle, how about that, and then none of this would be a fucking problem at all.

SnotFlickerman , 24 days ago

I mean to be fair the Democrats trotted out an obscenely draconian immigration bill that was basically every Republicans wet dream about the border and the only reason it didn’t pass was because it included Ukraine funding and the Republicans didn’t want to give Biden a win.

Call me crazy, but giving the Republicans everything they want just to gain small concessions is bonkers and makes it seem like Democrats really don’t have that much of a problem with horrific policies that Republicans want.

The Democrats leaned on DREAMers for like a decade and were going to fucking throw them under the bus with that border bill in a way that screamed “Political capital is used up, fuck them DREAMers!”

They are not the same but Democrats spend way too much time trying to make deals with people who only want to hurt them and others so they can be seen “reaching across the aisle.”

SnotFlickerman , 23 days ago

apnews.com/…/biden-immigration-executive-order-as…

Is this political brinksmanship?

---

Fuck me, it’s just like how Trump said “we need to stop testing for COVID” and then Biden never said it out loud, but he just stopped funding testing for COVID but didn’t say the words “we need to stop testing for COVID.” He just did it instead of saying it and somehow everyone was fine with it.

SnotFlickerman , 25 days ago

More importantly, Pride itself a reference to the Stonewall Riots, in which cops brutally assaulted LGBTQ+ citizens with great malice and the citizens fought back.

June 28th, 1969

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots

The first Pride Parade was a year later, on June 27th, 1970

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_parade#First_pride_ma…

The reason cops shouldn’t be allowed at Pride is because cops violence against the LGBTQ+ community is why Pride fucking exists to begin with.

SnotFlickerman , 25 days ago (edited 25 days ago)

The short answer is: A bit of both, really.

The longer answer is pretty detailed and would include all the positive things they have done as well as the negative things they have done and the unintended consequences of having so much of the internet “behind” Cloudlfare.

It’s sadly not a cut-and-dry situation, they’ve definitely added some cool, positive stuff to the world. They’ve also created a mangled mess for a lot of people where they’re blocked from accessing certain parts of the web because Cloudflare is throwing down a false-positive and thinks they’re a “bad actor.”

I would say it’s up to individual interpretation if they’re doing more “breaking” or more “fixing.” For some, far more is broken than fixed, and for others, it’s the opposite.

I fall in the “more is fixed than broken” camp, but the “more is broken than fixed” camp have plenty of evidence to support their assertions. I am not really willing to ignore the downsides just because they don’t affect me personally.

SnotFlickerman , 25 days ago

It can also mean if you’re just an average Joe from some random country that is well-known for being the source of botnets or DDOS attacks, you’re fucked out of luck on accessing half the internet because Cloudflare assumes you’re part of the problem based on your source IP. Denied access because of someone else’s wrongdoing seems like a really bad side-effect.

SnotFlickerman , 25 days ago (edited 25 days ago)

Worse, they’re incentivized not to get you matched with anyone because once you’re paired up, you’re going to delete your account.

So it’s all this data collection and lack of privacy for all of it to be used against you actually finding a partner, instead dedicated to making you lonely so you keep spending money on the app.

SnotFlickerman , 25 days ago

Could the things people do for the billionaire class get any more fucking insufferable and pathetic?

My dream would be for the homeless to organize and crash the show and completely fucking destroy it and turn it into anarchy.

SnotFlickerman , 25 days ago (edited 25 days ago)

Housing is being made available… far away from these people’s hometowns.

Because the Swift fans apparently get priority on the local hotels while the people who actually fucking live in Scotland get shuffled the fuck around, some of them even being sent as far as England.

If she called for housing to be made available, it would mean upsetting a shitload of her fans who have already paid for hotel rooms. She isn’t going to do that because that would mean she might get less money or less people at her show.

But that’s the rub, these Swift fans don’t somehow magically matter more than the local homeless just because they made a reservation six fucking months ago for an obscenely overpriced show.

No, Scotland should have automatically kicked out Swift attendees and made them go book a hotel a four fucking hour drive away. They certainly have the money (or are willing to piss away the money) to make that trip. Nooooo, uprooting homeless folks is waaaaay more important than making these chucklefucks spend a few more dimes on their shitty concert.

Take this civility politics and shove it. Millions have died waiting for civility to give a fuck. It’s only “civil” when it’s the rich kicking the poor to the curb and letting them die. When the poor fight back, they’re “uncivil.” Give me a fucking break with this shit.

SnotFlickerman , 24 days ago (edited 24 days ago)

Foo Fighters are busy playing private shows for Jeff Bezos.

So, no, Foo Fighters are not left.

radarblog.substack.com/p/maybe-this-is-too-cool

What I can tell you is that even as executives squeeze and sweat and hound rank-and-file Amazonians to scrimp and save every precious dollar, even as they fire quality performers, stall promotions, and stretch everyone to do more with less, someone found enough money to rent out the Ryman Auditorium and pay the Foo Fighters to play a private show for senior leaders.

If you’re tone deaf enough to accept money to play a private show (for company leaders only) for a company who just laid off tons of people and is making a big deal about tightening of belts, then you’re 100% not actually on the side of regular fuckin people dude.

Grohl can eat shit.

SnotFlickerman , 25 days ago

Related: Some people prefer the Nicotine+ client for Soulseek. I personally prefer the classic one myself, but I’ve met many who prefer Nictone+.

nicotine-plus.org

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

Unpopular Opinion: This is why Microsoft were such assholes about making sure Windows 11 required a modern TPM and this is also why they are forcefully rolling out Bitlocker encryption turned on by default on all Windows 11 PCs.

Is Recall still a fucking stupid idea? Yes, resoundingly so. But they’ve half-ass considered the risks, it seems. The forceful rollout of Bitlocker is dumb and short-sighted in its own right, and it wouldn’t make a person completely secure from outside attacks rooted in a Recall exposure.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago (edited 26 days ago)

It’s literally just gibberish and jump scares.

I watched way the fuck too many of those shorts, trying to figure out what the appeal was.

I guess the appeal is the same as any dumb youthful “OMG SO RANDOM” humor.

CHARLIE THE UNICORN OMG SO RANDOM!!!

So, yeah, it’s just as fucking dumb as the dumb shit we laughed at when we were kids.

BADGER BADGER BADGER BADGER…

EDIT: u/lukmly013 adds some important context to the source of the word “Skibidi.”

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

It’s why I barely watch YouTube at all and mostly read news and get frustrated if the only source is a fucking YouTube video.

You know what’s really easy to cite? A text document.

You know what’s not so easy to cite? A six-part 14 hours-of-video deep dive into Disnleyland queueing and ticketing systems or whatever.

No, stop, write it the fuck down. You definitely wrote a bunch down in service of making this fucking video so why not also just release that for fucks sake? Are people so unable to get involved in reading anymore?

Some things are more helpful as a YouTube video, like How-To videos where you can see more clearly what is happening when a written instruction can be unclear. It’s also useful for speaking truth to power by recording cops who are breaking the law and so forth. But those are specific use cases.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

Thankfully, the trait for the most part does not carry over. I still see (and get) a lot of upvotes on dumb, cheeky posts.

But honestly, the deep dives and thoughtful shit gets way way way more love, in my experience.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

Oooh neat, I’d never come across this. Important context!

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

Ha, true.

I’m the scat-man!

Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub

Hadn’t thought about this in years but you mentioning it had my mind mainlining the song.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago (edited 26 days ago)

So the Skibidi Toilets seem to operate on being able to hurt “people” via jump-scares. These “people” I refer to could be called “Tech Heads” (don’t know if there is some skibidi-subculture which has consistent names for factions or characters).

The Tech Heads come in various flavors and keep upgrading their Heads to fight off the Skibidi Toilets.

The battles increasingly rely on both sides absurdly upgrading their arsenals in over-the-top and sometimes downright Cronenberg-esque ways. It makes heavy, heavy use of Half Life 2 GMod assets that are heavily modified to be these freaky creations.

The main endings of the shorts are either Skibidi’s winning and serving you up a jump-scare before a blackscreen, or the various Tech Heads winning and giving each other a thumbs up gesture. Over time, even these concepts are lampooned or used as misdirects.

Further, there has honestly been clever use of the different type of Tech Heads for storytelling and meta-storytelling devices.

It ends up in an all-out war that includes deep subterfuge on both sides. I won’t say it’s not creative, it’s actually incredibly creative and well-put-together.

I just wasn’t able to find the humor in it, personally.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

To be clear, I’m not against people who have trouble reading having a resource, like I said, it would be ideal to produce a video and a text/image document. This way you can reach the most people and not put off the people who would just like to be able to read it quietly.

I just dislike when the only source is a YouTube video.

SnotFlickerman , 25 days ago

I mean, to be fair, the same can be said for this, too. Skibidi Toilets actually has a coherent plot and characters if you’re paying attention.

I promise you, if you came across Charlie the Unicorn for the first time as an adult, you would describe it similarly.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago (edited 26 days ago)

How Advertising Propaganda Broke the World

Fixed that for you, Wired. They’re the same fucking thing. One is just somehow legal for companies to spew lies about their products and services.

Advertising in the modern world is nothing but propaganda for corporations. Same with Public Relations. If this wasn’t the case, why the fuck would any corporation need a “Fusion Intelligence Center” that specifically targeted scientists and journalists who were simply producing information that made the company look bad?

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

In the 90’s, bell-bottom jeans from the 1970’s were called “retro.” That’s only a 20 year difference. That’s only an extra 6 years compared to this example.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

A bunch of fucking asshats operating on dumb shit like “Perception is reality.”

No, you’re still torturing and abusing animals, you sick fucks.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

Good to know so much of our economy is propped up by Mafia tactics. It doesn’t speak ill of our entire system or anything.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

I probably have it blocked somewhere on my desktop, because it never happens on my desktop, but it happens on my Pixel 4a pretty regularly.

&udm=14 baybee

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

Can you tell folks here what these “proper search engines” are because I can think of like five off the top of my head that all have issues similar to Google’s. Yes, that includes paid search engine Kagi.

Almost all of them have similar issues except the self-hosted ones, which are a little beyond most people’s basic capabilities.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

To be fair, they call it a hallucination because hallucinations don’t have intent behind them.

LLMs don’t have any intent. Period.

A purposeful lie requires an intent to lie.

Without any intent, it’s not a lie.

I agree that “fabrication” is probably a better word for it, especially because it implies the industrial computing processes required to build these fabrications. It allows the word fabrication to function as a double entendre: It has been fabricated by industrial processes, and it is a fabrication as in a false idea made from nothing.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/8bb1dee2-dcf2-4f94-b026-70ddf14d52d3.jpeg

In other words, I agree with your assessment here. The petty abject attempts by all these companies to produce the world’s first real “Jarvis” are all couched in “they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

-Upton Sinclair

Sadly, same as it ever was. You are correct, they already know the answer, so they don’t want to consider the question.

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

My issue is the Kagi CEO who won’t take “No” for an answer and thinks he can just browbeat people over the head with his ideas until they agree with him.

He gives me every fucking reason to not give them a fucking penny because he reminds me all too well of people I have very good reason to not fucking trust.

SnotFlickerman , 27 days ago

There’s no turning back…

SnotFlickerman , 26 days ago

Yeah, people who can’t a joke are so fucking insufferable.

SnotFlickerman , 27 days ago

Companies would rather refund your money than ever “Open Source” fucking anything.

Why? Because then they can’t charge you for the new “CarThing” two years later, when they try again with a different product.

Letting people have access “under the hood” would mean new products would be competing with the “open” CarThing.

It’s just like companies throwing out perfectly good food and getting security guards to guard the dumpster, because if people got food for free, gosh oh golly, it might bring down prices and impact profits and companies can’t have that no-no.

They will burn it all to the ground to make a profit.

SnotFlickerman , 27 days ago

usda.gov/…/good-samaritan-act-provides-liability-…

At least in the USA, that’s entirely not true since 1996. Good Samaritan Act protects both people who make donations and people who distribute food.

SnotFlickerman , 27 days ago

What’s the harm in feeding homeless people?

“It might bring down, profits, duh! If people can get food for free, why would they ever pay for it?” /s

No really, this is how executives think.

SnotFlickerman , 27 days ago

Castile wasn’t the last of it, either. Roger Fortson recently was gunned down for simply having a gun. He was not brandishing or pointing it at anyone. It was a very similar situation, just not a vehicle stop.

It won’t stop until someone makes it stop. Qualified Immunity has got to fucking go.

SnotFlickerman , 28 days ago

US Corporations: But we can’t start paying people to do work! That would completely wreck our business model!

Workers: So you would actually be bankrupt? Your corporation is that much of an empty shell?

US Corporations: Well, we really just don’t want to have to spend less time golfing, and having to pay people might eventually cut into golf funds and time.

SnotFlickerman , 29 days ago

Democracy Dies When the Press is Owned by Billionaires.

SnotFlickerman , 29 days ago

If you don’t think ownership is involved in who gets hired and who becomes an editor and the kind of choices they make… I have a bridge to sell you.

Bezos’ influence comes entirely by hiring the exact type of people who would bury this fucking story.

SnotFlickerman , 29 days ago

And I don’t have to care that Alito and his wife are clearly liars when they claim she put it up in response to a dispute when the photo of the flag is dated January 17th and the ostensible dispute didn’t actually happen until February 15th, nearly a month later.

But sure, let’s just let em lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie lie

SnotFlickerman , 29 days ago

It feels like shit like ombudsmans and politicians in general are pointless because the cops have all the weapons and they just intimidate those groups into supporting them.

“You want us to protect you from the citizens? Then get good with us or we’ll turn on you, too.”

Like who didn’t think a group of armed thugs wouldn’t turn into a fucking gang that intimidates the Mayor, an individual. They can come after families of almost any elected official. They’re State Actors and the State Can’t Fucking Control Them.

SnotFlickerman , 29 days ago (edited 29 days ago)

Important to Note:

The original photo of the flag is dated January 17th.

The call made by the neighbors about the dispute was February 15th.

Alito’s claim his wife put it up in response to this neighborhood dispute is already clearly a fucking lie that the media is just letting him get away with instead of calling a spade a fucking spade.

We know it’s a lie because the flag was put up nearly a month before the noted dispute.

Just like the leaked Hobby Lobby decision, it doesn’t matter what evidence there is, Alito is allowed to lie to the public with impunity because our press won’t do it’s fucking job.

SnotFlickerman , 29 days ago

Young liberals are “fascist” for existing.

Yup, sounds about right for fucking unhinged ass boomers.

SnotFlickerman , 30 days ago

Don’t panic.

Take a moment to re-asses yourself, your wants, your needs, and why you’re persuing your specific niche and whether or not you want to change it up.

Take your time in this, or at least as much as you can afford to.

Be kind to yourself, and be honest with yourself if you want more from your personal life and less demand from work.

You as an individual matter more than a job. Your connections with your family and your friends matter more than a job, too.

I wish you all the best and hope you find a new, better job as soon as will benefit you the best.

SnotFlickerman , 30 days ago

…but maybe you’ll get featured on everyone’s favorite show: Ow! My Balls!

SnotFlickerman , 30 days ago

Obligatory:

https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/10d38917-f474-453e-b081-6c288e23d5cc.png

SnotFlickerman , 1 month ago

Oh I don’t know, I’m pretty sure it also deeply impacts our national security.

SnotFlickerman , 1 month ago

There was just one on May 3rd. Upcoming ones are on September 6th, October 4th, and December 6th.