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Joined 28 days ago
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Cake day: August 18th, 2025

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  • I meant a desktop, obviously. I use an iPhone and I’m fully aware it runs macOS with a different desktop environment. All Apple devices run macOS, but the interface will be adapted to fit the hardware. It’s all macOS underneath though, which is UNIX.

    It’s easier to explain Android, especially to anyone who knows Linux. So Linux isn’t an OS, it’s a kernel. The OS (or distribution, or “distro”) is a collection of software bundled with the kernel that operates a computer. Android is a Linux distro for phones. Plug one into a TV and see what happens (ideally a Samsung). Apple could do this too, have your iPhone or iPad go full macOS if you put it on a big screen, especially if you also connect a keyboard and mouse. It’s just a matter of including that desktop environment… and maybe a couple other things. But Android already does it. And it’s awesome. So yes, they’re computers.


  • She looks young. I think that’s Last Order?

    (The character in question was cloned, and there were over 20,000 clones of her. Many of them were killed in an experiment. I think one of the clones is crazy. Last Order was the last clone created, and she wasn’t allowed to reach maturity before the experiment was stopped… so she looks to be about 8 or 9. Misaka herself is a high school student and the rest of the clones present at that age. All of the clones are days old with age acceleration.)



  • All three of your examples include transit and none of them involve the elevator dilemma? It also applies to trains and buses. That is, that people want to get on before allowing others to exit. It is therefore illogical to force yourself from a larger space (outside) into a smaller space (inside) when those inside are trying to get out.

    On a tangent, what is illogical about the elevator dilemma is, we don’t apply it to parking lots and car parks. Think about it: we often feel entitled to get in, and physically block others from leaving in order to get in. Then we vie for a spot (especially around the holidays, it’s madness) but we actively prevent others from leaving. If we looked at parking the same way we look at the elevator, we would welcome people leaving so we could take their places with greater ease. But too many people only think of themselves.

    It reminds me of something I read about Japan. To be clear, I think this is absolute bullshit. But I read once that Japanese salarymen try to arrive to the office early, and will park in the back, so that those who were forced by circumstance to arrive closer to the time their job starts to park closer to the front. I think that’s bullshit for two reasons. One, people are selfish, even in the land of the rising sun. Being Japanese does not make you kind, even if the language seems angled that way and even if people seem kind on the streets in anime. (Anime is not real life.) But two, parking up front doesn’t get you in sooner. Leaving early does. At the speed I walk, parking at the outer edge of my job’s parking lot might make me come in a full minute later than parking in the closest available spot. So it’s not worth spending a minute or more looking for the ideal spot. Rather, I take the first spot I see and I save time. But not everyone is that logical. Now if you do the math, if you take the distance between your home and your job and you apply the legal speed, then you do the math and apply a higher speed, even going 10, 20 MPH over the speed limit, you’re saving mere minutes over a short commute and risking stiff legal penalties and further delays in dealing with the police (it takes them at least 10-15 minutes to ticket you). So again, leaving early is the ultimate “hack.” Seriously, leave five minutes early, take the first spot you see, you will make optimal time. That’s based on my commute. For a longer commute, add more time for safety.

    Transit problems are solved by time, not speed.

    As far as the smoker, yeah, people should not smoke in confined spaces. Or “vape.” It’s the same thing.

    P.S. I already know I’m utterly insane. I just try to get through each day.


  • Real scenario: You made this post saying that if people disagree with you, they are insane.

    Ideal scenario: You realise that everybody is unique, entitled to their views, and you try to empathise with their point of view while pursuing your own goals that are not mutually exclusive to theirs. You also realise that, to everyone you think is insane for disagreeing with you, if the disagreement is that great, you are also insane to them. You realise that, like in your examples above which I’m copying this reply’s format from, this disagreement not only harms neither of you, but does not have to be a barrier which restricts you from helping one another to accomplish those same not mutually exclusive goals.


  • They can, they do, and you’ve installed software to facilitate their access, so yes, they are doing it.

    A general rule of thumb is, do not allow them to install anything on your personal hardware. If they provide the hardware, fine, but you treat their hardware as hostile. You cover the camera and you put it in a place where it’s not going to hear anything. You cover it with pillows too, to muffle sounds from other rooms. Assume it’s watching and listening to all it can.

    Any hardware you install their stuff on, consider it compromised. Disconnect the web cam or cover it up. Do your stuff on another device that it’s not installed on. (The reason it wants webcam access is so it can see if you’re looking away.)


  • And yet, you posted two comments to me, on two different communities, on two different instances, completely hostile in both of them.

    You should get help. I can only imagine what you’re like in real life. Either you’re very meek when you’re not behind a keyboard, people walk all over you so you bully people online, or you’re exactly the same in real life and you hurt people around you. Maybe that’s not the kind of person you want to be, either way. If I’m wrong and it is, nothing I say will convince you otherwise. But on the off chance there’s any decency in you, take your own advice and talk to somebody.


  • In theory or practice? Because there’s nothing stopping any open source project from submitting binaries to either the App Store or the Play Store as long as it meets guidelines, and both stores have them.

    I think the confusion may be in the existence of F-Droid, an Android-only repository of open source stuff that builds apps from source as you install from it, ensuring someone hasn’t tampered with it. But nothing stops the developer from releasing on iOS as long as they follow certain rules. It’s just the code is compiled away from you, so you don’t really know what’s gone into the binary the App Store serves up. That said, if you’re a developer, you can compile yourself. You just have to re-sign every 7 days if you’re a free developer, and you’re limited to 3 installed apps at a time. You can remove those restrictions by paying $100 a year, and some people do that, mainly for the sideloading.

    There’s also the fact that Android is based on an open source project itself (AOSP), but Android as it exists on Pixels is not itself open source. GrapheneOS and others are based on AOSP, and they may be (I think they are) open source.


  • Can’t you get a terminal on Android? I did once upon a time. It’s a rather clunky way of doing things, but it’s essentially Linux so this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

    I’m a Mac/iPhone guy, but it’s the same shit. I use jdownloader2 (a Java downloader that uses yt-dl and others, it’s basically the Swiss Army knife of downloaders) to pull the video down on the computer, then send it over the air to my phone. It would work exactly the same way if the computer was running Windows, and/or if the phone was running Android. I can also get files wirelessly between Android and iOS going both ways. Both the top video players (Outplayer on iOS and VLC on Android) can be turned into web servers, so I just put both phones on the same network, open a web server on one and connect to it with the other, send stuff right across. Android is, of course, a bit better with its file picker, but iOS is better at the server stuff, being basically UNIX, I guess. Either way, it’s not a challenge to move stuff between them. But the actual downloading? I do that on a computer. And as you might guess from the name, Jdownloader2 uses Java, so it’s the same app on both Mac and Windows and presumably Linux as well.


  • I hope we can elevate the discourse in the Android world to accept that Android isn’t about FOSS. It is, at its core, about making Google more money by getting Google more of your personal data.

    Ad blockers and apps with ad blockers are hurting Google’s revenue and they’re going to go after it.

    Honestly it’s not that much better (some argue it’s worse) on my side, being an iPhone user. Like yeah, we can’t sideload, but I’ve never really felt the need to. I think both platforms should have the option though. And screw these Apple guys who say “well you should buy Android if you want that,” doubly so now that it’s not guaranteed in the future.



  • That’s a good point. But the issue is, it’s always going to be a moving target. Every year I could reassess the streaming services and quit the one I’m on and go with the one that best meets my needs each year. And each year it could be a different one. Ethically, that would be the superior option. But, I’m not perfect, I’m barely ideal, and I use a family plan to help justify my cost. Sure, I pay more, but I also get my wife and a couple other family members the gift of perpetual music as well.

    So if every year, or every, however often, I were to reassess, and drop one service, and start another one and ask them to dump the app and get a new app and let me add them on that, all of us are losing our entire library every time we switch across. It’s a lot of work. Sure, there are tools to convert your stuff over, but it’s still a bit of work.

    At this point it’s not about who’s the actual absolute best at the things that matter the most, at this point it’s just which one’s good enough for our needs. Also Apple is one of the few streaming services that doesn’t give a hoot if your family all lives with you. We had Spotify before and at that point — this was years ago — you had to retype the address every month, and if, say, my niece mistyped it, she’d lose access to her premium benefits for a month. At one point I just sent her an email with the exact text to copy and it was fine, but like if she accidentally left a space at the end or something, if the text didn’t match 100%, it was this whole thing — and of course I wasn’t compensated for a family member being denied their benefit for the month. Apple does not care. You add the person and they get the benefit without ever having to physically be at that address. I just hope that doesn’t change.

    (Also, I think Napster pays artists the most now, ironically?)


  • Okay, so aside from the fact that you’re stalking me across communities for whatever reason — if I write a loophole in your employer’s code, like a patch, that keeps them from having to pay you, and they like not having to pay you, I haven’t done anything egregious or unethical? Or it’s only egregious or unethical because it’s happening to a company you don’t like?

    If the law doesn’t apply without prejudice blindly and equally for all, what good is it? And who decides who is deserving? Some pathetic Internet stalker? So given your lack of ethics, would you then agree it would be fair to take your wages as well? Or do you draw the line between companies and people, or how much someone makes? Because we might find some common ground there. But on the surface, it appears you are the one throwing dog shit from that which is covering you.


  • Yeah, they write smaller checks than Spotify. Spotify has more subscribers. But Apple pays more per stream.

    Spotify sponsors Joe Rogan, and Apple’s CEO sucks up to Trump. There are no winners here with regards to politics.

    Some say you can’t separate music from politicians, and I suppose that’s fair. I still pay for music, and if my same ten bucks a month or whatever it is now is gonna go in some small part to some bad fuckers, if more goes to the artists with one than the other, I can consider that the lesser of two evils.

    Though you’re not gonna hurt Apple and their Trump boot licking by not paying for their music streaming. Nah, you do that by only buying the phone you need, when you need it, not a new one every year like some people like to do. You can only hurt Spotify by not buying Spotify Premium. I like my iPhone okay, but it wasn’t as big of an upgrade as the last one, and my next smartphone probably won’t be an iPhone at all. Though I won’t need to make that decision for another five or six years.



  • I wouldn’t expect Spotify to just let people use premium services for free. Fuck Spotify, right there with y’all on that, but this isn’t egregious or unethical behavior for them.

    Use Spotify since it has a free tier, for music discovery if you like, but get FLACs and self host. I like Plex for that and it works with what I use.

    Music is actually one thing I will always pay for. I use Apple Music because they pay artists more and they offer better quality. And they don’t care, if you’re on a family plan, if not all your family lives with you. I also self host because backups are nice and I can’t access Apple Music at work. I can, however, access Plex. (It’s not that Apple is blocked. It’s that Apple requires 2FA and I can’t bring my iPhone into work.) But, point is either way, self host and stream everywhere. Sucks that Plex went up; I got Lifetime for $80 years ago. (Now it’s $250.)