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comfy

@ comfy @lemmy.ml

Posts
30
Comments
825
Joined
4 yr. ago

  • Statistics for Lemmy Instances and Communities

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  • [This user claims to have blocked the instance I registered on, so I assume they won't read this]

    Lemmy is what it is because of the beliefs and values of instances like lemmy.ml. There have been many other attempts at creating reddit alternatives, decades of them, from voat to raddle. The lead developers have clear values which guided Lemmy into being a better platform than reddit and the other reddit-like forums - free-and-open source, anti-commercial, decentralized, and counter to the pro-US media hegemony. These are not incidental, values aren't a syncretic pick-and-choose buffet! They are a result of the socialist ideologies of the admins of each of those instances, and how they have been applied to material reality.

    And keep in mind that these instances aren't some outsider aberration, they were the three largest Lemmy instances until 2023, they remain large and popular, and host popular active communities frequented by users of many other instances.

    And while Zedestrian perceives lemmy.ml, Lemmygrad and Hexbear as problematic (and I have my criticisms of each of them), from my perspective, many of the big liberalist instances are far more problematic, tolerating right-wing bigots, allowing obvious pro-US think-tank propaganda accounts, and banning users from advocating for action (including, where necessary, violence) against the ruling class destroying us and our planet. That's a big reason why many left, for were banned from, reddit. Should lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works therefore be removed, for being problematically close to the harmful behaviors of reddit.com that many of us are trying to escape? That's a serious reputational liability too, it can drive users away if they can't find the places they want to join.

  • ChatGPT apparently got rewarded for using its built-in calculator during training, and so it would covertly open its calculator, add 1+1, and do nothing with the result, on 5% of all user queries

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  • A friend of mine has their large corporate company telling everyone they have to show up to one of their offices on at least two days each week. Now a few people just walk there at 2355, clock out at 0005, and spend the rest of the week at home.

    Silly conditions -> silly behaviors

  • ChatGPT apparently got rewarded for using its built-in calculator during training, and so it would covertly open its calculator, add 1+1, and do nothing with the result, on 5% of all user queries

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  •  sql
        
' or 1+1;

  • Coworker wants to try Linux with gaming, Bazzite or Mint?

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  • he is still completely new to this so I want things to work out perfectly for his first experience.

    If you're able to be there for the install, then great. I've had a couple of times where, due to certain hardware, it needs a different sound server or some other workaround. In an extreme case, you might need to fallback to a second choice of distro.

    but I have been hearing a lot about Bazzite lately and see that it offers a very nice gaming experience

    Is there anything specific you've heard that applies to your friend's needs? (Honest question, I haven't looked deep into it.)

    If it's just small things like 'Steam and [etc] is installed already', then you can just do that easily anyway.

    no typical package management like apt or pacman as I browse their docs, instead it relies heavily on Flatpaks [snip]

    Keep in mind that Mint uses apt and (optionally, but IMO inevitably for a gamer/dev) Flatpaks integrated in their package manager, which has gotten much smoother but still is two different systems which can cause confusion. I don't know how Bazzite handles this.

  • Seems effective

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  • I remember Happy Tree Friends made some YouTube Copyright School videos, but I've thought they'd have a real opportunity making public safety warnings.

  • What is a product or renovations that actually made your life simpler

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  • RSS feeds. It's digital so probably not what you're asking for, but I would often drain time checking tabs or bookmarks for updates each day. Now I just have a specific list of updates from feeds I've subscribed to: no ads, no recommendations, no scrolling, no manual refreshing every hour. Just what you ask to see.

    Website doesn't supply one? Luckily some RSS tools let you create one from most websites.

    Also, relevant youtube video from Technology Connections about feeds in general.

    And, on the topic of digital simplification, learn how to mute specific conversations on your chat apps. Many even have temporary muting (mute for 1 hour). You don't need constant pings distracting you from life.

  • What is a product or renovations that actually made your life simpler

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  • All black t-shirts, same pants, same sweaters, same socks, share socks with my wife.

    I've similarly simplified my wardrobe. It's been great.

    Most of my clothes are made from the same (or at least non-delicate) materials and all my daily wear aren't light clothes, so they all go in the same wash.

    Did this next one with a few things, so for example, socks: Bought one type of daily-wear sock, made sure I liked it and then bulk bought them, so apart from a few special pairs (sports, decorative pattern, other colors), I don't need to care about pairing socks because they're all the same. Growing up with 3-pair packs of socks all in different paired-colors, and then socks with the same brand and same colors but different length, was a waste of time.

  • the public demands ANSWERS

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  • Yep, I've also gotten responses pretty reliably from professional artists, including those I'd assumed would be far too busy to answer (including the directors and writers of famous tv shows).

  • the public demands ANSWERS

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  • Are you looking for the Animal Smoothness Scale?

  • [US General Strike January 30th, 2026] How to call or report strike day to employer?

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  • I would like to join the single-day general strike that is being called for the US this Friday, January 30th

    What backing is there for this strike? For example, are there any labor unions, community organizations, and cultural leaders involved like in the recent Jan 23rd Minnesota strike? [Edit: the answer is a pleasant yes! https://nationalshutdown.org/home#endorsers ]

    Take a sick day regardless, unless you're going to use them all in the future, but if it's just a few social media posts saying "general strike now!", of which there have been hundreds of attempts over the past few years, without any institutional backing, then temper your expectations. Worker unions exist for us to organize us! So if it's a real strike you want, unionize, and push the union to act.

  • If everybody at ICE protests showed up with masks and a gun would there be more or less violence?

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  • It's worth acknowledging that superior firepower hasn't directly resulted in success for the US military. Guerilla armies like in Vietnam and in many countries in the Middle East such as Afghanistan have repelled US invasion, and wargame simulations (including US on US wargames!) have repeatedly shown this.

    Add into the mix that there was a serious degree of military revolt (complemented by homeland revolt) in the Vietnam War (and other later wars too). While this was largely boosted by it being a conscription army at the time, I still believe an internal US war would make the military similarly vulnerable to internal conflict, and even external sabotage by citizens.

  • If everybody at ICE protests showed up with masks and a gun would there be more or less violence?

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  • We saw ICE disarm and shoot a citizen who had a gun. A lesson from this is that a weapon is only threatening if we create an environment where it's a credible threat, like outnumbering them with armed citizens.

    Masks? I could go either way on this. Masks can be protective, and can also be seen as alienating from the community. That alienation is not some unchangeable truth, it's just a result of how they're perceived in our cultures (often associated with crime). For a counterexample, look at the Zapatistas who regularly wore masks to protect them from cartel and state violence:

  • Chinese propaganda is rampant on the fediverse

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  • ‘What the f*ck did you do?!’ Video contradicts DHS claims about killing of Alex Pretti

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  • veterans, such as myself a former Navy Nuke Instructor

    A bit off-topic, have you heard either of the Wake-ups episodes[1][2] from the Eyes Left podcast? And if so, do they resonate with your experiences in the force?

  • [no politics] You have been given the chance to make a short PSA broadcasted to your entire community, or region, or country. What problem will you fix?

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  • Stop throwing trash [...] because it ends up in the dirt thus the food.

    This reminds me that most of the anti-littering ads I've seen are more about shaming or about dying wildlife than about direct impact to all of us. This is an issue that could be simple to illustrate with a video PSA, following how littered trash contaminants find their way into our food chain and to our mouths. Makes it more personal and hopefully icky enough.

  • Man is shot and killed during Minneapolis immigration crackdown, National Guard activated

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  • Daggers in a select few hearts may be enough to shift things.

    If you're proposing what I think you are, it's sounds like something we tried in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Our lesson was that this tactic won't solve a systemic problem, at least in isolation. Action without a surrounding social movement is lost. Just ask Luigi - despite the widespread bipartisan approval of their action, there weren't many copycats nor long-term changes in our conditions. And, if you saw much of other Lemmy instances at the time of that event, you may have seen various people denouncing it as 'adventurism', despite how cathartic it was.

    So, many of the socialist organizations aim to develop the surrounding movement needed to cause systemic change.

  • What do you think of loss32?

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  • I wonder if this has any practical benefits over running a Windows OS in a VM...

    edit: piping, or easier collaboration between, Win32 and Linux programs could be an example. The creator mentions creative and gaming applications.

  • What do you think of loss32?

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  • Win32/Hurd when?

  • Microsoft CEO warns that we must 'do something useful' with AI or they'll lose 'social permission' to burn electricity on it

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  • I've willingly learned Calc (LibreOffice's open-source spreadsheet tool) because I've made spreadsheets for my own needs. But to "become employable"? No way.

  • Microsoft CEO warns that we must 'do something useful' with AI or they'll lose 'social permission' to burn electricity on it

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  • Our cogs do not feel amplified.