Zak

joined 2 years ago
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[–] Zak 202 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

Attempts to implement communism at the scale of a nation state have always involved significant concentration of power. It may be impossible to do otherwise.

Power corrupts, and concentrations of power attract the corrupt.

[–] Zak 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I think the grandparent comment's poorly articulated point is that 911 is for emergencies involving an immediate risk of death. It's better to call the non-emergency number for the local police department to report crimes that have already occurred because the phone system will prioritize the calls differently.

[–] Zak 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Also get a gun. That’s a no-brainer in this kind of situation.

I'm pretty pro-gun and absolutely in favor of armed self defense. This is not good advice.

We don't know enough about this person's temperament to say whether she would be psychologically able to shoot someone. OP's description suggests she might not. Sometimes people unsuccessfully try to use guns for intimidation and end up disarmed by their assailant. There's also the matter of proficiency; we can't assume she knows how to use a gun safely and effectively. The costs of instruction and practice ammunition add up, on top of the cost of a firearm.

Some people in this situation should get a gun, and it's something I would encourage OP's friend to think about, but it absolutely isn't a no-brainer.

[–] Zak 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The charitable version is that when PCs (I'll include the Macintosh in that category) were the dominant way people used computers, the average person struggled to use them effectively, often misconfiguring them or installing malware. I had hoped the fact that pretty much everyone born after the mid 1980s grew up with computers would help, but it didn't.

Mobile OS makers wanted to create systems that were harder to break so people wouldn't have be stuck with devices they couldn't use or expose their data to criminals. They did so in part by limiting the feature set. Vanilla Android won't connect to ad-hoc wifi networks despite huge user demand on their bug tracker. Google locked the issue without explanation.

I'll admit I haven't really thought about installing Fonts on Android despite my eagerness to customize it in other ways (I have root on all my devices). None of the things I do with an Android device require it, and heavily customizing the look and feel of the OS doesn't interest me.

[–] Zak 2 points 2 weeks ago

Assuming Canada based on lemmy.ca, which probably means the best deals will be ordering from China. The Wurkkos FC11C is currently 35 CAD or slightly more with a battery. It uses a standard 18650 battery, has excellent color rendering, and uses USB-C for charging.

[–] Zak 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Not using a derivative of Scheme as originally planned was a mistake.

[–] Zak 33 points 2 weeks ago

Google RCS, which is effectively just another proprietary internet messaging app despite being based on a standard at least claims to use end-to-end encryption, and is probably more resistant to mass surveillance than SMS. If those are your options, Google RCS is an upgrade.

[–] Zak 5 points 2 weeks ago

Spending too much time at the altar of Dionysus leads to unwise decisions.

[–] Zak 6 points 2 weeks ago

I hadn't heard of the WAN show before this comment. I learned about puffery as a kid when my parents were shopping for a car and I was very excited to inform them I had just heard on the radio that a specific dealership was the best.

[–] Zak 10 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

This is marketing puffery. It's an imprecise claim about the product's goodness that cannot be objectively tested.

[–] Zak 13 points 3 weeks ago

The difference I've noticed is that average people memorize how to accomplish their tasks with software and savvy people look for something that will accomplish their task.

[–] Zak 9 points 3 weeks ago
  1. People install communication apps because someone they want to communicate asks/tells them to. I don't want to use Slack, but people who pay my bills use Slack, so I use Slack. I use Matrix too because I believe in it philosophically, but the UX is a little rough and very few conversations I want to have are actually taking place there.
  2. I don't really understand this one. Adblockers are relatively easy to install and the modern web sucks without them.
  3. I haven't encountered much of this in a long time, but familiar feels safe to people. Something they haven't heard of might feel sketchy.
  4. This sounds like someone trying to persuade you to install an app because you using it would be convenient for them.
 
 
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