Every technology shift creates winners and losers.

There’s already documented harm from algorithms making callous biased decisions that ruin people’s lives - an example is automated insurance claim rejections.

We know that AI is going to bring algorithmic decisions into many new places where it can do harm. AI adoption is currently on track to get to those places well before the most important harm reduction solutions are mature.

We should take care that we do not gaslight people who will be harmed by this trend, by telling them they are better off.

Thanks for that mental image… Dancing Bear.

I get that.

I take some comfort that - I know I won’t outlive every asshole, but I think I can outlive a bunch of them.

(This bunch in particular. A bunch of them are ancient.)

Amazon - the logistics company - is just a front end for (and leech on) various drop shippers, lately, anyway.

Amazon used to carry quality guarantees, and have meaningful reviews, but lately the wild West crapshoot of the rest of the web is just as good.

(And at least on the rest of the web I have some idea who I’m buying from, and can avoid them after a bad experience. On Amazon, it got to where there was no way I could tell.)

The bigger problem right now is that unlike revolutions of old, this time there are millions of people who adore and cherish their overlords and would literally fight to the death to protect them for no other reason than ideological.

This is a message the media owners want us all to accept.

In my experience, very few people want to die or commit violence for some billionaire’s agenda.

Most people just want to live their lives and maybe live to see the assholes in charge have to pretend to care what the rest of us think.

Your choice, of course.

But there’s something to be said for living as well as well can in spite of the bullshit. Especially if there’s folks that rely on us.

Controlling people’s media experience to push political propaganda that helps powerful people and harms individuals - that seems really shitty.

I can’t think of any app developer or political party who would do that.

(This is an attempt at surrealist humor.)

I’m sure they will grow out of it, by the time they turn 21

(This is intended as an amusing reference to DOGE’s habit of hiring surprisingly young professionals.)

I would welcome a utility that makes it easy to find donate links for my software packages, based on my Apt, Flatpak, and F-Droid package lists.

I’m a developer, so my chances are pretty good. But I take your point.

Even if I weren’t, there’s enough software options out there that I don’t have to pick between paying for proprietary software and living with abandonware.

So I think the need for this security is exaggerated.

Of course. I used proprietary software for a long time. Having things I relied on get abandoned got old, but it worked.

I just expect more from most of my software, now.

I’m happy to pay for software, but I want more than just permission, I want long term security that my investment in the tool will last.

If IntelliJ would open source their oldest versions, I would make my boss buy me a copy of the newest version every year.

And to every other bidder, too, of course.

The comics kind of address this:

Killing the holder of the Infinity Gauntlet usually results in someone equally bad picking it up.

So just killing Thanos often isn’t a complete solution, after the stones have been gathered.

I can explain this chart: SO and AI both give me questionably useful example code, but AI isn’t as much of an asshole about it as the average SO user.

The issues should be central, but it would be nice for my reputation as a contributor to migrate between instances.

What now?

Some options:

• Gadget Bridge allows connecting most devices fully locally
• PineTime simple, but cheap and free of corporate nonsense
• RePebble (coming later this year) - I just learned and it in this thread, but it looks promising.

Ooh. Thanks. Today I learned about RePebble. If it doesn’t deliver, there’s still also Gadget Bridge (connect most devices fully locally) and PineTime (another spiritual successor to the Pebble).

I’m just learning this is an option, but Matrix Signal Bridge.

Best I can tell from the documentation, we add the Matrix server bot to a signal account, and it relates messages between the two platforms.

Welcome!

Let’s see, what useful welcomes advice can I share…?

1. You’ll find lots of Linux users here, but we’re harmless.
2. I’m not sure our interpretation of Star Trek’s Gowron has any remaining relationship with the original character, but I guess he’s one of our mascots, now.
3. If one of us starts to go on about how federation works, it’s okay to nod and back away slowly. Federation works just fine without understanding it.

Is there a way on lemmy to have small communities new post always come up on the top of your feed?

Choosing “all/new” gets the job done.

And many Lemmy clients have more options with additional cleverness to get a feed with a mix of fresh and familiar.

It’s worth pointing out (to communities thinking about moving) that there’s nothing algorithmically suppressing new content here.

Getting (and staying) noticed is way easier, here.