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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: September 10th, 2023

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  • Just adding. This and all the bad things that will happen if they get the green light, is not how this is done or should be done.

    ‘But all the waste and ineficciency!’ Hog wash.

    From the system that is working? and serves thousands of people what they needed every day of every year.

    They have to say it’s horribly broken. Its a lie, but they have to justify why.

    There are standards, procurement contracts, entire agency’s to make sure — Make sure what?

    March 28, 2025 - Make sure that what will happen, doesn’t.


    coda: The trick this cabal is using is simple - take a thing most folk don’t understand. Say it’s broken. Open it. Rob it. Say its fixed. Collect profits and praise, leave town.




    • this is what going mainstream looks like. Greedy people see profit and they get in.
    • greedy people are often sneaky, and they work to take all the can from open and close it in : Apple, Later Redhat
    • there are tons of Open Open printers out there
    • Open has a problem - it’s hard to maintain ignorance and get the benefit. It requires work - you can’t just easily trade dollars for someone else’s labor. You have to learn and put things together to really enjoy.
    • What can you do?
      • This is hard, almost impossible: Don’t do business with people you suspect or know are cruddy. Even if they say they have what you want.

      • Learn how to build the printer you want. Hire a good person to learn and do it for you.

      • Buy a printer from a company that pledges to do right. Even if it costs more.



  • The left hand giveth, and the right hand taketh away.

    My next printer is a Prusa One. Because Prusa. I’ve watched all the videos on ‘why Bamboo’, and the bias in all of them is people who are running or want to run a business/farm. While that’s a good selection for people who actually use the machines, what is different is how they process costs and inconvenience - because its a business, they can pass costs down to their customers, they can just as a couple reviewers said, “just buy another printer and keep moving”.

    This is not my use case. I’m looking for a tool for my house/life. It’s more like buying a pedestal table saw, or a complete set of cordless tools, a lawn tractor or a small pickup truck. I’m the end customer. I can’t ‘pass on maintenance costs’. I want a well-made tool that I can happily use for a long long time.

    Between the products is not a heck of a lot of difference, they both ooze plastic. Between the two business philosophies, miles and miles. And I can’t say I don’t want to live in a world filled with bad business philosophies, and then give those same people my business, because they have a cheaper sticker.

    I don’t buy devices that aren’t mine anymore. And it while it often initially costs more, over life, will cost me less - in money, in time, in aggravation.


  • Just clearing up the argument.

    1. The files will be scanned
    2. They’ve been doing for decades

    There’s a difference here in principle. Exemplified by the answer to this question: “Do you expect that things you store somewhere are kept private?” Where, Private means: “No one looks at your things.” Where, No One means: not a single person or machine.

    This is the core argument. In the world, things stored somewhere are often still considered private. (Safe Deposit box). People take this expectation into the cloud. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Box, Dropbox etc - only made their scanning known publicly _after they were called out. They allowed their customers to _assume their files were private.

    Second issue: Does just a simple machine looking at your files count as unprivate? And what if we Pinky Promise to make the machine not really really look at your files, and only like squinty eyed. For many, yes this also counts as unprivate. Its the process that is problematic. There is a difference between living in a free society, and one in which citizens have to produce papers when asked. A substantial difference. Having files unexamined and having them examined by an ‘innocuous’ machine, are substantial differences. The difference _is privacy. On one, you have a right to privacy. In the other you don’t.


    an aside…

    In our small village, a team sweeps every house during the day while people are out at work. In the afternoon you are informed that team found illegal paraphernalia in your house. You know you had none. What defense do you have?





  • One thing to note - The science is still calculating. Yet. SpaceX (and presumably others) are allowed to continue and increase what they’re doing. This is the bass ackwards way to protect future us.

    Its the same mentality as driving in a random direction for 20 minutes while someone looks in the car for the map on the off chance that when you get the map open you’ll be where you wanted to be anyway.

    It has the potential (and at this point, just the potential) for planet level changes, and is being done by one group. Should I, a random dude, be able to do something that might possibly affect the entire planet, and the planet as a whole just have to wait and see how it turns out?

    The hopeful thought that its probably nothing, before anyone can prove that it’s probably nothing, makes a bet where the short term wins are mine, but any long term losses are everyone else’s.


  • [ confirmation bias at play. you have switched to bluetooth. it meets or exceeds all your needs. you don’t see much public indication to the contrary. you figure bluetooth is the best. ]

    1. simplicity the cable just works. no configuration. no pairing .un pairing, figuring why it worked yesterday

    2. Audio quality - bluetooth is lossy. we just were given AptX lossless in 2021 ( another confirmation bias ) “Sounds great to me” “I can’t hear the difference”.
      2 things are both possibly true though: I can’t hear the difference. Other people hear a big difference. this seems impossible to some people. As if their senses are the apogee of human sense.

    3. lag. new codecs lower latency, but lag lag lag. You couldn’t possibly use your device as a synth/music instrument and ‘play’ the lag is far to great. Same with games.

    4. whats the big deal. This is a bias for the plug users - would it hurt to keep it? we’ve always had it. The work is already done. Its already baked in the cake, why you gotta take it out?

    5. Investment - I have really good headphones. I have really good earbuds. Yes there are adapters but they are finicky exactly when you want them to just work. They inevitably break. They often downgrade the sound - I have 3 usb to audio adapters for android that all hiss for no reason.

    The issue is that when the marketers are selling us a ‘clean vision of the future’ they purposefully gloss over the things they are taking away. Then they paint the people who feel pain because of the change as neanderthals who wouldn’t know better if it bit them. When they do know better. They had better (for them) and progress made it worse (for them). To which the marketers generally say - you should be someone else.






  • Media Contact: Office of Media Relations [email protected] For Immediate Release FCC VOTES TO REQUIRE CABLE AND SATELLITE TV PRICING TRANSPARENCY New ‘All-In’ Pricing Rules Will Address Consumers’ Confusion on Hidden Fees in Cable and Satellite TV Billing

    WASHINGTON, March 14, 2024—The Federal Communications Commission today adopted new rules requiring cable and satellite TV providers to specify the “all-in” price clearly and prominently for video programming service in their promotional materials and on subscribers’ bills. The FCC aims to eliminate the misleading practice of describing video programming costs as a tax, fee, or surcharge. This updated “all-in” pricing format allows consumers to make informed choices, including the ability to comparison shop among competitors and to compare programming costs against alternative programming providers, including streaming services. TV providers often use deceptive junk fees to hide the real price of their services. The FCC is putting an end to this form of price masking, increasing competition, and reducing confusion among consumers. These new rules require cable operators and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers to state the total cost of video programming service clearly and prominently, including broadcast retransmission consent, regional sports programming, and other programming-related fees, as a prominent single line item on subscribers’ bills and in promotional materials. The record demonstrates that charges and fees for video programming provided by cable and DBS providers are often obscured in misleading promotional materials and bills, which causes significant and costly confusion for consumers. These new rules continue a series of consumer-focused proposals to combat junk fees and support transparency for consumers. In addition to this “all-in” pricing, the Commission is preparing to upcoming launch of the mandatory Broadband Consumer Labels and has proposed to eliminate early termination fees from cable and satellite TV providers. Action by the Commission March 14, 2024 by Report and Order (FCC 24-29). Chairwoman Rosenworcel, Commissioners Starks and Gomez approving. Commissioners Carr and Simington dissenting. Chairwoman Rosenworcel, Commissioners Carr, Starks, and Simington issuing separate statements. MB Docket No. 23-203