Maybe they meant the end of “the United States as we know it,” which could be right. Or, arguably, already is.

But as a lifelong resident of the US, your point about how long regimes can last is extra scary. Two of the biggest facets of this country’s identity have been that we have a lot of money/resources and that we have a lot of weapons. Plus we have our special brand of “fuck y’all; got mine” culture.

It seems like a nasty recipe for a fascist regime to isolate and turtle up and just grind along for half a century.

Oh, my sweet summer sausage.

This situation reminds me of the realization at the end of Terminator 3. Only instead of “Skynet wasn’t hardware; it was software” the real-world version is going to be “it wasn’t intelligence; it was access. Access willfully given, in a thousand pieces, because it was convenient.”

Oh good. I was only 98% sure I was done buying consoles forever. It’s good to really know.

I might make exceptions for consoles/devices that run linux off the shelf. (I want to get a steam frame, ok?)

That, coupled with putting a reasonable level of ass into things that actually improve your life. That does not necessarily mean increasing your money. Often the opposite!

Well, if the output varies in a way you can’t predict, then even if one of the inputs is “don’t do anything negative” it might not always follow it exactly.

Not even a single emoji or exclamation point? I see you, fellow human.

This version gives me Christopher Lee vibes, and we all know how much Saruman loves floods.

It all comes down to how long of a string of words/characters you allow.

That would make sense if you wanted to do what was best for the user rather than push the Chosen Product.

MY man!

First, I appreciate that your comment is even longer than mine AND came with the multimedia.

I totally get what you mean about it being an occasion to listen to music with the old equipment. I had at least one portable CD player with no anti-skip. So not only can I feel some of that experience just through nostalgia, but then I start thinking about nerdy little kid me getting a player with anti-skip. It had a clear window on the lid, so I could see how the disc spun at 2x speed for while when starting a song or causing skips. I started to understand how it was filling a buffer and must have had a bit of extra RAM in there. And now middle aged me monitors and controls engine RPM all the time in my automatic car, lol.

On listening to MP3s, I see no issue there, but I have always been more of a videophile and less of an audiophile. However, I have also transitioned away from locally stored music, to just streaming from my Jellyfin server. Thanks to that practically eliminating audio size concerns, I just use FLACs of everything.

As high tech as that sounds, the server capacity also helps me discover music in the old-fashioned & natural way rather than algorithmically. When I realize I am missing some song I want, I will add as much of that band’s entire discography as I have available. Then it’s just a question of whether I listen to albums or random songs. Any songs that noticeably stroke my neurons the right way gets added to my single playlist of bangers, for when I don’t want random or albums.

Finally, a manual transmission midsize sedan can still be had in a few non-BMW forms. I have actually been researching current fun-transmission new cars even though I don’t plan to buy anything any time soon. Most of them will be performance oriented models that recommend premium, but most seem to be able to run regular these days with just reduced max hp. So just going off memory for now:

Civic Si - This might be your best bet. High fuel economy, great 6-speed, well equipped, well priced. I think it’s in the Car & Driver top 10, with a 10/10 score, alongside the Type R which is like $20K more.

Mazda3 hatchback - ok it’s not a sedan, but for some reason you can get a specific premium trim level of the hatchback with a really good 6-speed. It’s also a FWD 2.5L that recommends regular unleaded.

Elantra N: 6-speed manual and 8-speed DCT available. Seems like an extremely fun performance bargain. Lots of tech and adjustability, including fancy LSD.

WRX: 6-speed AND full time AWD. I had one long ago and loved it. It isn’t regarded as being quite as aggressive and refined as the Si and the N these days I think, but it’s definitely a great all around vehicle and you aren’t stuck with FWD if that matters to you.

Even living in the US (but being on Lemmy and therefore knowing computers and hating advertising) getting stuck watching cable TV at a relative’s house can be a real “boring dystopia” experience.

It can be genuinely disturbing when you realize the majority of the ads you’ve seen were for ONLY medication and gambling.

I feel at home in this photo. My beard has turned 1% more gray this blessed night.

The key differences I have come from the fact that I am drawn to the “chief engineer turned goose farmer” future even more than the “greybeard recluse inventor” one. I

get to use a Debian machine at work all day anyway, plus of course the home PC runs it. With KDE there is nothing that feels old about it unless I check when the kernel was released.

My car isn’t THAT old but it’s on its way. I drive an almost 15 year old mazda3, which we have owned for all of those years. I just did my biggest-yet DIY maintenance/repair when I had to replace some disintegrated-yet-seized brake hoses in addition to pads and rotors and flushing the fluid. In my driveway, no garage. I got a bunch of new wrenches and vise grips!

The mazda is an automatic since we originally bought it for my wife. But it was right after the company debuted the Skyactiv stuff. Among other things like great fuel efficiency, that means the transmission locks up the torque converter as often as possible. And it has manual shift mode. So when you’re in gear holding some mid-range RPM, you do still feel that direct powertrain connection between engine and wheels.

Part of me is casually keeping tabs on the “fun” new car models out there that still offer a manual transmission or DCT. But another part of me is constantly noting to self how I already have a nearly perfect old familiar car that is fun and practical for the whole family. It has low mileage for the age and a good maintenance history. And it is $FREE versus $30,000+.

Aside from the car difference, I have cast off a bunch of little devices and accessories thanks to my conscious efforts to be less connected and more about experiencing life at my natural pace. I no longer wear a watch, ever, even though I definitely have the chunky leather wallet. Also no glowing visible clocks in the bedroom or family room. And no big stereo because 95% of my music listening is via headphones at work or working outside in my yard.

However, if someone went to a phone store with a stock graphene on display and anything else next to it, which one do you think they’ll choose?

Given the past couple years I’d like to think the fraction to choose graphene would be multiple times what it would have been 5-10 years ago. But not close to a majority.

“How do we have our safety, and how do we balance privacy?”

Spoken like a true sales/con artist. I can almost hear the brand guidelines poking through… Always mention safety before privacy, always treat safety as a given and privacy as the buffer zone in which to find compromise.

The compromise is how far each town chooses to go above security tier 0: emergencies with immediate threat to life or property.

• tier 0 is defined as covering 100% of law enforcement requests of all agencies with jurisdiction in the covered area.

Not again!

Damn you…

✊ Netanyanuuuu!!!

I love seeing the variety in the takes on how bad “India hot” spice level is.

My limited anecdotal experience has landed my white ass firmly in the camp of “do not fuck with the flavors of back home.”

My go-to core memory on that one is going out for wings with a group of friends a long time ago. We ordered a half dozen of whatever the place’s ridiculous triple-atomic or equivalent was. I want to say 500,000 scoville and they give you gloves to eat it with. I think the deal was something like White Guy eats one of the wings and Indian Guy eats the rest, after the latter had claimed in a friendly way that they wouldn’t be too hot.

Long story short, Indian Guy eats all available wings and licks his fingers like it’s honey BBQ. He liked them and said yeah they do have some spice. White guy ruined the entire rest of his day and suffered for his hubris!

Most of the rest of us (I think all of us were additional White Guys) tried a tiny little piece of a wing or even just a half drop of the sauce. The spot where that little bit touched my tongue was numb and tingly for the rest of the day, lol.

Some people just shrug off that capsaicin.

This made me image an exchange like

Agent 1: OK McNulty, you have finished your forensic scan of that scumbag’s computer. I can’t wait to hear whether we are taking this monster down for espionage, stealing classified information, or even just another copyright infringement case. What is really in that folder of “Linux ISOs?”

Agent 2: You are not gonna believe this…

That’s exactly what is so nice about FOSS based systems. You can use technology but without the tech bros and the corporate enshittification.