Flatworm7591

Flatworm7591 OP , 1 day ago

I thought that wanker looked familiar :p

Flatworm7591 , 4 days ago

Those eyes are definitely saying, "How could you do this to me?"

Flatworm7591 OP , 1 day ago

Weird take.

Flatworm7591 , 10 days ago

Not everyone has a NYT subscription: https://web.archive.org/web/20180102011635/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/01/technology/kaspersky-lab-antivirus.html

Flatworm7591 , 10 days ago

From the article:

Mr. Wardle’s curiosity was piqued by recent news that Russian spies had used Kaspersky antivirus products to siphon classified documents off the home computer of an N.S.A. developer, and may have played a critical role in broader Russian intelligence gathering.

From the "recent news" article mentioned above:

Government officials, who would speak of the classified details of the case only on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Pho took the classified documents home to help him rewrite his resume. But he had installed on his home computer antivirus software made by Kaspersky Lab, a top Russian software company, and Russian hackers are believed to have exploited the software to steal the documents, the officials said.

Honestly, I agree, it's a serious accusation against Kaspersky with very scant details and allegations made by off-the-record "officials". Having said that, just because they didn't present any compelling evidence doesn't mean it didn't happen. In the words of Carl Sagan, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." I'm not sure where that leaves us though lol. Honestly, I don't trust Kaspersky with my data any less that with any of the other big antivirus companies. I guess it makes sense they would want antivirus software with CIA/NSA backdoors over alternatives though :p

Flatworm7591 , 13 days ago

I completely agree with you on ACAB in capitalist countries, for the same reasons you mentioned, but cops in "actually existing socialist" countries like Russian and China are no better. They still use authoritarian violence to oppress anyone who steps out of line with the will of the State. There are many, many historic and more contemporary examples of socialist countries using the [secret] police and/or troops to quell dissent from unions, anarchists, and other leftist groups, because anyone who protests the actions of the State, no matter how legitimately, is considered to be an enemy of the State, whether that State is capitalist or not.

Flatworm7591 , 13 days ago

The mod log reason for removing this comment thread is "Toxic and pointless off-topic comment thread about grammar in a meme." That's not mod abuse, it's just moderation. Mod abuse would be telling you to fuck off.

Flatworm7591 , 24 days ago

https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/d5e22fc5-9032-46d2-b3cc-6f679ca116e0.webp

Bearskin bug? Happy pride month!

Flatworm7591 , 1 month ago

Nice false dichotomy.

Flatworm7591 OP , 1 month ago

It also doesn't help that a lot of the white supremacists are also cops.

Flatworm7591 , 2 months ago

American liberals are fascists. We get it. Hilarious. If this is your version of left unity, you might consider a rethink.

Flatworm7591 , 2 months ago

I rather imagine socdems consider themselves socialists, probably not liberals though. But we weren't having that discussion, so I guess you were just bringing attention to your community rules in a passive aggressive sort of way? Fair enough I guess.

I've just noticed things getting way too tribal lately and the communist/socialist left seems hell bent on fighting with the liberals instead of the conservatives. Personally, I think it's counterproductive to dunk on the liberals when there's so many actual fascists around, and it's getting a bit tiring. Have they as a party moved too far to the right? Definitely. Would it be a step in the right direction if people like Bernie Sanders got a chance to make a difference? Definitely. Would it be far enough? Almost certainly not, but you know, this is the US we're talking about, they're never going to go fully socialist. You've got to have some level of pragmatism if you want to get any movement back to the left.

If someone is socially progressive and anti-authoritarian, then I don't need to know much else about their politics, I'll make the assumption they are probably a decent person. I really don't care if someone labels themselves a socialist, a liberal or an anarchist, or any of the dozens of atomistic political groupings on the left, or if they don't give a shit about politics. If they are trying to improve the current state of society in whatever way they are able, then they really don't deserve to get dunked on. It's mean spirited and counterproductive and there's too much hate going around.

I mean, what's your end goal with this strategy of hating on the not-quite-left-enough? I genuinely don't understand it.

Flatworm7591 , 2 months ago

FYI I'm not American so I won't be voting for either. But I think you are contradicting your own argument when you say:

tl;dr: the distinction between dems and reps is not one of “left/right” but rather one of “right/further right”.

What I was arguing was that the Democrats (aka liberals) are further left than the Republicans (at least in some key social areas). So, while you have defined the difference here as right/further right, that is still an acknowledgment that they are to the left of the Republicans, even if they are "not-quite-left-enough" to qualify as leftist from your ideological perspective. So, it still makes no sense to treat them as equally bad options - there are still degrees of 'bad' we should be concerned about to minimise harms.

It seems to me that many people on the left are currently earnestly trying to destabilise the US by pushing it even further towards right wing fascism, in the hope that it'll eventually provoke some sort of domestic revolution or an international backlash to US influence. This seems to me like a high-stakes strategy that could horribly backfire in so many ways, and I just can't get on board with it.

Flatworm7591 , 2 months ago

I've cleaned up this toxic comment thread and littleblue has got a temp community ban. I had originally left the parent comment for context, but have removed it at OPs request.

Flatworm7591 , 2 months ago

I've got a Brother laser printer myself last year, and I like the printer, but I'll agree their software is bit of a hot mess. I used to have an old Canon multi-function laser printer that wasn't locked to 1st party toner, and their software was much easier to install and use. But it finally broke down after >10 years of moderate use and the new models are reportedly DRMed, so Brother was the only decent option.

Flatworm7591 , 2 months ago

I think they do (or at least did) put some form of DRM on their toner cartridges, but it is fairly easy to bypass as you mentioned. There was an article about the fact they had to instruct customers how to bypass it due to COVID related chip shortages a while back. https://www.techspot.com/news/92915-canon-printer-owners-get-official-guidance-bypass-printer.html

I did like the quality and longevity of my (very) old Canon MF8350cdn from 2011 - it was a workhorse! But my new(ish) Brother MFCL2710DW has been great so far too. Only time will tell if it lasts as long as the old Canon though.

Flatworm7591 , 4 months ago

Yep - those jobs are going to be lost because of Tyler Perry seeing an opportunity to reduce production costs, not because of AI. Nobody is forcing him to use AI. It's just classic corporate greed where he is happy to trade [other people's] jobs for more profit. Sure, AI is enabling him to do this, but it's greed that's guiding his decision making here.

Flatworm7591 , 4 months ago

I agree with you that Mozilla is spreading itself too thin. And don't get me wrong, I love Firefox and am a long time user. But they do need to understand their user base better.

They aren't going to become a sustainable business by copying more popular browsers. It's their differences from the mainstream that make them appealing as an alternative in the first place. I already don't like them foisting Pocket on me, which 100% should have remained an extension. I don't like the fact that Google is their default search engine, which goes against all their privacy messaging. I understand the reason is money, but that's kind of the definition of being a sellout isn't it? Their core values should always come first.

Fact is, those employees weren't fired for any good reason other than to hop on the latest tech trend. It's this sort of corporate "profit before people" bullshit that will erode any goodwill that people still have towards Mozilla. I couldn't give a fuck about adding a stupid AI driven chatbot to Mozilla, and neither, I imagine, do many of their current users. Honestly, I think "AI" has ruined the internet in a lot of ways already. It's already had a massive negative impact on the quality of search results, across all major search engines, because of all the low quality llm content that has been produced already, and it's only going to get worse. And you can't trust a single thing that comes out of those models, so what is even the point of them?

Sorry in advance for the old man rant lol.