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paultimate14

@ paultimate14 @lemmy.world

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0
Comments
275
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • We live in the future!

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  • Uber is too expensive these days

    That was always the goal. Uber and Lyft prices were heavily subsidized early on. Their investors poured billions into them in order to not just establish market share, but tk drive existing taxi services out of business. Taxi services that had things like: fleets of company-owned vehicles instead of personal vehicles, commercials grade maintenance schedules, stricter licensing requirements for drivers, unionized employees instead of independent contractors, etc

    Uber and Lyft just plain ignored a lot of existing regulations by saying "those don't apply because this is an app" to legislators who were too old to know how to turn on a smart phone. They got the public on-board by temporarily offering artificially low prices and high payouts to drivers. Now they have established themselves and removed the competition, so the payouts are going down and the prices are going up.

    There are still some US cities that do not allow Uber or Lyft to operate, and there are other countries in the world that do the same.

  • Why I moved my Plex library to Jellyfin after 14 years

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  • My router (GLI.net Flint 3) makes it really easy to set up Wireguard servers on it, and from there all I needed to do was get a domain name to use. Set up Wireguard on my phone, and I can access my local network remotely without needing to pay for a VPN subscription. I still use Mullvad, but that's for privacy not remote access.

  • Can someone who works in an industry or for an employer with clear negative impacts on society/the world maintain a clear concience?

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  • Thr unsavory businesses are paying a premium for being unsavory. There are SOME people who will not work there, which reduces the size of the labor pool and drives prices up. There are others who can be bought, for a price, and that also drives prices up.

    Industries with neutral or beneficial impacts on society do have this pressure, so the wages are lower. Simple supply and demand.

  • Removed

    Gabe the GOAT Newell

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  • I'll be a lot more open to comparing Valve with Amazon when I hear reports of Valve employees pissing in bottles

  • Removed

    Gabe the GOAT Newell

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  • Steam also provides value by acting as an intermediary.

    There were 21,503 games released on Steam last year. How the hell is a consumer supposed tk make informed purchasing decisions with all that? Steam is a discovery platform which connects a game with the individuals most likely to buy that game.

    It is also a central launcher to organize and manage libraries, including non-steam games. It's easy to move games between drives, and to use the various library tools to pick out what I want to play.

    Then there's Proton, a completely free comlatability layer for Linux that has allowed me to mostly stop using Windows.

    There's the Steam Workshop, which is far and away my preferred method to mod games. It's so much easier to click a button to add a mod tk Cities Skylines or Civ 6 than it is to fuck around with Nexus Mods and a mod manager for Skyrim.

    Steam is a centralized location for support from developers. It also is convenient tk keep track of updates.

    Steam Remote Play is probably the single most umpactful thing to my gaming in the past decade. I just need my 1 gaming desktop and I find myself playing on my Shield in my living room, my phone in bed, my tablet on my exercise bike, my Steam Deck on the porch, or even over at my friend's house on an old laptop. All for free, when I've never even be able to get Moonlight or Sunshine to work at all in my desktop.

    Steam has social features like friends lists, chat, and even voice, which is relevant with how shitty Discord has been as a company lately. Support for family sharing and multiplayer is phenomenal.

    It is not like Steam is just pocketing a bunch of money and not doing anything. They beat out not just their legitimate competitors, but even piracy, because they provide better value for the consumer. They do a lot of tasks that publishers otherwise would have to handle themselves, saving them costs.

    And I'm sure there are more features that I'm forgetting kr that I don't bother with, but other people find valuable.

    I do think they should be heavily regulated, but there hasn't really been much to regulate with them. They had a minor lawsuit in Australia early on relating to the verbiage displayed about refund policy. I don't like loot boxes, but my solution is... I don't buy them, and usually I don't even buy games with them.

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    Gabe the GOAT Newell

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  • Steam was launched in 2003.

    By that point the ships had already sailed. You didn't own software, and micro transactions already existed. Steam did not "bypass" copyright laws- the facilitated a storefront that sold based on already established and litigated law.

    This goes back tk the 1960's with the origin of computers, when they were gigantic. Manufacturers like IBM would lease the hardware to institutions that used it, and the software was just included for free. This practice ended because of antitrust lawsuits in 1969, which led to IBM charging for software seperstely.

    It's funny you mentioned Apple, because one of the foundational cases of software copyright law was 1983's Apple vs Franklin case that ruled against a company making Apple II clones, who argued that machines readable code was similar to machinery designs and thus not subject to copyright law. 20 years before Steam existed.

    But I guess you can just ahead and make things up on the internet to jump aboard a hate train.

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    Gabe the GOAT Newell

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  • I've literally never seen any of these so-called "simps"

    Like, the internet is a big place and I'm sure some of them exist, but you could make that argument about any view at all. I see way more hatred for these alleged simps than the simps themselves.

    Steam, and Valve, operate in a capitalist system. They've been successful. They are similar to a handful of other companies, like Costco, that seem to understand that in order for capitalism to be sustainable, corporations need tk govern themselves and show restraint. They need to focus not on merely achieving profit for ownership this quarter, but on establishing long-term and stable business relationships with all of their stakeholders. Customers, emplpyees, suppliers, governments, lenders, the planet itself.

    The biggest failure of capitalism is that the system does not incentivize for any of this. Which is why such corporations are so rare.

  • People who journal, why?

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  • I started last year, for several reasons. Most of which werr related to my wife and I creating a polycule with another couple a year earlier. After 1 year in I did some evaluation and realized I needed to make some changes, and journaling was an answer for a lot of those.

    1. Memory. I'm almost certainly on the autistic spectrum, and for most of my life I've had a remarkably good memory. Not "photographic", and I known better than to trust any human memory too much, but in general I was pretty good at remembering details. I am also very introverted. I like to spend time alone, reflecting on the last couple of days and solidifying my memories in meditation.

    Being in a polycule means that I both have much less time for that meditation and much more stuff to remember. I also was a mild THC user before, mostly for my knee pain or jjsy because getting high on occasion is fun. But ibstatted leaning on it more heavily to deal with the stress of constant socialization.

    So when I found myself in conversations remembering that I had been told things, but unable to remember what they were. Like my girlfriend's home town or my boyfriend's favorite Zelda game. Not stuff they even necessarily expected me to remember, but stuff I felt bad for forgetting.

    1. Validation and evaluation. One of the establishing philosophies of the polycule we talked about up-front was that we woukd still prioritize our respective marriages. We were all established adults and homeowners with no children- this wasn't a full joining-of-households or roomates situation. Last summer I started to feel like my wife wasn't spending much time with me though. I started journaling and after a few months found that, sure enough, we had pretty much stopped doing all of the things the two of us used to do together (playing videogames, watching TV and movies ,etc). It is not at all that I minded her spending time with the other people, but when she WAS home with me she woukd just lay on the couch reading, sleeping, scrolling Instagram, or playing Stardew Valley.

    My wife also has a medical condition that derailed her career, so a while ago we decided it made more sense for her to stop working and be a homemaker. So I became the sole income earner, and she took over the chores we used to split(laundry, cooking, dishes, cleaning, grocery shopping, etc). I would still contribute on occssion: I am not some boomer stereotype of a man who doesn't know how a laundry machine works, and I like to cook on occasion. But as she spent more and more time with our girlfriend and boyfriend she also did less and less of those chores. It led to a lot of Saturday mornings, which are supposed to be so e relaxing time off work for me, but instead I need to spend time cleaning or scooping the litter or getting groceries because she didn't do it, and with our gf & bf coming over that night I want the house to be respectable.

    I FELT all of these things, and discussed them with her a little bit, but journaling gave me the confidencd to talk to my wife about it, provide details, and help her to see what she was doing too. When I said that we never did anything together anymore, her first reaction was "wait didn't we just watch that TV show like a week or two ago?". And because of journaling I was able to say "that was 5 months ago".

    1. Working through feelings. For most of my life I have done this without needing to write anything down. I would just spend some time alone and, well, think. Let the thoughts and feelings flow naturally and sort them out. But with so much less time to myself I wanted to take a more direct and active approach. I still think I prefer my natural approach- doing it through journalling feels forced and rushed. But its better than just struggling.
    2. Monitoring health. I weighed 207lbs when we started this polycule, and now I'm down to 161. Largely due to a couple stints of low-carb dieting.

    Also, not to get too graphic but group sex is very different from duo or solo. So having a record of how things have gone and how I've felt about things has been nice.

    I should also note that for the first 6 months, I just logged narratively. I tried to remember to write down important things, tried to predict what my future self might want to go back and check later. Using keywords I would know to search for (digital is better for me- I use Joplin). After 6 months, I decided to pull out some key measurables and use a separate app to log those. My weed and alcohol use, exercise, and sexual activity.

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  • See interesting article link to research paper Sample size is <100 students at one college

    Like, on a certain level I get it. I just get frustrated that so much of my time gets wasted on looking into this stuff. And I have so many conversations with other people I know who ONLY read the pop-science article and not the actual paper, or they read the paper but just skip to the juicy bits.

  • Avoid men, German police association chief tells women

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  • Oh you're just shifting the conversation towards violence against women in particular. Ignoring violence against men and using that ad a cover fke your own thinly veiled racist dogwhistles. Cool stuff.

  • Avoid men, German police association chief tells women

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  • Poor men, because the rich men have written tbe was so that their violence is not considered criminal.

  • Recommend us a kids' cartoon

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  • I don't see Steven Universe mentioned anywhere. That might be my all-time favorite, and slots right in with the likes of Adventure Time and She-Ra.

    Sticking to the Adventure Time-related ones, Over the Garden Wall is great and very autumnal. My wife ans I try to watch that every October. Gravity Falls is also great, especially for the summer since it takes place over the course of one summer vacation. Bravest Warriors is okay- not a must-watch, but decent. Bee and Puppycat is pretty solid and chill.

    For slightly older crowds (I see yoy have stuff like Gurren Lagan on here), Midnight Gospel is pretty good and also from Adventure Time's showrunner.

    For other anime, there is always Fullmetal Alchemist. Saiki K if you can get past the fast editing. Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple is one that's probably just "okay" but I like a lot.

    Centaur World was surprisingly good.

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  • Your "ask Grok" comment is particularly relevant because this day seems to be the turning point researchers cite for when Musk decided to fully support Trump.

    I could only speculate as to whether it was staged and Musk was involved in that, or if it was Musk's genuine response, or what exactly, but its highly suspicious.

  • "Helpful" [Super-Fun-Pak Comix]

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  • The best way to win the game is to not play.

    Reddit had a lot of issues and I am glad I left, but one sub I really liked and wish Lemmy had was r/anticonsumption. You make a great point about razors, but that already relied on the assumption that you have decided to shave.

    That is not to say that shaving is bad, but to recommend that all individuals think about it. WHY do they want to shave, and how much time and money do they want to put into that? How much of it is mere societal expectation, and is that really worth it?

    Look at the Got Milk campaign as another example. That was not promoting any particular company, just the concept of consuming dairy, and led to disastrous health, environmental, and economic consequences in the US today.

  • [meta] Please ban comics by bigoted artists

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  • The problem is that downvotes do not work. They do not function as an incentive for these users to stop posting, because they do not matter at all.

    It can work on larger platforms, where thousands, or even tens of thousands of people vote. There the users form roles based on how they sort the posts. People who sort by New are well aware that they are going to have to sift through a lot of trash, but their reward is that they get to have a more active role in setting the taste for the entire community. Because then you have people who sort by Hot or Active, which tends to be the majority of users in most communities (and is often the default). So in communities with dozens of posts, hundreds of comments, and thousands of votes every day, the things the community doesn't like gets buried.

    The Fediverse is too small for that system to work. There simply is not enough posts, comments, and votes to make any of that meaningful. The same users can just spam the same authors over and over again, and it doesn't matter whether the post gets 100 upvotes or 100 dpwnvotes- the whole community is going to see it in their feed regardless. And it's not as if having negative "karma"really matters.

    One of tbr systems Reddit had to combat this was that karma occasionally mattered. Some subreddits would require karma to join, or ban if your karma dropped. I'm not sure if the tools exist for something like that here or not. There are a lot of different t ways you can slice up the numbers, but basically looking at post history, ratios of up/down votes, total down votes, etc. Effectively letting community feedback drive the moderation process.

    That's still not perfect because users can block/mute other users. Doing so would effectively be abstaining from voting, and that's not the healthiest system. But we shouldn't let perfect be the enemy of good.

  • Fetterman is only Democrat to join Senate Republicans to again reject effort to halt Iran war

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  • The stroke was before he took office. For his first 18-24 months in office his voting record was pretty much along Dem party lines.

  • Have you seen Neon Genesis Evangelion?

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  • I can't remember exactly when I first watched it. Within a year or two of the pandemic though. I was solidly an adult.

    It was not my first anime, but I still would not call myself an experienced anime watcher or anything. I watched it because I really liked Kill La Kill, looked up the history of studios Trigger and Gainax, and saw that this was one of their core franchises. And I saw Evangelion's cultural impact on Japan being compared to Star Wars in America, so I figured I shohkd watch it.

    I think its great. It starts off with relatively high-budget episodes, showing off smooth animation, cool and unique-looking mechs and great sound design (I watched the Netflix English dub, which had a bigger budget than the original). The kaiju they fight are pretty unqiue looking too. I'm also a sucker for other cultures appropriating western culture, so I love all random christian imagery they toss in unattached to any of its original meaning, just to appear "foreign" to their Japanese audience. It hits a lot of the mech anime tropes, complete with an animal mascot side character for comic relief. The 14 year old girls are a bit too sexualized for me, but I kind of get they were trying to sell this to 14 year old boys so... Eh. And even though its 14 year olds, they don't spend a whole lot of time lingering on school life which is nice.

    After the first few episodes it slowly shifts to the point where calling it a mech anime is an inside joke. The pacing is incredible and refreshing, and I think has aged even better when compared against most modern media that is edited extremely quickly to hold people's attention. Beyond that... Well I could make a wall of spoiler text but I just recommend watching it yourself. I will say that this is a rare case where the sexualization of young girls is an actual artistic choice with meaning to it beyond just creepy horniness. Although I still think that's mixed with an element of marketing that is a bit gross... Its complicated.

    I also feel like I need to say I don't take it too seriously. The psychological aspects are largely based on Freudian theories that were debunked decades or centuries before. I also often see Shinji used to represent introverted people, and I disagree. There's a common trope of characters like him, who I would categorize as either extroverts who are bad at being extroverts or introverts written by extroverts trying to imagine what introversion is like. For reasons, I think Shinji is the latter.

    Since then I've watched it a handful of times again. I showed it to my wife and it became her favorite anime, and she even got a tattoo based on it. We have watched the rebuilds a couple times, and they're... Okay. I don't think they stand up on their own, but they are more accessible for people who don't have the attention span to watch the original.

  • Trump Is Robbing You to Pay for His Dumb War

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  • Is he robbing us to pay for the war, or was this war just an excuse to rob us and enrich himself from the start?

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  • If you cannot do it legally then it's not legally ownership. You are talking about de facto ownership, which is another thing entirely.

    I can totally bequeath in my will a safety deposit box with notes containing all if the credentials required to access all of my accounts and devices, functionally giving away my Gog account. However, if Gog or any of the publishers involved find out that I am legally dead they can totally ban that account and pursue legal action against anyone else who accessed it, violating terns of service