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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • If you’re an OG iPhone or Mac user, then you might remember paid software updates. Over a decade ago, long before iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, major Apple OS updates used to cost users around $10 for iOS and $20 for macOS. By iOS 4, though, Apple switched to free software updates, allowing users to update their devices for as long as they’re supported without having to pay a fee.

    Yeah, but nowadays it’s all “free” - as in you only pay for the hardware to enter their walled garden (but then no matter how much you pay, you can never really leave! at least not via normal, legal means, if you want to ever come back - Welcome to the Hotel California 🎶…!:-P).






  • The funny part is how that word supposedly may translate better as “maiden” than “virgin”, as in “young girl” rather than someone who has not yet had intercourse. I wonder how many people have been beheaded for asking about such things.

    Jesus Himself hated such over-religiosity - “Want religion that is pure and blameless? Take care of widows and orphans!!” - but sadly it seems the natural human condition.:-( The extreme irony is how He went to LARGE efforts to just constantly and consistently give the religious fruitcakes of His day the middle finger (“thou shaltest say to every Karen, fuck ye off”), which ofc got Him killed just like everyone else who tried it previously. So like… was Jesus one of the early atheists then, if you think about it like that…? :-D /s

    But I mean, in all seriousness, the gist of Jesus’ message seems to me to be to ignore the fruitcakes and just do the right thing, regardless (“the worker deserves his wages…”). So like, wtf does His teenie sexed-up mommy have anything to do with anything?! But Karens gonna Karen, I guess, and get all worked up about whatever drama they can either find or invent.


  • I hear that, but also…

    Well, I was doing the same, but noticed that even in the niche subs, the conversations seemed to be getting more and more… juvenile? Like prior to the Snoopacolypse (as you called it, and I love it! The term not the event in case that needs any clarification:-P), it was a point of pride for me that I had never blocked anyone in my life - whereas now I don’t think twice before doing that bc who has time to waste on someone not engaging in good faith!? Especially if they lack enough self awareness to even realize that fact about themselves while they are doing it. (Tbf, possibly watching Innuendo Studios’ analysis of GamerGate that uses many tactics of the Alt Right in America had something to do with my changing views as well:-).

    Ymmv ofc, bc different subs means entirely different people & thus experiences interacting with them, but I’m just saying that rather than stick with the subset of that community that remained after Rexit, I eventually just find myself going or even wanting to go there less and less, instead enjoying engaging here more, even at the expense of not being able to talk about those matters. I haven’t posted there for months, nor even commented for a month, and barely go once a week to read. Bc I use Kbin and the mobile browser experience here is so horrible to write a comment, I find myself not commenting here often either - but when I do I have much more fun doing so, not having to be anywhere near as defensive as that other place that shall not be named.

    I hope you find something that works best for you as well, wherever that may be.


  • There are MANY different kinds of devices, and each offer their own unique blend of functionality. The hardest to replace seems to be the phone part - calling emergency services or receiving a text using a laptop might be possible, but takes some setup and just is not quite the same as being able to whip out your phone and already be in a call one or two seconds later. Conversely, neither iOS nor Android are even attempting to replace actual desktop/laptop-like operating systems, and while using a tablet as a keyboard may be possible, nothing beats a true keyboard and mouse setup; although that said, a smart device (either phone or tablet) with a broadband data connection can offer a WiFi hotspot to a laptop, thus significantly enhancing its’ capabilities still further. Even some places that offer you WiFi may be super slow, unreliable, and/or do things like change the access code every hour or so, making it more convenient to simply provide your own - plus that’s a bit safer too (which would you rather use: a public toilet, or your own at home?).

    Having a printout (even if PDF) of a bus or train schedule isn’t nearly as convenient as being able to connect with an app to live updates - like “it should have been here an hour ago, what happened, do I just wait further?”, plus allows quick deviations like “am I so certain that this (other) route even runs on Thursdays?”. Even dumbphones with a data plan could access the Internet, but apps are much more convenient, thus useful for things you do often.

    Then again, some of that you could replace with a broadband connection on a laptop. What the smartphone provides is a nice bundle of features that, while each one could be replaced individually, is thought of by most people in the developed world to be often highly useful. Though ymmv - e g. people with addictive tendencies might rather prefer the barrier of having to pull out a larger device such as a laptop or tablet than to have immediate access to everything with a smartphone readily pulled from a pocket; and people who have a desktop at both work and home may want to get by with just a dumbphone for calls and texts.

    Funny story: some dentist offices refuse to take patients who do not consent to receive texts and respond with confirmation of the appointment an hour or so before - they apparently were burned so often by people who made appointments but never showed that now everyone has to jump through those additional hoops, and they get enough patients that acquiesce that they can turn away everyone who does not. But if YOUR dentist does not do that, then your need for a device capable of sending and receiving text messages is lesser compared to those who do. It still is worth noting though how common it is to have such devices - most responsible citizens have at the very least a mobile phone, though not all!:-P - and your access to services in public spaces increasingly depends on such, so especially in cities, though they have significant uses even in rural areas as well. And yet if you don’t use public transportation, always drive the same roads (or have a dedicated device for GPS, if you need that), and haven’t found the need yet for apps, that’s fine too? You apparently don’t need them while moving about, though they can offer great convenience - enough even to replace a laptop entirely, if you have quick access to desktops.



  • Fwiw, I believe that happened bc you dared to comment on a post that was since removed by a mod from a magazine hosted on another instance. Now, that whole post is “gone”, so Notifications cannot reach it, but it is “not gone” in the sense that Notifications cannot properly realize that it’s gone. And it has poisoned your whole notifications system, to the point that you cannot even read other notifications from other posts.

    The good news is that it only affects one “page” of your Notifications, so as you continue to operate, it will eventually fall behind to page 2, and thereby still prevent you from seeing any Notification from that whole entire page, but from then on at least you will get new notifications from page 1. Until it happens again, ofc, and the cycle continues. I have ceased recommending anyone to come to KBin as a result of this extremely frustrating bug, along with the other highly frustrating ones like constantly logging you out, and barely being able to type out a comment on mobile. Hopefully it gets better.:-|



  • You could test out your idea by spinning up an instance that offers curated ads, or probably better yet go entirely ad-free and have a subscription service. Some people may be interested in sustainability, especially if you speak in a language that resonates with them, like explain the value-added benefits of being on a sustainable server vs. a “free” one. e.g. the devs get a salary there and also contribute to the overall Lemmy codebase, beyond that instance so that it benefits the entire Fediverse. But it would be up to you to be the change that you want to see in the world, and make it happen. Also, I am guessing those kinds of discussions won’t happen so much on the Fediverse itself, but rather in Matrix or Discord (or Slack?) servers were the actual developers of the Fediverse hang out.



  • Relevant post: https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/451896/Is-Kbin-dying-I-wanted-to-address-the-deleted-thread, attempting to explain why contributions weren’t being merged in and deployed.

    Posts by Ernst since mention lots of bots and ads, and some outright DDOS.

    The latest word: https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/544021/So-what-s-the-status-on-the-update-edit-ernest-responded.

    TLDR: Ernst has had a lot of unexpected personal issues to deal with, had to take on a temporary job, and has not been able to give full dedication to this project. What efforts were originally planned - e.g. an official API - seemed to instead have gotten redirected against maintenance vs. outside attacks rather than improvements to the underlying codebase. Back when he was not keeping up with contributors’ proffered changes, he even planned to step down if he could not catch up, for which he gave himself a 1-month deadline, but he seems to have decided that he has met the basic minimum to not do that.

    Looking forward, several months from now Kbin may be significantly better. Or barely better. Or not at all, who knows. But right now it is what it is, which is far behind Lemmy in terms of pure software features at least. I think Kbin’s main selling point was that it was not built off of the original Lemmy contributors, and it does have a very nice interface (sort of, on desktop at least). Not that it matters: account migration doesn’t exist on the Fediverse - even on Lemmy, right? - so those of us who migrated and asked all of our friends to do likewise are kinda stuck with our initial choices, good or bad, unless we make a clean break from our entire history.

    Note I have nothing to do with Kbin, I just wanted to offer those helpful resources if you want to read them. I am glad that you found something that works well for you. I halfway wonder if I should make an alt somewhere even if just to more readily read posts from a mobile, b/c the mobile browser experience for Kbin is horrible (reading is mostly fine, but commenting is absolutely horrendous).