I opted for the ROG Ally X. A couple of things swayed me. My ability to hold it in store and the tech specs for future proofing were both reasons. But I never planned for this device to be a Windows only handheld. I specifically bought it for the few games I own that can’t run Linux and I run everything else in Bazzite. If it had come with Steam OS I likely still would have bought it and done a dual boot. I don’t think it’s fair to assume that people are buying non-steam handhelds just because they don’t want to deal with Linux. They likely have no idea what Linux has to offer and are going with what they can buy in store.

Good.

Lists. My notes app puts in work. I make lists for everything. I set alarms for everything. I write things down while I’m thinking about them because I will forget. I ask for things in writing because I will misremember what was said. I have a white board stuck to my fridge so that I can write down when we’re out of something or running low. Oh. And basketball nets over the hamper.

I would like to remind you of two things. The first is that reddit used to have a mod tool called “BotDefense”. Its shutdown in July of 2023 directly lead to a major uptick in Spam Bots.

The second is that part of the ad revenue is “impressions”. Impressions are just an account (bot or human) “viewing” the ad and they do not require a click-through. The platform hosting the ad still gets paid for those.

Ah. That no upvote rule. I’ve heard tell the corporate overlords don’t like Luigi.

What “don’t upvote” rule?

Rofl… Oh. They’re serious. Well. In that case. Rotflmfao.

At one point the IT department where I work were asking questions about why I tether my phone to my work laptop when I’m out of the office (working from home). I told them very specifically that I would not connect any device I didn’t have administrator control over to my home network. They didn’t ask anymore questions after that. I have a work phone and work laptop for work things. I use both only for work things. I have two personal computers, and two personal phones (one for messing with roms). I don’t need their hardware for anything in my personal life. Nope. Not even a Google search.

They also asked me if I wanted my personal phone logged into the wifi and I gave them serious side eye before saying no thanks.

Thank you for this post. I have been talking the ear off my one Linux friend since I installed Bazzite and I’m sure he’s got better things to do with his time than help me every time I text him with a problem or a question. A lot of online forums on the subject talk over my head so I need clarification even when I can find the solution to my problem.

It seems that he made claims in court that Apple the company did not knowingly engage in practices that would be considered anti-competitive under the law.

“For a year and a half, Apple has engaged in bad faith, levying a variety of different and new fees to app developers to get around the spirit of the judicial order. It put up scare screens, engaged in sleazy privilege claims, and lied under oath to the judge about its decision-making. Normally these kinds of tactics happen without consequence for important business executives. But this time, the judge accused Apple Vice-President of Finance, Alex Roman, of having “outright lied under oath,” and referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney for a criminal contempt investigation. She also went out of her way to blame Apple CEO Tim Cook directly.” - From the article.

I sometimes wonder if I’m the only person who remembers top sites. Like sites where you went to get straight up pirated material for the purposes of making bootlegs etc.

Yeah. My entire windows machine is locked down specifically to combat the copilot ms365 plague. I’m also using Bazzite and generally loving it. But I have a work machine for work things and some of my programs require windows to work.

I for one will not be putting any gibberish into Google’s AI for any reason. I don’t find it fun. I find it annoying and have taken steps to avoid it completely on purpose. I don’t understand these articles that want to throw shade at AI LLM’s by suggesting their viewers go use the LLM’s which only helps the companies that own the LLM’s.

Like. Yes. We have established that LLM’s will give misinformation and create slop because all their data sets are tainted. Do we need to continue to further this nonsense?

Long term/ extended stay hotels exist that will provide these things. But the vast majority of people don’t even consider those. They rely on what they can search up on Google for the area and algorithms don’t take into account that you need to bring your dog, want a separate set of bedrooms in the same suite, or that you’re looking for a kitchen.

I see this every time AirBnB is mentioned and every time I wonder if people even know extended stay hotels exist.

I believe at least one of the anti-trust lawsuits Google lost was brought by the previous Trump Administration.

This is largely the problem with most social media, and generative AI has made this problem worse just like it has made other pretty terrible facets of human interactions worse.

Anyone who was paying attention on reddit the last couple years (even pre-pandemic) could see that bots were taking over. The main difference (love mods or hate them) was that mods who’s subreddits didn’t rely on bot content to stay active were moderating the bot problem as best they could.

Now, most of those mods aren’t mods anymore and the vast majority only really want the engagement anyway so of course they’ll let bots basically take over.

Reddit the corp never cared about keeping bots off the platform and they care even less now. Bot engagement counts. Bot views of ads count. Removing bots actively hurts their bottom line in the short term so of course they aren’t going to do anything with that.

The actual human users on Reddit don’t care because they’re there to consume. It doesn’t matter to them if the posts they engage with are made by bots or not.

That’s honestly hilarious though. They made Marvin and don’t see the problem with that.

Buy things up in the fallout. The power vacuum the collapse will create will be ripe for anyone who comes out financially ahead in such a situation.

Yeah. I wasn’t really sure if this was the answer or not, just that I had seen a potential conversation asking similar questions or along the same lines, and others seemed to have had a take on this.

Tech giants welcomed Trump because they thought he would enable two things. A roll-back of regulations, and to increase profits. The thing is, the monkey wrench in this situation is twofold. The first problem is Elon Musk being placed in a position of power that enables him to detrimentally effect the profits and regulations of these industries to benefit his companies first and foremost while also being detrimental to these other tech companies. We see that a lot with the data he’s been stealing from all kinds of government agencies under the guise of saving the government money.

This means that even regulations that are removed that pave the way for these companies to enact policy or even just products to enrich themselves are hindered by Musk being a direct competitor to a lot of them. Facebook/Instagram vs Twitter, Tesla vs Ford, SpaceX vs Blue origin.

The second problem is the tariff situation. It cuts off a majority of tech companies from the cheap manufacture of components, devices, and even just consumer electronics that a lot of tech companies rely on in order to get their products into the hands of users so they can siphon up user data.

A third problem is that Musk has his hands in so much stuff that he’s pressuring the government to place his companies first in the running for. SpaceX and Tesla especially for things like bullet proof vehicles (where previously the government had contracts with other automotive manufacturers), and SpaceX being used for missions that NASA might have previously handled using Boeing products etc.

All these tech companies went to Washington DC to “Kiss the Ring” with the intention not just of avoiding a lot of legislation being leveled at them by previous administrations, but also in the hopes that they could position themselves as Musk had. For further government contracts. Because long after Trump is dead and buried, the contracts would be lucrative.

But that assumes they survive all the upheaval his administration is causing (and not just survive it, but come out largely economically and financially unharmed).

Anything may be possible, but the market has to survive in order for these companies to remain supreme.