NaibofTabr

I find it difficult to see removing down votes as anything other than suppressing dissent.

I think the point of view described in the reddiquette is the most beneficial for good communities:

Vote. If you think something contributes to conversation, upvote it. If you think it doesn’t contribute to the community it’s posted in or is off-topic in a particular community, downvote it.

(Yes the link goes to reddit’s website and I understand people are avoiding it, just keep in mind there was a time before everything went wrong and the reddiquette dates back to the early years)

So I don’t upvote what other people say just because I agree with their opinion, or downvote because I disagree, but rather based on whether they’re contributing to the conversation in a useful way. I frequently upvote people that argue with me, as long as they’re addressing what I wrote in good faith.

This idea goes back further too - back when Digg was the most popular such website, the idea was that you “digg up” things that you think should be more visible (things that you think are worthwhile for other people to see), and “digg down” (bury) things that aren’t.

For example, if I upvote an article about genocide, it’s not because I approve of genocide, but because I think it’s important for other people to see the article.

The answer to this question depends on a lot of factors. For instance, if the internet service you’re using is slow, nothing you do to your laptop will make any difference.

Before you put time, effort or money into anything else, run a speed test: https://openspeedtest.com/

Heh, so ALSA has kind of been the audio architecture for Linux distros since forever.

Pulse Audio was supposed to modernize audio for Linux and ultimately replace ALSA.

But last time I installed Linux on my desktop, I couldn’t get audio output from my motherboard’s TOSLINK S/PDIF port no matter which settings I changed in the GUI, uninstalled/reinstalled drivers and codecs and whatnot, etc.

Nothing made any difference until I eventually found some forum post which suggested using ALSAmixer to check the settings for various audio channels. ALSAmixer is not typically installed by default and not commonly used anymore, but it was the only tool that could unmute the digital audio output channel that served the TOSLINK port - that functionality was not present anywhere else in any of the configuration options. Pulse appeared to be in control of the system audio hardware, but in reality it was just sitting on top of and still relying on ALSA to handle the back end. Also, whoever set ALSA to mute some audio channels by default on a clean install… wtf dude, that shit just makes people think their hardware isn’t properly supported and they have a driver issue.

The point being, ALSA was supposed to be deprecated years ago and all of the old audio issues resolved and modernized with a new architecture, but… I’ll believe it when I see it, when whatever the new thing is actually proves itself to be an all-singing, all-dancing audio architecture. I’ve seen this rodeo before, and last time I checked it was still a clownshow.

So… what do you use for audio output on a desktop? Because I feed my monitor with the DisplayPort output from my graphics card, and I’m definitely not running a separate HDMI just for the audio signal. Even with 5.1 channel outputs, the 3.5mm audio on the motherboard is not up to the quality of the optical audio output, and besides that’s 5 copper cables to run instead of one fiber. My soundbar has an optical input. The optical output is the only thing that makes sense.

Uh huh uh huh uh huh… call me when ALSAmixer is no longer needed to unmute the TOSLINK output on a new install because who the fuck knows why it’s muted by default in ALSA and that setting is not surfaced anywhere in the UI.

Sort of.

In 2017 China passed a law requiring Chinese user data to be held within the country: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-privacy-censorship.html

Following that, Apple paid for a local data center which is managed by a Chinese company. Functionally this means that the PRC has access to all of the data stored there, because the government exerts direct control over Chinese companies, especially anything related to data collection and storage. Most likely, the PRC is able to access Apple users’ iCloud data if it resides in the China-based data center.

In response to a 2017 Chinese law, Apple agreed to move its Chinese customers’ data to China and onto computers owned and run by a Chinese state-owned company.

Chinese government workers physically control and operate the data center. Apple agreed to store the digital keys that unlock its Chinese customers’ information in those data centers. And Apple abandoned the encryption technology it uses in other data centers after China wouldn’t allow it.

Independent security experts and Apple engineers said Apple’s concessions would make it nearly impossible for the company to stop Chinese authorities from gaining access to the emails, photos, contacts, calendars and location data of Apple’s Chinese customers.

This is not really different from what’s been happening with other countries requiring their citizens’ data to be held within their borders, and the UK has similarly forced Apple to withdraw the Advanced Data Protection for iCloud users: https://www.theverge.com/news/608145/apple-uk-icloud-encrypted-backups-spying-snoopers-charter

[…] British security services would have access to the backups of any user worldwide, not just Brits, and Apple would not be permitted to alert users that their encryption was compromised.

The fact is AI can make as-good or better art than most “artists” because most “art” is just cookie-cutter shit for morons.

This is an obvious misstatement. If you actually believe this then you’re not qualified to have opinions on art in general.

“AI” (in this context meaning generative algorithms, because there is no intelligence) can no more “make art” than it can think, or care.

It’s no surprise public opinion is these tools are trash when the free models are unable to answer simple questions

The tools are trash not because they are unreliable but because they are actively destroying human society and culture. They are destroying art, science, journalism, open source software, the internet at large, and the environment we all live in. It wouldn’t matter if the generative models were accurate, they would still be garbage.

The fact that they are unreliable just serves to highlight what a colossally destructive waste of time and resources this entire exercise has been.

Ah, well most people use the internet for banking, employment, housing, medical care, government services, and communicating with friends and family, so… how would you propose to avoid it once it’s implemented?

*edit: downvotes, but no counterarguments. Hilarious.

Forty-Six

When the Tao is present in the universe, The horses haul manure.
When the Tao is absent from the universe,
War horses are bred outside the city.

There is no greater sin than desire,
No greater curse than discontent,
No greater misfortune than wanting something for oneself.
Therefore he who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

Sixty-One
[…]
Therefore if a great country gives way to a smaller country,
It will conquer the smaller country.
And if a small country submits to a great country,
It can conquer the great country.
Therefore those who would conquer must yield,
And those who conquer do so because they yield.

A great nation needs more people,
A small country needs to serve.
Each gets what it wants.
It is fitting for a great nation to yield.

Thirty
[…]
Force is followed by loss of strength.
This is not the way of Tao.
That which goes against the Tao comes to an early end.

from the Tao The Ching (by Lao Tsu), as translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English

Book 14 #3

The Master said: ‘When the way prevails in the state, be enterprising in speech and enterprising in action; but when the Way does not prevail in the state, be enterprising in action but prudent in speech.’

from The Analects (of Confucius), as translated by Raymond Dawson

Fall of Civilizations might interest you. It covers the collapse of past empires, and tries to describe what life was like for the people living in them when they were at their peak, and what we know of life during the decline.

It is not specifically focused on religions, but for most of these cultures their religion was inherently bound up with their politics (both internal and external), economics, industry, and day-to-day life. Describing the society and culture includes a fair amount of detail about their religious beliefs and practices (for instance, you can’t really give a useful description of the Egyptian empire without mentioning their gods). Many of the largest surviving ruins have religious significance. Personally, I think framing the religion inside the sociocultural context and history of the civilization makes it more interesting and more understandable.

The Fall of Civilizations YouTube Channel has the podcast episodes set to video of the locations as they are today, along with photos of artifacts from the culture and artistic depictions of what it might have looked like.

In the beginning the Universe was created.
This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

Generative algorithms, and the people intent on replacing artists with them.

Also everyone labeling and/or peddling these things as “Artificial Intelligence”.

Also all of the corporations trying to shoehorn them into every product and service and ram them down user’s throats.

Also every user that patronizes these things voluntarily.

I think I saw a 2…

China is doing this sort of thing, and worse, they’re just less obvious about it.

For instance, China operates unauthorized police stations inside other countries, which they use to enforce party loyalty and target dissidents.

You should also read the article about Chinese government interference in Canada:

The Canadian government has been tracking Chinese government efforts to influence Canada since at least 1986.

In 2016, newspaper sources reported that Justin Trudeau had been attending cash-for-access events at the homes of wealthy Chinese Canadians in Toronto and Vancouver, generating a political scandal. Attendees at these events, including those with connections to the CCP, would pay up to $1,525 per ticket to meet Trudeau.

The People’s Republic of China made attempts to interfere in the 2019 Canadian federal election and 2021 Canadian federal election and threatened Canadian politicians, according to Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Parliament of Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission.

PRC manipulation activities in Canada are well documented, but it would be extremely naive to think they aren’t pulling the same shit in other countries.

However, sustaining broad-spectrum jamming over a large area is expensive and impractical.

If the mesh network is wide enough, redundant enough, mobile enough, then traffic can be routed around jammed areas.

Who said anything about how it looks?

Shanghai is a global financial center, ranking third in Asia and eighth globally on the Global Financial Centres Index.[139] Shanghai is also a large hub of the Chinese and global technology industry and home to a large startup ecosystem. As of 2021, the city was ranked as the 2nd Fintech powerhouse in the world after New York City.[140]

As of 2019, the Shanghai Stock Exchange had a market capitalization of US$4.02 trillion, making it the largest stock exchange in China and the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world.[141] In 2009, the trading volume of six key commodities—including rubber, copper, and zinc—on the Shanghai Futures Exchange all ranked first globally.[142] By the end of 2017, Shanghai had 1,491 financial institutions, of which 251 were foreign-invested.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai

Shanghai is about as communist as Wall Street. It should look nice, they certainly have the money for it.

Ohhh nice… where is Communist China again… ?