areyouevenreal

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areyouevenreal ,

Why not hybrid or plain ICE vehicles powered by biofuels? Even things like waste vegetable oil can be turned into viable fuel, and it can actually be less environmentally destructive than getting rid of it in other ways. ICE technology is very mature, and we currently produce more food than we need and waste much of it. Why not put it all to some use?

Pretty much any fat could be used in compression ignition engines with the right treatment, any carbohydrates turned into ethanol for spark ignition engines, and all waste wood burned for electric power and domestic heating.

areyouevenreal ,

You're forgetting things like used vegetable oil which is waste that would be thrown away otherwise. Same for the stuff wood pellets are made from, they are typically mostly saw dust and other waste products. This should hopefully cover airplanes and maybe diesel trains and some cars for when electric isn't practical.

Even if you were to start planting crops for biofuels, how much less efficient than solar plus batteries would it be? The problem with solar and especially battery storage is that the materials used to make them are not renewable, and cause all kinds of issues in their mining and manufacturing. We've grown plants sustainably for thousands of years now. I've yet to see anyone make a solar panel from sustainable or recycled materials.

areyouevenreal ,

This is nonsense. Like someone else said we will need some kind of nuclear power for future space exploration. There are parts of the world that are dark for six months of the year, and plenty of places that don't get enough light for solar to be practical.

Most renewable sources are not consistent enough to be used by themselves, and battery storage isn't practical with current technology. Then there are the concerns with hydro power and biomass and how that affects the environment. I have even been told by leftists that biomass shouldn't be installed as it destroys too many native forests.

Of course the actual best solution is one we don't have the technology for yet: things like nuclear fusion or neutrino capture.

areyouevenreal ,

What do you disagree with me? I was trying to back you up up here saying that yes we need nuclear in addition to all the other technologies. I am not saying that you shouldn't use solar, just that it isn't applicable everywhere on earth.

Screw the futurism and longermism of “we need nuclear power for space exploration”. We’re not talking about that.

You should be talking about that. After all climate change is also a future problem. Staying on a single planet isn't safe even if you eradicate climate change, war, disease, and just about everything else. There is pretty much nothing stopping a gamma ray burst or stray blackhole, or any number of other things from killing everyone on this planet. Like yeah climate change is a high priority, but it doesn't make all other issues go away.

areyouevenreal ,

It's not just about the cost though. They're inferior to pretty much any other mid-range or high-end smartphone too. Expensive but good would be fine. Cheap and mediocre would be fine. Expensive and mediocre though? Nah.

My £250 used phone has a faster processor, more RAM, better screen (higher resolution, brighter, bigger and higher frame rate), and a higher capacity battery with faster charging. It's a mid-range Xiaomi from a couple years ago, not a high end or flagship phone.

They should take notes from pinephone. Offers something unusual at a low cost. Since enthusiasts eat that stuff up you get extra help with software and ROMs too. Yes it's low spec, but it's good enough for enthusiasts to play with and is of good value as the price reflects the quality.

areyouevenreal ,

Plenty of other brands which aren't Chinese are both better and cheaper. Samsung, Apple, Google, Asus even.

Do they all use cheap Chinese labour? Sure. Do you actually think Fair phone doesn't? Even if they somehow completely avoid China for the whole supply chain, they will inevitably get cheap labour from somewhere - like Taiwan or Costa Rica. After all they are using standard Qualcomm parts, so that's going to be either TSMC in Taiwan or Samsung in China and Korea.

According to their own website their living wage bonus is only $2.63. It doesn't even say if that's per hour or per day.

areyouevenreal ,

Plenty of alternatives to Windows lol. Try a different industry.

areyouevenreal ,

Man I hope so but you really never know these days

kde , to KDE
@kde@floss.social avatar

If you don't use Bing with Edge, Microsoft will tell you your computer needs repairing.

https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/windows-operating-systems/microsoft-now-says-your-pc-is-in-need-of-repair-if-youre-not-using-bing-with-edge

They are not wrong.

To mend your machine:

  1. Ditch Windows
  2. Install Plasma
  3. Your computer is ready.

https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/

@kde

A laptop running the laters version of Plasma, Plasma 6.

areyouevenreal ,

Using Linux is hardly a project anymore, unless you want it to be one. Plasma is just an interface, you can get many distros with it if you want including Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE, Kubuntu, Arch, and so on.

areyouevenreal ,

Yeah it's a shitty thing for them to do

areyouevenreal ,

You can pretty much just install Mint or Pop OS and go. There are a lot of options (I would argue too many) but you can ignore most of them as a beginning user. No one should recommend arch to a beginner and anyone who does should be shot.

Also are you on a mastodon instance or something?

areyouevenreal ,

Why does it have to be like this? Because men are constantly vilanized as being the violent, manipulative, and exploitative gender. This man and bear thing sums it up pretty well. Women get a free pass to do a lot of stuff, including women rappers admitting publicly to drugging and stealing from men and not facing any real consequences.

Feminism is used as an excuse to push both transphobia and misandry. Like sure there might be feminists out there who actually want equality, and there are plenty of people who do want equality who aren't calling themselves feminists. That's not the majority of people calling themselves feminists though. It's a shame as feminism started out as seeking equality, or at least pushing back against inequality.

areyouevenreal ,

Dismissing someone's concerns as a mental health issue. That's actually horrifyingly toxic and completely illogical in this case. This is what people mean when they talk about concern trolling.

areyouevenreal ,

I kind of get what you are saying. People want to defend their in-group when it comes under attack even when it doesn't deserve that defence.

I think such a space as you describe would need to be built upon the understanding that all genders are capable of shitty things and that no person or group of people is perfect. I don't think we have that in this world. What we have is a world that's unfair to everyone, and instead of acknowledging that things need to change for everyone, people are instead bickering over who has it worse and who gets the blame. Blaming this group or that group for all the problems that exist.

What we have at the moment is almost a cold war between different groups of people. Some people who only care about women, others who care only about men, and a select few who care equally about both. I am sure there are other situations where this is the case too. This I think is what people are talking about when they mention the culture wars.

areyouevenreal ,

People need to talk to a therapist about their fear of airplanes, whether it’s rational or not. People have to talk to a therapist about car crashes, whether it’s rational or not. If you are worried about something and it causes you anxiety, you should talk to a therapist. The source is not my concern, the help you need is.

That's not what therapy is for. If there is a real life problem causing you anxiety or anger the solution is to fix that problem of to remove yourself from the situation. Talking to a therapist is not a solution to real life problems. Anxiety, fear, and anger all exist for a reason and they can all be productive emotions in the right context. The only time you should see a therapist for a rational concern is if said concern can't practically be escaped or fixed.

areyouevenreal ,

PTSD happens after a traumatic event. In order to start treatment you first need to be removed from the situation that caused the trauma. You don't get treated for it if it's an ongoing problem. You understand this, right?

What have I ignored exactly?

areyouevenreal ,

The external issue here isn't a personal one though. It's that women can be dangerous just like men are dangerous though typically in different ways. Not enough people acknowledge this.

areyouevenreal ,

You said something that comes across as condescending and as concern trolling. That's why you got downvoted to hell.

It took me that long to figure out that you were actually being sincere and that you apparently didn't get the above statement that not all women are safe. Though your understanding of what therapy is useful for definitely needs some work. You don't go to therapy for being scared of something that's legitimately dangerous. You're supposed to be scared.

areyouevenreal ,

COVID lockdowns weren't sustainable and while they reduced pollution to some extent they didn't come close to eliminating it. Like in my country we turned off coal, but only because we don't have much coal to begin with. We were still using plenty of gas power, as that's our second largest energy source. Here in the UK our largest energy source is Wind, and we aren't even doing that well compared to France or Spain on the energy front.

Things also still got manufactured and sold, and that's where a lot of pollution comes from. Food and goods production. Eliminating transport pollution would help for sure, but it's like 14% of the problem. Electricity generation, heating, and agriculture are the things we need to fix the most. Fixing electricity generation would also help with transport emissions as we could use more electric vehicles and trains.

areyouevenreal ,

This would be totally normal to do in a European country and aren't part of the local healthcare. I went to the dentist in Spain because finding one in England where I live is a nightmare and kind of expensive. I had a checkup, cleaning, and two x-rays for about €40. You had to book only a few days or maybe 1 week in advance instead of waiting months or having to go private. Didn't even ask for an x-ray either, that's their default standard of care for that price. They were able to confirm that I had a wisdom tooth and where it was located thanks to that x-ray. All for less than a good bottle of single malt.

If you need medical care in America or some services like a dentist in England your best bet is to get a cheap flight and leave the country for somewhere cheaper and with higher standards of care. That's how much better it is. You all need to stop making excuses for your shit healthcare system in places like America and England.

areyouevenreal ,

Most bread in English supermarkets doesn't have excessive sugar. This is an American thing. We were also the guys that pretty much invented mechanically processed dough too, so it's not like we have high standards.

areyouevenreal ,

If I ever go as far in the relationship area as to have kids, they are not going to have anything Apple\Android until they can think for themselves.

That's actually not unreasonable. Getting kids using Open Source platforms which aren't trying to manipulate or spy on them is good.

That would be 12 years old or so at least, and before that they'd have to pass an exam (with me evaluating) on how to write simple Unix shell scripts, set up a web server, write simple SQL queries and, well, install and set up the system on which they are going to do this first. Non-computer parts would probably involve some media literacy and symbolic logic. And I think control theory would be required.

What does any of that have to do with media literacy or using those devices? You are just being a curmudgeon, not everyone needs to be a systems administrator. Unix isn't even used anymore. Linux and the BSDs are Unix-like, not actual Unix. What if your kids are physicists, chemists, or mathematicians? Are you going to say they aren't good enough to use a fucking smartphone just because they don't know specific things about a certain specific area of tech? How do you know SQL specifically will even be relevant then? NoSQL is already making headway.

This isn't how you get people into Open Source software or interested in technology. You can't do it by forcing them to do things that are esoteric to the majority of people.

areyouevenreal , (edited )

The shell used on most Linux is bash, a GNU project. Not a part of Research Unix. ZSH is newer than both Unix and BASH and is also not a part of Unix.

They still can spend a few hours on something useful for life. I know hundreds of little things like this from various areas even less useful specifically for me. While this is useful for everyone, as we can see every day from normies not knowing how anything in computing works and getting scammed.

None of this is going to stop someone getting scammed. You can have plenty of technical knowledge and still get scammed. I got scammed trying to sell a laptop for example. Teaching them how paypal works and to avoid using the friends and family option is much better for this purpose.

This is about upbringing and introducing people to things they can't avoid. Not about making them interested (but I'm almost confident that actually it will make a kid interested).

You very much can avoid using a Unix-like shell. Your average Windows user has never used one, and neither do most macOS people even though it's included with macOS. Likewise most people will never have to setup a web server.

If you want to give people practical skills start with adblockers and how to reinstall Windows, macOS, and Linux Mint if it goes wrong. If you want to teach them command line skills, maybe start with CMD and PowerShell, since they are more likely to see those in real life than Solaris or FreeBSD. Heck your average person probably needs a Virtual Machine or an emulator more than a web server. Being able to pirate and play old Nintendo games or Play Station 1/2 is pretty cool. So is running Windows stuff on mac or Linux. Could save them buying another PC for that one software program. Likewise learning to work on desktop and laptop PCs can save them buying a new one every few years. Especially useful for PC gamers.

areyouevenreal , (edited )

Why would learning how to fix a PC make you hate computing? If anything it makes you more confident in your ability to fix things if and when you break them. Likewise I don't get what's wrong with learning about Virtual Machines and emulators. PowerShell can't be that bad lol.

What it sounds like to me is you teaching your kids to think computing with Linux/FreeBSD is hard, and to hate using it. You're also teaching them to hate you for putting unnecessary barriers in front of them doing normal things like using a smartphone. Having a smartphone is necessary for modern life, as it does everything from communicating with family, finding out information, banking and booking appointments, ordering a taxi or takeout. Gatekeeping that behind arbitrary things like learning shell and setting up a web server is fucking dumb.

A taste of real things I'd want to give to help them connect their inner abstract idea of how the world works with actual material things. They will have that idea, I absolutely trust every person to develop that on their own without help. Without that they might not believe themselves when they should.

I don't even know what this is supposed to mean or how it's related to the things you are asking them to do.

I've said once that I want to give a taste of something. I was more general with things one can't avoid, as in "one can't avoid computers and the Internet". And this was pretty clear from the context, either you are playing dumb or you want to defeat someone in an argument, in the latter case I don't care because I see you are not doing that.

Not it wasn't clear at all, especially given the other nuts things you have said. You're also not winning this argument, look at who's getting downvotes here.

areyouevenreal ,

Looking at the votes suggests no one else agrees with you or that no one understands you. You started this conversation coming out swinging. It's on you to explain your position, not on me or anyone else to read your mind. Winning an argument means either convincing the person your arguing with, or better yet convincing everyone else. You have done neither.

No one apart from you thinks making kids do an exam on installing web servers and writing shell scripts before being able to use basic technology they will need for the rest of their lives is a good idea. A smartphone is a basic and essential tool in the modern world and there isn't a real workable alternative to the iOS and Android duopoly.

areyouevenreal ,

There are things you can do outside of voting for one shit party. You could vote for a different party for example, push for voting reform, protest, bomb military installations and other guerrilla tactics, go and help people directly, make propaganda, etc. In my own country that just had a local election more seats were won by the lib dems (normally a minority party) than the conservatives who are the party currently in charge.

Revolutions don't happen because people like you don't want them to happen. That and because people fall for pro-government propaganda.

areyouevenreal ,

I am not holding them up as a revolutionary party. All I was saying is they are becoming more popular than a current majority party. I am trying to make the point that voting for a traditionally minority party isn't always fruitless.

The fact of the matter is that we are never going to get a radical left government, regardless of the voting system. Unless you're spending time in an ivory tower of academia, you will know that the majority of people in this country are centrists of some flavour. Corbyn got massacred at the polls, and he was Labour leader. Going back you've got Foot.

My comment was aimed at Americans who don't want to vote for the democrats. Not at labour voters in the UK. I am not against voting for labour. If I am still here at the time of the general election I will probably be voting for them or for the Green party. I wasn't able to vote in the current election as I wasn't in the country and also wasn't on the electoral register for the area I would be living in if I was.

I don't think I qualify as an anarchist. Though I do like some anarchist ideas. I personally don't understand politics well enough to have an exact position with certainly like some people seem to. I am somewhat of a fan of socialist market economy, but I don't think you can truly know if something does or doesn't work until you actually try it.

areyouevenreal ,

Okay what about the other things I just said?

areyouevenreal ,

Voting for someone who comite genocide is understandably something people don't want to do. Or have you forgotten the point of this conversation?

areyouevenreal ,

I have read some theory and I do know those are the main two currents. Doesn't mean I know enough about them or politics in general to choose either them or something else. Most of the books people actually recommend are ancient and hard to understand even if they are relevant. We have actually spoken about politics before somewhere if I remember correctly.

areyouevenreal ,

Yeah I've only actually been able to vote once. Missed one (forgot which day) and was out of the country for another. I wouldn't have left for as long if I actually knew there was an election, but that's hard to know when you don't watch the news. Plus moving around a bunch means I am rarely actually on an electoral register to vote.

areyouevenreal ,

Also it's not 30 minutes. It requires registering to vote whenever you move address, and for you to actually be in the country. Then there is setting reminders it's election day, which requires watching the news to know there is an election.

areyouevenreal ,

I am not an American. We don't have a DMV. Why the heck would vehicles and elections be organised in the same place? It takes actual time to register here (up to several months).

Unless it's a general election people don't take that much notice, and it's hard to find out about one when people only talk about American elections online and you also aren't always in the country.

areyouevenreal ,

They aren't rated for 50,000 cycles. The ones I have seen are rated between Lithium Cobalt Oxide and Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. They don't even come close to Lithium Titanate in charge cycles.

areyouevenreal ,

We've had the technology to replace automotive batteries with Lithium ones for a long time already.

areyouevenreal ,

This IS a Linux machine. Do you know what a CPU architecture is?

areyouevenreal ,

He's right. You are just being really stubborn. The fact you think biological sex is simple is a big giveaway you don't know what you are talking about. XXY is not considered intersex and never has been.

areyouevenreal ,

You can't fly directly in a commercial aircraft. The airspace has routes and points you have to follow. Smaller planes don't always have to, but big planes almost always do. Altitude is one of the determining factors.

areyouevenreal ,

Why would using a phone affect brain development negatively? We aren't talking about children sniffing Ketamine or drinking a fifth of vodka here.

areyouevenreal ,

sure, alcohol and drugs do still affect a child quite intensely, though I'm saying that, is social media and the endless dopamine harvesting NOT a drug? if you think about it, it extracts, makes a person want to come back for more, causing addiction, further extracting more, losing its effectiveness and making it almost impossible to quit from there.

I don't think you understand what drugs are or can do. They don't all just blindly increase dopamine. They have many other effects on the mind and body that social media does not. This whole concept of dopamine detoxes and addiction = dopamine needs to die too. It's not based on solid scientific understanding as addiction is far more complex than this and comes in multiple, separate forms. Even drugs like amphetamines that primarily interact with the dopamine system don't always lead to addiction (ask anyone with experience of ADHD meds). Thinking dopamine is only about addiction and vice versa is like thinking electricity is only for heating and that all heating must be done using electricty.

Raising children without access to the internet is both backwards for their education and actively dangerous. The internet has allowed minors in bad situations to escape or get help multiple times. It's also made people realise their parents or guardians are insane or abusive including those who are members of dangerous religions and cults, are homophobic, or are abusive for other reasons. School in some countries is also packed full of propaganda, and even when it isn't they can't always help and are sometimes a source of abuse themselves. Restricting access to information isn't a good thing.

areyouevenreal ,

What does this have to do with smartphones and the internet? The internet is a means of gathering information first, and a form of communication second. I don't get what socialization has to do with the first one. If you want people to be comfortable communicating on the internet (or via phone or whatever) then presumably they need to start earlier.

As for people struggling with phones, that's because a) lots of people here are autistic, and b) voice phones are not an ideal form of communication anyway. Either way the answer is practice, not shying away from the problem.

areyouevenreal ,

You don't need to run Android x86 to access a social media site on a computer. What are you talking about?

areyouevenreal ,

Okay first who said eight hours? I am not saying there shouldn't be limits, just that banning the internet completely is a bad idea. Second communicating with technology is an essential social skill in itself, and being able to use technology and apply critical thinking to things you read is absolutely essential. Lots of people work from home using technology. Almost everyone will have to use technology to do research e.g. in college.

areyouevenreal ,

Yes in a thread about banning kids from having smartphones, which are the main way people access the internetwork nowadays.

areyouevenreal ,

Okay now you are just being obtuse. You realize lots of kids these days don't have or use regular computers, right? Smartphones are now the only way to access some services as well, and are important in case you get lost. You can't call your parents or 999 on a laptop now can you?

areyouevenreal ,

To be honest I think there are safer stimulants than cocaine. Amphetamines and methylphenidate are probably better for you. I agree with you that a safe supply is better though, and generally agree that it's a personal choice.

By the looks of it they aren't banning use of drugs in private spaces either. Only in public ones. Which honestly is somewhat reasonable given how some people act on drugs.

areyouevenreal ,

???

I wasn't talking about methamphetamine specifically. Amphetamine and methylphenidate are regularly prescribed for daily use. We know them to be relatively safe in sensible doses. Cocaine destroys your heart and your nose. Lookup any ranking of drug danger, cocaine is up there with meth and alcohol. It's one of the most addictive too.

If you're doing that much daily you need to see a doctor and get addiction counselling. Legitimately please get help before you do yourself serious damage. Unless you're talking about coca tea of course in which case carry on. I don't think that's you though.

There's also no such thing as pure cocaine in western counties pretty much. Unless you live where it's produced you aren't getting a pure product. Even then I would be skeptical if you know anything about the people who produce it. Go get your stuff tested at a lab if you don't believe me.

areyouevenreal ,

I actually used to attend protests, meetings, try and convince people to join back when I was part of a marxist organization. From my perspective all the people on the ground wanted a revolution. I think if you actually looked you would find plenty of people like this. I left for several reasons, including not agreeing with the actions of Leninists in the past, but also because I couldn't sustain the required time and energy to the cause.

What do you do to create change? What is your plan? I don't have a plan anymore, perhaps because I don't know enough. I am not sure it's even possible.

I am not suggesting I have all of the anwsers. I actually think there is a good chance things won't work out even after a revolution or civil war (see the soviet union for example). I don't think it's realistic to expect anything to change without one though. Almost all great leaps forward and changes in regime through history has been through violence and war. This didn't always improve things either.

Revolution isn't an easy answer at all. It seems impossible from my perspective no matter how much I try to tell people it might be necessary. Actually convincing people is extremely hard work and that's just the start. There are plenty of cases where revolution didn't work, and plenty of revolutionary ideologies to battle it out. None of this is simple and easy. It might be our only shot though, if we have a shot at all which I doubt very much. Honestly though I think if we do nothing things will collapse eventually anyway. The worst option is things become stagnant and stuck.

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