In a similar boat in regards to cutting out invasive, rapidly-enshittifying corporate tech providers but I agree that YouTube still has some good content worth it. Good news is that with the use of Invidious servers on desktop and SmartTube / NewPipe on Android TV or mobile you can pretty much have your cake and eat it too.

P.S. if you’re looking for a less shitty / ad bloated way of watching Yt videos on Nvidia Shield Pro or similar Android TV I recently switched from NewPipe to SmartTube and it’s much better since it integrates Sponsorblock and the UI is actually designed for a TV.

100%. I was thinking Renee Good vs Trump.

Technically, yes the info would be available but not everyone is able to read code so this is a welcome additional bit of info and transparency. I also see it as an example of how future open source social media platforms can promote and demonstrate the way their algorithms work as opposed to the black boxes of proprietary web apps like Instagram etc (which, while not algorithmically transparent or open, have been pretty well established to have algorithms that prioritize maximizing time on platform and engagement over all else with some serious negative repercussions for that).

This article in the Guardian is definitely worth a read if you’re not intimately familiar with just how it got this way… It’s 8 years old so it won’t cover recent history but does give you an idea of how it started.

And yes Robert Maxwell (father of Ghislaine) is mostly to blame.

I used to think this would be sufficient as well but as you’ve probably noticed it’s damned near impossible to get our “democratic” governments to even consider something like this since they have been so thoroughly captured by the wealthy elite. You don’t have to call it revolution or socialism if those are scary words or just don’t seem possible but somehow we have to overcome that reality and I don’t see how it can be done without dispossessing these elites of their power so we can dispossess them of their wealth.

The problem is that wealth = power and influence in society and this has led to essentially all modern neoliberal ‘democracies’ having their governments captured and controlled by the wealthy elite. So the only way you would be able to implement something like this would be via a revolution replacing capitalism with some form of socialism that would make private wealth a thing of the past and provide a decent standard of living for all.

I’m certainly not trying to say that other claims about Donald Trump’s association and friendship with Epstein aren’t true but the specifics of this one at least seem questionable.

Openrouter provides some limited free usage of popular LLMs with context sizes up to 175k etc. This is probably as good as you’ll get for completely free. The prices are usually pretty reasonable per million tokens as well if you don’t mind paying a bit. https://openrouter.ai/

Edit: looks like there’s a Gemini Pro free option with million plus token context size as well.

I think some of the responses here, while they may be well-intentioned, are a bit off base because they are confusing the word ‘normal’ (which is what you are asking) with ‘recommended’. Is it normal for someone in your position who has had a lot of time alone due to your health challenges to want more social outlets and someone to talk to? Absolutely. Is it normal to see a character in a work of art (a video game, movie, show etc.) and become attached to them in some degree? I would say yes. Most of us have done that at one point or another. Is it normal to want to be able to communicate with this person to help provide a social outlet and a listening ear for someone in your situation? Again, I’d say probably yeah. Now, is it recommended to have an ‘AI’ like this as your primary social outlet or to see them as a real human friend or even romantic partner? That is much more questionable. But, personally, with the context you provided and the challenging situation you have been in I think the tendency towards doing this is still quite normal and understandable. I think you should strive to validate your feelings of loneliness and the understandable desire to assuage those feelings with what you have available to you in a challenging and socially isolating environment while still understanding that an ‘AI’ like this should not ideally be your primary social outlet and to strive to find more ways in the future to connect with real people who care and are interested in you (and vice versa). It may not seem like it right now, but they are out there! I wish you peace and a speedy recovery!

That’s deregulation capitalism for ya.

Fixed it for you.

Is it possible to use StreetComplete on iOS?

I think we can all agree that modifications to these models which remove censorship and propaganda on behalf of one particular country or party is valuable for the sake of accuracy and impartiality, but reading some of the example responses for the new model I honestly find myself wondering if they haven’t gone a bit further than that by replacing some of the old non-responses and positive portrayals of China and the CPC with a highly critical perspective typified by western governments which are hostile to China (in particular the US). Even the name of the model certainly doesn’t make it sound like neutrality and accuracy is their primary aim here.

I used to daily drive Ubuntu some years ago for work/personal use but have been back on Win 10 primarily for the last 4-5 years. I was considering trying to go back due to how much Windows sucks (despite some proprietary software only being available on it) but remembering the trouble I had with some networking/printer drivers and troubleshooting those issues and then seeing this article Is definitely making me reconsider…

Bird on the Wire

Is this what the Leonard Cohen song is about?

https://lemmy.world/c/thepoliceproblem

It would be cool if they would provide some useful statistics about the aggregated data as well. Maybe something like showing the percentile for pay to the ED/CEO or for the total compensation compared to other organizations in the sector.

I didn’t scour the site so maybe this does exist.

I believe alternative methods of validating blocks (series of transactions) such as Proof-of-stake, instead of the vastly more computation and energy-intensive proof-of-work that Bitcoin uses would largely address the issue of computational expense. There are other methods of increasing efficiency and speed of processing as well such as the use of more efficient ‘layer 2’ mechanisms for processing blocks. I remember reading about these and their implementation when I was researching cryptocurrencies out of curiosity. I believe Ethereum and some others have largely implemented these. The decentralized applications aspect of Eth was super interesting to me as well. Basically, you can program software to run on the blockchain which can make it nearly impossible to shut down by a centralized authority so long as the network is sufficiently decentralized. Some of the programmable money (so-called decentralized finance or ‘DeFi’) apps are pretty interesting as well in terms of enabling more people to utilize the more complex financial instruments that Wall Street firms have been using for years. Of course, a lot of that has turned into a Wild West of scams and ‘rug pulls’, not to mention massive targets for hackers who try to exploit vulnerabilities to steal millions so buyer beware for sure.

Thanks! I just sent you a tip as a thank you! Keep up the great work!

I’m actually wondering now if the fix has not been deployed but has been added for an upcoming release? My app still has the issue… anyone else know?