Every technology shift creates winners and losers.

There’s already documented harm from algorithms making callous biased decisions that ruin people’s lives - an example is automated insurance claim rejections.

We know that AI is going to bring algorithmic decisions into many new places where it can do harm. AI adoption is currently on track to get to those places well before the most important harm reduction solutions are mature.

We should take care that we do not gaslight people who will be harmed by this trend, by telling them they are better off.

Thanks for that mental image… Dancing Bear.

Amazon - the logistics company - is just a front end for (and leech on) various drop shippers, lately, anyway.

Amazon used to carry quality guarantees, and have meaningful reviews, but lately the wild West crapshoot of the rest of the web is just as good.

(And at least on the rest of the web I have some idea who I’m buying from, and can avoid them after a bad experience. On Amazon, it got to where there was no way I could tell.)

Controlling people’s media experience to push political propaganda that helps powerful people and harms individuals - that seems really shitty.

I can’t think of any app developer or political party who would do that.

(This is an attempt at surrealist humor.)

I’m sure they will grow out of it, by the time they turn 21

(This is intended as an amusing reference to DOGE’s habit of hiring surprisingly young professionals.)

My little sister has two, and most of her friends do too. It’s weird.

I suppose that makes sense. Support has gotten much stronger, in the last decade or two, for using multiple monitors.

I would welcome a utility that makes it easy to find donate links for my software packages, based on my Apt, Flatpak, and F-Droid package lists.

I’m a developer, so my chances are pretty good. But I take your point.

Even if I weren’t, there’s enough software options out there that I don’t have to pick between paying for proprietary software and living with abandonware.

So I think the need for this security is exaggerated.

Of course. I used proprietary software for a long time. Having things I relied on get abandoned got old, but it worked.

I just expect more from most of my software, now.

I’m happy to pay for software, but I want more than just permission, I want long term security that my investment in the tool will last.

If IntelliJ would open source their oldest versions, I would make my boss buy me a copy of the newest version every year.

And to every other bidder, too, of course.

I can explain this chart: SO and AI both give me questionably useful example code, but AI isn’t as much of an asshole about it as the average SO user.

The issues should be central, but it would be nice for my reputation as a contributor to migrate between instances.

Don’t feel bad, this place is weird. It’s a good weird. But weird.

ain’t none of us are all that bright.

If I ever get a bumper sticker, to announce my views to the world - you’ve given me the words for it. Thank you.

this isn’t Twitter

But this is Mastodon (for some of us).

Lemmy and Mastodon share content, now.

This new nerd Internet is weird, but it’s weird in cool ways.

What now?

Some options:

• Gadget Bridge allows connecting most devices fully locally
• PineTime simple, but cheap and free of corporate nonsense
• RePebble (coming later this year) - I just learned and it in this thread, but it looks promising.

Ooh. Thanks. Today I learned about RePebble. If it doesn’t deliver, there’s still also Gadget Bridge (connect most devices fully locally) and PineTime (another spiritual successor to the Pebble).

I’m just learning this is an option, but Matrix Signal Bridge.

Best I can tell from the documentation, we add the Matrix server bot to a signal account, and it relates messages between the two platforms.

Don’t worry, I’ll fix it all with my unchecked political influence once I earn my first billion.

(This is sarcasm.)

Ah…ah…ah…ach-<no one should be allowed to bomb hospitals>-choo!