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FTC Says Social Media Platforms Engage in 'Vast Surveillance' of Users
  • No one cares about this stuff but techies/Lemmy. Regular people don't care, like at all. They know tech companies do this stuff but if convenience>privacy, most people take the former every time to make life easier. Data privacy is not a tangeable thing in most people's minds.

    There would have to be some sort of cataslismic event to wake people up enough for people to do anything meaningful. I don't know what that would be, but I hope someone figures that out sooner rather than later.

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    public policy discussion on car dependence
  • Please remove if this sort of thing is not allowed. Trying to foster a discussion of various policy issues from week to week.

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    Amazon tells employees to return to office five days a week
  • I haven't bought anything from Amazon in 10 years. It's full of crap now, and the legit stuff is just thrown in to a bin in their warehouse for scanning by UPC, so it's 50/50 if it's an untraceable counterfeit. And the counterfeiters are good, so you probably won't notice it's fake until a couple years later.

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    Trying to build viable third parties by voting for them in presidential elections is like trying to build a third door in your house by repeatedly walking into the wall where you want the door to be.
  • Because there are more effective forms of protest that don’t guarantee with 99.9% accuracy that a fascist is elected if people vote for an alternate party (literally the case this year with the margins, and “dictator day 1”).

    Voting should be pragmatic. There are a million other ways to protest/lobby, but honestly the Democrats of today are far more progressive than 20 years ago, because of people who understand the system and change it from the inside, like AOC/Bernie.

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    MAGA is straight up losing it after Taylor Swift’s Harris endorsement
  • In battleground states the win/lose margin will quite possibly come down to a few thousand votes, particularly in PA. The endorsement might not change anyone's mind, but to her millions of fans it raises the elections' importance for anyone who doesn't "care about politics". It turns a civic issue into a social group issue, and people care more about the latter. It'll pull people reluctant to go to the polls to show up and vote.

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    Republicans dismayed by Trump’s ‘bad’ and ‘unprepared’ debate performance
  • He really can't drop out. He could be replaced but the legal maze of local and state deadlines and printed paper ballots that would have to be destroyed would abridge on early voting rights.

    Rfk is having that problem right now in a few states. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/09/north-carolina-robert-kennedy-early-voting-trump-sabotage.html

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    Why is Facebook filled with so much random junk now?
  • I did do a test install (on a virtual machine), and everything seemed to install/configure fine using the python source code and instructions in your repo, but I wasn't able to see any connections being made in the listener log. Brain is too tired, but I tried all of the addresses/ports listed (Debian/bash/ip addr) and created port exceptions with ufw per the instructions file. Can this work with a virtual box?

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    Why is Facebook filled with so much random junk now?
  • Very cool. 100% over my technical knowledge level but I'll take a look at the code and give it a whirl when I get a chance.

    I think it would be awesome if it worked. Power to the people! ;)

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    Goodbye, Reddit: How the Internet’s Front Page Is Eating Itself
  • actually it's not ... An admin banned OP (troll account). Seems that no record of comment exists. Kinda a bug in the Lemmy software where logs of banned accounts aren't stored, or at least I don't know how to see them.

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    Why is Facebook filled with so much random junk now?
  • The answer is obviously as everyone has pointed out already is enshittification.

    Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification. (Cory Doctorow)

    Profit = enshittification. It's guaranteed as long as profit is a motive.

    An interesting concept is the idea of a distributed social web. It was the concept me, and probably a LOT of other redditors, were looking at last year, but it seems no such thing really exists. The idea that everyone's home computer (or mobile device nowadays) could act as the client and the server. Perhaps using a firefox addon of some sort.

    Do any software devs (ok that's like 90% of lemmy, lol) know if any existing projects are trying to do this? It does not seem like an unfeasible thing, and it wouldn't have to grow overnight, it could possibly just be a feature in an existing addon that allows communication directly between users. No centralized servers of any sort. Distributed communication without central control. Is this possible?

    The existing social media companies own the world (literally), and they can maintain this control because they can buy out competitors. You can't buy out 5 billion people though, so if people had the tools available to host their own web; and it was as easy as installing a firefox browser addon, a true democracy could exist like the world has never seen.

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    Bluesky continues to soar
  • thank you for the link, it was an interesting read. I really like the idea of using a web browser, like firefox or a fork of it, as a basis point for a distributed social web.

    I don't really understand how it would do that but it is a very interesting idea. I guess since firefox is open source anyone could create this ability. Is there a discussion about this somewhere on the web? Lemmy is a good a place as any as it's too unimportant and tiny right now ;)

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    Bluesky continues to soar
  • The nice thing about Lemmy is that it doesn't have celibrities and NBA players. It's (mostly) honest discussion for the most part, sure you have a lot of people who getting angry but at least it's not like reddit or Facebook or whatever where you never know if a post/comment is real or a paid advertisement. Yeah it'd get more reach, more people, more popularity with thread integration, but there would also be more people. ...eternal September . It would be guaranteed to happen. Like you said, it's about marketing. Once Lemmy has more than a few thousand people, marketers are gonna do the same thing they did to reddit. ...destroy it. Yeah the shareholders are making out, but it's value is gone.

    I started on reddit in 2008, and Lemmy is a mirror image of what the community looked like back then. You don't need inorganic growth to grow Lemmy. It just needs quality discussions and people, the organic growth will come naturally. The only thing that needs protection against is 'linking' with any for profit entity.

    Connecting with threads and bluesky and whatever else would grow Lemmy, but for what purpose? I'd argue Lemmy isn't the end solution, maybe the devs can evolve it to work over the long term, but really I think if a social media solution is really going to tackle Facebook et al, it's going to have to be self hosted servers on every computing device in the world; where no government or organization can control, regulate, and most importantly one that cannot be manipulated for gain of a nation state or corporation.

    I know of no such software, but I have a feeling such a solution would be superior to the fediverse in taking down the existing social media cartels.

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    Bluesky continues to soar
  • How do you bring more people? I don't think people would disagree with that, the hesitancy is from for profits and EEE. People want the fediverse to grow.

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    Kamala Harris to propose up to $50,000 tax deduction for new small businesses
  • Even better just require all businesses to have a union or coop democratic structure when expanded beyond one employee. Fix the problem from the beginning. All employees should have equal voice. CEO one vote, delivery truck driver one vote. For all companies large and small.

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    Why is Kamala Harris being held at such a higher standard than Trump this election?
  • It's simply tribalism at this point. Most people who still support Trump are simply supporting their tribe, whereas on the left most people still believe in the virtues and merits of democracy.

    I still feel like democracy will win the day. Most of Trump supporters are 50/60+ and his message doesn't seem to resonate as well with younger people.

    Feel free to post any political stuff to !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world if you'd like. You're welcome to crosspost this there too if you'd like more discussion on it.

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    Why is Kamala Harris being held at such a higher standard than Trump this election?
  • I think they were just correcting the number in the post text block that should have read about 1 million dead under COVID during the Trump administration in the US alone, rather than only 200k.

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    Why does the USA have so few legal protections for ordinary people, and how can we change that?
  • I'd argue it's because citizens have no voice. The media has there corporate narrative, but the public interest has very few organizations in advocacy of it.

    Support local journalism (financially), work to break any media control on the narrative.

    The first thing people could start doing is stop providing free labor to the media. It's all over Lemmy.

    Don't link to a corporate news outlet. Link to an .edu or PBS or NPR or a quality international publicly funded news organization. Or better yet build your own narrative, your own opinions. Discuss your opinions respectfully on !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world . Build momentum and take away the corporate medias control.

    Without a public voice advocating for the people, it will be very hard to change any legislation in the peoples favor.

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  • lemmy.world Political discussion and commentary - Lemmy.World

    A place to discuss politics and commentary. Self posts are preferred, but links to current events and news are allowed. Opinion pieces are welcome, and discussion of issues is encouraged! No self promotion please. The intent is for this community to be an area for open & respectful discussion on cur...

    Rules are still evolving, but right now I'm just aiming for a community for civil discourse ...if such a thing is possible in politics. !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world

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    Bucyrus Model 50-B Steam shovel

    >Twenty-five Bucyrus Model 50-B steam shovels were sent to the Panama Canal to build bridges, roads, and drains and remove the huge quantities of soil and rock cut from the canal bed. All the shovels but one were scrapped at Panama. The survivor was shipped back to California and then brought to Denver. In the early 1950s, it was transported to Rollinsville by Roy and Russell Durand, who operated it at the Lump Gulch Placer, six miles south of Nederland, Colorado, until 1978. This steam shovel is one of two (the other at the Western Minnesota Steam Thresher's Reunion in Rollag, MN) remaining operational Bucyrus Model 50-Bs, and is preserved at the Nederland Mining Museum. Roots of Motive Power in Willits, CA has also acquired a 50-B and operates it for the public once a year at their Steam Festival in early September.

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

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    lemmy.world Darpa Project Orion (1958) - Theoretical 8 million ton spacecraft the size of a small city. - Lemmy.World

    Darpa Project Orion (1950-60s) >Project Orion was a study conducted in the 1950s and 1960s by the United States Air Force, DARPA, and NASA into the viability of a nuclear pulse spaceship that would be directly propelled by a series of atomic explosions behind the craft. >Non-nuclear tests were condu...

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    Darpa Project Orion (1950-60s)

    >Project Orion was a study conducted in the 1950s and 1960s by the United States Air Force, DARPA, and NASA into the viability of a nuclear pulse spaceship that would be directly propelled by a series of atomic explosions behind the craft.

    >Non-nuclear tests were conducted with models, but the project was eventually abandoned for several reasons, including the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, which banned nuclear explosions in space, and concerns over nuclear fallout.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)

    >While Project Orion never progressed beyond the conceptual and early design phases, it remains a fascinating chapter in the history of space exploration. Its audacious approach to propulsion demonstrated the creativity and ambition of scientists and engineers during the early days of the Space Age. Although the project was never realized, it contributed valuable lessons and ideas to the field of astronautics and propulsion technology.

    https://www.photonicsonline.com/doc/nuclear-dreams-the-race-to-build-project-orion-0001

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    Northrup Grumman B-2 stealth bomber

    >The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, is an American heavy strategic bomber, featuring low-observable stealth technology designed to penetrate dense anti-aircraft defenses. A subsonic flying wing with a crew of two, the plane was designed by Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) and produced from 1987 to 2000. The bomber can drop conventional and thermonuclear weapons, such as up to eighty 500-pound class (230 kg) Mk 82 JDAM GPS-guided bombs, or sixteen 2,400-pound (1,100 kg) B83 nuclear bombs. The B-2 is the only acknowledged in-service aircraft that can carry large air-to-surface standoff weapons in a stealth configuration.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_Grumman_B-2_Spirit

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    United Aircraft Corporation TurboTrain

    >Either way, these trains were fast. On December 20, 1967 a TurboTrain reached 170.8 mph during acceptance testing on a high-speed test track on Penn Central’s mainline. UAC’s creation not only beat the competing Metroliner project, but blasted past the speeds of what the Shinkansen could do back then.

    >The TurboTrain was put into service in both the United States and Canada in 1968.

    >[due to being plagued by many obstacles, mishaps, and setbacks] Today, you won’t find a UAC TurboTrain anywhere. Just seven trainsets were built and all met the scrapper. They now only exist in riders’ memories, the internet, and scale models.

    https://www.theautopian.com/the-uac-turbotrain-was-americas-failed-plane-engined-high-speed-train-of-the-future/

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    1938 Railway gun TM-3-12

    >Humongous Railway Gun (used during the siege of Leningrad). This railway gun of the TM-3-12 model (below) can be seen at the St. Petersburg Outdoor Train Museum. This was not part of an armoured train, but was actually built with others in the late 1930s using guns taken from a battleship and placed on a rail chassis. It was used in World War II, but captured by the Finns and used during the siege of Leningrad. When Finland ended their war with the USSR in 1944, the gun was handed over as part of the peace agreement:

    https://www.darkroastedblend.com/2013/05/awesome-armoured-trains-and-rail.html

    >A railway gun, also called a railroad gun, is a large artillery piece, often surplus naval artillery, mounted on, transported by, and fired from a specially designed railway wagon. Many countries have built railway guns, but the best-known are the large Krupp-built pieces used by Germany in World War I and World War II. Smaller guns were often part of an armoured train. Only able to be moved where there were good tracks, which could be destroyed by artillery bombardment or airstrike, railway guns were phased out after World War II.

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

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    Saturn V rocket

    >As of 2024, the Saturn V remains the only launch vehicle to have carried humans beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). The Saturn V holds the record for the largest payload capacity to low Earth orbit, 311,152 lb (141,136 kg), which included unburned propellant needed to send the Apollo command and service module and Lunar Module to the Moon.

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

    >Standing 36 storeys, twice as high as Niagara Falls. Weighing 2.8 million kilograms (6.2 million pounds). Producing 34.5 million newtons of thrust (7.5 million pounds) from its first-stage engines. In all, NASA flew 13 Saturn V rockets, and all of them did their job of delivering 24 humans to the moon — with 12 of those humans walking on the surface — as well as lifting the first American space station, Skylab into Orbit.

    https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/blog/50-years-ago-we-flew-to-the-moon-here-s-why-we-can-t-do-that-today-1.4397053

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    UNIC URW-295 mini spider crane

    >UNIC mini cranes are the world’s most compact cranes and have been used in a wide variety of industry sectors for lifting where space and access are restricted. There are currently 9 models in the UNIC range, from 0.995 tonnes to 10 tonnes in lifting capacity.

    https://www.craneblogger.com/new-cranes/lights-camera-action-for-unic-mini-cranes/2013/02/05/

    https://www.klclutch.com/news/new-technology-mini-cranes/

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    Hitachi EX8000-7B, T4F Mining Excavator

    >Operating Weight

    >Shovel >1,829,837lbs

    https://www.hitachicm.us/products/excavators/ex8000-7b/

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    British Rail Class 802

    >The British Rail Class 802 is a type of high-speed bi-mode multiple-unit passenger train designed and produced by the Japanese manufacturer Hitachi Rail. It has been operated by Great Western Railway, TransPennine Express, and Hull Trains.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_802

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    >The Vought V-173 "Flying Pancake" was an American experimental test aircraft built as part of the Vought XF5U program during World War II.

    >Both the V-173 and the XF5U featured an unorthodox "all-wing" design consisting of a flat, somewhat disk-shaped body (like a pancake flying, hence the nickname) serving as the lifting surface.[1] Two piston engines buried in the body drove propellers located on the leading edge, at the wingtips.[2]

    >It used maple syrup for fuel.

    just kidding on the last one ;)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vought_V-173

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    This is probably a dumb question, and maybe there is a way to do this with native applications, but I can't seem to turn on a screensaver. One with the funky art just to run for a few minutes or so to remind me, hey you left the computer on, don't forget to finish what you're doing.

    In synaptic there is: gnome screensaver, cinnamon, kodi, mate, ukui, screensaver, and a few others. The last one, Xscreensaver, was the one recommended when I searched online but I also found a forum post where it was mentioned this was no longer maintained and not recommended anymore.

    I guess a more broad question is how does an end user using Synaptic package manager know if the package is actively maintained or likely abandoned? Stale is ok, but it seems like using a project that hasn't been updated in 15 years could possibly be a bad idea for security.

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    >The Convair XFY-1 Pogo was an experimental V/STOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft developed during the early years of the Cold War. It was intended to be a high-performance fighter aircraft capable of operating from small warships.

    >Ultimately, technical and operational challenges, along with the superiority of jet-engined fighters, led to the project's suspension in 1955. The XFY-1 Pogo is now preserved in the National Air and Space Museum.

    https://www.flightjournal.com/10-cool-airplanes-that-wont-fly-again/

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

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    >MANITOWOC - And the winner of the annual Coolest Thing Made in Wisconsin contest is … the big blue Navy crane made by Broadwind Heavy Fabrications in Manitowoc.

    https://www.htrnews.com/story/money/2021/10/14/manitowoc-big-blue-crane-wins-coolest-thing-made-wisconsin-contest/8456628002/

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    British Rail Class 88

    >The British Rail Class 88 is a type of mainline mixed traffic electro-diesel locomotive manufactured by Stadler Rail for Direct Rail Services (DRS) in the United Kingdom. The locomotive is part of the Stadler Euro Dual family. It is the first dual-mode locomotive in the UK to use the 25 kV AC electrification.

    >The Class 88 is part of the Stadler Euro Dual family. This is a range of dual-mode locomotives that are fitted both with a pantograph, to collect electricity from overhead wires, and a Caterpillar diesel engine. The UK version is able to run either on electrified lines using the pantograph, which is the UK's standard OHLE current at 25 kV AC, or away from electrified lines with the Caterpillar C27 950 hp (710 kW) engine.

    >DRS has procured the Class 88 to serve as a mixed-traffic locomotive, capable of operating both passenger and freight services. Primarily, the type has been used by DRS to haul freight using electric locomotives without the need to hire in electric traction from other operators. As with the Class 68, they are also capable of operating passenger trains.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_88

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