TheFeatureCreature

TheFeatureCreature, 2 hours ago

Petition to rename this man to “Ted Faro”

TheFeatureCreature, 2 hours ago

I was just talking to my dad about this the other day and I told him that it was only a matter of time before the US government goes after Chinese EV’s at the request of the US auto lobby.

I didn’t think it would be this soon, though. Hurray for more garbage EV’s for $50,000+

TheFeatureCreature, 2 hours ago

They will if there is enough demand for 'em.

TheFeatureCreature, 20 hours ago

Time to stock up on air purifier filters…

TheFeatureCreature, 1 day ago

Please, people, for the love of the gods, stop using Spotify. There are numerous other services that are so much better value for your money and don’t treat artists (as much) like trash.

And that being said, try to support your beloved artists directly as much as you can. Buying digital downloads or physical media will give them more money than a lifetime of streaming ever would. Plus you get to keep the higher-quality music even if the platform or artist goes tits-up.

TheFeatureCreature, 1 day ago

You are not wrong, but there are other services that are just as convenient and for less money. Spotify knows they are the “default” music streaming platform and they are exploiting that.

TheFeatureCreature, 1 day ago

Sure, although keep in mind this will vary by region due to licensing issues.

Deezer is probably Spotify’s best direct competitor. They are priced equally (depending on region) and now offer high-res streaming as default instead of a paid extra. They’ve been expanding with new features such as lyrics, collab playlists, song identification, and they recently improved their recommendation system. They also offer a discount if you buy subs yearly instead of monthly so you can save if you like the platform.

Apple Music is also an option now that Apple has put in some work to make the platform easier to use on non-Apple devices such as the recently added Windows app. It’s not as feature-rich as Deezer but if you don’t use those added features anyway then it is an option. I personally would phrase it as “has less bloat”. If you own any Apple devices already then it will have tighter integration with them.

Tidal is the old favourite of audiophiles and music appreciators. They have been expanding their platform with new features and music and, somewhat recently, have also lowered their prices. High-res streaming is now included in the base sub tier. All of these alternatives pay artists more than Spotify but Tidal has one of the best artist payouts.

Qobuz is similar to Tidal and is a premium platform with a focus on quality. They are a newer service and are still expanding their regions, so I don’t have personal experience with them as they only recently opened up to my country. Their price and feature set looks competitive, though, and their UI does look slick. They also have better artist payouts.

Amazon Music apparently has better payouts for artists but Amazon is a shit company so I’ve never looked into them further. I’ll include YouTube Music here as well which has shitty payouts and is a shitty company.

TheFeatureCreature, 1 day ago

Welcome. Welcome to Fuck AI. You have chosen, or been chosen, to moderate to one of our finest remaining communities.

TheFeatureCreature, 2 days ago

Why is “healthcare” never an option?

That private healthcare lobbyist money is just too good.

TheFeatureCreature, 3 days ago

I’ve considered the Light Phone before but there are just some things I think it goes too far with such as lack of email and texted images. I consider these to be basic communication fundamentals and should be standard on dumbphones. It’s not like they’re closed-source software tied to specific companies.

TheFeatureCreature, 3 days ago

Nope! This was an idea that came to me during an evening shower 😁

TheFeatureCreature, 3 days ago

thank you!

TheFeatureCreature, 3 days ago

Thanks!

TheFeatureCreature, 6 days ago

I haven’t shopped there in years and have no plan to. I used to work for them and detest spending any more time in their stores.

TheFeatureCreature, 6 days ago

Base model 15 is $1130 here. Base model 14 (last gen) is $1000. Both before tax. At a time when millions are struggling to put food on their tables. And even assuming you could afford a new iPhone, it will be almost indistinguishable from older generations excluding a few software differences. Even the camera output is almost exactly the same among recent generations.

TheFeatureCreature, 8 days ago

Late-stage capitalism going full steam ahead.

TheFeatureCreature, 8 days ago

I run Windows 11 on my workstation rig out of necessity and it’s serviceable as an OS… as long as Microsoft keeps their greedy fingers out of it - which they do not. W11’s lack of uptake is entirely their fault and they have done nothing to grow any good will amongst their customers and, in fact, constantly treat them like money pinatas to beat repeatedly.

TheFeatureCreature, 8 days ago

This. I have dabbled with various Linux distros over the past 15+ years out of curiosity. I have, without fail, had to spend days troubleshooting and fixing various problems of all kinds. Sometimes it was WiFi drivers, sometimes it was GPU drivers, sometimes it was power management issues, and most recently it’s soundcard drivers and poor audio control/quality issues. I always installed Linux as dual-boot so I had my normal Windows install to fall back on but I just couldn’t see myself able to fully switch primary OS over.

Nowadays I couldn’t switch over even if I wanted to because numerous programs I use for my work are not supported properly or at all. Linux has indeed come a long way over the years in terms of UX and software compatibility, but not everyone uses their computer just for games. There is a lot of creative and productivity software (and devices!) that have limited or zero Linux support and many FOSS alternatives are not sufficient. I hate Adobe as much as the next person and Photoshop is a bloated pile of trash, but part of my soul dies whenever a Linux fan tells me I can just replace Photoshop with GIMP. GIMP is clownware.

Another major issue I had was the community itself. When troubleshooting the issues I’ve had over the years, one big problem that kept popping back up was how toxic and condescending the Linux community can be. On more than a few occasions my requests for help on forums were met with passive aggressiveness and hostility because I “should have known better” or something along those lines. The most recent example I can think of was someone asking me to post a debug log to troubleshoot an issue I had and I had to ask him where to find the log. He told me the folder it would be in but not the folder path to get there. When I asked again where to find the log, he just told me that “maybe Linux isn’t for you”.

You know what? Maybe it isn’t. It sure isn’t for most people and I can’t see that changing soon.

TheFeatureCreature, 8 days ago

Two words: Elon Musk.

TheFeatureCreature, 9 days ago

Our next prime minister, everyone.

TheFeatureCreature, 9 days ago

His commitment to pissing away his wealth is pretty hard core.

TheFeatureCreature, 11 days ago

My phone knows my age, my account(s) know my age, the phone maker knows my age, so please for the love of the gods stop removing my cusses. It should damn well know that I have almost never intentionally typed “ducking” and yet I often correct words to "fucking"enough to be able to learn some basic usage patterns. I’m 30 years old, stop “correcting” my text like I’m 5.

Also some really obvious words are constantly “corrected”. My phone will not let me start a sentence with “We’ll”. It will, without fail, change it to “Well” and I have to fix it.

TheFeatureCreature, 11 days ago

Way ahead of you. I haven’t shopped at a Loblaw’s location in years.

TheFeatureCreature, 11 days ago

Wow, that list of cons is pretty damning. Requiring an awful app just to check the charge level of a non-removable battery?

This is some really expensive e-waste.