SnotFlickerman

SnotFlickerman, 14 hours ago (edited 13 hours ago)

I think the actual reality may be that it’s actually, genuinely not profitable enough to serve the poorest of society. (At least in the eyes of the demented greedy fucks running the show)

We’ve seen an explosion of business-to-business sales and more businesses are spending more money on “productivity” software suites and more. Software is indeed eating business and making it more costly while often not actually providing as much real value as they’re selling you. Small businesses are overwhelmed by these costs and often put out of business by them.

Even gas stations all have video ads. The money they’re making off the gas isn’t enough, they need to supplement it with advertising. Advertising is becoming more ubiquitous than I could have even ever imagined, and I thought it was over-the-top and abusively ubiquitous 30 years ago.

Fast food like Dominos has to keep assembly-line, sweatshop like conditions to keep up with internet ordering (with no built-in rate-limiter, an infinite amount of people can order pizza at the same time, they just want you to keep up), and even with those kind of conditions, it’s often just barely scraping by on breaking even on costs. Most restaurants are struggling with this right now, its an industry I expect to see fail almost completely except for rich, fancy restaurants.

It certainly feels like we’re about to see a whole glut of consumers that companies just aren’t even interested in anymore because they’re not interested in people with no money to spend.

I’m not really excited about where this is all headed. Expect more Company Towns on the horizon…

From Heroes back to Zeroes… Fuck this shithole country that doesn’t give a damn about millions of its own citizens.

SnotFlickerman, 13 hours ago (edited 12 hours ago)

There’s lots of little signs.

Loss of 24 hour stores. It used to be profitable enough to leave places open all night for people to come in all night. Both Target and Walmart (poor people stores) have pretty much dumped it and don’t even do stocking overnight anymore. This leads to the same stores being a mess and feeling difficult to navigate (especially when its actively being stocked and you’re just trying to get past them), pushing more people to order online and pickup because its easier than trying to find it yourself and in the store the price is often wrong or just not listed.

Suddenly its not profitable to give a shit about things like customer service. It just feels like it portends that a certain number of customers now can be considered “acceptable losses.”

SnotFlickerman, 19 hours ago

Chad Steve Dallas not taken in by this Manic Pixie Dream Girl.

SnotFlickerman, 19 hours ago

https://media.tenor.com/F9EfM4fdgzIAAAAM/vin-diesel-i-dont-have-friends.gif

SnotFlickerman, 19 hours ago

Does Unraid count as paid Linux itself, not just a Linux utility?

SnotFlickerman, 19 hours ago

KDEndlive is pretty solid, imho

SnotFlickerman, 17 hours ago

When you aren’t sure where your next meal comes from or if you can afford rent and you already work full-time…

I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that is probably a valid time to be vocally loud about it.

SnotFlickerman, 1 day ago

Charlie Brown but an adult wearing the same outfit (adult sized) and just as bald.

I can “AUGH!” with the best of them.

SnotFlickerman, 3 days ago

Won’t someone think of the profits of the private companies!?! /s

For fucks sake, it’s like it’s the only god damned thing anyone fucking thinks about.

SnotFlickerman, 3 days ago

Sure they can, but I’m pretty sure the companies who created them have like a decade before other companies are allowed to even think about creating generic versions of the same drug. Our patent and copyright systems are both completely fucking broken.

SnotFlickerman, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago)

True, but its about their operations in the US, which are required to follow US laws. They still need a patent and copyright from the US government for their US operations.

This means their patent for the drug in the US system means they can prevent it from being available to US consumers as a generic.

Also, the issue of the cost is related to how our government isn’t allowed to negotiate drug costs like others are.

The drug is made by a foreign company that has a presence in the US. They have a US headquarters for their US business.

Local laws have more to do with the issues raised in the article than the origin country of the company making the drug.

That’s like saying T-Mobile is bound by German laws despite operating in the US because it is owned by Deutsche Telecom.

SnotFlickerman, 3 days ago

I can’t bring my video card in bed with me.

Sorry, desktop PC, you’re just bad at snuggles while I can hug my Steam Deck.

SnotFlickerman, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago)

Not the same company, but I live in apartments with washer/dryers like this. Coin op entirely removed.

You have to have a device that is bluetooth capable to use them.

Anyway pretty sure someone in this apartment has figured out something similar because the machines keep magically becoming unpaid machines after they get serviced. After each service, they will be asking for money to be able to be used for like a day or so, but then soon enough, I’ll go back to the laundry room and all the machines will be free and not asking for money. Just ready to go, no device required.

Originally, I thought it was the company disabling them due to like a data breach or something and was trying to find out if there was an undisclosed data leak and/or a class action lawsuit brewing. Since neither of those are the case, I’m pretty sure it’s a Notorious Do-Gooder.

So, thanks, Notorious Do-Gooder, for all the free washes and drys.

(Especially since this same idea crossed my mind over a year ago but I’ve just been too lazy to view the bluetooth data traffic myself)

SnotFlickerman, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago)

Around 2007 or so I used to unplug Coinstar machines from the internet (plug was usually right in back) and then put in all my coins and try to redeem an online gift card. It used to be you could only get all of your cash back via online gift cards, because the machine took out a fee to give your money back in cash.

When it couldn’t connect to the internet, it would apologize and refund me in cash, with no convenience fee (since I was clearly inconvenienced). Full amount returned.

SnotFlickerman, 3 days ago

butts, boobs, ‘n’ knees

be my main squeeze

Steve Dallas, Poet Laureate of Bloom County

SnotFlickerman, 5 days ago

While this is a great attitude to have, it has to be tempered, because on the other end of the spectrum of waiting too long to release and having a both delayed and bad game like Duke Nukem Forever.

---

Also, with an indie game like this, you’re less likely to run into the same issues they had with DNF such as trying to keep up with industry trends in first person shooters.

SnotFlickerman, 5 days ago

As a guy who had lots of anxieties and was more comfortable reading a book of poetry, Binkley was an important character for my personal development.

He was never explicitly coded as gay, (that I am aware of) and I think that made him a stronger character. Maybe he wasn’t struggling with his sexuality, but he was struggling with toxic masculinity that expected him to grow up to fit the nickname “Mad Dog.”

Further, it touched on how many conservatives would read such admissions as meaning Binkley was gay. Which is why the major flips his lid here in response to what Binkley says.

Once, when I was young, I had someone sucker punch me snd try to start a fight because I was wearing a tie-dyed shirt and was drinking a root beer because I was the designated driver at a party. In their eyes that meant I was “queer” and needed the shit kicked out of me. I didn’t go to a lot of parties after that.

Anyway, good for Binkley and his love of non-masculine coded things.

SnotFlickerman, 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago)

This is everywhere in the modern world. There’s got to be a word for it, I’m just unaware of the descriptive word for it myself.

This is the same everywhere. “Solitary confinement” has been redefined as “Restrictive Housing” and “Administrative Segregation.”

Just name it something else! Poof, all your accountability is gone because none of your paperwork references “solitary confinement” anymore! Now that it’s renamed you’re totally not doing it even though it is literally the same set of actions with a new, “friendlier” name.

It’s 100% like Trump saying “if we’d stop testing, we’d have fewer cases.”

SnotFlickerman, 5 days ago

scotusblog.com/…/loper-bright-enterprises-v-raimo…

scotusblog.com/…/relentless-inc-v-department-of-c…

These are the two Chevron cases. We’re not expecting a result from them until June probably.

They can still end up ruling against Chevron and make this ruling essentially pointless.

SnotFlickerman, 5 days ago

Now we just maim them.

SnotFlickerman, 5 days ago

Sorry, yes, I didn’t mean to pretend that death wasn’t part of it. I’m just broken by all this and sometimes all you can do is crack a dark and terrible joke in the face of the fucking evil farcical nature of it all. Cheers.

SnotFlickerman, 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago)

Finding sources about Bush and Cheney fuckery from 2000-2008 is getting increasingly difficult. Their crimes are getting memory-holed.

EDIT: Specifically, does anyone else remember the specific act that Bush wanted to hit Quakers with terrorism charges over? I remember it being a bunch of Quakers in kayaks doing a blockade of a naval ship, preventing it from leaving port to go to Iraq. I can’t find a fucking word on it anymore, and I can barely even find sources on Bush wanting to hit Quakers with terrorism charges other than some broken links at the ACLU. Quakers, as a reminder, are the only religious group in the USA that are default conscientious objectors because violence is 100% antithetical to their religion. These are the kind of people they wanted to use “terrorism” charges against.

SnotFlickerman, 5 days ago

Probably a good bit. I have a backup from my personal website from 2006 to about 2013. Along with a lot of media going back to my teen years. I’m really lucky I’ve been a good digital steward of my own data and haven’t lost almost any of my personal digital history.

SnotFlickerman, 6 days ago

Once a cop, always a cop. Eric Adams is a bastard.

SnotFlickerman, 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago)

But that would require research, reading, and most importantly, actually giving a shit.

Far easier to just swallow AI generated swill, apparently.