pluralistic

mediaarchaeologylab, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago) to random

so if anyone has a soon to be bricked Spotify Car Thing... we will happily take one to add to our shelf of "hardware that would continue to work just fine if it weren't for capitalism being capitalism" (we're still working on the name)

edit: thanks to @dgfitch and @Mabande for getting us to Corporolized Hardware, as in "enshittification in it's final stage a fossilized piece of corporate shit"
feels like we should tag @pluralistic in on this one 🌈

theluddite, 3 days ago to random

The point of solar panels is not to ensure "solar profitability," but to make for a greener, better world. Its profitability is only justified insofar as it moves us towards that goal. If we want to switch to renewables, then sometimes we're going to have surplus, because of how renewables work. This is well known and discussed ad nauseam. If that makes power markets unstable, then the problem is with markets, not with there being too many solar panels.

dangillmor, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago) to random

Google without all the latest enshittification: https://udm14.com

@pluralistic

Mojoe, 2 days ago to random

So, so good.

@pluralistic keeping the ‘punk’ in cyberpunk alive and well.

“Did you get – no, wait for it – did you get a neural implant? Surprise. The company's new owners don't want to continue supporting your implant, and they won't let anyone else do so either. So now, part of your brain has been bricked:”

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/12/unsafe-at-any-speed/#this-is-literally-your-brain-on-capitalism

cdarwin, 2 days ago to random

Red Lobster was killed by private equity, not Endless Shrimp
A decade ago, a hedge fund had an improbable viral comedy hit: a 294-page slide deck explaining why Olive Garden was going out of business,
blaming the failure on too many breadsticks and insufficiently salted pasta-water!
But – as David Dayen wrote at the time – the hedge fund that produced that slide deck, #StarboardValue, was not motivated by dissatisfaction with bread-sticks.
They were "activist investors" (finspeak for "rapacious assholes") 🔸with a giant stake in Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden's parent company.
They wanted Darden to liquidate all of Olive Garden's real-estate holdings
and declare a one-off dividend that would net investors a billion dollars,
while literally yanking the floor out from beneath Olive Garden,
converting it from owner to tenant, subject to rent-shocks and other nasty surprises.
In other words they wanted to asset-strip the company
("asset strip" is what they call it in hedge-fund land; the mafia calls it a "bust-out," famous to anyone who watched the twenty-third episode of The Sopranos)
@pluralistic
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/#invertebrates

jef, 2 days ago to random

Do not buy Google's Pixel Charging Stand. It costs $79, it's heavy and awkwardly shaped, but most importantly it's unreliable. Half the time you'll come back to an uncharged phone because the stand decided to nope out. Wireless charging is standardized, any phone and charger that conforms to the Qi standard will interoperate and these days they all conform. Google can't lock you in! Buy a standard lay-flat charger, just pick one that looks nice. It'll work every time and cost you around $15.

image/jpeg

iiradned, 2 days ago to random

@pluralistic was over at a friend's place and they were watching Maria Ressa's commencement speech at Harvard as I was getting up to leave I heard Maria say the word enshittification. Couldn't stay longer to watch more, but she did say it.

brainwise, 2 days ago to random

They brick you because they can (Pluralistic for May 24, 2024)
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/#autoenshittification

In other words, @pluralistic's words, it's the circle of Enshittification.

clarinette, 3 days ago to random

https://forward.com/news/615961/theodor-meron-international-criminal-court-amal-clooney-netanyahu-khan/ This 94-year-old Holocaust survivor recommended arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders

Much has been said about Amal Clooney’s role on the ICC’s panel on war crimes, but less attention has been paid to Theodor Meron

18+ pluralistic, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago) to random

I can't get a definitive answer on whether TV static (see attached) constitutes a strobe effect that could endanger people with photosensitive epilepsy. Anyone know? PEAT (the only tool that measures this, seemingly?!) is Windows-only and won't run under WINE.

See https://craphound.com/static.html

jessamyn, 3 days ago to random

I do some work that involves one-time emailing people from my domain about a service they applied for. I use a lot of form letters. I am continually battling with my email hosting provider about the content of these emails, they reject them to b/c they look too spammy.

I get that spam is a scourge and I sympathize, but it's wild how much of a dark art spam fighting is. So far I've had to remove my "hello" greeting and add a fake unsub link (they're not subscribed) just to send outgoing emails.

martincpierre, 3 days ago to random

Spent the largest part of the day playing around with blogging platforms, setting up some stuff, tweaking layouts, getting a publishing pipeline going... AND I'VE NEVER BLOGGED A SINGLE THING IN MY LIFE.

This is what sometimes happens when you read a lot of blogs and you stumble upon one of those articles that just inspire you. Thanks @pluralistic...

pluralistic, 4 days ago to random

I have been a published writer since I was 17, and never in all those years have I encountered worse editorial suggestions than the automated ones generated by Microsoft Office365.

Makes Clippy look like EB White.

laetsgo, 3 days ago to random French

Je viens de lire un billet de @pluralistic concernant les deadlink et l’importance vitale de la wayback machine et je me demandais s’il était possible de sauvegarder cette mine de connaissances.
Est-ce qu’il y a des miroirs hébergés dans les confins du web non référencé à l’abris des attaques des prédateurs du copyright/destructeurs de l’expression ? Est ce seulement possible techniquement ? Je suppose que oui ?

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/21/noway-back-machine/

grahamperrin, 3 days ago to AdobePhotoshop

Internet Archive Stands Firm on Library Digital Rights in Final Brief of Hachette v. Internet Archive Lawsuit

https://blog.archive.org/2024/04/19/internet-archive-stands-firm-on-library-digital-rights-in-final-brief-of-hachette-v-internet-archive-lawsuit/

#InternetArchive #WaybackMachine #Wayback #Hachette #library #digital #rights

evan, 3 days ago to random

Nothing quite as ephemeral as the chat log in a videoconference.

GeekSusie, 3 days ago to random

Two Sisters, Florence And Susie Friermuth Arrested For Moonshining During The Prohibition, 1921

lekowicz, 3 days ago to random

I hadn’t heard about the Endless Shrimp death of Red Lobster until a friend told me about it last week. He did frame it as a stupid company making a stupid choice. Coincidentally, @pluralistic published this, and of course now it all makes sense. https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spineless/