@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

vfrmedia

@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de

Old roaming Tom Cat (zwerfkater) but still young at heart. Toots EN, (NL,FR,DE). #DevOpa - interested more in retro tech / culture / aesthetics than new stuff. Also transport and public infrastructure in general (with a UK/European focus)

Welcome to the secret goose shed!

Avatar is a tabby point Siamese cat - header picture is a Stentor FM radio transmitter designed in the Netherlands; popular with small pirate radio broadcasters in late 1980s

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

America: You need to have health insurance!

Me: Cool, that makes sense, but it's going to cover my whole body, right?

America: Depends, do you use your teeth and eyes?

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@btuftin @RickiTarr

Britain also only has limited NHS provisions for vision correction and dentistry (and that is often only a financial contribution to a private provider for a relatively small selection of patients). I get free eye tests and a contribution towards costs of spectacles due to being highly nearsighted since a young age, but contact lenses and the space-age laser thing that scans your eyes cost extra..

VeryBadLlama, to random
@VeryBadLlama@mas.to avatar

my elderly Egyptian Uber driver happily informed me that he “supports the gays now” because he lives with a lesbian couple and “the husband lesbian is a better husband than I was”, happy pride everyone

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@obtener @VeryBadLlama last year they had a Trans Pride march in Clacton on Sea, a coastal town in Essex which has been blighted by right-wing politics. The streets were lined with loads of old people aged 70+ cheering in support of the marchers! (many of the seniors round here are cool, its the younger folk you have to be wary of)

mekkaokereke, to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

Yesterday I pointed out that the fertility rate dropping is a good thing, because the biggest drop has been the disappearance of teen pregnancies.👍🏿

I also said that the right way to increase the birth rate, is to build a society where girls who grow into women, choose to have babies when they are women and understand the world and the implications more.

But many of those women, choose not to have kids. Why not?

This is easy to know. Because women tell us.

https://www.tiktok.com/@tallmomrunning/video/7362198294891760942

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@mekkaokereke even in my country with national healthcare, and a social safety net for parents women are choosing to have fewer babies and waiting until they are older - perfectly understandable as society, relationships and secure income sources are more precarious. Its been going on some time as well, I notice way fewer kids around in the streets than even 10-20 years ago even at school picking up times and holidays when you would expect to see them..

futurebird, to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Would they reduce your fine?
Would they give you a second chance? A third chance?

Let you insult them and threaten them and take no action?

"It is prudent to avoid any appearance of impropriety so the process cannot be questioned when it grinds to its conclusion."

But I don't trust that we'll ever get there. Because the answer to all those questions is "no."

Our judges and politicians are terrified of treating rich men like normal people. Filled with fear so how can they protect us?

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@maddad @futurebird

Here in England two middle class white men in my area murdered their wives - one was a right wing politician, the other a dealer in long guns (still legal here) but who had simply not declared his mental health condition which would likely have prevented him getting a firearms licence.

The sentence for this is life imprisonment with a minimum term, but both of them got a much shorter minimum term than working class men of the same age tend to get handed down..

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

"We should not in good conscience support or consume the art someone created if they are a piece of crap in reality. One of the reasons some of these horrible celebrities feel empowered to continue their deviant behavior is because they know they will continue to have supporters no matter what, and those supporters will continue to put money in their pockets.”

https://www.theroot.com/after-this-horrific-video-diddy-s-reckoning-is-closer-1851485428

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@StillIRise1963 @MaryAustinBooks I was never into sportsball and only a part of my family are, but I really liked music and was a DJ for many years (particularly on the rave scene), and there are unfortunately too many artists and fellow DJ's who got nicked not just for recreational drugs (which I consider a non-crime) but genuinely nasty stuff like domestic violence and I've had to cut those out of my life..

backupbear, to random
@backupbear@aus.social avatar

I really do get tired of news articles talking about domestic terrorists as "known to have mental health issues". Fuck that. Many people have mental health issues without committing acts of domestic terrorism/mass murder. Stop demonizing people with health issues.

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@backupbear there's a related issue in England (not sure if Australia has the same problem), where young men end up up before the Courts for genuinely shitty behaviour (bad/dangerous driving leading to collisions and injuries, street violence) and their defence solicitors claim (often backed up by statements from GPs etc) they have autism / ADHD, which just builds prejudices when there are plenty more young men with same conditions who can control their impulses and behave decently..

vfrmedia, to random
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

Just saw on a transport forum of all places, the Harry Potter franchise described as "magical apartheid slave owning wannabe master race boarding school"....

vfrmedia, to random
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

The #999 call handling service of British Telecom has experienced a nationwide system failure earlier this morning - it was impossible to call 999 from 09:00 today; some services were restored but there are warnings that the system may still not be operating at full capacity..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66012340

ChrisMayLA6, to random
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us avatar

Kenan Malik on :

'If the government wanted to reduce the numbers of foreign workers, it could easily do so by increasing spending on social care to help raise scandalously low wages. That it refuses to do. It is the government that is undercutting the living standards of British workers – and then it has audacity to pin the blame on immigrants'!

and this is before we discuss their complicity in the push factors driving out of their counties!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/10/the-wests-dumping-of-migrants-on-poor-countries-is-a-grisly-echo-of-penal-transportation

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@MattMastodon @Buster @Judeet88 @ChrisMayLA6

I work in this industry (on the tech side) and whilst British and foreign carers are getting the same pay and conditions; wages are already on the low side, and you need a driving licence and vehicle - so for those whose choice of employment is not restricted due to immigration status, you can make similar or greater amounts delivering parcels, groceries or working at the docks, with less stress than care work..

vfrmedia, to random
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

Some warehouse memories from 2004/5 I found on an old hard drive - video mash up I made of the years parties with the soundtrack of a local pirate radio station of the era.. (alas, it was only in 352x244 resolution due to hard drive space limitations, and Youtube compresses it further, although it turns out I've still got my DVcam captures of the parties)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apMFo_BJPPs

vfrmedia, to Dog
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

A Very Good alerted her owner when a living at their house went missing, and had fallen 30m down a disused mineshaft. She got the owner to follow her to the location, so the RSPCA and Fire Brigade were able to rescue the kitty!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-67349494

vfrmedia, to Cats
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

Two Golden Retrievers were accidentally swapped at a daycare and grooming centre in USA and taken home by the wrong families - but alerted one family to the fact they had taken home the wrong doggo 😁 🐶 🐱

https://www.upworthy.com/cats-save-golden-retriever

vfrmedia, to cymru
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

Across , boys at many high schools are forbidden to wear shorts even during hot weather due to uniform policies (curiously there was once an era when as a boy you had to wear shorts to school (until biological age 13) in all weathers!).

So instead they are wearing skirts (this has also been happening in and oher parts of the UK)

https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/23617026.farlingaye-student-goes-school-skirt-protest/

onepict, to random
@onepict@chaos.social avatar

@geekybodhi I'm still amazed at the cool hardware design of the One Laptop per Child project.

I didn't realise just how well it was designed until @jwildeboer posted about it the other day.

Even the mesh networking capabilities seemed ahead of their time. They were designed to take alot of use.

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@onepict @jwildeboer I always thought it was a shame they didn't make a version for "grown ups" (instead we got commercial netbooks which weren't as robust or versatile)

onepict, (edited ) to random
@onepict@chaos.social avatar

Seeing some rather recognisable attitudes in arguments against NetBSDs stance against AI generated code.

How do you know, how would you stop it. You can't stop us.

Like aren't we meant to be better than that?

Disturbingly similar attitude to when we ask folks to not scrape folks posts on the fediverse without asking.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

Plus there are some very real licence considerations which will affect copyright (and copyleft).

https://blog.brettsheffield.com/all-your-base-are-belong-to-llm

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@onepict this is literally the attitiude of a petty criminal / sociopath (not even an activist who generally openly says what act they are going to commit (or admits to it and accepts the consequences). I often suspect folk like this would have done actual crime in previous years (and perhaps some do, all the high tech methods used to nick cars and commit other frauds nowadays must have some tech muscle behind them)

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@onepict whole tech industry is full of it, particularly from sales/marketing types and predatory behaviour is actively encouraged in adtech which quietly funds a lot of "FOSS" projects..

onepict, (edited ) to random
@onepict@chaos.social avatar

Sometimes I feel the arguments against UBI are a little like the arguments against the babybox (Finland and Scotland).

As "but you need others social support , otherwise it's just the money, the rest of capitalism stays in".

The baby box in Scotland did come with some social support as in Health Visitors during pregnancy and also after. It wasn't just bulk buying baby stuff.

But people got all riled up about well off folks getting a baby box. They realised it was an idea I'd an equal start.

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@sarajw @onepict as a lad I wanted to get more into media / music production but there was no way I could afford it, and by the time I earned enough to get things like studio/DJ equipment my day job took up more of my time and energy. I know a lot of working/lower middle class folk who laundered drugs money to afford DJ kit/sound systems, but too many just ended up deep into addiction and/or served prison time (and thus became near unemployable on release)

vfrmedia, to GraphicDesign
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

Margaret Calvert recently turned 88 years old - along with Jock Kinneir she is the graphic designer responsible for the UK's distinctive and
of road signs introduced in the 1960s, which is one of the few things this country can still be proud of (the signs are easy to read from a distance even at night).

The font of the gov.uk website is also the same one from the road signs..

https://designmuseum.org/designers/jock-kinneir-and-margaret-calvert

sidereal, to random

My whole life I felt like just-in-time shipping was a shitty idea and it feels like everything since 2020 has been proving me right

Like the Suez Canal is a no-go zone due to conflict and the Panama Canal is at low capacity due to climate change and apparently the "richest countries on earth" are going to have quite a bit of difficulty with shipments being delayed 2-3 weeks.

That honestly shouldn't make [that] much of a difference, but here we are.

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@sidereal @inquiline

two local haulage companies in my area have gone bankrupt in the last few months with hundreds of jobs lost - this is just one of them; they are all suffering from a driver shortage but thats because they have been enshittifying the conditions for 30 years (my first driving instructor used to drive lorries and then became a fleet manager but he quit because of this)

https://www.suffolknews.co.uk/beccles/suffolk-haulage-firm-files-notice-of-intention-to-appoint-ad-9346159/

atomicpoet, to random
@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org avatar

Hate to say it, but online shopping beats brick and mortar simply because it’s easier to get what you want.

I went to a Sport Check just now, they don’t sell laceless running shoes.

I went to Best Buy just now, they don’t sell 60” inch TV—never mind a dumb (not smart) TV.

Once again, I go with Amazon simply because it has what I’m looking for.

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@atomicpoet @HistoPol @Lazarou

All the decent DIY / car accessories stores are gone in my region, the only one left is Halfords which has been mostly enshittified (and real life places rarely have any stock these days compared to Amazon or EBay). I did find a decent online tool store from SE England where you can even speak to real humans on the phone and they deliver on the promised dates, but they charge quite a price premium for this..

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@atomicpoet @HistoPol @Lazarou

Also my experience of 1980s/90s/00s shopping was if you did get a defective or sub-par product, it wasn't always easy to return it without the shop staff quibbling (and local businesses were slow to sort out problems), compared to Amazon where (at least in UK) they just refund you with few questions asked

futurebird, (edited ) to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Have you thought much about, or engaged with "liminal space" content in the past 10 years? (Through a reddit group, tumblr, compilation videos etc.)

Regardless if you care about such content now, if you ever spent some time enjoying or being disquieted by such images and media... that's "engaging"

If you don't know what this is about you have not. If you know what it's about but just never paid it any mind? Same.

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@Willow_Crow @futurebird >40 and I engaged with it IRL before it was Internet phenomenon, spending a lot of time in abandoned buildings either used as squats or for raves (or both) and spent a lot of time wandering through such spaces especially in the afternoons after the party was finished and there were few people around (although the squatters were sometimes followed around by an entire gang of local cats, a mix of pets and strays (one tomcat was later rehomed by a fish supplier))

HistoPol, to random
@HistoPol@mastodon.social avatar

You are driving a German 🇩🇪 or Korean 🇰🇷 car to an Italian 🇮🇹 coffeeshop to drink Brazilian 🇧🇷 or Etheopian 🇪🇹 Coffee, made by a Mexican 🇲🇽 or Ukrainian 🇺🇦 barrista. You then go go home buying Chinese 🇨🇳 or Indian 🇮🇳 takeaway, eating it sitting on a Swedish 🇸🇪 couch in front of a Chinese 🇨🇳 TV to watch US 🇺🇸 shows, and you are still complaining that your neighbor is an immigrant?

Everyone is a foreigner almost everywhere.

Without immigrants or migrant workers, most economies would contract

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@HistoPol

Mein "deutscher" VW Polo enthält Teile aus der Tschechischen Republik, Südafrika, Südkorea, China usw..

sullybiker, to random
@sullybiker@sully.site avatar

It's on Reddit so I have already eaten my own fingers this morning, but this is an interesting find about the dangers of automotive telemetry. Of course they're fucking selling it. One ithat made me think of @onepict
https://www.reddit.com/r/Hyundai/comments/1d4e4nn/dear_hyundai_you_just_lost_a_customer_for_life/

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@onepict @sullybiker

younger folk in UK have already been conditioned to accept it for insurance (its not "compulsory" but made unaffordable without the tracker, although usually only for 1-2 years after getting their licence).

Jaden3, to random
@Jaden3@mastodon.social avatar

Keep seeing Nigel Farage and milkshake on my TL from folks I follow in UK.
I'm from the US . Who is Nigel Farage? Why did he get milkshake thrown at him?

vfrmedia,
@vfrmedia@social.tchncs.de avatar

@Jaden3 he's a far right wing politician who helped push Brexit (UK leaving the European Union) wants to be the British Donald Trump (he is actively trying to help Trump get elected in USA as well)

All that happened just about 45 minutes drive from where I live...

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