I just got my package of new earphones from Best Buy, and the box was fucking empty. I mean there is the box and instruction manuals and charging cable, but the actual earphones aren’t there. They’ve used Shipt (which is like a doordash but for packages) but the box was inside another layer of packaging which was supposedly...
Been the victim of fraud. Unfortunately - yes.
When I was younger and Chip 'n' PIN was becoming popular, many smaller shops had a Paypoint machine that would print the entire card number and CCV on the receipt. I was so paranoid about fraud, especially given that there was sufficient information printed on the receipt that anyone could do an Amazon order with those details. I used to get a black permanent marker and scribble the details out before putting the receipt in the bin.
Imagine my horror when a decade later, I learn that I have been the victim of fraud, and a type of fraud it was entirely impossible for me to prevent. In the UK fraudsters watch for new companies popping up on Companies House and then use the details to go on a shopping spree. The way it works is like this:
They see my name, address and date of birth on the website. They are looking for a name that matches their surname and first initial. So for me that could be Alexander Jones for example. They go to a retail park and pop into Argos. They order several thousand pounds of stuff. When they go to pay, the person at the counter helpfully asks "Do you have an Argos credit card? If you apply for one today, we'll transfer the balance of today's purchases to the card" and armed with my address, date of birth and name, and a card that already has the same surname and first initial as me - they are accepted for an Argos credit card. Post nothing for the goods they just bought and leave the store. They go next door to JJB sports, and then whole process repeats. "Do you have a JJB sports card? If you get one today...."
They visited 6 stores in an hour and repeated this process at all of them. And a week later I start receiving credit cards.....
It's a surprisingly common scam (or it was), brought on entirely by the shops bring pushed to get people to sign up for credit cards.....
I had to be on a register for several years, so if anyone tried to open an account or take out credit in my name, I would get a phone call to check if it was actually me.
Here's my prediction, but I'd like others to contribute their predictions as well. I think it's important that we make ourselves aware of signs before they start showing, and that we have a record to point to if things play out exactly as we predict....
I'm in the camp of welcoming meta to the fediverse, BUT - not bending over backwards.
If they start making changes that affect federation for them, then that is their problem. Treat meta as a platform, no different to mastodon.
Remember that the fediverse consists of more than just Mastodon.
If meta makes a change and suddenly pixelfed can't federate properly with meta anymore, it'll be a shame, but it does not mean that pixelfed should make changes and add workarounds so that it is able to speak to meta again.
Meta might think they have the power to do this, but they only have that power if we behave like they do.
If instead we take an attitude of, it's fine for you to be here, while you are being a good citizen, but if you start making demands - you are on your own.
AN (or even) multiple admins signing NDA's does not mean anything for the functioning of the Fediverse though, admins are running software, many of them do not have the knowledge to go in and start making significant code changes to the protocol. That's what Codeberg is for https://codeberg.org/fediverse/fep THAT is where changes to the protocol happen.
You aren't going to see ANY of those 1.2bn users, until someone on THIS server follows someone on THAT server. That's the point of federation. It isn't like Twitter - you don't just see everything that everyone over there posts. It's no different on Mastodon - there has to be a social connection before posts start showing up here.
Put another way, if hateful stuff starts showing up on the Fediverse from meta users, it is because someone on the Fediverse is following the people posting hateful stuff.
When meta eventually starts federating - you aren't going to see posts from @asjmcguire until someone here is following my account.
As for if meta makes changes that makes federating hard, that's not our problem. If they make changes that make federating with THEM hard, that's their problem. There is no reason the rest of the fediverse needs to follow what changes meta make. It doesn't hurt us if they break federation with the rest of the fediverse. Meta is in reality no different to mastodon in that regard, it's just another platform - but for example Pixelfed isn't going to bend over backward to make life easier for meta.
I don't want to take away that choice. I personally don't have a problem with meta joining the fediverse, and in fact today I downloaded the app and created my account. I'm excited by the possibilities of being able to speak to my friends from my Mastodon account.
My point was more for the people who think that suddenly 1.2bn users are going to be showing up in this kbin instance.
I find the other demands going around even scarier to be honest.
"I don't want to federate with meta, but I also don't want to federate with anyone else who does federate with meta"
It's so terrifying that there are whole instances that are now attempting to dictate who the rest of the fediverse is allowed to federate with. And frankly I think it's a downward spiral if that is allowed. Because if they do it once, they will do it again and again.
None of that addresses the objection that has been raised though.
If instances want to defederate from meta that is perfectly fine, the Fediverse is supposed to be about choice.
Instances should not however be able to dictate what OTHER people on other instances are able to do.
By doing so - that part of the fediverse is behaving in exactly the same way that they fear that meta will behave eventually.
A company (any company) decides to integrate with ActivityPub, and the entire fediverse has a toys out of the pram moment every time that happens, gradually closing off into smaller and smaller federated circles, that stop federating with the rest of the fediverse.
A reminder, Tumblr are supposed to be adding ActivityPub.
Wordpress has.
Discourse I believe now has.
So who exactly is it that gets to decide which companies are and are not allowed to be part of the Fediverse?
It's all very very much like a dictatorship, whether you want to accept it or not - that's exactly how it is being operated.
For christ sake I don't understand why people aren't getting it. YES it is a dictatorship because it is not about any one instance - if it was just instances saying "I don't want to federate with Meta" and that was it - I wouldn't have a problem, that is a perfectly acceptable thing to do. But that's not what this is - this is instances saying "I don't want to talk to Meta, and if you want to continue talking to me, then YOU are not allowed to talk to Meta either" - explain to me HOW that is not being a dictatorship?
Something I don't understand currently about the whole Meta/Threads debacle is why I'm seeing talk about instances which choose to federate with Threads themselves being defederated. I have an account on mastodon.social, one of the instances which has not signed the fedipact, and I've had people from other instances warn me that...
I mean I find it quite ironic really that The fediverse has been screaming about how threads/meta will destroy the fediverse, but in reality - it is the fediverse destroying itself from the inside with this nonsense take.
And really - who wants to be part of that, it's actually batshit when you take a step back and think about what is being said:
"I don't want anything to do with X and I don't want anything to do with anyone else who has anything to do with X either"
OK, right now it's meta. But let's talk about lemmy, there are people on the fediverse who think the creators of lemmy are problematic - so what happens when we get "I don't want to associate with lemmy.world but also I don't want to associate with anyone else who does associate with lemmy.world"
Some instances defeded mastodon.social for problematic moderation, but they did not defed other instances that do still federate with mastodon.social.
It seems like an extreme reaction, and if the fediverse does die, it will be the fediverse itself that implodes rather than being destroyed from any company on the outside.
How can I create an automation that runs after HA restarts? I use a tablet running fully kiosk. Most times I update HA, mushroom cards, alarmo, etc I have to reload fully kiosk. I would like to automate it to reload the start URL after HA restarts
His mother started telling him he was a genius that would change the world - from the age of 4. Repeatedly telling a young child with ASD that..... I think it's pretty safe to say that is going to produce narcissistic tendencies.
It seemed strange that Twitter posted this update on its business blog until the company mentioned that rate limiting has had a "minimal" effect on advertising. Many pointed out that limiting the number of tweets users could read per day would make it harder for advertisers to reach users and for Twitter to make money....
I mean I find it mind boggling that people aren't noticing yet, that Elon has basically pulled a bait and switch. Especially now that it is becoming even more obvious. Take a product that everyone is using, and degrade the free aspects of it to the point that the only way for people to be able to continue using it - is by paying for it.
His excuses are ludicrous, that he thinks that advance notice would let "bad actors" change the way they operate, as if those bad actors wouldn't have just changed the way they operate as soon as it started being limited anyway.
Hell there is a thread floating around somewhere which shows that you can just reverse engineer the app and get the API key that way. The bots and "bad actors" will therefore continue, and legitimate users will be the only ones impacted.
Canada has decent healthcare, and I'd be worried that if we let you have Canada - you'd degrade that. America is basically a floating shopping mall. Everything is for sale. Even things that really shouldn't be.
Just going to remind you that we STILL don't have the fancy Instagram messaging in the UK because of the GDPR. Not sure how exactly the GDPR is hampering us being able to react to a message with more emoji than just a heart, or be able to reply to specific messages - but thats what Instagram claim is the reason it's not available anywhere that has the GDPR
But I am a citizen that is covered by the GDPR in the UK. I have an account on allthingstech.social which a US server, so they would be breaching GDPR by ingesting my data. They can't know where any user comes from just by the server that user is attached to - which is going to a lovely fun headache for them to deal with 😂
Because the GDPR requires explicit consent, you need to informed what data Meta will collect about you, and how they will use it, and then you have to click something saying that you are OK with that. The GDPR specifically rules out implicit consent, which is what Meta would be claiming "Well they are posting to the fediverse, so it is fair game"
You might not be aware but Lemmy has RSS built into it. I just noticed myself so I wanted to check out the current state of RSS clients and well, nothing seems to be quite what I’m after....
For the first time ever, I’m getting Reddit notifications, outside of when I get a dm or a comment/post reply from someone. 🧐 Hmm, I wonder if that’s just coincidence…...
Which is exactly what Twitter did. Even with all notifications off, I still received several daily tweets about what Elon had tweeted. So I uninstalled it. Thankfully the PWA isn't quite as bad, but it still pesters me with tweets that it knows I'm more likely to engage with, because they are negative.
Have you ever gotten scammed, package stolen, or been a victim of fraud in any way?
I just got my package of new earphones from Best Buy, and the box was fucking empty. I mean there is the box and instruction manuals and charging cable, but the actual earphones aren’t there. They’ve used Shipt (which is like a doordash but for packages) but the box was inside another layer of packaging which was supposedly...
How I anticipate Meta's EEE strategy to play out.
Here's my prediction, but I'd like others to contribute their predictions as well. I think it's important that we make ourselves aware of signs before they start showing, and that we have a record to point to if things play out exactly as we predict....
Could we get official word on what Kbin's stance is towards federating with Meta?
I would like to know if I can feel safe here, or if I should pack it up and start looking elsewhere sooner rather than later....
OC Question: Why are some instances defederating instances which don't sign the fedipact?
Something I don't understand currently about the whole Meta/Threads debacle is why I'm seeing talk about instances which choose to federate with Threads themselves being defederated. I have an account on mastodon.social, one of the instances which has not signed the fedipact, and I've had people from other instances warn me that...
Automation after HA restarts
How can I create an automation that runs after HA restarts? I use a tablet running fully kiosk. Most times I update HA, mushroom cards, alarmo, etc I have to reload fully kiosk. I would like to automate it to reload the start URL after HA restarts
Did avatars get broken with the last update?
i noticed my previous avatar now replaced with the text " avatar"....
Does anyone think that due to how usernames work on the Fediverse, we might get some people using their real names as usernames?
I'm thinking about how emails ended up becoming. Where our first email addresses were so wacky, and slowly we just wanted out real names.
Twitter silently removes login requirement for viewing tweets (techcrunch.com)
Days after requiring users to log in to view tweets on the web, Twitter has silently removed these restrictions.
Reddit hated emojis, how does Kbin feel?
Seemed like emojis in posts / comments would get downvoted to oblivion on Reddit. I don’t see the same thing on Kbin (or other instances / services).
When your program as a whole does not works as planned, but performs its functions
Twitter says it couldn't tell people about rate limiting in advance | Engadget (www.engadget.com)
It seemed strange that Twitter posted this update on its business blog until the company mentioned that rate limiting has had a "minimal" effect on advertising. Many pointed out that limiting the number of tweets users could read per day would make it harder for advertisers to reach users and for Twitter to make money....
Today we celebrate no longer being responsible for the USA.
Especially Florida.
No Instagram Threads app in the EU: Irish DPC says Meta's new Twitter rival won't be launched here (www.independent.ie)
Meta will not launch its new Twitter rival, Threads, in Ireland or the EU for the foreseeable future.
Recommend me an RSS feed reader
You might not be aware but Lemmy has RSS built into it. I just noticed myself so I wanted to check out the current state of RSS clients and well, nothing seems to be quite what I’m after....
Reddit Notifications?
For the first time ever, I’m getting Reddit notifications, outside of when I get a dm or a comment/post reply from someone. 🧐 Hmm, I wonder if that’s just coincidence…...