Crossposted from https://lemmy.today/post/58642043

So I've recently come into the market for a good printer, or as good a one as I can find because printers are straight up evil. I thought posting here would be relevant seeing that most of the printers I have looked up are enshittified garbage (looking at you HP).

My old thrift store Brother printer does well for basic text printing, but I'm looking for something that can handle glossy photo printing with decent quality; not perfect, just decent. I don't need all the bells and whistles like fax, scanning, etc. just a simple good printer that isn't an enshittified ink subscription machine.

Things I am looking for:
Linux Compatability (Fedora Workstation)
USB or wired connection (no required internet)
Can handle thicker glossy 8.5x11
Decent photo quality , color printing
Double sided printing
(Optional) 3rd party ink compatible
(Optional) compact/small
(Optional) Under $400, preferably between $80 and $200

Any recommendations? What have you used and liked? Are there any other good brands or startups that arent the big four (HP, Canon, Brother, Epson)?

Starlink, after enshitifying low earth orbit, and after its botched IPO, enshitifies Global Roam by capping its usage.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/41318971

Destin Sandlin examines the systemic engineering and economic hurdles involved in manufacturing a grill scrubber entirely in America. Through a deep dive into sourcing components like injection-molded knobs and specialized chain mail, the project highlights the complexities of maintaining domestic supply chains and preserving vital technical trade skills in a competitive global market.

This week, Trevor and Eugene sit down with science fiction author and tech activist Cory Doctorow to unpack the concept of "enshittification"—the theory that explains the decay of the modern internet and why massive monopolies are deliberately making our tech worse.

From Google tanking its own search results to digital stores clawing back video games you just paid for, Cory exposes how predatory corporate tactics make the average consumer suffer.

But it’s not all a capitalist horror show; Cory leaves us with a genuine message of hope, breaking down the massive, unprecedented global coalition that is finally fighting back.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/[email protected]/p/832312/f-droid-has-my-condolences

Pay the $25 ransom little devs or else!

Imagine having a perfectly working calculator on your phone. Imagine it now connects to a server in the internet to perform the operations and give you the information back. Imagine then that the "x" multiply operation becomes a premium feature. Ah, and now the graphing feature for some functions becomes a premium feature.

This is the exact case with one workout tracker that I've been using for years already. I've always wondered, why do they want to log my data on the cloud if all the graphs, logs and metrics could be calculated on my phone?. Then I saw how some plots started disappearing from the standard free user plan. And now the core plots, the plots that are even the minimum they start to hide behind monthly payment.

Friends, have you seen this with other apps? Do you know of a feasible replacement for this shit?

So we know how enshittification has spread across many sectors. like services or products get worse after a certain time. but there are ways to fight or reverse them too.

Few of them which is universal and applies to mainly all.

1. Antitrust laws : if there is healthy competition then someone can switch to something different and it applies for every sector.
2. Govt regulations : EU has good consumer protection laws so it helps too
3. community pushback: if people started boycotting it or make themselves more loud and clear at consistent level then it also helps too There maybe others but for now i know this much

Now moving to tech sector

1. Interoperability : This is very crucial and if there is no vendor locking then it means people can use it before it gets enshittified and then move on to other products. Example: Obsidian
2. Open source software: This is also a great way to resist enshittification. anyone can create a fork so if original ones become bad or bloated then a new fork can fixed those problems too. I know that chromium and android is open source but they still have some problems that dont make them too much resistant as it supposed to be. Chromium is open source but is also very popular too. Something like WEI which could have killed the open web and android even if its open source , it is impossible to be used for majority of people without the closed source layer of google.
3. Right to repair: Companies can send updates to firmware and potentially brick devices too so if schematics, driver code and other things important to understand somethings are available too then it can be fixed too
4. Decentralization: If a service is not controlled by one entity then it is enshittification resistant. example : fediverse
5. Community maintained : If a product/service is maintained by community/individual it has higher friction for enshitiffication. Example: Ubuntu and linux mint both are open source but we have problems with ubuntu like being forced to use snap. linux mint is maintained by community and it is what ubuntu should have been.
6. Works offline: If some software can work offline then it can resist the bad updates. Services/product that dont have these 4 things so ofc they have a higher chance of enshittification but they still can be fixed too ie reverse engineering and breaking their digital locks and also scrappers too for exporting stuff. Though there is one thing which i mentioned ie breaking digital locks have consequences and can land someone in federal prison for 3-5 yrs all thanks to the section 1201 of dmca. while it cant punish someone if he keeps to themselves but this required a constant distributed effort in most cases. If this section dont exist then anyone can break digital locks and fix things too

anyway that's it from me, there are other things that involve in other sectors too so please share it or add more to tech sectors

Under capitalism the endpoint of every app is a slot machine.

Spotify has been pissing me off recently. Repeated pop up (internal) ads, and now this. Are there any alternatives that don't require selfhosting?

Cherry on the top: The new widget doesn't work.

Obligatory Fuck Nestlé!

https://lemmy.world/post/48172188

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/technology/p/1175761/amazon-inform-prime-members-that-its-bundled-music-benefit-will-introduce-ads-and-drop-o

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1175760/amazon-inform-prime-members-that-its-bundled-music-benefit-will-introduce-ads-and-drop-o