And somehow they're gonna go home thinking they're heros.

So people are supposed to get excited about voluntarily scanning their eyeballs and giving the data to a private company to prove that they're a human, to theoretically protect themselves from AI imposters generated by... The same dude's other company. And people are actually doing it because crypto bribes.

Goddamnit, Black Mirror is supposed to be a cautionary tale, not aspirational. I'm so tired.

Not so much help but hope: I got rid of Windows 11 and switched fully to Linux Mint a few weeks ago. I had no idea what I was doing but I tested things on USB and also on a very old laptop I had laying around before I made it my daily driver.

I'm not particularly a tech person. I own a small creative business and have a toddler, but I figured out what I needed to quickly. I don't game and didnt use Winsows exclusive software so have no opinions about that.

What I didn't expect: to actually be genuinely interested in my computer again for the first time since I was a teenager (which was not recent...). I love customizing my desktop. I love discovering new open source software. I'm learning more than I expected and it's just a totally different relationship with the tech I use every day, in a nice way. And no more BS ads / bloat when I'm just trying to exist on my computer.

I had a bad feeling that dual booting wouldn't be the seamless thing I hoped for. I have an old Mac laptop I might try installing on to see how I like it and decide if I'm just gonna wipe Windows entirely.

It's incredible how shit Windows is and everyone just accepts it. It shows me ads on my lock screen FFS (and I know how to disable that cuz I've done it three times now and they keep coming back like a horror movie monster you didn't behead).

I know someone who is trying to get their young kid evaluated and potentially diagnosed and now they're having second thoughts. I don't know how they're putting this registry together but I wouldn't want my kid on it

We were told it was not optional coming home from an international flight last month. However, our toddler was with us and nervous and they said we could opt out for him. I said great, thanks. Picked him up while we were talking and I wasn't really thinking about where I was holding him. The agent looked over, smiled and said hi to get their attention, and I saw him take the image, seconds after we verbally opted out. Sigh.

There really is no rock bottom for how fucked this situation is, is there?

These things have been on my mind recently too, about public photos in general. I recently learned that you can scrub metadata from photos by messaging them to yourself on Signal first, so I've started doing that for photos I share online. Otherwise I just try to avoid identifying information and ask myself if I really want this to be public for eternity.

Also make sure if you don't want to be identified, you're posting through an account that you use to remain anonymous. So don't reuse your username, have your personal email connected to the account, etc. Or post things that could be tied to you / your location using the same account.

Nope, gross. I was already considering cancelling my subscription, so this makes my decision easier.

I'm an exvangelical atheist and I do find myself wishing this whole administration would go rot in hell, so I guess you could say in some small way they've brought religion back to my life.

But seriously, this is fucked.

I don't believe in angry spirits with unfinished business destroying the lives of those who caused them harm until they also die and are tormented for eternity, but if evidence arises for such things they have my full support

I had a bad feeling about that with Pixelfed when I saw them repeatedly ignoring questions about when to expect groups, ha! I know you can follow / reply to Lemmy groups with Mastodon, but can you post to them from there? Or from Pixelfed?

Once I bounced a check to our water company and they refused to take checks or credit cards from me for a YEAR as a punishment. It was a one-time accident after paying on time for around seven years. I literally had to drive my ass down there with cash. It's a small rural water service, not a big corporation - they chose to be complete assholes even after I explained the situation (we had a baby that month and forgot a monthly $ transfer in the chaos).

Same mistake probably cost us $120 in overdraft fees. Society financially punishes people who need money the most and rewards the people who have plenty. It's ridiculous.

Meta apps / "services" are spyware and social engineering and they're barely trying to hide it at this point. TBH they could say it out loud and like 1% of people would delete the apps

That's interesting (a little chaotic with the different sized images but still). I've been using Interstellar for Piefed and it apparently doesn't support that, so I had no idea

Thing is people really don't know what brains look like or the force that would be required to crack the skull. I don't think a deer is capable of it.

BUT it very well could have cracked an antler and busted open a good wound and left a bloody mess that you might assume were brains.

But also this sounds like total BS.

Maybe I haven't given it a super fair chance, but I was not impressed with Friendica. I only tried it on the webapp, but the interface was just depressing and not super intuitive. I keep hearing it's a good substitute for FB but it needs some work before I would feel comfortable recommending that to people

I'd be overwhelmed and convinced someone hates me again within two months but man does that sound nice

Damn you have some good nurses. In my liberal area the best they did was mention that it's optional (literally some people think it's not). We also have liberal relatives who did it to their son just so he'd "look like dad." Wtf

It's not a a disorder if depression is a logical reaction to your environment (I tell myself)