An American father who moved to Russia to avoid LGBTQ+ “indoctrination” is being sent to the front line against Ukraine despite being assured he would serve in a non-combat role.
Anti-Woke Dad Who Fled With Family to Russia Sent to War Zone
Derek Huffman, 46, joined the military with hopes of becoming a Russian citizen. His wife said he was duped into a combat role.Josh Fiallo (The Daily Beast)
I always liked the concept of Matrix, and still actively use it, but there's some serious jank. Synapse is generally bloated and not fun to run an instance, Dendrite is perpetually in Beta, and the clients themselves range from adequate to awful. The default Element client on Android is so broken for me that I'm forced to use Element X, because I can't even log in with Element.
It's disappointing, but there's a ton of issues that aren't so easy to resolve. New Vector and the Element Foundation are basically two separate entities that have some kind of hard split between them, neither of which seems to have the money necessary to support comprehensive development. The protocol is said to be bloated and overtly complex, and trying to develop a client or a server implementation is something of a nightmare.
I want to see Matrix succeed, I think a lot of people see the potential of what it could be. I'm not sure it'll ever get there.
I always liked the concept of Matrix, and still actively use it, but there’s some serious jank.
I use Element as well as Beeper, which is at its core an Element client based on network bridging. I'm a big fan of Matrix, but it isn't as approachable as other messaging services and requires some technical know-how to use effectively.
It seems like the Linux of messaging services.
I just want a self-hostable open-source alternative to the shitty closed-source IM systems I'm forced to use
I'm sticking with Matrix for now, hopefully some of the issues I've had will get ironed out
The thing is... What alternatives are there? Signal can't be trusted (on the very same website there is an article about it). I'm not using closed source alternatives, Simplex is kinda shady too tbh and I'm not even sure I could get anyone to use it.
I don't like Matrix/Element either but sadly its the best open source chat solution we have.
XMPP is significantly less decentralized, allowing them to """cut corners""" compared to Matrix protocol implementation, and scale significantly better. (In heavy quotes, as XMPP isn't really cutting corners, but true decentralization requires more work to achieve seemingly "the same result")
An XMPP or IRC channel with a few thousand users is no problem, wheras Matrix can have problems with that. On the other hand, any one Matrix homeserver going down does not impact users that aren't specifically on that homeserver, whereas XMPP is centralized enough that it can take down a whole channel.
Meanwhile IRC is a 90s protocol that doesn't make any sense in the modern world of mainly mobile devices.
XMPP also doesn't change much, the last proper addition to the protocol (from what I can tell, on the website) was 2024-08-30 xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0004.h…
Data Forms
This specification defines an XMPP protocol extension for data forms that can be used in workflows such as service configuration as well as for application-specific data description and reporting.Peter Saint-Andre
XMPP doesn't change very very often, but there's actually tons of XEPs that are in common use and are considered functionally essential for a modern client, and with much higher numbers than XEP-0004
The good news, though, is that mostly you as the user don't need to care about those! Most of the modern clients agree on the core set and thus interoperate fine for most normal things. And most XEPs have a fallback in case the receiver doesn't support the same XEPs.
I'm general XMPP as a protocol is a lightweight core that supports an interesting soup of modules (in the form of XEPs) to make it a real messenger in the modern sense. And I think that's neat! But you can't really judge the core to say how often things change.
Most of the modern clients agree on the core set and thus interoperate fine for most normal things.
So you think it is a sane solution to mark essential features as optional extensions and then have a wink-wink, nudge-nudge agreement of which of these "optional" extensions are actually mandatory? Instead of having essential features be part of the core protocol?
But more importantly, XMPP sucks because it does not have one back-end implementation like Vodozemac for Matrix. So let alone being unable to have security audits, you are forcing client developers to roll their own implementation of the e2ee, with likely little to no experience with cyber-security, and just hoping they will make no mistakes. You know, implementing encryption that even experts have hard time getting right.
Honestly, I struggle with this myself. On the one hand I like the diversity of clients; it feels like a sign of strength of the community and protocol that there are many options that have different values. But the cost of this diversity is that it makes things more complicated to coordinate, and different people with different values have different opinions on what a chat client should even want for features.
Something like Slack or Discord can roll out a server feature and client feature to all their clients all at the same time and have a unified experience. But the whole benefit of FLOSS is that anyone can fork the client to make changes, and the whole point of an open protocol is that multiple independent clients can interoperate, and so there's a kind of irony in me wanting those things, but those things producing a fractured output.
So I think XMPP, as a protocol, does the best compromise. These differences between clients and servers aren't just random changes in behaviour or undocumented features, they're named, numbered, alterations that live somewhere and are advertised in the built-in "discovery" protocols. The protocol format itself is extensible, so unexpected content can be passed alongside known content in a message or a server response and the clients all know to ignore anything they don't understand, and virtually all of the XEPs are designed with some kind of backwards compatibility in mind for how this feature might degrade when sent to a non-supported client.
It isn't perfect, but I think perfection is impossible here. A single server and client that everyone uses and keeps up to date religiously with forced upgrades is best for cohesiveness, but worst for "freedom", and a free-for-all where people just make random individual changes and everything is always broken isn't really a community, and XMPP sits in the middle and has a menu of documented deviations for clients to advertise and choose.
As for security, that can be mostly solved with libraries, independent of the rest of the client or server implementation. Like, most clients used libsignal for their crypto, so that could in theory be audited and bug-fixed and all clients would benefit. Again, not perfect, there's always room at the interface between the client code and the library code that's unique, but it's not as bad as rolling your own crypto.
I am yet to see a universal tool that is good at everything. Trying to cram all use-cases into one network results in mediocre results at best and usually even worse.
There is no reason to combine a person to person messenger like signal and community based one like discord into one network. That is why I like the Matrix approach of 1 backend library and many frontends so you can have your pick of clients without messing up the protocol.
Even having the fallbacks for missing features does not solve the issue. The experience for the average person will still be bad. While you and I may enjoy doing research on which client is best for us, most users will see the sub-par experience and leave for a corporate solution that "just works".
I am just wondering what it takes to succeed.
start with a discord clone
make it e2ee
make it federated
i feel like it shouldnt be this hard, but I'm not the one developing matrix, nor XMPP, nor the 3rd smaller option you the reader is wanting me to list that I am unaware of
I can use IRC
The fact that many Discord and IRC channels (servers?) block Matrix connections has drastically reduced its usefulness for me. When I was running my own Matrix server, I could have gotten around it by using a puppet, but Synapse is such a hog I had to shut it down, and most of the IRC rooms I want to use don't allow Matrix proxies.
running your own server is super lightweight.
Not IME. Are you running Synapse? Gigabytes of disk usage and memory leaks requiring restarts.
They're taking about switching to Jabber/XMPP, which is what those two bridges are for, and they're saying XMPP servers are lightweight.
It's a bit confusing in context, I'll admit.
We really need to stop abandoning existing foss projects and thinking a whole new thing needs to be invented. Free and open-source software is not a product, it doesn't abide by the same rules and relationships that proprietary tech does.
It's more organic. It's also a commons that we can continue to draw on, and reshape. If I recall correctly, there were something like three different vector graphic editors from the same codebase before Inkscape managed to be the one that gained traction.
Matrix isn't perfect, but abandoning it just to reinvent it all over again just because some people really need a thing that works like Discord, even though Discord is absolute hot garbage; is just going to re-create all the same problems. Matrix today is better than it was two years ago. And Matrix in a year will be better from now.
Honestly, setting up things using Docker Compose is generally a question of copying and pasting and editing the file locations.
The moment you need SSL and/or a reverse proxy it becomes a bit more complex, but once you set up a reverse proxy once you can generally expand that to your other applications.
Something like a Synology nas makes it very easy and to some extend even the Truenas apps are kinda easy.
Knowledge manipulation on Russia's Wikipedia fork; Marxist critique of Wikidata license; call to analyze power relations of Wikipedia
Disposable E-Cigarettes More Toxic Than Traditional Cigarettes: High Levels of Lead, Other Hazardous Metals Found in E-Cigarettes Popular with Teens
They may look like travel shampoo bottles and smell like bubblegum, but after a few hundred puffs, some disposable, electronic cigarettes and vape pods release higher amounts of toxic metals than older e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. For example, one of the disposable e-cigarettes studied released more lead during a day’s use than nearly 20 packs of traditional cigarettes.
Disposable E-Cigarettes More Toxic Than Traditional Cigarettes
They may look like travel shampoo bottles and smell like bubblegum, but after a few hundred puffs, some disposable, electronic cigarettes and vape pods release higher amounts of toxic metals than older e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes, accordi…UC Davis
Like I said, the three companies named there are not the same companies, but you claim they are, and are sourcing it from the same Chinese sweatshop, even tho they don't even seem Chinese.
So, again, can I get a source for your claim that all these are the same company sourcing their stuff from Chinese sweatshop?
Esco Bars | Esco Bar | Esco Bar flavors | Escobar Vape
Esco Bars, your one-stop destination for the finest vaping products and premium Esco Bar flavors. If you're on the hunt for an unparalleled.Esco Bars
Since nobody else will provide the actual clarity
EscobarVape and Elfbar are created by two separate Chinese companies, Shenzhen Innokin Technology Co. Ltd and Shenzhen iMiracle Technology respectively. Mi-Bar is created by an American company but has partnered with Elfbar to distribute Elfbar products in the US
Really wish more people would just provide the facts that speak for themselves, rather than point fingers about who is and isn't doing their research
**PROMOTED BY THE “MAD MEN” AT LUCKY STRIKE!
Just have a cocktail and smoke a cig, it’s better than weed and ecigs! How dare you switch because of rat poison found in our cigs and how the RICH banded hemp due to lobbying by the paper people… not due to anything else! Cool!
Xinjiang’s Organ Transplant Expansion Sparks Alarm Over Uyghur Forced Organ Harvesting
cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/42460866
Xinjiang’s official organ donation rate is shockingly low. So why is China planning to open six new organ transplant facilities in the region"The expansion suggests that the Chinese authorities are expecting to increase the numbers of transplants performed in Xinjiang. However, this is puzzling as there is no reason why the demand for transplants should suddenly go up in Xinjiang,” Rogers explained. “From what we know about alleged voluntary donations, the rates are quite low in Xinjiang. So the question is, why are these facilities planned?”
Rogers noted one chilling possibility: that “murdered prisoners of conscience (i.e., Uyghurs held in detention camps)” could be a source of transplanted organs.
This suggestion becomes even more concerning when considering the extensive surveillance and repression that Uyghurs face in the region. Detainees in the many internment camps in Xinjiang have reported being subjected to forced blood tests, ultrasounds, and organ-focused medical scans. These procedures align with organ compatibility testing, raising fears that Uyghurs are being prepped for organ harvesting while in detention.
David Matas, an international human rights lawyer who has investigated forced organ harvesting in China, questioned the very possibility of voluntary organ donation in Xinjiang. “The concept of informed, voluntary consent is meaningless in Xinjiang’s carceral environment,” Matas said. “Given the systemic repression, any claim that donations are voluntary should be treated with the utmost skepticism.”
The new transplant facilities will be distributed across Urumqi and other regions of northern, southern, and eastern Xinjiang. Experts argue that the sheer scale of this expansion is disproportionate to Xinjiang’s voluntary donation rate and overall capacity, suggesting that the Chinese authorities may be relying on unethical methods to source organs.
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The author is a Muslim woman who has won awards for her work as a journalist and written for several other major news outlets...
The wikipedia article for the universal peace federation redirects to the unification church article.
Shinzo Abe found out how bad the moonies are.
Keep spreading that "new cold war" propaganda.
Nobody is defending the Moonies, especially not this current affairs publication owned by a Japanese media corporation. Here's plenty of examples of them calling out the Unification Church:
thediplomat.com/tag/unificatio…
Anybody can be nominated to be an ambassador for peace, it's also associated with the UN.
upf.org/core-program/ambassado…
Launched in 2001, Ambassadors for Peace is the largest and most diverse network of peace leaders. As of 2020, there are more than 100,000 Ambassadors for Peace from 160 countries who come from all walks of life representing many races, religions, nationalities, and cultures
Literally she has no other ties to the Moonies/unification church, and how about the human right lawyer she directly quotes.
Or the bioethicist and part of the coalition to End Transplant Abuses in China (ETAC)? All just cold war propaganda?
Results 445 included studies reported on outcomes of 85 477 transplants. 412 (92.5%) failed to report whether or not organs were sourced from executed prisoners; and 439 (99%) failed to report that organ sources gave consent for transplantation. In contrast, 324 (73%) reported approval from an IRB. Of the papers claiming that no prisoners’ organs were involved in the transplants, 19 of them involved 2688 transplants that took place prior to 2010, when there was no volunteer donor programme in China.
Anyway, keep spreading that there is no genocide propaganda.
washingtonpost.com/politics/20…
Two months after the Trump administration all but shut down its foreign news services in Asia, China is gaining significant ground in the information war, building toward a regional propaganda monopoly, including in areas where U.S.-backed outlets once reported on Beijing’s harsh treatment of ethnic minorities.The U.S. decision to shut down much of RFA’s shortwave broadcasting in Asia is one of several cases where the Trump administration — which views China as America’s biggest rival — has yielded the adversary a strategic advantage.
Allentown grandfather’s family was told he died in ICE custody. Then they learned he’s alive — in a hospital in Guatemala, they say
The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Unconstitutional actions ordered by the POTUS. Are we ready to impeach yet?
https://www.mcall.com/2025/07/18/luis-leon-allentown-grandfather-ice-guatemala/
The man was granted asylum! He’s 82 god damn years old!
I would love to see a popular uprising where we string up the thugs that are snatching people off the streets. They don’t need unnecessary things like “lawyers” or “trials”. A can of gas and a match are pretty cheap. So is rope.
Anybody else not able to get on slrpnk.net?
Seems like slrpnk.net hasn't been working for most of the day today. Hasn't worked for me on mobile or desktop. Says 502 bad gateway when trying to access the website. Anybody else expierencing this issue?
Edit: it's back up. Thank you admins!
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thanks for passing that along. I could tell something was up by looking at this:
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In all seriousness, to the users and admins of slrpnk.net, you have my solidarity. Hope this all gets resolved soon.
Edit: oh shit welcome back!
UEA sekretigas la elekton de kongresurboj
Laŭ la kongresa regularo de UEA, la komitato estu regule informata kaj konsultata pri la elekto de kongresurboj. Laŭ la nova prezidanto de UEA, Fernando Maia, tio tamen ne eblas, ĉar la kandidata urbo ne sciu, ĉu ĝi estas la sola kandidato. Tial la regularo laŭ li devas esti ŝanĝita.
liberafolio.org/2025/07/27/uea…
The Hype is the Product
The Hype is the Product
Large publicly traded tech companies seem to no longer consider their customers – that is, people and organizations who actually buy their products or pay for access to their services – their core focSongs on the Security of Networks
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introducing copyparty, the FOSS file server
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
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OpenAI Is Giving Exactly the Same Copy-Pasted Response Every Time Time ChatGPT Is Linked to a Mental Health Crisis
OpenAI Is Giving Exactly the Same Copy-Pasted Response Every Time Time ChatGPT Is Linked to a Mental Health Crisis
As reports of ChatGPT sending its users down dangerous mental health spirals mount, OpenAI seemingly can only think of one thing to say.Frank Landymore (Futurism)
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Neither can humans, ergo nobody should ever be held liable for anything.
Civilisation is a sham, QED.
Glad to hear you are an LLM
The more safeguards are added in LLMs, the dumber they get, and the more resource intensive they get to offset this. If you get convinced to kill yourself by an AI, I'm pretty sure your decision was already taken, or you're a statistical blip
“Safeguards and regulations make business less efficient” has always been true. They still avoid death and suffering.
In this case, if they can’t figure out how to control LLMs without crippling them, that’s pretty absolute proof that LLMs should not be used. What good is a tool you can’t control?
“I cannot regulate this nuclear plant without the power dropping, so I’ll just run it unregulated”.
Some food additives are responsible for cancer yet are still allowed, because they are generally more useful than have negative effects. Where you draw the line is up to you, but if you’re strict, you should still let people choose for themselves
LLMs are incredibly useful for a lot of things, and really bad at others. Why can’t people use the tool as intended, rather than stretching it to other unapproved usages, putting themselves at risk?
You are likely a troll, but still...
You talk like you have never been down in the well, treading water and looking up at the sky, barely keeping your head up. You're screaming for help, to the God you don't believe in, or for something, anything, please just let the pain stop, please.
Maybe you use, drink, fuck, cut, who fucking knows.
When you find a friendly voice who doesn't ghost your ass when you have a bad day or two, or ten, or a month, or two, or ten... Maybe you feel a bit of a connection, a small tether that you want to help lighten your load, even a little.
You tell that voice you are hurting every day, that nothing makes sense, that you just want two fucking minutes of peace from everything, from yourself. And then you say maybe you are thinking of ending it... And the voice agrees with you.
There are more than a few moments in my life where I was close enough to the abyss that this is all it would have taken.
Search your soul for some empathy. If you don't know what that is, maybe Chatgpt can tell you.
While I haven't experienced it, I believe I kind of know what it can be like. Just a little something can trigger a reaction
But I maintain that LLMs can't be changed without huge tradeoffs. They're not really intelligent, just predicting text based on weights and statistical data
It should not be used for personal decisions as it will often try to agree with you, because that's how the system works. Making looong discussions will also trick the system into ignoring it's system prompts and safeguards. Those are issues all LLMs safe, just like prompt injection, due to their nature
I do agree though that more prevention should be done, display more warnings
"Ugrh guys, we dont know how this machine works so we should definetly install it in every corporation, home and device. If it kills someone we shouldnt be held liable for our product."
Not seeing the irony in this is beyond me. Is this a troll account?
If you cant guarantee the safety of a product, limit or restrict its use cases or provide safety guidelines or regulations you should not sell the product. It is completely fair to blame the product and the ones who sell/manifacture it.
Safety guidelines are regularly given
If people purchase a knife and behave badly with it, it’s on them
Something writing things isn’t comparable to a machine that could kill you. In the end, it’s always up to the person doing the things
I still wonder how ~~Closed~~OpenAI forcefully installed ChatGPT in this person's home. Or how it is installed because they don’t have software…
Quit your bullshit
If they don't, then its lawsuits going their way, so they will put some
But having some laws isn't necessarily bad, I just don't trust countries to do a good job at it, knowing how tech illiterate they are
What I meant is:
You can't expect LLMs not to do that because that's not technically possible at the moment
Companies should display warning and add some safeguards to reduce the amount of time this happens
Perhaps we should also hold the rope, knife, and various chemical manufacturers responsible.
The bridge architect? He designed a bridge that people jumped off of, so he's at fault for sure.
This feels like a great time to recommend a song by a parody-hate band, S.O.D.:
Please understand that this band was formed by Scott Ian, of Anthrax, in the 80s. This was a time when you could mock hateful racists and people understood that it was a joke. I wouldn't support a band saying that now, because I'd consider the excuse that it was a joke to be a front for their actual beliefs, as we've seen with people who are "just asking questions."
Anthrax and Public Enemy teamed up on Bring Tha Noise because Anthrax liked rap. Aerosmith teamed up with Run DMC because their manager / producer / someone convinced them to. Anthrax was genuinely not about hate.
Bonus trivia: Scott Ian now plays with Mr Bungle. Just as S.O.D's titular song was called Speak English or Die, Mr Bungle now plays a song called Habla Español O Muere (Speak Spanish or Die). If you can't judge that the former was a parody by the evolution of the theme, I don't know what to tell you.
Edit: formatting and more info.
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
ah, dear old copy/paste.... It's funny that even OpenAI doesn't trust ChatGPT enough to give more personalized LLM-generated answers.
And this sounds exactly like the type of use case AI agents are supposedly so great at that they will replace all human workers (according to Altman at least). Any time now!
Nvidia plans to boost presence in Israel with multibillion-dollar tech campus in north
Nvidia is actively seeking land to build a massive multibillion-dollar tech campus in Israel’s north, which is expected to provide thousands of jobs in what promises to be a major expansion of the US chip giant’s operations in the country.
The computing juggernaut announced on Sunday that it had issued a so-called request for information (RFI) tender to locate a plot of land spanning 70 to 120 dunams (30 acres) with construction rights to build a campus of 80,000–180,000 square meters. Nvidia is interested in buying land with “high accessibility to main traffic arteries and public transportation” around Zichron Yaakov, Haifa, and the Jezreel Valley areas. The tech titan has hired real estate consulting firm Colliers for the search and has set July 23 as the deadline for submissions.
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I wasn’t really looking for ~~a~~ another reason to not use NVIDIA but whatever
Well, the MSRP is fake because they don't make nearly as many of them to keep the price at $250. This is because it's a loss leader, Intel just wants people to buy them and establish a foothold in the industry.
Of course, MSRPs are now fake by every manufacturer because reviewers review against it and gave AMD bad reviews when they released cards at real MSRP
MSRP $700, card sells at $700
Bad value!
MSRP $550, card sells at $750
Amazing value! Too bad they are selling out so quick you can't get it at MSRP!
We don't know how big AMD is in Israel because they keep it secret.
Edit:
Hey Downvoter, could you link the number of AMD employees in Israel? Because I searched and only found that "AMD doesn't list employees by region in their public disclosures."
The big 3 (AMD, Intel, Nvidia) in the graphics space already have a presence in the country due to manufacturing and design capabilities.
It's a similar case with certain weapons manufacturing as well.
I haven't done enough research to say for sure, unfortunately. I know AMD is far better than Nvidia in terms of not being as entrenched in AI development (which by extension, is weaponized for generating target information), and they're also better in terms of not being as proprietary (hiding everything behind closed doors), although that's not directly related.
So currently? I think they're morally better than Nvidia, yeah. But it's not a high bar to clear, and as their market share progresses, they may fall to the same practices that Nvidia was encouraged to embrace.
Very good analysis.
At least they aren't investing heavily in new stuff in Israel, like Nvidia are, I suppose.
Thanks for the great answer!
Yeah that's not going to happen. Gamers don't give a shit. AI bros don't give a shit. Crypto cucks don't give a shit. And most importantly.... the US doesn't give a shit.
Harsh but true.
Yes. I personally haven't bought Intel since they've shown themselves, or MS. And now I won't buy NVidia (I have a good cheap GPU from them, though ; and they make FreeBSD drivers ; it's unfortunate).
I do use a PDA with Android with Google services.
It does, yes. But I don't think anyone will stop buying their products. Look at who they sell to:
- Gamers
- AI bros
- Crypto cucks
Maybe a handful of gamers will decide not to. But in large enough quantities and for long enough to make a difference? Nah. Not going to happen.
Linux users do though. If people keep moving from Windows to Linux they're going to run up against the trash Nvidia driver support pretty quick.
This is a problem that Nvidia is capable of solving but they haven't been interested in it for over a decade so I don't see them starting now.
Expecting a major flood of new Linux users might be a bit of a pipe dream though. But the momentum is building. If we do manage to swing the market noticeably in that way, AMD is going to get a big boost over Nvidia in the gaming GPU market.
I doubt that will really move the needle for crypto bros or AI farms, but it is something.
This is a problem that Nvidia is capable of solving but they haven’t been interested in it for over a decade so I don’t see them starting now.
They actually recently open sourced a bunch of required infrastructure, and hired a bunch of the OSS driver maintainers.
It's all still pretty crap, but there's more hope now.
Premio musicale aulla
Quanto costa il premio Lunezia? | Eco della Lunigiana
Il 25 luglio Piazza Gramsci tornerà a riempirsi di musica, Aulla è pronta ad ospitare una delle tappe della 30ª edizione del Premio Lunezia, con due nomi cheDiego Remaggi (Eco della Lunigiana)
Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won't undo months of 'engineered starvation' in Gaza, Oxfam says
July 27, 2025 09:28 EDT
Oxfam has said the airdrops into #Gaza are wholly inadequate for the population’s needs and has called for the immediate opening of all crossings for full humanitarian access into the territory devastated by relentless #Israeli bombardments and a partial aid blockade.
Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead for the Occupied #Palestinian territory, said:
Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won’t undo months of engineered starvation in Gaza.What’s needed is the immediate opening of all crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. Anything less risks being little more than a tactical gesture.
Middle East crisis live: Israeli military announces ‘tactical pause’ in parts of Gaza as pressure mounts over hunger
Military says it will halt activity in Muwasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City from 10am to 8pm local time every day until further noticeGuardian staff reporter (The Guardian)
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Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won't undo months of 'engineered starvation' in Gaza, Oxfam says
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/33751786
July 27, 2025 09:28 EDTOxfam has said the airdrops into #Gaza are wholly inadequate for the population’s needs and has called for the immediate opening of all crossings for full humanitarian access into the territory devastated by relentless #Israeli bombardments and a partial aid blockade.
Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead for the Occupied #Palestinian territory, said:
Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won’t undo months of engineered starvation in Gaza.What’s needed is the immediate opening of all crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. Anything less risks being little more than a tactical gesture.
Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won't undo months of 'engineered starvation' in Gaza, Oxfam says
July 27, 2025 09:28 EDTOxfam has said the airdrops into #Gaza are wholly inadequate for the population’s needs and has called for the immediate opening of all crossings for full humanitarian access into the territory devastated by relentless #Israeli bombardments and a partial aid blockade.
Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead for the Occupied #Palestinian territory, said:
Deadly airdrops and a trickle of trucks won’t undo months of engineered starvation in Gaza.What’s needed is the immediate opening of all crossings for full, unhindered, and safe aid delivery across all of Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. Anything less risks being little more than a tactical gesture.
Middle East crisis live: Israeli military announces ‘tactical pause’ in parts of Gaza as pressure mounts over hunger
Military says it will halt activity in Muwasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City from 10am to 8pm local time every day until further noticeGuardian staff reporter (The Guardian)
Updates for controlled mechanical ventilation system (double flux) without privileged admin
[Update in the comments]
Hello all!
I've got a controlled mechanical ventilation system (system D) at home from Zehnder (ComfoAir Q600). I've even got their controller box (the LAN-C) so I can use smart home stuff with it. It works perfect on home assistant, even when blocking the controller on the router level from the outside world. Maintenance wise, they try to force a contract on you, but it is easy peasy to maintain and repair so I'm not having no maintenance contract.
Comes the issue of software and updates. Some updates come with features. Sometimes, they are even mandatory so addons can work on them (ex: small heat pump for the intake needs a recent version for setup). For this, you have to use their app on your phone/tablet. The whole idea is that the install goes trough your phone (with checksum check through the app) to the EEROM on the local network to prevent bricking of the unit. Updates bring usually nice settings, and are sometimes mandatory for some add-ons (ex: heatpump for pre-heating or pre-cooling needs a recent update to be set up).
Here comes the really annoying part that makes me grump a lot: to update, of even for some diagnose option, you need to access a special level. Not the beginner mode. Not the expert mode. Not the installer mode that is unlocked with a simple pin code available in the owner's manual. No sweet child, you need to be a registered installer with Zehnder to access to get updates and real diagnostics. Officially, it is to prevent bricking the controller with an update by an user. But it is possible to give access to a licensed installer so they can update remotely and run diagnostics. So an issue with your internet, and there is no more safeguard to protect you from bricking stuff. Really, it is just to force a maintenance visit (200€ to exchange filters and clean a bit the exchanger and the inside with some soapy water). I don't like to bend over while I'm getting fucked without my consent, so you guess while this pisses me off. I called once to get an update (some companies ask you a hefty sum for that), but instead of getting an account they just updated it once exceptionally.
There is tho in the official documents for Germany, a test code publicly accessible, that allows you to access diagnostics and updates. But the updates there are only for German units. Pretty sure it is the same unit for the whole damn continent, but hey, let's pretend the units are different.
Comes my question: how do I trick the system into believing their update is not for the germans, but for somewhere else? Or even better, to give me access for updates for other areas? I know part is server side (account), but I'm willing to bet they don't really care about securing access to the updates once you have authenticated yourself (with the german test code). Tried lucky patcher, but didn't get lucky.
Any idea what I could try (even Lucky Patcher wise)?
Big hugs and kisses
Ventilation systems are named a bit weird like that:
-System A is natural convection (like holes in the walls)
-system B is holes in the walls, and a motor brings fresh air in the building
-System C is only a centralised extraction (needs rosters in your windows so you have an air intake, so basically an energy-label-certified-hole in your brand new windows)
-System C+ is centralised extraction with a variable debit depending on CO2 and humidity detected (so it is less energy wasteful than the previous one)
-System D is a double flux system: one centralised unit with a heat exchanger built in. There are 2 circuits, one is fresh air and the other one is air extraction. the house is basically always a bit over-pressurised. It is possible to obtain also humidity regulation for the winter if needed (ex build-in humidifier or enthalpy exchange units). When testing for build quality in passive houses, they check that almost all air exchange goes only through the unit
-System E: System C+ with a heat exchanger connected to a centralised heat pump for the building. Never seen one outside of an expo room.
For example, I still don't know why it's such a hassle to have real HVAC in centralised ventilation systems in Europe. Or integrated solutions to move energy to other systems (like my water heat pump releases cold. Why am I out of warranty if I place a heat exchanger that cools my fridge heat exhaust on the air rejection?). Without floor heating air-water heat pumps aren't super efficient, and retrofitting baseboards with water-heated ones for baseboards in a bitch to do.
If there's a German code that would work as you intended (if I got you right) but it doesn't for you, since you don't live in Germany, would it work to make the machine believe it is located in Germany?
They might have hardcoded a location into it, then you are out of luck. But maybe they determine it via the internet connection you use to update? So you could potentially have it connected to a VPN through your router, which fakes a German location? Probably too simple a solution.
[Update]So used my old rooted tablet to tweak around a bit with the app. Through lucky patcher (when logged in with the test account) I noticed that the downloads are done trough the root user of android. After that I used MiXplorer to get the data files on my pc. Quickly found the structure of the files. Couldn't trick the system to access my local files, but I managed to trick the system into updating as if it were a german system.
So if someone else happens to look and stumble upon this, this is how I got it to work. It works only from a rooted android device for now:
- Login with the german test account to access server downloads
- Connect to the cloud delivery system and download the update that you want
- Close the app, with a root file explorer (like MiXplorer + Shizuku) go into the root folder (use their FTP server with a root allowed user or whatever to transfer it more easily to the PC).
- Go to /data/data/com.zehndergroup.comfocontrol/files/products/1/R1.12.0-DE
-Open the meta.json file and change the german id of your unit to your unit. Ex: 471502013 to 471502023 for the UK id. Save it and send it back to where it came from. You could just update your unit, and it would keep the same serial number, same everything but would be under german ID. Easy for new updates but annoying to explain if you need to have a technician over and he is wondering why your unit has that ID. But then again, that is a minor detail and I'm not even sure the technician will be paid enough to care. Reverting to your national number should be the same process but with the update for your country.
What didn't work:
*Open the config bin file of your unit (so again, for the Q600 : config_R1.12.0_471502013_v1.bin ) with a hex editor. Look for the unit number that needs to be replaced (so here 471502013 needs to become 471502023). I only needed to replace 1 number (a 1 into 2) , so 31 became 32 in the hex file. Replace the country code with your local one in hex (So DE into UK). Save it and send it back from where it came from. This provokes an error after the 3rd block. Probably a checksum that isn't cooperating in another file
*Seperate API connection: the naming pattern o their website is obvious, but connection without their app is something else
- Firmware updates for the ventilation units are in folder "1", maybe that will change in the future
- The downloaded firmware update will be there under it's own folder (like R1.12.0) and sometimes there will be it's own ZIP
- National ID for your unit is on Zehnder's website but also under "basic mode" > "unit status" > "Article unit"
- The installers pin code changes from your countries to the German one, so it becomes 4210
PS: there are ati-bricking measures in place in the system. If an update fails, you can Erase the firmware and reupload it but you'll have to redo the post-install setup
My guess, and confirmed by another comment, is that the ai only flags posts for review. Then the moderators have to manually check the post.
Honestly, it's not a terrible use of AI in my opinion. Considering posts practically never change, they really only have to scan each post once. The mod can either flag it as safe or remove it. They are probably just running image and text pattern recognition on previously banned posts to flag newly submitted posts.
It's too late to put the genie back in the bottle...
It's not just Glocks, you can 3d print the serialized part of an AK, MP5, and lots of others.
AR needs metal still as far as I know. But for lots of serious weapons you can buy "parts kits" that sent straight to your door for 2-400.
And yet, America is still the only country with regular mass shootings.
Everyone acts like people are going to be able to start 3d printing guns and ammunition en masse, and yet it doesn't happen anywhere at any significant scale. It's just defeatist nonsense pushed by gun lovers to convince people not to act.
The gun violence is a symptom of a dysfunctional society, not the cause. If the US was more equitable for everyone in terms of money and healthcare, it would go down.
Nothing against sensible gun regulations, but even if you magically disappeared every gun in the country, the problems that mess people up so bad they get violent would remain.
This is nonsense.
The US is not the least functional nor least equal country in the world, and yet it is the only one with regular mass homicides.
It's because of wide spread access to point and click murder machines that lower the bar for massacres.
Other issues exacerbate and lead to violence, but the primary difference between the US and everywhere else is everyone carrying a pistol to Walmart like idiots.
Neither of you are talking nonsense.
The US clearly has a combination of problems that combine to cause their massive problem with mass shootings.
Their limited gun control is a contributing factor, but not the only factor. Other countries have weak gun laws and don’t have nearly the same problems, the US didn’t have the same problems in the past, they’ve grown worse over time, and at this point the very concept of mass shootings in media is a major cause of them.
Removing guns (magically removing all existing guns) would certainly reduce the problem and probably would eventually fix things, but at this point the US has been broiling itself in this idea for too long and it would probably continue with knives or homemade bombs or something instead, at least for a while.
it would probably continue with knives or homemade bombs or something instead, at least for a while.
which would be an improvement. knives cause less damage and bombs require knowledge to gather materials and build which 1) increases the barrier to entry and 2) gives authorities time to detect the activity and prevent the act.
The first half of your comment I agree with completely.
And even the second half I think is basically accurate, but it may also miss the point.
but even if you magically disappeared every gun in the country, the problems that mess people up so bad they get violent would remain.
So yeah, I think people would still get violent, for sure. The question is, how many people can they hurt when that happens? I mean, I recognize the impossibility of this, but if you could magically disappear every gun in the country, we would pretty quickly see a very different society begin to emerge. For starters, there would be much less murder across the board, less gang violence, less domestic violence, fewer murders by cops, no school shooting, probably even fewer suicides. It wouldn't fix everything, but it would definitely have a huge impact.
But there would be additional effects too... The relationship between cops and the general public would begin to change drastically. There would be much less anger toward the police and the police would have fewer reasons to fear the public. The current cop policy of shoot first if you feel threatened is both completely unacceptable and simultaneously totally rational (if they assume anyone could have a gun). But without guns in people's hands, (including the cops') we'd have a completely different dynamic in so many otherwise dangerous situations.
All that said, you're right that economic inequity will always lead to social interest and violence. So like I said, this wouldn't solve everything. But on the other hand, getting rid of guns entirely wouldn't be a bad way to go, it would certainly heal more than it would hurt.
counting by household is blatantly spinning the data to ignore households with more than one gun. why should we do that? even just households with two guns are not crazy outliers and vastly change the comparison.
also the US cannot require gun registration so we really have no idea how many guns are actually out there. only about 1 million guns are registered. 400 million seems to be the low estimate but could even be over 500 million. on the other hand the vast majority of finland’s firearms are registered.
also what kind of guns are we talking about? iirc Finns get a standard issue rifle for military service. Handguns are more often used in crime (and probably suicide).
Because the argument is that guns cause violent crime (specifically mass shootings) and the example of Finland shows that not to be the case. Then if guns don’t cause violent crime what is it?
The most likely explanation to me is that there is a confounder: an unknown which causes both the acquisition of (one or more) guns and the commission of crimes. A hidden criminality element which Finland seems to lack.
The alternative explanation is that the U.S. is a broken society (in one or more ways) and that this leads people to feel the desire to lash out in extremely violent ways. The availability of guns in the US offers them an easy option for inflicting mass casualties but the recent example of Michigan shows that even without a gun there is still the opportunity for mayhem.
Now compare the gun violence rate of both of those countries with the gun violence rate of somewhere that bans guns.
Maybe we'll see that Finland has a route to further reduce their gun violence.
Having looked into it a bit, I was essentially right. England mostly bans gun ownership, their gun violence rate is half that of Finland's. In Japan, they have even tighter controls on firearms, the gun violence rate there is 30 times lower than Finland's.
Removing guns from the situation absolutely seems makes a huge measurable difference. If you believe math.
It should be noted that Thingiverse’s policy is against “firearms” and not guns in general. The company has no problem with replica props, airsoft guns, sci-fi blaster toys, or gun-like objects that shoot candy.…
“AI will be used only to flag potentially harmful designs, but a human will always be the one to decide if something should be removed,” Chapman told Tom’s Hardware. If a file is removed from Thingiverse, it will be removed by a person, not a machine.
This was my biggest worry, otherwise I see 99% of removed files just being cosplay props
ACE & MPA Continued to Scoop Up Pirate Domains in Bulk During Q2 2025
In Q2 2025, anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment continued to 'seize' domains in bulk, adding to the world's largest collection of former pirate domains maintained by the MPA. While the archive contains countless unique and memorable domains, many with interesting and informative backstories, new additions illustrate typical responses to site blocking measures and very little else.
ACE & MPA Continued to Scoop Up Pirate Domains in Bulk During Q2 2025 * TorrentFreak
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment continues to 'seize' pirate domains, adding to huge collection maintained by the MPA.Andy Maxwell (TF Publishing)
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With all these domains they are continuing to seize and then need to continue to renew, at what point does a bean counter tell them it's unsustainable? I also wonder how many sites just don't get renewed because they slipped through the cracks like certs sometimes do. I guess if you're a domain register this seems like a crazy inflated sales bubble that at some point is going to pop, and hopefully they have saved some of that revenue to ride out that lull.
Edit - a word
ACE & MPA Continued to Scoop Up Pirate Domains in Bulk During Q2 2025
In Q2 2025, anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment continued to 'seize' domains in bulk, adding to the world's largest collection of former pirate domains maintained by the MPA. While the archive contains countless unique and memorable domains, many with interesting and informative backstories, new additions illustrate typical responses to site blocking measures and very little else.
ACE & MPA Continued to Scoop Up Pirate Domains in Bulk During Q2 2025 * TorrentFreak
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment continues to 'seize' pirate domains, adding to huge collection maintained by the MPA.Andy Maxwell (TF Publishing)
In un mese sono morte più di 80 persone in montagna - Il Post
circa la metà delle persone recuperate si rifiuta di pagare «anche quando, di fatto, gli hai salvato la vita»
Che roba! Nemmeno se gli salvi la vita sono disposti a pagare i soccorsi
In un mese sono morte più di 80 persone in montagna
Lo ha detto il presidente del Soccorso alpino nazionale, segnalando situazioni al limite con chi viene salvato che si rifiuta di pagareIl Post
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La deputata democratica April McClain Delaney lancia l'allarme: i tagli apportati da Donald Trump a programmi come Medicaid, nonché a NPR e PBS, colpiranno le zone rurali americane come uno "tsunami"
In un'intervista rilasciata a Newsweek, la deputata April McClain Delaney ha lanciato l'allarme: i tagli apportati da Donald Trump a programmi come Medicaid, nonché a NPR e PBS, colpiranno le zone rurali americane come uno "tsunami".
Il distretto congressuale del Maryland di Delaney comprende alcune delle aree che potrebbero essere maggiormente colpite dalle politiche di Trump. Si estende dalla zona rurale occidentale dello stato, che secondo lei potrebbe subire il peso dei nuovi tagli alla rescissione, alla periferia di Washington, DC, dove risiedono i dipendenti federali che hanno perso il lavoro a causa dei licenziamenti di massa.
"Se si considerano tutti questi congelamenti dei finanziamenti per i dipendenti pubblici dei nostri parchi nazionali, ma anche per Medicaid, SNAP e poi si cominciano a considerare alcune delle altre rescissioni, ci si rende conto che si tratta semplicemente di uno tsunami che sta per colpire l'America rurale", ha affermato Delaney.
Exclusive: April McClain Delaney Warns Trump Cuts to Hit Rural America Like 'a Tsunami'
Rep. April McClain Delaney told Newsweek how cuts to programs like Medicaid, as well as NPR and PBS, will affect rural Americans.Andrew Stanton (Newsweek)
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How we Rooted Copilot
How we Rooted Copilot - Eye Research
Read how we explored the Python sandbox in Copilot and got root on the underlying containerVaisha Bernard (Eye Security)
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If they gained root access to the container, that's not a moderate vulnerability. Root inside a container is still root. You can still access the kernel with root privs and it's the same kernel as the host.
Docker is not a virtual machine.
What I'm saying is something about the story doesn't add up.
Either Microsoft classified a major issue as a minor one so they didn't have to payout the bug bounty (quite possible), or the attack didn't achieve what the researchers thought it did and Microsoft classified it according to it's actual results.
I think they gained root to the python env which they couldn't do anything with because it was still running in docker inside a VM.
- According to a smart sounding fella on hacker news.
Sunday, July 27, 2025
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Russia’s war against Ukraine
Debris litters a sports complex after an overnight Russian bombardment on July 26, 2025 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Officials say this five-hour bombardment in the Kyivskyi district included four Russian glide bombs, two ballistic missiles, and 15 Shahed drones. (Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
‘Resistance inside Russia is growing’ — Su-27UB jet set alight in Krasnodar Krai, Ukraine’s HUR claims. “Resistance to the Kremlin regime inside Russia is growing,” Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said.
After being battered by Ukraine, Russia hopes to ‘strengthen’ Black Sea Fleet. “In the coming years, the Black Sea sailors will be further strengthened — with the arrival of new frigates, corvettes, aviation, marine robotic complexes,” Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s Maritime Collegium, said.
Ukraine reports killing Russian colonel leading assaults in Kharkiv Oblast. According to operational data by Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of forces, Colonel Lebedev was leading assault operations in the Velykyi Burluk area of Kharkiv Oblast.
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Russian drone strike damages Regional Military Administration building in Sumy. Russian forces launched a drone strike on Sumy on July 26, damaging the building of the Sumy Regional Military Administration, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov reported.
Ukraine ‘thwarts Russian plan for Sumy Oblast,’ Zelensky says. Ukrainian forces have pushed back Russian troops in Sumy Oblast, disrupting Moscow’s attempts to expand its foothold in the region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 26.
Anti-corruption
How effective were Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies targeted by Zelensky, and who were they investigating? The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) have investigated top officials, including Zelensky’s allies, and have widely been seen as more effective than other law enforcement agencies. However, real progress has been hampered by Ukraine’s flawed judicial system.
Our readers’ questions about Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies, answered. We offered members of the Kyiv Independent community to share their questions about a controversial bill that undermined Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions and the street protests that followed it this week.
Read our exclusives
Meet Ukraine’s EuroMaidan protesters fighting again for democracy in wartime Kyiv
Twelve years after the EuroMaidan Revolution, thousands mobilized across Ukraine again, united by a different cause. Protests erupted on the evening of July 22, just hours after Ukraine’s parliament passed a bill widely seen as an assault on corruption reform.
Photo: Anastasia Verzun / The Kyiv Independent
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‘Stop fueling Russia’s aggression’ — US, China clash over Ukraine at United Nations
The U.S. urged China to stop enabling Russia’s war in Ukraine during a UN Security Council meeting, prompting a sharp rebuke from Beijing, which accused Washington of creating confrontation.
Photo: Wang Fan/China News Service/Getty Images
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Orban offers Ukraine ‘strategic cooperation,’ claims EU accession would ‘drag the war’ into Europe
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban proposed “strategic cooperation” with Ukraine instead of European Union integration, arguing that Kyiv’s accession would drag the war into the heart of Europe.
Photo: Attila Kisbenedek / AFP
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Ukraine’s F-16 have a new trick to avoid Russian ballistic missiles
Ukraine’s fleet of F-16 fighter jets have been given a badly-needed boost with the creation of new mobile maintenance and operations modules which will help them evade Russian ballistic missile strikes.
Photo: Come Back Alive Charity Foundation
Human cost of Russia’s war
Russian forces attack Sumy Oblast, injure 3 civilians. Russian forces launched an overnight attack on Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast on July 26, targeting civilian infrastructure and leaving three people injured.
General Staff: Russia has lost 1,048,330 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. The number includes 1,080 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
9 killed, 61 injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine over past day. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched 208 drones and 27 missiles overnight, targeting cities and infrastructure in multiple regions.
International response
US Senator Blumenthal warns Zelensky over anti-graft law, backs protests as ‘democracy in action.’ U.S. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal co-authored a bipartisan bill that would impose 500% tariffs on countries buying Russian oil, gas, or uranium.
Pope Leo meets Russian Orthodox cleric to discuss Ukraine war. The Vatican confirmed that Pope Leo received Metropolitan Anthony, the senior Russian Orthodox Church cleric who chairs its department of external church relations, along with five other high-profile clerics, during a morning audience on July 26.
Lithuania to allocate $32 million toward joint purchase of Patriot missile systems for Ukraine. Lithuania plans to contribute up to 30 million euro ($32.5 million) toward the joint purchase of U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems for Ukraine, Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported on July 26.
Russia could be ready for ‘confrontation with Europe‘ by 2027, Polish prime minister says. “Russia will be ready for confrontation with Europe — and therefore with us — as early as 2027,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
In other news
Lukashenko resumes use of migrants to ‘exert political pressure’ on Europe, Ukraine’s intelligence says. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is facilitating transit primarily to Poland, with some migrants arriving from Libya directly or through Russia — pointing to coordinated efforts between Minsk and Moscow.
Ukrainian drones strike major Russian military radio factory in Stavropol, SBU source says. Ukrainian drones struck the Signal radio plant in Russia’s Stavropol Krai overnight on July 26. The plant, located around 500 kilometers (311 miles) from Ukraine-controlled territory, manufactures electronic warfare equipment for front-line aircraft and is a major part of Russia’s military-industrial complex.
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Ukrainian drones strike major Russian military radio factory in Stavropol, SBU source says
The plant manufactures countermeasure stations for front-line aircraft and is a major part of Russia's military-industrial complex.Tim Zadorozhnyy (The Kyiv Independent)
Lemmy has a problem
With a 90% male demographic, Lemmy will face problems related to a homogeneous user population and all the issues that come with it. Right now, it's shaping up to be misogynistic, but it could also head into other bad places. Lemmy needs to attract a more diverse population of users or will end up as another echo chamber for the like minded.
similarweb.com/website/lemmy.m…
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People are downvoting cuz OP said this site is becoming misogynistic plus OP didn’t include the right “sample size.”
But can we be fucking honest? This website is incredibly male dominated. Like why are we arguing this? I woulda figured it was closer to like 95% male users…
And many folks (read: men) on this website don’t like calling out the reality that these heavily male-skewed outlooks can be misogynistic. Like, yeah, you bring tons of men in a room with no women, people will start to say misogynistic shit. It’s not reddit-level bad, but I’ve definitely noticed it.
You're talking about a specific instance Lemmy.ml which isn't even the biggest instance, but basically a tankie instance.
You should at least bring together the data of the biggest top 10 instances.
I also wonder how that website decides if I'm male or female.
Wouldn’t a tankie instance have more women?
Your response seems almost defensive, which is weird. Lemmy is definitely overwhelming male. That’s not an inherently bad thing, so I don’t get the defensive tone here or taking OP to task about data methods.
Disagree all you want, but this website is incredibly male dominated. I don’t think OP needs to do a peer-reviewed, double-blind study to say so.
Why are you so aggressively defending a false data collection method?
And what do you mean by "this website"?
The challenge of deleting old online accounts | Loudwhisper
In the last days I spent a disproportionate amount deleting old accounts I found in my password manager, and mostly because so many companies - despite the GDPR - have rudimentary, manually when not completely nonexistent processes to delete your data.
In this post I describe my process going through about 100 old accounts and trying to delete them all, including a top 10 for the weirdest, funniest or most interesting cases I encountered while doing so.
Thanks for the kind words!
I won't take credits for the template, I have used the one found here: datarequests.org/blog/sample-l…
Sample letter for erasure requests as per Art. 17 GDPR (“right to be forgotten”) · datarequests.org
Thanks to the GDPR, you have the right to have your personal data deleted if a controller no longer needs it for its original purpose. We offer you a sample letter with which you can exercise such a right.datarequests.org
I suppose it could be an endless quest trying to trace and delete everything. I know that wasn’t your aim. Just curious as I am starting to do this. We can’t trust online with anything anymore so time to start wiping my footprints of what I still can. And my account list is a good place to start.
Hey, I haven't, but to be honest, the answers I got from most companies showed me that the processes were handled by people who barely understood the legal and technical aspects around data collection (e.g., often support agents were on the other side of privacy@), which means I wouldn't trust them with their answer anyway AND I doubt many of these companies will have effective way to even check that.
From the data being sold point of view, I think unfortunately it's way more effective reaching out to the few big data brokers to request cancelations or pay one of the companies who offer such service...
Nice article.
Enjoyed reading it.
A few months ago, I alao went on a small spree of deleting from my ~500 accounts.
Some companies/services were offline, some redirected, some had no or very cumbersome ways to delete my data.
Sometimes I juat wanted to edit my email.
Welp. No can do bro. Your E-Mail is cemented in place and only the heat-death of the universe can remove it.
The ones where you can't edit the email I noticed often used the email as username, and probably god knows how bad is the code on the backend.
Tyler, il figlio maggiore problematico della discussa deputata Lauren Boebert, è accusato di abusi su minori
Il figlio maggiore problematico della deputata Lauren Boebert (cristiana rinata e già sostenitrice della teoria del complotto QAnon) è stato accusato di abuso su minori in seguito a un incidente che ha coinvolto il nipote.
Tyler, il figlio ventenne della deputata repubblicana e dell'ex marito Jayson, è stato accusato di reato minore in Colorado l'11 luglio, ha riferito sabato Denver Westword , citando i registri del dipartimento di polizia di Windsor.
Il deputato Boebert ha minimizzato l'accusa, affermando che era il risultato di "una mancanza di comunicazione sul controllo del mio giovane nipote che di recente lo ha portato ad andarsene di casa".
Rep. Lauren Boebert's troubled eldest son Tyler charged with child abuse
Rep. Boebert downplayed the charge, saying it was the result of “a miscommunication on monitoring my young grandson that recently led to him getting out of our house.”Anthony Blair (New York Post)
How we Rooted Copilot
How we Rooted Copilot - Eye Research
Read how we explored the Python sandbox in Copilot and got root on the underlying containerVaisha Bernard (Eye Security)
"Lasciate che siano i bambini a farlo": il conduttore di Fox News chiede di sostituire gli immigrati con il lavoro minorile
Dopo una visita a una piantagione di mirtilli nel fine settimana, Hurt ha discusso con i conduttori di Fox News Rachel Campos-Duffy e Charlie Kirk sull'opportunità o meno che il governo sovvenzioni le piccole aziende agricole.
"E il dibattito, ragazzi, è su cosa dovrebbe sovvenzionare il governo... voglio dire, guardate, produrre mirtilli richiede molto lavoro, per esempio", ha detto Campos-Duffy. "Quindi cosa dovrebbe sovvenzionare il governo?"
'Allow children to do it': Fox News host calls to replace immigrants with child labor
Fox News host Charlie Hurt argued that President Donald Trump's administration should bring back child labor to replace undocumented immigrants.David Edwards (Raw Story)
Google Gemini deletes use's code
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Proton freezes Swiss investment over surveillance fears
Proton freezes Swiss investment over surveillance fears
Proton, the Geneva-based encrypted email provider founded 11 years ago by three scientist who met at CERN, will freeze its investments in Switzerland, its chief executive Andy Yen told Le Temps on WedLe News
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For those who didn't read the article
“If the proposals pass, Proton’s services in Switzerland would be less private than Google’s,” Mr Yen told Le Temps. Frustrated by the lack of assurances from Beat Jans, the federal councillor overseeing the matter, Proton has opted to halt Swiss investments and shift its infrastructure plans abroad. Its artificial-intelligence data centres, deemed especially sensitive, will be located in Germany and Norway and involve investing CHF 100 million.
People here be acting like no one uses chatbots.
I like Lumo, be it only because I can use it instead of US or Chinese LLMs. Hope they help drive european AI development. And I'm quite sure Proton thought about their 1 billion investment a bit before announcing it.
You can refuse to use LLMs, but I doubt the use of AI will ever decrease again.
It just needs a dark theme. Work computer is powerful enough that I can run local models and use it occasionally. A cloud one that's just using similar open models as what you can easily download is fine to me.
Proton does have aot of work to do understandable to people's annoyance with them. Lack of Linux Drive application but they've released alpha/beta API for Drive. Drive performance isn't great yet. The Docs feature is pretty barebones for now. Calendar is too simple for power users. Regardless for now they're the closest privacy centric replacement for Google services
Proton nor Tuta nor anybody else is above the law, you can read independant reports on the matter scroll.in/article/1084862/why-…
or Proton's own post about it proton.me/blog/climate-activis…
But I don't believe that their entire account was shared with the police, but if that actually did happen and you have a proper source for it I gotta think to move my mail after all, so could you please share with the class where you read this?
Why a court ban on encrypted email service Proton Mail has sparked digital privacy fears
The court’s ban is based on a misunderstanding of encryption and stands to harm users of all encrypted digital services, warn experts.Vineet Bhalla (Scroll.in)
It's not about the law, but what's right to me.
Proton according to this post is virtue signalling. Claiming one thing, then doing the other.
It is about the law, though. Proton has always been clear about the possibility that they are required to hand over data if the Swiss government requires it: proton.me/legal/transparency
So IDK where you are getting that they are saying one thing and doing another thing and even more important where you got that they shared ENCRYPTED data. Cause if they have the ability to even do that I have to rethink my choose since that should be impossible if Proton did it correctly and are trustworthy.
Transparency report | Proton
Proton's transparency report with aggregate statistics of legal orders from the Swiss authorities, covering Proton Mail, Proton Drive, and Proton Calendar.Proton
Proton did not only hand over data to the Swiss courts, but the French courts via that. They didn't just comply with national laws, but those of other countries.
That contradicts their virtue signalled interest in privacy, when they're willing to surrender any data without even putting up a fight. They did not even try to argue in courts against handing over private data.
And considering this lead to the arrest of the activist, it either obviously wasn't encrypted or Proton had the means to decrypt it on their end.
You can't just link Proton's own PR speak as a source to counter that. Of course they would defend themselves.
Yes they did because most countries have some form of agreement that they share data when legally requested. It is pretty hard to bypass that, but it is duable (Mullaval VPN f.e.)
They didn’t just surrender the data, they started collecting it at first
The first link Ecosia showed archive.is/2022.04.11-095001/w…
And let me remind you that there is a non-profit above it and they need to handle for the purpose that was created which is still Protons core businesses. They make more money just doing whats right than not because otherwise people would go back to something free or go to Tuta/Mulivad
Tbh, it's not the worst thing when a service does that. There are cases where it is indicated - cartels, CSAM, etc. do not deserve a safe haven.
The bad part about the France issue is the fact that the Swiss court system willfully allowed a case that was not per se illegal in Switzerland and had rather controversial legal grounds in France to proceed. This is very similar to the cases where Switzerland simply ignored their own laws under pressure from the US government in terms of bank accounts 15 years earlier.
This is rather concerning and many Swiss legal experts did not share the opinion of Proton that there was nothing Proton could have done.
Maybe Proton could have done more, but maybe not on the other hand the ISP is also wrong for supplying the name that goes with the IP. (yes I know that's deflection, but still).
I personally feel like we need to find a middle ground between personal privacy and being able to stop criminals/terrorists/fraud etc.
Proton is owned by an actual non-profit (not one of those fake once you have in the US) and Andy is only 1/3rd of it so he cannot really do much alone, plus he still needs to follow the objective for the non-profit otherwise he can be held personally responsible.
Personally, I live in a country where you can vote for hundreds of politicians, and we have multiple parties ruling the country and I don't believe that agreeing with one statement is enduring anybody.
Still, Andy Yen is an idiot and Proton needs some extra governance structure to keep him in check (firing him is going to be a hard one since he still owns shares IIRC). Believe what you want and choose to use Proton or not, but it doesn't help the cause for the people to be more critical without giving context.
This was said by Andy directly: miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:…
This was said by Andy through Proton: archive.ph/quYyb
And this was his later comment from his own account: miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:…
They need to fire their CEO and get an executive suite that can develop good products and not just copy Google while adding keywords related to "privacy" and "freedoms" in their marketing copytext.
That's the exact same thing as Google.
I say this as long time Proton user and subscriber.
I don't believe they will be able to compete with Google/OpenAI in a direct battle by having a 1:1 LLM product copy but with privacy. The costs are likely too high for an organisation like Proton and their LLM is likely to have significantly subpar output.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for a private, cloud LLM, but I would rather they came up with novel usability features, a better front-end for evaluating sources (and faster identification of errors and hallucinations) and so on.
I am not seeing any of that.
Fair enough, I would also prefer if they pushed out an online excel/power point alternative before this or or allowed for more cloud storage.
That being said, I also don't think this is a bad thing to do. It seems to work alright so if they can at least be at that level then that's fantastic. I do wish they pooled their resources with other open source AI models cause that would be more efficient but maybe they have a good reason. I've just not looked into it cause I don't use AI that often
I use LLMs as a complement to search and Luma is far worse than even Le Chat from Mistral for moderately complex prompts.
Luma is also notable slower (to an unacceptable level).
I would they rather they focused on existing services. I use their email services and it's pretty good. Based on reviews, it seems that their cloud storage offering isn't on that level.
I mean.... Why not?
I want Gmail without Google. Protonmail sells that to me, seems like a win/win.
Same for other services.
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You're not executing a mkv or a pdf
You're half wrong and half right, .mkv files are completely safe but the same can't be said about .pdf files, attackers can embed malicious code, such as JavaScript or hidden executables, within a PDF file.
People really underestimate the capabilities of this .pdf file format. I remember some time ago, someone managed to run doom inside a .pdf file.
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Theoretically, there could also be a MKV file that exploits a bug in the video player to get execution.
Far less likely, but definitely possible.
There's a difference between exploiting bugs that haven't even been found and spreading malware through a method that's known by pretty much everyone and is still used to spread malware today.
It's also theoretically possible that your system is already infected by some Advanced Persistent Threats but does that happen that often, No, and have people been infected by running random pdfs they found online, Yes.
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My first job was extracting text from pdfs, in the end OCR was the most reasonable way. This was back in like 2010 when it was waaaaay harder.
Everyone who enjoys cosmic horror should read the PDF spec. pdfa.org/resource/pdf-specific…
Also watch out for any link files, .com files and .bat files.
I think you meant .lnk files instead of link files.
.scr and .uue are also becoming popular means to spread malware through torrents.
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the most important thing to have when pirating is common sense
the second most important thing to have is a vpn
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Yes.
Also, I kinda should use a VPN anyway but I don't want to buy it yet.
VPNs don't prevent tracking, they just make sure the tracking is done through a secure tunnel.
The extra hop adds a significant barrier for the website in knowing the actual source IP. The fake source IP is likely used by many other users, and the user you are trying to track can easily rotate VPN IPs.
Its one less identifier for them to use.
Adtech relies on the OpenRTB 2.5/2.6 spec for tracking, you would have removed 1 identifier out of a hundred (one that isn't really used anyway given SSAI is so popular). In addition to that, cookie expiry timers are typically set to 365 days meaning you're VPN would need to enabled at all times to not invalidate multi-hop. WebStorage API based trackers tend to be indefinite.
ORTB spec: iab.com/wp-content/uploads/201…
EDIT: If anyone is looking for more specifics about WHY IP addresses and multi-hop don't matter, the spec includes a mention:
BEST PRACTICE: Proper device IP detection in mobile is not straightforward. Typically it involves starting
at the left of the x-forwarded-for header, skipping private carrier networks (e.g., 10.x.x.x or
192.x.x.x), and possibly scanning for known carrier IP ranges. Exchanges are urged to research and
implement this feature carefully when presenting device IP values to bidders.
The issue is that mobile is so prevalent and mobile networks rely so extensively on CG-NAT that even with XFF headers, there's no good way to tell if you are going to get an IP address that actually matters. You could potentially put in a lot of auction time trying to figure that out and still just end up with a private address that's unusable. So, aside from the devicetype and the geo object which is used for geo targets and fencing, the device object isn't useful in tracking. Instead adtech uses the user object. This object should contain all your GDPR specifics, any EIDs, 1st party cookie IDs, etc. Even if those change, there usually exists backend mapping that allows for vendors to correlate different user IDs as being the same user ultimately.
...specifics about WHY IP addresses and multi-hop don't matter....you would have removed 1 identifier...
So it can matter.
Yeah, multi-hop is pointless for tracking.The logic to it is crazy too. People think VPNs make them anonymous (they don't), but they also think multi-hop makes them MORE anonymous.
Whether multi-hop matters to tracking is far and away a different discussion than whether multi-hop "makes you anonymous".
I too disagree with the original comment, but also believe the pendulum swung too far the other direction in your replies.
Situations differ. Threat models differ. More hops can, from direct personal experience, make the difference in tracking. Your claim of "...multi-hop is pointless for tracking." has too broad of a scope to be correct.
What specifically about multi-hop makes you think it improves your security?
I haven't mentioned security.
So it can matter.
Remember to read the rest of that sentence:
1 identifier out of a hundred (one that isn't really used anyway given SSAI is so popular).
So, no. Not really.
Remember to read the rest of that sentence:
It doesn't change the contradiction.
You almost had the rest of the sentence there:
one that isn't really used anyway given SSAI is so popular
You almost had the rest of the sentence there:
That doesn't change the contradiction.
You're trying to argue without evidence (like I had provided). To summarize these exchange so far its:
1. You giving some marketing crap you read from a VPN provider site on their multi-hop service.
2. Someone pointing out that it is incorrect with evidence.
3. You get mad and basically come back with "Nuh-uh!"
Is there some evidence you'd like to provide or is it going to be another "nuh-uh!"?
- You giving some marketing crap you read from a VPN provider site on their multi-hop service.
I'm sorry, but that isn't correct.
Threat models differ. More hops can, from direct personal experience, make the difference in tracking
Evidence, or it isn't true.
Evidence, or it isn't true.
Unrelated, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Anyways, your own statement:
Adtech relies on the OpenRTB 2.5/2.6 spec for tracking, you would have removed 1 identifier out of a hundred (one that isn't really used anyway given SSAI is so popular).
Removing an identifier that is used. (1/100 = matters, "isn't really used" != unused). This contradicts your other statements:
Yeah, multi-hop is pointless for tracking....IP addresses and multi-hop don't matter...
Broad statements that don't take into consideration the threat model of other users. Servers you connect to might not be using source IP in any way to track. You might be leaking so many other identifiers, that its completely useless to worry about multi-hop. But this is not true for everyone in every situation.
If its worth anything to you, the Tor Project seems to think multi-hop and IP addresses matter for protecting against tracking.
ABOUT TOR BROWSER | Tor Project | Tor Browser Manual
Defend yourself against tracking and surveillance. Circumvent censorship. | ABOUT TOR BROWSERtb-manual.torproject.org
Unrelated, but absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
So, I'm not allowed to ask you for proof of your statement? And if its unrelated, then why did you post it? Its unrelated.
Also, you're saying you have an absence of evidence, ergo you have no evidence.
Having no evidence does not qualify as evidence.
Removing an identifier that is used. (1/100 = matters, "isn't really used" != unused). This contradicts your other statements:
Just because an identifier exists doesn't mean it is used.BidRequest.imp[i].tagid exists, but advertisers don't use it.
I think you are confusing having an option with something being mandatory.
And Tor nodes are not the same thing as VPN multi-hop. If you think that they are, wow!
VPN multi-hop is you connecting to a provider's server that connects to another one of the provider's server then out.
It's all the provider's network.
And again, if you connected your Firefox browser to Tor, we could still track you.
You'd get cookied or localStorage() tracked.
When you disconnect from Tor, that stuff is still present in your browser.
Almost like the number of hops you take or the IP address used doesn't seem to really matter, huh?
EDIT:
I just realized you think that Tor is built using multi-hop VPN.
Its a real life Dunning-Kruger effect! I've never encountered this.
You are going to do something really stupid and end up in prison.
So, I'm not allowed to ask you for proof of your statement? And if its unrelated, then why did you post it? Its unrelated. Also, you're saying you have an absence of evidence, ergo you have no evidence. Having no evidence does not qualify as evidence
Asking for evidence wasn't the issue, believing that the truth relies solely upon a discussion providing such evidence is.
I think you are confusing having an option with something being mandatory.
You misunderstood. Some of your own statements say it matters and is used. Mandatory wasn't mentioned nor implied.
And Tor nodes are not the same thing as VPN multi-hop.I just realized you think that Tor is built using multi-hop.
I didn't state they were the same. Tor uses "multiple hops" (you can find that string the the link I posted earlier). It is critical to the limiting of information seen by any single entity.
And again, if you connected your Firefox browser to Tor, we could still track you. You'd get cookied or localStorage() tracked. When you disconnect from Tor, that stuff is still present in your browser. Almost like the number of hops you take or the IP address used doesn't seem to really matter, huh?
All that state can be removed. And the server might not be tracking that. Situations vary, adversaries vary. If you cannot imagine a scenario in which hops or IP address would matter, I would suggest doing some research.
Its a real life Dunning-Kruger effect! I've never encountered this. You are going to do something really stupid and end up in prison.
Personal swipes mark the end of this discussion. I would suggest you to leave those out next time as It detracts focus from constructive learning.
This will be my last reply. You can also reply if you want (but I won't see it).
Asking for evidence wasn't the issue, believing that the truth relies solely upon a discussion providing such evidence is.
Again, post your evidence or didn't happen.
Literally everything after that meaningless without that.
The discussion is over because you can't provide that as you are wrong.
End.
Torrenting over TOR. Fantastic idea. You clearly know what you're talking about.
Use cases are important.
It's still new so that's expected, as more and more people start using it, the speeds will get better automatically.
There's also private trackers, you won't need a VPN if you get your torrents from them.
Does I2P utilize nodes or something that can be hosted? I’m lucky enough to live in a location with symmetrical gigabit internet, so even if I don’t use it myself I could at least donate some bandwidth. Could run next to my TOR relay.
Private trackers are a very handy option. I’ve found their rules can often get restrictive. Although it makes sense - gotta protect the swarm.
If you’ve got a symmetrical gigabit line, you'd be a great fit for hosting a high-bandwidth I2P node, it helps the whole network scale and makes things faster for everyone. Though I'd recommend reading more about i2p before diving in.
the most important this to have when pirating is common sense
We disagree actually, it's to have well written tutorials and not to rely on the idea that people can just know things from nothing.
We get the frustration in this meme but honestly, we never liked this kind of attitude in tech spaces, it's exclusionary, gatekeepy and harms people. We understand not wanting to answer every single question but some well written tutorials etc to link to are better than having everyone starting in ignorance and getting in trouble or being harmed for it.
Especially if said tutorials keep up to date and add more answers to people's questions over time.
After all, being helpful actually helps the pirate community in that more people seed, so helping others is actually win-win. There's really no downsides whereas expecting others to know everything or being rude stops this from happening and thus is a loss for all of us.
Well, that's a fault of the client. Really it should be working on such basic functionality, if it doesn't have it already.
What do you mean?
"not a human" HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh my fucking god you're a crazy bitch. How are you allowed on the internet, good god. Excuse me, wiping tears from my eyes 😭 as I cry-laugh at your bottomless stupidity 😂😂😂😂😂.
For reference, I don't give a crap about you being plural or not, that's totally fine. But saying you're not human?? Hahahaha 😂😂😂
My client doesn't show these things, and i'm honestly not interested enough in the matter to read someones bio to put their odd form of expression into context, even if it would show them.
For the sake of efficient communication i would suggest adjusting either by putting that context in your comment or by expressing yourself more clearly.
#myths section.
It also says: "There have been no such studies done on non-clinical plurality yet, but interest has been growing in the field."
It is also saying that DID is one type of plurality, it is not calling it the only type.
Not all of us have the clinical/medical type of plurality, DID, OSDD etc etc.
If you're genuinely interested then: pluralpedia.org/ explains many more types. Especially this page, gives a basic starter: pluralpedia.org/w/Plurality
Plurality
Plurality is the state of having multiple headmates collectively sharing a single body. A group of headmates is called a system.Pluralpedia
Tutorials can't cover everything. Once you encounter something completely new, you need common sense to extrapolate from your existing knowledge (which could be from a tutorial or experience, etc).
In the end, whether we're talking about piracy, work or life in general… You need to be able to adapt to situations, not just read guides.
That's not to say well-written tutorials shouldn't exist, but the common sense part is still more important IMO
Sure, but the problem is that people aren't taught those skills necessarily. So it does help when people are willing to help out in case those skills or ability to do that or for many other reasons aren't possible.
We get that not everybody can or wants to, but a quick "I'm unable to help you" is fine, yet we see so mahy people being rude instead. Leave space for those who can or want to help instead 🙂
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This was me basically before I started to learn how to do shit properly.
Ie. when I was a teenager and learnt about pirating through low quality youtube vids
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{intitle:game I wanted}{infile:*torrent}
This was how I used to format my piracy searches. 13 years later I recognize that forcing the search engine to generate direct links to the torrents instead of handing me pages I could get was probably where those viruses came from 😅
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I don't understand folks that pirate games. I don't think there's a particular service issue currently between all the platforms and sales.
If I'm boycotting a publisher/studio, I just don't play their games. If I find them too expensive, I just don't buy it and won't play it. And if it's not worth buying it at full price, I'll just might buy it on sale later.
Movies and TV shows on the other hand... There's definitely a service issue there.
It's not free. The associated cost is searching for an appropriate release, potentially eliminating any issues with it and then still risking becoming part of the botnet.
In contrast, buying games on deep sale is pennies and it just works.
I didn't say all games. I'm a patient gamer. I buy when they go on sale, years later. Unless it's a really well received indie game. I try to pay full price for those.
Steam (and I assume other platforms as well) change prices depending on region. So what may seem unaffordable in Canadian Dollars, is likely well priced in Hungarian Forint or Czech Korunas.
We used to had demo version of games, often made with care. Now we have 2h play on Steam while we can refund, instead.
Devs* learned to make first 2h nice and intense and to scream it's awesome and the wow effect, and everything later super bland and repetitive. Nice 2h long game may be worthy 8€. 2h long fun and 200h boring fuck is not worthy 80€ the devs request.
As devs I point some devs and often publishers who own dev studio and makes orders too.
I don't trust the bitches.
If I find whole game fun and worthy the price, can pay even 80€, can put it on the wishlist to buy on promo later, or in extreme cases, even buy few copies for friends includes pricy dlc. IF I find it worthy as whole.
I don't understand folks that pirate games. I don't think there's a particular service issue currently between all the platforms and sales
Capcom puts invasive DRM on all of their games now, and retroactively added it after people bought said games. All of the Borderlands games had spyware retroactively added over the past yeat spyware. And Ubisoft can't be trusted to not take away games from people who paid for them.
Right. But again, that's on the individual for buying it for loads of cash upon release. The writing was on the wall for all these shitty AAA producing companies for years, yet the preorder FOMO train never stopped.
I agree about piracy/cracks for stuff that you already bought, but the publisher broke it in some way. But these are the exception, not the norm.
We don't disagree. Our approach is just different. Neither of us are throwing much money at these companies.
Just the other day I've bought the FO4 GOTY edition for (checks email) C$13.37 (lol), which included all DLCs, and I thought it was a fair price for the quality of the game and content it provides. With the 30% cut that steam takes, I hope Bobby or Todd or whoever is in charge now is happy.
I'm a Linux user as well (arch btw) and I just look at protondb and areweanticheatyet.com/ as a reference. If something comes up as less than stellar, I'll just skip purchasing it.
Longest I had to tinker with were Project Zomboid (due to ancient gfx before I bought a new one) and Jedi Fallen Order (just to fine tune for performance/fidelity, took about 15 minutes).
I understand if you regularly go for games that require a lot of tinkering you might need more time though, but the Steam return is 2hrs of played time, not 2hrs of owning the game.
on a sale later
Or just show the publishers the middle finger by sailing the seven seas.
In Linux, if you run games with Lutris, you can have them sandboxed with your sandboxing app of choice (personally I use firejail) by changing the "command prefix" option in the configuration for the game (or setting it as the default in the global Lutris configuration).
Also Lutris defaults to a different Wine instance per game, so Windows-specific malware would only ever affect the wine instance of that game.
So if you're worried about pirated Windows games might contain Linux specific malware meant for when the game is running under Wine (as Wine is just an adaptor, not an emulator or sandboxing layer) you can go as crazy as you want in blocking what that executable can access, all fully under your control.
It also protects your machine from any spyware in the original game, as it's very easy to have the sandboxing deny network access beyond localhost.
Personally I run everything inside the sandbox with networking disabled.
Your vacation plans might be ruined by bots triggering fake bookings and crashing travel sites during checkout
Plane tickets are getting more expensive, and AI bots may well be the reason why — here's what you need to know
Travel websites are under siege as bots flood systemsEfosa Udinmwen (TechRadar)
MIT researchers have unveiled a portable, window‑sized device dubbed the atmospheric water harvesting window (AWHW) that can extract clean drinking water directly from air, even in death valley
A New Device Pulls Water From Thin Air—Even in Death Valley
Portable, reusable, and affordable, the device is the latest in technologies aiming to expand access to drinking water.SingularityHub
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Ooohhh another dehumidifier!
But no no no no, this time, THIS time, MIT is involved so it MUST be true, because MIT would never link it's mlname to yet another Sammy product, right?
OOOHH, And this device will even get water out of desert air, you say? Like like all the other water out of dry air products that were all such obvious scams that any 15yo could use highschool physics to explain it to you?.
Well call me sold, I'm all in in this one! By the way, I have this nice heat little bridge in my backyard, you'd LOVE it! Pay first, the. I'll show ya, promise!
And just to make it really really clear: no, I haven't read the article and yes, it's a scam, and how do I know? Basic physics and, you know, seeing these devices come by every 2-4 years like clockwork and every damn time some university is funding it or attaching their names to it for some reason. I don't even need to read the article at this point.
Here is a question: can universities please require that students have taken some basic physics courses before they allow them to start dumb scams like this?
Edit: come at me Lemmy, down vote all you want, I'm still right
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Without even clicking I already knew it was thunderf00t and yes, you're totally right.
So sad that he barely publishes new material anymore
If it makes you feel better, . 😀
I haven't watched it yet, but it's on my short list!
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
These are called dehumidifiers and you should not drink the water that comes out of them.
The condensed water is pure, yes. But dehumidifiers almost instantly become a breeding ground for all kinds of nasty shit. Nasty shit that is now in your ‘pure’ water.
Edit: It's the same problem as the which is also a passive dehumidifier. This same idea comes up several times a year, yet you don't see them deployed in quantity anywhere. They simply don't work well. (The WaterSeer actually seems like a better design than what is in OP's article.)
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Really?
The waterseeer was an outright scam that never would have worked because physics, yet collecting millions in funding. And that wasn't the first on either
This one is no difference, it's a scam.
The condensed water is pure, yes
"Pure" is not a good thing when talking about water. Your body relies on minerals dissolved in drinking water. Also, water is a powerful solvent and if it isnt already saturated with minerals it will absorb calcium right out of your bones
Distorted sound of the early universe suggests we are living in a giant void
Distorted sound of the early universe suggests we are living in a giant void
A local void could settle contradicting measurements about how fast the universe is expanding.The Conversation
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Grateful Dead — Live Dead (1969)
Live Dead è il primo album dal vivo della band che più di ogni altra ha costruito la propria immagine sui “live”. Nella loro discografia i dischi dal vivo hanno raggiunto quelli in studio e senza dubbio sono destinati ancora a crescere... Leggi e ascolta...
Grateful Dead — Live Dead (1969)
Live Dead è il primo album dal vivo della band che più di ogni altra ha costruito la propria immagine sui “live”. Nella loro discografia i dischi dal vivo hanno raggiunto quelli in studio e senza dubbio sono destinati ancora a crescere. Live Dead è un live un po’ speciale non solo perché è stato registrato con una platea di amici e non con un pubblico pagante ma soprattutto perché è un disco di passaggio, “il” disco di passaggio dagli Acid Tests e dalla San Francisco “sixties” verso il mondo nuovo, verso i settanta, anni più complicati e grigi... silvanobottaro.it/archives/427…
Ascolta: album.link/i/20885553
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Live Dead (Remastered) by Grateful Dead
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L'umida profezia del settimo sigillo di palma nel giardino peruviano predestinato - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
L'umida profezia del settimo sigillo di palma nel giardino peruviano predestinato - Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri
Il giovane Julian Vargas si avvicinò con passo deciso all’alta staccionata mentre un vortice meteorologico sembrava minacciare il suo stesso diritto all’esistenza.Jacopo (Il blog di Jacopo Ranieri)
Fellow pirates, can you help me find torrent for the HealthGammer GG course?
HealthyGamerGG
Content, coaching, and community from Dr. K's brain into yours. https://healthygamer.gg/YouTube
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Pro likes this.
healthygamer.gg/about/guide
Dr. K's Guide to Mental Health
A tailored learning experience designed by Dr. K with over 180 videos, worksheets, glossaries and more.www.healthygamer.gg
You do you, but you seem like one of those grandmas paying money to "plant seeds" so that the television church man can totally cure you of cancer by some miracle while he flies around on a private jet, because the reality is messy and complicated and hard, even in the best of times. I know you're looking not to pay money, but i doubt there'll be anything but an upsell that you'll find at the bottom of this botrle, and you might be in deeper by then.
I hope for better times ahead for you regardless.
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Pro likes this.
I have the courses. It's a collection of videos, pretty short ones, but it's hundreds of videos. Dunno why all the hate here. But it's been helpful for me.
It would be difficult to rip them and time consuming. Is there a course your more specifically interested in?
Honestly I am surprised too with this reaction.
Is there a course your more specifically interested in?
Trauma and anxiety.
America wants AI that doesn't care about misinformation, DEI, and climate change
The Trump administration recently published "America's AI Action Plan". One of the first policy actions from the document is to eliminate references to misinformation, diversity, equity, inclusion, and climate change from the NIST's AI Risk Framework.
Lacking any sense of irony, the very next point states LLM developers should ensure their systems are "objective and free from top-down ideological bias".
Par for the course for Trump and his cronies, but the world should know what kind of AI the US wants to build.
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adhocfungus e Nobilmantis like this.
This, at least, is a fact.
You could have voted Green. You could have voted Marianne Williamson in the Democratic primary. The little power our voters do have they just wasted.
The 2024 democratic primary was non-existent for two reasons:
- Democrats rig their primaries, and they admitted it in court in Florida.
- Dementia isn't a redline for Democrats and their partisans.
The phrasing means everything.
Example: "Trump wants..."
VS
Example: "America wants..."
Big difference. Executive Orders are a memo, not law. It's disturbing that I have to keep saying this and explaining this.
You know, this might actually be really bad politics.
Trump is not the only person at the top. He's kind of a lame duck, actually: he just does whatever Miller says. The only time he steps in is when he's personally insulted by something because he desperately wants everyone to know he's a very special boy.
I do take issue with democrats blaming everything the republicans are up to on Trump specifically, as if the party might return to normal once he dies.
It probably will return somewhat to normal, assuming public opinion continues on its trajectory. People overwhelmingly don't like Trump, so anyone affiliated w/ him are going to hurt in the next couple elections unless public opinion turns around.
I don't know what "normal" looks like, but it's probably somewhere between Trump and Bush. I'm still not a fan, but moving away from Trump is going to be a net win.
anyone affiliated w/ him
Well, this is what I'm asking for, so I sure hope so.
but it's probably somewhere between Trump and Bush.
So, keep in mind, republican voters are not upset with Trump because they've decided they no longer want a border wall. The architects of Project 2025 don't need anything from Trump but political power, which they already have.
The next election cycle, if it's real, I do imagine will swing back, but it cannot just "swing back," it needs to deal with the sickness plaguing the US. That sickness is the republican party. That sickness is the republican voter.
That sickness is the republican party. That sickness is the republican voter.
I disagree, and this just smacks of tribalism.
The problem is people wanting to force others into their worldview, parties are just a tool to get that done. The real solution is ending the two party system so people can express themselves better, not to replace one problem with another.
The problem is people wanting to force others into their worldview,
No, I will force nazis into my worldview, actually. They can come willingly, or we can beat them into submission like we did 80 years ago.
What, actually, is wrong with you? Building alligator auschwitz does, in fact, make you a bad person—if you seriously disagree with this, then you and I are enemies.
Yes, building the detention center is absolutely terrible. I hate everything about the recent changes WRT immigration, and I probably don't even know the half of it.
We're a nation of immigrants, and we should absolutely be encouraging more legal immigration. In fact, my personal opinion is that we should make a new type of temporary "work seeking" visa where you're given some time (say, 1 month) to find a job, and if you get a job, it automatically turns into a work authorization visa, with the stipulation that the employer must report when that job ends, at which point you have another month to find a new job before you have to leave. IMO, this completely solves the migrant worker issue, without needing to mess w/ quotes for longer-term visas. Those employers would also receive closer scrutiny to catch any illegal activity (i.e. shell companies employing cartels).
However, associating it w/ the Holocaust is disgusting and again smacks of tribalism. Yes it's a terrible facility, but AFAIK there's zero overlap w/ what the Nazis did. Since it's on US soil, they do have to follow US law in how they treat people, unlike Gitmo.
nazis... we can beat them into submission
If you actually think Republicans have much overlap w/ Nazis, then you're delusional. It's just like Republicans claiming Democrats are Marxists. The name calling isn't productive and just cheapens what each of those terms mean.
Yes, some people in the Republican camp court fascist policies, but by and large, they are not fascist. Call them out on actual policy issues and convince people to vote them out w/ logic, don't just lean into rhetoric.
You think that caging brown people "for no reason" is a disgusting comparison to the Holocaust?
This is unreal. I didn't see this conversation coming at all. You're actually doing nazi apologia. You're refusing to acknowledge the pressure building in your pipes only because the pipes haven't burst yet. How many brown people do you want to die before you're willing to concede this? Do we need to wait until the full 6 million?
they do have to follow US law in how they treat people
No. They don't.
- Neither Democrat congress members nor journalists are allowed to see what's happening inside that camp. Rather, they are, legally, but they're being prevented from doing so anyway.
- The Democrats are weak and refuse to punish Republicans for anything. If there is no threat of punishment, they can just do whatever they want. Republicans have abused this weakness of Democrats like 5 billion times.
- The Big Beautiful Bill includes a provision that judicial funds cannot be used to pursue rulings. This passed, so, if it can't be repealed, this means it is illegal to use funds intended to punish criminals to seek punishment for Republicans breaking the law. This kills the law.
Call them out on actual policy issues
Call them out for being evil. Their policies are evil.
If the majority of Republicans are not evil, as you say, then they should have no problem dropping the line. They can form a new party, and the current one can be dropped into a wastebin in hell.
How many brown people do you want to die
How many have or are likely to die due to this? That would obviously depend on the duration of detention, and I honestly don't know much about that, but these people should have the right of due process since they're on US soil (5th and 14th amendments). So they can't just be incarcerated indefinitely (habeas corpus), they'd have to be tried or released in a timely fashion.
The Holocaust differs in so many ways:
- were largely labor camps, which later became extermination camps - as a detention facility, this means people are not convicted and therefore legally protected under the 13th amendment from forced labor; likewise, capital punishment only applies to those convicted
- people taken w/o violating any actual crimes - the detention facility is for those suspected of immigration crimes
- the intent was genocide - intent for detention facility is temporary holding until people can be tried or deported
It's not remotely the same thing, and comparing them is ridiculous rhetoric. Comparing everything the right does to Nazism and the Holocaust is intellectually dishonest, meant to convince someone to your side through emotional language instead of facts.
If there are deaths, they're going to be incidental to incarceration, as in people already in poor health dying due to added stress of incarceration or something, and not something directly done by the guards.
Rather, they are, legally, but they’re being prevented from doing so anyway.
And unfortunately, that's something that's going to have to be worked out in the courts. According to US law, they must be subject to audit to ensure Constitutional Law is being followed.
Democrats are weak
True, but I'm not sure what this has to do w/ anything.
The Big Beautiful Bill includes a provision that judicial funds cannot be used to pursue rulings. This passed, so, if it can’t be repealed, this means it is illegal to use funds intended to punish criminals to seek punishment for Republicans breaking the law. This kills the law.
If that's accurate (I haven't reviewed it), then that provision will likely be struck down by a court. You can't just hamstring the branch of the government that decides whether law is constitutional and expect them to just roll over, even the conservative Supreme Court would very likely strike this down.
If the majority of Republicans are not evil, as you say, then they should have no problem dropping the line.
And they have been. Look at Trump's approval rating. I live in a very red state, and he has a net negative approval rating here, which is absolutely bonkers. This will have an impact on the next couple elections, but it's hard to tell what the actual results will be. But if Trump keeps pissing off his base, it could get very spicy indeed.
- people taken w/o violating any actual crimes - the detention facility is for those suspected of immigration crimes
Wow.
You know, it's no wonder you live in a red state; you're still bought into the republican propoganda. I believe you that the "immigrants" rounded up into unmarked ICE vans will be tried fairly, and only the vile criminals among them will be deported to an El Salvador slave camp.
- the intent was genocide - intent for detention facility is temporary holding until people can be tried or deported
Deporting people en masse is genocide.
even the conservative Supreme Court would very likely strike this down.
The conservative justices are loyal to the Republican party. The Republican party does not want to be held accountable. What on earth gives you the idea they'll want to strike this down?
Look at Trump's approval rating.
His approval rating is only down among Republicans because his tariffs have been hurting them and not the brown people they voted to kill.
They thought the white ethnostate Trump would usher in would make them lions among sheep, and they are only upset that they are among the sheep.
—Not to mention, listen to any on-the-streets interviews with republican voters about their disapproval, fucking all of them say they'd vote for him again.
it could get very spicy indeed.
Absolutely beside myself at your cavalier attitude. I do hope your state gets everything it voted for.
deported to an El Salvador slave camp.
That's the absolutely horrendous part, and you should be criticizing those camps. This detention center isn't that.
Deporting people en masse is genocide.
That's not true. This is what genocide means:
genocide: The systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group.
Deportation is the national version of trespassing someone from a property. It's not murder.
The conservative justices are loyal to the Republican party.
They're really not. Their interests do often align, but that's not because they're taking orders from the GOP. If the GOP was actually able to tell them what to do, they'd side w/ Trump way more often.
they voted to kill
That's not what they did.
They largely voted for protectionism (save our jobs/businesses/etc), and now they're feeling the results of that.
Only a small subset of Republicans are actually racist. I'm sure the same is true among Democrats as well.
Absolutely beside myself at your cavalier attitude
Why? Because I refuse to jump on the Republican hate bandwagon? I'm not going to stoop to dangerous rhetoric to try to scare/shame people to my viewpoint.
I strongly disagree with Republicans on policy, but more importantly I see the two party system as the real problem here. Shilling one side over another just perpetuates that system and merely swings the pendulum the other way.
So no, I'm not going to buy into that nonsense. And my state is doing quite well, despite the best efforts of our legislature.
Like how some americans see the Middel East, Russia, China, Israel, Palestine, Mexico etc etc etc..
Its not nice when its going the other way, is it.
I don't do that because it wouldn't be right. Doesn't matter who did what to me in the past.
For instance if you were a plumber and you intentionally smashed a piece of furniture while at a clients house, does that mean all plumbers are violently vandalizing people's homes ,no.
Because adult human beings know that the actions of one do not define the actions of all.
I am not changing this position. You can get the last word, throw an insult at me or do nothing.
Choice is yours but I'm done. I don't have to defend the correct position. It is correct.
I just, I do not understand why this upsets people so much.
I work for a company that does things I don't want them to do all the time. I've never felt like someone saying "[the company] wants to do [this thing]" was ever referring to me specifically whatsoever.
What if they said employees of your company all support a thing? That would include you.
It's absolutely insane to say all Americans support Trump when he has a net negative approval rating pretty much everywhere, including red states. Look at the opinion polls, most people don't like what's going on. Yet for some reason, people claim the majority of us like him for some reason.
What if they said employees of your company all support a thing? That would include you.
But no one is doing this. America is a state.
"Americans do X"
*America. Look at the title again.
I gotta be honest, I don't understand what you're fighting for here. That people in Finland will have a slightly better opinion of you? Mexico will know you're one of the good ones?
Russia has done a lot of disagreeable things, I've got to imagine its people are pretty upset about it.
I'm talking about comments a few levels up the chain talking about overgeneralizations, as well as the very common loose language online where people attribute problems to the people of a nation rather than its leaders.
I have no issues with Chinese or Russian people, I have issues w/ their respective governments. Yet we get hate crimes against the people that come from a region just because their government did something stupid.
I'm pushing against his culture.
where people attribute problems to the people of a nation rather than its leaders.
But you're the one doing this. I'm not conflating people with country here. OP isn't either.
Yet we get hate crimes against the people that come from a region just because their government did something stupid.
Are you proposing that racists, when they hear "Russian government" instead of "Russia," will stop being racist? I don't really know what to say to that.
When racists hear "Russians do X," yes, they'll attribute that to many ethnic Russians outside of Russia.
Look at the Japanese internment during WW2, tons of people were accused of being spys and interned simply because of their ethnicity, even if they had lived here for decades (or were even born here). Japanese people got mistreated for years after WW2 just because they were Japanese, without any association w/ the Japanese government. Why? Because propaganda associated the terrible actions of the Japanese government with the Japanese people and turned US citizens on each other.
So yes, I will push back on anything that even smells like that kind of BS. I will not tolerate generalizations like this, even if most "normal" people understand what it means. People already associate Jewish people in the US w/ Israel, even though many (most?) actually don't like the Israeli state. So no, I will not sit back and allow casual intolerance to go unquestioned.
Yes, it's not the point of the article, but I saw similar wording several times in comments on this post, hence my comment here (it seemed the most relevant subthread to drop it into).
"Russians do X,"
*Russia.
You keep making this mistake. I'm starting to think you're doing it deliberately.
Because propaganda associated the terrible actions of the Japanese government with the Japanese people
Are you not reinforcing the idea that a country's name refers to its people by insisting that everyone else and not you are the ones nefariously conflating the two?
The idea that a people are the same as their country is nationalism. How are you battling nationalism by preventing people from saying a country's name?
If you said "Netanyahu did this," and fair, he does a lot of things, would the racist not assume that the Isreali people elected him and thus agree with him anyway? Because they're "of the same kind."
You seem to think that their racism is derived from a simple misconception and not, like, a deep-seated fear and paranoia.
If you see someone say "Isreal does this," then assume they mean the state. If you see someone say "let's bomb Isreal into the shadow realm," then politely snap their neck. It's not that hard.
You keep making this mistake. I’m starting to think you’re doing it deliberately.
It's not a mistake, I see that type of language a lot. If the language was specifically "Russia does X", then it's not a problem, because it's referring to the government.
The idea that a people are the same as their country is nationalism. How are you battling nationalism by preventing people from saying a country’s name?
Nationalism sucks, and I'm trying to distinguish between the country doing a thing (i.e. its leadership) and the people doing a thing. The people in the US elected Trump, but the people in the US aren't doing what Trump did, so it's absolutely fallacious to say something like "Americans are deporting people," when that's being done by the administration, not everyday people.
That's it.
would the racist not assume that the Isreali people elected him and thus agree with him anyway?
Sure, maybe. But a lot more people would get riled up if we said "Israelis did this," and then associate that with random Jewish people (most of whom have probably never been to Israel). Netanyahu/Israel doing a thing is quite different from Israelis doing a thing, because the latter has a lot more risk of lumping in non-Israelis into that nonsense.
Racism is certainly deeper than a headline/misconception, my point is that it can be stoked by loose language. Its that loose language that I'd like people to be more careful about.
It is an absolute fucking god damn JOKE that Americans have allowed the concepts of DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION to be turned into a FUCKING ACRONYM THAT IS USED AS A PEJORATIVE.
Every single fucking one of them should be bloody ashamed for what has happened. At no fucking god damn point has any decent fucking person challenged any of these assholes on this, they’ve all just let it happen.
Unfuckingbelievable
Putting a title on it (I.e. "Big beautiful bill") doesn't mean it is a big, beautiful bill.
I'm not skeptical of DEI because I'm against "diversity, equity, and inclusion", I'm skeptical because of piss poor implementations of it I see in the workforce
AI, crypto, just like .com, are very much very real, valuable technologies that have and will continue to stick around and be used until we destroy ourselves, or something even more advanced comes along.
What was/is a grift, is all the stupid money and people around it that don't have a damn clue where the limits of the technologies actually lie, what kinds of real problems are solved and have been sold lies stop lies without doing their due diligence.
Ensure that Frontier AI Protects Fee Speechrevise the NST to eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
Censorship is free speech.
les miserables 2012 - why the f it downloads a f-ing documentary instead?
I haven't experienced this with other movies and this is annoying as fuck.
real movie is 2 hours.
stupid documentary is 1hr.
Ive downloaded from 10 different sources and it's always a stupid documentary.
Am I doing something wrong? or there is a McCarthyist governmental conspiracy to keep this movie hidden?
real movie - I can see it actuallly exists: vk.com/video361427896_45623935…
like this
adhocfungus likes this.
it still downloads a documentary. I pay indexers and usenet.
cmon guys - i just want to see misery in HD.
So it's p2p without the help and protection of the bittorrent protocol, like limewire. I guess it's not literally limewire, it uses a warez graveyard instead.
If your software is "the best software", how come it can't find a movie? Why do you need to "set it up" to "properly score releases"? Jajajaja here you go instead:
rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.…
therarbg.com/post-detail/64302…
Took 5 mins on my phone. Nw we were all new to piracy once.
It's not P2P at all, and bittorrent doesn't give you any protection against anything. Usenet is also usually better when it comes to finding stuff, because public torrent sites drop like flies all the time. And Usenet downloads as fast as my connection can handle, without waiting for peers or needing to seed afterwards, and I don't even need a VPN if I don't want one.
Took 5 mins on my phone. Nw we were all new to piracy once.
Yes, we were all new to piracy at one point. But if you're going to be a smug little shit, then allow me to point out the difference between us is that you're still new to it, fledgling. You took five minutes typing shit out on your phone to find it? How adorable. It took me barely lifting a finger to click one button, and then I walked away while my media server took care of all the rest. Finding the best copy available on the net, downloading it, finding subtitles for it, and importing it into my media library so I can stream it to any device in the world. Movies, TV shows, ebooks, audiobooks, music, it doesn't matter. Anything I want, it's fully automated from start to finish. I don't even pirate anymore, because I'm not a peasant like you and I've got robot underlings to take care of shit like that for me.
Now, are we done stroking our own cocks, or do you want to swagger around some more like a teenager who hasn't gotten their braces off?
Okay internet tough guy,
bittorrent doesn't give you any protection against anything
Wrong.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTor…
Each piece is protected by a cryptographic hash contained in the torrent descriptor.[1] This ensures that any modification of the piece can be reliably detected, and thus prevents both accidental and malicious modifications of any of the pieces received at other nodes. If a node starts with an authentic copy of the torrent descriptor, it can verify the authenticity of the entire file it receives.Usenet is also usually better when it comes to finding stuff, because public torrent sites drop like flies all the time.
So? Sites may go, but torrents stay alive. A torrent will usually have multiple trackers, even after the site you got the link from is long gone, that torrent will work like a charm and is easily findable via any site that indexes multiple trackers.
Case in point - that rarbg release I sent? Yeah the original group and their site is long gone. Rarbg.to is the actual site, the one I linked is just a random fansite with the same UI.
Yet despite the site being down, the torrent lives on. Must be like magic to some of us, eh?
And Usenet downloads as fast as my connection can handle,
No, it downloads as fast both your and the server's connection can handle. The cloud is just someone else's PC, but instead of many randoms in usually Belarus, Brazil and Portugal, you rely on one.
Torrents will be faster, because you can download many pieces at once, unless you're downloading from like a huge corpo DC in which case yeah, good luck with that.
without waiting for peers or needing to seed afterwards
Yeah, instead of a resilient system where as long as one of thousands has a file you can always get it, you use 90s megaupload.
and I don't even need a VPN if I don't want one.
Congrats, I don't use one either and never have. Five eyes country BTW.
It took me barely lifting a finger to click one button, and then I walked away while my media server took care of all the rest. Finding the best copy available on the net, downloading it, finding subtitles for it, and importing it into my media library so I can stream it to any device in the world. Movies, TV shows, ebooks, audiobooks, music, it doesn't matter. Anything I want, it's fully automated from start to finish. I don't even pirate anymore, because I'm not a peasant like you and I've got robot underlings to take care of shit like that for me.
Well according to the OP, its more like you press a button and your "robot underlings" download some random semi-related documentary.
Honestly you might just wanna hit up the public library and ask if they got it at this point.
Now, are we done stroking our own cocks, or do you want to swagger around some more like a teenager who hasn't gotten their braces off?
The real difference between us is that I got a dick to swing about, all you got is air and sockpuppet alts to do your downvotes for you.
The real difference between us is that I got a dick to swing about
Swagger around some more it is, I guess. Well kid, you can take care of that yourself, I think your last reply getting nearly everything you wrote about Usenet wrong does enough damage to you, that you don't even need me anymore. I'll leave you and my "sockpuppets" in peace.
Usenet piracy is OG lol, goes back way longer than BitTorrent.
Yes like I said, "90s megaupload".
Or like I also said - "Warez graveyard".
Learn 2 read. Yawn.
No I don't want to know, and I don't care, and the guy I'm replying to is way more of a dick than me anyway, as he should be, as is his natural right and as we all should be - but he also should be downvoted to oblivion for spreading literal misinformation, like actual obvious falsehoods - like "bittorrent doesn't protect against anything" which is something he said. But he isn't. Because ig the vast majority of this community is actually retarded.
Honestly y'all deserve each other.
You're not doing something wrong, per se, but you're also not doing something right. You should set up Radarr according to the TRaSH guides. This way Radarr will score releases and grab the best out of what it can find, instead of just grabbing whatever it finds first. If you don't set up Radarr to score releases, you might as well be doing it manually because you'll get better results.
Looks like you use NZBgeek. Try one of the top results here, looks like they are the real thing, judging from the comments on the NZBs.
Home - TRaSH Guides
Guides mainly for Sonarr/Radarr/Bazarr and everything related to it.trash-guides.info
telegrammici segnali per investire con le crypto! (pubblicità canali Telegram assurde)
Le pubblicità dentro #Telegram diventano in qualche modo sempre più pazze più il tempo passa, anziché morire, come francamente ben gli starebbe a quell’omm ‘e carton’ di Durov, che da anni non fa altro che infrangere promesse… almeno, credo siano più pazze. Sicuramente quelle del circuito di Telegram stesso sono quantomeno legali, cosa di base […]
octospacc.altervista.org/2025/…
telegrammici segnali per investire con le crypto! (pubblicità canali Telegram assurde)
Le pubblicità dentro #Telegram diventano in qualche modo sempre più pazze più il tempo passa, anziché morire, come francamente ben gli starebbe a quell’omm ‘e carton’ di Durov, che da anni non fa altro che infrangere promesse… almeno, credo siano più pazze. Sicuramente quelle del circuito di Telegram stesso sono quantomeno legali, cosa di base che storicamente per i circuiti autogestiti sulla piattaforma (quelli dei canali italiani di merda da decine di migliaia di iscritti, per capirci) non è vera, però questo comunque non vuol dire che siano pubblicità buone o sensate… sono solo pazze. 👹Tipo, l’altro giorno mi è uscita la pubblicità per questo canale che, a primo impatto, senza guardarci troppo pareva la solita roba cryptobro… e lo è, ok, ma è più assurdo: Luca Moretti Segnali. Anche perché, la stessa identica pubblicità è uscita 2 giorni prima ad altri, e di nuovo oggi a me, ossia 2 giorni dopo; francamente, casi simili a questo me ne sono capitati, ma mai così uguali, quindi sospetto questo sia un segnale… e no, non intendo un segnale di investimento crypto, come quelli attorno ai quali il canale è incentrato, ma un classico segnale dai miei soliti spiriti domestici. Vabbé, la cosa molto strana è che la pubblicità dice, con una foto: “Clicca qui per unirti al migliore canale crypto!” (e fin qui ci sarebbe solo da ridere), “Accesso limitato — rimangono solo 6 posti!“… e qui mi viene ovviamente da piangere, perché il canale in questione è pubblico, quindi non può avere un limite di posti intrinseco, ed ovviamente dubito che l’admin vada a manina a togliere eventuali persone entrate come settime o più dopo il piazzamento della pubblicità… visto che vorrebbe dire buttare i soldi della pubblicità, semplicemente, oltre ad essere di per sé una pessima strategia di crescita. 🤨
Sarebbe poi finito tutto qui, a marcire nel dimenticatoio, se solo stasera non mi fosse riapparso… e invece, essendo esasperata, l’ho quindi dovuto guardare meglio, giusto per sfizio… ed è stranissimo. È creato da febbraio 2024, ma ha un intero buco di postaggio fino a novembre 2024, in cui l’admin ha pubblicato giusto un post di presentazione, senza collegamenti esterni se non l’username al suo profilo (dove ugualmente non c’è niente), per poi avere un altro cratere di pubblicazione, fino al 12 giugno di quest’anno, in cui pare aver iniziato a pubblicare diverse volte al giorno post relativi appunto ai segnali crypto. E — per quanto devo premettere che non so una mazza dell’argomento, quindi attenzione, che non si prenda quello che sto per dire come una critica dei contenuti, ma giusto come osservazione personalissima — i post sono assolutamente tutti uguali: mette screenshot della roba, scrivendo punto d’ingresso, target, stop loss, e sempre lo stesso paragrafo di avvertimento simil-guida copincollato alla fine: “È fondamentale rispettare il risk management: dopo il primo target, spostare lo stop loss al punto d’ingresso“… crazy!!! (Ogni tanto ci sono dei post riepilogativi, e in tutto il canale ci sono 2 o 3 post di svago, ma comunque bene o male questo è un eterno ritorno.) 😤La cosa veramente strana, a mio avviso, è che non ci sono funnel verso altre cose. In genere, coloro che propongono i segnali o il vattelappesca sono truffatori, che mettono in piedi la loro cosa appunto solo per portare il traffico verso qualche altra cosa che faccia guadagnare loro… ma qui no, non c’è di per sé nessun elemento sospetto in atto… è così assurdo!!! Potrebbe spuntare fuori qualcosa in futuro magari, quando ci sarà dentro più gente, chi lo sa… ma per ora è assolutamente tutto pulito, quindi bravo Luca! Detto ciò, però, mi chiedo a proposito da dove vengano questi quattromila seguaci (che sono comunque un minimo attivi per giunta, perché ci sono varie reazioni, anche se non sempre)… cioè, tutti dalle pubblicità di ‘sti giorni sarebbe strano, ma sarebbe altrettanto strano se venissero da un anno e mezzo fa a questa parte, col canale vuoto… o forse no, perché, guardando gli ID di quelli che attualmente sono il primo ed il secondo messaggio, si scopre che prima c’erano centinaia di messaggi che sono stati poi cancellati; bah! 😱
Comunque, digressione stupida ma necessaria: ma come è possibile che tutti questi tizi che parlano di investimenti e #crypto e segnali e boh si chiamano sempre Luca di nome, e hanno sempre quest’aria da, passatemi il paragone, nomadi digitali? Ok, magari il mio cervello si sta inventando or ora il primo fatto, e quindi magari mi ricordo male e non tutti questi individui si chiamano Luca… ma giuro, le foto fiere messe lì così le hanno tutti tutti; e di questo canale, non so perché, mi fa specialmente ridere quella impostata per il profilo, che è lui che tiene un trolley da viaggio fuori da qualche parte di sera, e si vedono i muscoli… Vabbuono, nel caso, qualcuno mi segnali eventuali #canali originali, piuttosto. 😴
#canali #crypto #pubblicità #Telegram
![[...], [23/07/2025 10:40]hey durov 👋💖💣, [25/07/2025 15:18]ma che cazzo di 6 posti che è un canale pubblico che cazzo di pubblicità di cazzoLuca Moretti | Segnali4.19K subscribersChannel createdFebruary 15, 2024Luca Moretti | Segnali🚀 Benvenuto su Luca Moretti – il tuo canale crypto dedicato ai segnali di trading!Qui troverai operatività reale, segnali precisi, gestione del rischio e aggiornamenti costanti dal mercato.Ogni trade è pensato per la performance, con l’obiettivo di crescere passo dopo passo, con disciplina e chiarezza.💬 Se sei nuovo, attiva le notifiche e segui ogni aggiornamento.📝 Per domande o feedback, scrivimi in privato 🔽@LucaCriptoCi aspettano tante occasioni – iniziamo insieme! 🔥](https://poliverso.org/photo/preview/1024/54208763 "[...], [23/07/2025 10:40]hey durov 👋💖💣, [25/07/2025 15:18]ma che cazzo di 6 posti che è un canale pubblico che cazzo di pubblicità di cazzoLuca Moretti | Segnali4.19K subscribersChannel createdFebruary 15, 2024Luca Moretti | Segnali🚀 Benvenuto su Luca Moretti – il tuo canale crypto dedicato ai segnali di trading!Qui troverai operatività reale, segnali precisi, gestione del rischio e aggiornamenti costanti dal mercato.Ogni trade è pensato per la performance, con l’obiettivo di crescere passo dopo passo, con disciplina e chiarezza.💬 Se sei nuovo, attiva le notifiche e segui ogni aggiornamento.📝 Per domande o feedback, scrivimi in privato 🔽@LucaCriptoCi aspettano tante occasioni – iniziamo insieme! 🔥")
AlphaGo Moment for Model Architecture Discovery
AlphaGo Moment for Model Architecture Discovery
While AI systems demonstrate exponentially improving capabilities, the pace of AI research itself remains linearly bounded by human cognitive capacity, creating an increasingly severe development bottleneck.arXiv.org
Bad vibes: How an AI agent coded its way to disaster
Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor
July 23, 2025 at 11:31 a.m. PT
Recently, vibe coding bit Jason Lemkin, trusted advisor to SaaStr, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business community, in the worst possible way. The vibe program, Replit, he said, went "rogue during a code freeze and shutdown and deleted our entire database."In a word: Wow. Just wow.
Bad vibes: How an AI agent coded its way to disaster
First, Replit lied. Then it confessed to the lie. Then it deleted the company's entire database. Will vibe-coding AI ever be ready for serious commercial use by nonprogrammers?Steven Vaughan-Nichols (ZDNET)
Bad vibes: How an AI agent coded its way to disaster
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/33720279
Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor
July 23, 2025 at 11:31 a.m. PT
Recently, vibe coding bit Jason Lemkin, trusted advisor to SaaStr, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business community, in the worst possible way. The vibe program, Replit, he said, went "rogue during a code freeze and shutdown and deleted our entire database."In a word: Wow. Just wow.
Bad vibes: How an AI agent coded its way to disaster
Written by Steven Vaughan-Nichols, Senior Contributing Editor
July 23, 2025 at 11:31 a.m. PTRecently, vibe coding bit Jason Lemkin, trusted advisor to SaaStr, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business community, in the worst possible way. The vibe program, Replit, he said, went "rogue during a code freeze and shutdown and deleted our entire database."In a word: Wow. Just wow.
Bad vibes: How an AI agent coded its way to disaster
First, Replit lied. Then it confessed to the lie. Then it deleted the company's entire database. Will vibe-coding AI ever be ready for serious commercial use by nonprogrammers?Steven Vaughan-Nichols (ZDNET)
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adhocfungus, Occhioverde e Maeve like this.
Oh no fights are fun. Tis the curse of my kin, seriously damned near every man on the German side of my family treats fights like a fun time waster. Not saying it's not instability just that my verbosity is perpetual regardless of my mood or actions, well unless I am physically exhausted then I communicate with a handful of words like a caveman.
Also just cause I'm somewhat calm going into a fight doesn't mean that the person I hurled insults at is.
I'm sick of religious sex freaks forcing others to adhere to their puritan fetishes
We need to ban organized religion
Sure, but since orgaanised religions can't help to force others to live by their standards, they need to get out of the way. I'm fine with people needing a comfort measure, even if its in the form of an invisibile friend. Whatever helps people sleep at night. However, when they try to force their ideals down everybody elses throat thats a big no.
So, since they can't 'live and let live' they need to go the way of the dodo, fuck off, and leave the rest of society alone.
Meh, I consider religions as political movements. When they go crazy fundamentalist, try to take over and become destructive, sure, shut them down.
But not just based on their future potential to turn destructive, that can happen to any ideology if the conditions are right.
Okay, your life shall now be that of the Amish. Please remove your phone/computers and never drive a car again.
Remember to live and let live
Bro I don't believe in God either. To be honest sometimes I wish I did.
Regardles my problem isn't with atheism but with specifcally Reddit Atheism
ik you can be any religion or anything but the main problem i have with atheism is they make fun of religion.
like atleast be respectful if your gonna be atheist not have a superiority complex.
edit: maybe i used superiority complex here loselessly
B: So the crusades were what, then?
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
I truly don't understand how Visa/MasterCard/etc can be pressured. They are basically infrastructure.
What's someone going to do, stop using credit cards if they don't stop a store that person doesn't even patronize from selling morally hazardous goods?
I don't get how these campaigns are even effective.
That's because 90% of cryptocurrency marketing consists of "THINK OF THE GAAAAAAINS YOU CAN MAKE!" instead of "You can use this to buy things without government censorship".
The entire crypto industry has based itself around being a speculative asset, not a currency.
Monero is perhaps the best option imo. Here's the official page about it, but basically:
- not profitable to mine, so most miners are enthusiasts who want the coin to succeed
- privacy-focused - basically creates a ton of fake transactions to mislead snoopers
- relatively popular - seems to be the most popular coin recommended by privacy enthusiasts (e.g. Mental Outlaw, he even gives a discount on his store for Monero)
- not popular among speculators - they mostly stick to the big ones (BTC and ETH), as well as new startup coins
- low cost transactions, fairly short transaction window
It's far from ubiquitous, but it's popular enough that if a place accepts any crypto, there's a good chance they accept Monero as well.
Some do, which is a lot more than GNU Taler. I don't know of another digital payment system that has more usage that isn't dominated by a handful of companies.
Here are some examples of things you can buy today w/ Monero:
- gift cards
- Mullvad VPN
- Based.win - Mental Outlaw's online store
- a handful of other places, and and some more
It's far from ubiquitous, but it is being accepted today. If any of those places interest you, I recommend putting a small amount of money into Monero and trying it out.
Who takes Monero as payment in 2024?
Monero is a cryptocurrency that provides one of the most important cryptocurrency benefits: secure and confidential transactions. Find out where to pay in Monero in the article!NOWPayments.io (NOWPayments)
Then I guess I don't understand your problem.
Payment processors like Visa and Mastercard control a huge chunk of the market, which gives them a lot of say in what transactions are allowed. Even if you avoid credit, most debit cards go through those two companies, so they can restrict what transactions you can make.
With cryptocurrencies, there's no restriction at the point of sale. Your problem seems to be that converting crypto to fiat could be problematic, and they'd potentially be stuck with "useless" currency. My point is that's a much easier problem to solve:
- if their exchange stops converting a given currency, they can convert to one they do accept
- if their exchange bans their account (e.g. due to the nature of their business), they can switch exchanges
- there are ATMs that dispense cash for crypto
- if no exchange will work with them, they can make direct exchanges with regular people (i.e. "launder" the money)
- they can also spend the currency directly
There are a ton of options to convert crypto to fiat, there are far fewer to select a different fiat payment processor.
"Pro life feminist"
A christian conservative group in drag,nothing to see here.
It's got a kid robot in it that's abused. Not sexually afaik. But it's definitely not pornographic, it's literally the driving force of one of the plotlines and causes an android to rebel and kill it's owner - the abuser.
Let me repeat: the game is literally so anti-child-abuse - it makes the plot happen.
This whole thing is so stupid. You give these types of people an inch they take a mile.
OK now I am not one to lob accusations without evidence, but for any of you kind government agents or AIs reading this, let’s say from anywhere within the Five Eyes since we’re talking about Australia:
We have another fanatical religious conservative organization here that is publicly labeling opposition groups pedos. You know how this has trended in the past. Keep an eye on these people.
Because they want to apply their rules to everyone, it's the entire point for religious assholes
Fuck all religions
me watching clearly adult humans doing consentual sex things
some religious zealot chud: this makes you a pedo somehow
This comment and many like it are a product of only reading the headline. Also shame on the authors for the ragebait headline.
The tweet the quote comes further classifies that they're talking about games that include rape, incest, and/or child sex abuse. I'm not sure if people are just knee-jerk reacting to headlines without understanding what's actually happening, or if they are legitimately upset that rape fantasy games are being removed. In both cases, you're stating that you are vocally in support of rape media, which is not OK.
Sure, that's the plausible deniability reasoning. But the end result, whether you agree with the on the surface reasoning or not, is the removal of all adult media whether or not it is offending. This coupled with the lumping in of LGBT issues with Adult media (and often lumping in with egregious media like rape and abuse fantasy) means that the end result is removal of adult games AND games which feature LGBT characters and storylines.
and uh, if you actually did read my comment, I did say consenting. me saying I enjoy content where clear adults are consentually enjoying sex is not endorsing rape fantasy games, and is a bit of a Twitter ass conclusion to come to.
and uh, if you actually did read my comment, I did say consenting. me saying I enjoy content where clear adults are consentually enjoying sex is not endorsing rape fantasy games, and is a bit of a Twitter ass conclusion to come to.
The article you commented on is explicitly referencing media where consent cannot be given. So, I'm not sure why you commented about consenting adults in the first place, because that had nothing to do with the topic.
Collective Shout claim it’s about harm reduction, but then push an agenda that functionally amounts to moral panic.
Their approach is identical in logic to the “GTA causes school shootings” hysteria: loud, pearl-clutching, and utterly unmoored from data.
If Collective Shout want to argue these games cause harm, then show us the harm. Not correlation. Not outrage. Not hypothetical downstream consequences. Show causation. Peer-reviewed. Reproducible.
Otherwise, they’re just moralizing bullies using the banking system as a cudgel.
On top of this, they might actually be harming their own cause. The catharsis hypothesis poses that sexual fantasy enactment might reduce risk of real world harm.
The logic is simple: suppressing a compulsion doesn't eliminate it. It just bottles up until it explodes. Redirect it into a safe outlet, and it becomes manageable.
The only reason this research isn't cited more often is because it's politically radioactive. Nobody wants to admit that it's better to let a gooners jerk off, than to escalate under repression.
The burden of proof SHOULD be on Collective Shout to provide a reasonable argument which supports their claim that censorship will reduce real world harm.
Current working theory in psychology: it doesn't. Emerging theory suggests: they're shooting themselves (and potential rape victims) in the foot.
The real solution to real-world harm involves empathy, autonomy and education.
Sadly from my experiences with feminist groups, TERFs have historically been the norm not the exception.
You should really look into what the Daughters of Bilitis were up to, and books like the The Transsexual Empire. A book I cannot say the full name of for it contains a slur.
Historically feminist groups have attacked transgender women and gay men for "Infringing upon what it means to be a woman."
That second part is kinda annoying though. It doesn't know the difference between a view because of curiosity and one because of actual interest.
It's what ruined the YouTube suggestions for me. I liked being able to do completely unrelated and random dives. Now it's just a collection of videos related to previous ones I've watched, even when I'm not logged in and have viewing history turned off. If I want to watch another chess video, I know how to use the search function. That's how I found them the first time.
Though steam does also have a "stop showing me games like this" where it gives options about what you mean by "this".
No, but you might want to take a step back from that ledge advice a steep much huddy hill.
Frankly I think a lot of modern games are fucked up in their portrayal of the human body, and those relationship sim dress up games are kinda gross.
But I don't think this should be too to credit card companies to unilaterally decide.
It's not about porn games. It's about allowing third-party private interests to engage in censorship.
If Valve were to ban porn games from being sold on Steam because they find them distasteful, I wouldn't have a problem with this. But it wasn't Valve's decision. It was the payment processors who did it on behalf of interests that are apparently allowed to determine what is permissible on other people's platforms.
That's not okay.
Steam Users Rally Behind Anti-Censorship Petition
Steam Users Rally Behind Anti-Censorship Petition
A petition protesting Steam's recent guideline changes blows up as the Valve-owned storefront moves forward with its controversial decision.Mohsen Baqery (Game Rant)
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Clear, Kilgore Trout, Mechanize, Luca, Rickicki, adhocfungus e Scrollone like this.
Technology reshared this.
Even if your bank cards are halfway towards visa or mastercard using it through another party is still better.
Technology reshared this.
Local/national banks with their bankcards and payment platforms
I don't know what it's like where you're from, but here in the UK all banks use Visa, MasterCard or Amex for their bank cards.
Technology reshared this.
In Italy we have PagoBancomat, but that's a debit card, not a credit card.
If you buy online, you can also use PayPal connected directly to a bank account, no credit card necessary (PayPal is also a shitty company, but sometimes there's no alternative...)
Creditcards just exist so people buy more shit to fund corporate greed anyway.
For businesses they are annoying since it is more work to do the administration, they cost more and there is a greater risk involved.
You can pay using SEPA bank transfer or direct debits or some other options.
That the bank is using VISA/MasterCard etc for their cards is still a better option than using them directly because they barely do anything. Heck European debit cards don't even work like they do in the US. You HAVE to 2FA them.
Most of the time in Europe our transactions go through things like iDeal, Bancontant, Wero etc
Heck European debit cards don’t even work like they do in the US. You HAVE to 2FA them.
No. But you can,
There are some surviving national circuits like PagoBancomat (as the sibling comment from Scrollone) and Dankort (Denmark) and girocard (Germany). My personal impression is that they are slowly going out of fashion in favor of visa/mastercard only (probably because they can't offer better prices than them).
I don't see a solution to the duopoly, apart from lobbying politicians to support this national payment infrastructure. Especially in recent times I can also see how some governments might not want to rely entirely on two US companies for running their entire economy, so something might move on that side, so there's hope on that side.
The EU has already been moving on this front in the last years by forcing the banks to provide programming interfaces to initiate bank payments, and that's why you can now see more and more options to "pay by bank" online in EU. These online payments generally skip card circuits and run over normal SEPA bank transfers.
More info here on the last part: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paymen…
anti-censorship international credit union owned by members that can conduct transactions internally without having to ask for visa or mastercard's FUCKING permission when?????
I'm saying we should build Dual Power and go around them.
Clearly I think it would be preferable if they didn't do business with Russia, israel, or any other states actively engaging in the invasion of other people's sovereignty, but that doesn't have to be the only disqualifying factor. There are plenty of nations in the world that are toxic by other criteria. I highly doubt countries that murder civilians for wearing the "wrong" clothes or espousing the "wrong" opinions, for instance, would be conducive with the operation of such a credit union. Also, countries where if they find out you're gay they execute you. That's not very anti-censorship and tacit complicity with that fuckery would not further the mission.
So it would definitively not be bothering with the laws of countries it will never interact with.
No I have seen real world examples of criminals being prosecuted because of what people on my field (accountancy) found during our work. That shits there for a reason.
This was company data though, which should be semi transparent anyway
We where talking about businesses right? Not on a person level?
Just flag the 50k+ transactions for which you need to go to the bank anyway for personal use and keep the dame for businesses
Welllllllll, Taler is actually exactly the wrong suggestion for this usecase, because Taler requires all spends to be redeemed from Vendor to Issuer non-anonymously, which gives the Issuer 100% control and say which vendors are allowed, which is exactly the thing Visa and Mastercard are using to exert control.
If there were competing Taler networks and Steam supported all of them, that might be okay because one of them might happen to not be dicks, but if there's just one or two then Taler is designed from the ground-up specifically to enable this bad outcome. It's actually one of their features!
Sorry.
What country are you in? None of those options exist in Canada so I think you're going to need to reframe your point.
Also I can state that giftcards do not exist where I live as I just went though 4 kids birthdays and check 20 different stores and winded up having to give up on Steam cards and buy prepaid Visas.
EDIT: To clarify, two years ago the cards existed. Last year they were scarce, and in 2025 they are no where to be found.
What are those other options you have anyway? I've never seen or heard of any of them.
Well I am in The Netherlands and the top one (iDeal) is a Dutch exclusive, I can understand that you don't have those in Canada, but there should be other options right? Maybe contact support?
Otherwise, order gift cards online from somewhere or does that also go through Visa/Mastercard? Even then indirectly doing it is still better especially if you support a local business doing it with gift cards.
I can understand that you don't have those in Canada, but there should be other options right? Maybe contact support?
I think you’re on the verge of understanding the problem. You’re so close. Just trust that the guy you’re replying to isn’t an idiot and you’ll finally understand.
Sure in the Netherlands you have options. But other places aren’t the Netherlands. Different countries have different options, but Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal work pretty much everywhere.
Edit: Completely unrelated, I’m munching on some licorice Mentos I found in the Dutch section of my local grocery store here in West Michigan, and I just want to thank the entire population of the Netherlands for the wonderful things y’all have done with licorice. No one likes it here, so no one bothered. But the variety your country comes up with for this stuff, it’s fantastic.
Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal
PayPal doesn't even work on Amazon.com
I can talk about the Netherlands, or Belgium or the vast majority of the other first world countries with different options to pay online. Even in North American you still have gift cards.
You can also contact support and ask them for different payment options, they aren't going to accept bank transfers, but they will probably allow you to pay with JCB or some others that aren;t native to the Netherlands. (Heck, JCB is apparently something made for the Japanse market so idk why I can pay with it).
Heck, you can get your payment country changed, and then you can pay with different options. Yes, America (and Canada) have a lack of options for payment providers apparently and also for physical stores, but there is a chance that there are more options, like buying gift cards online even from different countries.
Wero will also be something everybody can use, but it's like the next thing, we (as in Europeans) have had so many payment providers over the years it isn;t even funny.
Getting money to organizations outside Canada and the US, once you remove credit cards and paypal, is exclusive to wire transfer from within Canada. If i want to get my money to any entity outside of Canada those are my options. None of these alt payment providers exist in Canada, and we are barred from buying crypto from our accounts.
~~JCB seems like the Interac system here in Canada, which I doubt Steam would take payment from. Its essentially a bank transfer~~. Nope, apparently JCB is a Credit Card company like Visa et al.
Yeah, JCB is not available in the Americas
And wiretransfer is expensive af to and from the sepa banking system so you can barely pass it through Europe.
JCB is Japanese so idk why we get it here in NL. It’s also not a credit card company they just issue them
I have seen like 40-50 different payment platforms over the years and different methods of paying which all don’t require a creditcard (I haven’t had one for years due to having one causing issues with getting mortgages here in the Benelux)
So I would assume that countries like Canada and the US would have more options as well in the end they are rich and developped nations.
Unfortunately rich and developed countries with an iron grip on the markets by a few billionaires that control them you see. They ensure our options are limited.
Canadians have very limited choices in terms of services. Even our grocery store shelves are bought out by major corps and local options struggle to get their products on the shelves.
As another example, our banks have no interpayment systems outside the interac system, and they have no standard apis for payment services. So things like apps for managing budgets involve downloading a csv after our billing date passes and a lot of manual work. Most banks offer their own budget apps and they only work with their services.
We have effectively have 3 phone and internet providers.. or little guys that resell access to the big 3.
The monopoly man won the game in Canada.
Hmm, in the US, people have at least Simplefin to connect their banks to Actual Budget f.e.
Man it sucks to live in Canada as well it seems, probably the best thing you can do is buy local as much as possibile and if they still accept cash use that.
And use what instead? Swollen off PayPal is pretty easy because frankly it's an awful service and businesses are better off not using it anyway so they tend to offer other options.
But MasterCard and visa are the only payment options. Everything requires MasterCard or Visa
Businesses are better of not using Paypal or Creditcards, both of the are a hassle and cost more time to process than a digital pin transaction or an old school bank transfer.
You have to use what is available in your country, a lot of countries have their own payment platform and they are being consolidated into one Wero.
As long as people keep using Mastercard or Visa they will have this power.
Yeah people keep using them because there are no other options. That's the point that's why they're powerful because they have a monopoly.
The thing is the only alternative is to use cash and steam won't take a bank transfer.
In North America there are no other options it seems, but outside that yes other options exist.
Also gift cards
eggs are about $0.28 right now
that's 0.0000024 BTC which is ~ 239 sats + another 200 or so for transaction fees.
I really didn't want to go bitcoin, but it's likely the only reasonable competition we can put up against stuff the size of Visa.
Ummmm.
ACH is how you get your paycheck, and it's being updated to FedNow.
Zelle is an independent network as well.
And of course, there is Discover and AmEx.
There is also cash, check, money order. They still work today, just people largely forgot how to use them.
IIRC some Brazilian network was getting very popular off of this. If you want to look at non-US options.
There are plenty of competitors to Visa/Mastercard/Paypal.
Well, banks here in NL have been using VISA and Mastercard cards, but that is more so people can use them in America/Canada and some other countries which are still behind on chipped cards.
But over the years I have seen 40-50 different payment platforms and most of them do not use Visa or Mastercard.
I have been exploring ways to pay for things anonymously... in Canada and the US they do have prepaid credit cards (rhat are sadly visa or Mastercard based) that can be paid for in cash and activated without the need for a name or anything. Meaning unless you activated it on your phone or clearnet without a VPN it will be difficult to link it to you directly. Doubly so if you wait long enough for the store's surveillance footage to be cycled through (few places keep security camera footage in perpetuity, many delete stuff from a few months back or a year or so back unless something suspicious happened, meaning the footage of you buying the thing will be gone.)
So that's one trick to be able to pay for something with a credit card without it being immediately obvious who you are. Much like paying in cash, another thing i am getting back into.
Hmm yeah, personally I don't mind them having access to my transactions or doing things anonymously. Using your bankcard with chip to pay is already obfuscated in most situations on the receiving end since a lot of cash registers will group the transactions together and way out once.
Even platforms like Mollie sometimes obfuscate transactions, which annoys me, considering I have worked as a bookkeeper and now an accountant.
Because of my job, I don't want people to get the feeling I do shit wrong (illegal or otherwise) since that can cause me to lose my licence. So I want to be transparent for that and for my own administration.
At the same time cash is disappearing here in NL and in some countries cash transactions above 3k are already banned (BE f.e.).
I also buy a fair amount by buying gift cards, and I order online a lot.
Ow and btw Mullvad can be both by sending them an envelope with cash
Ow and btw Mullvad can be both by sending them an envelope with cash
I am afraid I don't understand. You can buy credit cards by mailing cash to Mullvad?
Using your bankcard with chip to pay is already obfuscated in most situations on the receiving end since a lot of cash registers will group the transactions together and way out once.
I actually rarely pay for things with my bank card. I usually buy with credit card and that will always leave a trace. But it is good to know that.
The whole no cash purchase over 3K or 10K is honestly crap. They did that in Quebec last year and are going to do that throughout Canada. I never paid for anything with that much cash, but I still find it shit.
Sorry Mullvad is a VPN company, just in case you need that.
I always buy things with a normal bank card, why would I use a credit card on a daily basis? You will have less grip on your finances, they aren't accepted everywhere, cost more than a bank account which you still need anyway, they are at a greater risk of getting abused and in most countries using them can only ruin your credit score.
The whole no cash purchase over 3K or 10K is honestly crap. They did that in Quebec last year and are going to do that throughout Canada. I never paid for anything with that much cash, but I still find it shit.
That's the thing, any normal working human being will basically never come in a situation where this happens, and if they do, it is generally a simple explanation.
I understand privacy minded people don't really like this, but it does help find criminals.
That's also a bit of an issue since high levels of privacy also mean that criminals basically have fair game since catching them will be harder.
Well that is generally not an issue it is more the receiving end they check. If you take it from your bank there is a non issue besides maybe at a border.
And most completely corrupt countries don’t care either way
After reading the article on gamerant.com, the many comments on here and looking at the petition, I really wonder if actually so many people are delusional and/or are just missing the core point here?! (Or it is just a small crowd with much noise?)
IMHO, there are better places in the world to engage and petition for. (Local communities and regional politics, for example.) But if banning that little "funny" child incest game on Steam puts you up the tree, well, ...
Are you really that offended? And why, on point? How in the world can you defend publishing (and selling) games - mostly targeted at young folks - which are quite disturbing, derangend and morally wrong in the name of "freedom" or "independence"? And call that blatantly censorship, when there are instead public guidelines by Steam and their partners?
Don´t you wish for (young) people to develop good values instead of becoming delusional with child pornography, incest, violence, gore and such? What are your values here?
An ml account wanting to have private companies decide what people are able to see and what not.
Guess you just want to live in an authoritarian world no matter who's ruling
No, I don't want to live in an authoritarian world. But I appreciate businesses following certain moral standards, like banning child porn in every aspect.
You've got some good points here! These standards are usually enforced by law, just Valve/Steam is extremly liberal on his marketplace. But I fully agree, then the other bodies do not need to interfere, especially when they are so hard to be checked.
Edit: Still, in some way, I wish that companies throughout every service chain would implement and follow these moral standards and laws. And follow though, if they find negligence by other parties. (Kind of a "check and balance" thing.)
It isn't about the actual games being targeted. It's everything about the implications of having a private company dictate what legal content I can buy with my own money. If they cave to lobby groups once, they will do it again. Next time it might be something you care about instead.
Also games made for adults are targeted at adults, not "young people". You can't even really see these games on steam unless you are an adult and explicitly turn on visibility of porn games. The average gamer is well up in their thirties at this point as well.
Alright, I understand your point. But I only partially agree with it. Hear me out:
You want a free marketplace to buy whatever you wish, without any dictations? - But any market or shops you can think of has some regulations and dependencies, right? The one who offers the platform dictates what and how it is traded, as far as it has been. And even more if banks or transaction processors are involved, who also have a say. Not ideal, I agree, but the norm.
How do you want to technically solve this? By their own transaction service, like some suggest here? Not sure if that helps, because you might create a new monopoly.
And at the same time, we discuss this here, people demand transparency and environmently responsability for all the delivery chains. Like for clothing or food. - Is that not what happens here? The banks as part of the service chain are pushing Valve to implement stricter rulings about critical content. For me, that looks like what people would ask for. Correct me, if I am wrong.
It's dictated by the law in my country. It's either legal or it isn't. The laws are decided through democracy and debated before implementation or changes. VISA doesn't need to meddle. I have to follow the law, and so do they. We don't need arbitrary whims on top of that.
Your last paragraph is a false comparison. There's nothing transparent about what content is currently on the card companies hatelist and what they deem ok. Several LGBTQ related games got hit as well. The transparency in regards to food and clothing is about letting me take informed choices about the products I buy. Cards companies are still letting me buy clothes made by factory slaves and sold via Temu. They don't care. I have to take that moral standpoint to buy more ethical clothing if I find that the morally correct thing to do. If I want cheap clothing made by slaves I can, with the blessing of my Mastercard. It's certainly legal.
I'd probably rather buy a porn game made by someone who cared enough about it to make it as a passion project, than a AAA title made with the blood and tears of exploited, underpaid developers to fill the pouches of some overpaid ceo. If ethics is something to value, at least.
@cosmo@lemmy.world, you have solid good points here! - Yes, the laws are democratically set and don't need extra intereference by VISA, Mastercard or else. It is just my opinion that Valve has been very liberal on his marketplace and not removing critical content themselves. I think, that is what led to the interference in addtion to lobbyist behind the payment processors.
Yeah, my comparison was flawed. But I got the idea across. Right, the transaction process is not transparent, especially not without publishing the "hatelist". - Especially good point here with the ethical aspect! There seems to be some double standard by VISA etc. about what is acceptable and what is not. I disagree with that, of course, as I still believe in ethical values also when consuming games. 😉 So enjoy you porn game, als long as it has legal themes.
Actually, I am convinced. The article was bad and confused my inital kowledge about the issue. But thank you all for the (mostly) civil discussion. The petition unfortunately is outside my jurisdiction, so I can not sign. But I will keep an eye on the topic.
After all these years, I still don't understand the hate against LGB... groups. But it surely looks like the hunting the witches, Roma or Jews in the past. The are a distinctive minority and thus a good target, unfortunately.
To me it does not look like "a monolitic corporation", as you can still buy games elsewhere. But I surely see the influence that the big banks/transactors have on Valve here. - But how would you limit this? Any technical solutions?
On the other hand, if Valve would have implemented stricter rules for critical games themselves earlier, we would not have that problem/discussion now. (Please also see my other answer below.)
Edit: Typo
Maybe I'm wrong, but nothing about your side of this conversation seems like good faith in any way.
Just going to put that out there. Your comments reek of someone with zero intentions of challenging their pre-held belief, while pretending that's not true.
No matter what evidence people bring up to you, you either ignore it or move the goalposts. Almost like there's an agenda...
hmmm, an agenda? I am not aware I have any. Only here to discuss the topic and get other opinions to understand better. Just being here and chatting with all the folks, even the aggresive ones, already prooves (to me) that I am challenging my point of view.
Sorry, if I gave such bad imression on here. But may I ask some questions, as I find your critique a bit vague? - What do you think is my pre-held belive here? What angenda are you impying? And where am I ignoring evidence or moving the goalposts specifically?
Or a decentralized alternative that isn't just used to scam people, that doesn't eat up insane amounts of electricity to process, and is as convenient as regular money.
In reality, private corporations should not have control over money at all. Money is printed by the local government and should be controlled by the local government. Governments generally have better free speech protections than private corporations, which have none. Obviously, free speech protections are not universal, but countries can already ban content in other ways.
Money is not printed by the local government at all. Money is created by private banks through extending credit. And it shouldn't be controlled by the government either, that's a terrible idea.
I agree with the rest though.
Yeah but PayPal's awful. They literally arbitrarily deny you access to your own funds. At least the banks have rules.
If someone wants to pay me something they can use it literally anything other than PayPal. I don't trust them they've stolen money from me before.
they've actually paid me after I was scammed by fake stock broker. without fussing about it too. Really easy to get payments reversed.
Either way I’d be happy to also switch to another method of payment if it were an option.
Yeah because in your case they didn't have your money. They're only real pain about trying to get money back, they always support businesses never customers.
So if I pay for a product and never receive it PayPal always takes the business's side.
Even Amazon has better customer support.
So if I pay for a product and never receive it PayPal always takes the business’s side.
waves widely to above said post
That’s what I said happened to me. It was a scam. They still just ate the cost and paid me the money I lost.
Now I don’t know if maybe it was the amount, I don’t keep money on pp or I just did something different than anyone else did; I keep every piece of paper, email, name all contact information and detail(it’s kinda in line with my job)it was pretty undeniable I got scammed. Even showed I contacted a consumer bureau over it.
But either way I said I’d be open to a different way.
Petitions like this are meaningless unless they come with a viable solution to the duopoly in payment processing that is Visa and Mastercard.
It doesn't matter what Valve agrees with, if they want to survive as a business they have to ultimately do what the only 2 companies that handle the payment processing tells them to do.
For example they could sell adult games under credits only and take CC or PayPal for credits.
This way you're not buying adult titles with CC at all. Same way AAA deal with gambling with lootboxes.
I don't get either of those contexts.
When I read "Quakers", I just recalled Quake III Arena and thought, "that doesn't fit".
Quakers were
Are. They're still around. Still a relatively big minority Christian group in the UK.
Still everyone's favourite Christian denomination. Cool bunch.
It was 3 in the morning here. Relax.
Edit: Oh, you just wanted to argue. Definitely sorry I was late for that...
I completely understand wanting to fight Visa and MasterCards position in the market. That's fine.
But for the love of God. Do not involve Steam and various porn games into it. That is not going to help your case.
I get the whole. "Just because I'm killing someone in a game, doesn't mean I'll kill someone in real life".
But that's not going to hold up as an argument here. Depictions of CP, even if it's a drawing with crayons, is still highly illegal in so many places. Same logic can be applied regarding other depictions of illegal behavior in the same category (pornogrophy). Such as incest. I'm not saying that depictions of incest is illegal in many places. Because I honestly don't know. But there would be a precedence for it.
Personally, I find it utterly disgusting that Steam even allowed such titles to begin with. I welcome their removal of them. But I wish it was because of other reasons than payment processors having an issue with it.
They removed Detroit: Become Human, dude... That is not a porn game.
If I had to guess, it's probably because of the scene with the lesbian android couple.
That's great, not great that they removed it but a great example of something you can bring up that doesn't hurt the case.
I just really wish people would leave actual porn games out of it. Because that is not going to be helpful to their case.
Could you elaborate on what "respectability politics" is? I've never heard that before.
Point is. Making a movement and using the removal of games that fetishize incest as the drop that made the cup overflow. Is simply not going to go the way you think it is. Unless you think it's going to crash and burn. Then it'll go exactly how you think it'll go.
You can make at least 101 far better arguments against Visa and MasterCard using their monopolized position to morally dictate what people can and can not buy, than having to involve incest porn. Or porn at all for that matter.
Porn is art, there’s no compromising on that without throwing someone under the bus.
Would you consider child pornography art as well? You don't compromise, that's what you said no?
Why would you be advocating for a different term other than CP? It doesn't matter how you depict it. Consensual or not. Abuse or not. CP is CP, and that is bad enough. Anyway. That's not the topic. I was just floored by that statement.
Point is. It seems like you DO compromise. Everyone does. Somewhere you've drawn a line. This is acceptable. This is not acceptable. And regardless of what you think of incest. I'm sure you can agree, that the vast majority of people would frown upon it. And if you say "Visa and MasterCard are bad because they stopped authorizing payments to incest games". Well... You're just not going to get a lot of people to sign up. They're gonna say. "Good."
So, trying to build momentum in a movement, and then using or citing incest porn games on steam as the catalyst, is just not a particularly good strategy in my opinion.
I'm not moving anything. We have the same basic opinion. "Visa and MasterCard should not be allowed to leverage their monopolized position into a morality police of what we are allowed to buy or not"
I'm not here to debate you on what is you think is objectionable or not. I simply stated that I wish for people to not make this about porn. Because I don't think that's going to be helpful. You're just giving ammunition for the opposition to use against you. It will take them 5 seconds to use it against you and reach an audience of 100 million. You will have to spend 50 minutes trying to counter, and it will only reach the 10 million that actually bothered to look into it.
How many times do we have to go down this road before anyone learn from it?
So what is the solution? Don't give them that ammunition to begin with. Use other arguments. Arguments that can not be turned against you.
You don't have to agree with that advice. That's fine.
Yeah, nah.
Petition these people:
Collective Shout is sustained by a small number of Australian partners. These are not big groups, and would quickly pull funding under any sort of pressure.
Collective Shout has a deep history with Christofascism and TERFs, so highlighting those angles is the way to go to get them pariahed. Once CS is out of the picture, we can work on undoing the damage they did.
This is incredibly shortsighted.
If you get Collective Shout to stop, another group might pick up where they left off.
The problem needs to be fixed, what you're suggesting is just making the people currently abusing it stop doing so. That's not a long term solution.
No it’s incredibly idiotic to do otherwise.
You don’t fight a fire while the arsonist is still setting it on fire.
Except they're not fighting the fire here, they're taking away the arsonist's flamethrowser so he can't continue making the fire. Without that flamethrower, the arsonist can't do shit.
Fighting the fire would be petitioning Steam, but the target is the payment processors that pressured Steam on request of Collective Shout.
Most people would agree that these games where distasteful
Regardless, tasteless people have the right to pay for them and play, so... no?
This is about payment processors censoring shit just 'cos they can. They stick to handling money instead of dictating how that money is used.
Mainly that the companies controlling nearly all digital financial transactions across the entire globe should not be the arbiters of what is morally acceptable. If they must exist at all, they should just be handling the transfer of funds regardless of what is being bought and sold*.
*illegal shit would not be protected.
They are parasitic middle men that don't need to exist in the first place, though.
I would go further and say they shouldn't have the ability to block any transaction consumers are making, regardless of legality.
I basically want them classified like utilities (or the Internet), and the money they're processing should operate like digital networked cash. If I hand you a dollar bill, it doesn't arbitrarily decide to stop being money if it thinks the transaction might possibly be even tangentially related to crime. That's how you end up with these corporations becoming so invasive in the first place, with their overbroad policies blocking entire groups/categories from being in the economy.
Don't think that I'm pro-crime -- but only actual crime is crime. A transfer of funds itself is only sometimes a crime. You don't see the federal reserve trying to foil small-time drug deals in cash, and for good reason -- legitimate crimes should be investigated by law enforcement, not "prevented" at the whims of overeager corpos. It's not the payment processor's right or responsibility to prevent or they to predict crime, especially once they've built such a system as to become indispensable for most of us. If they are allowed to do that they will always do it the easy way -- blanket bans with massive collateral damage to non-criminals.
These companies should be disbanded and their systems should be handed over to the public. Hot take, I know, but I'm of the mind that transaction processing (much like air and water) should not be privatized. You may think at this point that I'm a crypto-head, but not really. It seemed promising at one point and may be still, but now it's perhaps permanently associated with unsavory types. I'll use it if it fits the purpose, but expecting the general public to use it as money is insanity. Crypto brought us part of the way there, but such a system can't really flourish in furtherance of the public good in the current environment -- even disregarding the bad PR.
It’s not the payment processor’s right or responsibility to prevent or they to predict crime,
Of course not, only PreCogs can predict crime.
Honestly, I am kinda expecting that with the way that America is becoming, something like Monero could become legitimized. There wasn't much reason for crypto to be a currency, so long as the world order remained orderly and useful to the everyday person.
Should the American Dollar collapse, there would be a howling void that must be filled - it could be Euros, the Yen, Monero, or something else entirely, but the opportunity would be there for currencies to change.
something like Monero could become legitimized.
And yet banks are moving in the opposite direction and forcing it being banned precisely because it's a threat to their control, unlike Bitcoin.
I understand the principle but why do gamers always choose the worst examples of something to rally behind. The stop killing games petition rallying around The Crew, which lasted 10 years and was a very average game, and now this with getting behind porn games to protest censorship.
Is there really no better examples than those?
The goal is to stop them building up any momentum. If the credit companies get used to flexing their power like this, and steam gets used to folding to it, then things will escalate.
Right now it's porn games. Who the hell would defend them. But it won't end there. You honestly don't think they would go after games that mock religion, or are trans positive?
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
-Martin Niemöller, 1952
Obviously banning porn games isn't comparable to the holocaust, but the principle of defiance is the same. If we don't want credit card companies to ban stuff we like, then we should also oppose them when they ban stuff we don't care about.
Do I want games that are specifically pornography on steam. No.
Well, some people do want that.
So, in compromise, Steam gives you the option of not seeing pornography. It even sets that option by default.
The only way you're ever going to see pornography is if you specifically check the 'Show Adult Only Sexual Content' in the Mature Content Filtering of Store Preferences in your Account Settings.
Well, some people do want that.
There should be a separate platform for that, similar to how you wouldn't go on YouTube expecting to see videos from PornHub.
There should be a separate platform for that, similar to how you wouldn’t go on YouTube expecting to see videos from PornHub.
Why should there be a separate platform? If Steam wants to sell porn games then why should payment processors have any say at all? Amazon sells porn and sex toys, should they be required to split off that part of their business because 50 puritanical christians in Australia can spend all day spam calling Visa and Mastercard? It's nonsense, these people won't stop here. Visa and Mastercard should have ignored these people
In any case, that's just dodging the issue.
These games ARE available on other platforms, the Collective Voice group is targeting those platforms too.
Before you just shrug and say that it won't affect you because you don't play porn games. Collective Voice's idea of obscene games that shouldn't be for sale don't stop at porn. They have also pressured the major retailers in Australia to not carry GTA5. They'd see Steam shutdown entirely if they had their way.
If they don't want to see porn then Steam already takes care of that, no account has Adult Content enabled by default. Steam has parental controls ( help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/… ) so parents can prevent their children from seeing any content that they don't like. These people are not upset because they're seeing porn, they're upset because other people choose to see porn and they want to stop them.
That's not how we do things in a free society. You can make choices for yourself, you can't force your choices to apply other people.
I don't think a single person here is disputing the fact that they can legally do this. There's a lot of things that are legal which are immoral.
It isn't the payment processor's place, ESPECIALLY one that we have allowed to have a de facto monopoly on credit card processing, to use that position in order to dictate morality.
From a pragmatic perspective, they're playing with fire by giving in to small but vocal extremist groups. Public outcry on issues can result in laws and regulations which would limit how payment processors can operate. We could pass laws which make it illegal for a payment processor to refuse to process payments for otherwise legal transactions.
You can disable showing adult games from the store in the store preferences.
store.steampowered.com/account…
This setting is apparently disabled by default, so at some point you enabled it.
Excuse me sir, but Super Hentai Bejeweled 3000 is one of the best games of our times.
/S
Just turn the adult stuff off yo.
One of the biggest problems is "what is porn?". Time and again a clear definition eludes us and it comes down to personal perception. What one group of people think is porn is not to a different group. Also something to think and reflect about, why are you okay with a store selling intense and graphic violence, but not sex?
Then we get to the fact that it isn't Steam calling the shots on this, not really. It is payment processors. The real outrage here is that Steam is not getting to decide what they do and don't sell, and it isn't a legal problem either. It is an arbitrary choice by the middle man monopoly. And there is nothing stopping their rules removing your ability to buy GTA or Dishonored next.
I think the backlash would be a lot less if this was truly a Steam decision. There would be people upset still, but I don't think to the same degree. The massive outrage is that stores all over, including as big as Steam, are being blackmailed into making these changes.
... and I have my age settings so I can see adult games like GTA/Dishonored, not “Super Hentai Bejeweled 3000”.
The former belong to the M rated category while the hypothetical latter would belong to the Adults Only category. As others have pointed out, you can hide adult games and still see other games with violence and mature themes. Steam classifies M-rated games and AO-rated games differently.
- steam is for games... no, it isn't really. steam has been distributing non game software for ages.
- porn games are games so even if steam is for games it should have porn games.
i don't care for porn games but I've filtered them out so who cares what others do with their time
As of July 16, Steam's new guidelines state that game publishers should avoid releasing titles that may violate the terms and conditions of its payment processors. In other words, the storefront is asking creators to not only follow the platform's rules but also submit to potential oversight from companies like MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal.
and from the petition
MasterCard and Visa have increasingly used their financial control to pressure platforms into censoring legal fictional content
Steam is enforcing MasterCard's, Visa's, and PayPal's policies. From Steam's Rules and Policies:
What you shouldn’t publish on Steam: ... 15. Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.
Point number 15 was not there in a Snapshot from February on the wayback machine. If anything, the solution should just be to remove the payment method for those games (which would still hurt the creators substantially).
There is a line that is confusing:
In response to this censorship, some fans have launched a petition on Change.org urging Valve to revert its policies
There may be petitions about reverting Valve's policy, but it's not the main petition against Visa and MasterCard (which is the one they linked).
Replying my same comment from elsewhere to you as well:
Yes but the payment processors didn't say "you're not allowed to sell this game with our service" they said "you're not allowed to sell this game period or we walk".
Threadripper 9000 CPUs will revive the HEDT market on July 31, starting at $1,499 for 24 cores — the flagship 64-core chip will set you back $4,999
The new wave of AMD HEDT CPUs is right around the corner.
Allianz Life confirms data breach impacts majority of 1.4 million customers
Insurance company Allianz Life has confirmed that the personal information for the "majority" of its 1.4 million customers was exposed in a data breach that occurred earlier this month.
harmsy
in reply to Davriellelouna • • •Putin: lol front line for you.
Derek Huffman: Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!
sandwich.make(bathing_in_bismuth)
in reply to Davriellelouna • • •52fighters
in reply to sandwich.make(bathing_in_bismuth) • • •