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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Study Reveals a Malware Problem on Pirate Sites, but How Bad is It?
A new report investigates the cybersecurity risks consumers face when using digital piracy services in Southeast Asia. The findings clearly show that pirate sites are a bigger threat than legal streaming platforms, suggesting that countermeasures are warranted. However, does is also mean that pirates are 65 times more likely to be infected by malware? And is that even important?
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Instead of zero as a comparison base, the report uses a pseudo count of one, concluding that the risk is 65 times higher
How delightfully nonsensical. I hope the authors were well-paid for their efforts.
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I've never found it particularly difficult to find malware on open pirate sites.
Hell, if you walk into the Pirate Bay without a ad block on you could probably have a compromised EXE in two clicks.
I don't think malware is any worse or better than it's been for 30 years
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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Study Reveals a Malware Problem on Pirate Sites, but How Bad is It?
A new report investigates the cybersecurity risks consumers face when using digital piracy services in Southeast Asia. The findings clearly show that pirate sites are a bigger threat than legal streaming platforms, suggesting that countermeasures are warranted. However, does is also mean that pirates are 65 times more likely to be infected by malware? And is that even important?
18 months. 12,000 questions. A whole lot of anxiety. What I learned from reading students’ ChatGPT logs
18 months. 12,000 questions. A whole lot of anxiety. What I learned from reading students’ ChatGPT logs
Students increasingly use AI chatbots for anything from academic queries to emotional quandaries. But are they missing out on the chance to make their own mistakes? Three undergrads reveal all …Jeremy Ettinghausen (The Guardian)
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
Home – Identità DigitaleSono su: Mastodon.uno - Pixelfed - Feddit
Live Dead (Remastered) by Grateful Dead
Listen now on your favorite streaming service. Powered by Songlink/Odesli, an on-demand, customizable smart link service to help you share songs, albums, podcasts and more.Songlink/Odesli
The Johns Hopkins University Press will license its authors' books to train AI models, citing concerns that “the window may be closing” for making AI deals
The Baltimore Banner: Baltimore News, Politics, Business, Food, Events
Baltimore Banner: Baltimore news coverage, including politics, business, entertainment, food, and events. In-depth investigation and thoughtful opinion on the Baltimore RegionEllie Wolfe (Baltimore Banner)
Satya Nadella's memo on Microsoft's layoffs portends the harsh reality that AI could make software companies more profitable while employing fewer people
The Satya of Satya’s Layoff Memo
“The tournament of today – a set-to between labor and monopoly. To paraphrase Sigmund Freud, sometimes a memo is not just a memo. That’s why we have to read between …On my Om
This Week in Plasma: Printer Ink Level Monitoring
This Week in Plasma: Printer Ink Level Monitoring
Welcome to a new issue of This Week in Plasma! Every week we cover the highlights of what’s happening in the world of KDE Plasma and its associated apps like Discover, System Monitor, and more.This Week in Plasma: Printer Ink Level Monitoring
“On Tuesday afternoon, ChatGPT encouraged me to cut my wrists.”
ChatGPT Gave Instructions for Murder, Self-Mutilation, and Devil Worship
OpenAI’s chatbot also said “Hail Satan.”Lila Shroff (The Atlantic)
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adhocfungus likes this.
every comment I read presents the opposite opinion and I just keep upvoting each one
I know nothing and stand by nothing
life is pretty easy, I'm gonna go back to that other meme with the sandwich pictures now bye
But I'm also getting really tired of people purposely putting extreme effort into tricking the LLM into saying something harmful if someone were to follow it blindly, just so they can make a clickbait headline out of it.
That's called testing, and the companies behind these LLMs should, before launch, put a very important amount of their resources into testing.
"Product testing is a crucial process in product development where a product's functionality, performance, safety, and user experience are evaluated to identify potential issues and ensure it meets quality standards before release" (Gemini)
We are literally using alpha/beta software to deal with life altering issues, and these companies are, for some reason, being able to test their products on the public, without consequences.
It's like you bought a car and deliberately hit the wall to make a headline "cars make you disabled". Or bought a hammer, hit your thumb and blame hammers for this.
Guys, it's a TOOL. Every tool is both useful and harmful. It's up to you how you use it.
Insurance giant says most US customer data stolen in cyber-attack
Allianz Life: Insurance giant says most US customer data stolen in cyber-attack
Hackers accessed "personally identifiable data" of the firm's customers, financial professionals and staff.Ali Abbas Ahmadi (BBC News)
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Mechanize e adhocfungus like this.
Headline is misleading and the beach is relatively small, but you should proactively freeze your credit anyway. I had my identity stolen a few years ago due to an insurance company I'd never heard of getting hacked and it was a huge mess. The whole incident taught me that it's not a matter of if your identity will be stolen- it's when. Thousands of companies have your PII (personal identifying information) even if you have never heard of them or have never done business with them because your insurance works with them or said companies legally buy your info from other companies or your state's government. Most of these companies do alright protecting your data, but when there are so many parties that have it and it only takes one screwing up to get your identity stolen, it's just kind of impossible for them all to do hold the line.
It really pisses me off that citizens are responsible for"protecting" their identities on their own. Obviously the system isn't working but nobody gives a shit or wants to do anything about it. If everyone should freeze their credit by default then why is this not the default state? Why is a 9 digit number given to us as babies on an un-laminated paper card the main thing standing between us and identity theft when you have to give that number to everyone to do anything anyway? It's completely absurd.
At this point I assume most data breaches are just a criminal conspiracy between the corpo and data brokers.
No corporation bothers securing their data to a reasonable extent, so naturally they might as well choose the additional revenue stream of an "accidental" "breach" which is extremely valuable to surveillance capitalism. It's not like they face any significant consequences 99% of the time...
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…
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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)
like this
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".
Some people think that proprietary software for a 3d printer is a plus?
like this
adhocfungus, copymyjalopy e Raoul Duke like this.
"Se lo spengo, la mia ragazza potrebbe pensare che la tradisco": l'ascesa della condivisione della posizione tra coppie
Molte app come "Dov'è?" ci permettono di seguire i nostri cari in ogni momento. Ma solo perché possiamo, significa che dovremmo?
La possibilità di condividere la propria posizione sul cellulare è diventata un modo comune per tenere d'occhio amici, familiari e partner. Per alcuni, è diventato il simbolo di una relazione seria: l'anno scorso, il New York Times ha definito la condivisione della posizione "l'ultima frontiera delle espressioni digitali della coppia" e l'ha paragonata al "lancio ufficiale" di Instagram (l'annuncio ufficiale di una relazione tramite la pubblicazione di una foto del partner per la prima volta). Altri condividono la posizione per impulso e si ritrovano in grado di rintracciare la posizione di persone che non vedono di persona da anni.
Ma sebbene possa essere diventata la norma in certi ambienti, molti rimangono restii a quella che può sembrare un'ulteriore sorveglianza digitale. Solo perché abbiamo la possibilità di sapere dove si trovano i nostri cari in ogni momento, significa che dovremmo saperlo?
‘If I switch it off, my girlfriend might think I’m cheating’: inside the rise of couples location sharing
Many apps like Find My allow us to follow our loved ones at all times. But just because we can, does it mean we should?Leah Harper (The Guardian)
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How to Setup a Secure Ubuntu Home Server
How to Setup a Secure Ubuntu Home Server: A Complete Guide | David Ma
Learn how to turn an old PC into a secure home server with this guide.www.davidma.co
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A PC with Ubuntu Desktop installed (not Ubuntu Server
Any reason why not use Server when setting up a home server?
That's what I was thinking, but I wasn't sure. I figured I'd ask op, since the post seems to be theirs.
As I'm writing this, I'm thinking maybe it's because Server is generally cli-first, and this post is geared towards a more noob audience, so they're going gui-first? If so, I appreciate the forethought.
That guide looks like it has all steps explained with terminal commands, so it should be fine to go for Server version to follow the guide.
I'm also pretty sure you can install the desktop GUI for Server later if you decide you need it for whatever reason, just in case.
Don't sell yourself short. This guide has the very real potential to be invaluable to someone just starting out! It's a great guide! Just needs a little more of the "why" factor, is all : ) keep it up!
Edit: stupid autocorrect
The Johns Hopkins University Press will license its authors' books to train AI models, citing concerns that “the window may be closing” for making AI deals
The Baltimore Banner: Baltimore News, Politics, Business, Food, Events
Baltimore Banner: Baltimore news coverage, including politics, business, entertainment, food, and events. In-depth investigation and thoughtful opinion on the Baltimore RegionEllie Wolfe (Baltimore Banner)
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.
Australian army officer stripped of security clearance over Israel loyalty leaves defence force
The man, anonymised in the ruling as HWMW, told Asio interviewers he did not view Israel as a foreign government and that he would share classified information with the IDF if asked
Archived version: archive.is/20250725213652/theg…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
Europe’s biggest airline weighs up increasing bonuses for staff who spot oversize bags
In our latest roundup of travel news: a new unwelcome American visa fee, how airlines fight the “scourge” of excess baggage, plus a guide to packing everything you need in a backpack.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/26/travel/travel-news-europe-oversized-bags
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Rising number of doctors among hundreds of medical staff detained in Gaza, say rights groups
Detention of Dr Marwan al-Hams by Israeli undercover unit on Monday takes number of doctors being held to 28, says Healthcare Workers Watch
Archived version: archive.is/20250726062237/theg…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
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UK to evacuate children who need urgent medical aid in Gaza
'It is a humanitarian catastrophe, and it must end,' says Prime Minister Keir Starmer
Archived version: archive.is/newest/aa.com.tr/en…
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Canada | Federal government to stop funding hotel rooms for asylum seekers, IRCC says
Immigration department says it will help those still in hotels find housing before program ends on Sept. 30
Archived version: archive.is/20250726144629/cbc.…
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
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US criticizes French inquiry into social media platform X
The investigation follows two January complaints that alleged the X algorithm had been used for foreign interference in French politics. The social media company last week denied the allegations, calling them 'politically motivated.'
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vane
in reply to Khuda • • •Akasazh
in reply to vane • • •Phoenixz
in reply to Khuda • • •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
BombOmOm
in reply to Phoenixz • • •- YouTube
www.youtube.comPhoenixz
in reply to BombOmOm • • •Without even clicking I already knew it was thunderf00t and yes, you're totally right.
So sad that he barely publishes new material anymore
BombOmOm
in reply to Phoenixz • • •If it makes you feel better, . 😀
I haven't watched it yet, but it's on my short list!
- YouTube
www.youtube.comPhoenixz
in reply to BombOmOm • • •BombOmOm
in reply to Khuda • • •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
www.youtube.comPhoenixz
in reply to BombOmOm • • •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_crotch
in reply to BombOmOm • • •"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