Depending on your situation, most of your issues can be avoided by not owning a smartphone. It’s extreme (by today’s standards, at least), but it does work. I ditched my smartphone back in 2017 for a cheap flip phone. I can find spare parts on eBay easily. My car is older, so there is no SaaS crap in it. If I need to keep in touch with someone, we can use SMS, call each other or meet in real life. I use a Linux laptop for banking/browsing the web and I keep a physical GPS in my car in case of emergency.

and I agree with you. Privacy is pretty much gone already.

I was upset at first. Human beings have emotions and it’s perfectly fine to feel them. You just have to make sure that they don’t control you.

You’ve only got one life to live my friend. I spent a few years in the military and it was a great learning experience. It definitely changed my mindset.

34 years old with two kids.

I spent my 20s working like a horse, and I eventually bought a nice house in a quiet town. I had enough money to go on vacation to Mexico every year with my wife and my kids. Basically, I was living the American dream.

Fast forward a few years later. My wife tells me that she wants a divorce and she is dating the guy she told me not to worry about. Getting divorced means that 50% of my assets go to her, and I need to sell my house. Child support leaves me with little money left at the the of the month.

So, how do I feel? Not bad at all, actually. Have I lost a wife? No, she has been returned. Have I lost my possessions? No, they have been returned.

My children are healthy. They have a good relationship with me and their mother, and they have everything that they need. I am grateful for this. Then, I am aware that they could be taken from me anytime (e.g. sickness). You have to learn how to control your expectations.

As for the future, well whatever that I decide to set my mind to, I will do so with diligence. I’m currently trying to come up with programming projects to keep myself busy. Who knows? I could hit pay dirt, eventually (or not).

Living according to Nature is what I strive for. Everything else is irrelevant.

Canadians: First time?

#mp3z

I use Session because it doesn’t require a phone number.

I’ve noticed this too. Most of the stuff on Reddit’s frontpage has an angry undertone. Anger = Engagement.

I keep a GPS in my car in case of emergency, but I try to plan my trips ahead by memorising landmarks on OSM. As a species, we are losing our navigation skills.

Frozen fish: Mackerel. Preferred: Cod.

How much of a PIA is it to install Linux on a Chromebook? I’m looking for a small laptop and Chromebooks are the perfect size.

no alcohol or drugs: I quit drinking a year ago. I’ve saved a LOT of money. In my case, it was a crutch.

Food-wise, I eat very little meat. If I do, I eat pork liver, chicken hearts/gizzards. Offal basically. Fish can be cheap if you buy it flash frozen or canned. Peanut butter, bananas, and grapes are cheap. Instead of bread, I make my own flat bread.

Linux Mint’s software manager is not bad.

Anyone remember download accelerator plus? I’d download stuff at night while everyone was asleep, then pause DAP/disconnect from the Internet in the morning. Rinse and repeat.

Same here. Mandrake 8.2 was a buggy mess, but I have fond memories of it.

That was one shitty database application lol. I guess the programmer hadn’t thought of using pagination.

Frankly, I don’t see this a a problem as long as the software is up to date and the hardware is sound. I bet there are thousands of SPARC servers out there processing data 24/7 since 1995.

I feel like someone who has just woken up from cryo-sleep or a soldier who’s finally come out of the jungle after twenty years.

The 90s were great for the most part. The Internet was free and open, and there were zillions of forums and personal websites. I call this period the Genesis of the Web.

Then, things got bad. Microsoft monopolised the Web with its shitty IE 6 browser, websites were riddled with malware and popup ads, and you needed an antivirus and an anti-adware on your PC to be safe. I call this period the dark age of the Web. Most search engines died out, and Google became the king of search.

A couple years into the new millennium, Firefox and HTML 5 came about. There was hope again. Mozilla was fighting the good fight to keep the Web open, and new Web development techniques were developed (jQuery, CSS3, Dojo toolkit, Ajax became easier, etc). As a Web developer, this period was very exciting. You just couldn’t keep up with the new stuff. Firefox’s market share kept increasing, and new websites appeared on the scene: myspace, youtube, thefacebook (basically, proto-social media). Google released their Chrome browser, and IE was dying a slow death. This was the golden age of the Internet.

Then, things got bleak. Apple released their iPhone, and Google released Android. By this time, most personal websites were gone, social media was on the rise, Firefox became less and less relevant, and by the end of the 2010s, the Web had become just a shell of itself. The ‘Web’ was now just a dozen websites owned by powerful corporations. Engagement algorithms were developed to keep people hooked, and Google analytics tracked everything. Privacy was gone for good. This is the period we are currently in. I call it Corpo Web or the Dystopian Web. Some of us did not want to participate in this version of the Web, so we lived in a separate world (what we call the small web).

Finally, someone came up with the idea of Fediverse; platforms that can communicate with each other through open protocols. Corporate social media platforms are falling apart (reddit, twitter, facebook, etc), and Fediverse is exploding. Each Fediverse instance has its own personality, and it reminds me of web rings in a way. There is always something new to discover, be it a new community or a new instance of Lemmy/Mastodon/etc.

What I would love to see though, is a way to Lemmy instances more unique (custom designs, chat system, games, etc). This would encourage people to visit other instances. Also, we should be able to categorise communities and group them together (like a traditional forum).

I use Debian with a patched version of motif window manager. The 90s never ended:

I find the hot/active categories pretty confusing too. It would be nice to be able to show subbed communities either across the top of the page or on a sidebar like old Reddit.