A guy I worked with, not even super closely, left me a handwritten card when he moved on saying it was a pleasure working with me. I did not expect it and almost certainly didn’t deserve it but I still have that card somewhere.

Good luck self hosting something to message

Dude, it’s pretty easy to set up matrix on a docker container

your contacts

Fuck you’re right

That was nice.

I'm a person yes! and you're welcome

Right at the start, there were sometimes the "you wouldn't steal a car" warning about pirating movies but there never has been ads in the middle of whatever you were watching.

that sure would be a BIG bus!! i didn't know flashmobs went this far...

This is what I see whenever I see an apple device. There's very little control that the user can exert that Apple hasn't blessed to be something within your control.

All computers are general purpose logic machines and they're intentionally making them not do things that they absolutely could otherwise do, just because.

Not saying iPhones are bad, or that Mac's are bad.... I've just noticed that if you do things in a way that is compatible with how Apple thinks you should do them, then Apple works very well for you. If you have foolish notions to do things differently (or, "think different"... If you will), then you're going to have a bad time.

It is really weird, isn’t it. I’ve always been a major enthusiast for Tech. Always wanted to get in on VR when it was first evolving, as I could see how else could use VR. I bought oneof the first iPods cause I messed with one and realized it was a game changer for what we had at that time. Now, I find myself cautioning people on the use of AI and home automation. I feel like I’m turning into a Luddite.

I hate to break it to you, but your personal consumption choices will not make a meaningful difference to the amount of enshittification you experience in your life.

So do I, but I wouldn't recommend it for everybody. Hosting your email has sucked for decades. For a long time the issue was incoming spam. That never really went away, but now in addition to that you get a constant barrage of people trying to crack into your server. Plus, you get the fun of trying to convince the big email gatekeepers that you're still legit. And for that one they change the rules constantly and on a whim.

What a fantastic post, thank you for linking it!

Seriously though, I do think that it's interesting that this comic and that essay seem to take up opposite positions*, but in each case they attract more contrary comments than ones that agree. I suppose no matter what you post, any given person is more likely to comment on it if it pisses them off than if it confirms their beliefs. It's a good thing Lemmy doesn't reward engagement, or else we'd be up to our eyeballs in ragebait, eh?

*Unless you read the whole thing instead of bouncing off the first paragraph.

Also, it's getting harder and harder to live without modern devices.

Try living in the modern world without a cell phone. It's hard to do almost anything without one. If you get a flip phone that can handle text messages you can get a bit further, but it's a matter of time before that's not enough.

And sure, you can listen to cassettes on a walkman. And maybe you saved some tapes from 40 years ago, and maybe they still work. But, how do you get more music? Sure, you can probably find a place to order tapes online. But, then they want to verify your account and that means texting a verification code to your phone and...

As for print media. Sure, you can still buy paper books. But, if you want a real newspaper, good luck. There are a few that are still around, AFAIK you can still get the NY Times in print. But, I really doubt you still even have a local newspaper, let alone a newspaper that prints on paper.

luddites.

Luddites, the followers of Ned Ludd? The guys who smashed machines and went to war against the factory owners who were defending their factories with soldiers and cannons?

They're a lot more similar to the guys with guillotines than you seem to think.

Also, food delivery has always involved middlemen. Instead of food delivered through an app, it was food delivered after a phone call. But, it was a human middleman delivery driver doing the delivery.

I gave up on DVDs long ago, but I replaced them with files stored on a local NAS. Dealing with discs is just too clunky.

I do sometimes miss the extras they'd have on DVDs though. I ripped some DVDs and kept some of that stuff, but I haven't found a good system that indexes and organizes the extras.

If you use homebrew you can install all kinds of things on a mac. So, you get the power of a Unix-based machine with the nice eye-candy, ease of use, rock solid drivers, etc. of an Apple device.

But, the phones are another matter. Those things are so locked down it's ridiculous. We really need competition in the mobile phone OS market.

Pre computerized cars is going to be pretty hard. We'll run out of old beaters eventually.

I see a few comments about self hosting stuff to escape the clutches of big tech, and while all that is effective to a high degree, it is beyond the abilities of the general populace.

Besides, I am also of the opinion that not everything has to be digital or smart.

I relish writing and receiving letters, it is tangible and indicates commitment. Fortunately, postal system isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

I like reading newspapers and it was sad to see all shops in my neighbourhood stop selling them during or after COVID. It was equally sad to see a lot of magazines not survive that period.

I miss my old TV that was simpler to use and started quicker than my newer smart TV. It does not matter if I disconnect the latter from the internet, it takes its time to load up. Besides, I don’t see any perceivable difference in picture quality from the distance I watch from.

Older laptops, though heavier, were more repairable. In certain aspects, they are better than modern ones: more tactile keyboard, nicer screen ratio (4:3). Of course, the newer laptops decimate the old ones when it comes to performance and screen quality but that is just technology progressing.

I could keep going on with a plethora of product categories. But across all my points, I wish some companies could continue offering such products, at least to a customer base that is willing to pay more just to support the existence of those products.

Yeah middlemen have been a part of almost all commerce from the start, every store, every trade and most services are in some way middlemen. I think the comic's message is good but is attributing the terrible actions of llm to middlemen in error.

It's so hard for people to agree that we should be doing something. Instead you argue that you are not going to do anything just out of spite all because OP personally may not be doing anything but their words are a bit preachy. If OP was a hypocrite but they still said the right thing why would you deliberately disagree? What would motivate you to act?