soundcloud, mute the ads because I refuse to pay for that shit.

But the newer stuff is mainly german techno, industrial/synthwave and mixes, so I don’t really feel the need to relisten that much anyway.

Torrent search ‘discography’ + ‘flac’

The current commonwealth is a voluntary association, and includes countries which were never colonised by Britain. Sure, the monarch is the head, but AFAIK that’s purely symbolic.

I mean, if former British colonies and non-british colonies want to become and stay members, who are we to lecture them on colonialism?

I don’t think someone in Rwanda needs white westerners to lecture them on imperialism.

And it’s not as if the UK can get away with bossing around India any more.

there are fancam vids of every concert uploaded to youtube immediately after the concert, or even livestreams during it. IDK what changed but I doubt it’s damaging the concert industry

Can I just say that an audience full of wankers filming the concert on their phone, bright screens invariably blocking your view, so they can upload their shitty video almost no one will ever watch on youtube, does absolutely ruin the concert going experience.

Question: would running stuff like this in sandboxie, with internet disabled, prevent these issues?

The problem is that social media algorithms thrive on engagement, and the fastest way to further that engagement is hate. Spending all day on the internet banging on about various fashionable causes, may make give a temporary endorphin boost, but does it actually change much except social media corps’ profit margins?

OP has posted a reminder to not watch Harry Potter in a small internet forum for internet piracy. Will this affect JKR’s support of anti-trans groups in any discernible way?

If you want to change the world, it’s arguably better to get off the internet, and spend time in your community making real tangible changes. If you spend too much time on the internet, it’s likely you’ll forsake the former. There are only so many hours in the day.

It’s fundamentally not that different to replacing real social interaction, with ersatz social interaction on social media.

e: To be clear, this comment won’t actually change anything either. I am just filling time.

I know people like to hate AI, but it does have its uses.

Rear ports? Why bother?

Simply pop it on their desk and let them plug it in themselves when they’re bored/curious.

Pop it on a usb stick and leave it on their desk. You could google how to make it autorun, but you likely won’t have to bother.

Ubisoft is in serious trouble.

TBH I wouldn’t be surprised if they started including a bitcoin miner in their games and filming customers 24/7 so they can sell the footage.

Run it on a rival colleague’s PC.

Stupid question, but why can’t your friend not just run it in sandboxie with internet locked down?

No noticeable performance drain, can’t cause too much damage.

Or isn’t this enough?

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

IME you should add “and laziness.” to that sentence.

It’s quite useful for getting what you want really. Make not doing what you want more effort. Most people are too lazy or tired to not give in for unimportant stuff.

Eg. when being stopped by the police, take your time finding your driving license. Chances are they’ll get bored and let you go on your way before you’ve found it.

The comment above which started this discussion was complementary, and you admitted as much in your reply to it.

Others have also said and provided examples of the phrase sometimes being complementary.

You yourself moved from saying:

It is always cynical to describe someone as a “political operator,” because that phrase is inherently negative.

To:

It usually is, as in, more often than not.

Ie. sometimes it is positive.

You were wrong about a phrase sometimes having a different connotation, it happens, who gives a shit?

You’re right about the smooth bit. Don’t know how that happened.

In any case, operator isn’t necessarily negative, neither is political operator. It can be and often is, but not necessarily. I often see it being used as a compliment.

I did a google, here’s an example from NPR, which is clearly complimentary:

Street — who calls Obama “one of the biggest celebrities on the planet at the moment” — notes that he is “always able to put a distance between himself and whatever performance he’s giving. He knows he’s playing a game. He knows this is a bit of light relief, a bit of entertainment, but he keeps his dignity … and that seems to me a very clever trick. It speaks to him as a very sharp political operator.”

https://www.nhpr.org/politics/2012-05-10/obama-heads-to-hollywood-conservative-group-mocks-celebrity-president

It describes someone who is manipulative in a selfishly power-seeking way.

Not necessarily:

It describes how you achieve your aims, not necessarily what your aims are. Of course, given this is politics we’re talking about, it’s understandable you took it to be necessarily negative.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Mamdani is a relatively left-wing Muslim and non-white politician in America. It’s not cynical to say that he needs to be a smooth political operator, because if he isn’t he won’t survive.

And if he does fail, he’ll be replaced with a candidate who is almost certainly worse, and leave left-wing politics and colleagues in a worse position.

It’s not fair that the president is a rapist, while Mamdani can’t make even the slightest misstep (or something that can be portrayed as such), but that’s American politics. The deck is stacked.

fuck John Daly

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

For those wondering:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Daly_(golfer)

Alcoholic gambler, vocal Trump supporter, sued a children’s charity, wife beater.

completely unavailable to obtain in the US

vinted/ebay

3G is being phased out everywhere

2G fallback.

specific apps that relate to taxi services and talking with my group

Yeah. That’s a no.

I find it annoying that everything’s an app now, when it could also still be a website.

In the Netherlands and Belgium employers sometimes offer what is called a “baaldag”. Basically, if you’re having an especially shit day, you can take the day off. No doctors note required.