Casual AF. I’m here to get shit done, not take any shit from my OS, not pay permanent rents to run my computers*, and do things my way. Protecting my privacy, fulfilling the promise of general purpose computing, and lack of DRM are just icing on the cake.
*Totally happy to donate on the regular to the open source apps I use!
Government will always be abused and turned against the people so its power should be limited
Fully agreed. This is the nature of power. It is a problem as old as humanity, and there have been loads of attempted solutions to that end. Probably the oldest known is the Insulting the Meat Ritual in hunter-gatherer tribes to prevent hunters from becoming egotistical. Given the rarity of remaining hunter-gatherers, we can guess how that worked out.
Decentralization (why we’re here in the Fediverse, right?), social ownership of the economy, revocation of corporate privileges… all excellent goals to which we can aspire. It’s a bit hackneyed but the truism applies: think globally, act locally. On social ownership of the economy, may I suggest looking into timebanks? Join your local timebank if it exists; start one if it doesn’t. A lot of what timebanks (can) accomplish represents most of these ideals. Disclosure: I’m a founding board member and the treasurer of my local timebank, so I have a lot of bias for timebanks as one potential arrow in the quiver of effecting social change.
Does that answer your question?
Yes, thank you for the elaboration! I agree with your points regarding the police state. May I suggest Behind the Bastards’ 3-part on the history of policing (~2020 Jun 16)?The US has been a police state for more of its history than not. And the series underscores the Socialist tenets in your explanation: unions absolutely work. The police union in the US is ridiculously effective at protecting those “workers.” Too bad that union is protecting workers who stomp on the citizenry.
I will add that direct democracy prima facie sounds great, and I used to also hold this belief. We absolutely have the technology for a full direct democracy. The problems with direct democracy are legion, some of which we are seeing right now in the US with low-information voters. Now scale that up. The enormous volume of legislation and policy research on any single issue would stop most citizens dead in their tracks. Take international trade policy for example. My employer paid for me to study international trade compliance for five years. Ain’t nobody got time for that, and international trade policy hits all of us in the wallet, waistline, daily interactions, and health/wellness measures. We hoi-polloi still need to work, get dinner on the table, and do laundry. Voters should understand all of relevant issues at least at a cursory level, but wish in one hand, shit in the other… Hell, how many voters actually read the voter guides and research their local candidates? How many attend city council meetings?
If you want as direct a democracy as possible, focus your efforts at your local and state level. Small changes in your community have ripple effects. Get your neighbors and local social circle to educate themselves and attend. Connect with your local council and governing boards.
As @zxqwas@lemmy.world pointed out: don’t sweat the labels; choose the policies that appeal to your sensibilities. The labels and affiliations will shake out from there.
You keep repeating this, without going into any detail on what any of this means to you. How do you square economic equality with limited government? The former requires extremely strong and well-considered regulation with well-funded government agencies to stick it to corps and billionaires. Edit to add: also requires a strong, stiff-spined Legislative Branch, divorced from lobbying, divested from capital markets, with strict campaign finance reform. More regulation and agencies.
When someone says “I’m Libertarian,” the implicit translation is:
Libertarianism is an extremely naive political platform. Most people who subscribe to its ideals fail to investigate the history of Libertarian ideals in action. Speaking as a former, briefly Libertarian-voting individual, after diving into the planks of the platform, it quickly became clear that Libertarianism is antithetical to a functioning society.
To add onto @StinkyFinger@lemmynsfw.com’s comment on flat response, “flat” here means “compliant with Fletcher-Munson curves,” also called Equal Loudness Contours. Loosely speaking and trying not to muddy the waters too much for you, for a given SPL and frequency band, the human ear has an average response. Flat headphones, like those for critical listening in studios, tend to more closely mirror these curves. FWIW, most people do not like the sound of truly flat speakers and headphones. Most casual listeners tend to prefer audio gear that tracks a little closer to the Equal Loudness Contours.
For example, my favorite studio cans have this response graph:
These cans are considered very flat. Also looking at the graph, you’ll notice some dips and wobbles. like around 4kHz, 8kHz, and again around 16kHz. These are resonation, and resonances are generally considered Not Good. Are resonances dealbreakers? It categorically depends, typically how transient the resonance. Shorter resonance -> mo’ better.
Former audio engineer here. Things that touch your body are highly subjective. Add in the audio angle, and the variables spiral out of control. Driver size is a guideline, but not an absolute litmus. This is a leaky comparison, but a great set of IEMs might have 10mm drivers. A high-end smaller driver will be more accurate than a cheap larger driver.
When I’m considering a new set of headphones or earbuds, I start by looking for aspects that generally outline a quality set of audio gear, such as AptX HD support, serviceability/rebuildable/parts availability, driver type and manufacturer, DAC manufacturer, wired option, etc. None of these by themselves are indicators of quality, but they are typically common to good gear. A published response curve from an independent lab is a nice-to-have. Once I approach the pull-the-trigger phase, I’ll consider reviews from SoundGuys and people I trust in my circle.
ANC nukes audio quality. There are plenty of decent sounding cans with ANC, but they take an instant hit to sound and massive bump in price. In my experience, better ANC means lower sound quality. I prefer passive noise reduction for noisy environs. Comply foam eartips on your IEMs go a long way to improving isolation. Yes, this would mean a set of headphones and a set of IEM, and picking the right tool for the job. I’ve tried a bunch of ANC gear: Sony WF-1000XM4, Sony WH-1000XM4/5, Bose QC, Sennheiser HDB 630, and so on. In the end, I always go back to my wired hardware because it just sounds that much better.
The tuxedo kitteh is channeling Ron Swanson.
250kg GVWR on a folding chassis is some proper capacity. And ~27kg for a folding longjohn seems entirely reasonable. My Larry vs Harry Bullitt was ~21kg.
Am I imagining it, or do they have serious Tiny Dick Energy?
All the tacticLOL hardware, rolling with the whole crew, and motherfucker feels the need to aim his pepper ball gun threateningly? I hope those small, insecure men get every ounce of hell they deserve.
Just keep telling yourself that, buddy. Also: “The guilty conscience needs no accuser.”
Hase Pino Tour with the stoker position removed. I put on an Aventon cargo tray that someone abandoned at the LBS. Burley Travoy for additional lightweight capacity. This load was supplies for a Juneteenth cookout party for 20 people.
For very heavy or large loads, I have a Surly Bill trailer.
Carrying a boat of this size on the Surly Bill is strongly contraindicated. :D I had a lot of weight in the stern, but the load shifted and things got squirrelly.
I was leading a team of engineers (in contrast to managing). There was another team that hired a cohort of engineers straight out of a boot camp. One of them was a shit-hot Jedi of a woman, so I totally poached her for my team. It helped that my team was working on cool stuff and most people wanted in.
After she joined my team, I asked what her salary was (leads don’t typically have access to pay info like a manager would). She was making $70k while most engineers of her tenure and skill were making $110k to $145k. I went to talk to motherfucking HR about this problematic disparity.
The HR jerkwad had the nerve to say, “Discussing your salaries is a terminable offense.”
“I will give you five seconds to amend your statement.”
He stammered a bit and made some non-committal statements. I went to the division VP, to whom I directly reported. He fixed that shit the next day and got her back pay to her previous review.
So yeah, absolutely discuss your salaries with your peers. And FFS don’t be cowed by these douchebags.
We lack the will.
Kinda, although I fully agree with everything else you said. Collective action is really difficult even when the government isn’t running COINTELPRO-like operations on anyone who tries to organize anything like a mass protest. For an example of the challenge of collective action, think about how hard it is to get your group of close friends to agree on which restaurant to go to and when. And that’s when everyone wants to hang out together, with nobody intentionally mucking up the works.
If we can overcome the “internal” hurdles to collective action, we can take back the country.
This is actually a very significant factor. The guideline is that an ocean freighter spotted on the horizon will be on you in five minutes (guideline, we know the math doesn’t exactly check out). That doesn’t leave a lot of margin for being away from the helm or distracted while on watch.
Ocean-going sailor here. Some people might be surprised how often some people have trouble avoiding huge ships. These days, we have modern systems such as AIS, Doppler radar, proximity alarms, and all can be integrated into autopilot. Yet there are still so many stories of near-misses with tankers, freighters, and container ships.
Repeatedly using a blatantly false assertion is called the Big Lie (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_lie). The derailing/zone flooding aspect, as @NOT_RICK@lemmy.world stated, is a Gish Gallop (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gish_gallop). There might be a term for using these together, but I am not aware of of what it might be.
I still want to visit the alternate timeline where Lucas didn’t cave to fan pressure. And the big reveal in Ep 3 is that Jar Jar is revealed to be the Sith Lord. Could Lucas have pulled off a Shyamalan-level surprise? We’ll never know.
Can you name any other character in Pitch Black besides Riddick?
You mean like Jack (both actresses), the Imam (Keith David!), Radha Mitchell, and Claudia Black? I’m generally bad at character names, but can recall the actors.
Screw your Ripley-Riddick movie. Let Ripley stay dead. Oh, who I am kidding? I’d totally go see your movie in the theater. At least twice. :D
Now, if there were a Riddick-Xeno crossover with Mae, Zula Hendricks, and The Jackals, I’d be all over that (too).
I regret that I only have one upvote to give. Everything said by @Bloodyhog is spot on. There’s just no replacement for a proper test drive. And most casual listeners’ preferences will shift over time.
It’s much too late for me, bruddahs! Run, save yourselves! 😆
But seriously, on the first day of my audio engineering degree, the professor said, “You completed the prereqs, you got accepted into the program, you know the degree description. This is your final warning: if you’re here because you enjoy music, leave now. After today, you’ll never be able to ‘just’ listen to some music.” I have no regrets, but damn. There is no sitting down to listen to an album or concert without analyzing everything. To be fair, the two years of music theory and piano + one year of another instrument already warped that.