DrNeurohax

Haha, that just made my day. I’m among my own kind here.

True. They created their own problem by trying to up each other’s lumens claims over and over to the point where decent flashlights are claimed to have 5.6 million lumens and included 25000mAh 18650s.

Most of the $5+ flashlights are probably fine for most people’s needs. I have several and they’ve been fine for me. Different models, similar modes, similar brightness, and all fine for walking the dog or if the power goes out. Now, if I were relying on them for survival, I might think twice. All have held up fine, including the 12 year old one from dealextreme (pre-alibaba). But, since I don’t know if people are asking for recommendations where spec accuracy matters, I’m hesitant to recommend them to random people on the internet.

(I had to check, just for fun, and there are 18650 batteries listed as 19900mAh. Pretty impressive, since Panasonic is capped out at 3500-3600.)

Yeah, it really caught me off guard the first time I used the site. It was during one of those special celebration discount days where they had the audacity to mark items as literally $0.01 when basically nothing was that price.

For 3D printer filament, which is usually bought in 1kg/2.2lb spools, most places list a 2m sample or a 250g spool to game the search. And my other favorite is the whack-a-mole shipping setup where on variation might be free shipping, but choose a different color and the shipping jumps to $300+.

With Amazon, I’m seeing a ton more overpriced items discounted to still higher priced than their competition. If you look at their deals pages, you can find things like portable monitors for $70 (down from $150), but checking that category shows the same monitor (same specs under a different name) for $60.

Here’s as close as I can find right now, since all the lightning deals are ending for the day. There’s a USB laptop docking station that’s “discounted” from $139 to $70. There isn’t an exact match (there usually is), but similar products go for ~$60-$70 (2 HDMI, 4+ USB3 ports, 100W PD, ethernet). What’s funnier is that the specific company’s Amazon site has at least 4 identical docks at slightly different prices.

I just tried it again on desktop and it worked, but the reason was that I downloaded an extension a while ago and forgot about it. When I disabled the extension, it stopped working.

There used to be a way to enable installing any extension on mobile FFx Dev, but I’m not sure if that still works. The desktop extension just changes the user agent string, so that might be another route to enabling it.

I use the ChatGPT feature from desktop Firefox with no problems. Maybe it specifically denies Chrome, in which case I bet you could change the user agent string and get it to work.

I use AliExpress for electrical parts (except anything with memory), 3D printer parts, and small crap I don’t mind waiting for, but never anything I would be angry about if it never arrived. Also, nothing I consume or wear or need for safety, and I’m wary of anything that’s supposed to be plugged into the wall for long periods of time unattended.

I wouldn’t say I’ve been surprised, but my expectations are low. It’s all cheap stuff, but as long as you’re not needing the stuff you buy, it’s fine. Dollar store quality with the scent of plastic and cigarettes.

That being said, beware of scams. The one that seems acceptable to them is to list one cheap part for the listing, along with variations of the full device. That way it looks like the lowest price in search results, but when you click it, the selected variation is the cheap part. Like, you’ll search for “pliers set” and see a listing for $1, compared to others around $15. When you select it, the product page will have a carrying case for $1 and the various pliers for twice as much as the competition. What’s better is that the case will be selected automatically, not the thing in the picture you clicked on or the picture you see first in the product pages’ gallery.

There are also scam stores that pop up with super low prices compared to others on the site can disappear overnight and the cancellation/refund process is a super pain. Contact customer service once and just submit a claim with your CC company. Their refund process will try to keep telling you to wait for another week, and that includes the reps you get on chat. If you’re suspicious and still order, always follow the shipping info. They will estimate a reasonable delivery date, you’ll get a shipping notification, but it will sit in limbo. The shipping folks are separate from the scammers, so if you see the package actually move towards a shipping center, you’re in the clear. If it says they received shipping information for over a week, you got screwed.

Ignore flash drives/SSDs, batteries, and assume any flashlights are 1/100th the brightness claimed (literally). Oh, and watch shipping costs. Something with free shipping can be 10x the price of the product if you add a second one to your cart.

Since the Snoopocalypse I’ve been using it MUCH more. I’m as surprised as anyone, but without Reddit, Google is complete hot garbage. I used to use Google 95% of the time and didn’t realize how many times I gave up and added “reddit” in the query. It’s unusable.

Out of principle, I’ve made SearXNG my default, but I don’t shun Bing at all now. I occasionally use DDG, but anything relatively technical just doesn’t come up much there.

I knew I was missing something. There should have been a crypto scam in there, too.

If you’re missing Reddit, here, I’ll give you that fix…

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. All my posts get 14million+ replies. Git gud.”

“Ackshully, what you’re calling Lemmy is the server software, which is only a part of the ActivityPub protocol… (4 paragraphs of technical stuff).”

“And my Axe!”

“Wait, what’s a Lemmy?”

“Have you considered that these feelings might be a sign of depression? I took half a semester of a psychology class in college and…”

“Bro, don’t doubt yourself. Fuck the haters.”

“Bro, you doubt yourself because you know it’s true. Get alpha.”

“I thought this too, but then I got (some worthless product) and it fixed everything! I’m not affiliated in the sense that it is my product.”

“You could post to both! Step 1: Post to Reddit. Step 2: Post to Lemmy. Step 3: … Step 4: Profit!”

“Man, this sub doesn’t stick to its own rules. He doesn’t even mention federation. Someone ban this clown!”

“I am so insulted by this that I’m unsubbing, throwing my computer out the window, building a rocket, and flying off to Mars.”

“I am so insulted by all these replies that I’m unsubbing, throwing…”

“Oh no! I have too many social media platforms to post on!” There are kids dying from space-based lasers all across the world. Talk about first world problems…"

“Hey I think this is the thing that is in more of for every in the past inside.”

Feeling better?

I don’t WANT to agree, but I kinda do.

We’re here because Reddit was shit on top shit, led by gaping anus. We all accept that Meta is the same.
We didn’t want Reddit profiting from our work. Meta will do the same, only more competently.

Defederation is useless at scale They can continually spin up new instances that act as spies and bridges to Meta’s area.
Once enough Meta bridge nodes are woven into the Fedi, they’ll be masked by a backchannel to mask the exchange/activity.

Someone plz tell me I’m wrong, but this is how I think things work in the background…

• Bob creates a Lemmy node - @Zucc1.ughfuckoff. It has 3 users and basically shops around until someone in lemmy.world’s sphere allows federation. Zucc1 looks like any random, small instance.
• Once federated, Zucc1 syncs to its connected Lemmy instances - for now there is no Meta connection.
• Zucc1 can then federate with a bunch of other instances, including Zucc2.
• This repeats for a few weeks, infiltrating Fedi. This could be happening now.
• A new set of Lemmy nodes spin up and federate only with a portion of the spy instances. The spy instances don’t respect the federation rules, distributing portions of the Fedi sync back to the Meta connected nodes, masking the source and destination.
• Once signed posts are received by the spy nodes, user names are swapped with a table synced by spy and bridge instances. @User1@T4server.threads becomes @User7@Zucc4.ughfuckoff.
  • The Threads user sees their message from @someone@lemmy.world (which can also be swapped if they worry Threads users care about any of this stuff).
  • The Lemmy user sees the message from @User@Zucc4.ughfuckoff.

Probably easy to combat when it’s one instance here and there. If it’s constant and automated, federating would have to be paused until the spies are weeded out and there’s a better detection strategy. If they get a big enough network going, they could all dip out at once, change identity, and refederate back in as the Fedi network flips out because of all the sync mismatches. Just more new nodes joining in. They have the source code, so they can act differently from other instances as long as it doesn’t cause problems.

Is this a realistic scenario or am I way off base? I feel like it has to be one of the two.

My point is that this argument makes as much sense as what I wrote, so it’s encouraging the you think it’s ridiculous.

“Versus” is a valueless delineation separating two subjects. There are two groups: The people of the Fediverse and the people not in the Fediverse. Neither one is good or bad, and in fact, many are a part of BOTH. That self awareness cancels any perceived negativity. We’re all probably some level of “normie,” and I’ve never heard someone use that word without immediate laughter by all parties. Sure, maybe in the early 00s by grade school punks, but I don’t think anyone does or should care.

The point you’re actually making, without articulating it well, is the lack of terminology for federated groups. No one wants to say, “I’m a member of a select federated Lemmy and Kbin instances within the larger Fediverse.” You want an affirmative set of terms, so that delineation can be made; you want to say, “The X have this, and the not(X) have that.” From there you can get to value judgements, based on the expression of X, and I’ll recognize your concerns. The ridiculousness of those terms not existing makes it VERY hard to claim intentional negativity/harm because it simultaneously draws attention that group X in this case doesn’t have their shit together enough to come up with a nickname or shorthand.

“You’re better than us? What are you?”
“Well, you see, I’m a part of a federated network of…”
(Looks up - everyone left)

So, until someone comes up with some non-super-cringe terms for this wonderful mess, the discussion is a waste of everyone’s time. And until then, I suggest taking it on a case by case basis. If someone is offended, tell them that’s not intended because we don’t have OUR shit together, ask them what they prefer, and use that term around them.

I 100% agree that word is cringe and I’m totally into the fediverse for the long haul, but we have to address the pachyderm in the room: The word “Fediverse” is just as cringe.

I, … I’m sorry. I can read it in a document, but the second a human being types it, I can’t take it seriously. I don’t care if folks want to shorten it to something like the FI (Federated Instances). Yes, there are other uses of the word “federate”, but it immediately sounds like a federal intraweb domain or a group of Star Trek policy makers.

“Fediverse” is “netizen 2.0.”
“Fediverse” is “cruising on the information superhighway Pro.”
Please tell me I’m not alone in thinking this.

No no no, it’s stereotyping and prejudice when OTHER people do it to US. WE should tell THEM that THEY are US, and by saying this to OURSELVES we have said it to THEM, so that WE know that THEY know, but now THEY are a THEM again.

YOU don’t get it. WE get it. YOU should all be like US where there is no YOU and US, there is only the WE that is YOU and US, but thereis no YOU and US, there is only the WE that is YOU and US, but thereis no YOU and US, there is only the WE that is YOU and US, but thereis no YOU and US, there is only the WE that is YOU and US.

Simple. See? You don’t? But, YOU must because there is no…

So you’re saying there are people who DO use “normies” and people that DON’T use “normies”. These are not two groups of people. Shit, I just joined this thread, so that makes ME one of YOU, and there’s OTHERS that aren’t here. Are WE the elitists? Or are THEY the “normies”? YOU said there’s no there’s no US or THEM, so EVERYONE is talking in this thread. ANYONE not in this thread must not exist because I know I exist, so YOU thread posters must exist, but wait, that makes ME an US and YOU a THEM.

(I’m not trying to be snarky, but this argument is exactly as nonsensical.)

I’m generally a Windows user, but on the verge of doing a trial run of Fedora Silverblue (just need to find the time). It sounds like a great solution to my… complicated… history with Linux.

I’ve installed Linux dozens of times going back to the 90s (LinuxPPC anyone? Yellow Dog?), and I keep going back to Windows because I tweak everything until it breaks. Then I have no idea how I got to that point, but no time to troubleshoot. Easily being able to get back to a stable system that isn’t a fresh install sounds great.