The only people who should be worried about this conversation are therapists and philosophers.

Our culture is fucking with people’s heads by making them have to question shit like this. Words are made up (you should look up some definitions). Our emotions are not. No one should be judging anyone for whom they find attractive and no one should feel shame or pride for having a preference.

So why would people who are attracted to cis people (of a particular sex) and not trans people (of the opposite sex-assigned-at-birth to the sex they’re attracted to) necessarily be transphobes.

This is not a thing. At all. Just because I prefer red apples over green apples does not instill a phobia or hatred of green apples.

The LGBT movement, as with nearly all movements, is about education. It seems you may have skipped over the prerequisites jumped right to LGBT 201.

Yes, “It’s obviously a nuanced subject, and human sexuality is complex” and the point is that no one should be casting societal assumptions upon or judging anyone. The point is to mind your own business and support government legislation that protects marginalized groups from the ignorant and those who lack empathy. “Do no harm” shouldn’t be regulated to practicing doctors. We’ve all lost sight of the “treat others as you want to be treated” Golden Rule. So, mind your own business and treat others with the same respect you believe you deserve.

If you are personally struggling with your own sexuality, I would strongly suggest you seek guidance from a professional rather than pondering aloud on the internet and expecting validation. If you are struggling to understand the sexuality of others, I would suggest you stop trying and embrace the uniquenesses found in every corner of this planet.

Gotcha. I probably could have phrased that better.

Not worrying about how others perceive you and having something interesting to share with others is not contradictory.

I don’t have to like you or agree with you to listen to something you feel passionate about to share. Have you heard of YouTube?

If you’re weird and you have nothing interesting to share, if you lack the confidence to speak with others, then I’m not very likely to give you much attention.

Learning something “so others will like you” is exactly what I’m suggest you do not do. You should learn something so that you have personal confidence in something. The more you become proficient in something, the more confident you’ll become overall. Accomplishing goals and overcoming obstacles breeds confidence. It may help your social interactions if that thing is less niche and more universal but not exclusively.

This is why people ask others what they do for a living. They want to hear you speak about something they presume you’re passionate about. There’s a hope to engage in a conversation or to learn something from you. If you have some niche hobby or job and you’re good at it, people will listen to you. You may even find people come up to you at a party to hear more about what you feel so strongly about.

Don’t ever do something solely because you think it will make others like you more. If you’re not doing it for yourself, you’re not able to put all of yourself into it. You’ll never own that thing. You’ll just be renting it for others.

There is no inherent arbiter of good or truth.

If the trust in expertise is tarnished, reshaping reality is left to the uninformed.

Work first on being a good human.
That will make you a good (and attractive) man or woman.

The archaic concept of masculinity or femininity itself is wretched.

People worry far too much about what others think of them and what mold they should fit into. Be yourself. Be a good, caring, empathetic person with convictions and passions and hobbies. Become proficient in one or more things so others find you interesting. Learn how to do things without the aid of technology. Read books. Travel as far as you can. Give a shit about yourself and your community.

If you’re struggling to fit a mold that society is telling you you should fit into, you’re already lost. That doesn’t mean you can’t find yourself. It means that mold probably isn’t right for you. And there is nothing wrong with that. If others have a problem with you not being what they expect, that’s their issue to resolve. The sooner you’re able to let go of societal concepts, the more free you’ll be to be the best version of you.

Don’t confuse being a good man and being a good person. It’s the same thing. There is nothing you can do to become more of a man that won’t make you more of a person.

I hardly ever get spam calls. Today, I got a call from a government robocaller and a call asking for someone else whom I’m pretty sure had my number over five years before me. I thought these were legit but now, reading the comments, I’m not so sure.

People are way too willing to give out their phone numbers. So many apps and websites require a phone before ever signing in. I will not use any service that requires a phone number.

Because so many things rely on phone numbers now, when I got my new number in 2020 I lost access to a number of things.

2FA SMS verification can be spoofed so it’s not a secure method.

The only spam calls or messages I get are from government reps. Apparently “for government use” is not illegal and it’s practically impossible to get taken off the list. If anyone has a tip for this, please let me know.

Excuse me? Are you trying to say that side-loaded apps are more free of ads than those in app stores? What motivates a developer to release an ad-free side loaded app while refusing to submit it to (or failing to get it approved in) an app store?

How is this specifically an iPad issue and not an app developer issue?

I’d like to know, because I don’t have a Google device or account, how the Google Play Store is superior to the Apple App Store when it comes to ad or subscription supported software.

I’ve owned many iPads. To claim you can’t use it without a subscription service is ridiculous. Yes, you need an Apple ID to download apps from the App Store but that doesn’t cost anything (just like a Google account).

You’re comparing two electronic devices that are ten years apart from each other. Of fucking course the new one is going to be better. If you think a Galaxy tablet is great, you should really try a new iPad.

I mean, you’re just coming off sounding like an Apple-hater and someone who hasn’t ever actually owned an iPad. Maybe even a bot.

I use a combination of flickr, ente.io, glass.photo, portraitmode.io.

Dopamine.

I wish I had half your optimism.

first results on Google

That’s your first problem. Higher ranked results on Google are either ads or “reputable” organizations (corporations). Google isn’t there to help you, it’s to help them.

Does Foxit no longer have a free PDF editor? Apple computers have a built in PDF editor. I mean, it depends on what you mean by “editor” though. If you want to manipulate the elements of a PDF, that’s obviously an advanced function. Yeah. It’s called capitalism. womp womp.

You might find some useful tools here. It’s mostly a list of self-hosted tools but there’s some web tools there too. https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted?tab=readme-ov-file#software

This might be helpful for what you’ve described https://www.photopea.com/ and you can try searching https://alternativeto.net/ for alternatives.

Generally, it just seems like you need to work on your skills to search the internet for what you need. AI is very helpful but not 100% reliable.

If you want to learn how to drive safely, automatic.
If you want to have fun while driving, manual.

A manual transmission requires more of your attention. It connects you to the car and the road. It gives you more control over your gas mileage and torque. Forget about texting and driving.
My first few cars were automatic. I bought a car with manual transmission when I was about 20 years old. It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to drive it and an hour to become proficient.

If I were a father, I would mandate my kid to drive automatic. People on the road are dangerous and there’s far too many distractions. Learn how to drive first. That means learning how to deal with your environment and making quick decisions.

I don’t treat it differently than any other album.

Singles still used to come on a physical thing with a name. Often with a B side. Sometimes it’s the Radio Edit or Single version of a track so I may add (Single) or (DJ Remix) in the album title.

I don’t personally see the issue. If I’m browsing an artist, I want to see all the music they’ve released.

I think we’re well past people becoming apathetic to privacy concerns. Either they’re ignorant or they prefer the advantages.

You, along with everyone else sharing this soapbox, aren’t convincing anyone that their data privacy is a concern. Your example about using private communications against someone is becoming increasingly valid but the vast majority of people are going to ignore this until it’s too late. Maybe not even then.

If you haven’t heard about human beings before, they’re a species that rarely shows concern for their immediate future (never mind long term). If and when they do, they point at and blame the people whom they’ve elected to ensure pending catastrophic events don’t impede upon their freedom to be stupid.

Our reality is the frog in the pot of water. Things are happening at such a slow pace that we accept the incremental changes despite their known ramifications. Before you know it, the water is at a rolling boil but we’ve already subscribed to boil-proof clothing so we can enjoy the pleasure of the sauna.

Because, contrary to what you may think you’ve observed over the past ten+ years, copying and republishing anyone’s content without their permission is a US copyright infringement.

So yeah; if you want to get their permission, ensure all their links and such are migrated over, and do all the work for them to mirror content they’ve created without the benefit of making any money on it, have at it.

At first glance, I feel like your in parentheses statements maybe should not be left beneath the surface.

Synthwave sent me down the path of Vaporwave > Chillwave > Darkwave. There’s a not-unrelated genre called Mallsoft. Somehow that got me into Library Music. I found a lot of music on Bandcamp and archive.org. You can get downloads of full albums and discographies for a few dollars, name your price, or for free.

If you’re looking to do a deeper dive, the genre and sub genres are largely credited with being kicked off by Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe in 2011.

I listen to this stuff all day long while I’m working at home. My vaporware playlist is literally 7 days long (2350 songs). Here’s some of my picks.

https://interloperecords.bandcamp.com/album/--7

https://9rhythm9.bandcamp.com/album/kmart

https://dreytnien.bandcamp.com/album/silicon-reality

https://obliqueoccasions.bandcamp.com/album/v1

https://obliqueoccasions.bandcamp.com/album/remnants

https://catsystemcorp.bandcamp.com/album/palm-mall

https://catsystemcorp.bandcamp.com/album/sunday-television-2

More Links
https://archive.org/search?query=synthwave
https://archive.org/search?query=vaporwave
https://archive.org/search?query=mallsoft

I’ve actually been rewatching some episodes of All In The Family airing on Pluto TV. It’s remarkable (1) how little has changed and (2) how we’ve lost such great quality television over the past forty years.

Why install an app when you can just use the bank’s website?