We might actually not know why magnets work.

The formula used to prove the functionality of magnets can also be used to prove the existence of a theoretical state called a monopolar magnet - positive or negative on both sides. So either monopolar magnets can exist, even if in some esoteric circumstance, or we don’t know why magnets work.

That’s how I try to keep things in perspective, by saying - was I any different?

Yes I think it’s all stupid and annoying, literally everything about tiktok which the kids are soooo involved with, minecraft, fortnite, however they’re dressing these days. Stupid and annoying, all of it.

But hey there was a time when my digi-pet was the most important thing I owned, my beanie babies were “an investment”, could easily play Halo for 12 hours straight, I wore giant jnco jeans with chains on them, and listened to Limp Bizkit.

So, was I any different? Nah, it’s the same.

I am literally a Linux system admin, I bang on a command line interface for a living.

But I don’t use Linux at home, it’s just so much work. Every single thing is complicated. Last time I really tried in earnest to switch to a full Linux setup I was somewhere in the middle of a quick and easy 24-step process to get my webcam working, compiling the drivers from a modified source - and it was just a moment that broke me. Like, I’ve been working on this for an hour and I know I can do it but this is stuff I don’t even think about with windows.

So I broke down and bought Windows 10. It’s what I was trying to avoid, being a tight ass and didn’t want to buy an new OS.

I just don’t have the patience to troubleshoot every tiny thing like a big endeavor. I can, I just don’t want to. Everything I install, every peripheral I connect, it’s always a big deal getting it to work. Heck with that, not worth the trouble.

I had a similar experience with one of the more recent NBA games.

Like, shooting the ball was a whole process. First you initiate a gathering action or decide what kind of plant or pick you’re going to make, there’s a button for whether you jump or not, what kind of jump (fade away, in place, diving towards) and then timing for shot accuracy. God help you if you’re going for a dunk.

Damn it all, what ever happened to one button for pass and the other for shoot!

I’m out here doing advanced Street Fighter combos just to throw a damn ball. It’s easy as doing a tatsumaki super canceled into a neutral aerial shakunetsu hadoken. And that’s just one thing, every damn mechanic in the game felt like this.

Amazing the time when arcades were soooo much better than home consoles.

Like, there was a time when a home console was pretty good at simulating the arcades, but that was about it.

Only if it’s really bad though, and on purpose.

If it was something the employee couldn’t control or just a generally bad experience that was nobody’s fault, still 20%. Place is swamped and the waiter never gave me a drink refill because they’re the only one on the floor, still 20%.

I have a set of screwdrivers that I’m pretty sure came from the dollar store, and they’re the favorite tool I have.

Used to work in IT and those screwdrivers disassembled many hundreds of computers, maybe over a thousand. They’re magnetized just right too, so I can put a screw on the tip and place it with the tool instead of by hand. They’re small, fit in your pocket, very convenient.

I used an apple phone for the first time at work, they gave us apple phones.

I was blown away when I realized you can’t just dump any old file on it, because I’m used to plugging in my android phone and throwing on some files like it’s any other removable storage. Not so with apple phones, incredibly limited.

See, I used to flash firmware for copy machines from my phone. Like if I went out to a site and didn’t prepare firmware before going I could just download it on my phone and flash from that.

The apple phone couldn’t do a bunch of stuff that I always thought was standard smartphone things. Also couldn’t display cell and wifi reception in decibels, and I used to do informal site surveys with my phone. Nope, apple can’t do that either, “bars” aren’t a good metric to wrote down.

That thing was about damn useless except to be used as a phone and an mp3 player.

And it was absolutely a case of negligent opsec.

I suspect what happened is that I posted pictures on reddit that I also posted on Facebook. A reverse image search links my reddit account to my facebook account, and therefore a real name and name of city. With that, the rest is public information.

It was a wakeup call that the internet contains the best and the worst of humanity, and the worst will come after you at the earliest opportunity.

At the height of it, yes. It filled up the front page every single day and made the site absolutely reek.

It’s what made me stop browsing /r/all, drop off most default subs, and stick to only my subscribed subs. Brigading and spamming is the whole point.

Historically this group has been responsible for an absolute shitload of spam and outright attacks.

I was doxxed by them. They had links to a discord group that included my full name, address, email, and phone number. There was a whole list, it’s one of the first reasons they were quarantined. There was a comment that read “anyone with spare bullets can send them here”.

This is a lot more than “I simply don’t agree with that community”. They are trash who will trash up any platform they can reach.

And that was indicated when they migrated to Voat. Nobody else used Voat, it was just them. Also when reddit changed their policies to prevent one sub from appearing on the front page more than once.

The whole point is to be obnoxious in spaces where it isn’t welcome. When they realized they couldn’t do that on a platform that only consisted of them, there was no incentive to engage. The whole point is to shit up a platform enjoyed by others, and that’s exactly what they’ll do here.

I’m hopeful that over time things will sort out on their own, certain spaces will become functionally the only one of their kind and put everybody into the same bucket instead of these fragmented duplicates of the same thing.

I know folks here keep talking about small communities, but that means infrequent content with little engagement.

I practice fencing, I’m a fencer. Now I’m not the best fencer around but I’m at competitive tournaments several times a year.

Biggest tournament I participate in is the Arnold Classic. It’s a huge sports festival hosted by Arnold Swarzenegger, while it’s primarily a weightlifting and bodybuilding event they have just about every sport you can imagine and some you probably haven’t. Arnold is there too, I’ve seen him almost every year. Hell of an event, I like seeing the other sports almost as much as I enjoy fencing in it.

And I’ve been trying to learn to play the bagpipes lately.

It’s actually not as complicated as you might imagine. Now, I’ve never played a musical instrument before but this actually seems like something I could do with lots of practice. I just think it’s neat, I’d like to be able to play something with some degree of proficiency. Like, other instruments are more complicated - there are only 9 holes, it plays in one octave, and there’s no special blowing technique to it. Compare that to a trumpet, a flute, a saxophone. Bagpipes, quite simple in comparison.

It’s a work in progress, I can play a few little tunes.

Well not after Sync goes down.

I’m not using their shitty official app. I’ve tried it before and it honestly makes me question how reddit is even popular when so many users are accessing it through that mess. Like, this is the only experience for many, and it’s pretty rough.

I’m still using Windows 10 on my personal computer. Oh I’ll probably have to upgrade someday, some game or other program will come out with exclusivity of some kind and I’ll eventually install Windows 11. But for the most part, I don’t want to fuck with it, everything works and I really just don’t want the hassle.

Running Linux Mint on an old laptop, mostly because it’s too old to decently run Windows 10. Don’t use it for much, mostly troubleshooting things.

At work the laptops are Windows 10 and I don’t think there’s a push to update. Of course all the servers are Redhat Enterprise Linux, and that’s where the majority of my work takes place.

For me the biggest problem is lack of content, a platform like this (and reddit) lives and breathes on their user submitted content. I mean, reddit wouldn’t be much either if there wasn’t much to see on there.

My hope is more users equates to more content, and this platform grows into something akin to reddit. Best case scenario - it turns out better, or at least like reddit used to be.