He/him. Chinese born, Canadian citizen. University student studying environmental science, hobbyist programmer. Marxist-Leninist.

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  • 95 Comments
Joined 4Y ago
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Cake day: Oct 03, 2019

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Jeez is this why my torrents slowed down to a crawl lately? I’m on Mullvad and wasn’t aware they removed port forwarding, or even really what port forwarding is until now.


Yeah that’s on me. I never really looked for netflix downloader type software because everything I’d possibly want to watch on Netflix (not a lot all things considered) is available on torrent. Guess I never really wondered how they rip the videos for torrenting, which in hindsight is kind of obvious.


On one hand I’m interested in seeing how well it works and what they do with it, on the other hand…

Source: https://xkcd.com/927/


In anyways, we will keep fighting collaboratively as long as we can.

You’re doing god’s work!



I wish you the best of luck! I’m on a similar journey to replace YouTube.


I don’t think there are any that don’t require jailbreak/sideloading, but you can always use the browser versions like Invidious or Piped!


The vast majority of their userbase already puts up with it, so I doubt they will see any significant backlash. Even if all the FLOSS creators leave, they’re still a tiny minority because it’s “”“influencer”“” channels like the Pauls and content farms like Bright Side that are the real cash cows on the platform.

Also, a huge part of their userbase is children. Probably more than any other mainstream social media platform. They won’t even understand the concept of DRM or corporate bullshittery and will only use the YouTube app or browser anyway. Kids are also less likely to be bothered by ads, might not even understand what the purpose of an ad is, in fact they will just see them as more content which is why advertising to kids is so unreasonably effective.



I’ve never pegged Google as particularly giving a shit about legacy support though. They kill things out of the blue without warning or explanation.


I’m going to seriously consider completely discontinuing watching YouTube if NewPipe stops working. I still like plenty of non-FLOSS oriented channels that will never even consider a FLOSS or open web solution, but I think I owe it to myself to not accept Google’s bullshit, not even use it from the browser, with or without the adblock ban. Not to protest Google’s actions because I don’t care, but to uphold my own values and interests. I need to heed my own advice and extended rants about big tech.


My Opinion: NewPipe, Piped, Invidious, etc's days are numbered.
With Reddit shutting down its API setting a precedent in the corporate tech world (and Reddit was a major outlier in that a ton of their users are technical minded and support third party clients, YouTube does not have that kind of userbase and will not get backlash for it), Twitter doing whatever the fuck they're doing, and Google *already* hellbent on destroying ad blockers, the days of Newpipe, Invidious, and Freetube are numbered. Wouldn't be surprised if they implement Netflix level DRM tomorrow that makes alt clients impossible. I say savour your alt clients while you can guys, you won't be able to soon.
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Fuck Fireworks: An essay about why I believe they have no place in a 21st century celebration.
So it's almost July 4 so everyone in the US is gearing up for firework day. Plenty people have already had premature firings of fireworks in late June. Even in Canada we have our national day on July 1 and even though you're technically not even allowed to shoot fireworks in many major Canadian cities anymore, people still do and still do it days in advance. And it's not like celebrating with fireworks is a Anglo-North American thing either, pretty sure every country does it. But here is why I don't think they should be used, and I will attempt to convince you as well. I think the most obvious problem is noise pollution. Everyone, myself included, has been trying to comfort their dog whenever some asshole decides to unexpectedly shoot one off on June 27. It's generally doable to take your dog to a more remote area on the day of so they don't hear it, designated firework quiet zones in the city are a godsend for this, but do you expect us to go take our dogs away for a week before the actual day? It obviously affects cats and other pets too. As well as young humans, you might have a couple of those in your house as well. And mitigations by moving oneself away from the noise can't help the wildlife in the area, who are even more severely affected. The fast and erratic nature of firework sounds makes it very difficult to ignore. Wildlife can sometimes adapt to ambient human-caused noises like cars on a road, but basically no animal with hearing can tune out fireworks, not even humans. Sources are in the dropdown below, (pop the DOIs into SciHub to read them for free, I usually try to link free papers to begin with but it seems that everything on this subject is pay per view): ::: spoiler Sources. Trigger warning: Science * Recreational noise pollution of traditional festivals reduces the juvenile productivity of an avian urban bioindicator - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.117247 * Evaluation and analysis of firecrackers noise: Measurement Uncertainty, legal noise regulations and noise induced hearing loss - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2021.108462 ::: ​  Second and perhaps the biggest issue is pollution. Fireworks are explosives, and as such use a lot of highly reactive chemicals to get the energy needed to fly high up into the air and release a ton of light for all to see. Highly reactive chemicals, especially ones not commonly found in nature and therefore organisms have fewer or no defenses against them, are generally very harmful to both human and ecological health. The unexploded fuel along with bits of plastic and paper casings get thrown everywhere in the vicinity of the firing site, and if you do it at a park with a lot of natural greenspace and wildlife, that's even worse. These pollutants are extremely long-lasting in the environment and get washed into groundwater, rivers and lakes, and eventually the ocean, not really decomposing in any amount of time relevant to human life, just dispersing and becoming less concentrated. Not to mention the smoke and fumes become air pollution and can spike the particulate concentration in an urban area. Same with the metal salts that give fireworks their brilliant colours, they don't really burn up and just fall to the ground or float around in the air. Metallic pollution is also extremely harmful to the environment. Not going to go too far into the ecology or biochemistry behind this, but here are some scholarly sources if you're interested. Sources are in the dropdown: ::: spoiler Sources. Trigger warning: Science * Fireworks induced particle pollution: A spatio-temporal analysis - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2016.05.014 * The air pollution caused by the burning of fireworks during the lantern festival in Beijing - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2006.07.043 * Changes in air pollution and attitude to fireworks in Beijing - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.117549 * The air pollution during Diwali festival by the burning of fireworks in Jamshedpur city, India - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2018.08.009 * Environmental impacts of perchlorate with special reference to fireworks—a review - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-3921-4 * Not just a flash in the pan: short and long term impacts of fireworks on the environment - https://doi.org/10.1071/PC22040 * Impact of 4th of July Fireworks on Spatiotemporal PM2.5 Concentrations in California Based on the PurpleAir Sensor Network: Implications for Policy and Environmental Justice - https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18115735 * Particulate Pollution from New Year Fireworks in Honolulu - https://doi.org/10.3390/environments10040068 ::: ​​  The other major ecological impact, and the one that's been memed to death, is the risk of wildfires. Climate change is making summers hotter in dryer in many places, including the US and Canada. And might I remind you that July is indeed the summer in this part of the world. Along with mismanagement of forests and refusal to use controlled burns to reduce the risk of a massive, out of control wildfire, the risk of a single stray spark falling back down burning down entire forest ranges is not out of the realm of possibilities, nor is it unheard of. We've all heard the news reports about gender reveal forest fires and most people seemed to take it as a joke and not as the ecological and humanitarian disaster that a massive unquenchable forest fire actually is. When every year we get thousands of pictures of forest fires rolling through towns and making them look like Dante's Inferno, maybe we should be more careful about what incendiary devices we use. Sources are again in the dropdown: ::: spoiler Sources. Trigger warning: Mainstream News * Quebec wildfires: Province bans fireworks in many areas ahead of Fête nationale holiday - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/fete-nationale-quebec-wildfire-fireworks-1.6883013 * California couple whose gender-reveal party sparked a wildfire charged with 30 crimes - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/21/couple-gender-reveal-party-wildfire-charged * Weirdly enough I actually couldn't find much scholarly sources on wildfires caused by fireworks. ::: ​​  Good news is that this is not an unfamiliar issue. Fireworks are already being restricted or banned all around the world. China invented fireworks and they have deep cultural legacies and symbolism, and is extremely important to many people during certain holidays (speaking as a Chinese person), and even they are getting more and more restrictive with it especially in urban areas. I too will miss the sight of fireworks lighting up the sky during lunar new year, but I genuinely believe the ecological impacts outweigh the benefits. Fireworks are pretty, but so is ivory. If its only job is to look pretty and is extremely harmful otherwise, that's no excuse to keep it around.
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I wish Ol’ Debian would get the love it deserves, especially for enterprise where their “stability over the latest flashiest software” philosophy should really shine. People on the desktop side criticizing how slowly Debian packages update is generally responded with “well it’s a server OS first and foremost, the Debian derivatives are more suited for desktop,” so why does no one use Debian for servers? And as far as I know Debian has always prioritized stability and reliability above anything else, and have never pulled any sort of corporate antics even close to what Canonical and Red Hat have pulled.



When Pregnancy Is the Crime: An exit interview with Lynn Paltrow, who has spent decades representing women jailed for miscarriages and stillbirths.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230624214433/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/lynn-paltrow-pregnancy-justice-interview.html
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Extreme Heat Is Deadlier Than Hurricanes, Floods and Tornadoes Combined
https://web.archive.org/web/20230624214951/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/extreme-heat-is-deadlier-than-hurricanes-floods-and-tornadoes-combined/
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Snapshots of the End of Travel: On Trying to Enter a Personal No-Fly Zone
https://web.archive.org/web/20230624215001/https://lithub.com/snapshots-of-the-end-of-travel-on-trying-to-enter-a-personal-no-fly-zone/
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Red Hat strikes a crushing blow against RHEL downstreams
https://web.archive.org/web/20230624163406/https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/23/red_hat_centos_move/
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Red Hat strikes a crushing blow against RHEL downstreams
https://web.archive.org/web/20230624163406/https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/23/red_hat_centos_move/
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Red Hat strikes a crushing blow against RHEL downstreams
https://web.archive.org/web/20230624163406/https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/23/red_hat_centos_move/
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The Snowden Leaks May Have Bought Us Years in Our Fight for Privacy.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230624162729/https://tutanota.com/blog/snowden-leaks-nsa-surveillance-ten-years
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LastPass users furious after being locked out due to MFA resets
https://web.archive.org/web/20230624215615/https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/lastpass-users-furious-after-being-locked-out-due-to-mfa-resets/
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Why don’t you label your name in every answer

You mean like a username that is listed in the header of every post and comment?


The admins did not remove the comment, a community mod did. Mods can impose further restrictions on their communities on top of instance wide rules (within reason of course), including banning LLMs. Lemmy.ml at least does not have a blanket ban on LLMs, but generally it’s expected that, 1, you should not post LLMs excessively, we mainly want to host discussions by humans, 2, you should disclose it’s from an LLM and which one it’s from, and preferably add to what it says with your own comments or analysis. If it’s a mix of LLM and your own writing, say so at the start of the comment, but if the community directly disallows LLMs then you shouldn’t post it there at all.



To be fair, the downvotes might also be part of the joke. That comment was the most downvoted in Reddit history before EA came along.

And it’s not like there’s karma on Lemmy so I don’t care lol


I was going to opine about how “this is the problem with centralized cloud-based providers, at the drop of a hat they can be acquired and suddenly your content is owned by a company you wanted nothing to do with,” but then again, you chose Google as your domain provider. I think that’s your fault.

I’d usually say the solution is to self host whenever a cloud provider has a shitshow like this, but in this case that’s not viable unless you want to go all the way up to becoming your own domain registrar or making your own top-level domain. Symptom that maybe the domain name system is broken, maybe we should campaign for it to be opened up for anyone to register their own domain, or least have a reputable co-op or community-owned domain registrar (maybe the open source/fediverse community can pool our funds to set up a nonprofit publicly owned registrar).

Remember that the fediverse entirely runs on the domain name system as the domain of the instance is used to identify it, and all the security measures relating to inter-instance data sharing is relying on the security of the domains.




At least it aligns with when air conditioning is used the most. That’s the hardest thing to shift temporally, everything else just requires some conscious effort and is relatively painless to switch.