Urgelmer - Ymir

By the way, you know how sometimes on this site we talk about right to repair and preventing excessive e-waste? If you're a visual learner, I have an example for you.

I replaced my computer fans today. Technically only one needed replaced, but I wasn't sure if it was one or both when I ordered parts, so I replaced both and the older-but-still-working fan will be stored in case I need a backup.

Here's what capitalism would have liked me to throw out.

Here's what's actually going away.

Oh, and also it cost $19 and an hour of my time instead of $900 and many hours doing setup and import.

Fix your stuff. I used a combination of my roommate's IT knowledge and a YouTube tutorial and now have a functioning fan (and my computer's guts are much cleaner). If it's a thing you can't do--for example, you have an iPhone and need a new screen--there are professionals out there who would be delighted to have your business and it'll still be cheaper than buying new most of the time. Sometimes you may have to convince them that yes, you really do want the $250 repair on the five-year-old laptop because you're not interested in shelling out a grand for a new one. Do it. It's worth it.

If you're upset that Elon Musk threw up a Nazi salute today, but have spent the last 15 months harassing (((Zionists))) in the name of Gaza/Palestine, then you're not mad about the Nazi salute, you're just looking for an excuse to dunk on Musk.

You're not an ally against Nazis, you never were, and you're not fooling anyone who actually is.

Jewish queer people deserve to be safe in queer spaces.

Its frustrating that people are going "hey look at all these things which trump is doing which is similar to what Hitler did when he was in power, we are so fucked" and then just not mentioning the rise in antisemitism.

Like antisemitism was a major part in why hitler was elected into power.

Hitler blamed Germanys issues on jews. During his election, he pulled back from spouting antisemitism to make himself look more sane, but all the issues he campaigned on were issues that were blamed on the jews.

He didn't say "jews are ruining the economy but I can fix it", he knew that people were already blaming jews and campaigned on that.

According to the ADL, only 3 months after Oct 7th, antisemitism increased 360%. And it's not like rates of antisemitism has started to go down.

You cannot talk about how facisiam in the US is on the rise, compare it to the rise of hitler and not mention the rise of antisemitism.

Jew hatred was essential to hitlers rise to power and his actions. You cannot talk about jewish history and erase us from the picture.

I don't support genocide.

That's why when people say openly, explicitly, and repeatedly that they want to kill all the Jews, I don't support them.

It's really that easy.

Happy freedom weekend to all who celebrate!

"There are no [insert hated nationality or ethnicity here] cilvilians/noncombatants" is standard genocidal rhetoric, by the way. If you are saying this, you are giving a standard justification for genocide. It's right up there with the related tactic of insisting that all members of [insert hated nationality or ethnicity here] are guilty of some collective crime. I want to be clear here. These are both always very wrong, very bad, and very dangerous. It does not matter if you think you are right this time, and the people you are fighting are really evil and deserve it. Everyone who has ever said these things has believed that too.

Ukrainian Children about the War

Saying this these days really is like yelling at a brick wall but here goes again:

You cannot gleefully take part in the dehumanisation of an entire group of people based on their nationality, their ethnicity, what have you, rejoice in the suffering of that group, and be on the side of human rights, ethics and morals.

You just cannot. But so many of you try to square that circle. You want so badly to be seen as righteous, that when people call you out for your violent, rancid rhetoric, you throw a paddy and hurl insults through inboxes (always on anon, though, because you’re spineless fucking cowards).

ed zitron, a tech beat reporter, wrote an article about a recent paper that came out from goldman-sachs calling AI, in nicer terms, a grift. it is a really interesting article; hearing criticism from people who are not ignorant of the tech and have no reason to mince words is refreshing. it also brings up points and asks the right questions:

if AI is going to be a trillion dollar investment, what trillion dollar problem is it solving?

what does it mean when people say that AI will "get better"? what does that look like and how would it even be achieved? the article makes a point to debunk talking points about how all tech is misunderstood at first by pointing out that the tech it gets compared to the most, the internet and smartphones, were both created over the course of decades with roadmaps and clear goals. AI does not have this.

the american power grid straight up cannot handle the load required to run AI because it has not been meaningfully developed in decades. how are they going to overcome this hurdle (they aren't)?

people who are losing their jobs to this tech aren't being "replaced". they're just getting a taste of how little their managers care about their craft and how little they think of their consumer base. ai is not capable of replacing humans and there's no indication they ever will because...

all of these models use the same training data so now they're all giving the same wrong answers in the same voice. without massive and i mean EXPONENTIALLY MASSIVE troves of data to work with, they are pretty much as a standstill for any innovation they're imagining in their heads