I don't disagree.

There is one forum I still participate in:

https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/

It's mostly tech-focussed and Australia-centric, but it does have other topics like sport, TV etc..

I wish there were more like this.

I hate that the bulk of online discussion is now owned/monopolised by a couple of huge corporations.

A decent percentage of Gen X and early millennials grew up familiar with computers. You kind of had to be, to some extent. Stuff didn't always work smoothly or easily, so some tinkering and understanding of how things work beneath the surface was required.

We're moving towards a future where a computer becomes just like an appliance, like a TV. Both the hardware and software will be locked down and set up to work. You just tap and press buttons to get it to do its thing.

Eventually, we may even get to the point where computers are required to be locked down "for our safety".

If we get that far, then I can imagine those who want to build their own and have full freedom to install and customise it any way they want could be considered the very fringe/fanatical elements of society.

"Hey, you want an illegal unauthorised computer, why on earth would you need that, are you a terrorist or criminal or something?"

I hope things don't go quite that far. But I don't think it's out of the question.

Happy with our Nvidia Shield TV Pro on the main TV and Onn 4K Pro on the secondary TVs.

In both cases with the superb Projectivity Launcher, so we don't need to see the default Google front end and any promoted content.

It's perfect.

You receive a penalty notice in the mail and have to pay a fine. Similar to a traffic infringement or parking fine.

All elections are held on a weekend and voting booths are everywhere, to make it a little easier for everyone to vote.

You can choose to not mark the ballot, no one would know. As long as you turn up to a booth and get your name marked off, then you are considered to have voted.

As a result, voter turnout is generally over 90%.

For general browsing, news, technology, mainstream topics etc.. it's much better than reddit, less toxic, better vibe.

It's very small though, so I've found two areas where it is just not a replacement:

• Specific, smaller niche interests, they might have a community here but it is often empty and quiet or just non existent.

• Sports, specifically a place to chat during live events. There's not enough people to support that.

So it depends what you are looking for and how niche your interests are.

I've mostly stopped using reddit and am in here now. But I still end up there occasionally. Not much these days though.

"Analyzing several high-profile accidents involving complex and automated socio-technical systems and the media coverage that surrounded them, I introduce the concept of a moral crumple zone to describe how responsibility for an action may be misattributed to a human actor who had limited control over the behavior of an automated or autonomous system. Just as the crumple zone in a car is designed to absorb the force of impact in a crash, the human in a highly complex and automated system may become simply a component—accidentally or intentionally—that bears the brunt of the moral and legal responsibilities when the overall system malfunctions. While the crumple zone in a car is meant to protect the human driver, the moral crumple zone protects the integrity of the technological system, at the expense of the nearest human operator."<

Great. Humans taking the fall for technology.

Thanks for sharing.

All too often the free and open alternatives (or these days even just the non-subscription alternatives!) involve compromising some features or convenience.

But not always.

It's long, but well worth the read.

Sounds like you don't want to do this, but I am loving my Nvidia Shield TV Pro.

I've installed Projectivity Launcher on it and all the apps I want. It's such a smooth, clean experience.

Whether it's Netflix, Tivimate, Kodi or Plex, it all runs super smoothly, no stutters, no ads. Highly recommend.

The backlit, voice capable remote is really nice too.

Only kids and teens? Pretty much everyone around here has their head down starting at one.

(He says while scrolling through Lemmy on his phone....)

Train goes onto ship, ship sails out, train continues on the other end :)

I still remember 1 Jan 2000. There did seem to be some sense of optimism about where things could go. At least for those of us lucky enough to live in stable, developed countries.

Cold war over, Russia and The West seemingly on the same side, China opening up, exciting new tech connecting us but no toxic social media yet...

But then... the dot com bust, 9/11, the GFC, toxic social media and the rise of "the algorithm", Xi in China, Putin in Russia, a global pandemic......

Didn't really go where we hoped, can we restore to a backup from 1999 and try again??