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@nervousjellyfishthing

they/them discordian anarchist technowitch

And so all things must end and all good things must die. The wheel of the machine keeps turning.

Village Storyteller: Gather round! Gather round and lend your ear to the tale of the massively influencial 19th century Russian Mystic, Harry Potter Blavatsky.

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the thing with ai art is that while I agree that there are many ethical issues with it, the way people tend to talk about it has been full of complete fundamental misunderstandings of what ai art actually is and how it works. I want to hashtag support real artists but I don't want to align myself with people who think ai art is literally sampling images from the internet in real time (people explain it like it's a collage so often but it's really nothing like a collage) or people who think the "solution" to ai art is more strict copyright law

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it's not like nfts, a basic layperson explanation of how it works isn't enough for you to Get what's bad about it, and there exist use cases where ai art is completely fine and good even. it's not an inherent problem with the technology itself, it's some really specific faults with the current implementations that could hypothetically be fixed in future models

i apparently have only tormented twitter with timeskip venus shitposts, not tumblr. one day i’ll draw her in actual clothes but this keeps happening. she’s calling your dad

posts is just same three posts circling round and round 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 ouroborous 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

all podcasts are bad in ways you cant correct for. thehy bring out the worst in every demographic. no person should be allowed to speak their mind for a whole hour

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Reblogging again. Firefox is an excellent, safe and fast browser and everyone should consider using it.

Don’t just consider it. If you have the ability to switch to Firefox, this is your official notice to do it.

If you’re saying, “well, I need Chrome because I need such-and-such extension for my job”, the computer will not explode if you install another browser. Use Chrome ONLY for work tasks and use Firefox for everything else. If you’re concerned about losing your bookmarks, Firefox can import your Chrome bookmarks.

[ID: Firefox Library window. The “Import and Backup” panel is expanded, displaying the option, “Import Data from Another Browser”, which is also circled with a red MS Paint ellipse. ID end.]

Forgot a thing. Subscribe to Mozilla VPN for bonus points. It’s basically the only truly secure VPN service in the world right now.

For $5 a month, you can completely conceal your online activities from your ISP in a manner that isn’t just immediately monetised or turned over to the cops. No, it’s not free, it does cost money, but the money doesn’t go to line a billionaire’s pockets.

I wonder how much of this is because of work/school from home forcing people to use Chrome so all their stupid monitoring softwares and platforms can work.

This is also your reminder that you don’t have to use just one browser. You can use chrome for all the monitoring bullshit your office wants you to run and use firefox for everything else.

Be sure to add the multi account containers extension to your firefox, which allows you to be logged in to multiple accounts on the same website at the same time in the same window but in different tabs.

look on my five open tumblr accounts (not sideblogs, accounts!) ye mighty and despair.

Firefox is super good, folks. It’s good in a general “google shouldn’t own everything in the entire fucking world” sense AND in a “this is an actual good product that does lots of cool shit” sense.

ALSO make sure to add the Ublock origin extension on Firefox - I haven’t seen a youtube ad in five years and you don’t have to either.

While you’re at it, why not add the Wayback Machine extension so that if you go looking for a page that has been taken down the wayback machine will automatically offer you an archived version instead; also handy for documenting people’s shitty takes and winning arguments after they delete the original post!

Worried that Firefox is going to slow down your computer? In benchmarks, modern versions of chrome and firefox are pretty much the same speed but you can still install the auto tab discard extension ANYWAY so that it will snooze unused tabs in order to keep your computer running faster. Set it to sleep, discard, close, and store tags at your discretion!

And while you’re at it: install Firefox as your mobile browser for android and add those extensions to your mobile browser! Mobile adblock is here, baybee, save your data and enjoy a better mobile experience! And install it on iOS! iOS can’t add extensions, but at least it’s better than safari, and if you want a somewhat more private iOS browsing experience try firefox focus for iOS (which is also available on android but you can accomplish the same thing with extensions).

Anyway, firefox is good.

Also: in January 2023, Chrome is making some changes to plugin architecture that effectively neutering adblockers.  If you want good adblocking, you won’t have it in Chrome.  Use Firefox

(In fairness, some Chrome-derived browsers like Vivaldi and Opera have openly parted ways with Chrome about this, and more power to them, but Firefox is the way to go.)

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Firefox is what we use around here. It’s terrific. 

Now a new study looking at 400,000 youths from 88 countries around the world suggests such bans are making a difference in reducing youth violence. It marks the first systematic assessment of whether an association exists between a ban on corporal punishment and the frequency in which adolescents get into fights. 

[F]or both boys and girls, [prof. Elizabeth Gershoff] said, “We found [spanking] linked to more aggression, more delinquent behavior, more mental health problems, worse relationships with parents, and putting the children at higher risk for physical abuse from their parents.”

“People often ask: Why didn’t you look for positive aspects?” she continued. “My answer is: We did, and there were none. We see consistently that the more children are spanked, the more behavioral problems they have in the years ahead.”

Once again worth emphasizing that this is pretty much the exact opposite of what authoritarians said would happen

Computer rant

There is a huge programming issue that is getting widespread. No one gives a shit anymore because computers are so fast people can just be lazy and make inefficient and ineffective software. I'm actually planning to eventually make a bunch of open source lightweight software in the future that tackles this issue. Because it's honestly ridiculous. Like are you really gonna sit here and tell me 4 gigs of ram isn't enough to browse the web? Are you nuts? Even the most demanding web pages could probably do nicely with like 150 megs of ram each. The problem is NO ONE TRIES. The only reason my pc should even have the 12 gigs of ram that it does is if I'm doing some serious demanding work and I want my processor to put it's heart and soul into the task at hand. The fact that 8 gigs is the BARE MINIMUM to comfortably use a computer is ridiculous. So here's my plan. I'm gonna get an old old Thinkpad. Let's say an x201. Pretty solid and actually quite fast with the right upgrades. But I'm getting a medium specced one with four gigs of ram. A hard drive. And an i5 520m. And the goal here is to make super lightweight programs that run well on such "ancient" technology. We're gonna make a web browser that uses the least amount of system resources possible. And we're gonna use free and open source software and a custom gentoo rice to get everything running flawlessly. And I want to demonstrate how easy it is to make older hardware usable again. LIKE IMAGINE ALL OF THAT ON SOMETHING EVEN A FEW YEARS NEWER. IT WOULD BE OVERKILL. AND THAT IS LITERALLY WHAT TECHNOLOGY IS NOW. OVER. KILL. This is why life was so much fun when computers were slower. PEOPLE WORKED HARD WITH LIMITATIONS. WITHOUT LIMITATIONS EVERYONE'S LAZY AND NO ONE THINKS OUTSIDE THE BOX.