I mean if you tend to plug things in at the same computer a lot it’s pretty easy to always plug things in right the first time, even when not looking because you just kinda know what way it’s meant to be. And laptops usually have all theirs pointing the same way so you know one you know them all. If something has text on it, it’s usually oriented in such a way that when plugged in you can read it. Or they have a little face and you know which way the face is meant to be facing

I have a similar “power” and while I’m not flawless, it’s only really new or unfamiliar devices/computers that trip me up. Or plugs that don’t actually have any identifying features and/or unusual ones

I think a more interesting (and less dubious) example of this would be Vocaloid and to a greater extent, cevio AI

Vocaloid is a synth bank where instead of the notes being musical instruments, they’re phonemes which have been recorded and then packaged into a product which you pay for, which means royalties are involved (I think there might also be a thing with royalties for big performances and whatnot?) Cevio AI takes this a step further by using AI to better smooth together the phonemes and make pitching sound more natural (or not - it’s an instrument, you can break it in interesting ways if you try hard enough). And obviously, they consented to that specific thing and get paid for it. They gave Yamaha/Sony/the general public a specific character voice and permission to use that specific voice.

(There’s a FOSS voicebanks but that adds a different layer of complication to things like I think a lot of them were recorded before the idea of an “AI bank” was even a possibility. And like, while a paid voice bank is a proprietary thing, the open source alternatives are literally just a big file of .WAVs so it’s much easier to go outside their intended purposes)

Like consistently? Or just one or two days a year? Because I feel like bringing out the electric heaters a few times a year is way better than just giving up and using fossil fuel all the time

Also I’d mention that heat pumps are super common over here in Scandinavia so I have my doubts that it’s an issue with the medium and not something else. Maybe you guys have like, heat pumps that are more designed for the heat rather than the cold?

I’d also add that like, for a lot of Scandinavia heat pumps work just fine? Like does America just have some really bad heat pumps or something?

I think the only reason why you wouldn’t install one here (aside from obvious cost issues) would be if you already have a robust heating system built into your home, like a hot water system. And if that’s the case, you can use the heatpump of the earth - geothermal! Use the power of the earth’s molten core to heat and cool your home!

(… geothermal isn’t as ubiquitous as I make it sound it’s just, really fucking cool)

Ok using your Google analogy - there’s a reason why “librarian” is a job and “Googler” isn’t. One requires years of skill and practice to interpret a request and find the right information and do all sorts of things, and the other is someone kinda bashing keys to make Google give them what they want. You wouldn’t put them in remotely the same class

There is a very real chance they spent more time on this piece than other artists they were up against spent on theirs. I generate thousands of images a month

… you’ve never actually made art, have you? The sort of stuff that you enter into contests takes months to make, from the actual painting to rough sketches to reference gathering, and that’s just the basics

Clicking a button a thousand times isn’t really comparable

Hey as someone who kinda grew up in that scenario, I really reccomend you show your kid what a windows dual boot is

Your kid doesn’t exist in a vacuum. They have friends and inevitably your kid’s going to be in a situation where their friends are like “hey, want to play this game with us?” And they can’t because it’s got a kernel anti-cheat that doesn’t work with Linux. They’re going to try and get into a hobby, only to find that the software everyone uses doesn’t work on Linux and the alternatives that do are badly maintained and frustrating to work with. They’re going to encounter a programme they need for school that just straight up does not work on Linux.

Sure you might be able to find a work around to all these things but like, can your kid? Because I speak from experience when I say that feeling like you have to be constantly running to your dad every time something doesn’t work doesn’t foster a sense of mastery, it makes you feel like you can’t do anything on your computer because you’re too small and dumb.

The teacher probably isn’t “afraid” of the Linux box, they’re probably frustrated that they don’t know what’s going on and can’t help if something goes wrong. The programmes they’ll probably teach your kid aren’t a perfect 1-to-1 match to their Linux alternatives and they’ll be left sitting in the back confused and upset while everyone else is learning about stuff in word and excel that you can’t do in libre Office. You’re not going to be known as the cool hacker dad, you’re going to be put in the same category as the crunchy mum who doesn’t let their kid eat sugar and needlessly restricts something that’s just so petty to the layman.

There’s also the fact that later on if your kid wants to certain things, either as a hobby or just with their friends, they’re SOL because they don’t run on Linux and the FOSS alternatives are awful and would scare them away. Kid wants to play a game with Kernel level anti-cheat with their friends? Nope doesn’t work with Linux, unless they want to risk getting banned. Want to try your hand at video making? Good luck using obscure software that may or may not spontaneously crash on you and getting cameras to talk to your computer properly. Get a new toy that talks to your computer? Ha ha nope in your dreams

Sure you might be able to fix those problems, but can your kid? Can your kid do these things by themself and foster a sense of understanding and mastery over Linux, or are they going to grow up thinking that they can’t do anything on their own computer because they constantly have to call over their dad for help?

Growing up my house was a Linux household and the first thing I was taught how to do was how to dual-boot into windows because letting me play The Sims and have fun was a little more important than ideology wars

Or if you’re using for purely notes, OneNote is like, right there. In your system tray. For free.

A bootable Linux USB is legit a nice thing to have in your bag - it being Hannah Montana is just the icing on the cake. I’ve got one in my handbag (not HM though). No GNU license card but does creative commons count?

…it’s more of a conversation starter than an actually useful thing but, y’know. Hannah Montana Linux. Useful for pranks if anything

Dodoco goes on the bag, not in it silly

Been doing that too (though not at the same pace). Like project Gutenberg has a ton of good stuff if you just let go of your preconceived notions about “the classics”. Like you could right now drop everything and go read Ulysses. I wouldn’t reccomend it (go read Dubliners instead), but like you could. It’s like a call of the void.

On one hand, yeah

On the other hand, I’m scared about the day when someone who is tech literate gets into government and tries to push stuff like this

I know it sounds naive but honestly I just wish I could consume media and when I like it I can just send them some money without any hassle.

So the artist gets a cut of every stream? Isn’t that just Spotify’s model, which is infamously kinda shit for the actual artists?

Maybe we should step away from China for a moment given their government has a very strong motivation to keep tabs on its citizens and the fact their very mention is biasing the conversation and look at another country which has a strong smartphone presence and I often see posted on here as an example of privacy - Norway

We’re effectively cashless (I don’t think I’ve even handled cash since they swapped the banknotes over) and I think most people do their banking from bills to petty transfers on their phone. You can’t get a physical bus card, because that’s on your phone, or the ticket is attached to your bank card. We don’t have an all encompassing WeChat or even like, any homegrown social media. I’m not exactly sure which aspect of WeChat you’re honing in on so I can’t say Norway does that too, but we do an awful lot via our phones. I do have some gripes about how some things are set up, but they’re complaints that aren’t actually exclusive to this specific system.

Ok but like that asshole is using his money and power to donate to horrible stuff. Even if we take the stance that you shouldn’t let someone’s opinion ruin what they make, you’re still helping him support his causes financially through using his platform.

Or wow, it’s almost like people care about that sort of thing on the platform were most people came from Reddit or twitter because of the awful actions of their respective CEOs or something

Also idk about the newer ones but the old ones last forever. You might need to change their battery but that’s not too hard. I got a kindle keyboard that’s been going strong for over a decade now.

Also kindles work fine with calibre, you just need a different file format. Mine can read PDFs! (I do not reccomend reading PDF scans on a kindle)

You mean appliance bulbs? They’re a different thing all together

…please don’t tell me you’ve been putting regular incandescent bulbs in places that need appliance bulbs

China actually already has a system in place that kinda works for their existing video game restrictions - your accounts are connected to your social ID, or to a social media which in turn is connected to your social ID. Alternatively I wouldn’t be surprised if like what they do is connect your SIM card to your national number (which is possible - some countries do it for 2FA for government stuff and banking) which is what they use to control internet usage

…of course it does little against the tried and true method of “using your mum’s phone/ID for games”

It’s a trend that’s popping up in quite a few places - it also happens in 3d printing. Some of the biggest companies out there still do kickstarters for their more risky products under the guise of “trying to figure out demand”

Creality you’re like the name in entry level 3d printers and people have been clamouring for you to release a new product for years. I’m pretty damn sure you can afford to take a risk on a concept that people have been wanting for years.