Man Lemmy is so much better than Reddit.

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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 1st, 2023

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  • I’ve never stumbled across Apple Insider before, it’s quite the apologist for the company. Here’s some tone deaf quotes from the article that made me laugh:

    “It’s true that the buck stops at the CEO, but without Tim Cook, Apple would not have so many bucks.”

    I guess if you make a lot of money you get a pass for allowing misleading and anti-consumer marketing campaigns?

    “If billions and trillions are hard numbers to imagine, here’s another one. Apple could, if its valuation could be converted to cash without loss, give every person living in the continental USA a free iPhone 16e — and then 13 spare ones. Each.”

    I love how they chose to illustrate Apple’s obscene level of wealth with how much it could benefit people if they ever distributed that wealth through altruistic giving 😂


  • Heres a summary of the predictions made, from never all the way up to within the year. It seems to me the closer you get to the dollar bill the sooner the projections become.

    Some experts predict it will never happen…”

    Some experts argue that human intelligence is more multifaceted than what the current definition of AGI describes.” (That AGI is not possible.)

    Most agree that AGI will arrive before the end of the 21st century.

    Some researchers who’ve studied the emergence of machine intelligence think that the singularity could occur within decades.

    Current surveys of AI researchers are predicting AGI around 2040"

    Entrepreneurs are even more bullish, predicting it around ~2030

    The CEO of Anthropic, who thinks we’re right on the threshold—give it about 12 more months or so.”


  • Seriously. It seems like the subconscious anxieties and fears of the writer’s mind come through in statements like this and a few others. Whatever positives (real and imagined) there are about the situation, there is an underlying loss of personal autonomy that causes a sense unease. The thing that’s continuing to intrigue me now is: did the writer intend for that to come through, showing the losses a society of that nature would sustain as a commentary on those that promote it, or are they intentionally trying to downplay the loss of autonomy as if it’s not actually a large part of human happiness? Idk, weird article.




  • I’d suggest looking in to it farther. The commenter above basically covered it, but no, beeper is not all closed source. Their hosted server has never been open source, but all the self-hosted bridges have been, and continue to be. You can run your own, open source, self-hosted beeper server, just like you’ve always been able to. There’s nothing embrace, extend extinguish about that.







  • I’ve basically agreed with you this whole time, see my initial comment regarding the difference between the previous comtribution model and the new request for purchase:

    Yeah, functionally it’s the same.

    However we’re drawing different conclusions about the situation. You say it’s misleading and morally wrong to refer to “buying” this software, I say it isn’t and that it’s actually a helpful perceptual change in fostering support from their users.

    I don’t really think there’s anything else to say beyond that. If you don’t like how Immich is handling their software, don’t use it.



  • The technicality of usage rights is irrelevant, the developer is asking you to pay a set price that they’ve set as the total they would like to be reimbursed for providing the development service. That’s not a contribution, that’s a purchase. They’re generous people though, so they won’t restrict your use of the software if you choose not to pay.

    Maybe you make donations to FOSS developers regularly. Unfortunately, I did not in the past. While I always intended to, it just slipped through the cracks. After running in to FUTO and the software they sponsor, I’ve been motivated to donate to or purchase much of the free software I’m using, and it’s entirely because of the way they approach their relationship with the user.

    If you feel like that’s a dark pattern, or that your payment would only be purchasing an empty NFT, then I guess that’s your choice. But purchasing FOSS applications provides an incredibly important line of support to developers who stem the tide of surveillance capitalism and the digital abuse that big tech has filled our world with. Call it a donation, contribution or purchase price. In any case you are exchanging value for something that has made your life better and supporting the person who made that possible.

    Maybe it would help to view the cost of Immich as purchasing a ethics NFT. Sure, you have no observable difference in the material world, but you as a person have affirmed your ethical values through reciprocal action with someone who shares those values 😉



  • Why do you think you aren’t really buying it? Is it because they allow you to run it without paying money for it?

    I don’t think the definition of “purchasing” software should be defined by whether you can run the service without paying or not. I think it’s best defined as paying money for something that you like and want to exchange value for. In my book that’s nothing near a dark pattern, as I can’t imagine anyone being confused by it, let alone mistakenly believing there is missing features that they won’t get until they buy.


  • Privacy is a marketing angle right now for sure. I hate seeing companies like apple advertise to the vague privacy concerns of the general public. Companies like Proton are also making money based on privacy concerns.

    As far as I’ve seen, FUTO’s approach is to fund and support independent developers who have a high skill level and well thought out piece of software. They focus on software that is Open, or source available for auditing and viewing purposes, privacy respecting and free of any kind of advertising. They also are pushing for a new culture of payment to these developers that is not a donation to support, but a purchase to use. They don’t insist on the purchase though, you can use any piece of FUTO sponsored software free of charge indefinitely.