Ah yes… Pre-crime… Just like all those utopian sci-fi novels.

As I approach 40 I’ve been trying to make fashion choices that are something like ‘stylish aloof professor’ but I’m always worried that I end up in the ‘douchebag psuedointellectual buffoon’ category like this chode of a human being.

People are already suggesting this unironically.

People just going about their business living their lives as they have for many years…

Silicon Valley: Hey fuck you. Also I came up with a dumb nickname for you.

The tree of freedom must periodically be watered with the blood of tyrants.

I want the Ubiquiti Doorbell Pro (wired Ethernet) but it’s always sold out. Plus I’ve been hesitant to spend ion a Cloud Gateway or Dream Machine. I just wish I could use my own storage.

I need to just bite the bullet though.

Won’t longer key lengths increase the overhead for everything?

Bazzite is great.

Definitely do not do tapes.

I’d also recommend Backblaze. Their S3 compatible storage is pretty affordable. I backup to a Kopia repo and then replicate to Backblaze nightly.

Tapes require so much more work to keep up to date and mght not even be cheaper over time.

Fast storage is one of the cheapest components of modern PCs so I’m always surprised when Flatpak file size is brought up. It’s not something I worry about very much.

I use GarHAge which uses open hardware and software and was pretty easy and cheap too. https://github.com/marthoc/GarHAge

Consider buying used hardware from an office. Lots of places sell used gear for dirt cheap. A used office desktop with a used GPU from the last 3 years or so would be a massive upgrade without spending much.

Steam Deck is still a good deal for what it is though, but I wouldn’t use it as a primary workstation.

No amount of preparation or warning can prepare you for the sight that is JD Vance’s massive hate-filled titties.

I feel like we need a less invasive form of age verification or we need actual data privacy laws in the US with some teeth. As it is right now it’s basically a guarantee that your ID and facial data will be in a breach eventually. Seems like every site will require this once it starts.

Everyone on the fediverse is Nicole and you can’t prove otherwise.

I only buy hardware that can operate without a cloud service but most normies can’t host a service on their own network so the SaaS based cloud services are definitely here to stay.

Okay so let’s accept the premise of this post for a minute: “Both major political parties in the US are equally bad.”

What am I supposed to do now? What action can I take to facilitate change?

I’d argue that this is a perspective that simply isn’t helpful even if true. I think it’s an excuse to tune out instead of getting engaged. I think it’s an excuse to wish for a better future instead of putting in the real work it takes to make systemic changes that can actually improve people’s lives. It’s a perspective that encourages doing nothing because ‘nothing matters anyway’.

I suppose I don’t see that as a productive perspective? You’re not offering any solutions or actions to take to enact the change you want to see besides doing nothing until we collectively figure out how to have a revolution.

The system is flawed. Maybe you’re right that it is fundamentally broken and cannot be reformed but disengaging from voting only supports the status quo and those that are already in power. I think it’s worth it to vote for candidates that share some of the same values as me even if they aren’t perfect while continuing to put political pressure on leaders that are not serving the public effectively. I would vote for someone one day and join a protest against them the next day, I do not see that as a contradiction. That is just being civically engaged.

Also I know I’m probably coming in hot here but I’m truly not mad or upset. I think these are the sorts of conversations on Lemmy that are really great and hard to have in other settings. I appreciate your thoughtful responses. It seems like we’re pretty aligned on what the problems are. I’m very open to solutions that don’t involve harming others but if you aren’t a voter I’d strongly encourage you to consider voting, though I agree that voting alone will not solve every problem.

This just sounds like an excuse to not help me fix my relationship with my bee wife.

Yeah, probably an unfair take on my part to chalk it up to age instead of emotional maturity.

Nihilism is just so unproductive. I used to think that attitudes like that were such a smart and obvious response to the absurd state of the world but it’s just an excuse to not engage with reality or accept personal responsibility.