After having recently restored some stuff from an aging external hdd, i’m seriously considering getting a few dvdr discs and burning the important things every now and then.

I know they don’t last forever either, but - just as a random example that has definitely never happened to me hahaha - you can drop them from a height of 3 feet and still get files off them!

I mostly agree - however there are physical/mechanical reasons behind the use of some of those. For example, Phillips head screws will ‘cam out’ (driver will slip out of the screw head) rather than get over-torqued, which is useful in various situations - although TIL this was not actually an intentional design feature!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cam_out

Hex keys are better than a Robertson (square head) in tight spaces with something like an Allan key, and, in my experience anyway, Robertson can take a fair bit of torque, so they’re great for sinking into softwood - and also for getting out again, even when they’ve been painted over.

Flathead screws, on the other hand, should launched into the sun

Unfortunately, Meta is listed as one of their partners

Would be very interested to know if Meta (listed as a “partner” organization) is providing financial support, like how fellow partner the Ford Foundation lists a $50k grant[1] in February 2024 to the Exchange Point Institute, which is the “fiscal sponsor” of the Social Web Foundation[2]

[1] https://www.fordfoundation.org/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/grants-database/exchange-point-institute-149412/

[2] https://socialwebfoundation.org/donate/

Corporations and surveillance?

Yep absolutely, and even those numbers likely represent raw emissions figures vastly lower than the true impact these data centres are having on global emissions.

For example, that Google report talks about EACs - here’s a great podcast episode that explains why these kinds of accounting methods are a complete disaster:

Reveal: It’s Not Easy Going Green

https://revealnews.org/podcast/its-not-easy-going-green-update-2023/

This is very similar to my story - end of support for win7 meant putting Mint on the HTPC.

Soon after that, it was the old laptop my spouse was about to chuck out. Cinnamon was a little sluggish, so I eventually landed on Debian + XFCE

And when I discovered I could get my desktop’s audio interface working on Linux (it’s firewire, and by most people’s standards, ancient), it was game over for Windows.

I don’t know what Freetrack is but I hope it gets implemented for you :)

Ok yeah that’s super interesting, and maybe kinda sums up the whole thing: the devs make tech that reduces the opportunity for thought and engagement, and that frictionless experience results in worse outcomes for users, but better outcomes for profits.

And yet, paradoxically, there are probably plenty more folks like yourself that would prefer to use a different kind of app!

I mean, I was lucky to find a life-partner before dating apps were the default, so I’m going to be speaking a little out of turn here.

But I’d imagine that if those apps were a little more friction-y - like, if people weren’t using an almost literally frictionless swipe left and right, but instead were encouraged by the interface to learn something about a person first, or, say, had to click reasons why they were swiping left or right - that it would be easier to make meaningful connections. You’d be designing in self-reflection and curiosity.

And sure, you might turn away some users by doing that - but what if that’s actually a good thing?

I think there’s a bit of irony in that the most ‘frictionless’ (and dehumanizing) way to interact on Lemmy might be to hit the downvote button. It’s the thing that rewards the knee-jerk, un-considered reaction.

In a way, the downvote button is the thing that perfectly expresses the demand that one’s experience confirm to pre-conceived notions of comfort - without having to face a response from the person being downvoted - and denies the downvoter the potential for growth.

I like this essay too :)

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