For one, UI/UX is actually hugely important for a consumer device and definitely nontrivial
Hugely agreed. I’m a huge proponent of DIY / open-source / self-hosting / repurposing etc…but also I realize if I duct-tape-engineer something that “requires a little fiddling until it works” and I’m the only one who can competently use it, I’m setting up the rest of my household for failure when (not if), for whatever reason, I’m not there to babysit it or walk them through it.
“Oh so you’re telling me it works via the flow of electrons to power motors and sensors? Hold my beer.”
Side note: This is why it’s infuriating that companies seem to believe what we want is unsecured bluetooth / wi-fi enabled toothbrushes hooked up to our home networks and smartphones via some equally hacky app that tries to link toothbrush usage to buying habits and ad efficiency.
YES!!! I used to take so much pride in theming!
It’s actually one of the reasons I really enjoyed Windows ME. Usability was awful, yes, but it came with so many icons and sound packs and wallpapers and screensavers!!
Back in the day I even amassed a bunch of .WAVs cut from movies for computer sounds. It made frustrating fatal errors softer when accompanied by “Bring out yer deaaad!”
Linux really does feel like that again, except it’s actually usable.
Also I’m so glad KDE has login sounds now, so I hear the MechWarrior startup sequence whenever I log in. :)
Exactly. The desperation is a workforce supply assurance feature, not a failing of the system as designed.
I think this is a big stumbling block with Lefties we need to get over, especially young and eager ones.
People want so badly to belong, but there’s so much of a culture of purity-testing and pre-judgement that they’re terrified of being eaten by their own for doing any wrong whatsoever.
I appreciate trying to minimize harmful impact and maximize helpful impact, but people get so hostile because someone like, buys anything, or has a job. Get over yourselves, kids.
Absolutely. There’s a line between “willfully sold out to Evil Corp because money good and I like money lol”, and “I need a job because eating is nice and they were hiring.”
The original post about Lockheed makes sense, but someone’s gotta be on an extremely privileged self-righteous high horse to shout “Baby killer!” at like, the dude working the lobby desk. Lol
Thank you for this incredibly rational take.
What I personally have changed to is judging people for being gung ho about a company, happy with what the company is doing, or are they just there as a job. If you’re in accounting and you just loooove working for Amazon and think they do no wrong, then yes I judge a lot
This. I’ll usually get along fine with my fellow working class folks in the trenches wherever I end up, and I’ll make friends with the cool managers even if they’re managers.
Few people are excited to be forced into a corrupt and awful system to justify their existence.
But more often than not, they’re the True Believers™ that are so utterly brain-warped into thinking some job actually cares about them, and make it part of their identity to “represent the brand”. I give these simps a wiiiide berth.
When it’s a grunt employee with that mindset, it’s even more pathetic.
Bang on. Right there with you.
I’m working on becoming a game developer but I live in a place chock full of casinos, so looking up “games company” on a map is very disappointing here.
They can sure pay well sometimes, though. The temptation is real. But I really couldn’t have any sort of passion for even sweeping their floors, much less constructing flashier products that merely serve to more-efficiently short circuit people’s rational thinking into emptying their wallets.
I think the loud secret is that these “games” thrive on desperation en masse, rather than the comparatively few wealthy and “responsible gamblers.”
I don’t judge the plenty of good folks who make a living doing it because they need to make a living, but I’d rather struggle more towards something I can believe in that doesn’t compromise my soul or contribute to ruining anybody’s life.
Now if only high moral standards could pay the bills…
Oh well, I’ll just keep remembering Matthew 6:26 :)
So, the Punisher is a comic book character that was formerly a villain but became somewhat of an anti-hero in the 80’s, when vigilante heroes were very popular due to right-wing sentiment that lawful “red tape” meant bad guys ran amok because they had…y’know…human rights.
Unlike a huge majority of Marvel characters, Frank Castle not only disregards that pesky “due process” and all that jazz, he straight-up goes and kills the bad guys , like gangs, mafia, and so-on.
Military guys started adopting the skull logo for intimidation purposes, and the cops who think they’re military thanks to crap like the “war on drugs” and whatever, adopted a “thin blue line” version of the logo, which basically screams:
“I have fantasies of violence and would probably take the opportunity to ‘clean up the town’ by just murdering people I thought were bad without those pesky ‘laws’ and ‘rights’ in the way.”
Or
“I support cops who would do that.”
It’s worth noting the authors of the comic book character included an issue where cops wanted a selfie and clearly idolize him, and Frank Castle “The Punisher”, tells them off because they’re supposed to uphold the law , and they should be looking up to Captain America instead.
So, you’ll see these bumper stickers proudly displayed (with many different variants), and they scream the same thing: “I’m a self-centered, self-righteous jerkface who hates everyone who isn’t me, I wish someone would just kill everybody I’m pretty sure is bad, no questions asked.”
It’s since gone even further through the MAGA-filter like everything else once-even-vaguely-conservative.
–Source: Am Damn American, but don’t use so broad a brush. We’re screaming right along with you. :)
For YouTube stuff I’d recommend an alternative front end like freetube.
Just wanna add I’ve REALLY struggled with YouTube and found success with Firefox add-ons. One is called “unhook” which has a range of features, but namely it disables the front page and the side recommendations that keep you infini-clicking through more videos! (All of this is toggleable as well, in case you want to go on an algorithm odyssey for a bit.)
The other one is “clickbait blocker” I think it’s called. It replaces the video thumbnails with a frame from the middle of the video.
I swear both of these have seriously given me SO MUCH time back. YouTube opens to a main totally blank page now so I can go straight to my music playlists without getting mentally-hijacked, or search specific Blender tutorials or something without infinite recommendations. It’s awesome!!
I’ve noticed this and seeing it all laid out is hilarious. (So, so many JS frameworks omg)
Is this basically so they can forever say: “Well don’t expect it to be feature complete, it’s not even 1.0 yet!” ??
That’s funny, out here my bias is against white pickup trucks, with point modifiers.
Lift kit? Add a point.
Giant truck bed toolbox? Point.
Truck nuts? Like 5 points.
Fascist or anti-social bumper stickers like punisher logos or skeletal middle fingers? More points.
EDIT: How could I forget six-wheeled “dualie” setups but the vehicle obviously only ever hauls groceries and the crushing weight of massive insecurity? Points!
It’s so pathetically predictable…
This. Open source passion is the future if we’re gonna have any positive impact. Dedication to a single field has its advantages but the “system” is unfairly built with that being the only valid path.
EDIT: *Sorry I ended up writing a manifesto here but hey it’s an ADHD community I hope I’m among fellows LMAO. *
Our agile obsessions are a significant strength, especially with how we can combine so many disparate interests!
I look for example, at the maker communities around 3D printers with things like the RepRap project. Thanks to all those hackers and engineers, I learned how to turn my first printer, a literal fire-hazard China kit, into a decent fabrication device.
People are rescuing computers destined for landfills and deemed “obsolete” and “end of life”, and sticking Linux on them to be enjoyed for years to come, fighting for right-to-repair, hacking vendor-locked farm equipment, just because they can, and they’re trying to do something.
Also look at the “Corsi-Rosenthal Box” ! It’s just a simple elegant design, open sourced, that unlocks non-proprietary and effective air filtration! (“$800 air purifiers with wonky proprietary filters hate this one simple box!” Lol)
There’s also the Meshtastic project, using low powered devices to create an off-grid “internet” in rural locales.
And what about the very famous “project” that released a ton of paywalled academic literature to anybody with a curious mind? (What HEROES!)
I think OP’s plastics recycling research must go the same way, and I’m personally obsessed with it too, despite lacking a degree! I hate watching the world drown in the stuff, and profiteer-science isn’t gonna save us from the oceans and mountains of garbage they created. In fact, they’re likely too busy researching how to increase production. And the marketing departments are figuring out how to green-wash it.
Saving the world from plastic is going to involve a bunch of hobbyists deploying their home-built plastic-munching drones and breeding plastic-dissolving algae in their own greenhouses.
It’s happening already! I see a future of Game developers and database admins, former-gifted-kid baristas (I see you and love you <3), schoolteachers, Youtubers, Linux nerds, artists, political scientists…
…all becoming amateur engineers and arguing pedantically on Lemmy/Reddit/whatever about the optimal setups to breed plastic-dissolving mushroom enclosures or which motors work best for an open-source machine-learning plastics recognizer algorithm released on GitLab that grinds and funnels all the stuff into separate bins, or showing off how they safely filter VoC’s in their garage while they’re melting grocery bags into filament or something.
Capitalists will rush to take the credit when we succeed, obviously, but that’s another conversation.
The point is, especially in hard sciences, we’re all raised to think we need permission from mighty level 100 gatekeepers and assigners-of-credits and granters-of-certificates.
In fact, I’d say rigid academic science paradigms have largely failed us in many ways, at least in the U.S., where basic education is sabotaged in favor of breeding the ideal consumer-employee, and higher-ed is paywalled by zipcode.
Anecdotally, my spouse went to school for Earth Sciences to learn how to save the planet, but found out the most plentiful career opportunities were for helping oil, mining, and gas giants know where to plunder next. Saving the planet wasn’t paying out that with-a-degree money we were all promised.
Rogue scientists and hacker punk movements and ADHD hyperfixations are what we need more than anything right now. The most learned of them design the plans, and everyone else builds, deploys, and tinkers with it. It WORKS. Time and time again. Sometimes bumbling and messy, but it’s who actually drives the future. Not jackasses in turtlenecks strutting around on stage at CES!
Corpo R&D departments can’t DREAM of that kind of agility!
Get that degree if you’re getting it, I hope it opens many doors for you, truly. But in the end, it’s just a piece of paper.
In my experience, so many of “the professionals” are just busy trying to keep their jobs, which involves kowtowing to corporate masters and neo-gilded-age barons.
The future depends on amateurs. We have all the world’s knowledge at our fingertips, and millions of eyes and ready hands in our bazaars and cathedrals.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/national-security-search-engine-google-ranks-cia-agents/281490/
I’d like to think they’re advising on how to keep ISIS propaganda, gore / executions, child endangerment, etc, from popping up on clearnet results…
…but * sigh * , former (not ex, let’s be honest lol) spooks…so, why wouldn’t it include some kind of pro-employer propaganda plan, right?
“Stay a while, and listen!”
A dedication to quality assurance we should all aspire to!
Bro, homie, dawg, phil
Phil and Phil (both whirling angrily to acknowledge you): “WHAT?!”
This made me think:
What about thermal runaway protection? I’m betting that might be easily overlooked in a custom “smart device” if, for whatever reason, the temperature sensor were to fail and keep reporting “Hey it’s still only (below_target_F_degrees) in here! Keep that heat on full blast!”
This was an issue that made jank 3D printers catch fire and burn houses down until it was mitigated with open source firmware.
Point being, unless there’s a “custom smart thermostat project” that’s vetted and trusted, stuff like this might be overlooked in someone’s Python project, wherein it’s bog standard, low level, possibly redundant, in consumer devices. (Especially thanks to safety standards.)
Should there be an open-source smart thermostat project that’s looked over by thousands of HVAC turbo-nerds and engineers? Yes. Yes there should! Might already be?