My “allowance” as a teen was $6.85/hour, though my employer and the government didn’t call it that. I think the word they used to describe it was “wage”.

Funny you should say that because I’ve also been photographing the odd storm drain on occassion too!

I’ve been kind of obsessed with taking photos of utility poles lately.

I agree but would add that collapse isn’t an absolute end in itself and to frame it that way is boss-level doomerism. Collapse is an unavoidable part of a natural cycle that signals the beginning of a new cycle. It is an opportunity to plant the seeds of something better and watch it grow. That’s not to say collapse will be easy, comfortable or harmless but we open ourselves to far greater harm by fearing collapse.

I’m sorry, I don’t have an answer to your question directly. All I can tell you is how I’m managing as a resident of a Scottish isle who also struggles with businesses refusing delivery to my locale.

Unfortunately I’ve not been able to cut Amazon out entirely but I have managed to relegate them to a retailer of last resort. I’ve not found another find-everything store and instead go to different retailers for different needs.

Usually I start local, on my high street beginning with charity shops that support local causes before buying new (there’s one that supports my local food bank so I try there first). If I can’t find it there I widen my search to retailers on the mainland. Failing that, I broaden my search to retailers in the UK, then the EU, and only will I consider Amazon once I’ve exhausted all other options. Even then, sometimes its possible to buy the product I find on Amazon off Amazon (think OEMs who use Amazon as retail channel) by going to their website and buying from them directly.

Sometimes I still have to rely on Amazon but I have managed to cut my shopping with them down from sometimes multiple times a month to a couple times a year. Of course it largely depends on what I’m shopping for, but it was definitely an adjustment to break myself from the one-stop shopping experience Amazon provides.

I hope this is helpful.

Meanwhile I can’t use the Bank of Scotland app on Graphene OS because apparently GOS isn’t secure enough.

Worst. Captha. Ever.

Beyond that, I actually consider this to be a violation of open source, if not in letter, at least in spirit. Setting aside the debate about inclusion of LLM-generated code in open source software, I see the obfuscation of the source of that code to be robbing me of my fundamental freedom to truly study the code. It also robs me of my choice to decide where and when I interact with AI in my life.

Going further, I would love to see FSOSS projects adopt the idea that its not enough to cite what code is LLM-generated, but that citations should include the tool used, the model, and the prompt as well.

Unfortunately, this move by Lutris forces me to assume all code in Lutris is vibe-coded from this point forward, and that Lutris itself is no longer open source software.

I have nothing against Proton or any of their products, but I took the opportunity of switching away from big tech to also switch away from the all-services-in-one-provider model. Moving everything from let’s say Google to let’s say Proton just kicks the problem down the road. If Proton ever goes evil or goes out of business you’re now looking for a new home for all your services again.

Its also generally good privacy practice to use a VPN provider that is wholly separate from any other provider you use so that provider can’t relate your VPN traffic to all the other data they have on you. This is more true from providers who aren’t trustworthy, but it’s a rule I follow regardless.

Of course, this all depends on your threat model.

For real. How many u-turns can you try to force before you realize that you’re in the wrong party?

Manjaro: the one who never does their homework but still gets a pass.

I really don’t understand why a user base predisposed to Lemmy is okay with using a proprietary centralized service that isn’t globally accessible. I might understand it if Lemmy didn’t support image uploads, but it does.

It’s like you’re not okay with your text being censored by private corporations and governments, but here, take my images and please make sure some people can’t see it.

I get that some probably have muscle memory for certain services but it just seems like the majority here don’t even care to unlearn it.

BBC: We’re hosting a birthday party for Sir David Attenborough and you’re all invited!

Me: Awesome!

BBC: You’ve got a TV license, right?

Me: …

BBC: gestures to a man in the shadows. Get ‘em!

I’ve been using uk.7digital.com for multiple years. Quality is great, I can download FLAC, and I find their prices tend to be a bit lower than Qobuz (at least for the music I tend to listen to).

There’s been an occasion or two where the music I bought was no longer available (they don’t hold the distribution rights in perpetuity), but I download it right away and keep good backups locally (same as I would with my old CD rips because CDs don’t last forever either).

I accept that, as with anything digital, I’m purchasing temporary right of access and take steps to secure it in case that access is removed or the company goes out of business.

[Edit: nothing against Qobuz, I’ve just been happy with 7digital for years and I don’t see Qobuz offering me a compelling reason to switch or 7digital offering me a compelling reasons to leave.]

I need this as my ringtone

Yeah it’s not hosted in the EU. From their privacy policy:

Sharing Personal Data Across National Borders. Our Services are hosted in the United States and information we collect will be stored and processed on our servers in the United States.

There are some smaller providers that also offer Git via Forgejo or Gitea like Disroot. That might be fit for private use, but I haven’t personally tried it. Codeberg is great for more public facing FOSS projects but given their size I’d throw them a donation if you’re going to depend on it beyond personal scale.

That said, I just selfhost Forgejo using Coolify on a VPS in my home country. My goal is to migrate at some point to self hosting in my home, eventually.

The exposure time was 1/3s. They’ve been doing this every evening lately so I may go out again and experiment with different exposure lengths. If I do I’ll be sure to share the result.

I’m honoured, thank you.

Me too, but I also believe that collapse is a fundamental part of the natural cycles that govern everything in the universe. It’s hubris to think humans can exempt themselves from this natural system, and the belief that we can is a large driver of why we find ourselves here.

We can’t just skip collapse, nor can avoid it. Embrace its coming and celebrate what will grow from it.

I flip-flop