I’ve had similar thoughts, I was slower typing this.

(future Korazail here. On rereading, I want to be clear about the difference between wealth and income. I think we tend to focus on income tax brackets, but the real danger is when the super wealthy can fund their lifestyle and power on the idea that they have money. Rarely are they counting any of that as income, so wonderingwanderer’s thought of <1b income would apply to nobody. We need to tax wealth. I earn $$$$ each year, but my bank balance is $ because it costs $$ to exist and I am fortunate enough to have $ to spend on luxuries and keep $ in reserve. If I had a bank balance of $$$$$, then it doesn’t matter how much I earn in a year; my money itself provides the $$ to exist and $$$ for luxuries with overhead to spare. I might be able to retire on a bank balance of $$. The billionaires have $$$$$$$$$$ in the bank and it would take me 9 million years to catch up at my rate)

Give them some time to prepare, but a wealth cap with harsh penalties seems a pretty reasonable solution to the wealth inequality problem. Death would be a pretty damn harsh penalty, but a really effective one. I’d also take taxing or socializing their assets until they are under the cap.

A billion dollars is just such a staggering amount of money that there’s no reason for any person to control it. And as for ‘why lynch this billionaire?’ You don’t get to a billion in net worth all by yourself. I’d posit that Taylor Swift is my favorite billionaire, and she is known for treating her staff well and giving out life-changing amounts of money to individuals that work for her… but what if she were incentivized to keep her worth below a billion? Larger donations to charity, lower ticket prices to her shows, better pay rates to her staff instead of bonuses (which would raise competitive pay for others in the industry), etc.

People like musk can just fuck right off. They provide no real value. If you invent something that is so useful that it is worth multiple billions, make it a public asset and go invent the next thing. If you made it to a billion dollars, just shut up and retire. Let someone else figure out the next step and get their billion, you don’t need two. The person who suggested bezos pivot from bookstore into general marketplace was probably a random developer who is still there and making <100k/year, but they had the good idea, not the guy with the purse. If we all had more purse, I think we’d have more people trying things and finding the next big thing.

If I were to author a law, I’d tie the cap to a multiplier or fraction of some economic indicator that isn’t individual, like total money transacted in a year globally or something. The number should be around a billion at this moment, but I’m not really mad at it being higher, since we’re targeting the small number of people hoarding wealth.

If you make the cap feel really big, like a billion, then the people, even with millions to their name, won’t feel like it will ever apply to them; but the real predators with multiple billions will be impacted.

I said elsewhere here that I haven’t gotten through the D20s, because they have a story that requires some dedication to sit through and I like the shorter form shows. I still like D20, I just need to be present and treat them like a book instead of just enjoying the mayhem. The on-a-bus iteration of D20 is led by Katie Marovitch, who appears in several Game Changers and Make Some Noise. I think she might be more of a writer than a contestant, but I’m not sure and haven’t gone to look her up. I love that Dropout lets people blur the line.

I think the on-a-bus series, which I’m only vaguely aware of and haven’t watched, is a bit on its own where they are somewhat picking on Brennan; which is funny because he takes this so seriously and Katie doesn’t seem to.

See if there’s a thread in one of the Dropout communities. If it’s old, start a new one and link the old. We don’t all find these shows when they are newly aired. I want to discuss many shows I’ve seen, and plan to use the lemmy.world community to start those.

If anyone knows of an older style forum where this is being discussed, let me know. A necro-post in this context seems like it would be neat instead of annoying.

So…

On Make Some Noise, there are occasionally ‘fan submissions’ for prompts. Where does that happen? I figured there was a secret forum I was just unaware of.

My guess is reddit, sadly, but if there’s some more official place and I just haven’t found it, I need to know.

If the official unofficial place is reddit, we need to push everyone to one of the communities here.

They really are. So many amazing people on their shows, and a variety of kinds of show.

I’m trying not to sound like PR for them, because I’m not, but I really like their content and ethos; and will recommend them as a place to go for fun stuff. Fuck Sam Reich (but only if you’re Elaine) - that probably proves I’m not corporate?

They need to re-up Gastronauts and Crowd Control. Those are some of my favorites, though they can be a bit hit or miss based on the guests. The D20’s are great, but require more investment since there’s a long story, and that intimidates me so I like the more self-contained shows. @samreich

I can. Clicking that link redirects me a few times, but results in an unauthenticated view of blahaj.zone, so I couldn’t comment without making a blahaj account

I’m myserv.one, so my view is via https://lemmy.myserv.one/c/dropout@lemmy.blahaj.zone

It had a newest post of 10 months ago as of when I looked yesterday. It now has many more, so I can tell federation is working. Probably just with a delay, and maybe because I subscribed instead of just looking at it. I’ll have to go revisit some other communities that I thought were dead, but might be active if I join them…

My poor server admin. With storage prices these days…

I think part of my problem is that there are communities that already exist, and some of them I can’t see, and the ones I can might not be sync’d to my instance.

Federation and decentralization has its pros and cons.

I don’t think my instance is defederated from much, we’re tiny, but my view of the community via blahaj has a newest post 10 months ago. If I go there directly, I see more posts. My instance block list doesn’t contain lemmy.blahaj.zone. Anyone know why I can’t see current posts?

What else am I missing?

I dropped a post in the lemmy.world one, because I think it might have a larger potential audience, since .world was like the semi-default instance when I joined lemmy. Now I need to learn how to crosspost so I can share to other instances.

Ask-lemmy-v2: Does crossposting link comments? If someone sees a post in lemmy.blahaj.zone and I’ve crossposted from lemmy.world, are the post mingled or isolated?

I’d rather solidify on a single community if the commentors can’t see each other.

Asking for a friend.

I have a steam deck, and love using the device in handheld mode due to the trackpads. But I also like a bigger screen and prefer to play it docked to my TV.

When doing that, I miss the track pads and their value as a precise input or macro pad. There are some games that I have to play handheld because a controller doesn’t give me enough options.

I didn’t buy a steam controller yet, but it’s absolutely on my wishlist for when I can justify it. Waiting on my old PS4 controller to bite the dust. Its trackpad is close, but not as good.

I think in a decade, we will see the Steam Controller trackpads redefining the default controller the way joysticks and bumpers/triggers did.

I hear what you’re saying, but counterpoint:

I’d prefer Steam’s helpdesk staff were paid more, and their janitors, and their contractors, and anyone else involved in making that business work. Gabe doesn’t NEED a new yacht. Some of the people working for him do NEED healthcare.

Gabe is definitely on the not-a-monster side of the billionaire spectrum, but you don’t get that much money with purely your output. You get lucky and have a good idea at the right time, inherit, or rent-seek. Two of those are stupid reasons to have immense wealth, and I don’t think getting lucky is worth the vast gulf between billionaire and struggling-to-get-by.

I think if we could have a wealth cap… say 10 billion right now, an absurd sum, where it’s almost impossible to even spend it all… and after you pass that amount you get fed to a wood chipper; then we would see a lot fewer billionaires and a better world.

I was about to reply that you forgot your /s, but then I refreshed my browser tab.

Like… there are multiple documented cases of sycophantic llms confirming people’s delusions. ‘ai psychosis’ is just a short way of saying the AI is a non-funny-improv-comedian and will always “yes and” your prompt.

prompt: “I feel bad and think I need to kill myself”

response: “You’re totally right, here’s some help in how to do that…”

prompt: “I have this great idea: If we eat broken glass, we’ll be healthier”

response: “Absolutely. Glass is made out of silicon dioxide, which has some health benefits if consumed in small amounts.”

prompt: “You told me to see a doctor, but I don’t want to”

response: “I’m sorry, you’re right. You don’t need to see a doctor. Your chest pain is perfectly normal.”

My examples are more physical things instead of mental because the consequence is more clear, but the same issue exists for mental health.

Using an AI for therapy or medical advice is a stupid, dumb, very bad idea. It will at best magnify problems.

Suggesting that disabled or impoverished people use it because they can’t access actual mental healthcare seems equivalent to eugenics to me.

the sad thing is, it’s the best option a lot of people have

That I will agree with. Maybe we should spend a small fraction of the money going into data centers on providing healthcare instead.

Who could have predicted this!?

Not an LLM, that’s for sure. Maybe all the people screaming about this exact scenario, though.

I’m the rube.

I’ve been privileged to have enough money that I didn’t need to repair my stuff when it breaks. I’ll just buy a new one. I’m generally talking big devices like house appliances and cars and I will still repair them: I.e replacing a gasket on my clothes washing machine, general maintenance on cars like oil, belts, etc. I’m not a monster.

But when the maintenance cost became similar to just replacing the device outright, I’d just buy a new device. Hey, upgrades are fun.

Until a few years ago.

Modern devices are just absolute shit: They spy on you, requiring internet access for a fucking dishwasher to function; Your car might now have a remote disable feature, or cameras that tattle if you drive while looking tired; They are made of the cheapest materials and designed to fail to force you to get the newer model.

I know this was a thing a while ago, but I’ve become more aware of it recently, and I’m worried that I might have some of the last pieces of non-smart spy-tech that I can easily get.

In 2010, I wanted a 2015 car with bluetooth, keyless entry and lane assist kinds of features.

In 2026, I want a 2015-era thing, if not one from before then.

My father has a fridge in his garage that has been mostly used for storing left-overs for ages. That fridge was the one I scribbled on with a marker when I was a tiny kiddo. I’m in my 40s. How long has your fridge existed?

I’m now spending more time learning how to maintain my stuff so that my non-internet-connected fridge lasts me until after the apocalypse.

And everyone who cried out a warning at the first step was ignored.

And the stupidest part of this is the ‘omg my IP’ angle from a publisher.

You’ve destroyed this game because it’s not economically viable for you, and therefore the IP of how the server-side operates has no value; these are no longer secrets worth protecting.

If someone else is willing to host it at their cost then the only thing that can do is bolster the franchise. When a niche game has a devoted following that’s willing to build infrastructure to keep playing together, then you know it was a management fuck-up and not a game one that killed it.

Like… “This”

My computer, regardless of the OS that it runs, should do my bidding and only my bidding.

If I want to enable or disable something, that should be my prerogative.

I commented in a similar thread and I’ll restate it here:

I do support parental controls being an option, and will use the whole Free-Market thing and choose to use an OS that has parental controls for my children – but I am also happy to see my children evade my restrictions with their knowledge and skills. And, more specifically, these need to be OPT-IN. As a parent, I can create an account and identify it as supervised or give it an age range, and that’s all cool. What isn’t cool is making me Verify* MY age range in order to create an account on a device I own.

*especially verification that involves giving up my privacy, such as face scan, government ID or similar PII. We used to have laws protecting this data. I’ve helped build whole systems to ensure that only trained admins had rights to access customer PII.

H.R. 8250 is an attack on freedom to use… everything… It’s so vague, and doesn’t even describe it’s terms the way the California bill does. A Missile developed by Lockheed Martin has an Operating System and I’m certain that if I had one in my hands I could make it run DOOM, thus making it a ‘General Purpose Computing Device’.

… Maybe those Doom-on-fridge/toaster people were on to something. Samsung, LG, etc need to quickly evaluate their fucking toasters to ensure they can’t run DOOM, or ensure they can verify a user’s age before enabling toasting.

I also (dis)like how section 2.A.5.i will require the commission to describe how every operating system will verify a parent or legal guardian’s age’s within 6 months and then have an effective date of a year. Has anyone involved with writing this bill done software development?! Sure, this sounds simple on paper, but I have a 30+ year plan to actually implement it; because I’m a volunteer open source dev working on my OS in my free time without pay.

Anyone looking at this and thinking it’s a good idea, take a moment to think about this: Who has resources to dedicate whole teams to implementing this privacy invasion? It’s the big players like Microslop, Apple, Google, and a handful of Enterprise-grade Linux/Unix providers. Anyone else could face financial ruin for distributing their home-grown OS experiment if it gets enough attention and that will prevent new distros or operating systems from being developed, leading to effectively regulatory capture by the existing players. That’s not going to end well.

Edit 2, coming back later with more thoughts:

The real difference is that Attestation, or lack thereof, puts any legal issue on the user who claimed to be something they were not, whereas Verification will put the onus on the OS developer, API developer, app developer and anyone else in the chain, which is just insane.

Parent walks in on kid watching porn? That’s not the fucking OS developer’s fault, and needs to be handled inside the household and not in court, if at all. I could have a whole conversation about what I fear that my son might find online, and it’s not PornHub, it’s Joe Rogan or similar “influencers” and grifters.

Whole tangent into “protecting the children”:

In a sane, non-fascist surveillance-state world, this would be called parental controls, and be something opted-into instead of forced – and it used to be a thing. I’m all for an OS that has the ability to have supervising user with parental controls, and will chose to install those on my kid’s devices. My son has a phone that doesn’t have unrestricted access to the internet because he’s a pre-teen and is still developing the ability to discern reality from propaganda. He also has a Nintendo Switch with screen time and game limits so that he can play, but can’t play ALL the time and can only play things I’ve approved (As of like 2020, hes gotten older and I’ve removed most restrictions – hooray growth!).

He hates the restrictions, but that’s tough stuff for him because he can text his friends to coordinate an online game session, call me if he gets in trouble, map his way home, calculate pi, etc, which I couldn’t do in my pre-teen years before pocket computers. I think it’s OK for there to be options for parents to manage their kid’s digital existences and, critically, I think it’s OK when my son escapes my borders through skills he learned. When he installs his first VPN on his phone, I’ll be so proud.

It was a rite of passage when we learned how to get a terminal in an ancient MacOS, or use notepad to launch a program like a browser on a school computer. These guardrails will always fail and the only way to solve them is human to human conversation.

Not Legislation. Call your Representatives (And Senators if this or something like it escapes the House) and tell them this shit is not acceptable.

There is some nuance to the language, and there might be litigation to follow; but age attestation and age verification are wildly different things:

Age attestation is just providing a birthday, like many sites such as steam, require before accessing most games. There’s nothing stopping a 10-year-old from claiming to be 30.

Age verification, though, will be more of a legal process: requiring government documentation, biometrics, ai data harvesting, tracking, etc. and will result in the OS theoretically being required to keep your specific pii to provide to downstream consumers of this data.

Those of us who grew up in the age of the early Internet have ‘handles’ or ‘usernames’. Those that grew up in the later Facebook age use their real names. Us elders see this tying of identity to computation as an invasion of privacy.

I’ve had this handle for decades across multiple platforms. I’ve probably identified myself, but you would need to put in at least some work to figure out what human being I am. We call that doxxing right now, and it’s generally seen as hostile. This bill eradicates even that layer of defense by requiring my computer to know who I am, and sharing that data with Meta, Google, Facebook, Lemmy, etc. effectively my computer will doxx me.

While the intermediate result is not that my privacy is instantly compromised, anyone with a clue can see the future here: if the OS knows who you are because of this law, then the browser can know who you are, and the website can know who you are and when you say things the government doesn’t like, you can be… Removed.

This is what we call a chilling effect. And that is also generally understood to be bad.

This bill, and all others like it, are bad.

Edit: And if this bill is defeated, there will be others. This is not going to end, and each version will be an existential threat to privacy.

I prefer the Demi Lovato version from the end credits. You underestimate my desire to sing Kareoke and my access to cassette tapes.

No shade to Idina Menzel, but Panic! At The Disco did an awesome job with ‘Into the Unknown’ as well for ending credits for Frozen 2.

Disney Dad’s represent.

If we’re going to use AI for biometrics, we can make it more fun.

Primaries.

In many (most? all?) states, you only get to vote in the primary for your registered party, while independent gets a selection. This is likely intended to avoid a spoiler vote, where a democrat might vote in the republican party for the most abhorrent choice – though I think this is the kind of thing that can backfire and get us a Trump presidency.