Absolutely. Somehow, Apple and Google convinced people (even more tech savvy ones) to want constant app and security updates as if the world would end otherwise. I’ve seen complaints about gemini (the protocol not Google’s AI) browser not being updated (protocol has not been updated since 2022), and someone asking if it’s safe to boot up an old Android 7 phone.
And Apple dev license consting money does not help the situation.
Played several boomer shooters on my (older, non-gaming) laptop, all ran great. Blood, Ion Fury, Dusk, even Nightmare Reaper through Bottles was fast.
Now up the challenge: In App Store, find a simple app that is not a “solution”, “ecosystem” nor a “lifestyle”, does not have ads, and does not require a subscription for basic functionality.
(Years ago, I tried about 10 RSS readers, News Reader was what I finally found, way down the list)
Truly important. Read about it in Big Whoop magazine.
This was posted by Proton on Proton subreddit, so yeah, it’s an ad.
I paid for Spotify for a few years, but I don’t see the point anymore. All of their “personalized” playlists are literally the same stuff, just shuffled in different order. Particularly ridiculous when Spotify Wrapped says your top song is one that the algorithm keeps putting into every list, and not something you particularly like.
Sure, it is nice to listen to a new album when it comes out, but with the number of bands I care about, I could just buy the albums outright, supporting the band and actually owning the music.
And if you listened to an audiobook or a podcast, your home page will be full of promotions (many not relevant).
And there are local radio stations with decent web streams and without commercials that play the music I enjoy and new releases.
Just an anecdote, but recently, there have been many “crochet” 3D models posted to 3D printing sites. (Many of those are marked as AI-generated, too) Those look nothing like a crochet toy would look like. These models have a yarn-looking “V” pattern applied to every surface of 3D model, but this pattern comes not from crochet, but from hand-knit blankets (as far as I can tell).
Snikket is an all-in-one XMPP server-client that supports calls.
But yes, in its current state, Matrix calls are pretty broken as there is no feature parity between Element Classic and Element X apps.
IIRC the “migratorius” part is only partially true, they migrate, but relatively short distances, so their year-round range is still pretty much the entire continental US.
They do gather into flocks in fall-winter and then split back into pairs in spring-summer, which is interesting.
Heck, my first smartphone ran Android 4.0. Compared to current Android 16 more than a decade later, the only practical change I could think of is granular permissions.
I have to perform a context switch between “v” and “w” sounds, so words and phrases that contain both (e.g: “very well”) sometimes end up with only “w” sounds. (My native language does not have a regular “W” sound)
But even after 20 years speaking it, English pronunciation is complete nonsense. Most of the time, you just need to memorize the words. Because trying to figure out how to say something, you also need to know if the word is borrowed from any other languages that use Latin alphabet, and then pronouce it pretending to speak that language. Simplest example: Mocha (moh-ka) and matcha (maht-cha). But there are countless borrowed words that don’t change spelling in English.
There’s FrogFind, search engine + converter/proxy for old machines. Runs via non-secure HTTP of course, which was standard in 1999.
Some sites have simple variants, such as
The most similar all-permeating changes I could think of would be the surveillance (“targeted”) advertising that slowly took over most of the web. Just like the AI craze, users did not get a choice of whether it is enabled, but unlike AI, it mostly happened behind the scenes.
Real ABS turns white/grey too, from both stress and acetone (in liquid form, vapor does not seem to discolor it).
Markor - text editor that treats text files as… files. Which means they can be accessed and synced by Syncthing (for example). Very fast and reliable.
Back in my day when we were leet and pwned noobs, it was gg.
Eh, slang was always dumb and obscure. That’s the point, isn’t it?
IMO, some of the popular trends are fetishization of being poor. Open floor plans ≈ small apartments. Farmhouse / country style / industrial ≈ simplicity and scraping by.
People were also (allegedly) terrified of The Arrival of a Train, but soon realized it is all just pictures and there is no train.
Some nonsensical ones in Russian: “сыграл в ящик” (“played the box game”), “откинул копыта” (“kicked back their hooves”), and “склеил ласты” (“glued their flippers/fins”)