Yeah, but they’re great at discharging the righteous indignation of people who might otherwise do something extreme like going on demonstrations or start campaigning for non-“moderate” political parties.

This way people just put their personal data next to a meaningless and powerless piece of text on a website alongside that of other people, get the feeling of release after having done something about what pisses them of, and won’t do anything further about it.

Petitions are the single greatest invention of the Internet Age to keep the masses dormant (Social Media would’ve been it if, it wasn’t that, as the far-right has shown, it can be used to turn some people into activists).

Yeah, I’ve been there - it’s how I learned to upgrade and eventually assemble my own PCs: I couldn’t just buy a new one every time it started to run slow with newer games so I learned which parts gave the better bang for the bug (back in those days it was often memory) and would upgrade them and eventually hit another bottleneck and upgrade that part and so on, and once in a while I did need to to a big upgrade (i.e. the motherboard, which usually meant also new CPU and new memory).

I was also pretty lost - at least to begin with - back then, but, you know, doing is learning.

Anyways, I still keep the “no waste” habits from back then (for example, recently I upgraded my CPU with one which the benchmarks say is twice as powerful, only my CPU is from 2018 and I didn’t want to upgrade the motherboard so the replacement had to be a CPU for the same socket type, so something also from that time. Ended up getting a server class CPU for it, which back then was over €200 but now, 2nd hand, cost me just €17).

Over time have learned to prioritize other things also and learned that sometimes spending a bit more upfront saves a lot more over time (for example, if I aim for stuff that produces less heat (i.e. that use less power to do its work, which in todays technical lingo is “lower TDP”) and I might spend a bit more but save it all and then some in lower electricity costs over time.

Point being that with a bit of reading and looking around you can learn what you need to better chose what you get, even if 2nd hand, in such a way that the results are less of a hassle and sometimes even end up saving more money (such as how parts that use a lot of power even 2nd hand can, in year or two, add up to something more expensive than newer parts which consume less because the 2nd hand ones eat so much more power).

Also as one gets more financially able to afford it, it’s normal to trade personal time savings for money, in the sense that I don’t really need to have a fragile setup held together with chewing gum and string which is constantly giving me problems and I have to waste tons of time on it just to keep it going, when at least for some things I can get a ton of extra convenience and save a lot of my time by spending a little bit more money. There is a monetary value for one not to have to worry about something breaking all the time and having to constantly tweak and maintain it, you just have to find how much is it worth it for you (I can tell you peace of mind and no-hassle It’s worth a lot more for me nowadays than back when I was a teen).

Well, that’s the second part of my theory but I didn’t went into it to avoid muddling the point I was making:

• I think the “neutral” majority shift more to one side or the other depending on who dominates society and the main sources of culture and information in it.

So in present “Greed is good” (very much a Sociopath slogan) times with mainstream media and a large section of the Culture production and distribution (in the form of TV, but also TV Show and Movie making) in the hands of extremelly wealthy people and when those we are told we should look up to are people like Musk (well, him specifically maybe not anymore) and Bezos, the “neutral” majority has shifted significantly towards the asshole side of things.

The World would be a lot different if our “heroes” were Scientists and Environmentalists.

The secret is to give yourself as Elitez Hacker objectives things like “least maintenance time required” or “maximum computing power lowest energy consumption” (or it’s companion “silent yet powerful”).

Maybe “I’m fed up with the constant need for tweaking and the jet-plane-like quality of my heater-that-does-computing-on-the-side” is the real mid-life crisis of techies.

Curiously, judging by my recent upgrade parts search, the peak of the capability-to-power-used curve on PCs (at least gaming ones) seems to have peaked about a decade ago.

Signed, a fellow Old Sea Dog Of Tech who has also gone through the same change over a decade ago

That’s not mid-life, that’s entire-life.

Years ago I concluded (wrongly or rightly) that most people are neutral, a small handfull are actually good people (willing to sacrifice their personal benefit for people they don’t know with no expectation of gaining from it, even in the form of social approval) and a small handful are assholes, but the assholes do such a disproportionate amount of damage that they end up having a massive impact on everybody else.

The stuff in computer games that makes NPCs move around the game world from point A to point B has been called AI for ages (and in this case specifically, is generally the A* pathing algorithm which isn’t even all that complex).

It’s only recently that marketing-types, salesmen and journalists with no actual technical expertise have started pushing AI as if the I in the acronym actually meant general intelligence rather than the “intelligence-alike” meaning that it has had for decades.

Salesmanship is the essence of management at those levels.

Which brings us back around to the original subject of this thread - tech bros - in my own experienced in Tech recently and back in the 90s boom, this generation of founders and “influencers” aren’t techies, they’re people from areas heavy on salesmanship, not actually on creating complex things that objectivelly work.

The complete total dominance of sales types in both domains id why LLMs are being pushed the way they are as if they’re some kind of emerging-AGI and lots of corporates believe it and are trying to hammer those square pegs into round holes even though the most basic of technical analises would tell them that it doesn’t work like that.

Ultimately since the current societal structures we have massively benefit that kind or personality, we’re going to keep on having these kinds of barely-useful-stuff-insanely-hyped-up cycles wasting tons of resources because salesmanship is hardly a synonym for efficiency or wisdom.

Soon Twitter will complete its transition to Nazi Bar of Social Media.

And for those on the other side of the Atlantic, there are several computer shops that will just put a computed together for you without an OS.

Here’s a random example “configure your own computer” from a computer shop in France. In this one the OS (Système d’exploitation) is not included and you have to pay extra for it.

In my experience with custom assemblies like this the OS is never included.

When I live in the UK at some point I’ve even used of these kind of stores there to get a custom notebook.

It’s basically an “assemble your own computer” for people who don’t know how to do it and aren’t confident enough to try (understandable given that the parts value of a whole desktop PC adds up to at least €1000 so there generally is some fear of fucking it up if you’ve never done it before).

I think their double standard on media manipulation is derived from them being absolutelly fine with some people mass-manipulating others but not with other people doing it, which if you think about it is another aspect of the same kind of take that Trumpist muppets have: such an such should be done to “them”, but when it’s being done to “us” it shouldn’t happen.

People whose thinking is based on Principles and who at least try to not be tribalist, tend conclude that it’s the act itself - the manipulation - that is the morally and ethically wrong thing quite independently of who are the perpetrators or the victims.

The funny thing specifically with US libs is that it’s exactly the turning of their media into Propaganda Outlets, which they themselves supported and used, that sewed the fields for the harvest that Trump is harvesting: it destroyed people’s confidence in the traditional media opening the path for manipulation via social media and for the kind of populism that Trump uses - “strong man” saying whatever he thinks people want to hear quite independently of it being true or not, in a very assured way and using everyday language (even rufian language) which massivelly contrasts with the style of deceit prefered by liberals.

deleted by creator

I don’t think the sensors really matter for a server but the rest makes some sense.

Still, 80 bucks will buy you quite literally a Mini-PC (a really crummy one, granted) which can run more server tasks because it has as much or more memory and storage and isn’t hindered by there being an Android OS layer there doing nothing useful, and which is absolutelly and 100% under your control because it boots into your OS of choice.

Half than that will buy you a crummy SBC which probably de facto has as much capability to run server tasks as that Oneplus (it’s weaker but doesn’t have Android there eating up resources) though in my experience those things tend to be a bit finicky.

I don’t think it’s actually worth it to spend $80 on an used phone to use as a server (unless you do need UPS-like features or built-in mobile nertwork access) since you quite literally have better options brand new for that money, but if you have one around it can make sense even if it’s a bit more work getting it going and is not fully under your control (unless we’re talking about something jailbroken where you can install Oxygen or Lineage on, so a Pixel would probably be a better choice).

That said, there is a certain technical elegance in the whole notion of repurposing an Android Phone to be a home server.

I don’t think a “Putin link” is necessary to build a justification.

It’s enough that Musk is a bilionaire controlling the platform and intefering in it: that thing is not a fair platform of communication, it’s algorithimically shaped to make it a Propaganda vehicle and there’s no point in frequenting a place whose function is to make you think and do what others want you to think and do.

This desperate attempt at a finding a “Russia excuse” is a massive Americanism reminiscent of McCarthism and generally boils doing directly or indirectly a self-serving excuse from politicians from “moderate” parties who have spent the last 2 or 3 decades serving interests other than those of their voters and who now are reaping the natural results of that, and they want to blame anybody else but themselves. When the rationale “by an amazing coincidence” entirelly absolves the people putting it forward and doesn’t come with strong proof, it’s bullshit until further evidence for it emerges. We saw a lot of that shit parroted by Democrat tribalists here in Lemmy right after their loss in the Presidential Elections in the US - the fault was from everybody but they themselves.

I don’t really know how much Russia interferes with Twitter or with the various elections the West (I’m pretty sure they at least try, but there are so many interested in making it seem huge and shifting all the blame to it, that what we common humans with no access to intelligence brefings hear about it is too thick with propaganda to be trusted), but then again the same goes for Israel and other countries and even individuals with enough means to pay for it (or ownership of media vehicles) who have an interest in shaping the outcomes, especially multi-millionaires and billionares - remember the massive role of Cambridge Analitica in Brexit, and they were paid not by Russia but by wealthy Americans.

What I’m saying is that ultimatelly it’s the being a Propaganda outlet that matters and the “whose propaganda” is irrelevant: none of those actors are doing their manipulative “opinion forming” for my best interests and their chosing to use such techniques tells me that they see other human beings as nothing more than puppets on their strings, so they’re not the kind of people one can trust in any way form or shape.

Personally I droped Twitter following the whole Brexit thing and well before Musk, though the latter did made me actually delete my account rather than just leave it there unused.

I think you’re seriously overestimating the technical prowess of the average law enforcement officer…

Except the price, which is much lower for the SBC, way much lower if one uses one of the lower end Orange Pi or Banana Pi SBCs.

Also you can put Linux on the SBCs (which always come unlocked) hence do way more with them as servers than if one has to use Android as the OS.

I mean, I can get it if people with the technical chops, love for technical challenges and an old and pretty much worthless Android phone, configure it as a server if only because “why not?!”, but it’s not exactly a great option considering that a 40 bucks SBC can do the same, only better, more easily and with far more possibilities (given that it will be running Linux rather than Android).

PS: Actually somebody below mention mobile network connection, which, thinking about it, would be a good reason to use an old Android phone as a server since it has built-in support for 3G (unless it’s quite old) whilst the SBC needs it add to it which might be a problem for the cheaper SBCs (just wondering about how I would get around to do it, I think you need to connect a USB dongle to it and it has to be something compatible with Armbian Linux)

Clearly in your mind people can only be one of two things: for your tribe and all it stands for or against your tribe and all it stands for.

This is exactly the same simpleton take on human beings and Politics as far-right muppets such as Trumpists have.

It’s not surprising you called me moron: Psychological Projection is also another trait of simpleton tribalists.

I’ve done a lot of posts critical of the posture and actions of the Democrat Party and their whole “If you don’t vote you’re voting Trump” propaganda (which are right there in my post history with lots of for and against votes), but as I see it the point being made by this tweet is different.

I don’t read this tweet as being about people who didn’t vote at all because the present day Democrat party, Democrat Candidate and Democrat President’s actions didn’t appeal to them (which is what seems to be responsible for the Democrat loss), I think it’s about people who actually explicitly voted Trump (so, none of that “implictly voting Trump if you don’t vote” bollocks but actually putting their vote on Trump)

And I absolutelly agree with this tweet: that man is a complete total worm - in everything from what he’s done to what he says and even his body language - and on top of that was offering scapegoating and hate as policies.

I can get it that some people couldn’t bring themselves to vote for the Genocidal ethno-Fascist supporting, pro-Oligarchy hard-right Neoliberal, slimy snakesoil salesman liar Democrats, but anybody actually voting Trump is not simply distrusting of or dissapointed with the modern day Democrat Party, they’re active supporters of an even broader and deeper kind of nastiness.

I’m truly, totally, completely shocked … that Windows is still being used on the server side.