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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: August 6th, 2023

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  • Is your liberalism no longer making sense? Lofty promises of justice for all, equality and all that turning out to be a big farce with those at the top openly doing the most horrendous crimes and just getting away with them in a way that leaves you seething and wondering ‘what about justice’?

    Try old time original Marxism (fortified with Leninism for clarity and taste) today!

    Turns out that stuff they were talking about a hundred years ago is still true today and the old brand promise still holds true!

    Not ready to check out just yet? Still nervous about Marxism? That’s alright. As economic conditions worsen, your buying power lessens, and you’re given the shaft in the work-place and an empty wallet at the grocery and/or electronics store you can always remember this fine product and revisit when you’re ready!

    When all other solutions have failed, when liberal and social democrat reform turns out to be a dud, remember there’s original strength Marxism (fortified with Leninism). We’ll be waiting for you.




  • There’s definitely something to be said for building up a tolerance to heat. I put peppers, especially ground hot peppers (various varieties) on a lot of my food. I’d say at least 5/7 dinners a week in an average week I try to find a way to work in some sort of spicy.

    The point though isn’t just heat, it’s about flavor too in combination with the heat sensation. I’ve eaten and enjoyed buldak noodles but they are kind of mild to my tastes. I tend to make mine by adding oil and stir frying them longer at the end as well as adding additional ground hot peppers while preparing to increase the heat level to something fun for me. I’ve tried 2x and it’s fine but it has more heat than flavor, the other Samyang offer a better flavor and heat profile and I can doctor them up on my own. I do like the Samyang black sauce to add to protein like tofu before baking/frying it and it can produce an interesting flavor especially when used with a few other things like soy sauce and some spices.

    So I think it’s just exposure and building tolerance. If you keep eating foods at that spiciness level you’ll get used to them. You may still experience a little sweat but it’ll be more tolerable and less intense as you acclimate.




  • You have 3 options:

    1. Android TV/Google: bad for privacy, some devices can be customized for slightly more with tweaks, ADB, etc

    2. Apple TV: pretty private compared to Google, no ads out of the box on Home Screen, nice hardware that lasts awhile.

    3. Wilderness of roll your own on a mini-PC, raspberry pi, etc: no ads, private. But pain in the ass, no 4k, no full HD (720p max), no HDR, no atmos sound because not locked down with DRM for streaming services so not approved. Choose this only if most of your content is self provided Blu-ray’s or yo ho type stuff and/or YouTube. Otherwise miserable experience.

    As far as 1) goes there are some better options like Dune-HD (make sure to get a Netflix certified model so you get 4k support from streaming services), and some customization via changing launchers and such for more privacy.

    However only options 2 and 3 are really more private IMO and “fixes” for Android TV devices mostly are in the form of blocking ads and allowing side loading of say a custom version of YouTube with ad blocking so don’t and can’t address the under the hood spying Google is more aggressive about.

    As to getting away from American. Good luck, both major platforms are American companies. Only other option is Chinese fork of Android and it’s no good for western streaming or use outside China. Otherwise roll your own but also provide your own content and that gets you away from them. A mini-pc is great for that with an air mouse but it’s not the same finely polished experience though can be decent with a little work.



  • Your options if you wish to stick with Windows:

    • Windows 10 LTSC (massgrave activators and has a guide for getting an ISO for it) which means a reinstallation (best option with Windows, least enshittification, still keep security updates but have to back up your stuff and reinstall everything) though this may not be a long-term plan if you play video games as I expect many places may drop Windows 10 support by 2028-29 end of ESU rather than 2032 end of LTSC support.

    • Windows 11 but change to LTSC (massgrave can do this)

    • Windows 11 but change to Enterprise license (massgrave can do this) and use Windows Group Policy settings to set target for updates to the current OS build version number which will delay feature updates for I believe up to 6-12 months but allow you immediate security updates. Bad news is you still get the new “features” but good news is they’re delayed significantly and maybe by the time you have to “upgrade” Microsoft has tweaked them to be moderately less bad and much less buggy.


  • Star Trek.

    Everything after Voyager gets axed completely. 100% retconned. Doesn’t exist. You can’t even joke about happenings in it in any new works.

    Voyager and DS9 themselves get trimmed down. DS9 loses 75% of its episodes, Dominion war erased, mundane space station stuff instead, no religious weirdness validated. Voyager gets better ending but retains most of its episodes.

    ToS gets turned into legendary chronicles rather than full canon with the more absurd less science bits cut out or reduced to the fantasies of the chronicler. Main stories and characters retained with >=80% of it surviving. Movies from both ToS and TNG era retain full canon status.

    It is established that alternative dimensions are extremely limited in number, you cannot do Marvel universe #69 stuff with it, the main one is the nega-universe with evil everything and a few other isolated pocket universes that are short-lived and unstable (often as a result of warp core implosion weirdness and such).

    All existing writers and producers currently associated or associated since the end of the Voyager era are summarily fired with prejudice. New ones are hired and quizzed by me to ensure at least the main producers are communists like Roddenberry and do not want to turn my hopeful FALGSC property into grim-dark in space IP number 3. Prominent transgender characters are MANDATORY in the new series and other steps will be taken to drive every last reactionary out of what’s left of the fan-base.

    It becomes studio policy to viciously copyright strike anyone uploading video of retconned parts of the IP to any platform as well as to bully journalist insiders with access into adopting the new line by excluding anyone who disagrees with it from access or favor.

    On Section 31 and ideology

    Section 31 as an organization is rewritten, it exists but is full of the most die-hard communists you’ll ever encounter, they use a modified hammer and sickle with a third more spacey symbol as their crest and do NOT dress like Nazis but like communists in dress and battle uniforms inspired by real world communist movements. They are charged with neutralizing dangerous reactionaries within the federation admiralty and power structure as well as being foreign intelligence. Notes are given to the writers that they are shadowy but heroic, decent, and good as well as very dedicated and the organization screens for and staffs itself with selfless individuals. Several new episodes involving their members getting into time travel and holodeck shenanigans in 1930s, 1940s USSR where they are wowed and amazed at the heroes of old around them.


  • Not sure.

    Apple TV devices do offer a similar app for collating together all your streaming services and their offerings and Apple tends to be a tad better on privacy but for something like this I really suspect your data is being collected by Apple though what they do with it may be a little bit better than Google though I don’t really know.

    These apps tend to have some sort of built-in recommendation stuff and to do that they need to profile you and your habits to be useful. Now true they could do that and not make it available to advertisers but the very idea is pretty fraught. I can tell you the streamers themselves in many cases are selling your habits and preferences.

    Basically though when it comes to streaming you have only these choices of ‘platforms’:

    • Google / Android TV: Run by Google, you know the deal, comes with lots of smartvs, various devices exist running it from Walmart (Onn) to Google themselves, to Xiaomi, and so on.

    • Apple TV: By Apple, comes in two flavors, with and without ethernet, typical Apple experience in that it’s locked down, so no side-loading but no ads on the homescreen either and less data collection than most other offerings by Apple themselves (note: the streaming company apps often do their own data collection and will do so on any platform). Very direct competitor to Google TV by a company wealthy enough to be able to stand toe to toe and not fret too much about profits from one small device line like this, also used to get people into their streaming service AppleTV+ as the devices come free with a few months of it.

    • Roku: Probably about the worst for privacy, very aggressive anti-privacy practices, data collection, profiling your local network devices and of course the service itself is ad supported.

    • Fire TV by Amazon: Not great, better than Roku probably, not a lot of hands on experience with this myself but it runs a modified version of Android and in future probably a modified version of Linux. Used to be sideloading friendly but they’re now cracking down hard because of piracy.

    • Roll your own device, use a mini-PC, raspberry pi, old laptop, etc: Disadvantages include all commercial streaming services will not go above 1080p (no 4k), many are locked to 720p because it’s not a certified device with lock-down against video capture, experience isn’t as natively smooth as a dedicated streaming device designed with that in mind. Hack-y solutions like using air-mouses as remote controls that can be good or bad. Things can break and you’re on your own to support yourself. Upsides include no homescreen ads, minimal data collection, complete control of the device, ability in some cases to do limited adblocking but at the cost as I said of no 4k, often no full 1080p with most streaming services. I wouldn’t recommend this unless you do a lot of served from home media streaming via Jellyfin, Plex, directplay off your movie rips hard drive, etc as this is where it really shines.

    • Dune-HD: If you’re looking for something with high-end support that allows 4k streaming from streaming services plus stuff like Plex there are Dune-HD devices. They run certified Android alongside a custom linux build inside a privacy container isolated from Android. They offer a lot of devices that are in the roll your own category but a bit more polished (though still often locked to 720 or 1080p by streaming services), but they also offer a few devices that are dual-os as mentioned so straddle the AndroidTV and roll your own divide kind of offering the best of both.


  • MKVToolNix.

    An excellent tool for working with video files as long as you’re okay with your files being in MKV containers (you should be they’re superior to mp4). From within it you can add and remove tracks such as audio and subtitle, change flags (flag subs as forced, default, etc), rename tracks for clarity, adjust track timing with positive and negative delays to fix sync issues. You can do batch scripting against it to iterate through whole folders of video files. For anyone who has a home media server it’s a must. For anyone who works with videos regularly it’s at least useful.







  • Read the linked source FFS.

    Me: Provides evidence that in decades past last century they were paid for and did dirty work of British intelligence, at no point were the people responsible cast out, at no point was this influence purged and processes and organs put in place to prevent this

    Me: Also provides evidence they are in the bag as of the twenty-teens they were doing propaganda work for the British against Russia in coordination with the British state through cutouts

    You: um acktually do you have any proof they’re still doing that this month? No? Checkmate.

    Yeah it’s called a pattern of behavior. Why would they change? What would cause this? Sudden secret come to Jesus moment that fits your idealistic wants and needs in this particular argument? The burden of proof is on YOU and on THEM to show a sustained pattern of change. More than to show that but to admit, call out, and have a reckoning about their past behavior, bring it to the front, make everyone aware of it, apologize, and explain how they’re changing and what they’re specifically doing to prove this isn’t happening.

    Partnering with Tass in what way? As wire agencies? Carrying some of their stories? That’s proof of nothing. You think because some org that’s deep in with the intelligence apparatus of one state has some casual or professional cover level contact with a state media organ of a rival state that is proof of what? Impartiality? That they’re actually Russian spies using British intelligence?

    What I linked claims they agreed to use journalistic contacts within Russia to influence Russians and others within the CIS sphere for the interests and goals of the UK. If I was doing that I’d want contacts like that including contracts to carry out that work and legitimize my stories to my targets. I’d want to pretend to be friendly, professional and open while carrying out this work.

    The new leaks illustrate in alarming detail how Reuters and the BBC – two of the largest and most distinguished news organizations in the world – attempted to answer the British foreign ministry’s call for help in improving its “ability to respond and to promote our message across Russia,” and to “counter the Russian government’s narrative.” Among the UK FCO’s stated goals, according to the director of the CDMD, was to “weaken the Russian State’s influence on its near neighbours.”

    Reuters and the BBC solicited multimillion-dollar contracts to advance the British state’s interventionist aims, promising to cultivate Russian journalists through FCO-funded tours and training sessions, establish influence networks in and around Russia, and promote pro-NATO narratives in Russian-speaking regions.

    In several proposals to the British Foreign Office, Reuters boasted of a global influence network of 15,000 journalists and staff, including 400 inside Russia.


  • No.

    They are a British government and intelligence cut-out. That doesn’t mean they always lie but they skew coverage, are manipulative, dishonest, and serve the interests of the British state. They’ve been that way for decades, receiving funding in the 1960s and 1970s from MI6.

    https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-office-russian-media/

    A series of official documents declassified in January 2020 revealed that Reuters was secretly funded by the British government throughout the 1960s and 1970s to assist an anti-Soviet propaganda organization run by the MI6 intelligence agency. The UK government used the BBC as a pass-through to conceal payments to the news group.

    In the modern era they still target Russia under the direction and funding of the UK government. One cannot be in bed with spies like these and hope to hold them and their friends like the US, EU, etc to account.

    The fourth estate in general in the west is highly compromised. Russia and China and many others openly fund state media and the west decries it as propaganda, but they never hide it. Whereas the west secretly funds, manipulates, and controls supposedly independent press and declares itself the free one while it lies to the rest of the world and their own populations.

    As a wire agency Reuters does tend to have less room for deception than say Fox News due to a lot of short form news breaks. So in that regard they’re more trustworthy than say CNN or Fox News but that doesn’t mean a lot.