Yeah, from the sort of cold, heartless, detached, and incredibly oversimplifying level that those sorts of governmental decisions happen at… selling sex is one of the few things just about anyone can technically do. It’s also the kind of thing that it would be hard to prove doesn’t have effectively infinite demand.

I can totally see bureaucrats going: “You’ve got working holes, go get to it.”

Let me say again, that’s a horrid oversimplification of reality, but one that I can easily imagine coming out of government organizations.

I put a few years into a Comp Sci BS at a “new Ivy League” University, realized I didn’t mesh with the teaching style at all (still have a massive chip on my shoulder and strong strong fucking opinions about how coding ought to be taught) and if I had to spend 8 hours a day coding I would kill myself. Also went through a deep depression and some life shit. Got placed on academic probation and effectively took that as my sign it was done.

A few years later I was having trouble finding employment, so I signed up for an Associates degree in Computer Information Systems at a local community college. I was able to transfer a good amount of credits from my first attempt, but the way classes were scheduled I ended up taking two years anyway just with a very light course load.

By the time I graduated I was already employed full time in IT support, with an obvious path upward. I didn’t bother going to the graduation ceremony.

Now I’m the best programmer/scripter on a sysadmin/infraops team, the majority of my workdays are spent scripting automations and shit that no one should ever have to try and do manually (sometimes coding a full 8 hour shift) and I love it.

I’m happy I went back and “finished” things. It was a wildly different and better experience with some more years under me and at an institution where I was actually treated like a human being.

Maybe I could have had the same at the first place with a lighter course load, but I don’t think I had the right mindset or the right teachers, even if I hadn’t been as overwhelmed.

At some point during my second attempt, I finally hit a point with programming where I was able to effectively split the concepts/theory from the writing of the code/execution of the theory. I developed my personal approach to programming that isn’t particularly unique, but I was never really guided towards it by any instructor or learning material.

I will never be a full on Software Developer, a true Computer Scientist. I don’t need or want to be.

I don’t program and script for the sake of it. For the joy of the art. I’m not going to argue CPU architecture, data organization schemes. Vim vs emacs. I program and script because I want to solve problems that no one should have to do manually, especially the fuck not me.

Programming, scripting, and automation are tools. Some of the most amazing tools humanity has ever created. Tools that open opportunities for increased quality of life, efficiency, and leasure time like nothing else. But they’re a tool. Not an ends to themselves. I love them for what they allow us to do.

I can appreciate the artistry, and I’m happy as hell that there are people out there arguing about how things get compiled or interpreted down to machine code.

I can automate the fuck out of things. Script together entire system integrations including full user account lifecycle automation when sales folk lies don’t match up with reality. I am the best programmer on my sysadmin/infrastructure operations team, and I’m the guy the boss puts on projects that we don’t have a failure option for.

I get to do things I’m good at, and that I generally enjoy, for enough pay that I don’t generally have to worry about money. I am immensely blessed and privileged in this regard.

As far as how much of my current situation is due to education? Really hard to say. If I did it again I think I’d start at the community college.

You can look this shit up you know. 3 yachts each retrofitted into marine research vessels and one under construction as another research vessel. Two “support vessels” whatever the fuck that means. The one under construction will house 75 scientists. His marine research company, inkfish, releases all findings publicly and for free.

But nobody knows this shit because he isn’t burning money on a fucking PR firm.

Two yachts for pleasure, which is entirely two yachts too many.

Look, he’s sitting upon an empire largely propped up by the fucking invention of lootboxes, the marketing of them to children and whales, and all the second and third hand markets and gambling sites that have sprung up around this shit. I’m not going to sit around and suck his dick.

But inkfish isn’t even the only “public good” organization he’s founded. And he’s also just directly donated money to existing things as well, such as considerable money into pediatric ICU in New Zealand.

On the scheme of ultra rich, he is one of the better ones.

Edit: Especially if we’re putting Gabe Newell up against Tim “banning Twitter because it allows AI generation of CSAM is gatekeeping” Sweeney

Re-read the title. considering halting plans to. They aren’t using them yet.

Almost all of the settings are a simple on off switch. Group policy and the settings menu. Both are easily navigatible GUIs with clear descriptions of what the switches do. You only have to go the hosts file route if you want the extreme of completely disabling updates.

I work in sysadmin in a Windows environment. I haven’t had to touch the registry (for Windows configuration, we won’t talk about dumbass software devs) in over four years, and it was only because I didn’t check group policy first.

Please, for the love of all that is worthwhile in this world, don’t lecture others on the ease or difficulty of configuring systems if you aren’t actually familiar with how to configure those systems.

You can delay Windows updates up to 30 days at a time, and do that indefinitely. Or just black hole the update server in your hosts file to disable updates entirely.

There are also ways to not download updates until a certain amount of time after their release, and then to give yourself something like two weeks before it auto installs during a period when the computer is not in active use.

I haven’t had an update happen unexpectedly since Vista.

And lets be real, do we really want to just let the average chucklefuck run around with insecure shit? There’s an element of protecting people from themselves going on here as well.

Welcome to Lemmy, where people aren’t willing to even try to get Windows to work for them, but are absolutely convinced they know exactly how it works.

I’ve had conversations here where I’ve led with the fact that I’ve got a decade of experience in IT and sysadmin in a Windows environment, had someone insist I was wrong about some configurable functionality, and they ended up admitting they hadn’t touched Windows in a decade.

People running wild with complete ass pull speculation about how stuff like OneDrive functions instead of taking 30 seconds to do a search on their engine of choice.

I had someone insist that the handwriting and typing analysis feature was a full on keylogger capturing all input including passwords across every program on the whole damn OS, then tell me I wasn’t researching right because 100 articles with the same copy pasted clickbait headline and instructions for how to turn off the feature but no actual source for the keylogging claim does not make fucking truth. The other commentor kept hiding behind a piss poor excuse of not being willing to spoonfeed me, while spending considerably more effort telling me I was stupid.

I offered to edit every one of my ~4000 comments to sing their praises if they just stopped grandstanding and linked me the goddamn proof. Guess who hasn’t stepped up?

I’ve said across multiple comments at this point that when I get enough free time to putz around with getting 11 set up in a VM in prep to upgrade my desktop that I’m going to make a guide on how to configure all this shit.

I hate that learned helplessness with Windows is being fucking championed as a failing of Windows and reason to switch to Linux, when these same users end up having issues with Linux and being hung out to dry there as well.

And are you actually using the HDR features? Most can be run fine in SDR mode.

As others have said, I guarantee there are movements and organzing happening in your area.

Don’t be the person shouting that others aren’t doing enough when you aren’t doing more than complain online.

Use this energy. It’s kind of hilarious that you’re complaining about how people are fighting amongst themselves while you’re doing it too.

Some people have to focus on survival, and don’t have the energy to do more. That’s by design. Intentional design by those in power. So if you have that energy, go do for them. Work with unions and local lawmakers to improve conditions for the people living paycheck to paycheck instead of trying to shame them into just magically having more energy after ensuring they’ll be able to eat and have a place to stay.

Lots of clutter, no trash. Maybe some of the papers in the coffee table that my toddler has scribbled on are trash, but I’m saving those for re-use until they get crumpled or I see her choose not to use them when she’a drawing.

If you play Old School RuneScape, what do you think about the sailing skill? I haven’t played since shortly before that released.

Part of the issue, admittedly, is that there’s a bunch. Many have outdated info as well.

NAACP guide seems written for a more peaceful era, but is a good place to start.

Rescue our Democracy similarly has some oversights when it comes to tech safety, but at least mentions wearing a mask.

I’m not finding the better guides right now.

The big things as far as reducing identification that I’m not seeing is that beyond face coverings and the like to prevent facial recognition, don’t bring your real phone and if you do keep it powered off in a faraday bag.

Phones are still traceable when in airplane mode, and while powered off, through bluetooth low power mode. This is what many countries used for covid exposure tracking. The only defense agaist this tracking is having your phone in a faraday bag that it doesn’t leave until you are out of the protest area, or simply not bringing it.

There are a few ways to get burner phones not tied to your identity. If you wanted to go that route, you’d want to do the opposite. Keep the burner in the faraday bag at home and only use it out at protest locations, alongside the advice from those two guides as far as disabling biometrics, etc.

I’ll try and find some better guides later today.

In front of the window? Outside!

they’re about to make 3D printing illegal

What now? Who and how? It’s a fucking industry at this point and the equipment is already out in the wild.

Hey, that’s I am a bunny! Didn’t know Nicholas went that hard.

Huh? I’m having no issues with vsCode, and while I haven’t used Discord in ages I didn’t have problems with it either. Both are electron. Got any links about these issues handy?

The protest safety guides need to be more widespread.

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That only mitigates. There are still a number of ways to potentially track a hardened phone, and countless ways to breach proper OPSEC on social media that have nothing to do with the platform.

Don’t rely entirely on system choices to keep you safe.

If you think that any nation-state with the money to implement this shit isn’t doing it already, I have a bridge to sell you.

Surveillance is a matter of power and maintaining it, far more than any ideological thing. There are already people being caught by this sort of shit in the UK and Europe as well.