An “instance” is a server that talks to all the other Lemmy servers, where your account info and login are stored. There’s a lot of benefits to decentralization - even if one instance goes down, like lemm.ee, it doesn’t really impact the whole of Lemmy too severely. The cost of running an instance isn’t super high, which means that if an instance is being annoying about advertising or something, you can ditch it with little cost to yourself and even run your own instance if you want. A single cabal of admins can’t ruin it like Reddit (cough cough Spez) and it can be easier to curate your own experience by choosing what instances you want to ignore completely.

Any given instance is not necessarily a safe harbor, but as long as Lemmy is around, there will probably be multiple instances to choose from. The only thing you really lose is your post history - and you can link to your old account info in your new account for continuity’s sake.

Rationalists are (supposedly) smart enough to figure out that Roko’s Basilisk wouldn’t waste cycles torturing someone in effigy if they decided they’re going to ignore the threat of Roko’s Basilisk. It’s the opposite of a catch-22.

Oh, I’m sure there are bots on Lemmy too. The general userbase, however - of people who are sick of Reddit’s BS - are also going to have very little tolerance for bot BS, so the instances are incentivized to try to keep bot activity down lest they be de-federated.

Ostensibly it’s to protect things like credit card information. In reality it’s to make sure Microsoft has more control over your computer than you do.

and don’t sweat.

except that the government run land registry can deal with disputes in a flexible and fair manner. A blockchain with smart contracts cannot.

at the same rate of time change

Not true! The faster you’re moving through space, the slower you’re moving through time.

it’s the parties with the majority of the “proof of XYZ” creation hardware. Which are not normal people.

Originally the idea was that it WOULD be normal people using their own CPU cycle time to secure the chain and mint new blocks. Even then, as long as no one party holds the majority of hash power, the incentive is to support the security of the coin rather than subvert it. The moment that changes is the moment that Bitcoin dies, because no one will be able to trust it any more - which also means there is an incentive to make sure there are enough competing BTC farms.

there’s the possibility of developers of a blockchain choosing to rewrite the ledger, causing splits.

The blockchain is upheld by the combination of the developers and the miners. If the developers aren’t acting in good faith and the miners don’t like it, they don’t move to the new chain. Sure, you get a split, but odds are one of them is going to die.

This is why I use Open-Shell. Ever since MS decided that the entire program list should be in a tiny little scroll window I’ve been giving it the middle finger.

The main difference is that it requires TPM 2.0, which allows applications to run in a fully encrypted mode and prevent user tampering.

Don’t cut yourself on that edge.

It’s not that we think we have zero responsibility or whatever - it’s that, as you described, we put in a lot of effort to find coping mechanisms and management strategies, and then people like this cut-rate psych point to the results of that effort and say ‘See, it’s gone!’ It’s not gone, you dingbat, we have to manage it and it takes a lot of work, and maybe it would be nice - just once - to get some recognition for all that work we’re doing rather than pretending the problem doesn’t exist any more.

Have you fought a goose before? Clearly not considering how you’re mouthing off.

People know to steer clear of Canadian geese for good reason. They’re known to break people’s bones with their wings when they decide you need to be punished. The weight/strength ratio is vastly different for birds than it is for mammals. Birds have to fly, so they’re built ridiculously light for how strong they are - and they have to be strong to be able to fly.

A swan is much bigger and - critically - much meaner than a goose.

I’m honestly not sure that Trump’s death would have been the best thing for the world.

Hear me out.

If Trump were assassinated, he would have become a martyr - and it would have been easy to paint the Left as the culprits, thus obliterating any chance of winning the upcoming election, and more. But it wouldn’t have been Trump who won the presidency - it would have been someone more capable and more subtle.

Trump is laying such waste to the government that he’s quickly turning people against him - and his vanity and incompetence are undermining his own party’s efforts to secure their power. As long as we survive the current attacks on democracy - which is, admittedly, a big if - then he may have utterly destroyed the power base for the GOP for a long time to come. A destruction that wouldn’t have happened if someone with their sanity intact had landed the office.

We’re going to suffer in the meantime, but at least we have a chance to turn it around - a chance that may not have happened if Trump had eaten that bullet.

I’m pretty sure your ass would care, depending on the kind of bread. A firm crusty bread would probably do some damage. Kinda like how too much fentanyl does damage. Physically.

Nostalgia.

LLMs are AI as much as the enemies in a game are AI. It’s not General AI though, which companies really seem to want people to believe it is.

The problem is that we see that sort of argument all the time on the internet, which gives us a skewed view of Republicans. The right wing is loud, even leaving out the shills trying to stir the pot.

Not even close to all software. There was a broad mix of stuff that used 2-digit years that would have had problems with it, stuff that used 2-digit years where it wouldn’t really impact anything, and stuff that used 4-digit years and so wasn’t a problem.

However, if it drove any sort of critical infrastructure, it had to be audited just in case it fit in the first category.

That depends on if they’re reporting LESS money than they actually made, or are reporting MORE money than the shop itself actually took in.

If everything is in cash, you can inflate it pretty easily without raising eyebrows.

Her.

edit: Ah, I see you’ve already been called out for this. Admittedly that’s why I tend to default to ‘they’ on the interwebs.