This article is worth reading, imo. There’s more going on here than the introduction of the “Max” ‘super-app’. I wasn’t aware of this but Russia has also been subjecting its population to a “digital detox” where Internet blackouts are becoming increasingly common. In some areas the Internet is down most of the time, in others service has returned but is extremely poor compared to before the blackout. Mobile Internet blackouts have been performed claiming without evidence that it’s to disrupt drones coming from Ukraine.

In some areas this Max ‘super-app’ (which handles banking, communication, and more–and is a direct line for government surveillance) is the only option to do banking or communicate with anybody by phone. This practice is sweeping the country after declaring Meta a terrorist organization, and swiftly eliminating any Meta apps from Russian access including Instagram, Facebook, and the most popular app for communication in Russia: WhatsApp.

This is fucked on another level and i think we should be paying attention because this is presumably where Trump gets his inspiration and/or his marching orders, so i have a suspicion we’ll see something similar wash up on our shores soon enough.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now–a mass, extended Internet disruption would not only screw up communication on a grand scale here, but business would also be tremendously impacted. It’s the next ‘privilege’ for us to have taken away and replaced with an enshittified surrogate, forcing large swaths of people to sign over even more of their autonomy to big brother in exchange to have all the things the Internet has now made possible. Want to be able to easily get navigation on gps? Talk to your friends or family? Pay bills using your bank account? Imagine there was only 1 app that will allow you to do that from now on. I can only imagine how shitty the user experience is on “Max” but i suppose in time i won’t need to–I’ll have a front row seat to try it out here in the comfort of my home one of these days, seeing the direction things appear to be heading in. I mean shit, we’re probably already nearly there and i just don’t realize it yet 🫠

The US Department of Health and Human Services said that Kennedy’s article spoke for itself, and that the department did not have any further comment in response to Nature’s questions about Kennedy’s request for a retraction.

🥴

I feel like that’s where we’re headed at this point. Major corps have all the tech and all the money. At this point we are seeing every new iteration of consumer tech/electronics costing more, lasting less time, and offering no greater value than previous iterations while sometimes actually taking away features and functionality in the process. They know they are the only game in town now and they only have to offer what they feel is enough to placate their clientele–if they even choose to go that far. People grumble, then they pay.

AI will replace people in many of these situations and it will suck and be less helpful and very problematic but that’s the best they’re going to offer. If anyone comes along trying to offer anything better they’ll be swiftly dealt with by defeating and/or buying them out. There will probably be like 5 corps that own everything one day (maybe that’s too many–3? 2 perhaps? I just can’t see it being 1 for some reason)

Can’t you just call customer service and keep escalating it to the next department until it’s solved?

/s

• FONT: REMINGTON
• CPU: NONE
• GPU: NONE
• MEMORY: 0B / 0B

🤣🤣🤣

“lobbying” 🙃

Well if you don’t drop everything and singlehandedly bring it all to a screeching halt i won’t respect you and even if you try I’ll find other reasons to criticize you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks

They are liquidating this countries resources on every level, and it’s just blatant now

It’s so cool to see this pop up here–i went there with my wife several years ago and we were absolutely stunned by it’s magnificence and sheer scale. I plan on going back someday and spending an entire day there knowing what we’re in store for. I had been given a recommendation to check it out by a local who ran a log cabin lodge that was about 1/2 hour or so from the House. That place really blew me away, glad to know other folks are out there appreciating it too!

That carousel was insane, not to mention the amount of animated instruments and nickelodeons scattered about… The living quarters were so cool, if a little impractical. You could have the coolest parties ever in that place…

What’s in a name?

Apparently a whole lot

We’re at the point that any name recognition is worth serious coin

White Men Can’t Jump

Looks like the dude from Prodigy

Same!! It’s my go-to for grilling season, but it’s also versatile enough to cover lots more ground 🥪

Potato rolls ftw

I think that was their sales pitch to the military

I just imagine he has a giant carnival wheel that’s marked with all sorts of reprehensible things to do and he just spins it whenever he’s bored and proceeds to executive order whatever he lands on

To break it even further down: that’s $5200/hr or almost $87/min – over $1/sec to be CEO there

Can you imagine how many rounds of interviews he had to go through to get the job? 🤪

That’s the thing–the actual purpose of the appliances hasn’t changed at all. Every “advancement” is typically proprietary tech made to help comply with energy and water/gas usage standards–or to add perceived value through some half-baked gimmicks. For instance, dishwashers use smaller pumps run for longer periods of time to perform the same amount of work a larger more powerful pump could handle (in many cases a single pump sufficed for a dishwasher–one rotational direction for wash, opposite direction for drain)… I’m totally on board with energy efficiency but the laughably cheap/shitty tech they use to those ends kinda blunt the effectiveness of the energy saving measures (since replacing parts–or more likely entire dishwashers when those pumps fail–is a less energy-saving process than having a stronger, more durable pump that draws an extra amp or 2)

Data is like gold, and Chip allows us to expand the amount of data we collect from our assets, allowing us to understand the health of our assets and fix them before failure

It’s language like this that really bothers me. 20,000 people are getting laid off (though the CEO denies it’s going to be that many), and these fucks couldn’t be more self-satisfied with their little money-saving robot. People’s careers are being swept aside without a moment of consideration before the unpaid replacement gets trotted out for oohs and aahs. All while using language that couldn’t be more cold or clinical about “assets” – which really appears to be their way of speaking directly to the investors. Fuck everything about this.

Very little tech moving forward is likely going to be of any help to us, and i strongly suspect most of its going to be used against us. I hate saying that, as I’ve grown up enjoying the evolution of tech and have been excited at our advancements time and time again. Somewhere in the past decade or so, i really fell away from that mindset. Few new advancements have really stood out as a net good/upgrade/improvement in comparison to the amount of shitty, cheap, disposable tech that is flooding the markets. Good designs are being cheapened and worsened for cost-cutting purposes or scrapped entirely in favor of shitty/cheapo tech in place of reliable switches/motors/lights etc. Maybe i just don’t have enough $ to afford the good stuff though. That’s probably the case, lol. I mean, i did buy some really cool addressable LED strip lights so at least dystopia will look properly futuristic from where I’m sitting 😂