I have an old 2012 Nook that has literally never been connected to a network: I bought it to sideload epubs and pdfs onto, and that’s all I ever did with it. I never got a Kindle because you can’t sideload pdfs (or couldn’t at the time) and I didn’t like that Amazon was already sneakily retracting/editing purchased digital content.

It could use a new battery but it still works fine, and I bet these Kindles will too as I recall seeing guides out there about how to jailbreak/root them. If you can disconnect your Kindle from all network access and make it sideload (or non-Amazon-connected load) only, you’ll still have a usable device, as well as all your local content. Fuck Amazon.

No boil, but wash in (lightly) soapy water with lots of agitation for at least a minute and rinse well. Or use a product designed for that and rinse well.

Yeah, I’d be pissed too. The problem these days is that anything less than an actual cleaning agent isn’t going to dislodge whatever industrial-strength nasty is on the leaves, so you can’t just rinse and call it done anymore.

Not shaming you, I had to learn the hard way too. I wash all produce now, and have for years. When you know, you know, and now unfortunately you know too.

Yeah, obviously if I’m on lemmy.world then I have to wait for those improvements. I have looked into moving instances, and I will save your comment; I appreciate the information.

In the meantime, thanks for the well-wishes, and same to you!

Yup. We used to have a fridge built in the early 80s (possibly late 70s) that lasted until 2015. Ugly ass harvest gold color and everything. Ran it continuously. Had to have it repaired maybe twice in all that time. We moved out and left it behind; for all I know it’s still going (though probably not because it was truly an eyesore).

The point is that a well built refrigerator can last decades, same as other major appliances like washing machines and dryers. No computerization necessary at all. Our fridge was not the most energy efficient by the end, obviously, but apart from that . . . why not build them to last?

Greed. Just overwhelming, all-consuming corporate greed.

As someone who engages in good-faith discussions, I like participating in those comms. Bad-faith participants do not limit themselves in the same way.

I can understand how you might think your proposal is a solution, but in the US the amount of political content is overwhelming and comes from every direction, especially online.

There is NO such thing as just blocking when it’s everywhere, and if you can downvote it you’ve already read it. I need to not see it at all when I am not in the fact-checking kind of mood for it…

So the most perfect way to avoid the firehose of propaganda is to remove oneself from it altogether. See y’all in November – or December, if shit gets real.

For myself, I am spending less and less time online as the US midterms approach and I would not be surprised if others are doing the same. My time is better spent offline at the moment, but I haven’t really left. Just taking more and more breaks for now.

If you’re in the US try Greenies pill pockets for cats. They’re highly flavored little dough things, not super expensive. My cats love them and now they’re a very special treat (for when a very special treat is needed the most).

Pro tip, though: don’t try to put the capsule in the pill pocket like in the picture. It’s a fool’s game. They say you can but it’s a waste of time, even when it’s not cracked or banged up, which is rare.

Your best bet is to ignore the “pocket” altogether and flatten the whole thing into a thin, even, round pancake (maybe 1" to 1.25") with your thumb into the palm of one hand, dump the contents of the capsule in the middle, and then carefully bring up the sides like you’re making dim sum. Pinch the top around the med to close completely and then roll it gently around in your palm.

This method also lets you use all the broken ones in the bottom; just squish as many as you need all together. If they’re a little dry add a tiny bit of water and they’ll mash together as if new.

If there’s too much med and you can’t close it, use two, or however many. I had one pill from a vet that was far too big to just shove down his throat to start with, and I had to quarter it into four to use the pill pockets, but they worked.

They can be a pain in the ass, but as long as no material escapes from the pill cover I make with them I’ve never had a cat refuse one. I have, however, had every cat I ever owned tell me to fuck ALL the way off with anything sprinkled on their food. It’s worth a try if you already have the meds.

It’s someone’s alt created three years ago, probably getting dusted off for the midterms.

For myself, I’ve blocked it. I don’t need that intrusive political shit.

I personally have no misconceptions about the intrusive data collecting, aggregating, identifying and reselling that LG is doing with their residential customers via their televisions, nor about the entitled way LG and its corporate representatives and officers have spoken about their right to gather it.

“We own the glass,” they repeat, as though that means they also own whatever is spoken beyond the glass in the same house. In reality, they own neither.

Nor am I misled by LG’s weasel words that address problems not ever specifically raised, while completely swerving around actual problems publicly demonstrated with their products.

But I will say they are laboring under a serious misconception if they think I will ever buy one from them. They can fuck ALL the way off with that shit.

Great minds think alike: I have a MBP only a few years younger running the exact same OS, but for CS5. I use old hardware for as long as I can keep it running. But yeah, all the bloat gets cut out or off, first thing. The MBP doesn’t even hit the wider net unless I specifically allow it, so it makes sense to turn off anything that is forever phoning home (aside from the CS5). It’s great having old machines like these around.

Exactly. I have always had Siri turned off, ever since my very first apple devices, and never had a reason to turn it on. Same with all the AI features. I don’t want them so I keep all AI options turned off, always.

I still have a couple devices on the cloud but only for shit I don’t actually care about, and whenever I get around to cleaning those up I’ll get rid of it there as well. Still on the original 5GB, too: I don’t believe in paying others to store my data when I can and should store it myself.

When it comes down to it I don’t even know why I started turning all that shit off, beyond the fact I found it annoying to speak twice (or more) when I could just quietly type once. I’m no prescient genius, but I am now very glad of whatever luddite instinct made me shut it all off, lol.

This is excellent. Thank you. And – holy shit they are insane.

Huh, TIL. Thanks. Not even remotely surprised.

I’m watching the main one right now (your second link). Holy shit.

Am I the only one who thinks big tech won’t do jack shit other than nod and smile and install a user button that doesn’t actually change anything at all?

They are so NOT going to turn this off. This – the ability to manipulate users by controlling exactly what they see – is the sole reason they are in business. It gets them ad revenue, data to resell, and massive, uncontrollable political power.

And they’re just going to let a user turn that highly individualized control off and turn themselves into a less monetizable, more ad immune user one by one because some govt told them to? The same governments that have been telling them not to do this or that for decades now?

Lol, pull the other one.

Lol wut? “My brain is not especially fucked enough right now so I’d like an extra special DOUBLE helping of corporate machine bullshit today, thank you!”

I think you should take that hit for the team, obviously. If you believe one is required.

When you have a president that interferes with the DoJ, it looks exactly like what Trump is doing right now.

An independent DoJ is the sole reason why his first term was not full of retaliatory prosecutions. But he learned what he needed to do to rig it, and then did so. And now we have what we have. Is that really what you want out of the US going forward?

I do NOT want a DoJ that a president interferes with, period. If it’s only “justice” for some, it’s NOT justice.

Holy shit. That’s some arrogance right there, thinking no one would ever know or find out. Grand juries are secret, but they’re not THAT secret.

they think everything is more openly corrupt than it is yet.

You nailed it.

I think the inconstancy has to do with whether your VPN of choice is allowing itself to be used for bot scraping and other shitty resource hogs. Back when AI scrapers were running openly via their own company’s network and then started to get blocked by IP, the scrapers didn’t stop. They just went to VPN.

So on VPN it’s not unusual for me to be fine and then suddenly get blocked from sites, or just extra captchas, Cloudflare checks and the like out of the blue; I’ve come to assume that just means someone’s using it to be shitty. Switching proxies helps occasionally, but not always. I live with it.

That whole “a good prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich” was when you could pull your jurors out of a citizen pool that didn’t walk in already believing you were lying through your fucking teeth.

But then they pulled the mask off, and let us all see how they are using the courts for vindictive prosecution and political harassment.

Looks like the ham sammich days are ending, lol.