A Wild Mimic appears!

yeah, there was quite a long time where useful software was bundled with toolbars or, the worse option, malware that hijacked your browser, which was a pain in the ass to remove. I was the techie in the family, and i got pretty good with tools like hijackthis and knowing by heart what services and background programs should start on a standard win98 or xp installation. (in this time i also was THE guy to ask at my job when issues with 56k modems came up, diagnosing a lot of issues by listening to the dial-up tones)

There was a time in the 90’s where ads were mostly banners, and that was fine; google’s text-only ads were completely acceptable.

But that didn’t last long - it went downhill with the proliferation of popups, especially the nefarious kind which created even more popups or tried to stop the user from closing them, and usage of dialog boxes.

And whoever was the first person to add sound to an ad, i wish you and your entire family tree that your genitalia translocate to your forehead.

ok, so the system must be able to complete payment themselves using well-known “fancy” credit cards, which belong to a white guy working in Big Tech (or an equivalent business credit card, which would be easier) complete with linkedin profile.

sounds more complicated, but should still be doable. but it’s a mind experiment anyways (and probably already in use by secret services to keep a low profile on their agents).

That’s a good argument, so probably the location should be in a pretty high COL suburb, maybe a gated community.

i know it’s not that easy, i’m quite paranoid about my trackability, but running that browser in a small VM would be an option.

I have an idea for a business: a browser with vpn. the catch is that the vpn connects to the poorest areas of the country you live in, and the browser reports your machine as the most crappy thing that can browse the web - which should result in low, low prices everywhere!

And that is exactly the situation in Russia: it’s an

• right-nationalist (“rescuing” suppressed people from the evil Ukraine - that one is super ironic because it’s exactly the same argumentation Germany used with the Sudetendeutsche)
• authoritarian (arrests for holding up empty pieces of paper, drafting for the war - but only in the poor areas far away from Moscow) regime
• centered on cultural identity (anti-gay laws, “restoring the CCCP”, persisting propaganda comparing the Ukraine war with WW2, "we have to defend ourselves from NATO)

It’s pretty late, so i don’t repeat the exercise for China or bring up more examples - i’m pretty sure that if you try to counter my points someone else will give you more examples.

You ignore 50% of the political compass here - authoritarianism sucks just as much as fascism or unbridled capitalism.

but the only way to break through this is to change the platform. Since both of them already keep their posts equal on both sites, it makes switching easier for everyone; removing their content from Xitter would be an incentive for others to switch.

The ideal way would be to try and band together a large amount of “regular posters” and completely switch on an agreed date together; that would have a pull effect for others to do the same.

It seems that multiple people don’t get what you are trying to say, and i would really like to know. if you have the time, could you elaborate?

and we are talking about reasons why people are still there - those two aren’t one, because you can read their posts somewhere else too. Except if you meant that people are still there because those two are still there.

It does not restrict them per se, it’s just that the mechanics of what to show you are either simply based on posting time, or amount of “interactions” or “interactions/time” or similar simple algorithms. It would be possible to analyze posts for specific content and show you for example ragebait only, but i doubt that pull request would be accepted - you would probably have to make a fork of your fediverse platform and implement it there.

Cory Doctorow is on mastodon, just like Molly White

They are not a Very Large Online Portal and do definitely not have to implement this in the EU under the DSA. There is a list, if you are on it, you have to do it, if not then not. Also, the EU wide system for eID is not yet completed and currently there is a plethora of single services, one per country, for eID.

I know that they have to do this stuff in the UK, but fkn leave me alone with that shit. It only causes me to switch location in my VPN and doesn’t help anyone, not even the kids this crap law pretends to protect.

e: here’S the list. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/list-designated-vlops-and-vloses

It’s depressing that the US, which is pushing AI hard, is also dismantling the structures they would need to get a populace with the soft skills mentioned above. The destruction of “everything woke” equals the destruction of soft skills.

Since you need an Digital ID to sign, given by your government, i can’t think of many issues.

e: i just looked since it was a while since i signed - you need to give your Passport number to sign, or use eID.

aaah i misremembered, it was Ted Cruz, oops :-D

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/ted-cruz-gives-up-on-ai-law-moratorium-joins-99-1-vote-against-his-own-plan/

especially that Abbot Ted Cruz, who brought this one up, voted against it in the end, which is pretty confusing for an european tbh

e: i mean that it’s memeworthy lol

876k now - at this speed it will be done tomorrow, or at latest in 2 days!

neither 0451 nor 4510 are even registering, i’m disappointed.