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4grams, 4grams@awful.systems

Instance: awful.systems
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 0
Comments: 187

I have fleas. https://www.snand.org

Posts and Comments by 4grams, 4grams@awful.systems


Most of the time it does work, which is why it’s so goddamned hard to undo. I’ve been working on de-appleing, I’ve nearly completely de-Amazoned and am also working on de-googling. But these damn providers make it so difficult, they get in so deep. It’s not even me that makes it hard, I’m willing to make a little extra effort for a more privacy focused platform I control. No, it’s the family and friends that all are perfectly comfortable handing control of their data and frankly lives (everything is in these fucking things, schedule, contacts, financial stuff, all digital communication, photos, videos, etc..).

As long as you keep spending a lot of money, and upgrading to the newest devices, you will have a decent experience. As soon as you try to extend the life, find alternatives, look for ways to control your own data, then it gets real hard.

To be fair, it’s not just Apple. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, any of the big players are the same. They all manage to make it easy, so long as you are comfortable being captured.


That is true to some degree, but there is no Dem Soc movement within the gop. I’m no fan of the democratic party, but there are some decent folks in it. Aside from a couple single issue allies, I can’t think of anyone decent in the gop.


Yeah, I got your incredible wordplay, clearly mine sailed over your head (unsurprisingly).


I can tell this is how you see the world.

Dude, I don’t get why you are so very interested in carrying water for billionaires. I’m truly baffled in these conversations why people just insist on defending people who will never know they exist.


lol, good for those in power maybe.

You are walking away with the opinion that there are good billionaires who have your best interests in mind. I mean, that’s an opinion, just a really stupid one.

I’ll be fine here in the actual world.


Sigh, steam has zero support, like actually none and it’s well known in the industry. It’s 100% a drm platform, you must have an internet connection and a valid account to play your games that you purchased. You only have access to any of them because they allow it.

Again, I don’t care about your opinion because it’s wrong, and I will judge it the same as I judge people who have other similarly bad opinions. I do wish you would realize that your idea of a good billionaire is bullshit, but that’s to protect you from falling for the shit they are peddling. No skin off my nose if you choose to continue to suck up to them.

I will stand by my original statement that there is no such thing as a good billionaire. It’s this statement that I’m defending and your “nuh-uh, he’s really cool” has done nothing to convince me otherwise.


No, but I definitely have knowledge of what you don’t.

Look, suck up all you want, but there just is no good billionaires. There are ones where the goals are temporarily aligned, but to think that any of them do what they do for the benefit of others is just a moronic take. Some probably started that way but ALL billionaires alive do what they do for themselves, their own power and control. Gabe is better than most, but he’s still on the list and has done many terrible things. Valve is better than most gaming companies, but it’s still a DRM platform that has no customer support and dictates how the industry has to bend to their will.

I can tell you haven’t done your research because there are many stories of valve fucking people over, and again, valve is arguably a net negative for gaming in general due to how it’s completely destroyed the idea of ownership. We all only have access to our shit due to their good graces. I personally hate having thousands of dollars of things I’ve paid for, controlled by one single company (I too used to assume they were the good ones).


Because you don’t do much research outside of the ways that it’s impacted you.


There is factually no such thing as a good billionaire, and to pretend it’s an opinion based thing is just yet more lickspittle behavior.

There are less bad ones, but you cannot become a billionaire without hurting a shitload of people. It’s arguable that valve has been a terrible thing for pc gaming since it’s led to the death of ownership. But this is one of quite literally thousands of things that can be litigated in his case.

Update- this is like saying “in my opinion, donald trump is the best president we’ve ever had.” You can think this, it can be your opinion, but it’s wrong, and tells people a lot about who you are. Sticking up for billionaires is one of the more pathetic things a person can do.


There is no such thing as a good billionaire and to say otherwise is just lickspittle behavior. Gabe does not care about you.


I’m a big fat guy who sweats a lot. I’ve never cared about the sweat though only the smell. So my whole life I’ve used nothing but deodorant, NEVER antiperspirant.

I’ve never had problems with either pit stains, nor lingering odor. I’m pretty convinced that antiperspirant leads to more smell; I’m not saying I’m fresh as a daisy at all times, but even at my worst, my odor isn’t that bad, while drier people often stink to high heaven.



I’m convinced this is all to normalize keeping your data in the cloud and other 3rd party hands. It’s hr decline of the PC market, the fact that games, movies and music no longer come on media you own, instead is now just a license to use the content..

This is all part of the strategy of ensuring we do not own our data. They want all storage of all the data to be something we have to pay to access. They want to control everything, and make access to it a subscription.



This shit drives me up a wall. I try to only buy peanut butter made out of peanuts, so for years now I’ve been buying “natural” peanut butter. I recently noticed however that 100% “natural” doesn’t mean shit as all the natural brands are loaded with palm oil. I honestly might have to start making my own.

It sucks because my family treats me like an insane person when I look at the ingredients and nutrition of the food stuff we buy. Food culture in the US is awful, just awful.


Yeah, I’m not not big on retribution, but this fucker deserves no sympathy. This man deserves far, far more than what’s coming to him.


I don’t think it’s as hard to draw a line as you are portraying it. The hypothetical nurse and bread factory is a non-issue, we’re talking fractions of the bottom line of any of the involved parties. This mulvad thing is the majority of the financial backing of a party by one high level person, who’s made his money from this organization.

I’m quite comfortable putting them under the same umbrella, and quite comfortable ignoring the hypothetical.

But think there might be a philosophical question here, but I kinda think this is begging for one a bit.


So, in other words, he is definitely going to give himself and his sons this award, and the republicans will happily go right along with it.


It came to me last night, how all this AI and the difficulties obtaining hardware. This is all them trying to end the idea of ownership, at least of your data. They want to control all the data, so everything you do, every picture you take, every game you play, every essay you write, will be only available in the cloud. We are getting close to the point where are must pay for every bit of our own data that we access.

This is the inevitable result. I’m very glad I’ve spent years building my own library of content. I just hope I can continue getting replacement hardware to keep it alive.


Posts by 4grams, 4grams@awful.systems

Comments by 4grams, 4grams@awful.systems

My friends and I have a copy of duece bigelow that we take turns hiding at each others house. I think someone got it as a gift like 20 years ago. I think it’s still in shrink wrap, probably somewhere behind a photo on one of our walls to be found and re-hid someday 🙃




They made mention of how the next protest would require action at No Kings this weekend. I was sincerely hoping this might be the case. It felt like enough people are showing up for these that action just might be possible.

I don’t know, but it was inspiring to see so many people, and the conversations going on are much more targeted and direct. I don’t have much faith left, but here’s hoping; I’ll do my part..


Exactly, they are an important tool in normalizing a resistant mindset. They get headlines, and it shows others who might be on the fence that the movement is growing. It gives people hope, unifies them.

So even without a cause, we all know what we’re protesting. Normalize the resistance, make it ordinary, make it default. We’ve been listening to their bullshit long enough, I just want to some time to shout myself.

Then I come home motivated and get to work.


And just where can one procure such a pile of towels?


Been on it for years, but reminds me that it desperately needs a hardware upgrade. Seems like now is the right time.

Anyone have any good suggestions? I’m still running an old pcengines apu2.



It’s because the real motivation isn’t the kids, it’s punishing women. Babies are just the marketing.


I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the plain and stark language. I’m so tired of the sane washing, I’m so tired of skirting the issue. We need to accept and then figure out how to deal with the facts.

It’s not his supporters I’m worried about, it’s the apathy and impatience of the average american voter that does.


Yep, they will prop his rotting corpse up as long as they can, the plan is to having him be the wrecking ball, take all the blame, but by then the fixes are all in for the next one in line.

Not sure if they will foist vance on us, I don’t think they believe he can be the front of a cult but by they maybe the power will be consolidated enough that they don’t care since he’s just a puppet.


What I meant by works is that between the pihole and AdGuard, I don’t see ads. I appreciate the technical deep dive, but all I really care is that I have an ad-free experience.

I too can wow with technobabble, I was just trying to give a positive experience with a product that might work for you. Seems like you’ve been down that path.

Maybe don’t use chrome then?


I am not affiliated with, and know nothing about them aside from being a user, but AdGuard has been very good on my iOS devices. Good enough that I paid for a 5 license pack for the family. It plus pihole here at home has been a lifesaver.

I don’t know how well it works for chrome but for Firefox and safari it’s been great. Worth a try anyway.


Right, I run almost the same stack as this guy, but on a dumpster dive office PC turned into my NAS, and three used, micro form factor pc’s I picked up for 60 bucks. My most expensive thing is the hot swap silverstone case for the refurb 4 and 10tb hdds.

Also, why pfsense when opnsense exists (j/k, just my preference).

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100%, I honestly wasn’t trying for a holier that thou attitude. Any snark was aimed at the higher ups in my professional life with that audit comment.

I too am guilty of having my personal stuff less than perfectly backed up. It’s better than most, but it is still not what it should be, so, that’s what I mean by it being so easy to not be backed up.


It is, but it also sucks that it is. I don’t know why people continue to have such blind spots, but given who and what is behind bluesky, why would anyone, ever think it was ever going to be open or anything but twitter 2.0?

I’m really baffled at why people are so unwilling to learn from history.


I was job hunting during the doge apocalypse after a layoff, it was tough, so many people fired and looking at the same time. My dad had no sympathy, he kept telling me that it was all necessary, and said that I’d have no trouble because everyone I was competing against were useless government employees anyway.

I don’t talk to my dad anymore.


It’s so easy. I can’t tell you how many “backed up” environments I’ve run into that simply cannot be restored. Often people set them up, but never test them, and assume the snaps are working.

Backups are typically only thought about when you need them, and by then it’s often too late. Real backups need testing and validation frequently, they need remote, off-site storage, with a process to restore that as well.

Been doing this shit for 30 years and people will never learn. I’d guess 9 out of 10 backup systems that I’ve run into were there to check a box on an audit, and never looked at otherwise.


“The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of who will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”

This quote has always rung true. They do not care how bad they are hurt, as long as someone else is hurt worse.