If I were truly thrown into this scenario, my first step would be accepting likely death. Even if you maintain status quo and do no good, you’ll be killed by the next guy in line. There’s nearly no way to both satisfy the current oligarchs and maintain enough power to prevent being replaced by one of them. There is also no way out, as Russia has carried out assassinations in foreign countries. Not that you’d make it onto a plane.

So I really would try to do all that. I’d tell them that whatever force got me there also gave me time to enact failsafes so that, if I disappeared, every property that every Russian billionaire owned would make unexpected contact with drones. Then I’d go ahead and post Putin’s files with every billionaire’s dirt and holdings hoping to start some fires they’d need to put out before coming for me. From there, an aggressive push towards democracy by appealing to the people in the hopes that they’ll back me, which might buy a little extra time.

I think this secures a few hours. They won’t want to move against a complete unknown that suddenly became president. That’s enough to call Biden (allegedly to negotiate US withdrawal from Ukraine in exchange for election interference in Harris’s favor) and send him every bit of data on the military that I could. That might be enough deterrence to buy more time: “the US military knows everything now, so killing me might have consequences.” I’d CC several other NATO members, but for time’s sake Biden is probably the one to call.

Maybe I could get some bodyguards that appear loyal to me, maybe not. But every bit of bluster I could muster, I’d throw it down out the gate, then start trying to fix the country before they call the bluff.

Yeah, I still die quickly, but even a single step towards improvement is worth my life. An easy decision to make when it was forfeit the second I became president. Even if I failed miserably, merely dumping presidential documents would have been worth it. Perhaps it’d get the ball rolling.

Edit: I missed the part where everyone loyal to Putin would be loyal to me. That opens up a ton of space to actually set up these failsafes or move against the oligarchs myself, as well as secure the Kremlin with men more or less actually loyal to me (by wiring them all a million USD on the spot with promise of more). Putin put down a rebellion from one of the most powerful oligarchs, so there might actually be a way to survive long enough to do many of the things on that list. I’d probably not dump the oligarch files and keep that on a disappearance failsafe then proceed mostly the same hoping to generate serious, potentially irreversible momentum before dying.

Thanks for this summary, I haven’t followed this and didn’t know what it was about. Sensical format and structure, extremely helpful in explaining a crucial difference

I meant like Alien Blue and Apollo where if you swipe on the comment and not on the edges, Apollo had a full half centimeter of edge space for front and back while AB was more like RDX (which imo is better really)

No worries if you don’t want to though, just thought I’d ask

Hi, thanks again for making this app. Any chance of swipe to collapse? I find it takes less effort than double tapping

Intriguing, my first reaction is that this must be some accident. On iOS it’s marked as not collecting data, and the privacy policy is a single line.

I’m sure the dev will swing by shortly, I’m just expressing my surprise at seeing that

I say it that way sometimes for fun. I live nearish so sometimes, when visitors hear me say if, they ask if that’s how it’s actually pronounced

I think if my opponent removed the head of their last challenger and still had an arm left, I’d back out of that fight. I imagine next in line would too

Last I recall, Google was trying (they obviously want the money) but was receiving pushback from legacy ISPs and the local governments they have agreements with. Is that not the case?

Yeah my b, I get captcha’d for VPN use. It’s almost always the “train our self driving car” one, and it tells me I’m wrong all the time too. Very frustrating

It might well be if it’s being used, but the site itself still uses v2 a lot. I get the picture one a lot when searching things up.

That actually makes me feel all the more strongly that it’s just there to extract free labor— they have something else, but still use v2 for what seems like most purposes

It’s basically always been outsourcing labor while checking. I guess they don’t want to provide that service for free.

But now that it doesn’t work, all it does is attempt to source free labor by refusing to show what you want to see. Cloudflare’s verification doesn’t show the puzzle because it’s not trying to make money off you.

Also, the books one reminds me of 4chan’s attempt to hijack it. Wasn’t a fan of the way they did it, but the intent was interesting.

Msft could always use it to push Bing or their AI. Microsoft Office? Game pass? Not the most logically sound advertising cause users are likely to be pissed during a bsod but I think I’d bet real money that they focus group it down the line.

I have some ethics issues with how Tidal pushed MQA snake oil for years, charging more for less. Outright deceptive advertising for nothing but the money. I have bigger ethics issues with Spotify funding Rogan though.

Now, Apple is obviously its own titan and almost inherently harmful, but the music department does less active evil than the others. Qobuz seems fine in general so it’s the one I’d rec

I’m not sure you read the comment fully, they suggested headphones, not speakers. Just a quiet room is enough for that. Speakers are more expensive because they have to move a lot of air in a room. I’m no expert, but I think it’s the mere physics of doing so accurately that keeps it above 200. A technology can be more or less solved without becoming sub 200.

Anyway, what’s the price range you’re looking for? I’m sure someone can recommend headphones for any range if you’re interested in those.

And that’s already a whole lot of money for next to no value for 99% of the people.

I strongly believe those people should not be thinking about audiophile gear. Thankfully, audiophile companies don’t really advertise. The claims most of those companies make are targeted towards people who are into audio, and often feature lots of solid snake oil that 99% of people would not understand. Companies that do advertise heavily tend to emphasize vague things like “deep, rich bass to accurate mids and crisp, clean highs” instead.

And I’m also very very certain that most of the higher end stuff (and I’m counting everything over 200€) is esoteric. You can’t hear a difference in quality. Maybe a difference, but not objectively better or worse.

What makes you “very very certain”? There are some quantifiable quality differences, like accurate positioning of sounds or perceived distance from the listener. It may not be necessarily worth the price, but I’m not seeing how you’re “very very certain” everything above 200 is esoteric and that it’s impossible to discern quality.

Problem is, where exactly is the line? It’s almost impossible to tell whether this one speaker is garbage with a markup or actually high quality.

Audiophile communities never suggest blind buying because even a high quality product may not have the sound signature you like. It’s similar to how a Rolls Royce, a high quality vehicle, may be too slow and comfortable for someone who would prefer a cheaper Corvette. Those in cities likely have multiple dealers who would be happy to have you come in and sample the stuff, or Best Buy. Pick something you like, regardless of price tag or recommendation. Those not in cities can get on lists of free samples that are then sent to the next listener, or buy and return from stores. Headphones.com has a 365 day return policy intended for this, though there is a restocking fee. Amazon is an unethical company and you can return large dollar quantities without fees before being blacklisted.

Speakers are harder to test if you do not have audio stores or Best Buy. I would still suggest listening when next in a city if possible. I can’t think of anything for those in areas without Best Buy and never enter one, but there might still be something.

About to finish that one after several years, so I picked up that dev’s latest game. I’ve heard it’s even better, so I’m quite excited. DOSin2 is one of the best games I’ve played.

That would be phenomenal, thank you

Hi op, thanks for making this. My opinions of Reddit aside, this is a neat app.

Is it possible to open a link from Reddit in this app, maybe with a Safari extension? The mobile site is dogshit and, because old reddit threads often provide the most useful solutions, I sometimes find myself struggling against that unusable site.

I’d also suggest having collapsible sub groups separate from subscriptions, like Alien Blue did, since you have an AB reference in the colors. Back then, I liked having that so I could have groups for news, hobbies, etc. But without having to see the whole list. Seeing AB there reminded me of a lot of great features that app had.

Worst part is the judge acknowledged that he wasn’t going to age out of wanting to kill, merely the ability to. But like you said, guns are pretty easy to use even if you’re old.

Such an unusual “oversight”

A good point, but I personally see it like this: a small percent of humans created weapons of extreme destruction, then the small percent of humans with access to them still did not kill as many as they did back then. The faceless violence sucks, but weapons development was set to outpace peace development before every living human was born. Pretty soon everyone with access to those weapons will have simply inherited it, making them more capable of war but not more warlike.

This is my thinking for using .world. I don’t get all my news or interaction from Lemmy or the internet as a whole, and Lemmy is small enough that it has an almost zero impact on broader society. I respect those who try, but if my internet experience was antagonistic or frustrating I’d probably just stop using it.

I also feel that conversations of that nature are best had in person, where there’s a higher chance of changing minds. I’ve no proof but it feels like internet discussions are taken less seriously and thus merely end before any opinion changing can occur.