Seager explained in this morning’s update while there won’t be a “global kill switch” for AI features on Ubuntu, their plan is to deliver all the AI features via Snap packages. So removing AI features on Ubuntu will come down to removing Snaps.

IMHO opt-in means the snaps wouldn’t even be on the system unless you had already opted in, but I was never going to use Ubuntu anyways so what does it matter.

But imagine if you could just like, ask your phone to set an alarm! And then it would do it!

… what do you mean we’ve already had that tech for a decade?

Things won’t get better if you don’t take responsibility for improving them. Sometimes you just have to do it scared.

That said, be VERY careful putting your trust in this other person. Without knowing any more about the situation it could be perfectly fine, but it’s also relying on this other person to improve your situation and still not yourself. Do you have an exit plan for if things go badly there, too? Do you have friends or a support network? Even if this person is genuinely well-intentioned, even the best relationships can go sour. You can still invest in this relationship while preparing for that possibility, especially since you’re new to this and say you’ve never dated before.

You’re still young, I know the world pressures you to feel like you should have it together by 23 but the world is pretty rough these days. I assure you there will be more opportunities to come. Focus on finishing uni, too, I think you’ll find that will open a lot of doors.

Wishing the best for you.

I was thinking more Jokerz, but honestly ICP is cool by me. Not really my thing, but they’ve always been anti-fash and after Violent J’s daughter got into the furry fandom and formed an alliance, they’re solid in my book.

Super Mario 3D World is a fascinating game when you think about it.

When Mario moved to 3D, it simply wasn’t practical to make a lot of course-based levels like this, you can understand how intense that work would be. That’s what necessitated the move to the more open, star-based missions.

It’s only recently that the skill and tooling has allowed for this and 3D World/Land are the expression of that: an evolution of the Mario 3/World formula.

Personally it’s one of my favorites, I should go back and play it again.

Your point is well-taken, but this is also exactly why AI reliance is dangerous. Anyone who sees this should realize the precarity of relying on products that can just be locked away from you.

https://bsky.app/profile/bethanyblack.bsky.social/post/3mjorrlabxk22

???

Finally! As someone who has played the only(?) available English translation of “I am an Air Traffic Controller: Airport Hero” on the 3DS, my time has COME!

What’s that? Drug test? … Nevermind.

EDIT: But like seriously, are there any other English translations than the Osaka-KIX version? It’s all I managed to find scraping about the internet, I’d love if there was a fan translation of some of those old GBA versions with the cute, crunchy pixel work.

It absolutely reeks of desperation, too. When you can’t sell on hype, fear is the next thing you move towards.

Owls are adorable. They always look so stern and serious and then you see these videos of them on youtube taking a bath and realize they’re just little goofs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA2Iyw6V9gk

Ask a dozen people, get a dozen answers. I think the main tenet is just acceptance: if someone says they’re X species, then it’s true because they say it. And by that grace when I say I’m Y, so be it. I think most people realize it’s a silly game, but in that respect it’s a bit of a litmus test in that can you just play along or do you gotta be a dick about it?

Personally I used to take it a lot more seriously when I was younger. Staunchly a no-nonsense red fox with a back story etc. etc. I thought mythicals and hybrids were goofy, but it’s tiring to be so uptight. Tried to identify heavily with one thing because I thought that’s how you built a sense of self but eventually learned you can just do whatever you want, there are no rules. Cringe is dead, sparkledogs are unironically back in style.

Now I’m a sea slug. I don’t know if I think that reflects who I am or maybe just more what I want to be: stoic, cute, utterly devoid of bones. It doesn’t really matter so much as it’s just a thing I like. A little character to pour some of my creativity into. Whenever I’m having a bad day I can just go online and look at pictures of sea slugs and cheer myself up because it’s that simple. Sometimes I get a message from a friend with a picture of slug in it that says, “look it’s you” and it makes me smile. It’s a little bridge that keeps me anchored to the world when I got nothing else going on.

Posting from pawb.social, I don’t want this to come off as too self-aggrandizing, but there are two communities people should start watching and learning from for the post-corporate internet: furries and speedrunners.

1. Furries: If you’ve ever wondered why there seem to be so many furries in tech and cyber security, there’s a good reason. They were some of the first digital natives to colonize the early internet; use it to connect distant weirdos into an online community. The core pillar of the fandom is simple and non-commercial: be a silly animal. This is an important distinction to the Bronies and Juggalos (no shade, much respect, but I gotta call out what’s true). The overt horniness and subversiveness of the culture makes it impossible for marketing and outside interests to take hold. We chased Tony the Tiger off Twitter (RIP). I’m not saying things have always been perfect, I think in the earlier days of the 90’s and 00’s the push towards extreme inclusiveness prevented pushing out a lot of the worse elements, but the community has been much better about calling these things out these days. Extremely queer, socialist, and anti-fascist - these are the elements that build that strong sense of support.

2. Speedrunners: While it does break a bit from the core pillar of not being centered around commercialized products, I do think there’s still a great amount of leeway with how those products are used in the context and also good integration with the indie community. There is no one central product. And out of that has sprung an extremely organized, self-policing, self-motivated group. These people invest hours meticulously tearing code apart by the seams just because they can and if there’s anyone I believe can save us from AI through the shear brute force terror of human cognition, it’s the speedrunners. It’s no coincidence that the largest organization and charitable event is also very queer and inclusive with significant furry overlap.

I know furries are weird and not for everyone (although I do think it’s odd you don’t know what animal you’d be … come on, you don’t have one in mind?) but I think it’s very much worth taking a look at the community from a higher perspective and figuring out why it has succeeded and will continue to succeed and how you can bring those things to your communities, whatever they may be: climbing, cycling, coffee, crochet, DIY, etc.

Theoretically, I’m all onboard with the night shower arguments. I’d love to be a night shower person. But I don’t think I’m physically capable of waking up in the morning without the shower routine.

I appreciate how angry this post seems to have made some people. Maybe I’ve just been in the furry fandom too long. I feel nothing anymore.

Halo.

Look, I’m not saying it’s a bad game or you’re a bad person for liking it, but man, I have never been able to see the appeal. As someone who has played a lot of shooters (mostly PC) and read a lot of sci-fi, I find it exceptionally mid. And I’m not really fan of the militaristic reverence vibe it’s got going on like … bleh. Does it actually criticize this more as the series goes on or is it really just all oorah? I also kind of blame it for the trends of vehicle segments and only holding two weapons that leaked into other FPSes at the time (looking at you Bioshock Infinite - WTF), although I do admit that’s more of a petty, personal point. I respect that it pushed FPSes and online multiplayer forward on consoles, but when people tell me it’s their favorite game with one of the best storylines ever I’m like, “But have you played any other games?”

I used to work in a game store back when Halo 3 released and I was a much more fervent hater back then, I decided I was gonna play the original Marathon games so I could be a hipster snob and hate on them, too. Actually ended up really loving them, though they’re only loosely related, I think they had a lot more going on stylistically and story-wise even though the gameplay was more primitive.

I retry every few years, but never get very far. Maybe I should skip to 2 because one is so bland I get bored of it.

If you’re having fun with it 3 hours in, just wait. This game fucking goes places …

Do not quit, make sure you play it to the [E]nd. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

The soundtrack is amazing and one of my favorites to put on in the background while I’m working. The story is definitely silly and paced oddly at times, but it has a lot of things to say that really spoke deeply to me. I get a bit choked up thinking about it still. Hope you continue to have fun, I think it’s reputation is well-warranted!

The biggest issue for most casual users starting remains picking a distro, and to that end I think we as a Linux community need to stop recommending flavors of the month. Even Bazzite has come up against some recent drama and having to break down distro drama for a new users is an absolute deal breaker.

Based on their skill level and needs just get them into a bucket: Mint, Fedora, or Arch. They’ve been around forever, they’re stable, there’s plentiful documentation and there are no weird opinionated decisions buried in them that’ll go off like a landmine or confound troubleshooting. Install the Nvidia proprietary drivers, I’ve had less issues with those (until recently I dunno, we can revisit this point) but overall just everything simple and smooth for a transition.

Once people are on Linux they can start to come up with their own informed opinions depending on how well they take to the environment but at the same time there’s nothing wrong with starting and ending with the above distros.

(I actually don’t know much about Fedora, there might be a slightly better variant recommendation but it’s gotta be something analogous to Mint. I’m pretty adamant on vanilla Arch though, if that’s the route you want to go. Anyone who starts with Arch will be able to better determine an Arch variant down the road for themselves and are also more likely to do multiple installs. Doing so much as even a single reinstall may be a deal breaker for casuals).

Dropped Reddit cold turkey when they closed the API.

It was an adjustment at first, but I do feel like the ecosystem has continued to grow and evolve, as well as me just adapting to what was on offer better.

I still never purposefully visit Reddit, but sometimes I just end up there from search results or links and it gives me the ick.