The worst way to die would be getting hit by a shitbox Tesla. RIP.

SNES was my happy place when I was growing up. I would be beyond happy if it was supported again. I mean, it won’t be, but it’s nice to dream.

I think it’s worth noting that this is the effect of the free market behaving as designed, however no one has risen up to challenge Amazon enough along the way. So many retailers ignored e-commerce in the early days and went on with business as usual. Fast forward 20 years and Amazon has eaten into their market shares. A large retailer like WalMart absolutely has the ability to challenge Amazon by investing in the user experience and warehousing/delivery infrastructure. But often the old heads at these companies ignore improving the user experience in favor of making cuts. Amazon didn’t happen overnight. It’s been a steady growth in their business model over decades and the user experience is key to what made them so popular. It takes seconds to find what you want, for often times cheaper than the competition and in many cases the shipping is lower and faster.

What would be difficult is for a start up company with little capital to try and take on these behemoths. Perhaps a coalition of large companies like Target, Best Buy, B&N, Kohl’s, etc. grouping together to create a large distribution network and app platform with a good user experience could compete.

Just a thought.

AWS is a whole other can of worms.

Exactly. The flaw is in the streaming service. They say “upload your music and make money” while skimming the lions share of the profits. But if they use tools that are openly available to all, i.e. generative AI (which uses copyrighted works for it generational algorithms) AND the Streaming service systems themselves, somehow this user is at fault because they don’t like the way he did it and the amount he uploaded. It seems to me it’s a problem with the system and not the user.

That’s the outcome that seems most logical. I want to see real artists get paid for creating real music. The current system is too prohibitive and unrewarding.

If an artist spends hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars creating their work, only to see a return of maybe a few dollars that’s a big problem.

If someone can use AI to game that same system for millions of dollars by creating loads of fake music in a fraction of the time; that’s a symptom of the big problem.

The current system of streaming just isn’t beneficial to artists. I imagine it’s not great for movies either. Yet, these companies are taking in HUGE profits. It was only a matter of time before someone tried to take advantage of a loophole.

If you think about it, it’s kind of like reverse piracy.

He found a flaw in the system and exploited it. Although he didn’t do anything particularly wrong, the tools he used allowed him to do it. Yet, somehow he has to pay the consequences and the companies that made the tools to exploit the system are not liable. Got it.

Windows 10 will be my last Windows operating system. It’s been fine and it works well enough. I’ve already started setting up a drive with Linux Mint 22 for use moving forward.

Chocolate frosty is an amazing salty/sweet pairing!

Any Google smartwatch. I bought 2 at one point. A sport and a dress watch. Both only lasted about a year before the software rendered them useless. I’m now back on analogue watches.

Currently using a combination of Plexamp, WinAmp, Bandcamp and Apple Music.

Spotify is an evil company. Bad for artists, bad for consumers. I’m glad to have quit using their service.

Twitter has never been great, just easy to use and widely adopted. It’s gotten worse under Musk and mostly appeals to the worst people left on the platform.

Just another huge ass company that values short term profits over its employees and customers. Probably won’t be buying any more of their products.

Some say the slam was so hard the shockwaves were felt on the other side of the globe.

The reasoning they gave me is exactly that. People driving like crazy post pandemic, and the fact that cars have become exponentially expensive.

My auto insurance rose 27% this year. My cars sit in a locked garage 20ft away from me practically all week long as I work from home. I was shocked to find my rates rose so high as I barely even drive at all anymore. Their solution was for me to get their data collection puck. What a fucking racket!

Similar to when my cat died. I’m still sad 2 years later, but the memories are fond and when I see a photo of her it brings me more joy than sadness. I know I gave her the best life and I continue to do the same for my current pets. Yes life is short and feels fleeting, but if I could give my cat the life I gave her a second time , I’d do it again every time.

I’ve been using Thunderbird and loving it. They’re developing a mobile app now as well!

T…. Time to leave?

I got a subscription to nebula, since my favorite creators are on there and YouTube’s subscription costs too much.

Quit Spotify for Apple Music and PlexAmp.

Slowly starting to phase out everything Google but it’s taking some time.

I’m using Google search less and now Ecosia has become my primary search engine.

Next thing on my list is to reduce streaming services. I quit Netflix and HBO in 2023 after having it for many years.

Using a VPN more and more.

I’m using much less Reddit, Facebook and whatever the fuck twitter is now. Instead I’m using Lemmy and Mastodon. Maybe this year I’ll delete all the old accounts finally for good.

Started using RSS again for news.