Depends on how you measure things. If you pie-chart the internet by bandwidth used, most of it is currently used for TV 2.0 (streaming video, mostly by subscription.)

The darknets are here, have been here, but are by definition: dark, so unless you’re in one they’re useless to you.

First rule of darknet membership: don’t talk about the darknet.

This is a story about my web3 thoughts, circa 2018… https://mangocats.com/ao/IslandLife.html

Smaller communities don’t get targeted for commercial exploitation. But, then, something has to support them even if they don’t cost much to run - they still cost something, both for bandwidth/storage and moderation/curation effort.

Not all of Reddit works, but some of it does for some people, and the reason it works for them is because the moderators shape communities that the community members enjoy participating in.

Personally, I think active communities below the Dunbar number (about 150) in size are some of the most rewarding to participate in, long term. But, there are always a lot of people who flock to wherever the biggest crowds are.

I think it’s always going to be a sort of long-tail phenomenon, with most people involved in the biggest platforms, but a large number of small platforms that attract a minority of the overall population.

Sounds like they’re slipping cloud based AI assistance into the deal, which is the opposite of what Notepad is “good” for.

Install time? Startup time? Useless bloat?

The ultimate answer:

They have been making these things for decades, they know how to make them better, they know how to make them more durable, they know how to making them even simpler to use and fix, they choose not to, for profit. That should be structurally discouraged.

Charge the manufacturers for the FULL, REAL environmental impact of shipping materials and end of life disposal of their products. Yes, that cost will be passed to the consumers, as it should be. It also rewards sale of more durable goods.

you can also solve your examole choice by gun grabbing ans shooting the guy if he lets you take it.

Ah, but that wouldn’t be mutually beneficial, would it?

Also, this didn’t take long:

Some federal employees who accepted Trump’s buyout offer are now being notified that their buyout has been denied, and they are being terminated instead.

Every sperm is sacred:

https://youtu.be/fUspLVStPbk

There are some offsetting factors that also prevent the “best and brightest” from rising to power: https://dealbreaker.com/2007/10/icahn-explains-why-are-there-so-many-idiots-running-shit

He moves up the corporate ladder, without a single original idea that might make his boss feel threatened by his potential.

Eventually, he gets to be the #2 guy at the company. He’s a little dumber than the C.E.O., but the board likes him, so he eventually gets to be C.E.O.

Of course, he assigns a #2 who is a little dumber than he is. “And eventually, we’re going to have all morons running our companies,” Icahn concluded. “We might not be that far off from that right now.”

Here’s a gun to your head, now, it would be beneficial to you to hand over your wallet m’kay?

No bullet in your brain, more cash in my hand, both parties benefit! See how that works?

Oh, you have a lump growing in your thyroid, mmmm… that is bad. We can cut that out for you and most people we do that to live a lot longer, but first we need you to mortgage your home and give us the proceeds. See how that works?

spez has too much money to care.

What’s the point of being Uberwealthy if you can’t just do whatever you want, whenever you want?

People keep quoting that Musk gave DT $250million to support his campaign, like hell… Musk bought Twitter and ran it into the ground to support DT’s campaign, that was far more significant, and far more costly than a mere $250M.

Oh, hell yeah. My parents got 4 and 6 year college degrees based off the income of a teacher, hairdresser, mechanic, and night watchman. 100% debt free. Then their parents, who had $0 to their name at the start of WWII, helped my parents again by buying them a starter house. My parents were both school teachers, on that salary they built a new house in a golf course subdivision, new cars every couple of years including a brand new 6 cylinder BMW… Then the 80s came.

Current U.S. leadership: Our billionaires are gonna be bigger than all the other billionaires in the world put together. (I honestly believe there’s an insecurity motive there: if US billionaires don’t amass significantly more wealth, they won’t be competitive in the billionaire world against outside billionaires.)

U.S. Democracy: If one dollar = one vote, I guess we should save all that money we have been wasting on elections.

The real reason for the surge in prosperity of the middle and lower classes after WWII: decimation of the ultra-wealthy throughout the developed world. Remember: the post WWII US income tax on the wealthy was 91% - literal decimation, for those who paid.

https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/whole-ball-of-tax-historical-income-tax-rates

One way a global index can respect local authority would be for the index to acknowledge that within that territory, there is an official name for things.

They can also be pragmatic and acknowledge a common local name, the global consensus name, etc.

In many ways, it’s just a further fragmentation like language.

What I want to know is: what does the vote of a Republican Senator cost these days? Can we start GoFundMe campaigns to get some things changed in our preferred direction?

Saving that for 2029.

They had a pretty rough go when beaver hats were in fashion…