the-boy-sebastian's recent activity
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Comment on Suggestions for a tablet or a light laptop in ~tech
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Comment on Suggestions for a tablet or a light laptop in ~tech
the-boy-sebastian Linknot sure where you're based but refurbished X1 Carbons and XPS 13s go for about 350-500 GBP for an i7 model on eBay. they'll be a few generations old but I'm sure will be able to blitz through all...not sure where you're based but refurbished X1 Carbons and XPS 13s go for about 350-500 GBP for an i7 model on eBay. they'll be a few generations old but I'm sure will be able to blitz through all the requirements listed. I've had a couple laptops and a tower server off eBay and all came well-packaged and as sold.
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Comment on What’s something you’re personally proud of from this year? in ~life
the-boy-sebastian LinkI've grown massively in both my hard and soft skills. I'm training to be a lighting programmer and designer -- at the start of this year I barely knew how to use a lighting desk. Now I'm a lot...I've grown massively in both my hard and soft skills. I'm training to be a lighting programmer and designer -- at the start of this year I barely knew how to use a lighting desk. Now I'm a lot more confident in presenting my ideas, I'm impressing my peers as well as faculty, I've made invaluable connections and I have three shows as lighting designer under my belt, with a fourth starting rigging second week of the new year. I hope to go to university to further hone my skills.
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Meeting a trans elder
I thought I would share this story as I've been thinking about it ever since coming out as transfem and it always makes me smile. for every year it's been going on -- which is two... but I digress...
I thought I would share this story as I've been thinking about it ever since coming out as transfem and it always makes me smile.
for every year it's been going on -- which is two... but I digress -- I've helped out at a major trade show to put some iconic industry products on display as mainly fully working examples for people to play around with.
I noticed this lady looking at one of our exhibits and struck up a conversation with her as I had done with countless other people that day. turns out she was working at the company who built that exhibit during its production run in the early eighties! we spoke a lot about her experiences with that company.
after a bit, a few more people from that same company came over and they were all reminiscing about their time working there. it was at this point I realised she was trans because she kept saying to all these old guys "you probably knew me by a different name back then"! they were all really accepting and had no issues, goes to show older people can and do respect trans people!
it really inspired me to meet not only a trans elder but a trans elder working in my industry, who had worked on an exhibit I had set up the day before -- we opened it up later and found her initials on an electrical testing label from 1983! in meeting her it feels like I saw a possible future for myself, which is not something I had properly envisioned before, not on the order of decades at the very least. I like the idea of having a future. it gives me something to strive for. I want to be the lady who goes to trade shows and regales bright-eyed students with tales of a long and fulfilling career in my industry. I want to have stories to tell and I want to be there to tell them. meeting her made all that seem that much more possible.
I hope this makes someone else smile like it does me and I'd love to hear more stories like this if anyone is willing to share!
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Comment on LGBT and marginalized voices are not welcome on Threads in ~lgbt
the-boy-sebastian Link ParentNot hating on queer people is definitively the bare minimum you could do, and I would call it basic empathy rather than outward allyship. Edit: Also the inclusion of "openly hate" makes me want to...Like, it's not good enough that someone doesn't openly hate on LGBTQ+ folks, theyre just as bad if they are missing any rapidly increasing number of qualifications that secure their membership as allies.
Not hating on queer people is definitively the bare minimum you could do, and I would call it basic empathy rather than outward allyship.
Edit: Also the inclusion of "openly hate" makes me want to clarify that just hiding your queerphobia beneath a thin veneer of civility (what I would call "inwardly hating" something) does not count you as an ally.
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Comment on Emmanuel Macron dissolves French parliament after EU defeat, calls election in ~society
the-boy-sebastian Link Parentpeople like to forget that Corbyn contested two general elections... 2017 saw the biggest Labour vote share since 2001 (40% vs 40.2%), the biggest Labour swing since Attlee (9.6pp vs 9.7pp). 2017...people like to forget that Corbyn contested two general elections...
2017 saw the biggest Labour vote share since 2001 (40% vs 40.2%), the biggest Labour swing since Attlee (9.6pp vs 9.7pp). 2017 was actually the closest election by vote share since February 1974 (2.3pp difference vs 0.7pp).
I don't think you can dismiss Corbyn's policies as wildly unpopular when he delivered the best Labour result in the last fourteen years, and in some ways even earlier than that.
edit: forgot to mention he was expected to lose massively. this result was expected by no one
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Comment on Former US President Donald Trump has been found guilty of thirty-four counts of falsifying business records to influence the outcome of the 2016 election in ~news
the-boy-sebastian Link Parentwell yeah but he's not been convicted of sedition and we won't see that trial before the election. should've been more specificwell yeah but he's not been convicted of sedition and we won't see that trial before the election. should've been more specific
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Comment on Former US President Donald Trump has been found guilty of thirty-four counts of falsifying business records to influence the outcome of the 2016 election in ~news
the-boy-sebastian Link Parentshockingly being in jail doesn't exclude you from becoming president. only exclusions are impeachment, serving two terms or swearing an oath to the Constitution and then leading a rebellion...shockingly being in jail doesn't exclude you from becoming president. only exclusions are impeachment, serving two terms or swearing an oath to the Constitution and then leading a rebellion against the United States
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Comment on Looking for a laptop to take on a Latin America trip - what advice do you have for finding cheap and sturdy in ~tech
the-boy-sebastian LinkI wanted something similar and I was looking at ThinkPads from the 8th gen era on eBay but I eventually went with a Dell Latitude 7300. i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD and FHD screen all for £150...I wanted something similar and I was looking at ThinkPads from the 8th gen era on eBay but I eventually went with a Dell Latitude 7300. i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD and FHD screen all for £150 (X380s averaged around £200)
Of course YMMV depending on the used market where you are but the 7300 has been solid for me since I got it.
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Comment on The more I use Linux, the more I hate every distro in ~tech
the-boy-sebastian LinkMy Arch experience is wildly different to yours. I've been using some form of Arch for five or six years now and it's broken once or twice and always been my fault (mostly fiddling around with the...My Arch experience is wildly different to yours. I've been using some form of Arch for five or six years now and it's broken once or twice and always been my fault (mostly fiddling around with the bootloader) and easy to fix in a chroot. I've also had the linux, linux-lts, and linux-zen kernels installed at the same time and they all showed up in systemd-boot with no hassle.
I see comments about Arch breaking/being unstable a lot but I've never experienced it myself. Maybe I've just gotten lucky with it? In what way was it breaking?
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
the-boy-sebastian LinkCrawlers' debut album The Mess We Seem To Make came out today and it's a brilliant album. Going to see them perform the whole thing live at Pryzm next Thursday and I can't wait!Crawlers' debut album The Mess We Seem To Make came out today and it's a brilliant album. Going to see them perform the whole thing live at Pryzm next Thursday and I can't wait!
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Comment on What's a recent queer milestone you've reached? in ~lgbt
the-boy-sebastian LinkMe and my friends joined another queer group having left our previous one in August. It's a much better vibe than the previous one we went to and I'm glad we started going.Me and my friends joined another queer group having left our previous one in August. It's a much better vibe than the previous one we went to and I'm glad we started going.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
the-boy-sebastian Link ParentYou keep trying to paint me as some sort of spin doctor making accusations here which was never my intention -- my initial comment was written as I read the post and was my gut reaction to reading...accuse
made it up
assumed the worstYou keep trying to paint me as some sort of spin doctor making accusations here which was never my intention -- my initial comment was written as I read the post and was my gut reaction to reading it. I don't have any reason or the inclination to start making things up to frame OP as a bad person.
It is way too common these days that you are called all kinds of names just for expressing an opinion someone disagrees with. It is also common that opinions are misrepresented. These are all "innocent" reasons to be afraid to express opinions. Being justifiably called out on your opinion is far from the only reason people might be afraid to express their opinions.
I accept that this is true -- but I don't think this is the thrust of the post. If it is, then why the mention in OP's post of "profile descriptions" (i.e bios) and "server rules"? Are people being called names or having their opinions being misrepresented through those areas? I've not seen that happen and it doesn't really make sense to mention them otherwise.
why did you even start talking about expecting to find a place where voices are suppressed?
User bios are used to express a person's individuality, and more often on the Fediverse than on other platforms people are members of an oppressed group. Most instances also make specific reference to discrimination against specific groups in their rules.
I drew parallels between what I knew about the Fediverse culture, historical criticisms I'd heard of the Fediverse which took a similar tone and the flawed logic of other interpretations and came to a conclusion that made sense to me. I wasn't trying to make things up or misconstrue OP's point.
I tried to read your first comment again and I see no omitting or misrepresenting. I left out some things for brevity but I am convinced that the point I was trying to make is valid.
How? Again, I see no misrepresentation.
I make a lot of qualifications throughout both my comments that are left out completely from any quotes you've taken -- which to me looks like I said what I said as if it was unqualified fact. I'm not nearly arrogant enough to say such things as if they are facts. From your responses I don't think you did this deliberately and I apologise for assuming that you did.
you assumed the worst without anything that would suggest that this is what HeyNiceLunchBox thinks.
I don't agree that there was nothing to suggest that my interpretation is possible because of a couple reasons.
Firstly, I wrote it in the first place. I know you'll just have to take my word for it, but I wouldn't waste my time and energy on writing a critique like that (or indeed, defending it) if I didn't think there was some merit to my points. Secondly, other people have had similar concerns about OP's post throughout this comment section. If I was the only one saying the things I said I might be more inclined to agree with you but the way I see it is not limited to just me.
I'll say it again, if OP wants to explain how I'm wrong about what I've said they can, and I'll happily make a full retraction. In this instance, I'd be very happy to be proved wrong.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
the-boy-sebastian Link ParentNot sure why else you would be afraid of expressing an opinion if not because you might get called out on it. I also qualified that section by saying: and omitting that is misrepresenting what I...It is assumed that when you talk about being afraid of expressing an opinion, you mean "saying discriminatory or harmful things and then getting called out on it"
Not sure why else you would be afraid of expressing an opinion if not because you might get called out on it. I also qualified that section by saying:
I'm not sure what you mean by comments being "pulled or influenced into..." different topics. If you mean...
and omitting that is misrepresenting what I said and rather disingenuous. I'm perfectly happy for the OP to tell me I interpreted that section wrongly.
You were probably just "expecting to find a place where these groups' voices are suppressed".
I think that OP's complaints about the Fediverse were a mask off moment for me. The part about bios is to me an implicit criticism of people being open about who they are on the internet, as is prevalent on a space like the Fediverse. Many instances also have rules explicitly prohibiting many different types of discrimination, and I'm not sure what else the part about server rules could be referencing.
Of course since all of the criticism is hidden behind references to a nebulous "it", no one apart from OP can be sure exactly what is meant here. Clarification would be welcome.
Also you yet again misrepresent my words -- here's the full text:
If you went to Mastodon expecting to find a place where these groups' voices are suppressed, you were sorely mistaken.
And some moralizing thrown your way: "you're so paranoid that your opinions will receive backlash you should be a little introspective and take a critical look at your views and people's response to your views and ask yourself why people are responding negatively to what you say rather than coming here to complain about any backlash."
My intent was not to moralise -- I actually only brought up the topic of paranoia because it was explicitly mentioned in the last section of the post, the part about conversations on the internet being "overshadowed by paranoia".
And for the third time you incorrectly quote my words, so here's the bit you missed for context:
I think if you're so paranoid [...]
I don't think it's an unfair assumption that someone posting about online conversations being "overshadowed by paranoia" might be a bit paranoid about reactions to the things they say.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
the-boy-sebastian (edited )LinkI was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. I've known of the album for a while as my sound teacher was a producer on it but I didn't listen to...I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. I've known of the album for a while as my sound teacher was a producer on it but I didn't listen to any of the songs until Killing the Blues was played at a concert at my school (with someone playing pedal steel, which was impressive!) and I was hooked.
My top three this week included Belle and Sebastian and R.E.M, which is pretty usual, but also Good Shoes, who had a couple indie No. 1s in the late '00s and has my mum's friend's brother's (very Spaceballs relationship) as a band member.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
the-boy-sebastian Link Parentahh I see, I didn't think of it that way. those sort of people are actively harmful to an ethos like the one here on Tildes and I can understand the frustration someone might have with them...ahh I see, I didn't think of it that way. those sort of people are actively harmful to an ethos like the one here on Tildes and I can understand the frustration someone might have with them (albeit that sort of antagonistic behaviour being nothing new, as you said)
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Comment on If you came into a lot of money, what would be the indulgent thing you would buy? in ~talk
the-boy-sebastian Link Parentas a strong aging wheels fan I imagine I'd be an early subscriber to your channel hahaas a strong aging wheels fan I imagine I'd be an early subscriber to your channel haha
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
the-boy-sebastian (edited )LinkI find this to be a pretty problematic view of things... I'm not sure what you mean by comments being "pulled or influenced into..." different topics. If you mean people saying discriminatory or...- Exemplary
I find this to be a pretty problematic view of things...
It seems almost like one can’t speak, post or comment on most places, without it getting pulled or influenced into racism, homophobia, sexism, antisemitism, conspiracy theories, covid issues, vaccines, politics, anti-capitalism, propaganda, etc, etc, etc.
I'm not sure what you mean by comments being "pulled or influenced into..." different topics. If you mean people saying discriminatory or harmful things and then getting called out on it, then I don't agree with your point here. I follow a lot of queer creators on mainstream social media platforms and the majority of the comment section is often pointless queerphobia completely unrelated to the post. The only thing the creator did to receive that abuse is be openly queer -- and that is reprehensible behaviour that should be criticised heavily.
It seems like Tildes is the only place where it isn’t as prevalent.
Again, not too sure what "it" is referring to. I will say that Tildes has a Code of Conduct, philosophy and tools that mean discriminatory and harmful language are stamped out quickly, and I for one am thankful for that.
Tons of people are fleeing the older sites because of either one of the above topics...
People are not fleeing "the older sites" because of perceived polarisation, but because of bad policy decisions on behalf of the owners. Reddit suffered a mass exodus of users because it made its API paid, not because of discourse. Twitter suffered a mass exodus of users because Musk implemented ridiculous policies that are not only user-unfriendly, but advertiser-unfriendly too.
And because of this giant migration, the alternative sites and Fediverse alternatives are booming. So that was tried as well, and it was even more prevalent of the above. It’s either in every profile description or posts or comments or rules of the servers.
And now I see what you mean by "it"... Most Mastodon server's cultures are openly accepting of queer people, the global majority, neurodivergent people, and other groups that have been historically oppressed and without a space to express themselves and their cultures. Some instances are even made by and for specific minority groups, I have an account on tech.lgbt, for instance. If you went to Mastodon expecting to find a place where these groups' voices are suppressed, you were sorely mistaken. If you came to Tildes expecting to find a place where these groups' voices are suppressed, you are still (in my experience) very mistaken.
Over the years, having tried Twitter [...] and some other failed sites, etc, etc, etc. Tildes seems like the one place that’s mature or level-headed enough to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Or is it perhaps due to it’s small community and the fact that it’s purely text-based, leaving less of a space to trigger someone?
I will only say that framing minority groups being open about who they are and critical of discrimination as immature and irrational is incredibly disingenuous and also that words can have a great effect on someone so Tildes being text-based is neither here nor there.
And the worst part, is how it’s been trickling down into our (offline) reality. One can go on and on about echo-chambers, stereotyping, labelling people, races, genders, etc, etc, etc. But for now, maybe it’s time to stop the post.
I think the sheer amount of vitriol coming from politicians and political activists towards trans people and migrants and any other group they feel they can demonise both online and offline shows that any claim of a trickle-down effect of acceptance of minority groups into society is a complete fabrication.
And so, in closing, asking sincerely, where can one go to just have a normal conversation, that isn’t overshadowed by paranoia?
I think if you're so paranoid that your opinions will receive backlash you should be a little introspective and take a critical look at your views and people's response to your views and ask yourself why people are responding negatively to what you say rather than coming here to complain about any backlash.
I can't speak for how "the old ways of the web" were because I wasn't there, but if you want to find a social site where you can say whatever you want without any repercussions or criticism there are many such places, but Tildes is most definitely not one of them.
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Comment on Beeper Mini is back in ~tech
the-boy-sebastian Linknot a fan of how this portrays all these things as groundbreaking new features when as far as I can tell basically everywhere in the world bar the US figured this out years ago. I live in the UK...Android and iPhone customers desperately want to be able to chat together with high quality images/video, encryption, emojis, typing status, read receipts, and all modern chat features.
not a fan of how this portrays all these things as groundbreaking new features when as far as I can tell basically everywhere in the world bar the US figured this out years ago.
I live in the UK and the vast majority of people use WhatsApp for communicating. this sort of thing is basically not an issue here (and if it is I can imagine the response being "just get WhatsApp mate"). it's not even like the majority use Android devices here!
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
the-boy-sebastian LinkBeen a fairly typical week music-wise for me. R.E.M, Belle and Sebastian and Crawlers (who are brilliant and releasing their debut album in February, check them out!) are topping the artist list...Been a fairly typical week music-wise for me. R.E.M, Belle and Sebastian and Crawlers (who are brilliant and releasing their debut album in February, check them out!) are topping the artist list which is pretty standard.
I will recommend Half Man Half Biscuit, who combine sardonic lyrics with driving guitar riffs to create incredibly good (and funny) songs, and have been doing so for almost forty years!
the most recent laptop I got off eBay was a Latitude 7300 for £120 to use as a Linux machine (I daily drive an M2 Air because of the work I do which limits my dual-booting abilities). 8th gen i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB NVME storage, 13" FHD IPS display, fingerprint sensor (that works in Linux!), absolutely no complaints. the only reason I wouldn't recommend it for your friend is it's probably slightly thicker and heavier than they want -- I was looking at an XPS 13/X1 Carbon but went with the 7300 because it was way cheaper for pretty similar specs