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    1. 9yo son wants to join Discord to talk to friends. Any advice?

      Well, as the headline says my son wants to join Discord to talk to his friends while playing Roblox on the iPad. Up until now he's been using Teams to communicate while playing. Recently his...

      Well, as the headline says my son wants to join Discord to talk to his friends while playing Roblox on the iPad. Up until now he's been using Teams to communicate while playing. Recently his friends have been switching to Discord so naturally he wants that too.

      I only know Discord by name so I'm looking for insight into how it works and how safe it is for children and in general. I'm aware that the age limit is 13.

      10 votes
    2. Fanless x86 mini PCs are getting absurdly fast and cheap

      Pretty much what the title says - I’ve been looking for something small and not too expensive to run a few VMs on recently, and I’m just genuinely amazed at where the tiny SBC space is at right...

      Pretty much what the title says - I’ve been looking for something small and not too expensive to run a few VMs on recently, and I’m just genuinely amazed at where the tiny SBC space is at right now.

      The Celeron N5105 seems to be the go to choice at the moment. You can get an entire machine running that CPU that’s slightly smaller than an old double CD jewel case, for $150. Less than $200 if you want 16GB RAM and a fast NVMe SSD in there too. Four decent quality 2.5GbE NICs thrown in as a bonus. And it’s not that much slower than my expensive full size desktop from late 2020.

      Part of me thinks I’m just getting old - phones have been plenty of people’s primary computer for years now, after all - but there’s something about having a real standalone x86 PC that size for literally 1/5th the price of a flagship phone that just blows my mind.

      7 votes
    3. Google Adsense is bringing a bunch of policy changes that affect how your sites are monetized

      Yesterday, Adsense support sent an email to their users regarding their upcoming policy changes. This primarily affects how subdomains are monetized. Going forward, your subdomains inside the...

      Yesterday, Adsense support sent an email to their users regarding their upcoming policy changes. This primarily affects how subdomains are monetized. Going forward, your subdomains inside the primary domains in the "Sites" section (www, etc.) won't be allowed, any existing ones will be removed and their rules will be merged with the primary domain (such as example.com).

      Furthermore, what constitutes a "Site" will also change henceforth. You can only add a primary domain (such as example.com) and the subdomains which are listed on the public suffix list (such as github.io, blogspot.com, etc.). Thus, your own subdomains (such as xyz.example.com or www.example.com) won't be allowed in Adsense.

      I don't know what they will achieve by doing this considering they already vet and audit each site before approving them for adsense? In any case, other alternatives to Adsense exist such as Propeller Ads, CJ Affiliate, etc. for those affected by this move but I don't know their efficacy.

      3 votes
    4. Dear Quora, please stop holding information hostage on the internet and remove the paywall

      The benefits of a free and open Internet is something that the millennial generation created long ago to make this world a better place and full of opportunities for everyone, not just those who...

      The benefits of a free and open Internet is something that the millennial generation created long ago to make this world a better place and full of opportunities for everyone, not just those who can afford access to it. These benefits are something that makers of quora platform themselves used in the form of open source software like Python, Django, HTML, etc. to build that very platform in the first place.

      But now, by denying those benefits to others and bringing in a paywall, quora is striking on its own proverbial roots. There are much better ways to reward their content creators than holding their answers hostage with a paywall. The plain old advertising revenue sharing model can be still used, just like Adsense does. This is a win-win thing where everyone gains including the platform, content-creator and advertiser.

      It's extremely important to oppose this paywall move by quora because this attacks the very foundation of the free and open Internet as we know it. Imagine what happens tomorrow if other informative sites like StackOverflow, Wikipedia, etc. start following quora's path. Imagine the plight of the poor and under-privileged sections of the society who cannot afford costly subscription to information. And yet, as members of the evolved human race of 2023, they very much deserve access to this information.

      I urge all netizens who consider themselves part of this free and open culture tribe to sign this petition and through it, convey our grievance to quora and let them know why this is wrong and what is at stake (our freedom).

      If you agree with my cause, I urge you to sign this change.org petition created in this regard requesting Quora to revert the Paywall move.

      5 votes
    5. Honest question: Are Windows or Linux laptops more suited for freelancers?

      I know it's a technical question but I want to know specifically from freelancer perspective. A freelancer's decision making differs from that of regular corporate worker in this regard due to...

      I know it's a technical question but I want to know specifically from freelancer perspective. A freelancer's decision making differs from that of regular corporate worker in this regard due to many reasons:

      1. Freedom to choose: Unlike corporate, a freelancer isn't imposed any process or specific software guidelines to follow. They're free to use Linux and open source if they want to.
      2. No team compatibility: A freelancer can work on specific project with a geographically distant team but they don't have to submit to any long-term compatibility constraints.
      3. Budget constraints: A freelancer can't typically afford costly licenses. With corporate, they can scale well and bring down the licensing costs which isn't true for freelancers. Hence, open source software is typically more suited to their workflow (even when using a Windows OS).

      Given all these factors, do you think a Windows or Linux laptop is more suited for a typical Freelancer? What do you happen to use?

      4 votes
    6. Raspberry Pi 4 / 4GB giveaway

      Step right up and claim your raspberry pi! I have the following to give away (will cross off as things get claimed, first come first served): Raspberry Pi 4 / 4 GB + PoE hat + microSD card...

      Step right up and claim your raspberry pi!

      I have the following to give away (will cross off as things get claimed, first come first served):

      • Raspberry Pi 4 / 4 GB + PoE hat + microSD card
      • Raspberry Pi 4 / 4 GB + PoE hat + microSD card
      • Raspberry Pi 4 / 4 GB + PoE hat + microSD card
      • Raspberry Pi 4 / 4 GB + PoE hat + microSD card
      • Raspberry Pi x4 "rack" acrylic enclosure
      • 5 port gigabit network switch + 4x 6 inch patch cables

      Just pay for shipping. Please only claim one thing (or one Pi and the enclosure).

      17 votes
    7. What will "classically trained" look like for computer science and digital literacy?

      This might be a weird framing but it's been bugging me for a few days. Many fields have a concept of classical training -- this is most common in music but applies in the humanities and many other...

      This might be a weird framing but it's been bugging me for a few days. Many fields have a concept of classical training -- this is most common in music but applies in the humanities and many other areas. For example I do a lot of CAD work for my job, but I received what I would consider a "classical education" in design...I learned to draft by hand and physically model before I was ever allowed to work digitally. I got a lot of value out of this approach and it still informs the way I work today.

      A lot of people view computers and technology as modern and almost anti-classical, but as the tech industry matures and the internet moves from something shiny and new to something foundational to our society, what will the new classicism look like?

      Thanks for reading my question.

      14 votes
    8. r/antiwork seems to be back (was it really gone?)

      tl;dr IDK what happened before, but r/antiwork is public now (again?). I just stumbled across this tildes thread from 2 weeks ago [EDIT: crap ... 1 year and 2 weeks ago; mixed up my "current year"...

      tl;dr IDK what happened before, but r/antiwork is public now (again?).

      I just stumbled across this tildes thread from 2 weeks ago [EDIT: crap ... 1 year and 2 weeks ago; mixed up my "current year" setting] ... which is right on the border between "keep posting in that thread" and "it's too old, start a new one" ... so here we are.

      I'm familiar with the ideas, but never heard of that specific subreddit before. Looking through the Fox interview, I must be missing something, because I don't understand what all the fuss was about. What "mistake" did the mod make in the interview? Why did everyone suddenly hate her? etc. Seemed perfectly innocuous to me (apart from, why even bother with Fox).

      But that aside, the previous thread indicates that r/antiwork was effectively bullied into going private. Looking at it this morning, it is not private. I am assuming that they just recently de-privatized it?

      On a side-note, top comment on the thread is about not supporting r/cringetopia ... which ... that subreddit is private. Is that also new? It had me confused for quite awhile this morning, trying to figure out which subreddit was actually under controversy and forced to go private.

      4 votes
    9. Sam Denby on how well negativity works on YouTube

      @Sam (from Wendover): One thing I hate is just how well negativity works. Of our top 10 performers over the past year, eight (in my view) include direct or indirect negativity in the title/thumbnail. (A🧵) pic.twitter.com/tqIz9v6CTh

      10 votes