I’ve been using Thinkpads since the X61s, and used the trackpoint extensively back in the day. Hell, I had the X61s that didn’t even have a trackpoint(edit: didn’t have a trackpad), and I rarely used a mouse with it.

But I really don’t understand how anyone still uses the thing extensively. Once in awhile I’ll use it for some bit of specific precision work when I don’t have a mouse handy. I feel like the Trackpoint quality has gone down significantly over the years, and stuff like anti-drift seems to have been neglected.

If not for the horrible arrow keys that I already hate on my Macbook Air, I was all for this transition. I’d much rather have a great trackpad at this point. I want something more compact than a Framework, and I’m comfortable with Lenovo’s Linux support at this point.

As someone who works for a very large company, on a team with around 500 people around the world, this is what concerns me. Our team will not be 500 people in a few years, and if it is, it’s because usage of our product has grown substantially. We are buying heavily into AI, and yet people are buying it when our leadership teams claim it will not impact jobs.

Will I be able to take a unit of 2 people down to 0 people? No, I’ve never seen a process where I could eliminate every human.

Socially speaking, this is also very concerning to me. I’m afraid that implementation of AI will be yet another thing that makes it difficult for smaller businesses to compete in a global marketplace. Yes, a tech-minded company can leverage a smaller head count into more capabilities, but this typically requires more expensive and limiting turnkey solutions, or major investment into developers of a customized solution.

I’ll go ahead and pre-dial 911.

Oh thank god, I’m so sick of blocking furry communities. Damned things multiply like rabbits.

Then people are wrong, and we should correct them. Left wing libertarians stand in direct opposition to capitalism, and have more in common with true right wing libertarians than the extremist capitalists who are taking over the mind space of the philosophy.

This is the far right libertarianism, which has essentially become an extremist, authoritarian form of capitalism. In essence, those with immense power tell us that nobody has any right to oversight and regulation over others. Their power becomes insurmountable, and their control over the economy becomes absolute. We live according to the standards they provide, because we have no alternative.

Every system of government becomes corrupted like this when thieves and liars take control. This is not libertarianism, it is simply the flavor of authoritarianism this go 'round.

Real liberterianism comes in many forms, along the left to right spectrum. On the left, there is a belief in redistribution of natural resources to the community. Personally, I believe we should be embracing local cooperatives for food, energy, medical care, and beyond. On the right, there is more allowance for imbalance by embracing business to drive innovation. Those who innovate succeed, and accrue wealth. But a true libertarian should support a near 100% estate tax, which would limit the imbalance, because you should have what you’ve earned for yourself.

The thing that we lost that leads libertarianism to fail, is our sense of community, a sense of humanity. A responsibility when you see your neighbors suffering, to help them. Once the rich went off to live in their ivory towers, they lost sight of the rest of us.

I don’t see how any system could succeed, considering the circumstances.

[Edit] And honestly, we need to stop vilifying entire philosophies because they were previously corrupted. Just because communism was implemented in a manner that oppressed millions, doesn’t mean there is no good to the philosophies behind it and socialism.

We should be borrowing the good from everything, and remembering the bad. A blanket condemnation of failed experiments makes both impossible. No singular philosophy will be effective in this imperfect world, only in theory is that level of refinement possible.

I agree. I have privacy concerns, but ultimately, I think I care more about freedom and open source. I have very real concerns about the rise of authoritarianism in America, and I’m trying to balance that against a preference for more open services like mailbox.org and fastmail.

But not too short, or he’d end up being Ron DeSantis.

How did the industrial and information revolutions work out for us? Sure we live lives of convenience, but our entire existences have been manipulated into making the rich richer.

Looking at long and short term trends in the wealth gap, I have absolutely no faith that this will go well.

I’m much more worried about the social implications. Namely, the displacement of workers and introduction of new efficiencies to workflows, continuing to benefit only those who are rich and in power, and driving more of us towards poverty.

It’s not an immediate existential threat, but it’s absolutely a serious issue that we aren’t paying enough attention to.

They block countries that originate a lot of spam from signup, which includes the US @smokedclover@feddit.de. You can use a VPN to signup, though I did have to reach out to support at one point very early on to finalize some provisioning. I don’t know if it was related to the geo-blocking, it’s been awhile. But I’ve had no problems since.

It’s aggressive marketing. Or unfair marketing.

I believe the technical term is “horseshit”

Configuring local software vs delegating to a web service

Agreed, but unfortunately, unless they implement VJOURNAL in their caldav implementation, I’ll probably switch to Fastmail when my prepay is up.

Correct me if I’m wrong, I very well might be, but doesn’t Bluemail do the same thing as the new Outlook for their “instant push” feature? I don’t see how else they’d accomplish that.

To be fair, they aren’t journalists. They’re a privacy-centric mail provider that is warning their customers.

Yeah, I gave Apple a try over the last two years, largely because I was annoyed with Google and wanted to ditch Android. I’ve been fed up since about 6 months in, but gave it some more time, which led to an eventual waiting game to get the replacements I want.

I just picked up a Thinkpad P14s g4 AMD with a 7840u, 64GB of RAM, and a 3 year onsite warranty for $1270 after taxes. I added a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro for another $270. I can’t imagine spending more than that and only getting 8GB RAM (and less warranty), which is what I have assigned to the GPU. Plus I get to run Linux, which I really didn’t realize how much MacOS would leave me wanting.

The thing I’ll miss is the iPhone 13 Mini size. I found iOS to be absolute trash, but there’s just not an Android phone that’s a reasonable size. But at least I can run Calyx/Graphene on a Pixel and get a decent OS without spying.

I do like the M1 MBA form factor, too, but I’ll grab the Thinkpad X13s successor for portability and get a better keyboard. I don’t need top end performance out of that, I really just want battery life and passive cooling.

And don’t even get me started on the overpriced mess that are the Airpods Max. I much prefer the Audeze Maxwell and Sennheiser Momentum 4 I replaced them with.

I just don’t go to McDonald’s.

Maybe it’s not on sale everywhere, but it’s the same price as a 256GB Pixel Tablet for twice the RAM, twice the storage, and full Linux instead of Android.

Tablets are traditionally a closed design, with the OS tightly locked down. Even if that price were high, which I’d challenge it’s not aside from the CPU choice (probably by necessity), there’s bound to be a bit of a premium for early devices to a niche market.

My big takeaway from this thread is that, wow, people actually use that feature. I use OneNote at work, and I absolutely loathe that if I click a bit too low, I end up outside my note.