• @dual_sport_dork
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    2266 months ago

    You forgot “cable television, but over the internet and no one has all the channels.”

  • Patapon Enjoyer
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    1886 months ago

    Personally I’m a fan of fake certificate that says you paid money for one of the plagiarism machine’s works

      • @alekwithak
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        6 months ago

        Hate this argument. No one ever discusses Fiat currency’s environmental impact.

        *Which includes literally, actually destroying the Amazon rainforest.

              • @[email protected]
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                16 months ago

                ethereum also has no supply cap. they are different technologies almost entirely.

                i would not call PoS bitcoin anything except p.o.s.

                there is still a pow blockchain running for ethereum, and there would be for bitcoin, too, and that is the blockchain i would call bitcoin.

        • @Emerald
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          06 months ago

          And not all crypto is proof of work, some is proof of stake, which actually isn’t too bad environmentally

    • @dlpkl
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      26 months ago

      Do you mean Schrodinger’s artwork?

  • @Potatos_are_not_friends
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    1156 months ago

    I swear that most commenters are young people because back in the 90s-2000s, taxis and hotels were hot fucking garbage.

    Taxis would go on joy rides to up the cost or refuse you if you were black.

    Hotels would tell you to go suck a dick because their price listed outside is not for you, and if you want a place, they have a room with roaches near the heater.

    Uber/Airbnb were gamechangers that broke that monopoly.

    Unfortunately, they have gotten to shit. But you know what? Taxis and hotels have cleaned up their act. Because the moment they go to shit again, Uber/Airbnb will come in and eat their lunch.

    • @cottonmon
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      376 months ago

      Taxis in my country would routinely ask for extra (usually 25-30% of the total fare) or have you pay them a fixed amount that’s way higher than if only the meter was used (about 2-3x the normal fare) . There are also taxis that have meters that are way too fast. Uber was a godsend when it first came out here.

      • @PeroBasta
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        96 months ago

        In Italy taxis are a monopoly and uber is forbidden. For a 1h ride they ask you 120-150€. Luckily by train you can do the same ride quicker and for 5-10 euro.

    • @Aolley
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      286 months ago

      When you call a cab it was often a game of 'will the can actually show up?"

      • TheLowestStone
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        236 months ago

        Ah yes, I too remember the good old days of stumbling home drunk in the dark because my cab never came.

      • @[email protected]
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        116 months ago

        I have fond memories of sitting drunk on a driveway waiting for the promised cab for hours. Because if they drive up and didn’t see you, they were gone.

      • @Saltycracker
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        96 months ago

        Don’t forget they take you the long way and go slow

    • @banneryear1868
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      166 months ago

      I only know taxis and hotels as normal boring things in this time range.

      • @Redredme
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        76 months ago

        They always where. Except in big touristic cities. There everything still is shit.

        So nothing changed. We went from shit taxis and hotels to shit taxis and hotels complemented with shit uber and shit airbnb.

        Ssdd.

        • @banneryear1868
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          36 months ago

          I’ve never really had problems with taxis and hotels from the late 90s-2010s, only if I had a language barrier or a unique circumstance, mostly all my hotel problems involved other guests. Hotels were definitely cheaper I’d prefer to go back to that.

    • @TokenBoomer
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      116 months ago

      Almost as if it’s not the commodities that are the problem, but the economy they operate. 🧐

    • @[email protected]
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      76 months ago

      Where I lived and traveled, hotels never had a monopoly. Small B&Bs and hostels have always existed, it was never a choice between big hotel and staying in a tent. There was no need to wreak havoc on the housing market.

      The problem with the gig economy is that these platforms are not content with being what they’re advertising themselves as. “Be your own boss”. “Make some money in your own time”. Guess what, if you drive for Uber, Uber is your boss. You’re an employee in anything but name. They penalise you if you reject too many jobs. They penalise you if you go on break too long. They penalise you for all kinds of other things. Here in Australia most rideshare vehicles have at least two badges, because the drivers can’t make ends meet driving for just one. And then they’ve gone and fucked up the delivery market as well. It’s an economy of rent-seekers and middlemen.

    • @CheeseNoodle
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      6 months ago

      Uber and Airbnb DID break that monopoly but they got their competative advantage by simply breaking the laws that existing taxis and hotels were required to adhear too. Still do break those laws but weight of cash > law.

      • @Aliendelarge
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        96 months ago

        Laws that the taxi and hotel companies lobbied for to stop competition.

        • @CheeseNoodle
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          16 months ago

          And also (for Airbnb at least) regular zoning laws meant to prevent subletting and the loss of affordable housing to illegal hotels.

  • Margot Robbie
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    956 months ago

    Calling AirBnB “a hotel chain” is an insult to hotels.

    Hotels don’t require you to clean somebody else’s house while you are on vacation like a maid, and then charging you a cleaning fee for missing a spot. There isn’t even much of a price difference nowadays, so staying at a hotel wins every time.

    • @Aleric
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      296 months ago

      I would be charged a cleaning fee even though we’re asked to clean anyhow, regardless of how well we cleaned. Toward the end, I stopped doing any basic cleaning and disputed additional fees relating to my not doing their job for them. Now I don’t use them at all.

    • @IMALlama
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      126 months ago

      I have two younger kids. We can very close to renting a hotel on our last in-state vacation. It would have actually been somewhat cheaper. The reason we still went for the AirBnB was because our kids are asleep by like 7:30 and we didn’t want to be ‘trapped’ in the hotel room and didn’t want to rent a second. AirBnB made it significantly easier to find a house to rent.

      That said, the number of AirBnBs in that area of the state has really grown. I can’t imagine that’s doing the people who live there any favors.

      • TheLowestStone
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        136 months ago

        I use a AirBnB if:

        1. I’m bringing my dog. A house with a fenced yard beats a hotel for that hands down every time.
        2. Using the house is a major feature of the vacation. We live in an apartment in a city so sometimes it’s nice to just spend a week in a cabin in the mountains or a long weekend at a house with a pool.
        3. I’m traveling with a group and I actually want to spend time with those people. It’s nice to have a private social space that isn’t someone’s bedroom.

        I prefer hotels if:

        1. I’m traveling solo. If I’m not renting a whole house, I want the hotel amenities. Plusi can pretend to be a bachelor again and act like a slob.
        2. I have an action packed trip planned. Every time I’ve been to Vegas I was pretty much only in my room to shower or sleep.
        3. I’m traveling with a group and know I’ll need some personal space.
        • @CthuluVoIP
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          56 months ago

          This is pretty much my criteria as well. It’s funny, because since vacation rentals became a mainstream thing, my hotel experience has gotten better. I remember a time where booking a Vrbo was a preference because the accommodations would be nicer / better maintained at the same or lower price than a hotel. But these days I haven’t found that to be the case, and as such rely on contextual requirements to determine the best path forward.

      • Margot Robbie
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        126 months ago

        It is really terrible for the housing market when real estate investors buy out homes on the market for the sole purpose of renting them out in AirBnBs.

        I doubt that anyone would want to live next to an AirBnB house.

        • @[email protected]
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          76 months ago

          “They make for shit neighbours” not the worst of it. It also significantly contributes to the increase in cost of living in the area because buyers and renters no longer have to compete with just each other but also with investors, and every house or flat that’s off the market only increases that competition further.

      • @Airazz
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        66 months ago

        These days I mostly use Booking, they list hotels as well as private properties which are properly classified and taxed and all that. Haven’t had an issue in years.

        • @IMALlama
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          26 months ago

          Thanks for the heads up, we will try this next season.

    • @[email protected]
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      116 months ago

      Oh there is a price difference these days. I used to use AirBnB because it was an actual saving. Now, unless you want to rent an entire cabin or something, you’re almost definitely better off with a hotel or specific industry standard business. Also love how they handle pricing, at least when I looked last year:

      $99

      $249 incl taxes/fees

      This isn’t even hyperbole, it was entirely common to see a $100+ cleaning fee for a one night stay, and still have a list of more things to clean than I expect actual hotel employees to do.

    • @SuckMyWang
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      136 months ago

      “Illegal surveillance of activities, contacts and communications”

      • @dustyData
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        96 months ago

        Don’t be like that, it’s perfectly legal under the 5 eyes legislature and all those backdoors are government mandated.

        • @SuckMyWang
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          36 months ago

          I forgot that they are looking after me

  • Ken Oh
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    456 months ago

    I see no one has mentioned Nazi microblog platform yet.

    • @randon31415
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      256 months ago

      Hey, Lemmy is a Marxist microbloging platform! The Nazis are mostly … oh, you were talking about X, weren’t you?

  • qevlarr
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    456 months ago

    Doorbell camera surveillance network

  • @[email protected]
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    426 months ago

    Tough question. I’m a big fan of making the plagiarism machine pretend to be a text based adventure game for my amusement, but I also like that the illegal cab company will also deliver food or groceries when I don’t feel up to leaving my house.

    • @LaunchesKayaks
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      36 months ago

      Yo what do you say to the plagiarism machine to start off an adventure? I’ve never used it before but now I want to lol

      • @[email protected]
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        46 months ago

        Try out AI Dungeon which is an app that has it all set up for you. It’s free to try, but pay for access to the best model. Last I checked there were some privacy concerns, so assume someone might read your adventure and don’t tell it your real name or anything.

        I’ve personally been tinkering with KoboldAI which is a way to run the models yourself, if you have access to a beefy computer or cloud computing workspace. This has the benefit of being free and controlled entirely by you, but requiring you to choose a model and giving you the opportunity to change your own settings might be a benefit or a drawback depending on how much you enjoy tinkering with your toys before (and while) playing with them. The models that will run on my RTX 3080Ti seem generally not as good as the paid tier of AI Dungeon, but I might also not be doing it right? It’s hard to tell. Futzing with parameters and trying to divine what impact they’re having on the output is still fun for me, though.

  • Xanthrax
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    6 months ago

    Money for criminals*

    Until everybody ruined it. When people started investing instead of spending, we were fucked.

    • @Sigh_Bafanada
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      36 months ago

      Yeah I still stand by the technology (Eth and other smart coins, not Bitcoin), but there’s just so much bullshit surrounding the tech that it makes it really unpalatable and trashy

      • Xanthrax
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        6 months ago

        Me too. As long as there’s a demand for services that can’t be paid for in regular currency, crypto will be around.

  • @Heavybell
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    266 months ago

    I misread “Illegal crab company” and was so confused.

  • @markr
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    256 months ago

    We actually experience reality a fraction of a second in the past.

      • @Agent641
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        26 months ago

        Living it the now is hard work. I live in the when.

    • TimeSquirrel
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      56 months ago

      Reality/causality also moves at the speed of light, and observations of time and space are relative to the observer. So it’s still present reality, for you at least.

  • @Aceticon
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    246 months ago
    • User-stocked adictive digital social circle.
    • Digital news media sources using Pavlovian click-response headlines.
    • Human subconscious-targetting product promotion systems.
    • Automated individual tracking and digital-model building systems.