Short disclosure, I work as a Software Developer in the US, and often have to keep my negative opinions about the tech industry to myself. I often post podcasts and articles critical of the tech industry here in order to vent and, in a way, commiserate over the current state of tech and its negative effects on our environment and the Global/American sociopolitical landscape.

I'm generally reluctant to express these opinions IRL as I'm afraid of burning certain bridges in the tech industry that could one day lead to further employment opportunities. I also don't want to get into these kinds of discussions except with my closest friends and family, as I could foresee them getting quite heated and lengthy with certain people in my social circles.

Some of these negative opinions include:

• I think that the industries based around cryptocurrencies and other blockchain technologies have always been, and have repeatedly proven themselves to be, nothing more or less than scams run and perpetuated by scam artists.
• I think that the AI industry is particularly harmful to writers, journalists, actors, artists, and others. This is not because AI produces better pieces of work, but rather due to misanthropic viewpoints of particularly toxic and powerful individuals at the top of the tech industry hierarchy pushing AI as the next big thing due to their general misunderstanding or outright dislike of the general public.
• I think that capitalism will ultimately doom the tech industry as it reinforces poor system design that deemphasizes maintenance and maintainability in preference of a move fast and break things mentality that still pervades many parts of tech.
• I think we've squeezed as much capital out of advertising as is possible without completely alienating the modern user, and we risk creating strong anti tech sentiments among the general population if we don't figure out a less intrusive way of monetizing software.

You can agree or disagree with me, but in this thread I'd prefer not to get into arguments over the particular details of why any one of our opinions are wrong or right. Rather, I'd hope you could list what opinions on the tech industry you hold that you feel comfortable expressing here, but are, for whatever reason, reluctant to express in public or at work. I'd also welcome an elaboration of said reason, should you feel comfortable to give it.

I doubt we can completely avoid disagreements, but I'll humbly ask that we all attempt to keep this as civil as possible. Thanks in advance for all thoughtful responses.

It can be low effort, passive-aggressive, insulting or derogatory towards your convictions.

Subjective situations welcome

Edit - y'all are awesome! I'm gonna check out all of these - thank you!!

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A family member is moving out of country and convinced the best way to keep in touch is with WhatsApp. I really don't want to install any Meta shit on my phone.

Any recommendation for a FOSS or other alternative from a company that's less of an ethical dumpster fire?

I have a few.

One is abbreviation hell. Nobody is going to spend the time trying to decipher what you mean when you use over several abbreviations. It is just better if you'd explain than expecting people to understand aside from commonly used abbreviations that are easy to understand.

Another is overstepping your limits for the sake of getting a partner. Compromising your own standards is perhaps one of the worst things you can do when it comes to trying to find dates. Like you're suddenly okay with dating single parents but you don't like children. You're suddenly okay with dating religious people but you're not religious. Things like that. Because it means you're desperate and you're setting yourself up and setting them up for a bad date.

If I'm in a room with people I know and I plan to leave the room for a long time, I tell them where I'm going. If it's for a short time I do not.

What (if anything) is an appropriate time scale to leave a room without announcing when/if you'll be back?

Well, to sum up the story, I was part of a community on Reddit that was extremely poorly moderated, but also because most of the users were very rude, right? And that blessed system of Karma, created a separation of classes between them, you understand, which is ridiculous. But since it is a very controlled and moderate environment, and the intellectual level of the people here is much higher, I'm thinking about recreating this group. What kind of rules should I put in the description to avoid confusion?

My phone takes pretty good videos but the filesize is absurbd. Using handbrake on desktop can make them far smaller at almost the same quality but my phone storage fills up rather fast and this requires me to move them off device.

Is there an app which keeps track of non transcoded videos in my camera folder and can transcode them on my phone while I am asleep?

As someone in the US it’s so easy to see so many depressing issues from the ravages of capitalism, to war, imperialism, and genocide. How can one care about these issues and hope for change without allowing themselves to be affected mentally?

I’ve been considering this for the past week, connecting it with Buddhist compassion towards the world and a need for mindfulness. But it’s so easy to fall into emotionlessness.

I’ve also thought through the world has always had issues and though some are getting much worse some are getting better.

I have gone to counseling before but they just make it an individual problem when it’s the world.

Edit: doesn’t have to be US centric. Just I’m writing from that pov

Example.

Been thinking about replacing the current smartphone, as the touchscreen seems to be failing(Screen replacement seems to be not so economic).

Saw different colours being offered. Black, White, Blueish and Greenish colours were common.

Does the external body colour affect the efficiency of the phone? Like, in heat going out or going in? Or the ease of cleaning it? White colours seem to show presence of dust etc?

And are there other places where the colour matters?
I've read that white roofs generally have a lower heat gain than other ones(without infrared reflecting paint).

I am using a liquid detergent and I use exactly the half of the detergent they say I should use. If a the washing machine requires 1 cup, I do half. Mostly because I don't trust the company to put me over their interests.

Now, what will happen? Will my clothes end up staying dirty? Will it not remove stains which a full cup would have removed? Will surfexcel kidnap me and torture me for not obeying their commands? Help meeee!!

Want to read more than just the wiki and thought people may have good recommendations 😊

I would watch a channel where someone is dedicated to reviewing like low-end budget products like from Dollar Tree, Dollar General .etc In the same vein as Project Farm.

So, the wall was selling shirts for insanely cheap prices and I do not understand where they are making a profit.

I got a shirt which should cost 8 dollars for 2.5 and I don't know if I can just wear them without concern.

Are cheap shirts safe to wear? Idk do they use chemicals which are bad for me? They made this insanely cheap and I don't know what gives! It all says 100% cotton and its from a trusted brand but the mystery of the price still remains. I need to know before loading up on these things.

Also, bonus question, is white coloring agent more or less harmful than other colors? (Assume the most frequently used coloring agents)

Am I the only one who struggles with online shopping? Like with measurements for example, I don't know what there talking about or if the clothes will be the right size. How does everyone else get around this?

I recently stumbled upon Lemmy from SimpleX github. This is my first interaction.

Why Lemmy? It seems to be an alternative to Reddit, but what sets it apart? I've explored, participated and built nodes in Nostr, which positions itself as a Twitter alternative, so I’m curious about what makes Lemmy unique and what it needs to succeed?

Who Lemmy? Like Nostr, the community here seems to define the platform. Without algorithms to shape the narrative, the vibe is driven by its users—radicals, dreamers, and wayfarers. Is that a fair read? Who else calls Lemmy home?

How Lemmy? What’s the vision here? How does Lemmy aim to change the social media landscape? Decentralization is intriguing, but what’s the endgame? Escape from algorithms is exciting but from what I see raw and unfilters humans have chaotic thoughts.

Where Lemmy? Where's the Lemmy Lobby? When folks onboard where do they go to connect? The communities Ive checked seem to have a variation of really old posts and infrequent posts. Are we that early or is this platform suffering from slow growth?

What's your perspective on the success of decentralized social media?

I ask because I feel I need to save some money in the oncoming months. Currently, I pay over $76 for 100MBps/1000GB cap. And I don't think it's a bad deal, but they're going to be hiking it up to $90+ by next October and I feel it is not worth that. But I also need to save money too.

What is the difference between 55MB and 100MB when it comes to speed? The cap for the 55MBps plan is 350GB and I tried asking if that could be altered but the ISP says they can't. This plan will cost me $30 a month.

All I ever do anymore is just stream YouTube, sometimes Hulu/Netflix/Tubi. Occasionally I'll download a game or two, multiplayer gaming is non-existent.

Edit: There's been a lot of good responses replied to this and I appreciate it.

I'm leaning towards on downgrading with the volume of people that suggest that it isn't that bad, but it boils down to preferences and habitual behaviors when using the internet. With so many games already downloaded and being left to just streaming/Second Life, I think it warrants the change.

I just wish that my ISP would've kicked up the cap to 500GB because that'd sweeten the deal much more but this ISP is not well known and these kind of ISPs operate on different worlds than the big names.

Furthermore, people have suggested going 5G Wireless but the problem with that is that my apartment management is stingy as fuck so it's not an option for me nor does Verizon say that they can offer a plan in my current location. Fiber connections such as Google Fiber, MetroNet .etc aren't an option.

Century Link seems to only offer $70 for...10MB in my location (Fucking awful)

Mediacom says they can't even service my area (then how come I see your vans around where I am with other customers?)

I made a rentry page a week ago, but I want to know

I remember once reading (watching?) a report about radio communication sniffing equipment hidden in modified silo on ground between two industrial facilities (farms?) going unnoticed for long time because workers of each facility tought it belongs to other one.