sparky
@sparky@lemmy.federate.cc
Lead administrator of federate.cc and its services. Please don’t DM me for support with federate.cc, make a post in /c/meta instead.
Originally from Fort Lauderdale 🇺🇸, lived many years in Vienna 🇦🇹, now living in Setúbal 🇵🇹. Software engineer specialized in Apple platforms. 🌎
- Comment on China's new and cheaper magic beans shock America's unprepared magic bean salesmen 3 days ago:
Well… I thought it was relevant and humorous, and the rules don’t say the submissions have to be news. I might be stretching the definition of “discussions” but, figured it was worth a try :-)
- China's new and cheaper magic beans shock America's unprepared magic bean salesmenwww.thebeaverton.com ↗Submitted 3 days ago to technology@beehaw.org | 38 comments
- Comment on How do I realistically get out of the US? 1 week ago:
I hired a law firm in Poland that specializes in immigration. They walked me through genealogy / document procurement first, then helped with getting everything translated and notarized for use in Poland. It took about 2 years from starting the process to receiving citizenship.
- Comment on How do I realistically get out of the US? 2 weeks ago:
Mine did, too, I received Polish citizenship this year. If your family came from what is today Poland and you can prove that, you’re eligible. If not, and they came from the territory that is today Hungary, Romania, etc - then check with those countries instead as similar laws apply.
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 finally officially revealed 2 weeks ago:
It ought to have been, considering how much games struggle on the first switch lately. This will have the same problem otherwise, 2-3 years into its lifecycle it will be begging for death while the PS5/XSX are still chugging along.
- Comment on "Free" Speech Absolutist™ 3 weeks ago:
Elon is only a free speech absolutist in the sense that he’s absolutely free to censor speech he doesn’t like.
- Comment on Next Xbox Rumored To Launch In 2026 With New Call Of Duty 3 weeks ago:
You can run UWP executables! If you publish to the MS store, distribution on Xbox is automatic unless you opt-out. But you’re right that you can’t run an arbitrary exe.
- Comment on Next Xbox Rumored To Launch In 2026 With New Call Of Duty 3 weeks ago:
I mean, the current Xbox is already hiding Windows under the hood. Always has, hence the original project name „DirectX Box“ ;)
- Comment on If you are a young person you have no idea how bad everyone and everything smelled until at least the 1990s. 4 weeks ago:
That’s interesting! My uninformed guess: since smoke is such a powerful smell, smoking constantly probably suppresses one‘s ability to smell other things - so after 20 years you’re probably accustomed to things smelling less strong and more smokey than they actually do. So I can see why smelling something very strong like cheese with your full sense of smell restored would be quite a shock!
- Comment on An excellent use of company time 5 weeks ago:
This is amazing
- Comment on An excellent use of company time 5 weeks ago:
Damn, that means I failed, considering this is Lemmy shitpost 🥲
- Submitted 5 weeks ago to [deleted] | 15 comments
- Comment on Helps to explain how it reallly works 5 weeks ago:
This is a big reason why we left the country. I make a comfortable but not extravagant living as a freelancer, but sinking $1000 a month just into insurance for my family? (To say nothing of costs and copays while actually using the insurance!) Just doesn’t make any financial sense. Had we stayed in the states one of us would need to work for the man just to have a reasonable health care plan.
The cost savings on that alone pays my whole mortgage here in the EU.
- Comment on When your friend moves to Berlin to become a DJ 5 weeks ago:
𝔗𝔬𝔩𝔩, 𝔡𝔞𝔫𝔨𝔢!
- Comment on When your friend moves to Berlin to become a DJ 1 month ago:
Wie hast du in Frakturschrift geschrieben?
- Comment on Most iPhone owners see little to no value in Apple Intelligence so far 1 month ago:
I guess summarizing notifications is mildly useful. Other than that, it seems like they’re just embracing the current zeitgeist (or really, meme). I can’t believe the whole industry has become so head-over-heels enamored with LLMs. What a waste of talent, time and energy for so many people.
- Comment on Imperialism, authoritarianism and oppression is bad all around m'kay 1 month ago:
Cuba’s one-party communist state outlaws political pluralism, bans independent media, suppresses dissent, and severely restricts basic civil liberties.
Cuba lacks basic freedom of speech or freedom of the press, to say the absolute least. Typical tankie whatabout-ism. In fact, you’re proving the point of the person I originally replied to in this thread!
- Comment on Imperialism, authoritarianism and oppression is bad all around m'kay 1 month ago:
Authoritarianism doesn’t necessarily require nationalism or vice versa, though they’re often linked, that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. The USA is pretty flag waving, nationalist brained but individual freedom exists. Versus a country like Saudi as you mention is not particularly nationalist, but repression is widespread.
They are quite different than Russia, but looking only at individual freedom, the two are similar in that freedom of speech is not respected and leaders are not fairly elected.
- Comment on Imperialism, authoritarianism and oppression is bad all around m'kay 1 month ago:
I think some aspects of freedom are to some extent objectively observable, eg, is freedom of speech or religion observed? These can exist independently of US alignment - there are many countries in the global south that can qualify as free or partially free.
- Comment on Imperialism, authoritarianism and oppression is bad all around m'kay 1 month ago:
IMO this is why it takes an additional axis to define a government, not just left/right but also free/authoritarian. You can find examples of all combinations. Left wing and repressive? Cuba. Left leaning and free? Sweden. Right wing and repressive? Russia, Saudi Arabia, whatever. Right leaning and free? USA.
Obviously, there’s a gradient within these axes, but it’s strange to see people cheering on a country that matches their preferred left or right wing ideology if they’re super repressive.
- Comment on Has any country actually _solved_ the housing crisis? 1 month ago:
Just adding to this, some history if anyone is curious: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Vienna
- Comment on Has any country actually _solved_ the housing crisis? 1 month ago:
Austria has, with widespread high quality public housing. theguardian.com/…/the-social-housing-secret-how-v…
- Submitted 2 months ago to startrek@startrek.website | 4 comments
- Comment on What do zoos do with dead animals? 2 months ago:
Tasty burgers. Mmmm
- Comment on No meme today 2 months ago:
You hear that, federate.cc users? All 5 of you? 😉
- Comment on How do Americans win their country back? 2 months ago:
Thank god he’s old, then, because he’s not going to last long enough to be long time dictator. But maybe thats not the point, even if trump is gone, if hardcore republicans dismantle elections to ensure they’re perpetually in power, then who the current figurehead is will be the least of our problems
- Comment on US Democracy 2 months ago:
🫡
- Comment on US Democracy 2 months ago:
Anybody got that American political plane meme handy?
- Comment on If you need a stargate, there is one outside of Ashland, Ohio off of I-71. 2 months ago:
That’s cool, any details or link to share?
- Comment on 'It Has Plateaued': Should We Be Worried About Console Gaming's Future? 3 months ago:
Console manufacturers will have to adapt and liberalize self-publishing to stay relevant. AAA gaming continues to enshittify, and indie games / smaller studios are the ones releasing the good titles.
Valve knows this, and the ease for developers to release on Steam means they’re well positioned to ride out the transition. By comparison, releasing on console means signing license agreements, getting access to proprietary SDKs, submitting your game through an approval process, getting each update reviewed, etc etc. The barriers make releasing on console very unappealing for smaller developers.
So IMO if the consoles want to ride out the decline of AAA games, they will need to reinvent their image and how they interact with smaller studios and indies.
