• 6 Posts
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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: December 20th, 2023

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  • My memory seems to come online surprisingly late.

    The first memories kick in around 6, but really it’s just a few small disoriented flashbacks. At 11, I vividly remember my first relationships, but not much more.

    Comprehensively, I remember myself since about 16. That’s when I can finally tell the order of events, and can visually recall key points.

    Interestingly, I have otherwise good memory.



  • First, because it protects otherwise vulnerable groups of people who fight for freedom and justice. Whistleblowers, journalists, independent intelligence groups need privacy to uncover the crime and abuse of the powerful without fearing repercussions.

    Second, because being watched forcibly changes people’s behavior. People are forced to be “normal”, they do not allow themselves the same liberties they have when they’re in private. When this becomes default, it negatively affects mental health, inducing severe stress and anxiety.

    Third, because there are cultural conventions at the backbone of our society and the way it functions that are trampled by the invasion of privacy. You are taught to be uncomfortable when naked around others, to close off when you go to the toilet, to talk through your deeply personal or intimate matters exclusively with a select few etc. This isn’t merely an isolated cultural quirk - it defines how we treat each other, how we communicate, how our sexuality and reproduction function (and who gets reproduced to begin with), how our relationships work, what kind of language we use, and more. Letting anyone or anything in just like that naturally makes many uncomfortable, and has the potential to be ultimately disastrous for the society we know - a kind of society built with expectation of privacy as one of its cornerstones.

    Fourth, because the main groups that are interested in private information are governments (see the first point), those willing to manipulate you into buying something, denying your autonomy in the name of profit off your back, and those willing to manipulate your opinions, mainly political, to serve their interests.

    Fifth, because private information is not always adequately safeguarded. Leaks can provide sensitive information used in fraud, blackmail, and by other malevolent actors.



  • I’m kinda sad that netbooks mostly died off as a device class. I’d love to explore newer options.

    Self-hosting is cool! But having played around with it myself, I just found thin clients to be not so useful in a single-user environment. At most, it could be useful if you want high battery life and the ability to run something heavy from time to time. But being tied to a high quality network connection even for something that could be 100% local gets annoying very quickly.

    Still, as a printing machine + occasionally connecting to the server for something more, it does deliver.











  • In my opinion, there are two key could issues with it: societal attitudes and desperation.

    Society clearly discriminates sex workers, especially women, as sex work is associated with promiscuity and little limits. Ex-sexual workers are more likely to be harassed and face unwanted sexualized interactions. They have issues finding a long-term partner and may have to hide their past from everyone.

    Another issue is that many people choose sexual careers not because they want it, but because it’s one of the few ways to make money quickly. This experience can be heavily traumatic, not only because of the aforementioned societal attitudes, but because of violation of intimacy and losing agency over own body.

    So, legalization of prostitution is, at best, harm reduction at this stage.

    Important nuance: there absolutely are people who enjoy working in the sex industry. Ideally, healthy incentives and shift in social attitudes would allow them to work in this sphere and others not to. But as things stand, we’re very much not there yet.