JCPhoenix

I want to replace my 2014 13" MBP. But two things are really weighing on me:

1. I have 2 Windows laptops (one that's more for gaming and another that's more for productivity) that do what I need them to do perfectly well; why do I need another laptop? Plus I have two gaming desktops, a couple NUCs, a few servers, some RPIs...I really don't need more computers, seriously.
2. Terrible base options with pricey upgrades. I'm tired of having to pay Apple extra for "premium features." I've done with it iPhones over the years -- wtf is 64GB (and now 128GB) base storage -- At least my 2010 MBP I could upgrade aftermarket and did, but for my 2014 MBP, I had to pay the premium for more storage (base was 128GB; got 256GB).

Now I've never used my MBPs for anything resource-intensive. Some light-gaming -- Stellaris and Eve Online, rarely -- is probably the heaviest thing I've done it. Could I get by on 8GB RAM? Yeah, probably.

But it's the principle of the thing. This isn't 10yrs ago anymore, where Windows laptops from various manufacturers kinda sucked. My friend and I were looking at Windows laptops just the other day; so many nice Macbook-esque, thin, lightweight, but powerful enough laptops out there. And for the same price or less of an Macbook base model, they start at 16GB RAM, 512GB SSDs, etc. Many are still upgradable aftermarket.

I'm sure Apple Silicon is worth the premium. But not this other stuff that's considered base on so many Windows machines.

I love Apple products, I do. But I'm not gonna keep throwing money at them for things that shouldn't be considered upgrades. Guess I'll keep holding out.

That goes without saying. That's true of any of this conversation; no one has to go to a restaurant. No one has to use Doordash. No one has to go to a barber shop for a haircut. That doesn't mean tipping and "force tips" are still OK.

Either way, I didn't mean to cause such consternation. I've never taken a cab in Vegas, but having driven on Las Vegas Blvd myself during non-event times...yeah, I could see how that'd be a nightmare. Add on F1, with road closures and more clueless tourists than usual... I'd probably not drive a taxi (or even driving personally) for a week either!

I guess in some ways, the addition of a surcharge here represents a truer cost of the service. It'd be like a restaurant not allowing tipping, but paying workers a much higher wage, while also upping the cost of the food and everything to account for that. And there'd be no "free rider" like we might see with those who don't tip. Every customer has to pay their fair share, so to speak.

Though, like you're saying, it's still probably not enough. I wonder how much a taxi ride in Vegas would have to cost to make it worthwhile for a driver every time. I suppose if there's anywhere in the US where this experiment would work, it'd be Vegas. People pay a lot for the whole experience. Hell, they literally give money away to the casinos. Might as well get a little bit more out of them.

Hey, I think fleecing tourists is A-OK! Why not get some of that sweet tax money? Especially if it alleviates some of the pain for residents. I know you Vegas residents also get like 10% discounts at all sorts of places, too.

My parents moved there 5yrs ago. And my brother moved there over the summer. We're all from the Midwest. They definitely love having no state income tax! My parents keep trying to convince me to join them all, but I'm just not a Vegas person. I like to visit (mainly because of my family), but I don't think the lack of state income tax is enough.

We actually did get tickets to one of the F1 practice sessions. Hoo boy. But I am hearing that the ticket prices on the actual race are starting to fall. So maybe we'll also get to see that!

Next week, Las Vegas is hosting a Formula 1 race. First time since like the early 80s. Recently, the local government's taxi authority has authorized a $15 surcharge for certain trips during that time. Why?

According to the Taxicab Authority Board, that surcharge is fully necessary “to encourage full workforce participation.” Apparently, there’s some worry that cab drivers will be less inclined to work on the busy event weekend. Not only is the city expecting an influx of European riders who don’t conform to the tipping customs of the U.S., but traffic is going to be abysmal with the main arteries of the city shut down to facilitate the race.

Source.

I have to believe that the majority of attendees will be Americans. Sure, there will be non-Americans from non-tipping cultures, but does that really mean that a $15 surcharge-in-lieu-of-tip is really needed on everyone? Especially as high as $15? For some of these flat-rate trips they range in price from $22-30. The surcharge means the "required tip" is 50-68%!

Insanity.

CNN is projecting that the Ohio state constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights has passed! \o/

Currently 56 to 44% with 57% of the vote in!

Oh and looks like y'all getting rec weed, too. Welcome to the club 😎

Was that that r/KC post? I probably would've voted Yes on it had I not seen that.

So far, with 10% of the vote in, Question 1 isn't passing, 62% vs 38%. Results I'm watching.

As an aside...Idk if you know, but there's a practically dead KC Lemmy community -- https://beehaw.org/c/kansascity@midwest.social -- that I'm trying to slowly revive. I don't even "own" the community, but it'd be neat to have a KC community out here. Feel free to join. Or if you know of another that's more active, do share!

I early voted over the weekend in Kansas City. No statewide elections or issues, only city and county issues. And no major issues, at that.

One was for a new sales tax from the county to fund various things. I voted No. The property taxes are insane at the moment and the sales tax is already high. And the way that some are characterizing this new tax is that it's for a "slush fund." No thanks.

Then the city had two questions. The first was to continue a sales tax that funds public transportation for another 10yrs. I voted Yes. Even if I never use public transportation (bad, I know), I want more of it, not less.

The last question was to get remove like 5 acres of Parks & Rec land from the system. I voted No. I always vote No on removal of park lands. Yes we have plenty and yes this wasn't exactly like a public park area (just some forested land), I would rather we keep what we got.

(I know, I know, matrix)

Getting people that you want to talk to -- friends, family, etc -- onto is a new platform is so difficult. No one wants to have 10 different communications apps, plus associated accounts*, just so they can talk to one or two people on each. It's the network effect. It also doesn't help that some of these platforms just aren't as convenient or easy to use, especially for non-tech people.

But yeah, so many of these communities make no sense on Discord (or live chat period; IRC suffered from this too). I think troubleshooting is the worst, especially in larger, active communities. You have different conversations going on, so it's easy to miss questions or answers. Plus, Discord's search isn't great, IMO. Better than reddit, but that's not saying much. So someone probably asked the same question some time ago; good luck finding it, and even if you do, you still have to sift through the adjacent chat history to see if others responded and track that conversation.

Larger Discords remind me of the chats of large Twitch streamers, where the chat is going a million miles per hour. What's even the point?

At least with a forum, it's much slowed down, and there are clear divisions between topics, that give people the space to discuss those topics.

Websites are so easy to make these days, too. No coding experience even needed. I'm not saying Discord is worthless; it's not and I use it plenty everyday. But it has its place. People need to use the right tools for the job.

*In many ways, websites suffer this issue, too. I have to make an account on this standalone separate website, just for my one question, and then after it gets answered, I'll probably never go back to it? That's why reddit (and Lemmy to a lesser extent) is so popular.

I've only gotten two strikes in my life, 7-8yrs ago. And I feel like this was because my brother was downloading then recent, popular movies (which I almost never do). But before that, never did, without a VPN, and I used to pirate a lot more. Even further back, used to have a roommate who would go on movie and show torrenting sprees. We never got strikes. And that was when commercial VPNs weren't really a thing yet, but copyright strikes were well known. I've known others who've never gotten strikes either.

So I'd say no, not 100% necessary at all. But it's free or cheap enough to mitigate the risk. So that's why I use one when I do pirate, which is rare these days.

Windscribe. Mainly because I scored a cheap lifetime deal many years ago. It works well enough. Got two ISP copyright strikes before using Windscribe. Have yet to get another since using Windscribe (knock on wood). But I also don't pirate as much as I used to.

I've done it before using Duet.

But it's not like that's the only "monitor." It's always been secondary (mainly because I've used it with an MBP).

Mastodon is great. Feels very much like the early days of Twitter and is a solid product so far. I have a PixelFed account, but I haven't played around with it that much yet. Seems pretty good., though we shall see. I have an account on a Matrix server, but I've only signed-in and used it once; Discord is still far more useful.

Lemmy is...Eh. Idk. Rome (or reddit) wasn't built in a day, I know. It can be difficult to find the content or discussion I want because people are so spread out. Usually when numbers are low, you don't want people spread out because it makes communities feel empty, further driving people away.

But more than all that, I find the platform itself so limited. Like the moderation tools are terrible. Can't even block a problematic domain. It seems like if you delete a comment in a thread, all the comments underneath it vanish. Makes it difficult to sometimes leave moderation comments. And Federation or Defederation seems way too binary to me; there should be shades of gray. Though I think the Fed/DeFed binary is true of all Fediverse services.

Like I enjoy spending time here. But I'm not yet convinced that Lemmy is the right platform. FWIW, I'm also trying Kbin on a separate account; in some ways seems better, but in other ways, just seems confusing.