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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • kazerniel@lemmy.worldtoPeople Twitter@sh.itjust.worksIs that bad?
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    1 day ago

    Agreed, I just find these instances of unintended longevity really fascinating :) The other day I was reading an article about how some infrastructure in Western countries still runs from floppy discs:

    And in San Francisco, the Muni Metro light railway, which launched in 1980, won’t start up each morning unless the staff in charge pick up a floppy disk and slip it into the computer that controls the railway’s Automatic Train Control System, or ATCS. “The computer has to be told what it’s supposed to do every day,” explains a spokesman for the San Francisco Municipal Transport Agency (SFMTA). “Without a hard drive, there is nowhere to install software on a permanent basis.”

    This computer has to be restarted in such a way repeatedly, he adds – it can’t simply be left on, for fear of its memory degrading.

    In some sectors, the legacy use of floppy disks is being phased out. In 2022, a Japanese politician “declared war” on the ongoing use of older media. Subsequently, earlier this year, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced that the government would no longer require businesses to submit official forms and applications on floppy disk. The Japanese government finally declared “victory” by scrapping the rules in July 2024.

    Imagine having to submit official forms on floppy disks even last year 😂














  • found an online OCR:

    autismjester - Apr 17

    People still tend to lump JK Rowling in with the category of ~problematic artists~ and I need everyone to understand that is not the problem with her. She is not comparable to anyone who wrote a piece of fiction you hate, or someone who made rude comments in 2015 and has since learned better.

    She is far more like Elon Musk. She is a radicalized person with an extreme amount of social and financial power, and for YEARS she has been using that power to try to influence her government into hurting vulnerable people, on purpose. And she has succeeded. THAT is the problem with her, and THAT is why spending money on her books is so dangerous, not because her books aged badly.

    Critiquing her work is fine, of course (I personally was never a fan so I really don’t care) but you NEED to understand that fiction is not the main issue here. And I truly think acting like she’s the same as the rest of any giant list of ~problematic creators of the week~ waters down how dangerous she is.

    decadent-trans-girl - 18h ago

    MPREGMAFIA

    @prettyliltakemachine.is-extremely…

    Kineticist

    every time HP Lovecraft’s name comes up in conversation we’re obliged to do a collective struggle session about his racism but J.K. Rowling is out here donating the proceeds of her IP to the Foundation For Putting Trannies In The Thresher and people are like ‘well her work means a lot to me’

    May 17, 2025 at 2:10 PM

    25,729 notes




  • yeah, whenever I have to look at someone else’s browser and it’s an ad-filled hellscape I’m really grateful for uBlock. The internet would be completely unusable for me without it.

    Same when people talk about how creepily the ads target them based on circumstantial stuff* it feels like an alien experience bc even if I get targeted despite employing quite a few tracking blockers, I never actually see the ads lol.

    (* like that story of the father hearing about the daughter’s pregnancy because he got spammed with baby care ads after the daughter googled some medical symptoms)

    + bonus recommendation for those of us who still have to use Facebook: F.B. Purity is great