🆗

I found this report from NIST that estimates tape to last 20 years, CD-R and DVD-R 30 years, and M-DISC 100 years 🤷 (I didn’t even know optical was used professionally, and found the term “optical jukebox” to be hilarious :)

https://www.nist.gov/publications/digital-evidence-preservation-considerations-evidence-handlers

But more importantly, an actively maintained storage system will last forever (as long as maintained). And for example AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive costs just $0.00099 / GB / month*, so you can store terabytes for the price of a cup of coffee.

*Plus extra fees for access and stuff, but the point is managed storage isn’t particularly expensive unless you have very large amounts of data or heavy usage.

What forms of media are you taking about that have short life spans?

I think that as storage density goes up and price goes down, what used to be cumbersome and expensive amounts of data become easily manageable. So the only reasons we loose data will be business or political. Which will also decrease as there’s now money in buying failing platforms.

But yeah, I’m also happy none of the social media I created when I was young still exists, and the platforms are buried by the sands of time. Having everything you do on the internet stay around forever feels like a nightmare.

I’m wondering if it was always this stupid and we just kind of assume otherwise when we look back because we focus on the big serious things that happened.

And because it’s actually more comforting to imagine Hitler as a political mastermind, rather than accept that a fucking idiot could rise to power and bumble us into world war and genocide.

White OLED, every pixel uses a white OLED “backlight” to make the light and RGBW color filters to make the colors. It’s one solution to some of shortcomings of earlier OLED technology like color degradation.

People don’t walk around telling each other they use an “ASUS ROG Strix OLED XG27ACDNG” either. They’ll say they have a “27 inch OLED”, or possibly a “27 inch 1440p OLED from Asus”.

You could use the sub-brand and say you had an “Asus ROG Strix” if you wanted, but all that might tell someone is that it’s from Asus’ midrange gaming segment.

The unique id is simply handy to keep the many models apart. Asus has 217 displays listed on their (US) store. They have 14 different 27" 1440p displays under the ROG Strix brand alone, three of which are OLEDs and you better not get them confused because they use different OLED technology.

Would it be better if they had more diverse product names instead? I’m not so sure. With so many models you’d probably end up with something like the “ASUS ROG Strix Centurion Speed² Ultra+ Black”, and I don’t think that’s any easier than “XG27ACDNG”, which at least is short.

And of course it’s updated with new versions a few times every year or so. So the Deathstalker Pro from the end of 2024 is actually better in many respects than the Deathstalker Ultra from 2022, but you’ll have to check the fine print on the box to make sure you’re getting the updated QD-OLED version, and not the older AMOLED version. If it has 220 Hz rather than 240 Hz it should be the newer model. Unless you live in South America, in which case they all use WOLED displays, though the specifications are the same so you have no way of knowing without opening it.

This is exactly what the companies try to do. For example ASUS has (in order of increasing fancyness) TUF, ROG Strix and ROG Swift. While MSI has G, MAG, MPG and MEG.

For each step up you can assume that it will be more cutting edge, have more extras and a higher price. But why would you care? You want to know if the image is good, if it has the features you want and what it costs. You likely don’t care what price segment it was originally intended for.

As time goes by, what was once expensive premium features become mainstay. So an older top-of-the-line display might be similar in price and performance to a new budget display. Which is better? Well you’ll have to read some reviews and ideally look at it to figure that out. And then you need to know the exact model number of the ones you are comparing. Good thing theres a compact alphanumeric string that uniquely identifies each model ;)

You actually gave a good example for why these brand names are useless.

How many doors does a Honda Accord have? What type of engine does it have?

It’s impossible to answer even these very basic questions, because there are so many different Honda Accords that the name could refer to almost anything. It could be a station wagon with a diesel engine, a four-door hybrid sedan, a hatchback, a SUV etc.

In fact monitors do usually have fancy brand names like Predator, ROG Swift or UltraGear that function exactly like the Accord name, giving you some hint as to where the manufacturer think it belongs in their product stack. They just aren’t useful for identifying a specific model, and since there are so many different models, you need the alphabet soup to make sure we are talking about the same thing.

Perhaps it was a poor choice of words, when I said “organizing” I meant everything required to run an event (with thousands attending). From planning and programming to picking trash and cleaning toilets.

I assumed it was just a very dirty, tough job requiring some specialized equipment and skills. Are you saying it’s somehow fundamentally different from other human activities?

My experience organizing non-profit events have shown that most people actually have no problem doing dirty jobs for no material compensation. If the following things are true:

1. They understand why the job is important
2. They feel responsible for the job (usually comes from being given autonomy and trust)
3. They get recognition for doing it (social rewards are actually very powerful)
4. No one else is getting compensated either.

I understand that this seems foreign to a lot of people, because this is not how work is generally motivated in capitalist society. You are used to your job being rather unimportant, with little autonomy, little trust, not much recognition from society and some people definitely profiting more than others. Your primary motivator is the threat of violence (via homelessness, starvation etc.), so it’s hard to imagine what would happen if that was removed.

That to me is the core idea of Anarchism, to base your organization on volontary cooperation rather than coercion.

An interesting side-note is that the people who do the dirty jobs in these circumstances often take great pride in it, forming an identify around doing what others are not willing to and calling attention to it as a way to get more recognition.

What are some of the outstanding issues that haven’t been addressed? I feel like there are genuinely good ways of doing everything these days

They’ve done amazing work trying to turn the clusterfuck they started with into a good language

That’s what all the coffee and wine is for!

What do those NGOs have to say about Julian Assange or Steven Donziger

“RSF defends Assange because of his contributions to journalism” https://rsf.org/en/rsf-dispels-common-misconceptions-case-against-julian-assange

“CPJ welcomes reports that Assange will be released in plea deal” https://cpj.org/2024/06/cpj-welcomes-reports-that-assange-will-be-released-in-plea-deal/

“USA must drop charges against Julian Assange” https://www.amnesty.org/en/petition/julian-assange-usa-justice/

“Biden Should Pardon Steven Donziger” https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/biden-should-pardon-steven-donziger-before-leaving-office/

I’m getting the distinct impression you have no idea wtf you are talking about

the stories that come out first tend to be most biased

I honestly think the concept of news is actually harmful, because it’s about reporting what happened, not about making the audience understand the subject. It puts a premium on getting the report out as quickly as possible, and favours the most shocking events and interpretations that draw people’s attention.

Ultimately most news are “empty calories” of information that mostly give an illusion of knowledge. “Explosion in Herptown, dozens wounded” does not meaningfully increase your understanding of the world, it mostly just makes you scared. It will take weeks until the cause and consequences of the explosion can be fully understood, and a lot of research to put that into perspective.

If you do not know the extent of pressure asserted on Chinese media that is willful ignorance.

Of course “our media” (whatever you mean by that) is the only media that can report on it as Chinese media is heavily censored.

If you want to know the extent the information easy to find.

Here’s some of what Reporters Without Borders have to say

“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the world’s largest prison for journalists, and its regime conducts a campaign of repression against journalism and the right to information worldwide.”

“The Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party sends a detailed notice to all media every day that includes editorial guidelines and censored topics.”

“Independent journalists and bloggers who dare to report “sensitive” information are often placed under surveillance, harassed, detained, and, in some cases, tortured.”

Source: https://rsf.org/en/country/china

This is from The Committee to Protect Journalists

“China has long ranked as one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists. Censorship makes the exact number of journalists jailed there notoriously difficult to determine, but Beijing’s media crackdown has widened in recent years”

Source: https://cpj.org/reports/2024/01/2023-prison-census-jailed-journalist-numbers-near-record-high-israel-imprisonments-spike/

Here’s Amnesty International

“Chinese authorities continued to severely curtail rights to freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly, including through the abusive application of laws often under the pretext of preserving national security.”

Source: https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/east-asia/china/report-china/

Don Lumo is in with them!

This is just untrue. There is plenty of legal press in the US of any persuasion, from anarchist to fascist.

The major US news outlets are in bed with capitalists because that’s where the money is, but there are lots of smaller outlets with other views. In China all news outlets kowtow to the government because anything else is illegal.