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nicerdicer

@ nicerdicer @feddit.de

Posts
4
Comments
109
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • A 46,000-year-old worm found in Siberian permafrost was brought back to life, and started having babies

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  • Good point. I never thaught about it this way. Maybe these nematodes will not introduce diseases. But will they suppress recent fauna? Will these worms displace current worms or other species on a microbiological level? Or maybe these worms have a cure for recent diseases?

  • A 46,000-year-old worm found in Siberian permafrost was brought back to life, and started having babies

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  • On first glance it seems that this worm was brought back to life with scientific intervention exclusively. But with the disappearence of permafrost these worms will thaw on their own and will resume living and procreating. What I want to say is, that many species of these ice-aged worms may be alive already without anyone noticing, trough permafrost has been thawed away. Who knows what impact these worms will have on our recent fauna and flora?

  • People are getting fed up with all the useless tech in their cars

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  • What habits do you have to protect your privacy?

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  • It's always a good advice to be on good terms with the surveillance officers. I do it too and sometimes they even look in the other direction when I did wrong ;-)

  • What habits do you have to protect your privacy?

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  • Things I do what give me a percieved sense of privacy/ security:

    • use Firefox with Add-ons (Ublock origin, Idontcareaboutcookies, Istilldontcareaobutcookies, Consent Blocker)
    • browser set up to block third party cookies and to delete any cookies after closing
    • not allowing to store any credentials in the browser
    • using different passwords for different services (not one password for all)
    • using Two-Factor-Authentification on services which are connected with banking account
    • not using freemail providers for email
    • using a temporary email where possible if registration is required
    • encrypted hard drive and encrypted backups
    • do not use cloud storage (I rely on old school portable hard drives and thumb drives)
    • using an additional firewall to stop certain not-quite-legally-obtained programs from phoning home (these programs can't be replaced through FOSS at the moment, or are too ridiculously overpriced to buy them right now)
    • restrict/ forbid operating system to collect anonymous data and to phone home (as if that helps...)
    • don't do online banking with an android 8 device

    The password storage thing sometimes seems to be a hassle. I have stored my passwords in a physical moleskin, written with a pen, like an old person would do. When I have that book not availiable (when travellling), I have to guess my credentials.

    At work I have the browser stored all the credentials. It's so much faster and easier. But since it's at my job I don't have to worry about my own private stuff.

  • Where in history is the reference point of modern week day countdown? [SOLVED]

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  • Germany Is No Longer Exceptional | The Atlantic

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  • I'll have to admit that you are right! However, the deadline for using gas or oil for the operation of heatings is Dec. 31st. 2044. From 2045 onward heating systems cannot be operated with gas or oil.

  • What's your opinion on Opera browser?

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  • Years ago, Opera has been my main browser and I really liked it. Back then, it was the only browser (to my knowledge) that had tabs. It was a novelty back then. Over the time they added more features, like the conversion tool. Then they added more features I didn't need or want, like the side bar, and it quickly became bloated. I switched to firefox, which offered a greater variety of add-ons. I still use firefox as my main browser. The only thing I miss is the conversion tool. There is nothing comparable like the one Opera has built in. I later learned that the original developers sold it to a chinese consortium. In hindsight, that explains the constant changes to the worse, which pushed me to another browser.

  • I do remember

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  • Also, does anyone remember this game (it was included in Windows 95)?

  • Germany Is No Longer Exceptional | The Atlantic

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  • I'll try to answer this, please consider that English is not my native language:

    Yes the prices for energy have been decreased up to the point where it has been pre-war. But the energy providers don't forward the now lower prices to the end-customer immerdiately, because customers often have contracts with a certain energy pricing which are still running (usually you can escape a contract after one year). Also, people pay an anticipated payment each month. At the end of each year this anticipated payment is matched with what you really have to pay. This can lead to a discount (you get money back) or, in most cases, you have to pay an additional ammount. This happened to a majority of people because the energy priced have increased over the last years. So people have to pay more money for the same amount of energy consumption.

    With that in mind, it is also encouraged that people are supposed to stop using natural gas or oil for heating their homes and are supposed to use air-to-air heat pumps or long-distance heating (heat is tranferred through a pipe into your house). This comes with a full refurbishment of your heating system. Simplified: you can't just throw out your old gas-heater and connect your pipes to a heat pump - you need to replace the heatings in your rooms among other things. This is very expensive. In the meantime the Gebäudeenergiegesetz or Heizungsgesetz ("Energy law for buildings" or "Heating law") will be changed to this situation. Beginning from 2024 all heating systems shall not be using natural gas or oil. The law couldn't be established before the parliament's summer break, so this will be done after the summer break. Affected people can get a sponsorship from a governments bank (KfW-Bank) for fitting their homes - but the law has to be there first. That's why people are hesitant at the moment. Also, people don't like changes, especially those who are old. They often say that for the 10 to 15 years they still live, it is not worth changing.

    In Scandinavia it has been proven that the usage of air-to-air heat pumps can even withstand severe winters. But they started the transition years ago.

    In conclusion:

    • People have contracts with their energy provider they can't escape at the moment
    • Law has to be fitted to the use of heat pumps or long-distance-heating
    • with the law there are sponsorship programs but people wait for the law
    • some people just don't care because it doesn't affect them in the long run
    • Germany didn't push the transition away from gas and oil and coal in the past. With the goal of being carbon emission free by 2045 now is the last chance to start the transition.

  • Germany Is No Longer Exceptional | The Atlantic

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  • If you ask Berlin who is to blame, there seems to be just one answer: high energy prices sparked by Russia’s war against Ukraine. The AfD and far-left Die Linke are nostalgic for cheap Russian gas, while the opposing center-right CDU and the governing pro-business FDP blame the Greens for insisting on turning off the country’s last nuclear-power plants this spring.

    Turning off nuclear power has been decided by both the CDU and the FDP in 2011, when the Fukusima nuclear power plant was hit with a tsunami. The remaining last nuclear power plants in Germany were supposed to be shut down in 2022. Because of the war in Ukraine it was decided that they were switched off a few months later than originally planned, to help to get through winter.

    Edit: spelling

  • People are getting fed up with all the useless tech in their cars

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  • The car as a device to transport one from A to B has been developed to completion. Any car is capable of fulfilling that task. The next stange of developement is that the comfort features in cars are being replaced with a universal control unit: a touchscreen (-computer).

    All physical buttons (air condition, radio, etc.) are being phased out and are accessible over the central touchscreen, hidden in menus. This way it is easier to get customers into subscribed services (e.g. for the ability to lock your car remotely or to use the heated seat feature you have to subsribe to this particular service in order to use it).

    Also, when features are controlled over a software interface like those touchscreens instead of physical buttons, it it easier to give access to users - or restrict them from it:

    IIRC at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Tesla remotely enabled their cars by allowing free supercharging as a helpful measure to help people to escape from Ukraine. Pretty nice of Tesla, isn't it? Well yes, in this particular case, but this kind of remote software interference from the manufactor can also work in the other direction. They can easily restrict the functionality of your car. Functions your car still would have if they weren't controlled remotely.

    Cars become a Software-As-A-Service product.

    Edit: spelling

  • ich😢iel

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  • Ich finde es immer wieder erstaunlich, wie unaufgeregt solche Produkte aus der ehemaligen DDR verpackt sind. Einfach ein grauer Pappkarton. Mit Etikett, wo draufsteht, was drin ist. Kein aufwändig bedruckter Karton mit arrangiertem gedeckten Frühstückstisch und drappierten Brotröstscheiben und einer lächelnden Familie.

    Und der Toaster Brotröster: Einfach aus Blech! Kein Plastikgehäuse, das schmilzt. Nur das nötigste. Wahrscheinlich würde dieser Brotröster heute noch immer Bros trösten!

    Ich weiss natürlch, dass diese Art des Produktdesigns und die Art und Weise der Verpackung darauf beruhen, dass mit den wenigen Rohmaterialien sorgsam und sparsam umgegangen werden musste. Ein Nebeneffekt war jedoch, dass diese Produkte auf Langlebigkeit und vor allem auf Reparierbarkeit ausgelegt waren. Das ist leider etwas, das uns mittlerweile abhanden gekommen ist.

  • What movies are worth rewatching?

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  • What are some quality YouTube channels that you recommend?

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  • https://www.youtube.com/@MrBallen/videos

    MrBallen is a guy who retells storys in a very compelling way. Stories of murder-cases, odd occurences, sinister events, etc.

    This channel is really worth listening/watching (and also binging). I discovered his channel two years ago and follow it ever since. The videos length unsually varies between 15 to 30 minutes. Although the video's thumbnails and titles appear like it is clickbait, each video is well-made and worth a watch! Almost every Sunday a new video is uploaded.

  • First time macOS user, what are the essential apps?

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  • Top Notch - https://topnotch.app/

    Apparently you need a third party app to switch the color of the menu bar to black so that you can hide the stupid notch.

  • First time macOS user, what are the essential apps?

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  • Top Notch - https://topnotch.app/

    Apparently you need a third party app to switch the color of the menu bar to black so that you can hide the stupid notch.

  • Leonberg in Baden-Württemberg: Feuerwehrleute skandieren rechte Parolen

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  • Es scheint irgendwie en vogue zu sein, rechtsradikales Gedankengut in die Öffentlichkeit hinauszutragen. Siehe auch den feddit-Post "Dresdner Polizei ermittelt gegen Kommissaranwärter wegen Zeigens von Hitlergruß" - https://feddit.de/post/1628201

    Irgendwie erschreckend! Ich frage mich, ob das noch Nachwirkungen von den Corona-Lockdowns sind, bei denen einige Leute einen Knacks wegbekommen haben, oder ob diese Leute schon immer rechtsextrem waren und nun dieses ungeniert in der Öffentlichkeit zeigen - gerade auch vor dem Hintergrund, dass die NSDAP AfD gerade an Popularität gewinnt.

  • What's the point of buying new phones every years?

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  • There is no point. We realised it only recently. If you remember the cell phones from the time before smartphones, there hadn't been much technological progress. My first cellphone, a Nokia, could store up to 10 short messages. It's pedecessor had the same storage capacity. Of course, there were technological milestones that have been passed, e.g. antennas which didn't protrude out of the phone, vibration motors, (in comparison to today) really shitty photo-cameras (and the buggy software that was needed to transfer the photos to the computer), etc.

    The point is, that they all were capable to do the same thing: calling and texting. Looking back, there was not really a need to replace the old cellphone. Advertising made us want new shiny things.

    This changed when smartphones emerged. Hardware wise, there are not many differences. Some have faster processors than others, others have better cameras. The storage capabilities are sufficient. For the normal user these specifications don't matter. All smartphones are capable of accessing the (real) internet. The main difference today is in the software (operating system). Older phones run on software that is too outdated to keep pace, and the software support is often limited, which as a result leads to possible security flaws - because the user is supposed to upgrade the hardware, not the operating system only. And that's why new phones are bought, despite the old ones would still do.

    My smartphone ist running on Android 8 (Nougat). It's still working and is sufficient for my needs. But I wouldn't run my online banking with that phone. Also, it gets pretty hot and slow when navigating with Google Maps.

    Conclusion: It's not the hardware specifications which lead to the replacement of smartphones. It's the more complex (security wise) software requirements certain applications (online banking apps, medical apps, e.g. insuline tracking apps, overall more sophisticated apps that runs slow on an outdated smartphone) demand today.