Raccoon🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈

#HotTake: the #AppleVision / #AppleVisionPro is failing because the market for high-end #VR Headsets is already oversaturated, and virtually all other players have an established library of #apps and uses, and proven compatibility with either #SteamLink / #WiVRn or #Monado and whatever Windows uses for #PCVR. Even with the #iOS compatibility, you just don't have a reason to buy a $1000+ headset just to hold a virtual #iPad / #iPhone when you likely already own a real one, and unlike cheaper headsets it just doesn't offer many experiences that the average user is going to pay that for.

A new headset line would take way more than #Apple seems willing to invest, especially this late in #VirtualReality #technology's cycle.

That said, there's definitely still a market for something cheap and easy, like a "Quest Lite", something that is made to hook to a lower-end #gaming computer's GPU and run stuff like tracking and reprojection locally, but doesn't necessarily have the power for anything substantial.

Because it's in the #news lately with a couple things, in case anyone doesn't understand...

The reason why #prosecutors (and on some level #defense #lawyers) are not supposed to have ulterior motivations for or against any of the involved parties is because, while they are supposed to argue the case to the best of their ability, their primary obligation is to the #law and the #judicial process. A prosecutor is not, for example, supposed to find ways to get around the #defendent's right to defend themself, especially not by witholding evidence as the #DA did in the Rust movie set shooting accident case. Yes, there is oversight, and yes, there are consequences including being disbarred, but the first line of defense against misconduct is that lawyers are supposed to avoid getting themselves into cases where they might be tempted to break the law.

Yes, they break this all the time, but this is how it's supposed to work.

If you see something about a #prosecutor being biased against a defendent, that's why.

Seeing history repeat itself, wanted to encourage everyone on the #fediverse to take a few minutes to do something that might be VERY useful in a couple weeks.

A few years ago, and there was a massive influx onto #Mastodon. Those of us who had already been here did what we could to help new people get started, expanding our presence and creating invite links. It was also very helpful that a lot of people made early on, and linked them to friends, even though they didn't have anyone already here, which helped overcome the #NetworkEffect that deters people from joining.

#Discord is now creating a new exodus: they are forcing a large chunk of the user base to #dox themselves in order to maintain full access.

Other #OpenSource services, like #Matrix and #Fluxer seam positioned to be the new alternative people run to.

There's still time to be an early adopter and get their Network populated. Go make accounts, send them to your friends, be ready for one to take off.

Let's do this. ✊

https://fluxer.app/

Looking at #HammvSmith, the wild #SupremeCourt case in which #Alabama is desperate to give the #DeathPenalty to someone who their own #courts found #IntellectuallyDisabled, despite it violating the #8thAmendment of the #constitution according to many past rulings. Alabama argues that his #IQtest scores range between 72 and 78, above the limit of 70. Defense counters that experts agree that #IQ is a flawed measure, that he has issues that aren't going to show on IQ tests, and that 72 is so low that the margin of error would reach below 70.

Meanwhile, the courts found multiple times that he was not competent for #execution, and let's be really honest here, everyone, even the #prosecutors, think he is #MentallyDisabled. This feels to me like #DoubleJeopardy and nitpicking: the courts already said he didn't meet the standard of #competence, and the #prosecutor is basically asking the supreme #court to have lower courts ignore facts whenever a state wants to kill people.

https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/court-appears-divided-on-whether-lower-courts-properly-found-death-row-inmate-to-be-intellectually-disabled/

With all the #Gaza #Donation stuff, and now the #GazaVerified program putting forward people who have, from what I understand, had some level of vetting (though I don't know enough to say it's enough), I'm still not feeling like these personal, #MutualAid style #donations can really be effective.

The #Genocide campaign the #Israeli government is waging against the #Palestinian people is not going to be deterred by donations to the families they are starving and depriving of healthcare, nor does this do anything to hold merchants and smugglers accountable for #profiteering on the violent actions of the #Netanyahu regime, nor does it do anything to support the #charity organizations where people are risking their lives to run supplies through blockades and render aid to people in an active #EthnicCleansing zone where #AidWorkers and #journalists are a target of military violence.

I just don't see the point, pragmatically, of giving a handful of people a few dollars...

(continued)

A #PSA about Hashtags like #Fediblock and #InstanceBlock, and your own mental wellbeing...

Sometimes I see users getting upset about things they read about on the FediBlock tag: most of us are posting some of the most vile things written by the most disturbed people on the network. Much of it is upsetting, sometimes even INTENDED to be upsetting, and the screenshots we post are picked to be the literal worst examples we find.

YOU shouldn't have to see that.

I look at #FediBlock and #InstanceBlock as a tool for people doing #Moderation: we're setting aside time to glance over these, non-emotionally, to block these people and servers on your behalf. (At least, I HOPE other mods do that: you shouldn't engage with a misery-feed 24/7)

For Non-Moderators? If you're on a server where you NEED to look at this stuff in order to block it, MOVE SERVERS: Moderation should be blocking these people so you never see them.

Don't expose yourself to this.

Ignore the Hashtag.

Enjoy the good side of this network!

Saw an article comparing the #AMD "#AM4 Platform" lasting 9 years and counting to "#PowerPC" lasting 12, and I got the impression this person didn't realize that the comparison they are comparing a #CPUSocket to a #CPUArchitecture, because as fas as I know, you couldn't upgrade an early #PPC #CPU to a much newer one without getting a new motherboard...

That aside, it is impressive how the #ZenArchitecture, after a decade of weird short-term stuff like the Bulldozer, managed to become such a long lasting standard. It's like they tried out so many weird methods trying to make chips that ran better, only to come up with this relatively simple way of building things.

And honestly, I don't think Zen is that different from Intel architectures, once you get past the compiler flags. As long as it all runs the same code at the end of the day, it doesn't matter...

...but the lifespan of those Sockets, AM4 and now #AM5, that's a consumer value that I don't think is matched right now.

Taking a moment to remember John Wesley Hyatt, the inventor of the first major #synthetic #ivory, patented 1869, among other things like #InjectionMolding, which allowed him to make consumer goods which would normally use ivory, but were far cheaper, more durable, and had far less variation than the real stuff.

This man is sometimes credited with single handedly driving down demand for real ivory across the board, and later other products, as his own spread the idea that synthetic materials could be significantly better than natural ones.

While it wasn't anyone's intention at the time, his work saved the lives of countless #elephants, and likely other animals later on, as more things which animals were killed specifically for were replaced by synthetic things.

Sometimes, just solving the problem of doing a thing differently can have massive effects.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wesley_Hyatt

#JohnWesleyHyatt #invention #science #industry

@trankten
Independently confirming this one from techhub.social.

#FediBlock / #InstanceBlock
freysa.ai
Spam - Instance is flooding the timeline with AI generated spam.

A glance over the timeline shows a ton of #AI generated content, repeating the same phrases over and over again in different contexts, seemingly to build fake discourse and infiltrate real discourse. Accounts are over a month old, meaning administration has not done anything about it. Blocking as #Spam, recommending other server #staff do the same.

- TechHub #Moderation

#Resist #KeepCalmAndCarryOn #US #USA #Activism #Resistance #Fascism #WeAreAllAntifaNow

So right now, in #Florida, I'd say we need to get a few #BallotMeasures in place in the next year so we can amend the #Constitution in 2026...

- State Officials may not use state funds or resources for political campaigns, including those against ballot measures or other changes to law.

- The Right to Amend the Constitution of Florida through Ballot Measures shall not be abridged.

- Donations to State Level Political Campaigns shall be limited to Florida Residents, and capped at no more than the payment of 2000 hours at the state minimum wage.

- Any person convicted of Child Sex Trafficking shall be barred from running for or holding any public office in Florida.

We are basically going to need this now, seeing as the governor is aggressively going after our ability to vote things in...

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/01/21/desantis-florida-petition-amendment-ballot-initiative-change-signature/

#USPol #Democracy

@[email protected]
Golly, looks like I forgot to block you after all that talk about blocking Parcero.Casa for being block evasion by Parcero.Bond on #Fediblock / #InstanceBlock. I guess I should go fix that now...

Parcero.Casa
Hate Speech / Harassment - Block evasion by Parcero.Bond, making the rounds to harass people.

Attached is a screenshot of the interaction above...

#PSA
Getting out ahead of some #Misinformation...

#Jews do not control the #weather.

There is no known device that can engage in "#CloudTheft" to cause #drought.

There is no "#JewMagic" controlling the #hurricanes to hit states where Harris is campaigning.

#Israel does not have a squad of pegasus ponies controlling the skies.

This is basic #meterology and #climatology, and is the very well understood and long-predicted result of #GlobalWarming / #ClimateChange, which is a fully-understood phenomenon, and was warned about in the 70s and 80s, where reports predicted the conditions we are seeing now at the time we are seeing them, well before any of the current people were in power.

There is no group controlling the weather, Jewish or otherwise. The people claiming that are using Jews as a #scapegoat, which is neither new nor based in any sort of reality.

- TechHub #Moderation

#PSA Regular reminder that...

#Israel has existed long enough to have families whose #immigrant ancestors have all died of old age, and most #Israelis are from the #MiddleEast, while many of the #Jews who immigrated were fleeing persecution campaigns like the #Holocaust, and don't have anywhere else to go.

They exist, have a right to exist, and aren't realistically going anywhere.

#Palestine has existed for thousands of years, the vast majority of #Palestinian families have been there for so long there is no longer a clear record of when they got there, but genetic testing has shown that the typical Palestinian is descended from #Jewish people.

They exist, have a right to exist, and aren't realistically going anywhere.

The solution to the #IsraeliPalestinianConflict is to get past the violence, and get them to live in their shared region in #peace.

Anyone who says otherwise is #racist / #antisemetic / #islamophobic, and advocating #genocide, and their input should be rejected for it.

#misinformation

After having conversations with quite a few Trump supporters, seeing a common theme that a lot of them really don't like #marginalized groups being allowed to vote, I'm noticing there has been a pretty strong uptick in messaging out of conservative / #authoritarian #propaganda sources like #HillsdaleCollege specifically talking about "the importance of the #ElectoralCollege." and to a lesser extent about preserving the #TwoParty system...

I think they are seeing the same thing I'm seeing: we are reaching a critical point of people being sick of the two-party system and all the other anti-#democracy systems in the #US government.

Once again, this election is a mandate on democracy itself, and I think we could get rid of the Electoral College in the next 4 years, and make a major dent in the two-party system by the end of the decade.

That alone is reason not to give up on democracy, and GO VOTE FOR KAMALA HARRIS.

#USpol

If no Princess Celestia, how do sun come up, everyday, never a miscommunication?

Checkmate Haytheists.

#CheckmateAtheists #CheckmateHaytheists