I sometimes wonder what if everyone who spends money on licensing fees instead takes the same amount of money and puts it into FOSS. Imagine what we could achieve? Likely the money would be used more efficiently because they could donate it to non-profit companies which don’t need to pay tax.
You did something today: you helped remind me of him, with so much chaos he slipped my mind.
If you’re feeling frustrated by lack of power to do anything what you can do to help is chip away Trump’s pillars of support. Have you ever played Jenga? If you pull out enough blocks the tower will eventually fall. The biggest blocks holding up Trump are the billionaire wealthy donors and the right-wing propaganda machine.
Twitter is an example of both right-wing propaganda machine and owned by the biggest political donor to the GOP and one that we all can easily make a difference in by personally stop using it if you have an account and urging your friends and family to also stop using Twitter. Then try contacting organizations with an account and ask them to switch to Bluesky. And of course boycott Tesla and boycott Starlink too. If you like buying stocks maybe invest in SpaceX’s competitors.
For billionaire donors you can boycott their companies for example Uline is another big donor. We can make a difference. I see them as a good boycott target due to their reputation of being overpriced. Whenever you buy something online look at the box and labels. Do you see the words Uline on it? If so contact the vendor and tell them that Uline is overpriced and unethical, they can save money by switching to another supplier. This post shows someone about cut their costs in half by switching away from Uline: https://bsky.app/profile/geneha.com/post/3low65f4zac2d and https://refuseuline.com/ has a long list of alternatives.
Another big donor is the fossil fuel industry. I recently made a post about what you can do about that.
I’m very happy they got the wage increases but I hope that if Trump is still president in 2028 that people boycott the Olympics. Make the stadiums empty and don’t send any international teams to compete. Visitors risk arbitrary detainment and harassment despite innocence. We must not repeat the 1936 Olympics.
Now I understand. Also I looked up the Mayo joke and found the explanations for that here: https://old.reddit.com/r/amcstock/comments/pek85m/what_is_the_ken_griffinmayo_backstory/
I didn’t know the lore behind him because I just found out about him because I was reviewing the top donor list on open secrets, I searched his name and found that article.
His political contributions are really on brand. He funded election deniers in 2022.
Also I’ve heard Oracle has a bad reputation when it comes to government contracts, very expensive poor quality software ripping off our taxpayers. I think they ought to be blacklisted or at-least require extra review due to their reputation. CUNY paid Oracle over $600 million and look at what that got them: https://pscbc.blogspot.com/2013/03/cuny-first-computer-system-to-aid.html. To be fair the article does claim that “The project required an expenditure of up to a billion dollars to do it right. CUNY Central offered far less. All but one of the bidders dropped out as a result”. I’m confused why it needs to be so expensive, even $600 million seems like way too much.
I think it depends on the person how they react.
These are some interesting articles: https://mhanational.org/resources/negative-news-coverage-and-mental-health/
I sometimes (jokingly) wonder if Hospitals show Fox News to try to get repeat business, and I don’t mean repeat business due to people who enjoy Fox coming back, I mean due to health complications caused by the stress of watching it.
But Google’s guidance was also telling us that recovery was possible if we just “removed” our “unhelpful” on-page content:
This is very chilling because it means websites will delete content. If the internet archive didn’t grab it in time it means knowledge is gone forever. An algorithm is not going to always be accurate in determining what is helpful.
For those people they should all contact the government agencies that are still on Twitter and demand they switch to Bluesky.
I read about the Flipper Zero and it seems really awesome! I even saw some high power LEDs for it that could in theory change the channel from a long distance.
That’s right but it doesn’t necessarily mean that access is impossible, just need the codes for the box instead of the TV assuming it has an infrared sensor on the box.
GSMarena has specs for most smartphones including infrared (listed under connectivity).
Here’s a link to a search showing all phones in their database with IR: https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?chkInfrared=selected note I haven’t checked accuracy or completeness, it might be best to check the specs for your phone or search if your phone supports it.
If you got an old phone or an old PDA it might have IR if your current one doesn’t.
The TV-B-Gone is really cool especially because it’s so small but of course it just shuts off the TV. I’ve seen a few keychain sized universal remotes that have buttons.
I just wrote a comment in reply to someone suggesting unplugging the TV: https://lemm.ee/post/65246982/20771041
Basically it’s nice that you get peace and quiet but turning it off is more noticeable.
That’s really annoying. Do you think they’d notice you using your phone to change the station and possible remove Fox from the channel list? Is there windows in the building with the TVs? There are some high power IR blasters that might let you change it from outside.
There are pros and cons to that.
Advantage is of course you get peace and quiet like that. No TV might feel more relaxing.
Downside is someone might plug the TV in again which will turn it back on to Fox. Changing the channel means you can show unbiased news and maybe if for example you change the station to PBS, people will get educated. People might leave it on the channel you changed it to due to apathy. A TV that’s off is more noticeable.
I’d recommend if it’s possible especially if you’re the only one in the room at the time consider going into the channel editor and removing Fox News and other propaganda stations from the channel list.
See some say despising Kid Rock is statutory but I say it’s mandatory.
https://www.truthorfiction.com/kid-rock-cool-daddy-cool-lyrics-and-grooming/
If for some reason you or anyone you know is still using Twitter now is the time to take advantage of the outage and urge people to leave Twitter permanently. Tell your friends about alternatives to Twitter such as Bluesky and Mastodon.
There are companies which offer training and support to FOSS. Companies could also pay those companies.