I am a hillbilly occasionally cosplaying as a smart and educated person

Same. Which explains why I (twice, lol) incorrectly used the terms “theory” and “hypothesis” interchangeably when those are totally different things in sciences.

I’m not entirely 100% dark matter exists in galaxies the way often described. … The way I see it, it might as well be a repulsive force between galaxies opposed to the current understanding of it being am attractive force. Plus, if it were a phenomenon that pushed things apart, it could also explain Dark Energy.

And to me, that’s a perfectly valid theory. Like other proposed explanations for dark matter or dark energy or “whatever the hell it is we can detect the effect of but can’t identify”, it’s difficult to test.

That’s why I enjoy science. It’s like a big puzzle, and sometimes you get halfway done and realize you put it together wrong and have to start over.

The thing with dark matter is it’s just a placeholder term for “we don’t know what the hell it is”, and aren’t most hypotheses pulled out of the ass before experimentation to prove them?

Plus, Dr. Kaku is a string theorist so wacky is pretty much par for the course in that field. Granted, I consider him more of a TV personality these days and grew up watching him as a speaker on [insert any number of Discovery Channel shows here].

Maybe I’m just biased and enjoy the wacky theories because I’m more interested in seeing them proven right or wrong and thinking about the implications if they happen to prove correct.

GLaDOS/GabeN: They’re sentient, you know. I think that one was about to say “I love you”.

Yes

While the amount of content from such an increase would be the same, the posting patterns are more organic from real users compared to the indiscriminate torrent coming from people running bots to repost everything from Reddit. That allows for a lot more granular management of resources.

Guess that just illustrates that social media addiction is a real problem. I’ve never found myself in that position, but every once in a while I’m reminded that it exists.

I’ve been here since the API exodus in 2023 and have seen it enough times to know that it’s typically someone coming in new from reddit, seeing that the feed of new stuff here has an endpoint and recharges slower, so they want to make a repost bot so there’s more content. They’ll never actually read that content, but they just want it so they have something to mindlessly scroll past. I don’t think they’re going for popularity contest, at least not primarily, anyway.

Giving them the benefit of doubt, I think they’re just highly misguided.

I could totally be wrong. This is just based on my observations and the occasional post in c/Fediverse when some new user talks about how it feels inactive here and suggests reposting crap from Reddit. I also try to go with the most charitable explanation for behavior I see.

Technically speaking, yeah.

But the instances that run on donations are more likely to get donations to cover the growing hosting costs from a 100x increase in real users as opposed to one bot spammer spewing out 100+ user’s worth of content each month. Ideally, that 100x increase won’t be concentrated on a single instance and will be spread out among many instances.

While the amount of content from such an increase would be the same, the posting patterns are more organic from real users compared to the indiscriminate torrent coming from people running bots to repost everything from Reddit. That allows for a lot more granular management of resources.

In short: it’s low-engagement spam.

In longer form:

It’s just blasted out via a bot and not posted organically. It makes scrolling by /new impossible because of all the noise. It’s bad because it strips away any identity the Fediverse has and makes it a literal cheap copy of Reddit full of bot-reposted slop no one wants to engage with.

Instances are run by volunteers and rely on donations from users or in some cases the admins foot the bill entirely. It costs money to host Fediverse instances. Each sloppost from a repost bot takes up space in the database, consumes CPU resources sorting through it, bandwidth to federate it out, and takes up storage space with the local thumbnails. And that’s just on the home instance where it originates. Add in the bandwidth to federate it out to who knows how many receiving instances which each also have to store it in the database and store the thumbnails.

It’s just so much waste. And for what? It’s just noise. Content for content’s sake so someone can mindlessly scroll past stuff they’ll never read.

If you feel this place lacks content, post something. Every time there’s a new influx of users, some genius thinks “It’s a lot quieter here than Reddit. I know! I’ll write a script that reposts stuff from Reddit. People will love it! I can’t believe no one has thought of this before! I’m so smart!”

If one wants that kind of slop, there are dedicated instances that do nothing but repost reddit garbage indiscriminately. alien.top and lemmit.online. Find an instance that federates with them (many instances de-federate from those because of the noise) or sign up there.

I’m not gonna out the user since that would put this post in violation of one of the rules here, but it appears they’ve set up camp and created their own communities to botspam to. I DM’d the admin of their home instance but who knows if they’ll see a problem with it.

Edit/Update: That spammer now appears to be banned on their home instance.

For me, it’s the people that come here and feel the need to bring all of Reddit with them. Like, do they also bring their shitty exes and all their baggage on dates with their new SO?

And it’s not like instances are largely (entirely?) volunteer run and rely on donations or admins footing the bill for hosting. Oh, wait. They are. 18,200+ posts (as of this comment) from a two month old account with the associated thumbnail images, each federated out to who knows how many other instances that store copies and local thumbnails is a pretty clear abuse of the platform. I’d also wager that the userbot in question isn’t donating to their home instance, either.

Every time there’s an influx. :bangs_head_against_wall:

Here’s a write-up I read not too long ago and answers many of your questions, though the author is mostly concerned with getting data access going. Short answer is yes, most will “just work” provided you use the correct modes and configs.

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2022/using-4g-lte-wireless-modems-on-raspberry-pi/

do linux apps working as contact list/dialer/SMS receiver/sender exist?

Those all fall under what’s called the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and is often problematic implementing in open source. If I recall, Ubuntu Touch has a (mostly?) working IMS implementation but I don’t recall if it’s universally functional or limited to specific devices/carriers. Some WWAN cards will allow calls/texts, but those are usually in “3G” mode which is rapidly disappearing as carriers switch to VoLTE or VoNR/Vo5G (which are basically just fancy VoIP).

If you’re willing to forego traditional carrier voice/messaging, you can use any number of messaging apps that work on Linux and/or combine that with a 3rd party VoIP provider for PSTN calling/phone number and SMS/MMS. Just don’t expect to get RCS messaging going; even on Android proper, you’re limited to Google Messages only.

Note: I’m not a Luigi fanboy, so if anyone’s gonna downvote me over that, fine, but at least try to read what I’m saying from a general “don’t put words in people’s mouths” perspective.

It doesn’t show for me, but I have seen the massive “support lemmy development” banner in Lemmy-UI elsewhere. It’s annoying but I get it.

However, this is the first time I’ve seen it with the posturing it takes toward ml’s content policy and how “Luigi” as a verb is not just permitted but seemingly encouraged there. That’s a bridge too far and basically says “hey, crazies of Reddit, come to Lemmy and be toxic and call for murder all you want” without mentioning that instances can and do have their own policies of what is acceptable.

Is there a way for admins to turn that off? Even if they do want to help support development of the software, letting the two developers posture and put words in their mouths like that is, IMO, unacceptable.

Are you meaning to post only the album art image? If there’s a link to any of these songs, they’re not showing up.

I don’t think I’m up to 200 yet, but my favorite random node name I’ve come across so far was called “The Node Abides”. Always appreciate a little random Lebowski in my life.

I’ve also got a T100e and really like it.

https://gizmodo.com/star-trek-strange-new-worlds-season-4-puppet-episode-trailer-sdcc-2025-2000635044

Announced today during Trek‘s blockbuster Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Jordan Canning (who directed season 2’s “Charades”, but perhaps more crucially here, also directed seven episodes of the Fraggle Rock revival, Back to the Rock) will direct an episode in the upcoming fourth season of Strange New Worlds that will see the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise turned into puppets. Anson Mount’s Captain Pike beamed into the convention to let fans know… well, kind of

…

Nothing else was revealed about the episode, other than the fact Paramount will be working with the fine purveyors of puppet technology at the Jim Henson Creature Shop to bring Pike and the rest of the crew to fabric life for the episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az-cm8gmKSM

That’s basically me. I watched it, though, lol, but mostly because the premiere is far enough away that I probably won’t remember half of it come July anyway. Otherwise, I’m pretty rigorous about avoiding spoilers of any sort and is why I wasn’t really around when everyone was talking about Academy when it was airing (have since watched and enjoyed it though).

Cool, thanks!

As a con virgin, any highlights for what it’s like? Do you just walk around the venue and chat with other fans? Stand in line for autographs/photo ops? Shop for merch? Do the guests do talks or Q&As?

Like I said in my other comment, I’m seriously considering attending this one since it’s close and I really would like to add and cross this off my bucket list. Also, like you said, I don’t particularly care for massive events or extended travel to Vegas so a regional one that’s also pretty close to me sounds perfect.

They have already started announcing celebrity guests as well. Today Creation revealed the headliners will include Kate Mulgrew (VOY/PRO), Jeri Ryan (VOY/PIC), Terry Farrell (DS9), Nana Visitor (DS9), Denise Crosby (TNG), and Melissa Navia (SNW). Additional guests for the event will be announced each day this week.

I’ve never been to a convention, but Philadelphia is (relatively speaking) right next door to me. I’m seriously considering saving some vacation time and making this my first because I really want to go to one and they’ve got the most powerful women in the galaxy lined up.