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hopelite

-23 karma · joined June 15, 2025

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hopelite··on VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits
I wasn’t even aware of that, but it does not at all surprise me, since it fits right in with the trajectory Reddit has long been on; from freedom of information, to full spectrum thought control and digital psychological reprogramming dungeon.
hopelite··on VPN location claims don't match real traffic exits
That seems reasonable, but they seem to be suffering their own problem with UI and UX design by not making that inherently clearer.

I was getting a bit disappointed about Proton based on this evaluation even though the only problem I’ve had is their really lacking client UI/UX. They should make that visualization clearer. I don’t know the answer, but maybe offering a toggle or expansion for virtualized servers, might be a step in the right direction.

The design issues seems to be a common challenge with proton. The VPN client functions, but it is really grating how basic it is. You can’t even sort, let alone filter servers by load, let alone performance; so you’re scrolling through hundreds of servers. You can’t add regions or even several servers to create a profile with a priority, you have to pick a single server, among hundreds if not thousands in some countries. Oh, and as you’re scrolling through hundreds of servers for a single country, it’s a view of something like 10 lines high.

It’s bonkers

hopelite··on Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help
Does anyone know if in the USA you could simply use small claims court on every individual device and service to get likely default judgements against Apple and then when they are unlikely to pay up, get a judgement against Apple and make a big deal about strolling into a store or even HQ to take Cook’s own devices out of his office or maybe just seize his corporate jet and auction it off?
hopelite··on Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
The definition of “arbitrary” includes “upon personal whim”, i.e., the State Dept leadership, not coordinated across or with other depts, and “not in a systematic manner”.

I get that people’s biases make accepting reality difficult, but this will all end poorly if you can’t even just be objective on basic things like it being detrimental for one single department of the federal government to arbitrarily change rather significant things like the official font, even worn text, communication is the primary work product and format.

Why did you ignore all the other aspects and simply latch onto something you thought was a loophole because you cannot objectively adapt a relevant definition?

This is not reddit. You should have higher standards for yourself.

hopelite··on Koralm Railway
Is anyone going to explain what justifies the down votes or is this just Reddit tier mobbing now?
hopelite··on Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
It is technically illegal if that is how it is configured. Go get ‘em.

But kidding aside, who are we even really kidding anymore, even if you were provided the TOS would you simply not use the device of there were something in the TOS you disagreed with? How about when you’ve been using the device and all the sudden they change the TOS and force agreement as you are about to start a tv evening with the family?

The people simply accepted their enslavement, the taking of your agency, because we all allowed or were overwhelmed with it.

They take our agency through process just like they’ve taken our freedom and rights in so many different ways, just like through YC funded Flock, where treasonous mass surveillance cameras just show up over night and most here seem unaware it’s a YC company that now provides a mass surveillance network to the government and global government tightening its noose around humanity’s neck.

hopelite··on Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options
The only way to have privacy from the matrix is to not participate in the matrix. That’s in fact your best option. Does one have to consume the drug of movies/tv? I realize that just suggesting something coming in between the addict and their drug causes consternation, but that also makes the point more salient.
hopelite··on Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops
It seems the only thing that could break this is the off chance that the SCOTUS rules that the tariffs are illegal and/or Congress strips the Presidency of the power they gave it in utters incompetence many decades ago.

I’m thinking with sufficient pressure by all tech interested people it could become an issue in the midterms and even force Trump to sign agreements not to tariff RAM by Korean producers who could ramp up production.

Frankly, I wouldn’t even be surprised if we start seeing RAM smuggling. In not sure of drug prices, but would smuggling RAM not be at least just as profitable, especially without the high profile and risk?

Hey! … hey, you! You want to have some fun?

hopelite··on Koralm Railway
Started in 1998, apparently without a budget, which came 7 years later, and was completed within…mostly…budget, but not really since it was 7% over budget.

Which also begs the question; why is a railway project page on HN at all, regardless of anything else?

hopelite··on UK House of Lords attempting to ban use of VPNs by anyone under 16
I have to say, it is a bit astonishing how much you are in a kind of bargaining stage of trying to rationalize how what is happening, is not actually happening, all while the trap doors are closing all around you even though very slowly.

Why do you think that is?

It is not just a British thing, because this ruling class tyranny is descending all across the western world, regardless of whether it is particularly egregious in the UK. Or should we maybe just start calling it Airstrip One at this point, the AO?

hopelite··on Going Through Snowden Documents, Part 1
That's rather harsh. Exposing illegal, objectively treasonous activities by the government is not exactly not something positive, regardless of whether the regime has only gotten worse and more totalitarian and tightened its noose even more around the neck of humanity.

By objective measures, having the courage he did to do what he did was courageous, albeit possibly foolish, since his understanding of the USA did not actually match the reality of what the USA long has been, because he has been drinking the Kool-Aid too.

Ironically, the system depended on and somewhat still depends on the very kind of belief in the system that Snowden had, even if he just believed it far more and actually took it serious.

hopelite··on Going Through Snowden Documents, Part 1
That is largely correct, even if not for that specific purpose/reason. Those people are largely self-discrediting, among other things.
hopelite··on Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
Or maybe the government should have a common convention regarding official government communications, which Blinken added fragmentation to by arbitrarily changing the font away from Times New Roman.
hopelite··on Rubio stages font coup: Times New Roman ousts Calibri
Did you have that kind of reaction, that it’s absurd, when Blinken ordered the use of Calibri after ~20 years of consistent use of Times New Roman?

It is objectively more concerning and “absurd”, regardless of “team”, that Blinken arbitrarily introduced fragmentation by adding an additional font to official government communications when a convention had been established across government to use Times New Roman.

hopelite··on Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter
It seems we (America) are in some kind of “middle”, or at least a phase change in a larger wave of the addiction cycle, with different stages affecting different generations and countries based on arrival of what can be described as the addiction dealers, “Big American social media”. It reminds me of the effects of the crack epidemic rippling through different generations differently from the late 70s to this very day still.

I don’t have hard data to substantiate it and my theory is based on anecdotal conversations but it seems, e.g., where there is some recovery going on amidst something like American millennials, who have both dealt with their own addiction and were the first generation that is also dealing with the neglect of addicted parents, they are also to some degree recovering (“reparenting” themselves), to some degree probably also spurred on by realizations shot the deleterious effects of phones and SM that come from exhaustion and different life stages. On the other hand, other generations of Americans, like those now elderly parents of millennials, not only are still, but increasing number of them are entering the earlier stages of “phone addiction” (which encompasses many different things), with the most tragic part being that they are in the latter quarter of their life and are unlikely to even realize, let alone recover from the addiction.

I also see this cycle and these stages emerging in other western societies in particular. My theory is that it is a particular effect or amplifier of the underlying culture to some degree, i.e., adoption, degree, impacts. It seems particularly pernicious in America because the underlying culture (if you can call it that, after decades of it being poisoned and corrupted by corporations and the government) was and is fertile ground for the societal rot caused by social media and its amplifier, smart phones, to have taken hold and spread like the virus it is.

It was even all described as “viral”, and yet we still engaged in it as if unfamiliar and investigated viruses spreading in an uncontrolled manner are a perfectly acceptable thing that should not even give anyone pause, especially if money can be made, regardless of whether it is something like HIV, with a very long lead-time, a delayed ETA for the reaper.

What happens now that we are in some kind of middle stage of the “smartphone“/Social Media civilization wildfire, with the first to have been affected looking over the devastation it has left in their wake, Shell shocked by the neglect and destruction, as the inferno is still raging on off in the distance as it consumes their parents and new generations, and even toppling whole countries through the “Color Revolution” playbook?

hopelite··on Apple's slow AI pace becomes a strength as market grows weary of spending
I agree that this is a reasonable perspective, but from my cursory understanding of the “shakeup” at Apple, I am not sure it is seen that way by the Board and Cook.
hopelite··on EU investigates Google over AI-generated summaries in search results
You are missing the point even though I rather clearly indicated it. This is not a question of whether you or I see the taxes as we likely both care to similar degrees, it’s about whether it is front and center for regular people to see at the point of gratification contact line, i.e., looking at the product on the shelf.

The taxes in the US are also very clearly indicated on receipts, but that does not change that when you are looking at a price in Europe, you are appeased looking at it with a bias of assumed, baked in taxes. It’s a psychological difference related to loss aversion. Is precisely why the European rulers pushed to hide the taxes in the price so you don’t even think about it, opposed to additional monies being taken from you at the point of sale.

It’s the very same reason why they pushed for employer to take all the massive taxes and costs and “contributions” out of one’s paycheck because handing over a check of some five digit amount every year to the government would be far more of a galling issue to most people than having it taken out of toe paycheck once a month and you normalized it and take it for granted. Talk to anyone that runs a personal business admit how they feel writing 6 or 7 digit checks to the government every quarter or so, before you grow past having someone that just does it as a matter of their role and they have no vested interest in whether any amount is paid.

It astonishes me that people like you seem to be oblivious of the effects of these kinds of tricks and games, when this community is regularly discussing social engineering, dark patterns, marketing gobbledygook, etc. You think the government made up of liars that lie about everything, including lying; the people who cover up child rape of the Epstein kind and the rape gangs of the Brush Labour Party that numbers somewhere near ~250,000 victims of child gang rape … they wouldn’t have evaluated which way is better to hoodwink the multitude and minimize anger offer being pilfered?

hopelite··on EU investigates Google over AI-generated summaries in search results
That’s ironic, because I don’t see the European hiding of taxes being a benefit or WYSIWYG at all. I agree that the way it is done in the USA is also not ideal, but frankly, the majority of people in all places are, let’s just say disinterested in serious matters and don’t really care one way or the other beyond slight frustrations in their daily lives.

On net, hiding the ~20% VAT in the price of all goods in Europe is far worse and exactly why it is done, so you don’t think about it and don’t how much the ruling class has decided to plunder, by that one of many methods it plunders the lower classes.

Ideally, in a consumer, citizen centered society the price would have to be listed separately along side of the tax on the same label. There is today absolutely no reason that could not be done and it would make people realize both how much the ruling class/government plunders, as well as e.g., in the U.S. produce is far cheaper than processed foods because it is usually not taxed.

If information is deliberately hidden from you, you are no longer a citizen, but rather something more like a serf, a slave, or a mark of a con job; especially in an era where governments all across the west are hostile to and don’t represent anyone but their own self-interest, let alone their own people anymore.

hopelite··on EU investigates Google over AI-generated summaries in search results
> make sure that the AI summaries are just as liable for libel actions

Is libel in AI generated summaries a problem?

Also, it seems you are fundamentally missing how AI is different. What would you expect a “regulator mandatory correction” to look like, a one sentence summary comes with a notice that it was corrected at some point?

AI is also going to make regulators and bureaucrats totally superfluous if done properly, where AI simply “regulates” based on laws written in a clear text and open weight manner.

hopelite··on EU investigates Google over AI-generated summaries in search results
I still have not gotten anyone to provide a reasonable response to a simple question; if training an AI on some content, how is your reading the same content and then including that in a synthesis of that information along with other information to form your own understanding of the world any different?

Alternately, will you start using royalties in perpetuity whenever you talk about some event, because you read an article or a book about that topic once and included something you learned in that article?

Basically everything you know, that is even somewhat recent is based on others’ content, do you track and cite every single thing you’ve ever read and send them royalties with every conversation?

I’m not trying to defend these big corporations, but for me this is a fundamental question we need to be asking.

As consequential as it will be, for me, the answer is that as long as you paid the cost of accessing the content (be it free or a subscription price) while collecting the information that is used to fundamentally transform the information in ways that seem to fall under fair use, then you cannot expect rights, short of full copy/paste plagiarism.

hopelite··on Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros
That makes no logical sense. So if I give up my “entertainment” subscriptions because the execs need their bonuses and drive the prices up to compensate for the penalty, causing me to think about how to spend quality time with my family paying games, reading books, and doing activities; is equally harmful as if I can’t but groceries in my town because the grocery store was closed?
hopelite··on Germany votes to bring in voluntary military service programme for 18-year-olds
Explain how it’s not just “racism” but also “as hell” “racial”. Is “as hell racism” like a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, super special, makes you stomp your feet really hard, and you’ll hold your breath or else racism?
hopelite··on Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros
I’m not sure it’s a fair comparison, groceries that sell food on one hand and a brainwashing and propaganda delivery system (see History of criminal, industry/advertiser, FBI, CIA, Pentagon, and foreign nation direct ties to the industry) masquerading as “entertainment” on the other.

You don’t have to be “harmed”, just do not pay them your money. Problem solved. If the prospect of not being “entertained” fills you with anxiety and frustration, maybe that’s something to reflect on.

hopelite··on Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched
There is already case law that makes the records collected by government through these methods no different than any other public records, especially since they are publicly visible license plate numbers.

That has its own problems because it shields/deflects from the bigger issue of being treasonous, i.e., grotesque violation of the law of the Constitution, through mass surveillance that has also already been abused for various kinds of criminal acts by law enforcement.

hopelite··on Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched
Why would they break into individual hardware when they have unfettered access to the whole system in certain countries’ cases and can likely just hack into it in more adversarial cases? It is one of the several reasons why … yes, I know YC backed and funded Flock … the company and everyone in government that contracts for them to provide this mass surveillance service, is objectively and inherently treasonous. But don’t shoot the messenger just because people don’t like the message.

“Whoopsie, my negligence I shouldn’t have been engaging in in the first place” is no exemption from being a traitor, betrayal.

What that means for society and if and what it does about it is a different question. Based on historical trends, it all probably won’t matter since we’ve clearly crossed a threshold and the “PPP” tyranny (different from the trillion dollars in PPP loans that were forgiven and contributed to the inflation) is upon us because it wasn’t prevented when it still could have been.

I don’t think people here are even tracking what is going on in TX, UT, LA (and soon to be nation wide); where as of Jan 1st all new accounts will have to provide government ID to install any app on a mobile device.

hopelite··on Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched
LinkedIn has always struck me like a kind of contemporary slave management/market place, only one in which pick-mes try to be the best alpha slave they can be.

The fact that you are linked in, as in a chain, sure does not help with dispelling my impression.

hopelite··on Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched
I totally understand your sentiment, but you could just check a random assortment of license plate numbers you collected while driving around, which also includes yours. At the very least that would effectively obfuscate your license plate sufficiently that it could not be attributed beyond other methods that likely already have done so.
hopelite··on Have I been Flocked? – Check if your license plate is being watched
They de facto are because they only place cameras in public places and on public land by contract with the government in one form or another; be it with a treasonous sheriff or a treasonous state executive and legislature. The public would not be talking about Flock if they had not worked to create a treasonous surveillance state and instead only did things like monitored truck movements in a logistics depot. The private contracts for things like HOA neighborhoods and corporations, e.g., big box store loss prevention and customer data tracking, but those’s are a totally different issue that have nothing to do with the use of public funds and power for mass surveillance.
hopelite··on The US polluters that are rewriting the EU's human rights and climate law
“Big oil” is not demonic it is your God as much as it is everyone’s God that uses electricity and all the things you have that are only possible through oil. You are likely not even remotely aware of just how many things you have and do that are only possible because of oil.

Hint: it’s basically 100% of things you have and do. Even your minor deities, Renewable Energy are all a creation and possible due to your God, Big Oil.

hopelite··on How elites could shape mass preferences as AI reduces persuasion costs
I guess there is some disagreement about Flock being a wonderful project?
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