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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • We’ll agree to disagree I suppose. The alternatives don’t necessarily have to be FOSS either. A perfect example of a viable alternative to a predatory “industry standard” exists in the audio production world; REAPER.

    When I was in College, Pro Tools was the required software. Pro Tools at the time was a walled garden ecosystem, trapping anyone who sunk their hard earned cash into an environment rife with anti-consumer practices, hardware brand restrictions and invasive DRM.

    It cost me over $600 CAD at the time for a bundle containing a feature-limited copy of Pro Tools and a Digidesign MBox.

    Meanwhile, REAPER’s noncommercial license was $60. That $60 got you a full featured copy of the DAW with support for the next two full version upgrades (which turned out to be nearly a decade of updates). You could also use any hardware interfaces you desired without restriction.

    REAPER also has a free trial that is full-featured. No restrictions at all, even the trial length is unlimited. Why? Because they respect the consumer and trust that if you find value in the software you’ll support their work by paying for a copy. That purchase is one of the best I’ve ever made.

    In my experience, REAPER was equally as capable as Pro Tools or any other DAW on the market at the time. As of now I’d wager it’s the superior product.

    A world where consumers are respected currently exists, its just not in the hands of the corporate world. The best way to make a better future for everyone in the software world is to not put up with anti-consumer practices and engage with companies and developers that respect our time and hard earned cash instead of treating us like cattle.





  • This is a decent point. YouTube is cancer if you don’t police your algorithm. If you do (ie: vote on vids, use the “Not Interested” and “Don’t recommend channel” options) you get a very clean and personalized feed.

    You’ll know when YouTube makes changes to their algorithm as you’ll suddenly get some unwanted stuff. For example, when any football videos show up in my feed I know YT is making changes so I flag the unwanted stuff when it comes up and within a few flaggings its back to normal.

    If you open my YouTube home page its nothing but metal bands, production vids, guitar and drum vids as well as video games, racing, sim racing, science and some other long form content. Its hyper specific to my interests.

    I helped pull my buddy out of a bit of a ragebait spiral during covid just by showing him my feed and comparing it to his. He never fathomed the depths that YT would drag him to if he didn’t curate his algorithm.

    The algorithm can be cancer if you engage with cancer. If you pick your content like you pick your fruits at the grocery store you’ll have a much better time.





  • I’d say that in my experience, retro games or games with a retro design philosophy tend to be more enjoyable and replayable. The nostalgia helps with that, but I think a big part of it is never having to tinker with graphics settings or anything technical. You just boot it up and play.

    I’d personally consider anything older than 2005 to be a retro game (or at least retro-adjacent) in my library. It feels like around that time there was a major shift in how games were made; some really benefiting from the new design philosophies but many falling very short of their hype and ultimate goals.

    For me the biggest problem with modern games is the obsession with high fidelity graphics. The dev teams that create games without a focus on photo-realism or jaw dropping visuals are often the teams creating the best games in my eyes. See Heart Machine, ConcernedApe, Polytron, Ludeon Studios, Maddy Makes Games, etc…

    Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of good modern games. The retro design philosophy just resonates much stronger with me when I just wanna sit down and enjoy something. Shoutout to Maxis for making SimCity 4, that game is sucking up the hours lately. lol


  • AstralPath@lemmy.catoFediverse@lemmy.worldLemmy Active Users looking good
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    4 months ago

    Does Lemmy need to grow for some reason? Sometimes I swear I can feel the Reddit community toxicity seeping in and its really disappointing. Honestly, for me personally if Lemmy continued on exactly as it is today, I’d be perfectly content.

    That said, if there are benefits to growth beyond the wide scope of mass adoption fucking over the proprietary social medias I’m all ears.