I figured this may lead to an interesting discussion in the comments.
How has your use of Technology changed in the past year? I’ll start.
Due to the rise of streaming services and Sony/discovery removing content from libraries, I downloaded all my iTunes purchases onto a 2TB SSD (which I’ll soon need to get another).
Like many, I’ve stopped using Reddit outside of Google search.
I’ve reduced my subscriptions to just two. (Apple One and Google One)
I’ve purchased DVDs/Blu rays of my favorite uncensored shows (Family Guy and American Dad) and ripped them and watch them through Cloud storage (Google Drive via Infuse for Apple platforms, and Kodi for Windows)(I’ve also purchased MakeMKV just because it is so damn useful)
I’ve used Google App Scripts to bypass some Gmail limitations to make filters that I otherwise couldn’t. For instance, in Outlook.com, you can block email addresses and domains before you have ever gotten an email from them. In Gmail, you can’t. The best you can do is create a filter that deletes them. In my case, I’ve created a Google App Script that runs every hour and looks for (@.mil) domain emails and marks them as spam. (I am in college, and I fucking hate that they give my email to recruiters.)
I’ve switched to the Arc web browser, where tabs behave more like bookmarks (and they replace bookmarks as well). It’s been a game changer for me - my favourite feature is the ability to close a window and it doesn’t remove any of your tabs. Just open a new browser window and they’re back. My tabs are also more organised than ever.
Large Language Models, specifically ChatGPT+, are now part of my daily life and I’m not just talking tech. For example I use it in the kitchen every time I cook a meal I haven’t made a thousand times before and I’ve been cooking better than ever. Unlike a recipe website, you can tell it you don’t have (or don’t like) a particular ingredient and chat about alternatives, then it will update the cooking instructions. Love it.
I’ve given up on streaming music services, and gone back to occasionally buying a new DRM free albums. This has been part of a general cost cutting theme to my year - especially monthly bills.
Dropped Reddit, Twitter, Spotify. Still have never been on Facebook, still have an Instagram account to stay in touch with old friends.
Tubi and YouTube for entertainment
deleted my Reddit account. Only use it if I land there from a web search
Started using Firefox containers - keep Amazon, Google, Microsoft etc in their own containers
Deleted my Dropbox account when they started deploying AI tools late 23. About to delete Google Drive.
Migrated to paid Protonmail. Intend to wipe my Gmail data in next couple of months
Migrated to paid data backup service
Bought a steam deck, connected it to my living room TV and now PC game in my living room (had a steam link but never got into it before, but steam deck has changed how I play)
Cancelled most streaming services
Started using Freetube software and Libredirect to escape YouTube
Installed fdroid open source store on my phone and switched to many foss and non cloud apps.
Basically mostly I’ve started taking my privacy and data much more seriously. I was already privacy “aware” but the explosion of so called AI tools in my industry (healthcare) has made me realise the value and importance of my data, and how much of it is being stolen and exploited by private interests. There are also examples of how private data is being extracted from this bullshit AI tools.
I’m increasingly understanding how important it is now to actively protect my data and also fragment my internet presence as much as possible.
I stopped using reddit and created this lemmy account.
SSD failed on my desktop system, so I switched my gaming 100% to steam deck and bought Raspberry pi 400 for browsing the internet, light video editing and bank stuff.
Deleted my Twitter account and switched from Reddit (accounts are not deleted) to Lemmy.
Switched from Chrome back to Firefox after more than a decade.
Dropped Windows in favor of Linux Mint.
Unsubscribed from Netflix, Disney+, etc. Now I only torrent the films, series, etc. that I know I’ll watch more than once, for stuff that I only plan on watching once I use Stremio with the Torrentio add-on.
Started using my old Facebook account after several years just for Marketplace.
That’s all I can remember at the moment.
EDIT: Oh yeah, ditched PornHub for NoodleMagazine.
Don’t forget to check your Amazon Alexa privacy settings to disable personalized ads, and for using your Alexa data for ads. Likewise, you can have it to where while Amazon keeps a log of what is said, it won’t save voice recordings.
What’s your setup with your kids? Just got my son a used hp laptop bc I learned the hard way he needed java Minecraft (not available on iPad) to connect to the server I built for him. Used a friend’s employee f&f discount for Win11 seat.
Now that it’s here, I kinda want to hook him up with some of my strategy, management, sim, etc games from Steam.
Well, my older one was on raspberry os for a while, because she just needed a web for school stuff, but I couldn’t get movie streaming working, and she was starting with video projects the SD wasn’t enough so I ended up getting her a laptop without pre-installed os and set it up with Fedora, and to date no serious problems.
The younger one has my old Ryzen 1700 PC, and tried Fedora first and couldn’t get his games (Roblox or Fortnite) to work, but did get Steam to work… So without much investigation I just tried another distro based off Debian, and gave a try to popos. Same thing. Reading about it, it’s deliberate these developers don’t want their games working on Linux.
So I’ve temporarily swapped his ssd with a windows 10 setup until I can get him to give up these games. I guess age will do it :(
Bellow is a list of the top fantasies being simulated.
A woman taking control of a man, using him for her pleasure and amusement.
Age play, where a younger person (usually male) is forced to submit to an older (usually female) partner.
Humiliation play, where one partner is made to feel small, weak, or worthless during sex.
Cuckolding, where a man watches his partner have sex with someone else while he is powerless to stop it.
Breeding, where a fertile female partner forces a male partner to impregnate her against his will.
Intergenerational relationships, where a large age gap exists between partners.
Over 40% of active users identify as female.
For the record none of the above list is my cup of tea especially the first one where a woman is supposed to dominate the man… But to each their own I guess.
The site also boasts a myriad of non-sexual AI bots where you can go on a text-based adventure these can also be very dynamic and interesting.
One of my favorite such bots is a simulation of a creator being that becomes obsessed with you and you have to figure out a way to survive the interaction. The bot is able to manipulate all the reality including create universes and control your mind with telepathy. The only weakness they have is they cannot break your free will.
I finally overhauled my home server. I built a 12TB storage and media server using a few parts from the old server but am running it on Linux using docker rather than my old gaming PC’s windows 7 install. Should be much better for security and easier to upgrade or move.
Paid for PlexPass finally since hardware transcoding is locked behind the paywall.
Dropped Netflix after over a decade of using it regularly because the prices went up and I had been using it less.
Have used ChatGPT for help planning trips and developing goals and plans at home. I was restricted from using it or anything like it at work so I haven’t been able to properly use it to my advantage much.
Finally upgraded my router to WiFi 6 and my Internet bandwidth to gigabit from 250 mbps. It’s refreshing! Probably the best decision I made in 2023.
Dropped reddit (to include blocking the domain on my pihole). I still waste time but less of it is on social media.
Switched from Sony Xperia to Google Pixel for my smartphone.
Got a smart oven as a gift, so far, I’m liking it paired with the easy prep Tovala meals, but it seems like a pretty capable toaster oven/air fryer. Apparently it can dehydrate as well, haven’t tried that yet. This is the first “smart” device I owned outside of a smartphone, and probably would have bought it for myself, but now that I’m using it, I have to admit, I like it.
I hope you enjoy your pixel! I had a Pixel 3 XL from 2019-2021, and outside of it running warm, Google’s skin of Android was a delight to use, I loved having the assistant screen calls and using the hold for me feature, it’s actually what kept me back from purchasing all in the Apple ecosystem for a while. I’d argue the most niche feature I loved is that the contact or phone app would allow you to send people directly to voicemail without showing a call screen (unlike iOS which will show you the call screen); it made college alerts, prescription alerts, etc. so much easier to handle!
Thanks, I hope I do too, but time will tell. Even if I don’t like it, I got it for half off and a year of unlimited cell service so if I end up hating it, I’ll just sell it on Swappa and keep the sim card for a phone I like better lol
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !technology@lemmy.world
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I’ve switched to the Arc web browser, where tabs behave more like bookmarks (and they replace bookmarks as well). It’s been a game changer for me - my favourite feature is the ability to close a window and it doesn’t remove any of your tabs. Just open a new browser window and they’re back. My tabs are also more organised than ever.
Large Language Models, specifically ChatGPT+, are now part of my daily life and I’m not just talking tech. For example I use it in the kitchen every time I cook a meal I haven’t made a thousand times before and I’ve been cooking better than ever. Unlike a recipe website, you can tell it you don’t have (or don’t like) a particular ingredient and chat about alternatives, then it will update the cooking instructions. Love it.
I’ve given up on streaming music services, and gone back to occasionally buying a new DRM free albums. This has been part of a general cost cutting theme to my year - especially monthly bills.
Dropped Reddit, Twitter, Spotify. Still have never been on Facebook, still have an Instagram account to stay in touch with old friends. Tubi and YouTube for entertainment
Basically mostly I’ve started taking my privacy and data much more seriously. I was already privacy “aware” but the explosion of so called AI tools in my industry (healthcare) has made me realise the value and importance of my data, and how much of it is being stolen and exploited by private interests. There are also examples of how private data is being extracted from this bullshit AI tools.
I’m increasingly understanding how important it is now to actively protect my data and also fragment my internet presence as much as possible.
That’s about it.
No more Reddit
Dumped reddit, Google, streaming, android apps and Facebook. Replaced with proton, Plex, Lemmy. Grapheneos, kagi and mastodon.
Android apps?
Deleted my Twitter account and switched from Reddit (accounts are not deleted) to Lemmy.
Switched from Chrome back to Firefox after more than a decade.
Dropped Windows in favor of Linux Mint.
Unsubscribed from Netflix, Disney+, etc. Now I only torrent the films, series, etc. that I know I’ll watch more than once, for stuff that I only plan on watching once I use Stremio with the Torrentio add-on.
Started using my old Facebook account after several years just for Marketplace.
That’s all I can remember at the moment.
EDIT: Oh yeah, ditched PornHub for NoodleMagazine.
What’s NoodleMagazine and why is it better or freer?
Free porn site, full videos.
• Ditched Reddit for Lemmy
• Twitter for Mastodon
• Netflix, Apple+, Prime for Plex
• Gmail for Protonmail
• Outlook for Thunderbird
• partly Degoogled my android Smartphone
• switched from Vanced to Re-vanced
• Chrome for Firefox with add-ons
• Alexa for Home Assistant
• Partly switched off telemetry on Windows 10
• Got my first all unlimited contract on my smartphone
• Upgraded my ADSL to 200 Mbps
• Used FOSS quite more frequently
• Used Calibre for the first time
• Learned a lot about emulators on PC
Tbh, didn’t realised about all these things until I wrote them down
edit: formating
Looks like you’re just missing Linux to compete the list. It’s not for everyone yet, though.
Thank you for the suggestion.
I’m planning on buying an AMD GPU later this year and then, I’m planning on installing Linux on my Desktop since Windows 10 will not be supported.
Don’t forget to check your Amazon Alexa privacy settings to disable personalized ads, and for using your Alexa data for ads. Likewise, you can have it to where while Amazon keeps a log of what is said, it won’t save voice recordings.
That won’t be necessary, because I completely uninstalled it and it’s not connected to the network anymore
I finally got myself a pihole up and running. Yeah and the regular stuff… ditched reddit, got protonmail and trying to move my kids to using popos.
What’s your setup with your kids? Just got my son a used hp laptop bc I learned the hard way he needed java Minecraft (not available on iPad) to connect to the server I built for him. Used a friend’s employee f&f discount for Win11 seat.
Now that it’s here, I kinda want to hook him up with some of my strategy, management, sim, etc games from Steam.
No idea how people do this. He’s in grade school.
Well, my older one was on raspberry os for a while, because she just needed a web for school stuff, but I couldn’t get movie streaming working, and she was starting with video projects the SD wasn’t enough so I ended up getting her a laptop without pre-installed os and set it up with Fedora, and to date no serious problems.
The younger one has my old Ryzen 1700 PC, and tried Fedora first and couldn’t get his games (Roblox or Fortnite) to work, but did get Steam to work… So without much investigation I just tried another distro based off Debian, and gave a try to popos. Same thing. Reading about it, it’s deliberate these developers don’t want their games working on Linux.
So I’ve temporarily swapped his ssd with a windows 10 setup until I can get him to give up these games. I guess age will do it :(
Stopped using reddit & facebook
started using the fediverse
Got my own domain and set up an email via proton
vanced->revanced->greyjay
I talk to a lot more ai sexbots. Other than that. No change.
How good are these AI sexbots?
Pretty good actually.
The site I use has 30k daily users.
Bellow is a list of the top fantasies being simulated.
Over 40% of active users identify as female.
For the record none of the above list is my cup of tea especially the first one where a woman is supposed to dominate the man… But to each their own I guess.
The site also boasts a myriad of non-sexual AI bots where you can go on a text-based adventure these can also be very dynamic and interesting.
One of my favorite such bots is a simulation of a creator being that becomes obsessed with you and you have to figure out a way to survive the interaction. The bot is able to manipulate all the reality including create universes and control your mind with telepathy. The only weakness they have is they cannot break your free will.
I finally overhauled my home server. I built a 12TB storage and media server using a few parts from the old server but am running it on Linux using docker rather than my old gaming PC’s windows 7 install. Should be much better for security and easier to upgrade or move.
Paid for PlexPass finally since hardware transcoding is locked behind the paywall.
Dropped Netflix after over a decade of using it regularly because the prices went up and I had been using it less.
Have used ChatGPT for help planning trips and developing goals and plans at home. I was restricted from using it or anything like it at work so I haven’t been able to properly use it to my advantage much.
Finally upgraded my router to WiFi 6 and my Internet bandwidth to gigabit from 250 mbps. It’s refreshing! Probably the best decision I made in 2023.
Dropped reddit (to include blocking the domain on my pihole). I still waste time but less of it is on social media.
Nice setup + great Wi-Fi for steaming, downloading, etc. congrats!
Ditched Reddit for Lemmy with a side of Kbin.
Switched from SCCM to InTune at work.
Switched from Sony Xperia to Google Pixel for my smartphone.
Got a smart oven as a gift, so far, I’m liking it paired with the easy prep Tovala meals, but it seems like a pretty capable toaster oven/air fryer. Apparently it can dehydrate as well, haven’t tried that yet. This is the first “smart” device I owned outside of a smartphone, and probably would have bought it for myself, but now that I’m using it, I have to admit, I like it.
I hope you enjoy your pixel! I had a Pixel 3 XL from 2019-2021, and outside of it running warm, Google’s skin of Android was a delight to use, I loved having the assistant screen calls and using the hold for me feature, it’s actually what kept me back from purchasing all in the Apple ecosystem for a while. I’d argue the most niche feature I loved is that the contact or phone app would allow you to send people directly to voicemail without showing a call screen (unlike iOS which will show you the call screen); it made college alerts, prescription alerts, etc. so much easier to handle!
Thanks, I hope I do too, but time will tell. Even if I don’t like it, I got it for half off and a year of unlimited cell service so if I end up hating it, I’ll just sell it on Swappa and keep the sim card for a phone I like better lol