• 1 Post
  • 101 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

help-circle



  • Pasted the text here so no need to visit r*ddit.

    The text covered well for the software related history of Gates, but let’s also not forget the not-so-far past. Dealings with Epstein (which led to divorce with Melinda, sus?) and helping monopolize COVID vaccines come to mind first

    
    Bill Gates *has*, in fact, earned himself the "evil CEO" stereotype in the past. [Microsoft was a notorious monopoly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Microsoft) throughout the 1990s. It was even convicted of anti-trust violation in both the US and EU; both times it paid the fine and went on being a monopoly anyway. Their OEM agreements with hardware vendors actually made it difficult to impossible to get any other operating system onto a PC.
    
    When we talk about "altruism and sustainability" applied to software, most of us should be thinking about Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Starting all the way back in the 1970s with his "[open letter to hobbyists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists)," Gates carried out a decades-long vendetta against all open source software anywhere. This went beyond all common business sense into "now you're just being a dick" territory. See also the pack of frivolous lawsuits Microsoft pressed against the FOSS community and Steve Ballmer referring to FOSS as a "cancer."
    
    Generally, Bill Gates was to nerds what Joe McCarthy was to Socialists for a few decades. So he burned some very heavy bridges, even among his peers in the tech community. And BTW, Gates was born wealthy and managed to muscle Microsoft Windows onto IBM merely through family connections.
    
    NOW, in the present day, Gates has separated himself from all that and become a legendary altruist, especially contributing to fight diseases through the Gates' Foundation. Some might even say he redeemed himself. Microsoft itself buried the open source hatchet finally; partly because the desktop market is now sinking out from under them while Google has taken its place as the monopoly heavyweight.
    
    Anyway, the above is an attempt to provide some context, nothing more. I know that a portion of the public will always say "billionaire = bad!" no matter what. But it's not like you can say Gates did nothing wrong.








  • There really should be a community for “Weird america” or something.

    I live in Europe, and I donate blood because it’s the fucking right thing to do. Everyone knows someone whose life was saved by a random donor, and every time you donate blood you’re saving someone’s life.

    Like there’s literally no reason to not donate it if your body allows it





  • Modlog does contain the info, it’s just not displayed on the website. You can get the full data from lemmy API

    Example:

    {
                "mod_ban_from_community": {
                    "id": 19651,
                    "mod_person_id": 7121342,
                    "other_person_id": 8043739,
                    "community_id": 1309,
                    "reason": "Rule 5",
                    "banned": true,
                    "expires": "2024-09-19T21:03:47Z",
                    "when_": "2024-09-12T21:05:15.205847Z"
                },
                "moderator": {
                    "id": 7121342,
                    "name": "Beaver",
                    "display_name": "Beaver [she/her]",
                    "avatar": "https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/5801e891-c371-459d-a262-84e476040930.png",
                    "banned": false,
                    "published": "2024-04-11T00:47:49.008680Z",
                    "actor_id": "https://lemmy.ca/u/Beaver",
                    "bio": "Human/Animal Rights Supporter \n\n🇵🇸🇺🇦🇹🇼🇬🇪🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇲🇩\n\nWe Need Proportional Representation Badly\n",
                    "local": false,
                    "banner": "https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/fea3cd18-4600-49b1-a0b9-be394adeab83.jpeg",
                    "deleted": false,
                    "matrix_user_id": "@ralimbahere:matrix.org",
                    "bot_account": false,
                    "instance_id": 251
                },
                "community": {
                    "id": 1309,
                    "name": "vegan",
                    "title": "vegan",
                    "description": "Please also check out [vegantheoryclub.org](https://vegantheoryclub.org/) for a great set of well-run communities for vegan news, cooking, gardening, and art. It is not federated with LW, but it is a nice, cozy, all-in-one space for vegans.\n\n***\n\nWe ask that the you have an understanding on what veganism is before engaging in this community.\n\nIf you think you have been banned erroneously, please get in contact with one of the other mods for appeals.\n\nModerator reports may not federate properly and may delay moderator action. Please DM an active mod if an abusive comment remains after reporting it.\n\n***\n\n## Welcome\n\nWelcome to c/vegan@lemmy.world. Broadly, this community is a place to discuss veganism. Discussion on [intersectional](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersectionality) topics related to the animal rights movement are also encouraged.\n\n## What is Veganism?\n\n> 'Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals ...'\n\n— abridged definition from [The Vegan Society](https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/definition-veganism)\n\n## Rules\n\n*The rules are subject to change, especially upon community feedback.*\n\n1. Discrimination is **not** tolerated. *This includes [speciesism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciesism)*.\n2. Topics not relating to veganism are subject to removal.\n3. Posts are to be as accessible as practicable:\n\t- pictures of text require alt-text;\n\t- paywalled articles must have an accessible non-paywalled link.\n4. Content warnings are required for triggering content.\n5. Bad-faith [carnist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnism) rhetoric & anti-veganism are not allowed, as this is not a space to debate the merits of veganism. Anyone is welcome here, however, and so good-faith efforts to ask questions about veganism may be given their own weekly stickied post in the future (see current stickied discussion).\n\t- before jumping into the community, we encourage you to read [examples of common fallacies here.](https://yourveganfallacyis.com/)\n\t- if you're asking questions about veganism, be mindful that the person on the other end is trying to be helpful by answering you and treat them with at least as much respect as they give you.\n6. Misinformation, particularly that which is dangerous or has malicious intent, is subject to removal.\n\n## Resources on Veganism\n\nA compilation of many vegan resources/sites in a Google spreadsheet:\n\n* [vegancheatsheet.org](https://vegancheatsheet.org/)\n\nHere are some documentaries that are recommended to watch if planning to or have recently become vegan:\n\n* [You Will Never Look at Your Life in the Same Way Again](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3u7hXpOm58)\n* [Dominion (2018)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQRAfJyEsko) (CW: gore, animal abuse)\n\n## Vegan Fediverse\n\nLemmy: [vegantheoryclub.org](https://vegantheoryclub.org/)\n\nMastodon: [veganism.social](https://veganism.social/)\n\n### Other Vegan Communities\n\n#### General Vegan Comms\n!vegan@lemmy.ml\n\n!vegan@hexbear.net\n\n!vegan@vegantheoryclub.org\n\n!vegan@slrpnk.net\n\n#### Circlejerk Comms\n!vegancirclejerk@lemmy.ml\n\n\n#### Vegan Food / Cooking\n!homecooks@vegantheoryclub.org \n\n!veganrecipes@sh.itjust.works\n\n!recipes@vegantheoryclub.org\n\n",
                    "removed": false,
                    "published": "2023-06-09T20:05:49.639993Z",
                    "updated": "2024-09-03T01:09:32.860483Z",
                    "deleted": false,
                    "nsfw": false,
                    "actor_id": "https://lemmy.world/c/vegan",
                    "local": true,
                    "icon": "https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/22056785-18ee-40dc-a6da-03af986f2d3b.jpeg",
                    "hidden": false,
                    "posting_restricted_to_mods": false,
                    "instance_id": 1
                },
                "banned_person": {
                    "id": 8043739,
                    "name": "mushroomstormtrooper",
                    "banned": false,
                    "published": "2024-05-27T16:10:30.690962Z",
                    "actor_id": "https://lemmy.world/u/mushroomstormtrooper",
                    "local": true,
                    "deleted": false,
                    "bot_account": false,
                    "instance_id": 1
                }
            }