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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • Inventing your own “standard” and forcing everyone to use it (lightning and webkit)

    It’s like people don’t remember history anymore. WebKit was a joint venture between many groups. It wasn’t “inventing your own standard” any more than any web browser engine. The restriction to WebKit on iOS devices can be frustrating, but this practice is anti-competitive.

    And Lightning replaced another proprietary port, the iPod 30-pin connector. That 30-pin connector was born in a time when standards for device-side connections were not very often utilized. Many devices used proprietary connectors. When Apple transitioned away from the 30-pin, the industry at large was operating with both Mini-USB and Micro-USB, which were both straight-up inferior to Lightning.

    The problem with Apple and Lightning is that they didn’t drop it when they should’ve. When USB-C became the clear de facto standard, and they began transitioning all of their other devices to it, they should’ve moved the iPhone over and bit the bullet then. Not doing so, and continuing to charge for MFi certification was, again, anti-competitive. But the existence of Lightning wasn’t anti-consumer.

    preventing consumers from having their device repaired from anyone else than a “certified technician” at 4x the markup

    Right-to-repair is an important issue and Apple are really shitty about it. I agree. They are not unique, and this also needs to be addressed.

    Google pixels are not OEM-locked and I can easiely install graphene or any other operating system on them. In the smartphone category, google is the only good vendor, ironically.

    Like I said, “in many respects.” For your use-case, one that you must admit is infrequently utilized, statistically speaking, Google makes a better product that fits your needs. The vast, vast majority of smartphone users are not flashing alternate ROMs to their devices. Most people aren’t power-users, and even most power-users don’t bother. That’s not to say your use-case isn’t meaningful; I’m glad there are still solid options available for a world I used to be a part of!

    People can damn well choose to not buy an apple device.

    Sure, but does that mean Apple should be allowed to get away with anti-competitive behavior? With practices that seek to force others to use their systems, or to keep users they have from exploring other options? I don’t think so. Bad business practices need to be addressed regardless of whether users have an option to look elsewhere. Especially when the company has a sufficiently large percentage of the smartphone market to force developers to work within their walled garden to hit target audiences.


  • a device that is known to be anti-consumer.

    Anti-competitive and monopolistic, sure. Anti-consumer? Eh.

    Don’t get me wrong, Apple is just as evil as the next guy. Their practices reinforce their market position in an insidious way. But in many respects Apple performs better on the consumer front than, say, their primary competitor Google. Not in every way, but I wouldn’t call their devices “anti-consumer.”

    If one of your primary concerns as a consumer is an open platform then yeah, I can see you rejecting outright Apple devices. This could in turn lead to being dismissive of the concerns of those whose priorities differ from yours, though I would strongly advise against such a lack of empathy over something as insignificant as a platform choice. Regardless, curtailing their practices is still important.

    If we don’t stop bad behavior because it doesn’t affect us directly, we set bad precedents. Regulatory actions are an important tool.

    If we talk about restricting stuff like rent, food prices etc, so essentials, I’m on board. But Apple? Nah.

    Fallacy of relative privation. “X is worse than Y, so Y doesn’t matter.” Rent and food prices are important, too, but regulatory bodies don’t operate on a zero sum system. Multiple things can be addressed with multiple efforts. It’s not like the EU is saying “we can ignore starvation and homelessness because at least we cracked down on Apple.”





  • Yeah what does “substantially” mean in this context?

    The context is laid out clearly. You earn one additional dollar and that one additional dollar puts you in the 33% tax bracket.

    Your tax bill would go up by 33% of one dollar. $0.33. Total.

    The question doesn’t specify whether we’re talking about total dollars paid or just how much the tax percentage increases in that bracket.

    It’s irrelevant. Your “total dollars paid” in taxes would increase by $0.33, and the difference that extra dollar is taxed vs the previous dollar is $0.05. Neither of these are “substantial.”

    This question simply asks whether 0: you have reading comprehension skills and 1: you understand how tax brackets work.










  • The right person for me deserves better.

    I’m sure you’re joking, at least at some level. But if you’re like me, you probably also believe it at some level.

    It turns out this is, in some ways, a good mindset. Always keep in mind that your partner deserves better, and you’re driven to be better for them. Not because you aren’t enough, but because you can be your best when you learn to navigate the give-and-take that long-term relationships require. You’ll fuck up, but if you’re willing to be kind, empathetic, and most importantly apologetic, and willing to get up and try again when you fall, you’re already far ahead of plenty of people.

    But if you start thinking you deserve better than your partner, you’re gonna have a bad time.

    We’re all insecure at our core, but that means so is everyone else. The right person for you also thinks you deserve better. Build them up, and they’ll build you up in return.

    (Sorry, I know it’s a shitpost.)