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Cake day: January 29th, 2025

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  • pulsewidth@lemmy.worldtoTechnology@lemmy.worldSpotify vs. Anna's Archive
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    1 day ago

    Spotify streams all music at 160kbps OGG for free users by default, so that’s what this archive is dumped at - the original Spotify content, no transcode. The only difference is they re-encoded all the songs with a ‘popularity’ of zero at a lower bitrate, because that saved an enormous amount of data for all the AI crap pumped into Spotify that nobody listens to.

    Side note - it would probably not be possible to do a dump as a paid used (as they would notice a user account is being abused, and ban it), but paid accounts go up to 320kbps OGG and some content is also available lossless (as FLAC).

    Anyway, 99%+ of people can’t consistently tell the difference between a 160kbps OGG and lossless, because of limitations in either their equipment, training, ears, or a combination thereof. This has been blind tested many times and the audiophiles that ‘swear they can tell’ are always proven wrong, they then usually blame the equipment or test. There’s tests you can run yourself too, eg here: https://abx.digitalfeed.net/list.html



  • The judge would never make a legal argument that “religious propaganda had reduced a person’s legal capacity” as it would have wide-ranging implications and would be challenged (and overruled) in short order due to freedom of religion laws.

    The hospitals legal team appealed for an order because the kid was effectively killing themselves and they have a duty to do no harm.

    This prompted the health board to go to the Court of Session to seek an order which would allow its doctors to administer the blood transfusion up to two weeks following the child’s procedure.

    Its legal team told Lady Tait that such an order was necessary because blood loss was an “inevitable consequence” of the operation.

    The judge deemed that weighing the child’s personal beliefs and medical risk it was in their best interest to allow the order. That is their justification and it follows other case law examined, there is no legal need for them to deem the kid incapable of making the decision. It’s only made the news because religious people making dumb decisions about their health is a common public interest story.

    Lady Tait also wrote about cases examined by English courts, before concluding that in the context of the case brought before the court, it would be in the best interests of the child that the order be granted.


  • Sounds like a slippery slope fallacy. Just because a judge has carefully weighed that this is in the 14 year olds best interest now, does not at all mean more dire decisions against personal rights will be made in future.

    I’ll worry if the courts ever start making decisions that go against the childs best interest.

    The judge said they’re ordering this because there would not be time to solicit the court for an order if a transfusion does become necessary, and risk of death would be significant.

    I’m fine with letting adult religious zealots bleed out if they’re too god-brained to accept help, but for a 14yo I think it’s pretty reasonable to save them from themselves so they can live to have a fully-developed brain.




  • I mean, that would be totally reasonable for someone his age, in his shape, so full of constant hate.

    But then… With the level of healthcare available to the elite - Dick Cheney got a new heart and lived to 84, Kissinger also didnt look after his health at all and had a coronary bypass and multiple operations… Lived to 100.

    The good die young.

    The others… Need help.


  • There’s a reason she was convicted and went to jail.

    And that same reason is why Trump and his admin are trying very hard to whitewash and downplay her crimes.

    The statement Epstein “killed himself” used in the article has still never been proven adequately. He was on suicide watch (found partially conscious just months beforehand, again no evidence it was by his own hands) and moved to another more secure cell - and there were four cameras pointed toward his cell that would have provided valuable evidence, two were ‘accidentally deleted’ and one was also lost as its video provided to investigators was ‘accidentally’ from the wrong section of the jail that looked identical, the original correct video deleted in the meantime before this accident was identified (‘oh gosh, whoopsie again’). The guards have been prosecuted for lying to investigators about their whereabouts during his death and falaifying claims he was checked on the mandated schedule.

    Sure are a lot of ‘accidental’ evidence deletions, false evidence, and lying guards in this story to take the Trump-admin led investigation (his fucking co-conspirator) at face value. Any genuine investigation would have to say “based on the evidence, cause of death is inconclusive”.


  • For sure. IKEA is a great place to start (or stay), as it’s a cheap ecosystem and their app/implementation doesnt require permanent internet access - functions fine during an internet outrage, and quite privacy-respecting.

    HomeAssistant is not anywhere near as hard to set up as it used to be. If you have an old mini-PC retired from work sitting around there are HA images for PCs now, and it’s pretty simple to set up to use your IKEA hub (or whatever you have already), while adding a huge swath of optional features.

    I agree it’s still not something your average Joe will set up, but the continual lowering of barriers will get more people into running a self-hosted local config is a great thing for privacy and expanding the hobby.


  • There’s an xkcd for everything, isn’t there.

    Its not wrong, but the major attraction to Matter is it must allow devices to operate locally (not tying them to cloud services that die every internet outrage, or permanently when the service retires), and it’s an application-layer protocol. Meaning it can operate over WiFi, Ethernet, or Thread.

    Many existing smart home hubs have been able to program support for Matter and simply send out an OTA update to add certified Matter support.


  • Your heart is in the right place, but this is the deep south. That action by a local would likely end in the sheriff’s office kicking in your door with a no-knock raid, shooting your dog and maybe also you.

    When powerless people (like the girl in this article) complain they are dismissed and treated with suspicion by the authorities.

    When the authorities complain their peers respond rapidly and with excessive force.

    This is commonly called authoritarianism, but in the US they prefer the euphemism ‘weak governance’ because ‘-ism’ words are unpopular.



  • The real issue with smart home adoption has been proprietary formats all vying for dominance and fragmenting the market. I don’t think AI has changed much.

    Matter (and Thread) are a huge change to the SmartHome landscape because they’re open protocols and have well-documented standards - and they’ve finally begun appearing in big manufacturer’s line-ups such as IKEA.

    Once their availability spreads I suspect a lot more people will get into running their own local (eg HomeAssistant) smart home because they won’t have to do the ‘ok do I need z-wave or ZigBee or HomeKit or IFTTT or Hue or Tuya or… you know what, fuck this’. It’ll all be the same protocol and communications and config & debug will be much easier.