Boz (he/him)

1/5 the price of branded stuff, but very similar to the price of dry TVP, which replaces ground beef very well in casseroles or chili (properly seasoned, and with oil added to the recipe to make up for the near-total lack of fat in TVP), and is workable in more exposed applications like meatloaf. Also great for sausage, in my opinion, though strictly speaking that’s a case of replacing pork or turkey.

(If you’re curious, the trick is 1 tsp seasoning blend added to 1 cup TVP while dry, then soaked in 1 cup hot water (vegetable stock is better, but not essential), let it sit for about 15 minutes, and, hey presto, you just skipped the part where you dump a pound of raw meat in a pan, brown it, and drain off the fat preparatory to adding it to a recipe. Add oil during cooking as appropriate, or don’t, and a little soy sauce is always good to add umami, but I find it’s enough to get some herbs and spices in at the start, and just adjust seasoning in the final recipe if necessary. It will be chewy, and it will stay chewy no matter how you cook it, which I like, but be aware. I find it way easier and more fun to cook with than meat).

(I know this sounds like an infomercial, lol, but I was initially intimidated by TVP since I didn’t know what to do with it, and now it’s a staple in my kitchen, so I thought others might want to know).

It’s only partly about the fact that most climate change is caused by the wealthy and corporations, it’s that the wealthy and corporations are trying to control the narrative, to hide their culpability and make sure the changes made won’t affect them. Like coffee shops pushing customers to bring reusable straws instead of giving out free plastic ones (boosting their “green” image while also saving money on straws) instead of putting their to-go beverages in materials that are sustainably produced or recyclable (which probably cost more than the cheap plastic cups and non-recyclable cardboard ones). Individuals can make useful changes, but usually the ones we hear about most often are not the ones that are most productive, they’re the ones that are most convenient for corporations.

In this case, I think it’s more than blame-shifting by corporations, though there’s a hell of a lot of money in designer vegan foods.

U.S., and I don’t know how many businesses here use it, but I think it’s quite possible to avoid using it socially here. I’m not sure if I even know anyone who does use it, and certainly no one has asked me to get one.

Thanks, I’m glad at least someone isn’t judging me.

I meant identifying details about my education and career, not details about my perspective. I wouldn’t have commented if I had nothing to say. :3

And when all you have is a Phillips head screw, you might overlook who’s holding the handle of the exact size screwdriver you need.

Non-tech person, though I would prefer not to go into detail on a public forum. I do get along well with tech people, and I run into some fairly technical issues while trying to do other things, but I’m rarely interested in technology for its own sake. I will listen to someone talk about what they do, or read an article, and I will always try to read the manual, but I am also the kind of person who’s like, “if I can’t solve this problem on my own in 15 minutes, I am going to call tech support.” (In my defense, if I can’t solve the problem in 15 minutes with the manual, I am not going to manage it on my own without human intervention, and I don’t want to bother my friends and family if I can get someone whose actual job is to ask if the machine is plugged in, and who won’t tease me about it for the next three weeks if it was, in fact, not plugged in. I am always polite with tech support, but I can tell they sometimes think I should have been able to figure it out on my own).

I’m fine with not really understanding how Lemmy works, since it does work, and it’s easy to find help if I get stuck. I am picking stuff up here and there as I go, which is usually what happens with stuff I use often, but at a certain point it’s just a black box to me.

ETA: when I say “not going into detail,” I mean about my background. That didn’t come across the first time, lol, sorry about that.

I mean, shouldn’t is more applicable for “male prostitute.” Really depends on the gig, and how closely the client examines your assets.

Does this mean we can say “welcome to the fediverse, we have cake”?

Yeah, but unironically, mailing a check is great if you don’t want to install an app or sign a digital “monetize me, Daddy” agreement just to make a one-time payment to a company that already knows your mailing address. I usually pay rent and utilities that way, because I can just drop it through the office mail slot, and I don’t have to pay a processing fee to use their sketchy online payment system. Cheaper for me, probably a good laugh for the staff, and not difficult.

I was under the impression it was ducks, due to a typo in a bill proposing payment in USD.

There’s a difference between “incapable of understanding” and “doesn’t have enough background information to understand.” Are there people who can’t understand certain tech concepts? Absolutely. But there are a lot more people who just miss the first rung on the ladder, and can’t make it to the top. They can understand when they get the explanation from the ground up, but until then, they’re stuck.

I see it happen a lot when tech people try to explain something that is brand new to the listener, because when you are already able to understand something at a high level, you forget to mention the first several rungs. It’s usually a great explanation, it’s just not an explanation the person on the ground can use.

…also, I don’t think it’s failure to understand login when every instance asks for a separate login if you don’t navigate there through your own instance. It’s a misunderstanding that results from experiencing the fediverse without understanding how it works, not a failure to grasp an abstract concept.

That’s not strictly true, now. I found a good fountain pen community, and a few for knitting and embroidery, among other analog interests. Not everything is here, but the non-tech stuff is starting to trickle in.

I personally wouldn’t trust the website, either. It might be possible to block all the direct trackers, but they can learn a lot about you by what you do on the service, from who you follow to how long you spend on the site. If you have an account, you’re paying for it in data.

…if you’re okay with paying in data, that’s your business, not mine, but don’t assume blocking trackers is full protection.

No, they’ll start raising rates for people with weight loss apps on their phone, or refusing coverage for people who made too many phone calls to an oncologist, or got a lot of texts from their pharmacy saying “X prescription is ready.” Companies collecting medical data is very, very scary for a lot of people.

If you have a smart light bulb or thermostat you control through your phone, they probably know when you went to bed last night, and approximately what your electric bill was last month–unless you get electric bills by email, in which case they might know exactly what your electric bill was last month.

Confirmed, unless they have done it in the past few days, not yet. TechCrunch quoted the head of Instagram as saying that they haven’t implemented ActivityPub yet. There was no specific reason why not, and no timeline for adding that functionality. I think we have at least a few months, since there are a lot of other missing features that should be higher on the to-do list.

Wait, are there people who aren’t advertisers who do prefer Threads over Mastodon or Lemmy? Most of the reviews I have seen are bad, and the good ones seem to be from people who haven’t tried the fediverse, though I couldn’t swear to that.

Possibly. Apparently there are some possible issues with interconnection between instance admins that would give Threads information your local instance has about you. I understand that there are ways to change the code so that doesn’t happen, but as of right now, there’s more risk of data transfer than just posts/comments.

…Wayyyyy less than if you actually install their app, of course. But there’s room for improvement.

I expect them to move chat functionality to the official app. Facebook made a similar move many years ago, and I think they did get increased access to users’ phones that way. Reddit might find it a harder sell, given that they have a totally different role in people’s lives, and (much as I hate to imply anything nice about Facebook), a much less usable app.