Research and organized information on a topic, however obvious it might be, is an important step towards policy changes. We also see those changes from time to time, for example some recent EU decisions

The article also linked to this Mastodon post where someone has been sharing their findings

https://digipres.club/@foone/113313513964826090

One potential concern is

the fact that Redbox machines contain a file that has “a complete list of titles ever rented, and the email addresses of the people who rented them, and where and when.” She also found that the first six and last four digits of credit card information was logged. She said that the records on the particular unit that she was looking at contained 2,471 different transactions and had records on it dating back to 2015.

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/contact/phone/q19.htm

Canada:

First, locked phones are a thing of the past. Effective December 1, 2017, service providers will have to offer unlocked devices to their customers.

What are the benefits of having an unlocked device?

An unlocked device can be used on other networks, which means that you will be able to switch providers and keep the same phone. That means more flexibility for you, the consumer.

You could take it a step further and set a temporary network name & password for the hotspot, and then change it back afterwards

that way you can use your hotspot near your TV in the future without worry

https://youtu.be/Q1QPXyebhiY?t=505

So what’s our timeline here?

Not long! It will probably happen in our lifetimes. We just need to figure out… how to make it work

There is nothing inherent in knockoff that says it doesn’t work. That would be a fake.

While I can find definitions that call it “an inferior copy” (link), that’s not the point. Common usage has made it so that people will assume things about the quality or efficacy of the medication when certain words are used. Even if a word is technically correct, perceptions about the word can make it a bad choice.

Often when patents expire and other options emerge, they are called “generics” or “store brand” versions. Those terms don’t carry the negative associations.

The original comment you replied to said

Yeah, they aren’t “knock-offs” or “imitations.” That is some bad reporting.

They used quotes to point out that those words usually imply an inferior quality, something which doesn’t do what it says that it does, something that is produced without permission, etc.

While the drugs may still be copies, word choice can affect how people perceive the quality / efficacy of them.

Some more discussion on this article over on !medicine@mander.xyz

See here: https://lemmy.ca/post/30650429

A few points brought up in the comments

• The shortage isn’t necessarily over, and an obvious downside is drug prices / abuse from the manufacturer
• This mostly affects larger pharmacies that can do compounding (ex. CVS, Walmart) since smaller independent pharmacies usually don’t have the means to do it. However, the specifics will vary depending on where you are.
• A more reasonable concern is that the compounded drugs don’t go through the same quality control. So while they should act the same and be safe, it’s possible that some pharmacy company (see above) is cutting corners for profit.

My thoughts:

• the US has a drug price problem
• it’s possible to get safe and quality controlled pharmaceuticals without restricting it to one company, especially if that company can’t handle the demand

community promo

If you’re a medical professional on the Fediverse, some communities you might be interested in:

• !medicine@mander.xyz
• !medical_professionals@midwest.social
• Other healthcare communities here: https://lemmy.ca/post/6611650

Privacy, security, intellectual property

MIT license:

• https://files.community/
• https://github.com/files-community/files/

Explore a beautiful Windows-first design. Manage all your files with increased productivity. Work across multiple folders with tabs. And so much more.

It looks nice, and has extra features like tabs, tagging 7zip/archive management, cloud drives, git integration, comparing file hashes, etc.

The only issue I had was performance, it took a long time to start each time. I’m planning on trying it again sometime later

There’s this app, I don’t use it often but leave it installed for this

https://github.com/MobileFirstLLC/irregular-expressions

The option spongemock LeTs YoU wRiTe LiKe ThIs

That would run face first into proprietary info and corporate classified info.

The other side of regulation should be around purchasing. Bad repairability, delays in repairs, and proprietary parts need to be more important factors when deciding on what device to buy. Either at the government level for public institutions, or at least at the corporate level for private

Format like this

![](LINK)

So

From the last paragraph, it sounds like the intent is to make it easier to switch devices and services, which would be great

For anyone that has friends that can be convinced to move off snapchat:

• it doesn’t actually delete things after the timer goes out, it just hides it from view. Sometimes the app bugs out and that data will be accessible again
• signal has stories and the same format of disappearing messages
• everything else that’s good about signal

If what they want is the “One weird trick your doctor is hiding from you” style content on the discover page, then I got nothing.

I end up using some blog post when that happens because the forums make no sense

Ah any reason why Firefox decided not to include WebSerial?

Maybe you don’t want to buy the Station, or you left it at home. In either event, you can simply plug the iron into your computer and configure it via WebSerial.

You’ll need a browser based on Chrome to pull this trick off, as Mozilla has decided (at least, for now) to not include the capability in Firefox. In testing, it worked perfectly on both my Linux desktop and Chromebook.

Unfortunately, plugging the iron into your phone won’t work, as the mobile version of Chrome does not currently support WebSerial. But given the vertical layout of the interface and the big touch-friendly buttons, I can only assume that iFixit is either banking on this changing soon or has a workaround in mind. Being able to plug the iron into your phone for a quick settings tweak would be incredibly handy, so hopefully it will happen one way or another.

The WebSerial interface not only gives you access to all the same settings as plugging the iron into the Power Station does, but it also serves as the mechanism for updating the firmware on the iron.

1. The platform needs an incentive to get rid of bots.

Bots on Reddit pump out an advertiser friendly firehose of “content” that they can pretend is real to their investors, while keeping people scrolling longer. On Fediverse platforms there isn’t a need for profit or growth. Low quality spam just becomes added server load we need to pay for.

I’ve mentioned it before, but we ban bots very fast here. People report them fast and we remove them fast. Searching the same scam link on Reddit brought up accounts that have been posting the same garbage for months.

Twitter and Reddit benefit from bot activity, and don’t have an incentive to stop it.

2. We need tools to detect the bots so we can remove them.

Public vote counts should help a lot towards catching manipulation on the fediverse. Any action that can affect visibility (upvotes and comments) can be pulled by researchers through federation to study/catch inorganic behavior.

Since the platforms are open source, instances could even set up tools that look for patterns locally, before it gets out.

It’ll be an arm’s race, but it wouldn’t be impossible.

An older but related article:

Why freemium software has no place in our classrooms

What is something Linux related that you’ve learned recently?

As a meta question, could this work as an additional (or alternate) recurring discussion question? It felt similar in intent, to encourage people to keep learning / asking questions and chances are that if someone learned something then others will benefit from the information (or correct them)