Right but the marker would cause problems for non-intrusive vending machines which only use a light sensor to set the display intensity. Along the lines of that simplicity, a thin smudge of chapstick would do well… simple and lightweight. Light could enter but not an image.

Ah, right… so how can @ChicoSuave@lemmy.world’s team of activists limit their destruction to the camera functionality? I wonder if a laser could perhaps burn the CCD enough to ruin image capture but not to the extent that light sensing fails.

I guess the more practical attack would be to superglue a piece of transparent diffusing film over it. Light would still get through but it would just be a blur. Diffusing film can be harvested from LCD screens we often see in dumpsters lately. Or even just that milky type of Scotch tape. Along the same lines, a scribe could be used to scratch up the plastic sheet that protects the CCD.

I guess the rub is that a light sensor which determines how bright to make the LCD is probably indistinguishable from a CCD. If that is darkened then it would darken the screen potentially on machines with no CCD. Although you could test it by covering the spot briefly to see if the screen dims.

I do, but it’s too big for my connection. It was produced by a French org iirc. I have images disabled so searching for it is hard for me. But if you search for these terms together you should get good hits: infographic pepsi unilever mars

“infographic” is key.

(edit) note as well there different versions of that image. If you see Kraft, that’s an older one because I think Mondelez bought Kraft. I have 3 versions but they’d all be at least 5 years old, so you might be able to find a more up to date one.

Is boycotting mars going to make even the slightest difference? Not in a million years.

Claiming boycotts don’t work is as good as claiming voting doesn’t work. It works in numbers.

Not only does mars probably own more companies than you even realise, including many of the alternatives you’re buying thinking you’re avoiding them,

Have a look at this infographic:

I have been boycotting everything in that graphic except “Associated British Foods plc” for the past 15 years because I pay attention and I have collected copious dirt on those companies. They are rotten to the core. I could probably find dirt on ABF if I searched for it specifically, but they are likely the lesser of evils and patronizing the lesser of evils is what ethical consumers do.

but even the products you do buy that are coming from a different company altogether, suffer from the exact same background problems (exploitation, oppression, unsustainability, lobbying).

This is the classic “they’re all evil” excuse for not doing your duty as an ethical consumer in favor of putting price and value above ethics in the interest of № 1. Corpations are not equals in the slightest. If you do a bit of research, you find that the smaller companies are much less frequently involved in wrongdoing. I keep a list of the scandals of these companies and it’s clear which ones do the lion’s share of harm.

There is good reason for the saying “no ethical consumption under capitalism”,

From that article:

“It is now 2018. People have “gone green”, eaten vegan, shopped “fair-trade”, and recycled for years now. Yet the atrocities that spurned the ethical consumption movement continue unabated. ”

Yikes. That author does not know what was abated because he only looks around at what he sees now. So because there are still problems, Olive Pape concludes “boycotting doesn’t work”, instead of realizing that boycotting works in numbers.

I boycott the worst of the worst with no expectation that my drop in the ocean makes a significant difference (just like my drop in the ocean vote makes no significant difference in an election). I do it to ensure that I am not part of the problem.

Stop being a part of the problem and favor the lesser of evils in the marketplace instead of taking the best deal that benefits you personally.

it’s to abolish capitalism because it requires and encourages all of the unethical practices you’re looking to avoid, in order to exist.

That kind of unhinged stance may be accurate, but we don’t live in an abolished capitalism world. Abolition of capitalism is a separate action entirely that’s not mutually exclusive to ethical consumption. You can dream about anarchy all you want but those dreams are actually not “going to make even the slightest difference… Not in a million years.” So in the meantime, please consume ethically.

If they want my face that bad they should at least give me a free M&M for it. They need to add a button “push this for a free M&M if you consent to giving us your face”.

it would be more usable if the left column were locked so you don’t lose it when scrolling horizontally. Same for the top row.

“Email / Phone required for signup” ← these are on two very different levels of intrusiveness… really needs to split into two rows. And from there, it’s interesting to know whether a phone must be a mobile phone or not. With email, it’s interesting to know if disposable addresses are blocked or not.

Also, for “decentralized network” for #Signal, you simply have “no”. I would change that to “No (Amazon)” to inform people they are feeding Amazon by using Signal.

In fact I suggest also adding a row: “feeds a tech giant” because privacy from tech giants is not the only factor – some of us trying to live ethically do not want to even feed privacy offending tech giants, such as:

• Amazon
• Microsoft
• Google
• Cloudflare
• Apple
• Facebook

And as someone else pointed out, Delta Chat is missing.

It’s the other way around – childishly selfish to partake in reckless consumerism, buying goods needlessly with total disregard for ethics of the supply chains and ethics of excessive production and consequential waste. Naïve to then advocate for products that are actually anti-consumer. And disgusting to see someone encouraging others to behave like children in the same way while at the same time calling adults in the room “childish”. Shame on you.

I’ve never seen a clear CMOS button… is that what modern boards have now?

Yeah indeed a USB3→PATA and/or SATA cable was what I was actually looking for at the flee market - but found the IDE card (which would also work for me if a cable were easy to come by)

Cost might be negligible… probably $/€ 1-5 for the card and probably $/€ 1 for the cable if i find one. I’m happy with the 15 y.o. laptop. I think I’ll get at least another 5-10 years out of it. I’m not gaming or anything heavy, so I believe I will never again have to buy a PC or laptop. I keep finding functional PCs in the trash that are faster than what I need. I expect that pattern to continue as long as MS continues to bloat out Windows and leverage designed obsolescence against a majority of the population. Even LCDs and scanners I pull from the trash have no issues. I’ve accumulated HDDs from the trash that are useful for temporary operations, like having an extra backup or two while migrating to a new Debian release.

I just love the fact that I do not need to support bad players in the marketplace. I have never had to buy a post-2008 intel cpu or a post-2013 AMD CPU (which means I have never had to contribute to chip makers who produce anti-noncorp-consumer management engines). IIUC, the only modern spy-free chip is the ibm power11. If I ever see the day that I need to buy new gear it would have to be that. Not sure if they put the power11 in laptops yet, or if there will be a mobile variant.

thanks for the tip but that’s not either. I tried each ram stick independently as well as with no ram and it was the same every time.

My laptop is over 15 years old. I have an expresscard in it now (to get USB3). I think PCMCIA is compatible, correct? IIUC both PCMCIA and ExpressCard are 54mm wide, but the expresscard only uses half the pins.

thanks for the tip… i would not have thought CMOS values would cause this but it’s worth a try. Note that there is a CMOS clearing jumper so I guess I’ll try that first.

UPDATE: I tried your procedure as well as the procedure in the manual and it made no difference. The manual said unplug and remove the battery, then move the jumper for 5-10 secs, then move it back. I guess the jumper is analogous to holding down the power button.