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I'm genuinely surprised that people were using facebook of all things to discuss Linux distros. The idea of having to wade through AI generated pictures of Shr

I'm genuinely surprised that people were using facebook of all things to discuss Linux distros. The idea of having to wade through AI generated pictures of Shrimp Jesus and my mad uncle posting about his latest attempts to turn lead into gold (yes, really) to find out about new distros to try seems very alien to me.

jbm 2y ago
Your uncle sounds like a lot more fun than the latest javascript build system. Imagine being confident enough to believe and document that. Crazy? Maybe, but a crazy one can appreciate.
- BeetleB 2y ago
  I know you're only half serious, but ... The problem isn't when one uncle is doing this. The problem is when the bulk of the content you see on FB is as crazy as this. I mean, if you like purchasing the National Enquirer and flipping through it, then by all means, this is for you.
  - jbm 2y ago
    Yeah, I can understand. I'm fortunate not to have many uncles and aunts who were old enough to use Facebook, and my parents were fairly tech-antagonistic. I did get to see a little of what you are referring to when some of my coworkers added me on FB and started sharing political content. I still prefer that to all of the fake AI-slop message boards and meme/video culture that seems to have replaced it on FB.
UntitledNo4 2y ago
I want to know more about your uncle. I'm not on Facebook, but that would make me consider joining...
- lexicality 2y ago
  It's entertaining in the abstract but fairly depressing when he's telling you in person that he's spending his children's inheritance on turning lead slightly yellow. Still, on the bright side, he seems to have stopped talking about the "globalists" so much.
  - Detrytus 2y ago
    Globalists are history now, Trump will take care of them :)
knowitnone 2y ago
I'm sure lead technically can be turned into gold or anything for that matter with enough energy
- MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
  I think they turned some platinum atoms into gold. In a particle accelerator.
- brink 2y ago
  Your electricity bill might be greater than the value of the produced gold though.
  - ben_w 2y ago
    You can indeed turn lead into gold; it will indeed be more expensive than it is worth; also the gold will be radioactive.
    - cobbal 2y ago
      Gold is sold by weight, so those extra neutrons are pure profit.
      - mr_toad 2y ago
        Unfortunately all the heavy isotopes of gold are unstable and will decay in a few months.
        saithir 2y ago
        That sounds like the buyer's problem though.
        itishappy 2y ago
        Shhh, don't tell that to my buyer!
- 2y ago
einpoklum 2y ago
(sob) Shrimp Jesus is real! (sniffle) Also, turning lead into gold is easy: Just break all the protons off to get Hydrogen and maybe Helium, then compress it back so you get a star to form, and wait for it to go nova. Or, if you're in a hurry, you can compress your Hydrogen more and if you kind of jiggle it just the right way then you should get some gold along with other heavy elements.
TheOtherHobbes 2y ago
Tech obviously isn't a strong suit, but elsewhere Facebook does have corners with good/entertaining/useful small communities. They have good SNR and are more personal than Reddit. The secret is to train your feed by bookmarking the groups and linking to them directly instead of accepting whatever flailing nonsense the algo decides to default to. Having said that - I hope everyone has worked out by now that when you have a "free speech" culture based on covert curation and moderation of contentious issues, it's not just going to be about porn and trans people. Non-mainstream (i.e. non-consumer) tech is going to be labelled bad-think and suppressed too.

jbm 2y ago

Your uncle sounds like a lot more fun than the latest javascript build system. Imagine being confident enough to believe and document that. Crazy? Maybe, but a crazy one can appreciate.

BeetleB 2y ago
I know you're only half serious, but ... The problem isn't when one uncle is doing this. The problem is when the bulk of the content you see on FB is as crazy as this. I mean, if you like purchasing the National Enquirer and flipping through it, then by all means, this is for you.
- jbm 2y ago
  Yeah, I can understand. I'm fortunate not to have many uncles and aunts who were old enough to use Facebook, and my parents were fairly tech-antagonistic. I did get to see a little of what you are referring to when some of my coworkers added me on FB and started sharing political content. I still prefer that to all of the fake AI-slop message boards and meme/video culture that seems to have replaced it on FB.

UntitledNo4 2y ago

I want to know more about your uncle. I'm not on Facebook, but that would make me consider joining...

lexicality 2y ago
It's entertaining in the abstract but fairly depressing when he's telling you in person that he's spending his children's inheritance on turning lead slightly yellow. Still, on the bright side, he seems to have stopped talking about the "globalists" so much.
- Detrytus 2y ago
  Globalists are history now, Trump will take care of them :)

knowitnone 2y ago

I'm sure lead technically can be turned into gold or anything for that matter with enough energy

MathMonkeyMan 2y ago
I think they turned some platinum atoms into gold. In a particle accelerator.
brink 2y ago
Your electricity bill might be greater than the value of the produced gold though.
- ben_w 2y ago
  You can indeed turn lead into gold; it will indeed be more expensive than it is worth; also the gold will be radioactive.
  - cobbal 2y ago
    Gold is sold by weight, so those extra neutrons are pure profit.
    - mr_toad 2y ago
      Unfortunately all the heavy isotopes of gold are unstable and will decay in a few months.
      - saithir 2y ago
        That sounds like the buyer's problem though.
      - itishappy 2y ago
        Shhh, don't tell that to my buyer!
2y ago

einpoklum 2y ago

(sob) Shrimp Jesus is real! (sniffle) Also, turning lead into gold is easy: Just break all the protons off to get Hydrogen and maybe Helium, then compress it back so you get a star to form, and wait for it to go nova. Or, if you're in a hurry, you can compress your Hydrogen more and if you kind of jiggle it just the right way then you should get some gold along with other heavy elements.

TheOtherHobbes 2y ago

Tech obviously isn't a strong suit, but elsewhere Facebook does have corners with good/entertaining/useful small communities. They have good SNR and are more personal than Reddit. The secret is to train your feed by bookmarking the groups and linking to them directly instead of accepting whatever flailing nonsense the algo decides to default to. Having said that - I hope everyone has worked out by now that when you have a "free speech" culture based on covert curation and moderation of contentious issues, it's not just going to be about porn and trans people. Non-mainstream (i.e. non-consumer) tech is going to be labelled bad-think and suppressed too.