A lot of us learned certain theory terms–intersectionality, compulsory heterosexuality, Death of the Author–on social media. It’s great to be able to discuss them! But it’s important to know what you’re discussing.
These are available on the internet - I highly recommend reading them and going straight to the source of what the authors said, and decide how much you agree with them and the uses they get put to!
Google has once again force-enabled AI into everyone. Get rid of that shit by:
Go to your Gmail account.
Choose “See all settings.”
Scroll down under the “General” tab until you see “Google Workspace smart features.”
Select “Manage Workspace smart feature settings.”
Toggle off both “smart features in Google Workplace” and “smart features in other Google products.” This will not remove the stupid Gemini button, but it should disable it.
If you have more than one Gmail account on your app, you have to do this for all account indiviudally. You go to settings→[nnn]@gmail→manage workspace smart features
(This is according to my Android app)
There’s actually two different AI settings to turn off for Gmail. There are the settings that are under ‘Google Workplace Smart features’, and there’s an additional one above it just called 'Smart Features’.
Turning off the settings under the 'Google Workplace Smart Features’ doesn’t seem to affect your inbox. But if you turn off that top 'Smart Features’ option, you can no longer use the different inbox categories that Gmail would default sort emails to.
With Smart Features enabled:
With Smart Features Disabled:
It’s really shitty that they’ve tied those inbox categories into the AI stuff. I turned Smart Features off, and now my phone is being inundated with notifications for a lot of the emails that would have gone in those categories. Previously, I would only get notifications for emails that end up in the main inbox when my notification settings were set to 'All’.
There is a way to create your own sorting labels (like the one I’d been using for Dracula Daily in the screenshot above), but they don’t quite work the same way as the inbox categories. If you create a label, you’ll be able to view only the emails you set to be categorized underneath it, but those emails will still show up underneath the main inbox, too.
Say you create a new 'Social’ label for social media notifications to replace the Social category Inbox. If you click the 'Social’ label, you would see all the emails that are filtered to go there, in addition to those same emails showing up in the main inbox. With the inbox categories enabled (and now AI features too), you would only see social emails in the Social inbox, and they would not show up under the main inbox, nor would you get notifications for them by default.
If you do want to go the label route and create your own, here’s a link on how to do so. It can be done using a computer or through the Apple apps, but it won’t work in the Android app (which makes zero sense to me).
There might be a way to play with the app notification settings so they’re more filtered, but from what I see initially, it’s not promising.
If you were relying on 'Important First’ sorting for your inbox or 'High Priority Only’ for notification settings, those are disabled when the AI feature is disabled as well.
(I can edit this later to add alt ids to the images when I’m not on my phone)
Thank you so much for this detailed addition, this change has been pretty enraging. The inbox categories had nothing to do with AI, but they’ve combined them to make your experience worse for no reason.
People with low spoons, someone just recommended this cookbook to me, so I thought I’d pass it on.
I always look at cookbooks for people who have no energy/time to do elaborate meal preparations, and roll my eyes. Like, you want me to stay on my feet for long enough to prepare 15 different ingredients from scratch, and use 5 different pots and pans, when I have chronic fatigue and no dishwasher?
These people seem to get it, though. It’s very simple in places. It’s basically the cookbook for people who think, ‘I’m really bored of those same five low-spoons meals I eat, but I can’t think of anything else to cook that won’t exhaust me’.
If you live in the USA and you’re pleading for donations to pay your rent, bills, or get food then dial 211! Please dial 211 before the last minute!
It’s a toll free service with people who will help you find programs in your community to pay those bills, find food, and find housing! They will give you numbers to call so you can get help.
It is not 100% foolproof. Their job is to direct you to a program they believe will help your current issue, but it’s still a step up from praying random strangers online will give you enough cash before a deadline! The added benefit of these community programs, which get funded by the local government most of the time, is if there are more people using them then they can get more money to help more people.
You’re not taking resources from other people if you use your community services. Your taxes pay for them. Use them.
Dial 211 first to see if they can help, and if for some reason they can’t, then make your donation posts!
Hi I work for my state’s 211 service. It really breaks my heart how many people only know to call us at the last minute. 211’s can provide a whole wealth of resources to use before things ever get to a cut off utility, eviction, or homelessness!
I can’t speak for all 211’s but most should also have a website detailing all the agencies in their database. if you don’t like phone calls, this can be something to reference instead.
If you don’t have health insurance but you need to see a doctor, reference 211! We list clinics that provide free or discounted general care, vision, and dental services to low income households and people without insurance! Many hospitals also have financial aid policies that can severely reduce your bill if you had an expensive procedure!
If you’re stuck in a dead end job or need educational resources reference 211! There are a lot of programs focused on providing basic adult education as well as trade skills or other high demand fields! State governments are generally more interested in funneling people into work than providing benefits, but you can still use this to your advantage especially if you have some form of disability but are still able to work. That includes if you’re neurodiverse or have mental health issues! Most of these programs are extremely underutilized.
If you believe you qualify for public benefits but the bureaucracy of the process is in your way, reference 211! There are agencies specifically geared towards helping people obtain the benefits they qualify for- for free!
If you need help with your taxes-
If you need help finding a pro bono lawyer-
If you need help finding affordable housing/section 8 housing-
If you need help finding food pantries-
If you need help paying for your prescriptions-
If you need help obtaining disability aids or assistive technology-
If you need help finding transportation options-
If you need help following a natural or personal disaster (like a home fire)-
If you need help repairing a home you or your family owns or it needs modifications to be accessible-
If you need Queer resources-
Reference your 211!!!!!
I had no idea what 211 was before working for it but I wish I had. I’ve learned so much about what resources are actually available to the community even in a ho hum area of the country like my state. I’ve saved my partner literally thousands of dollars just from the medical resources I’ve gathered.
Not enough young people know about or utilize these services but they are there for you!
P. S.
This isn’t an intended use of 211, but I like to reference the agency listings when I look for jobs. Many of the agencies listed are non-profits which, while they certainly are not perfect, generally have lower barriers of entry to decent paying jobs with benefits. The work environments tend to be much kinder and at least pretend to be forward thinking. You’re more likely to find jobs without as many people applying as well, especially if they’re only advertising their positions through their own website.
Oh my goodness. Sharing this because maybe your state has something to help you see a dentist! If it’s been a while, please see I’d you have any dental services in your area. It’s really so important to see a dentist.
cleaning with ADHD is a nightmare. it’s an endless cycle of finding a half-finished chore and stopping the one you were already working on, then remembering that something else needs to be done and getting started on that, then finding half-finished chore and
i have the solution! i call it ‘junebugging’.
have you ever seen a junebug get to grips with a window screen? it’s remarkably persistent, but not very focused. all that matters is location.
how to junebug: choose the location you feel you can probably get some shit done on today. be specific. not ‘the bathroom’ but ‘the bathroom sink’. you are not choosing a range, you are choosing a center; you will move around, but your location is where you’ll keep coming back to. mentally stick a pin in it. consider yourself tethered to that spot by a long mental bungee cord.
go to your location. look at stuff. move stuff around. do a thing. get distracted. remember you’re junebugging the bathroom sink and go back there. look at it some more. do a different thing. get distracted. get a sandwich. remember you’re junebugging and go back to the bathroom sink.
nt’s will go crazy watching you, and if they demand to know When You Will Be Done you will probably have to roll them in a carpet and stuff them up the chimney. you’re done when you feel done, or you’re too bored to live, or it’s bedtime, or any number of other markers, you get to pick. but the thing is, by returning repeatedly to that one spot, you harness the ‘hyperactivity’ part instead of wasting all that energy battling with the ‘attention deficit’ part.
not only will the bathroom sink almost certainly be clean, and probably the mirror and soap dish too, you might’ve swapped in a fresh toothbrush, a new soap, you might’ve unclogged the drain – you will probably also have cleaned or fixed up several things in the near vicinity, or in the path between the sink and where you get the fresh toothbrush, or maybe you did your grocery shopping cuz you were out of soap, or maybe you couldn’t find a clean hand towel and ended up doing laundry.
this is good. you got shit done! it wasn’t necessarily Cleaned The Bathroom in the way nt’s think of it, but screw ‘em. things are better than they were.
plus you worked off enough energy to be able to sleep. which is not small potatoes when living the ADHD life. :D
Don’t let the adorable name fool you—this is some Seriously Good Advice. May be useful for brain fog and depression, too!
Reblogging to save my fellow ADHD peeps from the Sisyphusian curse of cleaning with no focus.
It is always a shock to see that everyone’s idea of “black horror” on here begins and ends with Jordan Peele and Ryan Coogler
Robin R. Means Coleman’s book Horror Noire: A History of Black American Horror from the 1890s to Present has a Creative Commons licensed downloadable PDF available over on OAPEN:
If you’re interested in further exploring this subject, the producers of the Shudder documentary of the same name collated a Horror Noire syllabus that has been reproduced for consultation here:
With what’s being done to Snap benefits–food stamps–this month, and Thanksgiving coming up, I think it’s a really good time to give what you can to food pantries. With the reminder that money is always better than giving food, because the pantry is able to make that money go further and knows what they actually need.
I’ve recently learned that escaping enshitification is actually really easy. When I was younger I would use FOSS (free and open source software) because I usually couldn’t afford anything else. Back then the paid options were usually significantly better than the unpaid options so when I finally got money I started using the paid stuff and completely forgot that Foss existed.
If you don’t know why Foss is awesome its not just that its free. Open source software has a huge set of advantages. Most software is proprietary meaning that its code cannot be viewed by other people. Open source softwares code can be viewed by everyone and people can contribute their own code to make it better. Open source is often more secure than proprietary because more people have more eyes on it and more people have contributed to it’s security. Its also easy to know how much privacy you have with every software because you can read the code. No more “trust me bro I’m not harvesting and selling your data” you know if they are collecting and selling because the code is publicly available.
In the last two months I have been switching almost completely to Foss. I was worried at first because when I stopped using Foss over 10 years ago the average Foss software was genuinely worse than the paid proprietary alternative. Thankfully things have really come full circle. 90℅ of the software I have tried in the last 2 months works better than the proprietary alternative and is 100℅ less obnoxious.
So here is a list of every Foss software I have tried and recommend. There is way more than this available. This list is just what I have used and like personally. Anyone can feel free to add and we can turn it into a master list. Please just take these as a place to start and do your own research to see if these softwares will work for your use case before you fully ditch your proprietary software.
Operating systems
Graphene os: android alt. Security and privacy focused. The most secure and private smartphone currently available.
Linux mint: easy to use linux, 100℅ better than windows.
Pop!: The Linux distro you should use if you have nividia hardware and want to play games using said hardware. Very intuitive and easy to use.
Kubuntu: Ubuntu Linux with KDE desktop. This is the linux distro one I am currently using and I don’t have any plans to jump ship again. Better than windows and better than Mac. The companion app for your phone makes life soooo easy. Its pretty and easy to customize to a ridiculously granular level. No fucking notes.
Kindle jailbreak- ko reader: use jailbreak to free your kindle from the tyranny of the bezos. It will download ko reader which is a Foss OS that has every fucking feature you always wished kindle had and let’s you read whatever the fuck you want, and have whatever the screensaver you want (no more ads!). Soooo fuck amazon and use this. I genuinely cannot recommend it enough.
Linux FOSS: (some available on windows and android as well)
Calibre: Foss desktop eBook library. Packed with features. You will want to use this with koreader to make managing your kindle easy.
Manuscript: skrivner alt. Does absolutely everything I need.
Bitwarden: password manager (use a keepass fork if you want self hosted)
Next cloud: private google drive and cloud alternative that you can self host if you want but it’s not required. App available
Proton VPN: to the best of my knowledge it is the only Foss no log VPN you can get. You can pay for higher speeds. App available
Quad9dns: free encrypted DNS provider. App available.
News software:
Use any Foss RSS reader and for the love of god stop getting news from social media. Take control of your feed!
Apps (I only know for android)
Fdroid: great app store to find Foss android apps and download them.
Antennapod: you can get all of your podcasts fetched to one feature rich app via RSS feed. No need to rely on spotify or music steaming services.
Openreads: it’s good reads but private and 100℅ stored locally. No amazon, no social media aspect, it just tracks your reading, you can import your good reads but if you want to import from storygraph you have to make a good reads burner account, import to good reads, then import to openreads. The menus Navigation on this one is a bit cumbersome but honestly good reads app is worse.
Newpipe: YouTube frontend that let’s you have YouTube subscriptions, watch YouTube in the background, and blocks all ads, without logging in to YouTube. You will want to use this one with a VPN set to Canada (or any other country) so YouTube doesn’t keep blocking it in order to force you to sign in. But even with that extra step its worth it for the privacy and the lack of ads.
Proton mail: one of 2 more private gmail alts. But you should note that email cannot be 100℅ anonymous or private.
I think that’s it. There are still a lot software varieties I am slowly finding.
Crawling out of my hole to remind people that with this current update to Firefox (version 144) they’ve gone and dumped in their lot with a buncha lil AI tools, namely Perplexity as a new search engine.
So if the sound of that leaves your mouth tasting of tar, here’s what you want to do:
In the url bar, type in about:config
It’ll give you a big scary warning page that you might poke holes in your browser. Good. You want to do that. Click continue.
One by one, you’re going to need to put each of these into the search bar in the page, not up top:
Each of these are gonna have a lil toggle icon on the right hand side that looks like a funky double-ended arrow. Click that and the value next to it should change to false. It all auto saves as you go. Some of these might already be set to false by default and that’s peachy.
The next best thing you can do for yourself is to set your default search engine to udm14 or Qwant, but for now, we’re just tidying the garden a lil bit.
Mozilla, in its finite wisdom, embedded LLM bots into recent versions of Firefox for the vitally-important purpose of… naming tab groups. Now, some users are noticing CPU and power usage spikes caused by a background process called Inference.
Ugh. Reminder again for Firefox users to visit your about:config page, search for the browser.ml.chat.enabled key, and set that to false:
If yours says true then double-click it until it reads false.
Doing that turns off the AI chatbot features in Firefox, but also the stupid new LLM tab-naming feature that’s rolling out.
if you want to turn off as much ai crap in firefox as possible, from this post on mozilla’s connect forum, you should also set all these to false using about:config:
browser.ml.enable
extensions.ml.enabled
browser.ml.linkPreview.enabled
browser.tabs.groups.smart.enabled
browser.tabs.groups.smart.userEnabled
to get rid of the revamped sidebar, which is also trying to incorporate ai:
sidebar.revamp
unrelated anyone got browser recommendations for when we have to jump ship from firefox
and now keep in mind that all the other browsers are doing this shit, too, but you can’t reconfigure them as with Firefox
on A for Effort’s last point, is there any browser that offers users even half as much control as Firefox? if so, I’d like to try it as a backup
