It drives me absolutely wild that Brave is such a common suggestion by privacy activists — it's a genuinely insane position to hold.

You want people to protect themselves by… *checks notes*… switching to a browser whose key selling point was (is?) ad substitution and injection for monopoly money?!

Over 6000 festive words for you. Like "hexadecimal" and "bitwise".

Always feel free to hit me up if you need a hand at all, whether that be a technical thing or just recommendations

The ultimate aim here is to normalise a format that is much more standardised, and is developed truly in the open, for the public good. A format that, by design, aims for maximum cross-compatibility between office suites.

By making it more common, it becomes more reasonable to not use MS Office.

It's not bulletproof. You'll need to open others' files. Sometimes they require extensions that only exist for MS Office. Sometimes there are macros that you're not able to get away from.

But that's not always the case. If you create a new document, move the needle slightly, help normalise ODF

Yes, some features aren't supported, but improper implementation of the MS-developed standards is part of how the "need" for Office is maintained.

So where it's not enforced: don't use it. Use the dropdown in the bottom right of the save dialog. Change default: support.microsoft.com/en-us/office...

There's the "I want shorter games worse graphics not kidding etc etc" phrase, how about "I want artists to be able to make mistakes and make weird unappealing shit sometimes and not starve"

There's a pretty substantial difference between unnecessary or imposed friction, which sucks and everyone should rightfully hate, and organic friction, which is where embodiment, learning, mindful engagement, or all of the above have the space to happen.

The other flip side is that even though I own remarkably little, I've got more diversity in what I listen to now because algorithmic nudges have been substituted for me taking more chances of fewer things that I know I'll spend time with.

And it's great. Really, genuinely great.

Dropping off streaming services necessitates slower consumption, if you're not wanting to put all the streaming service into the exact same medium again

Maybe you can get around it with charity shop CDs and the like (remember CDs?), but generally… your newness and currentness is going to be limited

Since I dropped streaming some years ago, I have remarkably little music, but I appreciate the nuances of it all so much more. Hell, at this moment I've only got about 20 albums, but it's worth keeping in mind:

1) I'm satisfied, I rarely need more
2) I love them all so much more for what they are

Artists are paid a pittance because you're paying far under the value of what they produce — of time, costs,the value of distribution, of marketing, of design, and all else.

And at the same time, through this extreme saturation of novelty, you never get the chance to really appreciate what you love

Through forces of algorithmic recommendation, notification bombardments, and social media, you're pushed to desire more than is achievable. All whilst misleading you as to the value of what you consume: sales can't compete with something new all the time for the cost of one album a month.

In just about every form, independent artists are doing incredible things right now. They're hard to find, hard to spot, and working their arses off for only the faintest recognition and almost certainly less money than they need.

But god is it worth seeking them out.