Beaver [he/him]

Master of Reality

  • 4 Posts
  • 59 Comments
Joined 4 years ago
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Cake day: July 29th, 2020

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  • Napster was a godsend, as I couldn’t afford to buy music. I installed it on the school computers, and I had a sneaky little hidden folder with my mp3s. I’d plug in my headphones and listen over lunchtime. I eventually figured out how to use multipart rar files to put them onto floppy disks, so that I could get them back home and listen on my parent’s computer. I was eventually able to buy a portable CD player that played mp3s on CD-RW, which really opened up the possibilities. Without piracy, I don’t think I would be into music in the same way - I simple never would have had the opportunity to listen to most stuff.





  • Beaver [he/him]@hexbear.nettourbanism@hexbear.netRuralism
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    1 year ago

    My grandparent and great-grandparent’s farms in the great lakes region literally DID have train stations within 10 miles of them, and they walked to them. Rural transit service isn’t a pipe dream, it’s something that actually existed.

    That said: cars and trucks are obviously very useful in rural areas, and so I can imagine they will still be quite ubiquitous even in a future where rural areas are well served by transit. My grandparents did eventually buy cars, but they used the train service for long distance trips.



  • I think some people think of HOAs as an example of why local democracy can’t work. But I think it’s more of an example of how democracy can’t work in the context of a bunch of land owners who’s asset values are in large part affected by the behaviors of everyone else. They incentives of that situation drive a person to madness.