I mostly read things here. Sometimes I’ll write a thing. Outside of Lemmy, I read things. Sometimes I’ll write a thing. Like software documentation. Or maybe something else. Who knows what the day will bring.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • No, this is not news to us - our accountant has certainly mentioned it - but there’s a lot of oddities in her situation that make this a little more difficult - like the fact that she’s not an actual freelancer but it’s just the compensation startegy that this grant-funded project she works for was built around.

    Its not impossible though, and certainly something we need to look more into. Thank you for bringing it up especially for anyone else looking at this in a similar situation.


  • You also have to pay the 15% (of net) self employment tax that your employer normally pays when you’re a W-2. That effectively means you’re paying double the tax rate of a W-2 employee.

    Oh and you can deduct your “business expenses” to try to reduce your tax burden, but you shouldn’t even try to itemize unless your yearly expenses are higher than the standard deduction ($13,850 for single / $27,700 for joint / $20,800 for HoH). Itemizing doesn’t add to your standard deduction, it replaces it.

    Source: My wife is a contractor and taxes for us are a whole fucking ordeal. We’re just glad I have a W-2 job thar offers benefits and the option to pay a lot more than I need to in tax withholding.




  • No. Not at all.

    Honestly, I hated the wire part of my wired headphones for years. I tend to listen to things while I’m doing chores around the house and I can’t tell you the amount of times the cable caught on something and sent my earbuds or my phone careening to the floor. Or was forced to untangle myself from a door knob. Or forgot I had earbuds on and stood up from my desk only to throw my phone to the ground.

    I went on a bit of a journey with bt headphones but eventually got a pair of Sony Linkbuds and a $30 Bluetooth thingy for my car that plugs into the aux jack, and never looked back. Every other day I plug the case in on my nightstand along with my phone. Nbd. Linkbuds don’t have the best sound quality I’ve ever experienced in BT buds, but the comfort wins over all others.

    I also recently got a pair of PineBuds Pro for $70 and man that battery case is legit. I only have to charge that beast once a week. Just waiting on someone to release a better sound profile for those things because they are BAASSSY. But beyond the bass, the potential sound quality is actually quite good. I’m looking forward to what the pine64 community does with these.

    I’ll also say that I have audiophile hearing (I’ve been tested) and I absolutely hear the difference in sound quality using BT and a good set of cans - when it comes to earbuds, the difference is negligible between wired and wireless. Given that 1. I’m more often listening to words than music from my phone and 2. The convenience, I’ll go for wireless more often than not if given the option. Plus, outside of niche phones and defunct LG phones, I never saw a headphone jack that could properly drive a good set of cans. There are way more output devices I would choose over a phone to drive high quality audio.

    That all said, do I think manufacturers should remove the headphone jack? No. Apple did it to sell more airpods. Everyone else did it to save a nickle on their costs. Just because I don’t use it doesn’t mean it should go away. If anything, there’s an accessibility element. BT buds are expensive. USB-C / Lightning buds are expensive. Aux buds are cheap. And wired buds are the easiest and cheapest way for someone to get audio out of a phone or talk on the phobe without fucking holding it in the air to broadcast their conversation to the world. And for that reason, I think the jack should ABSOLUTELY come back.





  • Honestly, I couldn’t quite simpatize with her. She complains they were giving her too much to do?

    Unless you fully understand the effort involved in her reported daily and weekly quotas, you aren’t qualified to make an opinion on them. But what might make more sense to you is that LTT currently has a full team dedicated to what she was expected to do by herself.

    The biggest issue for me was her reports of a toxic work environment. When she would bring up concerns about her workload, they’d respond by insulting her and threatening her job. She even saw an instance where a coworker felt she was sexually harassed and Linus yelled at and berated her for being an idiot.

    My guess is that Linus is the owner and works like one, and wants everyone else to work as much as him.

    This is exactly the kind of boss that creates a toxic work environment. A good boss should be respectful of each employee’s strengths and limitations and foster an environment where everyone can contribute meaningfully without feeling unduely overburdened.

    A good boss encourages a healthy work/life balance.

    Yes, Linus is a workaholic. His work ethic is unhealthy. He has publicly acknowledged this on WAN show numerous times. If he expects his employees to work as hard as he does, then he is knowingly fostering an unhealthy work environment.


  • This video confirms what I’ve thought for a long time. The biggest problem with Linus Tech Tips is Linus.

    And the fact that the video even declares that it took Yvonne to put her foot down before any changes could take place confirms that LTT has a cult of personality that is damaging the brand and the team. And keeping Linus as a CVO isn’t going to change that.

    And of course, Madison’s accusations bring a whole new layer to the drama. A layer that should have been more obvious to me given that the only woman on that video was Linus’ wife.

    Also, anyone else find it funny that Gary Key made yet another mistake in this video - that Linus was the one that talked about testing every video - and not Gary’s own fucking team member? Also his little “I dont agree with EVERY criticism” was a bit too petulant and defensive for this video. Come on…


  • The only validation you should expect and need is self-validation.

    Your work is absolutely valid and important. Your efforts are absolutely appreciated and worthwhile. But people are stuck in their own heads and work and stress and concerns and desires and validation loops and it takes actual work to break out of that to not only offer appreciation but to even realize that they need to offer it.

    And for that reason, you should also really appreciate anyone that validates you.


  • Let me make this clear.

    I don’t give a FLYING FUCK about Elon. I actively ignore any posts about him or his shitty empire. Stop using the behaviors of his idiot stans to argue with me. I am not them.

    What I do care about is a community telling people what they can or cannot post, not through rules changes, not through mod action, but by agreeing internally to bully every person who dares to post what every tech publication is talking about.

    I think you need to evaluate why you let this shit trigger you. I mean, this is like going to a coffee shop and raising a stink because they sell pumpkin spice lattes. Don’t consume it. Use Lemmy’s tools to filter it out if you really need to.

    Its not the community’s job to cater to your specific content desires. This isn’t a news site. Its a place for people to talk about whatever they think technology is. It’s your job to moderate what you pay attention to.


  • …but that’s what happens when you call a community “technology”. Its a pretty damn broad category and these days, incredibly mainstream.

    Communities like " technology" are going to be as mainstream as they were on Reddit. There is nothing you can do about it unless you convince the mods to spend 14 hours a day curating and removing posts from people with mainstream definitions.

    If you want a more curated definition, or you have more niche interests, then you probably want to go to a different community. Heck, maybe start your own. Be the change you want to see.

    It seems a bit silly to go to a community called “technology” and then complain that it represents what 90% of technology news sources are talking about.





  • Go to any tech site, publication, podcast YouTuber, etc. All of them are talking about Twitter. Mainstream tech has agreed that Twitter / Facebook are tech.

    Im not saying I agree. I’m not saying even that I care about these topics. I don’t. I think Musk is an idiot and actively avoid news about his BS. But clearly a lot of people do care and a lot of people agree that Twitter is tech.

    If this community wants to specify a definition of tech that differs from the mainstream, then they need to put it in the rules and accept that we need to control the acceptable conversation because certain members of the community are getting triggered by having to scroll past posts related to Musk or his properties.


  • That’s an even bigger contentious debate. And the fact that there is no one mutually agreed on answer means we either need a formal definition in the rules or the people in this community need to understand that there are people that exist with a broader or narrower definition of technology than they have.

    That said, like it or not, go to any major tech blog, podcast, YouTuber, and they all talking about X / Twitter. The tech communities outside of Lemmy have all agreed that Twitter / X is technology. And Lemmy doesn’t live in a bubble.


  • I get that this is a contentious topic and I agree that Musk gets too much coverage, but…I strongly believe that people should be able to post whatever they want as long as it adheres to the community’s topic (technology) and adheres to the rules.

    The arguement of, “I don’t wanna see {topic here} so stop posting about {topic here}” is a really slippery slope. Clearly there are quiet users here that DO actually want to hear about X news and DO want to dicuss it. What about topics that appeal to you, or like 20% of the community, but 80% couldn’t give a shit? Where is the line?

    Realistically, this is on you. You don’t like it? Downvote and scroll past it. Want a perfectly curated source of news you care about? Use an RSS reader that offers topic filters. This is a community of diverse interests that may not always reflect yours. Deal with it, or go elsewhere.