This is something I have been thinking about since I was a small child so I have a lot of ideas. And I will always take a chance to try to learn this stuff so it’s based on various experiences. Life is better when not being abused by technology, which is of course a proxy for the capitalists who use it as a way to subjugate people.

Socially, of course you have to be patient and very focused on their goal and not your own. I make some examples below from common software that I hope doesn’t need background explaining too much. But just showing those to anyone would be of zero assistance if they’re not interested.

I don’t have any experience with the ideas you suggest but from my non-gaming experience, they seem like things that might just be a matter of following instructions. As long as everything is perfect. As long as nothing unusual happens, the environment is exactly as expected, and no knowledge is wrongly assumed, nothing is misunderstood, the documentation is perfectly up to date, no bugs introduced from upstream, updates are handled perfectly or never needed. Any deviation could be a big trouble.

For example I wanted to install custom firmware on my wifi router. I read on the firmware website that my model of wifi router was supported. I kept trying to install it… I would spend a few hours on it, give up, put it away, then weeks later talk myself into trying again thinking “this should work” and start again. Making sure I downloaded the correct file, checksumed it, formatted the SD card… Doing all kinds of what turned out to be irrelevant troubleshooting. Someone on a forum says their SD card was shitty and it works when you buy a new brand name SD card. Someone says it works when they flash from windows but not from linux. It was just unsolvable. What I didn’t know was the same model number came in different versions, which you could only find out about by looking at some very small, almost hidden text on the bottom of the device. Different models = different chips. only some of the chips are supported. So I was following the instructions properly. It’s just whoever wrote them happened to have a supported chip so they didn’t realize one of the steps was to consult an obscure spec document and compare it to some other document having to do with driver development to determine if installation would be possible.

All that is to say I wouldn’t assign someone a project like this to get started. I barely got through it after decades of nerding around under my belt.

To get to the point where I wanted to install custom router firmware, I already had to have a foundation of a) knowing what a wifi router is, b) knowing which model I have, c) knowing what firmware is d) having a preference about firmware. Flashing firmware router sounds like an awful waste of time to >99% of people, why would they want to learn that?? This

There is one philosophical thing I think you should keep in mind, which explains the whole wifi router question and broader project.

To a non-nerd, the device/application is either “working” or “not working”. To a nerd, it’s an uneven gradient that extends farther in both directions.

“it’s working fine the way it is” — not

When it’s “working” people just look at the part of the interface they know they need to use and ignore the rest. One of the simple things I have always done since I was a little kid, is that in every application I look through every menu and dialogue I can find. Expand every collapsed item. Open the Preferences. Enable “Advanced” options. Right click on things to see what submenu comes up. Even when I don’t know what everything is for, just to peruse how things are set up. You see words that don’t mean anything but as you start to use it then you think of a phrase in a menu and think “Oh I wonder if that would be helpful” and it may or may not be.

Like I can do a lot of basic spreadsheet stuff only because I noticed e.g. there was a button labeled “Sort” and thought “I wonder if this would sort the spreadsheet”; even though I didn’t originally know that you could sort a spreadsheet. I can tell you so many examples of times when people didn’t realize they could do things that were plainly available in the main interface because they only looked at the exact thing they were doing.

Then you see something and you aren’t sure what it does so you maybe search the phrase and you can learn a concept you didn’t know before. And sometimes you encounter an error but it reminds you of a similar phrase you saw somewhere else in the interface… and maybe you solve it.

So first of all the concept of “working” can be expanded. Sure it works now but but keeping your eyes open you realize it can be better. Then you start to have expectations beyond “I hope it doesn’t crash!” and “Trying not to break anything here” which is how a lot of people feel. They are basically in a tense truce with their technology. Worried that if they ask too much the technology will lash out like an abusive partner, so they settle for an appeasing strategy. Once you start to raise your expectations, that’s when things like modding, customizing etc will start to become attractive. You realize you don’t need to settle for absolute bare minimum. Start thinking “what else can it do?”.

And as you do this across software you start to have transferable ideas from one use to the next. Like I know a lot of software having to do with text will have a “Find” feature. If I am using a different PDF reader than usual, I expect it will have “Find”. A lot of people do not know about “Find” generally and they will just scroll through data like trying to call a tree doctor from the 1981 yellow pages. So naturally the experience of navigating any sizeable data on a device is torture as they plod along hoping their eyeballs to land on something meaningful. Their feeling of the experience is “it’s so hard and slow reading stuff on the computer… I am so bad at computers”. And they will try to just avoid the situation. Having looked through thousands of menus, I have the confidence to know a PDF reader without “Find” SUCKS and I am not to blame. I don’t feel it is due to some inherent deficit in my tech wizardry. I also let the misery roll of my back because this bad experience will not be universal.

The same principal applies to other scenarios:

• look at all buttons, ports, connections on a physical device
• what are all those files and directories you don’t use on your computer?

Making a habit of looking around is the basic reason I have always been “comfortable with computers”.

“It’s broken/crashed”

So once someone knows what they want but can’t get it.

Whatever the problem, help them out but only in the most minimal way so they have to struggle through the problems. Have them guess at how to do something, and try it out. Talk out the problem. The person might try reading what it says on the screen out loud (even if you can also read it) and explain it. What’s going on here? What were they doing, trying to do etc? What was expected, what happened?

Go back 1 step, or start at the beginning, and see if the problem happens again. Is it exactly the same problem? Getting handy with screen shot software can help you to remember the exact steps you took and the results.

Obviously stop them if they are going to make some sort of horrible mistake and cause a major disaster. :)

If frustration is building or they are going down a totally fruitless path, give the most minimal hints. Like sometimes there’s a vocabulary being used that they don’t know, so sometimes you can clarify that without fully giving away the solution. Ask some questions that are a bit leading in the right direction. Or pretend you don’t already know the answer and think about what your first step to solve it would be. And go through it together, in a naive way. Like we know about searching for errors on the web, but sometimes the error window has multiple components, or only part of it is relevant, or you have to find the error elsewhere in the interface. So forget everything you know and struggle through it how they will have to when you aren’t there to hand hold.

They need to learn to isolate the problem. I found writing up support and issue requests really helped me to sharpen this. Sometimes there are multiple things going on and you really need to narrow down the problem by removing complexities. For example I have remote storage mounted on my computer and over time I realized that when my network gets flakey it causes strange and seemingly unrelated problems. So to avoid going up the garden path, I make sure I am operating on a local file for any troubleshooting. Sometimes I totally unmount all remote storage even if I am not directly using it because it causes certain applications to misbehave.

Other ways of doing this for different situations: private browser window, alternative browser, disconnect from the internet, connect via ethernet not wireless, turn off bluetooth, disconnect peripherals, use default not custom configurations, make a new system user, fresh install in a different location, work on a fresh new file, try a different USB cable. And the classic: reboot device. Only do one thing at a time.

UNLESS the required information is really some piece of trivia that it will be impossible to figure out. Like my example about the router model version. Suffering thru that didn’t benefit me.

With anything that might have to do with hardware, there is a magic #1 trick to just memorize. Solves way more problems than you would think. This should always, always be the first thing. You need to check both of these things, every single time, even if you already know the answer. You need to physically check with your hands:

1. Is it plugged in?
2. Is it turned on?

Literally there are many people who think I’m some sort of tech genius due to rigorous application of the above.

The action item:

That rigorous screening must be implemented at all ports of entry to Barbados for Israeli passport holders, and that any individual with known or suspected involvement in genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity must be:

• Prosecuted by the DPP, and if that is not possible,
• Immediately deported by the Immigration Department, in accordance with Barbados law—regardless of diplomatic status

I got curious about this and looked into it and what little I found was very unclear to me if there is actually a case ongoing, pending or just proposed. This group has been attempting to get this off the ground for a while now it seems. They filed something on June 20 2025 but it might have been a petition (like a collection of signatures) or a petition (like a court document). Or both might be involved.

I think most optimistically, there has been some sort of very preliminary hearing about whether the case can proceed. No mention anywhere of any representation from the respondents. (And for context, numerous articles mentioned the presence of legal students to demonstrate the gravity so participants were thoroughly accounted for.) Which I suppose means: it is not at a stage where it even can be contested, OR it is not seen as a legitimate legal action worth their time. As of June 20, the applicants were quoted as saying there was no date set for any potential case and it had not yet been accepted.

At any rate I don’t think anything has happened that would justify saying a “case” has been “heard”. Apparently the SC next meets July 21 and some articles say whatever started here will be continued on that day. But others seem to suggest it’s more like a hope that something will happen.

• Barbados Today Oct 4, 2024: Permission with conditions for pro-Palestine group protest
• Nation News June 22, 2025: Group files court motions against Israel
• TeleSur July 5 2025: Barbados Supreme Court Files Law Suite Against Israel Genocide in Gaza

A while ago I looked this up because I thought it was very common knowledge and accepted history that IBM was key to the Holocaust. But I was talking to someone who didn’t think it was true. The wikipedia successfully confused me.

Richard Bernstein, writing for The New York Times Book Review in 2001, pointed out that “many American companies did what I.B.M. did. … What then makes I.B.M. different?” He states that Black’s case in his book IBM and the Holocaust “is long and heavily documented, and yet he does not demonstrate that I.B.M. bears some unique or decisive responsibility for the evil that was done.”[8] IBM quoted this claim in a March 2002 “Addendum to IBM Statement on Nazi-era Book and Lawsuit,” after the publication of Black’s revised paperback edition:

Mr. Black is asserting that IBM is withholding materials regarding this era in its archives. There is no basis for such assertions and we deplore the use of such claims to sell books.[9]

I don’t find the argument “what makes IBM different?” very compelling. As it would seem they are saying that many capitalist organizations acted in furtherance of fascism when presented the opportunity. While true, it is hardly a defense.

Is the denial about “withholding materials” a deflection? Surely an accusation like that would not be among the most serious…?

I was overall surprised the extent to which this whole idea is attributed to a single author only since the 21st century. I haven’t actually read the book to learn what the claims are. But does anyone know if they are substantiated by the work of others, or well accepted among historians?

(see also a fairly rare self reference IBM and the Holocaust > Wikipedia editing controversy)

when I was a kid we had a cat who would sit with his face right inside my dad’s work shoes

edit it was like this

he would just sleep like that

I think it’s climate change

It runs on a lot more devices like TV boxes idk if that is counted

I don’t understand the various comments here and elsewhere that there would be spontaneous national riots to defend this guy.

Isn’t this from 2 wars ago?

In the interview they show you a bunch of memes and you have to explain which of them is based and why.

Whoever ordered this should be pulled before the ICJ on charges of encouraging genocide.

So how was the grub?

Comrades, we must practice vigilant opsec

In socialist new York you don’t even own your table.

If you purge you have to replace them though right? Otherwise its just a a cut. Who will he get in there?

I seem to recall in 2020 the NYPD doxxed and otherwise harassed (targeted for arrest?) the mayors daughter due to her participation in BLM and I guess in protest of the mayor being insufficiently hostile to black people or something. <- imprecise memory I didn’t fact check

When Oxford was about to liberate its covid vaccine recipe to enable local production in the global south, bill gates swooped in to talk them down. One of his arguments that ultimately won the day is that global south people are too stupid and irresponsible to be in charge of important medicine like that.

This photo is staged to reinforced that kind of stereotype.

I commend your web search skills!

With that info we can post a better photo taken within moments of the above:

Which shows medications being stored in a normal way in boxes which are neatly stacked and organized on shelves.

The med salad colander thing still completely inexplicable. It doesn’t play any role in the workflow according to the photos I saw. It is a chaotic and dangerous way of storing medication. I hypothesize it is staged for the benefit of the photographer, likely with some art direction from her.

I know it’s just a third party photo on a summary article but the photographer “Barbara Debout/AFP/Getty Images” is seriously fucked in the head. The idea that anyone would ever break up a bunch of blister packs of random medications and put them in a colander like some sort of chronic disease salad is insane. For context, we see the dark skin and bold printed clothing. Is there any explanation for this which isn’t wildly racist?

There’s a perfectly non-racist image included in the actual paper:

no nation has ever been

I don’t think mobilizing racism in that way will help in the long run.