General Discussion

(This didn't require me to workaround anything, it's just their bad — for them — setup.)

So, for around the past 8 months I've been using a cheap IoT SIM card from T-Mobile with some tiny high-speed data allowance and 64kbps unlimited.
The 64 kbps unlimited turned out to just stay high-speed unlimited, in 2 countries at least. Ironically, I had trouble even just activating (switching to — only sold as physical) the eSIM in the home country, so I couldn't test it there.
I've been using it mostly as a backup alongside another regularly paid plan at first, since it can connect via 3 MNOs in my country, but I also used it a bit more to save some money later after my main carrier increased the price by 30%. I've been trying to keep it up to around 20GB/month per SIM, since that is the theoretical limit with 24/7 64kbps, but this month I overshot it with 35GB.
Currently I switched to ad-supported low-speed eSIM instead since that's good enough for now.

I also have a second SIM in modem connected to my mini PC I wanted to play around with remotely, but I didn't really get to much.

wwan0  /  monthly

        month        rx      |     tx      |    total    |   avg. rate
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
       2025-03    766,87 MiB |    9,46 GiB |   10,21 GiB |   32,74 kbit/s
       2025-04    753,07 MiB |    8,95 GiB |    9,68 GiB |   32,08 kbit/s
       2025-05      9,87 MiB |    1,73 MiB |   11,60 MiB |       36 bit/s
       2025-06     42,38 MiB |   15,13 MiB |   57,52 MiB |      186 bit/s
       2025-07      1,21 GiB |   24,45 MiB |    1,23 GiB |    4,06 kbit/s
     ------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------

€1.60/month. Cheap enough even if I don't use it.

Other than that, I also try to always stay connected to MNOs under Deutsche Telekom umbrella, since I expect they're gonna have the lowest roaming fees there. It even appears to be the default, but sometimes I need to help it if the signal is worse.
The current EU cap is €1.30/GB for what the roaming partner can charge.
And actually, they can charge me up to this value when roaming permanently (+VAT), but they haven't yet done so (it's prepaid, so there won't be extra bills later).

But also, this is a service I couldn't otherwise get locally. As a young person (up to 28), I can get 300GB/month from Telekom for just €20.50, but there's no domestic roaming for better coverage like I am getting here.
The only carrier which used to offer it was O2, but they discontinued it because it apparently worsened their reputation. Apparently, the competition was telling their customers that they have domestic roaming due to "having to rely on other's networks", from what I've heard.

I know of other similar past glitches. Embeddedworks IoT SIM using the T-Mobile network used to have actual unlimited speed instead of 64kbps, but this has since been fixed.
15GB T-Mobile roaming pass could somehow be overshot, I've seen a screenshot saying "24GB out of 15GB" used.
Firsty free eSIM could do unlimited speed to google services like maps and YouTube (tested with 4k60 video), but since that's a smaller company offering free service, I've reported it to them, and it has been fixed since switch from KPN to Proximus.

Others in certain discussions also mentioned similar glitches with a few other unknown providers, but since too many people using those would get it fixed quickly, the specifics are usually not mentioned.

Hi, I'm not sure what community (or subreddit if it still only exists on Reddit somewhere), but I have been working on this story idea of mine. It is about my personation on here that is Konala Koala, who is known as Koala Mother to the koalas since she cares for them all. It takes place within the great forest in a location near Mount Warning in Australia, similar to the onsetting of Ferngully the Last Rainforest, and there is also a lost boy who wears a footed koala suit outfit that has an open faced koala hood there named Jonly.

The idea is Konala Koala originally resided in Koalawalla Land, a parallel dimension of koalas (like the one from the old Noozles cartoon), but then she crossed over to Earth through a portal or rift that opened in the dreaming skies of Koalawalla Land. When she attempted to return there, the inter-dimensional bridge known as the Great Axis of Eucalyptus Light shuddered. It was in that moment, as the connection to Earth began to break, Konala attempted to leap through the fading portal, but failed.

Konala, who is the gentle Mother of All Koalas, has light grey fur kissed by moonlight and eyes deep with remembering. She carried within her the Dreamsong of Koalawalla Land, a melody that could awaken life or soothe sorrow. She ended up in the heart of Yurra Gungal, which is what the name of the great forest is. Konala built no home, for the forest was her home. Her koala children, both mystical and ordinary, climbed the ancient eucalyptus trees and began to hum the lost harmonies of Koalawalla Land.

It was said the sound of a mother koala’s call, when heard in the deepest part of Yurra Gungal, can still open the ears of the spirit. But Konala wept at night because the Axis was gone. The way back home was sealed. So she sang. Each night she climbed to the highest branch of the oldest gum and sang the Old Way Song, hoping the tones would stretch beyond worlds and reweave the broken thread between the dimensions. Some say the forest responded, growing more alive with each note. Flowers that bloom nowhere else bloom there.

She also carries the grief of what is actually happening to the koalas in Australia, and you will fell that is she chooses to embrace her. There are other ideas I have which involve Jonly the Lost Boy where his koala outfit is more than just clothing, it is a blessing cloak crafted from enchanted bark-fiber and fae-spun thread, tailored by Konala herself to shield his identity and protect his fae aura. This is because Jonly is part of two worlds where he is not fully of either, and his koala fae blood hears what his human heart cannot name.

There is also the old bridge over the gorge at the edge of the forest that has collapsed somewhat, and a glyph called the Tether Mark, one of the last physical remnants of the axis-thread that once bound Earth and Koalawalla Land. A seam between worlds. And it also features an evil being that is cat shaped and wears a coat full of pockets, and is after the glyph for nefarious reasons, but I had been running into various issues trying to put all of this together in writing.

When I tried to ask about this in a Discord Server for story writing, I ended up getting muted and then muted again, and I'm still muted there. So, I'm just wondering if there is someplace where I can talk about this story without issues or somehow being in violation of that place's rules. If you are interested in this and know of someplace where I could seek further help, please let me know.

I don't really know where to post this but just wanted somewhere to write out my thoughts really.

For the last 10 years I've slowly put on weight. I'm not obese but I'm a little chubbier with every passing year.

I've always thought I should do something about it. But I like eating, and I don't like exercise, and everyone says it's such a chore to lose weight so I never really bothered and just shrugged off the weight gain as, "oh well, it's not that bad and I cba fixing it".

I have always kept track of my weight though. I use an app to record the trend over time, just for my own nerdery. And six months ago I hit 95kg and decided that I didn't want to creep any closer to 100kg, which felt like some tipping point where it's no longer something I can ignore.

I don't like the idea of doing some huge "diet" or regime or life overhaul. Those are not sustainable. I don't want some one weird trick to lose 50kg in 3 days. I don't want to significantly change my diet. I'm not going to stick to some intense exercise or gym plan. So I figured, I'll informally just make some subtle, easy, sustainable changes and see how that goes. So for the last 6 months, when I make myself food, for example pasta or cereal or rice or chips (fries for muricans), I measure out how much I would normally eat, then I put a little bit back into the bag before I cook the portion. Just slightly reducing my portion size. I've also been consciously pushing myself to go out on walks around the local streets, and on cycles which I actually quite enjoy. There's no structure to when, how, or where I go out; I just make an effort to get myself out a few times a week for at least around an hour. I used to eat a LOT of chocolate, biscuits, etc, so I've made a conscious effort to cut that back a little. How much? I don't know. I didn't go cold turkey; I didn't give myself a ration; I've just been a little more conscious of trying to eat less crap, and when I do eat crap I try to eat a smaller amount. I haven't changed my diet at all (which is still terrible) - all I did was reduce my portion sizes, eat a little less crap outside of meals, and push myself to get out of the house a little more by walking and cycling.

My results have been quite pleasing. I'm down from 95kg to 89kg in six months. I'm really, really happy with that. If the trend continues I'll be below 85kg by the end of the year, which will be great for me. Mainly I'm pleased that I'm making sustainable progress with an easy mindset that doesn't take a huge effort or structure.

Was it always that easy?

Turns out it really is just all about calories in and calories out. All I really did was decide to be a bit more aware/conscious about my eating and exercise instead of just doing whatever and never thinking about it. I spent no money; I followed no plan; I did not have to exert willpower or make myself miserable. By not expecting any extreme change overnight I was able to put in next to zero effort and get some quite positive and sustainable results.

I've always read/heard about how hard it is and how you have to make a plan and stick to it, and override your natural urges with extreme willpower, and overhaul your diet and get a personal trainer and commit X hours a week to the gym, and on and on. It sounded exhausting and impossible. So maybe someone needs to hear this: it's not impossible, it's easy, as long as you don't expect your entire body to magically change in a short time and make small, achievable, sustainable changes.

Something I see a lot in the Fediverse and left wing spheres is people rejecting, or making enemies of imperfect allies. The video I shared paints a great picture of what it's like.

Here is some examples I've seen, and what reactions they've been met with.

"I ditched Gmail for Proton" is met with "That's terrible the CEO is a Trump boot licker"

"Posts on r/BuyCanadian" is met with "Why are you still using Reddit, it's American?"

"I'm pro trans but, there are some things I'm not 100% onboard with" is met with "Harsh criticism & Ban"

"I sold my diesel SUV for an electric KIA" is met with "You shouldn't support China or drive a SUV, buy European instead"

"I switched to Brave instead of Chrome" is met with "Brave sucks its American and still part of chromium"
etc.

I so often see people harshly criticize and alienate people that are mostly on their side, and might in the near future be fully on their side.

Instead I'd like to see responses like

"Hey fantastic that you switched to Proton away from Gmail, consider moving to Migadu as they're an even better solution"

"Awesome that you're buying Canadian, while you're at it consider checking out Lemmy or PieFed"

"Great job switching to Electric, next time consider buying a smaller European car there are many great reasons why they are better"

"Great that you're pro-trance, what's stopping your from being onboard with XYZ? Maybe I can change your mind?"

"Nice Brave is already a lot better than Chrome, even better would be LibreWolf, also make sure to try out Kagi or Qwant instead of google"

You don't change someone's mind by criticizing them, you need to have a discussion and bring them over, tone matters. How do we stop these criticisms and alienating imperfect allies?

This is the shit I think about at 4am when I'm awake

I'm not embarrassed and I will do it again

idk if this belongs here, but it's a general discussion so...

it's 2:30 am where i live, i can't sleep at all, hello :D i'm very sleepy but i can't sleep, if i don't respond to you guys in 30 min-1 hour, i'm trying to sleep, and in like 6-8 hours, i fell asleep finally

Hello!

I'm having some issues with my Instagram account. When I tried to sign in to the Instagram app or website, the code wasn't sent to my OLD phone number and I wasn't able to use the backup codes. However, I saved my Instagram code in my Google Authenticator app, but nothing worked. The problem also affects my Telegram and WhatsApp accounts.

It feels like my Instagram account is coming to an end, but I'm really hoping you can respond to help me solve this problem.

P.S. Sorry for posting in the wrong community.

Thank you!

May his tomorrow be without... No, wait!

I have been more than 2 years on Lemmy and I have had an amazing experience with everything, but lately I see more and more US politics on all! I also see new communities regarding US politics + newspapers about the US, cross-posting same article in multiple communities and so on.

It's only me who thinks this is too much? Anyone else that have noticed it?

Lately, I have been having issues leading to frustration with a group I'm involved with that does rehearsals for a stage play over the summer. What the group does is create their own script for a play instead of using an existing one and I have been given permission to write a scene that involves the use of stuffed animals as puppets into the script as their assistant writer since I can do playwrighting.

Since I had gotten suggestions to do a lost boy and Captain Kangaroo, I ended up attempting to merge them both and came up with the idea of a boy dressed like a koala who is a half breed of human and koala fae with a connection to the eucalyptus woods. While I was working on this character of mine, I was hearing about clear-cutting of eucalyptus trees in Australia and became sad because of what it doing to the poor koalas.

That is what gave me the idea to make the puppet scene be deep in the eucalyptus forest in a mystical place that is full of koalas called Koalawalla Woods, and depict the plight of the koalas and the threat of clear cutters. The story I came up with is an elder koala is the first one to see men coming into the outskirts of the eucalyptus forest and start to clear cut eucalyptus trees.

It concerns him greatly that he sends a young boy koala to Koalawalla Woods in order to inform my namesake on here of the dire situation. She becomes really concerned about the clear cutters and wonders what can they do since she is known as Koala Mother who cares for all the koalas. She is also worried about the welfare of the koala dressed boy as she shares a special bond with him due to him being part koala fae.

The boy being nearby overhears the commotion there and wants to know what is going on. Koala Mother informs him about the loggers clear cutting eucalyptus trees and is not sure if there is anything they can do against them. He then states they may need to inform the fairy queen he is under the protection of about their dire situation. The young boy koala overhears him saying this and goes back to the elder koala to tell him this.

At the same time, Koala Mother gets more visitors coming by wondering what is going on and if there is something they can do against the loggers. While she is in the middle of talking to an elfling girl who happens to be in the area and wonders how she can help the koalas, the young boy returns and whispers in her ear. She tells the elfling girl to hold her thought on what she is saying and speaks to the young koala boy.

He informs Koala Mother the fairy queen requested for the koala dressed boy to go to this location to find this crystal stone they need to save Koalawalla Woods, and she needs her to open a portal there. Koala Mother reluctantly agrees that could be their only hope and opens a portal to where the crystal stone can be found in the same fashion Pinky or Printy opens her portals in the old Noozles cartoon.

After I have submitted this to be the puppetry scene in the group's play I'm involved with since I had felt that I wanted to depict the plight of the koalas to the audience and gain attention of it in a way. Even though it was accepted, I was never informed of the koala dressed boy being written into the rest of the play to fall down on the ground and is dying like he is being killed off, and I didn't approve of this.

Right now, I'm preparing to submit a further edit I made to their script that fixes this and makes more sense, but if they don't approve of it, I will no longer be involved in their play and pull my character and puppet scene out of it. If it does come to that, I'm wondering if anyone here may know of a community that would be interested in my ideas here. I can expand on them alone without them being compacted with the rest of a play.

As a labor and delivery nurse, Bari M. is used to answering questions about having babies. As a happily child-free woman, she’s also used to answering questions about not having them — and is readily equipped to answer them.

“I have so many reasons that I find it’s always a different one that flies out of my mouth,” the 36-year-old tells Yahoo Life. "If it’s someone I’m very close with, I’ll give them a deep, multi-level answer. If it’s someone like a patient, I usually give a brief, kind of silly answer like, ‘Well, I just went to Paris for three nights for my birthday, and I’m going to South Africa next month. I have no interest in giving that up.’”

There are myriad reasons why a person might not have children (all of which are, quite frankly, no one’s business). In a recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll of 1,597 U.S. adults conducted last month, 43% of respondents said they don’t have children. Of that number, 19% cited concerns for the future of the planet, and 32% attributed the decision to cost. And then there are those who, like Bari, are choosing to be child-free ... well, because they just don't want to. More than a quarter (26%) of the poll respondents who didn’t have kids said it’s because they “prefer life as it is,” and 25% answered, “I’d rather just not” have children.

(I hope this is the right place to vent out my thoughts and feelings, idk who will read this though, but pls be kind (: )

I never had any huge crushes in my student days. I had one towards the end but I usually just observe from a distance and admire their beauty. Never felt I should talk to them or make them close.

Cometh my first job. I saw this woman, she was not amazing at first but caught my eyes. Everyday I would look at her as usual with my "crush protocol". Day after day, I felt she was becoming more amazing. This continued for months. Feelings only got thicker, so much so that I started to associate every love song with her. This is something I have never connected to in my whole life. Love songs never clicked to me, never felt attached to them. But this woman changed it all somehow with no word spoken between us.

But on some particular day, heavens have blessed me with an opportunity. She sat beside me during lunch out of sheer luck. Time for more context on my personality. I just don't talk to people. Idk if it's introversion or lack of social skills. Even with my colleagues I just talk when necessary. I just don't initiate any conversation irl until they do. Talking to strangers? Forget about it.

Let's come back to our glorious day. She sat beside me and all the time she was eating I battled within myself that I have to talk to her somehow. And after battling for some hard 10-15min, I went for it. I said "excuse me..." and fumbled my words towards some random question about her work. The conversation was quick and I couldn't carry it longer than a minute probably but much lesser ig. But this was a huge achievement for a someone like me - an introvert talking to their crush.

Days passed but we haven't talked a single conversation again. Here comes the villain. There came a shift in our work that we had to be in different places. Boom. I won't be seeing her ever again. I don't even know her name. Now I am regretting not knowing her name ever again. Fcuk man.

Bye my unknown queen.

Feddit.org has chosen to support the Palestinian genocide and censor ALL speech against Israel or in support of Palestinians.

I call on lemmy.world to support and protect its users by defederating from any instance that chooses to support Nazi ideology, especially when they should know better.

Bit of a long post here.

I am an 29 year old Autistic guy from the northwest USA who started developing a serious addiction to Instagram and TikTok during the COVID pandemic. It got worse around 2022 when I lost my job. TikTok, like Reddit, does have lots of very informational and interesting content on there and I enjoyed watching lots of travel videos as well as many math and science related videos. What made TikTok a very attractive platform for younger Americans was how it tapped into a niche market very well. TikTok was mainly good for short form video content and especially videos that were under a minute. There were lots of interesting information on TikTok and interesting features that made it much more interesting to use compared to Reddit. Since TikTok is a very international platform, we could see lots of news and travel content from all over the world. I loved watching travel and international videos on TikTok However even those “educational” travel videos can become toxic as it’s mainly travel influencers who travel all over the world to visit nice places and make give us FOMO. In reality, they most likely come from wealthy families, have an abnormally high carbon footprint flying to all sorts of different places, and likely staying in Airbnbs instead of hotels to save up on any accommodation costs.

Unfortunately like Twitter and even Reddit, TikTok does have some major problems when it comes to toxicity and trolling. Especially if users are relatively anonymous by having some obscure username and profile picture. Most of these problems started when I got into some problems with some younger women on TikTok I didn’t know but made me very angry for some reasons. I made some nasty messages about them until one of them called me out. Thinking about it now, I very much regret it now and I wished I could apologize. After this, I’ve been contemplating about deleting TikTok. I already uninstalled Instagram but I still don’t want to delete it completely as I have lots of great material on there from the past.

TikTok, and social media in general, has became a massive scourge for younger people. It has made marginalized men significantly more misogynistic and chauvinistic. It has made marginalized CIS heterosexual people significantly more homophobic and extremely transphobic. It has made people in general much more racist towards people of other ethnic and racial backgrounds, and much more bigoted towards people of other religions.

Nowadays, TikTok has suddenly became an extremely vile place for anyone who is Indian. Many of these incredibly racist and hateful comments are being made by non-White people of color and sometimes Pakistanis and Bangladeshis who share the same racial background as us. TikTok a Chinese social media giant that was banned in India for some bizarre reasons, but this means that India has become the punching bag for jokes. I don’t mean playful jokes. I mean genuinely disgusting and racist comments. I am of Indian-origin (born to Indian immigrant parents) and right now there is a conflict going on with India and Pakistan. On one video, there is a comment made by an anonymous user that has over 3,000 likes that said “I hope Pakistan nukes the sh** out of India and cleans the entire world of this plague!” On another video, another comment with almost 50,000 likes said “The smelliest war in the world!” India has a myriad of problems, especially when it comes to public safety and corruption. However after reading some of these comments, I am ready to pull the plug on my TikTok account and say “Bye Bye” to TikTok forever. I hate how Google also uses TikTok for many videos as well.

Hello folks,

I was wondering if I should open my secondary number for public use, what I mean is that anyone could use my number for temporary SMS to make a burner account or for some privacy reasons. I know that there are tons of services out there which provides a temp SMS however most of those numbers are blocked by all the big tech like G**gle, Micrsft etc, my number is new so it will take some time before they ban it as well.

I have a concern though, what will happen if someone tries to use my number for malicious purposes ( is it even possible that someone could use it in a way that will put me in trouble? ). that mobile number is going expire in 6 months anyway, so I guess it's not an issue.

what do you say? your thoughts?

The U.S. is both for hating immigrants, and made of immigrants. I would like to know (doesn't matter where you live) what were your experiences of having immigrants in your life, for me... I'd say the man who drives me to work hardest isn't my father, it's my neighbor who busted his ass daily working on cars, yards work, anything. He hasn't had a day of rest since I moved in 3+ years ago it seems.... But it's what he chooses. When I got chickens, he wanted in, and got yelled at by his wife. So now I find random corn kernels and feed thrown whenever his wife is gone lol. 35 years on this earth. I actually judge where I rent off if I have neighbors who aren't white. That makes me racist I guess. But seriously, what's your story of why humans are fucking human.

Man the only reason someone like me looks good at something is because the average person is terrible at it lol

i have heard this a lot with downright cruelty or bullying. i’ve talked to someone and they have said “they could just be having a bad day!!”

you may think you’re helping if you say this, but it doesn’t help in my opinion.

Now I'm hangry and I want a pizza.

Fuck that guy.

I've been using a 3rd party client to access posts on Lemmy. I loved the experience back when Reddit allowed 3rd party apps. But I felt the feed was a bit........one sided.

I figured it was just because I was new to Lemmy, but then I sorted posts by New.

Nothing but trans anime porn. It's like the only people that came to Lemmy were the people that got kicked out of Reddit circles because all they could think about was trans anime porn.

Maybe I signed up on the wrong instance? But I don't think that's the problem.

How are so many people trying to treat Lemmy as a balanced alternative to Reddit?

What the fuck?!

I cannot do a damn thing. Be it easy, be it hard, be it rewarding, be it just pure pleasure. I cannot enjoy a thing thinking it is just waste of time. I cannot carry myself to do a hard task thinking about the high effort it requires. Even if I break it into small parts, I would only do the bare minimum for a day or two and stop it.

My entire life is being passed away coming back tired, hungry and yearning for sleep, from a job I dislike to the core.

I am not moving towards my goals. I cannot quit this job. Time is passing. I'm stuck. Weekends cometh, I use them all trying to catch up on sleep.

Every week I'm doing just the bare minimum to survive thinking I might do something on the weekend and I don't. How do I break out this cycle? There's a lot more I could unwind upon but this post is already long enough.

Argh