nodsocket

Networking noob here. I want to prevent all incoming requests except through a specific port, and that traffic is forwarded to a specific device on the network. NAT seems to do that just fine, it's almost like a kind of firewall by itself. What kind of threats are there that requires more than just NAT for security?

I have noticed that some CAPTCHA pages, like Cloudflare's, simply ask you to check a box to proceed. There is no clicking on traffic lights or entering characters. How does clicking on a check box tell them I am not a robot?

I noticed that almost all types of cooking oil (vegetable oil, olive oil, peanut oil, etc) contain some saturated fat. Since saturated fat is known to be a contributor to heart disease, then could you simply remove the saturated fats from the oil to make it healthier?

Isn't propaganda just a form of persuasion? What about propaganda separates it from advertising or interpersonal communication?

Edit: Not all propaganda involves lying. For some reason, we seem to be more comfortable with a person lying to us than we are with viewing a propaganda poster that uses verifiable facts.

Edit 2: Another interesting note is that in some countries, propaganda is not viewed negatively like it is in English speaking countries.

There are some brands of bicycles that can cost more than the down payment on a car. Why? Surely making a bike lightweight and reliable isn't so difficult that it warrants that price? Is it just the brand name or maybe it has to do with customization options?

Something I've always wondered is what kind of women were in the lives of incel men when they were young. Did they have a bad relationship with their mother? Did they lack sisters or other female family members? Or is their family situation irrelevant? Maybe some particular situation in their early years caused them to develop a complex around women?

Not sure what community to post this in so I'll post it here.

Many years ago I used to see this one stretchy toy in every gift shop and toy store. Now I can't find a single trace of it online and it's driving me up the wall. Here's everything I know about it so far:

• It was a squishy sphere, made of stretchy rubbery material, with a circular hole on the bottom. One piece, all made of the same material.
• The ball could be turned inside out. One side had little squishy spikes on it and the other side was smooth.
• The marketing material showed a kid wearing the toy stretched over his head, spiky-side-out like a wig.
• It came in solid colors like blue, green and orange.
• It was about the size of a grapefruit.

I can't be the only one who remembers this. Would love to know the name so I can get this out of my head.

I am not criticizing them, I'm just out of the loop.

Is there a way to find these communities across instances other than by waiting until a post appears?

I've always been conservative about what kind of services I host because it takes time to get them set up. For example, there's no reason for me to set up music streaming when I only ever listen to music on my phone and all my music files are already on my phone. On the other hand, it's a good learning opportunity to set stuff up and have to fix it when it breaks. What do you think?

I was struggling to wrap my head around how federated social media works until I realized that email has basically been doing the same thing for 30 years. Different email servers are like instances of a federated network. You can send emails to people from within a single server or you can send emails to people on any other mail server. Your email address is a username followed by an '@' and the server address, just like on Lemmy. Email is a decentralized service I've been using the whole time!