dhork
@dhork@lemmy.world
- Comment on Everyone Cheering The Social Media Addiction Verdicts Against Meta Should Understand What They’re Actually Cheering For 1 week ago:
Normally, I am all for Techdirt’s takes. But I think this one is off the mark a bit, because I legitimately think that infinite scroll and auto play are insidious, and actually harmful enough to be treated as a dangerous design decision.
The whole point of Section 230 is that communications companies can’t be held responsible for harmful things that people transmit on their networks, because it’s the people transmitting those harmful things that are actually at fault. And that would be reasonable in the initial stages of the Internet, when people posted on bulletin boards (or even early social media) and the harmful content had a much smaller reach. People had to “opt in”, essentially, to be exposed to this content, and if they stumble on something they find objectionable they can easily change their focus
But the purpose of the infinite scroll and auto play is to get people hooked on content. The algorithms exist to maximize engagement, regardless of the value of that engagement. I think the comparison to cigarettes is particularly apt. They are looking to hook people into actively harmful behaviors, for profit. And the algorithms don’t really differentiate between good engagement and harmful engagement. Anything that attracts the users attention is fair game.
The author’s points regarding how these rulings can be abused are correct, but that doesn’t negate how fundamentally harmful these addictive practices are. It will be up to lawmakers to make sure that the laws are drafted in such a way that they can be applied equitably… (So maybe we’re screwed after all…)
- Comment on Has the scientific community ever reconciled with the fact global warming is going to happen and there is no stopping it? 2 weeks ago:
“Scientific Community” is kind of a broad term. It is composed of a lot of smarty-pants types who are unlikely to take “no” for an answer, and will keep trying to fix the problem.
In the end, you may be right, and there’s no way to stop the runaway train, and all these folks will accomplish is getting our hopes raised while they earn their PhD’s and present papers in worldwide conferences they all burned jet fuel to get to.
But, what if you turn out to be wrong, and one of those poindexters actually figures out how to scrub CO2 from the atmosphere in an economical fashion, and they manage to stop the train? That person will be instantly famous, and the Nobel Prize might be the least of their accolades. They will be remembered as one of humanity’s greatest minds. If they happen to be British, they will be buried next to Newton and Darwin, that’s how important it will be.
So, they will keep trying, because it’s as close as you can get in this life to immortality.
- Comment on Hidden Ancient River System Found Deep Under The Surface of Mars 2 weeks ago:
I think I’ve seen this before, on that well-known documentary series “Doctor Who”…
- Comment on ‘Pokémon Go’ players have been unknowingly training delivery robots 3 weeks ago:
I always thought that Joe Biden’s campaign slogan should have been “Make Politics Boring Again”
- Comment on ‘Pokémon Go’ players have been unknowingly training delivery robots 3 weeks ago:
I would have voted for Pikachu
- Comment on ‘Pokémon Go’ players have been unknowingly training delivery robots 3 weeks ago:
But you don’t understand! Some of those Charizards were shiny!
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
My #1 tip for stopping media addiction is to turn off notifications. There is simply nothing going on that requires your immediate attention. It can wait until you have time to check. Try it!
- Comment on Asus Co-CEO: MacBook Neo Is a 'Shock' to the PC Industry 3 weeks ago:
Honestly, I’m just surprised this is the first time someone has dared to put a phone SOC in a laptop chassis.
I’m probably missing something fundamental, but isn’t this just a Chromebook?
- Comment on Silicon Valley is buzzing about this new idea: AI compute as compensation 3 weeks ago:
May as well just pay the bots directly then…
- Comment on ‘Devastating blow’: Atlassian lays off 1,600 workers ahead of AI push 3 weeks ago:
The article lists an insane revenue of $1.6B, yet the losses are only on the order of $42M. Against that much revenue, it looks to me like they are managing the company at a slight loss on purpose. They probably could close that gap if they wanted to, but have some favorable tax implications or something by running that slight loss.
(And who knows, maybe this is part of the attempt to close that gap a d show a profit before the founders cash out and it all gets sold to a Whittier company)
- Comment on After killing Ali Khamenei why doesn’t the US attack Mojtaba Khamenei? 3 weeks ago:
It’s possible either the US or Israel had some extremely timely intelligence on the location of the old leader, and the new one is just being more careful…
- Comment on Warning: Your AI-Generated Password Is a Major Security Risk. Here’s What to Use Instead 3 weeks ago:
I just use the same combination that I have on my luggage
- Comment on Warning: Your AI-Generated Password Is a Major Security Risk. Here’s What to Use Instead 3 weeks ago:
Because the techbros are pushing AI (really LLMs, but that is too many letters) for everything to justify their insane stock valuations
- Comment on Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US 3 weeks ago:
Sorry, but discrimination is discrimination, even if the people doing the discriminating are doing it for reasons they think are just. If stuff like this gets normalized, it’s only a matter of time before it’s weaponized against others, and the trans community in particular.
There’s a direct line between things like anti-trans bathroom bills and this. Surely I can’t be the only one that sees it this way?
- Comment on Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US 3 weeks ago:
The more I think about it, though, the more I think this is a genuine discrimination case. If Uber had rolled this out and said “White drivers can choose to pick up only white passengers”, would that be OK?
Heck, I even think if they rolled this out and said “female users can choose a preference for only female drivers”, that might be able to fly, because it’s the buyer of the service expressing that view.
But to me, for the people offering the service, there is no difference between this and someone who doesn’t want to make a cake for a gay wedding. Yes, I understand the safety thing. But a store that catered to women wouldn’t be able to bar men from entering.
You know what sucks the most about this? They’re probably gonna get sued over it, either by the Trump DOJ or some shitty Red State AG, who is probably gonna win.
- Comment on Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US 3 weeks ago:
Right, but is this the best way to address this, by telling women “All men are the same, they will harass you, they can’t help themselves. So here, click this button and you will never have to pick one up?”
- Comment on Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US 3 weeks ago:
Well, yeah, this is the same type of shit that is used to denigrate Muslims, or trans people, or any other marginalized group. “Some of them are violent, so we won’t trust all of them!”. I don’t think we really want to go there, much less with half the human race.
- Comment on Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US 3 weeks ago:
Is there a technical definition of “large” that justifies this? If not, then this is all based on feelings.
I think it’s bad news to generalize entire large groups like this, no matter how good the intentions are.
- Comment on Uber is letting women avoid male drivers and riders in the US 3 weeks ago:
I understand why women feel this is necessary, but I also understands that a policy like this paints all men with the same brush. It’s like they are saying “Since a small number of men are creeps, we give you the option to avoid all men”. Which seems to be counterproductive.
Meanwhile, Uber has invasive tracking, where they know everyone’s history. They know how many drives a customer has provisioned without incident. And I have always considered these rideshare things to be particularly safe, because all parties are consenting to the tracking.
If Uber had rolled this out and said “you have the option to avoid rides with the opposite gender without an established history in our files”, then I think I would have less of a problem with it. But it seems like I can do everything right, and be respectful of everyone, and give Uber shitloads of money, and still be potentially waiting longer for a ride, just because of my parts. How is that OK?
- Comment on Russia-backed hackers breach Signal, WhatsApp accounts of officials, journalists, Netherlands warns 3 weeks ago:
No worries, the SecDef knows he is “clean on OPSEC”…
- Comment on I’ve spent many hours walking down memory lane with the Commodore 64 Ultimate, and it’s wondrous if sometimes intimidating 4 weeks ago:
Back in the day, there was no drag-and-drop, and everything was done through a keyboard with arrow keys that needed the shift key to switch between directions.
I see someone never used GEOS back in the day…
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
Communism
- Comment on A stolen Gemini API key turned a $180 bill into $82,000 in two days 4 weeks ago:
The developers said they did not believe they made any “obvious” operational mistake. After discovering the compromised key, they attempted to secure their system by deleting exposed keys, disabling Google Gemini API access, and enabling two-factor authentication across their accounts.
I’m no “cloud developer”, but there seem to be a few obvious operational mistakes described just in that paragraph alone…
- Comment on How Russia is intercepting communications from European satellites 5 weeks ago:
I wonder if the real point of the article is not that the Russians are doing this, but that everyone else is saying “Hey, we know what you’re up to”. To give them second thoughts about escalating.
- Comment on How Russia is intercepting communications from European satellites 5 weeks ago:
I find it interesting how the article is just casually dismissing the fact that countries can now fly around and take pictures of other countries’ geosynchronous satellites. It says “Yeah, pics are OK, but Russia might be listening, too, and that’s bad.” Whicn is bullshit. I don’t think anyone is going through the trouble of sending up a remotely piloted space drone but saying “Let’s not listen to the data it is sending, that would be unsportsmanlike!” So all those craft they say are “just taking pictures”? Yeah, they’re listening too.
I think any country that broadcasts sig also into the air like that will have some really good encryption going on though, so listening to the signals is about as useful as listening to static
- Comment on AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations 5 weeks ago:
- Comment on [deleted] 5 weeks ago:
I’m no radiologist, but yeah. That makes the most sense. And I bet the doctors would have presented it in a positive way for your mother at the time, to prevent her from feeling any sort of guilt in regards to not knowing she was pregnant, and how it might have affected your twin.
- Comment on [deleted] 5 weeks ago:
It could also be plausible that your twin was not viable, and did not develop in utero. So when she says they found your twin in the ultrasound, perhaps what they saw was whatever remained after the earlier absorption.
- Comment on [deleted] 5 weeks ago:
Makes much more sense if this all happened at 7 weeks vs. 7 months…
- Comment on 5 weeks ago:
Oh, well it definitely is, at least in the US. They’re not getting paid below minimum like waiters are, but tipping is still customary. Normally it’s only the ones with the towels on the other end getting tipped, though. I always assumed that they all split the tips equally, but I guess I don’t know.
If I were taking a car there knowing it needed extra work on the front end, I definitely would bring tips for both ends.
