troydowling

@troydowling@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is installing a different OS/Custom Rom on phones a huge hassle?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you don’t mind me polling your opinion: do you recommend Graphene for someone previously used to Cyanogen / Lineage? I recently upgraded to a Pixel 8 from quite an old handset and I’m not particularly fond of the stock ROM. Much has changed since the last time I had to think about this stuff! I primarily care about privacy, and use my cell for little more than phone calls, messaging, and its camera.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨VW Is Putting Buttons Back in Cars Because People Complained Enough⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I was with you up until the climate controls.

  Any control you can find in a 1997 Hyundai Accent should be physical.

  Anything else can be hidden behind a touchscreen because I’m not going to use it while driving anyway.

  My big request would be to drop the USB cable. I don’t know why I need to connect both USB and Bluetooth. I’d love to just leave my cell in my bag where it belongs instead of advertising yet another reason why someone should smash my windows in!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon, Tripadvisor and other companies team up to battle fake reviews while FTC seeks to ban them⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I bought a popcorn bowl that turned out to be terrible. It came with a leaflet coupon saying if I left a 5-star review, they would send me another bowl for free.

  The comment I tried to leave was a short, fair, polite statement along the lines of 'this bowl doesn’t meet the claims X and Y on the description, and came with an offer to trade a good review for another bowl for free." That review got flagged by the automod and was ultimately rejected. If I recall, the rejection message wasn’t even specific on what rule my review broke.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Right-to-repair is now the law in California⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Root access should be available from the moment my purchase payment clears. I paid, it’s my device.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ebay Could Owe $1.9 Billion in Fines for Allowing Sale of 343,000 Emissions Defeat Devices⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  The dietary illuminati hid their food pyramid stop the unfinished pyramid of the one dollar bill! It’s pyramids all the way down!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows 12 May Require a Subscription⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  The perpetual year of the Linux desktop.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Am I? Who knows⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  What a Barclay.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[IDEA] automatic advertisement software⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  The very last thing the Internet needs is more ads.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tesla misses estimates for quarterly deliveries; shares fall⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  You need a touchscreen to open the glovebox?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Critical vulnerability in WebP Codec has browser vendors scrambling for updates⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  The only reason I know what webp is, is because its “that dumb format” that doesn’t play like a GIF in Signal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Got klipper up and running on the new Ender-3 V3 se⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh, of course. That explains the coefficient output in the terminal. Thanks.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Got klipper up and running on the new Ender-3 V3 se⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Is that about 20 degrees of swing on the hotend? Might need to recalibrate that loop!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨WhatsApp Will Soon Let Users Share Photos in HD⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  One of the frustrating things about Signal is its extreme compression. I hope WhatsApp laxing up a bit will be the final push to the Signal devs to allow me to send a 30 MiB photo if I want to. Just give me a damn opt-in option buried in a settings menu for Pete’s sake.

  Annoys me to no end that I’m forced to crunch image quality down. The reasons I heard in discussion were to save disk space and network bandwidth. I have no sympathy for either of these points. Have a modicum of digital hygiene and delete old files, and pressure your ridiculous governments to invest and regulate ISPs, then join the rest of the world in the 21st century.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How was life back then?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Outside of IM, in the mid-2000s the Internet was more of a space of personal expression and burgeoning e-commerce.

  There was Geocities and Anglefire where anyone could create a personal homepage with rudimentary HTML skills. You could show off your personality and share your interests, and (some) others would be excited to find you and sign your guest book. You’d be excited every time the hit counter on your page went up.

  Talking in real-time, over IRC usually, was the first taste of true globalisation for many. There were other, older forums around like BBCs, but these were even more techno-niche nerd havens. The web forum (PHPBB) later came along and created what I consider to be the protoweb of what we have today. Profiles, display pictures, post counts, threads and boards, etc.

  Another large difference was that the Internet was still a very collaborative space. Services usually had open APIs, so that you could write or use software that brought the services you wanted into the format you prefer. Think: all of your IM accounts in one messaging app, all of your website news feeds delivered to an RSS reader, and data that easily flowed from one space to another. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before these same services saw the business sense in restricting users from exporting their data, thus confining them to “walled gardens” where they were readily subjected to ads, and without recourse to leave. And thus the API died.

  There was essentially no presence of celebrity on the net as we know it today. Before MySpace, at least, you would be required to go out and search for Sean Connery’s personal blog, or Paris Hiltons fashion tips. Today, it’s difficult to avoid these things being pressed upon you. At this point in time, you chased people, now it seems the web has them chasing you.

  Commerce was a commonplace part of the net as early as the 90s, depending on your idea of commonplace. Nobody trusted computers with their financial data like credit cards. Giving your address to a seller felt wildly reckless… until it didn’t. A little bookstore called Amazon started the novel idea of efficient online sales with less of the burden of storage, eBay rose seemingly overnight, Elon Musk made his fortune selling PayPal, we all collected Net Beans like they’d be worth anything.

  Video playback and other multimedia features bled their way into the web from the millennium onward. Online journalism felt like it was in it’s fittest shape.

  There was a huge culture of shareware in every market. Shareware games, file utilities, media players, everything. It was how you hoped to be discovered as a software author. We’d load diskettes with Bonzai Buddy and cursor themes and trade them with friends in break rooms and schoolyards. The coolest among you know how to find pirated games and bootleg software.

  Comment sections were truly, deeply, disgusting hives of scum and villainy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Lina Khan: The most feared person in Silicon Valley is a 34-year-old in DC⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Telus? What a bunch of crooked hosers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why you shouldn't use Brave Browser⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Fiirefox?