dirthawker0

@dirthawker0@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Onion buys rightwing conspiracy theory site Infowars with plans to make it ‘very funny, very stupid’⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m totally for this and I bet it would work, too. We’ve seen the level of ignorance that went into how people chose to vote. If OnionWars puts up those kinds of stories, along with the occasional article declaring Jones actually still owns InfoWarts and any news stating otherwise is fake, they could ease these nutjobs back to sanity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Character.ai Faces Lawsuit After Teen’s Suicide⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Safe? Clearly no. Trigger lock? Cable lock? If one were there, there should be a mention of picking it or cutting it. Unloaded? Also clearly no.

  There are so many ways, any of which take a whole 20 seconds, the parents could have used to prevent this from happening.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Please Don’t Make Me Download Another App | Our phones are being overrun⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I recently ordered something from Walmart (I try to avoid it, but I could not find this one thing elsewhere) and you get a link in your email to notify them when you’re in the pickup bay. The link goes to their app. I tried going to the website through Chrome, to no avail. It kept sending me to try to download the app. I did not. I drove to the pickup bay and lo and behold, the sign had a phone number you could call; a very pleasant person answered, asked my name, and I had my order in a few minutes.

  I do have a couple grocery store apps for 2 reasons: 1 - there are some extremely low prices that you can only get by “clipping a coupon” within the app, and 2 - loyalty points do turn into cash back.

  Safeway (a west coast grocery chain) has implemented it in the worst way possible, though. They had a physical loyalty card which you scanned at checkout/self checkout, which let you access lower prices. But now they have even lower prices only through the app. The app, however, 1 - does not let you enter your old loyalty card number, combine points and cleanly separate from the old method and 2 - you cannot use the damn thing at self checkout. You have to have a checkout clerk scan your barcode in the app, which is insane. I’m just glad Safeway was not my main grocery, because if it were I would have to change to some other grocery.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon's Monopoly of the tech industry is ruining the US economy⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I avoid Walmart for this reason as well as quite a few others. I think I’ve bought about 3 items from them in the past 5-6 years and typically because they have something others don’t that i need that same day (the store is about a mile from my house.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ISPs tell Supreme Court they don’t want to disconnect users accused of piracy⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Americans would not want the price of produce to get higher but a) it relies on employing undocumented labor and b) it’s very hard to find American citizens these days willing to do that kind of hard physical work.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Elon Musk wants to implant millions of people with Neuralink brain chips⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Made by the same guy who brought you the cyber truck , yeah, I’ll pass

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Smart sous vide cooker to start charging $2/month for 10-year-old companion app⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So it can notify you when the water has reached the set temperature or the time you set for cooking is up. Which can be handy. However, I found the BT very weak on my Anova and it would lose connection when I went into my home office a mere 25’ away, so I stopped using it. There’s actually no need for the water to be up to temperature before you put your food in, and food can sit as long as you want; half the point of sous vide is to be able to hold food at temp without overcooking. So you don’t really need the timer either.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ecovacs home robots can be hacked to spy on their owners, researchers say⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I hate lugging around that heavy noisy thing, and I don’t have pets. I’m a bit shocked at how much hair two humans drop in a week. The robovac runs twice a week and I empty it once a week, and it keeps the more open/obvious spaces looking pretty pristine. Dust on a shiny floor really shows. There are places where it cannot go and those need to be done by me, but they’re less visible areas so no need for frequent vacuuming.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨VPN by Google One shuts down⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Fi makes it pretty clear that use outside the US is meant to be temporary (unless you’re on military duty overseas). The person you replied to got a really long run and honestly has no cause for complaint.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Verge shows how Google search is useless⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  And Wirecutter used to be good but they will occasionally point out how highly rated something is, and cross checking against falespot et al indicates a lot of fake reviews.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google One is shutting down its VPN feature later this year⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Google Fi also includes a VPN, I wonder if that’s going as well?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨This Woman Will Decide Which Babies Are Born⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That “other” is the possible Freudian slip.

  But she does have somewhat of a point. Though it’s female and tech and medical - a closer comparison - women in tech leadership roles do get more questioned on their competence than do men.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Best printer 2024: a humorous critique of the Google search engine and printer enshittification⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Mine is 9 years old, I’ve bought toner for it once, and it shows no signs of age. It also looks pretty identical to the picture, and with its layer of dust, even a little blurry too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Best printer 2024: a humorous critique of the Google search engine and printer enshittification⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  For whatever reason, it’s intentional (the text says “A blurry photo of a Brother laser printer.”)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why Charging Your Gadgets Over 80% Is Such a Bad Idea | iFixit News⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a new laptop that was complaining that I’d had it plugged in too long. Apparently there’s a battery management setting that will have it charge to 80% max. I’ve used laptops exclusively for like 15 years and this is the first one to complain about being plugged in constantly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve been bitten by bad return policies when buying from businesses that sell directly, e.g. being refunded the purchase price but not their shipping, having to pay return shipping myself, or getting hit by some bogus restocking fee. Amazon return policy is pretty clear for items they’re selling or at least stocking in their warehouse. So I do prefer to buy Amazon-shipped items.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve reported it once. I was emailed about 8 times from different email addresses with very similar text asking me to take down a bad review and they would refund me. A lot of asking for sympathy, we’re very small and a bad review is so devastating. All the refund offers were a little more than what I paid.

  After 3 requests I replied with something akin to, “okay, you say you’re trying to improve your product. I want something that works. How about instead of a refund, you send me an improved item, and if it works I’ll give a good review.” And they said they couldn’t. (Of course not, they’re just retailing stuff from some factory and they have zero say in development.)

  I didn’t reply, and over the next few weeks I got the rest of the emails from them. So I reported it, sent Amazon screenshots and such. I haven’t looked but I assume they were given the heave ho. They probably just renamed themselves and restarted. But they didn’t email me again.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve gotten cards that offer a free product for a good review, and cards that offer a gift card, but not an actual refund. I’ve been offered refunds to take down my bad reviews.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FCC to declare AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal under existing law⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Personally I want fewer text messages coming up on my mobile. I give a lot of places the landline number precisely to avoid them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FCC to declare AI-generated voices in robocalls illegal under existing law⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Robocalling isn’t inherently bad. Utilities and such institutions that have your membership (library, gym, health care etc) should be welcome to use robocalling to notify you of useful info like emergencies or changes to their schedules. It’s just the political ads, scams, and sales that need to be made illegal and punishable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ChatGPT's new AI store is struggling to keep a lid on all the AI girlfriends⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Some guy in the UK was allegedly convinced by his chatbot girlfriend to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. He just got sentenced a few months ago. Of course he’s been determined to be psychotic, but I could imagine people who would qualify as sane getting too deep and reading too much into what an AI is saying.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google Search Really Has Gotten Worse, Researchers Find⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve played with Bard a little, asking it for details in public-domain novels I’ve read, and 3/4 of the time it is just making shit up. But it’s great at solving quadratic equations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google Search Really Has Gotten Worse, Researchers Find⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  SEO, people trying to game SEO in a hundred different ways, and garbage scammy websites with no clear purpose have pretty much ruined search results. I remember the ancient days of Google when search brought you maybe 3 or 4 pages of results. This is why AI has become necessary, to winnow through the garbage and give you direct, and hopefully correct, answers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your washing machine could be sending 3.7 GB of data a day — LG washing machine owner disconnected his device from Wi-Fi after noticing excessive outgoing daily data traffic⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My washer has WiFi but I’m sure as hell not turning it on. It tells me how long the cycle will be a few minutes after it starts and I’ll just set a timer on my phone - though most of the time I don’t bother because I never have so many loads that time is important.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenAI Quietly Deletes Ban on Using ChatGPT for “Military and Warfare”⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’d be нет

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RIP Microsoft WordPad. You Will Be Missed⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m going to keep it as long as I can. It’s not often that I use it, but it can’t be beat for quick one-off things where I need font formatting (Notepad can’t) like address labels or recipes. I use Libre Office for its spreadsheet, haven’t really tried the word processor, but I totally do not need a full fledged word processor for that stuff.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨These just go out with the other recycling, right?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You really have to google your disposal service. It is by no means uniform across the country or even your state, but rather it depends on what kind of facilities your local disposal service has. For instance I moved from one county to another, and discovered I was not allowed to put paper milk cartons in the recycle bin. County A’s disposal company could recycle them, county B’s couldn’t.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How many of you actually use the headphone jack on your phone?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Every night ! I listen to a sleep podcast. I recently changed to a phone without a 3.5mm jack and was kinda scrambling to figure out an alternative. I had a splitter for power and headphones, but it didn’t work the way I thought it should: I was used to unplugging the headphones from the phone and that would automatically pause the audio, and plugging in would resume. For some reason (perhaps cheapness) the splitter reported the headphones as present whether or not headphones were actually connected. I ended up getting a BT dongle which has a pause button and I can just take it with when I step away from the phone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ifixit gives fairphone 5 a 10/10 on repairability and maintanence⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, that’s actually exactly what I ended up buying. It’s got a pause/play button, so I hit that and take the whole thing with me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ifixit gives fairphone 5 a 10/10 on repairability and maintanence⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That means the charging cable also needs to be unplugged if I want to step away. Thanks for the info about it not being normal, I guess I just got a POS splitter.