jdnewmil

@jdnewmil@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Th EU iniative for Stop Killing Games has reached the goal of 1 million signatures!!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For the same reason I think software developers have the right to choose to release under copyleft, I think they have the right to release under SaaS or copyright. I don’t think it is fair to take those rights from them. (I may choose to avoid SaaS or other proprietary models where possible, but I am not pure about it… I just do so recognizing that proprietary tools are a band-aid and could become unusable when any upgrade or TOS changes.)

  As one example, keep in mind that some governments may choose to punish a software developer for making “offensive” (by whatever their standards are) content, and rather than fighting a losing battle in one jurisdiction so you in some other jurisdiction can keep using that controversial software the developer may just choose to cut their losses and turn it off for everyone. If you force them to release it anyway then said punitive government may continue to hold the developer responsible for the existence of that software.

  There are rights and responsibilities associated with a proprietary model… and IMO you (and your permissive government) should not be overriding those rights for your own short-sighted benefit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Th EU iniative for Stop Killing Games has reached the goal of 1 million signatures!!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A) this issue applies to all kinds of software.

  B) procuring software is a two-way street … the producer assigns terms by which access is obtained, and you agree to those terms in exchange for that access. If the software is SaaS then if the producer chooses to shut down the service then you are SOL. If the software is provided with a long list of terms via Steam, then you are basically buying SaaS with local caching and execution. Maybe don’t reward producers by agreeing to one-sided deals like SaaS?

  This kind of headache is what prompted Richard Stallman to come up with the idea for the GNU license. Maybe you think that is too radical… but maybe imposing your ideas of what licensing terms should look like on (only?) game developers is radical also.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨magnum pi⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  if it is a magnum, shouldn’t it be bigger? /s

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Still booting after all these years: The people stuck using ancient Windows computers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Just a note: Windows software for controlling hardware is highly likely to assume a)direct access to the hardware (sometimes mediated thorough ancient APIs and assuming the existence of defunct expansion slots) and b) assume meatspace time can be counted using OS timing ticks (which get stretched out as modern VMs timeshare with other processes underneath the virtulized hardware). It is awfully tough to replace them sometimes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows 10 LTSC – the version that won't expire for years⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Stick with Windows. Microft will deliver paradigm shifts and you will have no say in the matter. They are already removing options for disabling Copilot, and for all the promised backward compatibility they are letting go of features that lots of old Windows software depended on, as they introduce features similar to ones in Linux. I cannot really fault them for all of these changes, but the difference is actually one of choice and privacy, and not really the one you seem to think it is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump administration orders halt to in-progress wind farm construction⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you convert the chemical energy in a unit of coal to heat (burn it) you can calculate how much energy exists in that coal, measured in appropriate units (e.g. kWh). That is evidently what this author is trying to dumb down as “invested energy”. The amount of energy extracted as electricity is typically 40% of that… the rest ends up as heat which is much less useful than electricity.

  I agree that this is not particularly useful in discussing the merits of different energy sources because good design tends to do as well as is practical and the supply of fuel and negative impacts of that process can’t vary dramatically.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨copper⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A policeman? is that unusual?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apple Maps now shows the Gulf of America⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe if enough people file feedback on the name change they will reconsider. At least they will have a glut of feedback to deal with.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I miss when you could get a flagship phone that could fit in your hand⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  As you add more compute per user interaction (“smart” features), you increase power consumption. To keep an 18hour discharge cycle, you have to have more battery. Since phone thickness is a negative marketing feature but increased screen size is a positive marketing feature, you end up with bigger phones.

  Every time they reduce compute power consumption, feature inflation overtakes the gain and more power is needed over time. Try turning on battery saver in the morning… even with “normal” use the battery will last significantly longer due to disabling background power consumption.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It is time to ban email.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  “Email clients?” … boom! ;)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How screwed would one be if their email provider shuts down?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you meant “propagated”.

  How do you monitor your email functionality? How long would it be before you noticed it was offline? What about paying for and configuring the new email server?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Calcrelatable⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Clear and Clear Entry.

  The better option is to use an RPN calculator as Hewlett-Packard used to make. Then the back arrow button just eliminates one digit at a time.