GamingChairModel

@GamingChairModel@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Coin-sized nuclear 3V battery with 50-year lifespan enters mass production⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  this battery can deliver 0.03mA of power

  0.03mA of current. That times the 3 volts = 0.1 mW of power.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What if Apple / other brands sold desktop chips?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Do you have a source for AMD chips being especially energy efficient?

  I remember reviews of the HX 370 commenting on that. Problem is that chip was produced on TSMC’s N4P node, which doesn’t have an Apple comparator (M2 was on N5P and M3 was on N3B). The Ryzen 7 7840U was N4, one year behind that. It just shows that AMD can’t get on a TSMC node even within a year or two of Apple.

  Still, I haven’t seen anything really putting these chips through the paces and actually measuring real world energy usage while running a variety of benchmarks. And the fact that benchmarks themselves only correlate to specific ways that computers are used, aren’t necessarily supported on all hardware or OSes, and it’s hard to get a real comparison.

  SoCs are inherently more energy efficient

  I agree. But that’s a separate issue from instruction set, though. The AMD HX 370 is a SoC (well, technically, SiP as pieces are all packaged together but not actually printed on the same piece of silicon).

  And in terms of actual chip architectures, as you allude, the design dictates how specific instructions are processed. That’s why the RISC versus CISC concepts are basically obsolete. These chip designers are making engineering choices on how much silicon area to devote to specific functions, based on their modeling of how that chip might be used: multi threading, different cores optimized for efficiency or power, speculative execution, various specialized tasks related to hardware accelerated video or cryptography or AI or whatever else, etc., and then deciding how that fits into the broader chip design.

  Ultimately, I’d think that the main reason why something like x86 would die off is licensing reasons, not anything inherent to the instruction set architecture.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What if Apple / other brands sold desktop chips?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  it’s kinda undeniable that this is where the market is going. It is far more energy efficient than an Intel or AMD x86 CPU and holds up just fine.

  Is that actually true, when comparing node for node?

  In the mobile and tablet space Apple’s A series chips have always been a generation ahead of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips in terms of performance per watt. Meanwhile, Samsung’s Exynos has always been behind even more. That’s obviously not an instruction set issue, since all 3 lines are on ARM.

  Much of Apple’s advantage has been a willingness to pay for early runs on each new TSMC node, and a willingness to dedicate a lot of square millimeters of silicon to their gigantic chips.

  But when comparing node for node, last I checked AMD’s lower power chips designed for laptop TDPs, have similar performance and power compared to the Apple chips on that same TSMC node.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Finally, a Linux laptop with a brilliant display and performance that rivals my MacBook (from Germany)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, Firefox in particular gave me the most issues.

  Configuring each app separately is also annoying.

  And I definitely never got things to work on an external monitor that was a different DPI from my laptop screen. I wish I had the time or expertise to be able to contribute, but in the meantime I’m left hoping that the Wayland and DE devs find a solution.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Finally, a Linux laptop with a brilliant display and performance that rivals my MacBook (from Germany)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, that’s basically the author’s problem, then. I suspect the software support just isn’t there for the hardware that ships on this particular laptop, to where it’s easiest to manually put it in some blurry non native resolution, as the least crappy solution.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Finally, a Linux laptop with a brilliant display and performance that rivals my MacBook (from Germany)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  What’s the current state of Linux support for high dpi screens? As of two years ago I had some issues with getting things to work right in KDE, especially with GTK apps, by manually fiddling with system font sizes and button sizes, before I ended up donating that laptop to someone else.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After 50 million miles, Waymos crash a lot less than human drivers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  What’s tricky is figuring out the appropriate human baseline, since human drivers don’t necessarily report every crash.

  Also, I think it’s worth discussing whether to include in the baseline certain driver assistance technologies, like automated braking, blind spot warnings, other warnings/visualizations of surrounding objects, cars, bikes, or pedestrians, etc. Throw in other things like traction control, antilock brakes, etc.

  There are ways to make human driving safer without fully automating the driving, so it may not be appropriate to compare fully automated driving with fully manual driving. Hybrid approaches might be safer today, but we don’t have the data to actually analyze that, as far as I can tell.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs | The free open-source Microsoft Office alternative is being downloaded by nearly 1 million users a week⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  What’s annoying, too, is that a lot of the methods that have traditionally been used for discounts (education, nonprofit, employer-based discounts) are now only applicable to the subscriptions. So if you do want to get a standalone copy and would ordinarily qualify for a discount, you can’t apply that discount to that license.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs | The free open-source Microsoft Office alternative is being downloaded by nearly 1 million users a week⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Is it just me, or do new office features seem kinda pointless or unnecessary?

  I feel like almost all the updates of the last two decades have been:

  • Security updates in a code base that was traditionally quite vulnerable to malware.
  • Technical updates in taking advantage of the advances in hardware, through updated APIs in the underlying OS. We pretty seamlessly moved from single core, 32-bit x86 CPU tasks to multicore x86-64 or ARM, with some tasks offloaded to GPUs or other specialized chips.
  • Some improvement in collaboration and sharing, unfortunately with a thumb on the scale to favor other Microsoft products like SharePoint or OneDrive or Outlook/Exchange.
  • Some useless nonsense, like generative AI.

  Some of these are important (especially the first two), but the user experience shouldn’t change much for them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Attorney General Bonta Urgently Issues Consumer Alert for 23andMe Customers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Everyone gets to run sequencing, but this post is about 23andme nearing bankruptcy, where they would run an auction for their records, including this genetic information of its customers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your favourite way to transfer files in your homelab?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, this is an easy way to share files with non-technical people in the outside world, too. Just open up a port for that very specific purpose, send the link to your friend, watch the one file get downloaded, and then close the port and turn off the http server.

  It’s technically not very secure, so it’s a bad idea to leave that unattended, but you can always encrypt a zip file to send it and let that file level encryption kinda make up for lack of network level encryption. And as a one-off thing, you should close up your firewall/port forwarding when you’re done.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your favourite way to transfer files in your homelab?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I mean I do still use rsync for the stuff that would take a long time, but for one-off file movement I just use a mounted network drive in the normal file browser, including on Windows and MacOS machines.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FCC chair says we’re too dependent on GPS and wants to explore ‘alternatives’.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  it doesn’t work once you leave the atmosphere.

  Fun fact: just this past week an experiment on a lunar lander confirmed that GPS signals can be detected from the surface of the moon. I don’t know if those signals can give any kind of location precision, but it is an interesting finding.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Brave CEO rants about "lefties," "glowies," George Soros⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The origin story of Brave is entirely right-wing. He was forced out of Mozilla because of his public stances on political topics. It’s no secret that after being forced out for his politics, he went on to create a new browser company.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Brave CEO rants about "lefties," "glowies," George Soros⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  just realised

  “Just”? No, he’s always been open about this, and that’s why his appointment as Mozilla CEO was so controversial in 2014, and why the board revolted and he ended up resigning 11 days into his tenure.

  The whole origin story of Brave is steeped in right wing politics.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Post with 22k upvotes mentions Lemmy as an alternative to Reddit⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  What if I told you that there are really stupid comments on Lemmy as well

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm Tired of Pretending Tech is Making the World Better⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think in terms of cultural exchange of ideas and the enjoyment of being on the internet, 2005-2015 or so was probably the best. The barrier to entry was lowered to where almost anyone could make a meme or post a picture or upload a video or write a blog post or even a microblog post or forum comment of a single sentence and it might go viral through the power of word of mouth.

  Then when there was enough value in going viral people started gaming for that as a measure of success, so that it no longer was a reliable metric for quality.

  But plenty of things are now better. I think maps and directions are better with a smartphone. Access to music and movies is better than ever. It’s nice to be able to seamlessly video chat with friends and family. There’s real utility there, even if you sometimes have to work around things that aren’t ideal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why can't we go back to small phones?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I get your perspective, but I think it’s inaccurate when applied to current consumer behavior. The iPhone market share is like 60%. You can’t tell me that 60% is inherently more consumerist than the 40% that is Android users, especially when we’re talking about how Apple users actually tend to keep their phones longer before upgrading/updating to a new phone.

  Especially when we’re talking about the mid-tier, non-flagship model in the lineup, like the non-Pro iPhones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cars will need fewer screens and more buttons to earn a 5-star safety rating in Europe | Euro NCAP will introduce new testing rules in 2026 requiring physical controls for the highest safety score⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The United States, Canada, and Japan have the requirement, too. Australia’s takes effect in November 2025.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tech jobs are now white collar trades that need apprentices⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They’ve basically brought over the broken ladder of the management track, over to the technical track of increased technical expertise (without necessarily increasing management/administrative responsibilities).

  Currently, each generation of executives doesn’t come from within the company. There’s no simple path from mail room to executive anymore. Now, you have to leave the company to go get an MBA, then get hired by a consulting firm, then consult with that company as a client, before you’re on track to make senior management at the company.

  If the technical track is going this way, too, then these companies are going to become more brittle, and the current generation of entry level workers are going to hit a lot more career dead ends. It’s bad for everyone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d argue that telephones are the original federated service. There were fits and starts to getting the proprietary Bell/AT&T network to play nice with devices or lines not operated by them, but the initial system for long distance calling over the North American Numbering Plan made it possible for an AT&T customer to dial non-AT&T customers by the early 1950’s, and set the groundwork for the technical feasibility of the breakup of the AT&T/Bell monopoly.

  We didn’t call it spam then, but unsolicited phone calls have always been a problem.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why the 2020 video game Immortals: Fenyx Rising doesn't infringe on the trademark of the 2011 film Immortals?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  But the big one here is the characteristic word. By adding Fenyx Rising, it could be argued that that, in addition to the material differences between the products, there is enough separation to ensure there is no risk of confusion from audiences. There are also multiple Immortals trademarks which could make that word in and of itself less defensible depending on the potential conflict.

  That’s basically it right there. The word “immortal” has multiple dictionary definitions tracing back long before any trademark, including a [prominent ancient military unit](en.wikipedia.org/…/Immortals_(Achaemenid_Empire\)) so any trademark around that word isn’t strong enough to prevent any use of the word as a normal word, or even as part of another trademark when used descriptively.

  The strongest trademark protection comes for words that are totally made up for the purpose of the product or company. Something like Hulu or Kodak.

  Next up are probably mashed up words that might relate to existing words but are distinct mashups or modifications, like GeForce or Craisins.

  Next up, words that have meaning but are completely unrelated to the product itself, like Apple (computers) and Snickers (the candy bar) or Tide (the laundry detergent).

  Next up are suggestive marks where the trademark relies on the meaning to convey something about the product itself, but still retains some distinctiveness: InSinkErator is a brand of in-sink disposal, Coffee Mate is a non-dairy creamer designed for mixing into coffee, Joy-Con is a controller designed to evoke joy, etc.

  Some descriptive words don’t get trademark protection until they enter the public consciousness as a distinct indicator of its origin or manufacture. Name-based businesses often fall into this category, like a restaurant named after the owner, and don’t get protection until it’s popular enough (McDonald’s is the main example).

  It can get complicated, but the basic principle underlying all of it is that if you choose a less unique word as the name of your trademark, you’ll get less protection against others using it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Edward Snowden slams Nvidia's RTX 50-series 'F-tier value,' whistleblows on lackluster VRAM capacity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  “Whistleblows” as if he’s some kind of NVIDIA insider.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Goodbye, Musk. The ‘X-odus’ Is Here⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I know way too many people who only used Twitter for sports. But after /r/nfl and /r/nba and all the sports subreddits blocked Twitter, I think a lot of the organic sports activity will die off.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube devs be like⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The vast majority of what YouTube does on a technical level is ingesting a ton of uploaded user video, encoding it in dozens of combinations of resolution, framerate, quality, and codec, then seamlessly choosing which version to serve to requesting clients to balance bandwidth, perceived quality, power efficiency in the data center, power efficiency on client devices, and hardware support for the client. There’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, and there’s a reason why the user experience is much more seamless on YouTube on a shitty data connection than, say, Plex on a good data connection.

  No, it doesn’t need to be realtime, but people with metered or throttled bandwidth might benefit from downloading just in time video at optimized settings.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, everything that can be expressed as letters is in the Library of Babel. Finding anything meaningful in that library, though, is gonna take longer than just writing it yourself.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dropbox is laying off 20% of its staff⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I just mean does it keep offline copies of the most recently synced versions, when you’re not connected to the internet? And does it propagate local changes whenever you’re back online?

  Dropbox does that seamlessly on Linux and Mac (I don’t have Windows). It’s not just transferring files to and from a place in the cloud, but a seamless sync of a local folder whenever you’re online, with access and use while you’re offline.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dropbox is laying off 20% of its staff⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Does it do offline sync?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dropbox is laying off 20% of its staff⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  iCloud doesn’t have Linux, Android, or Windows clients. It’s basically a non-starter for file sharing between users not on an Apple platform.

  I don’t like the way Google Drive integrates into the OS file browsing on MacOS, and it doesn’t support Linux officially. Plus it does weird stuff with the Google Photos files, which count against your space but aren’t visible in the file system.

  OneDrive doesn’t support Linux either.

  I just wish Dropbox had a competitive pricing tier somewhere below their 2TB for $12/month. I’d 100% be using them at $5/month for like 250 GB.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apple’s first Mac mini redesign in 14 years looks like a big aluminum Apple TV⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So with the case/mobo/power supply at $259, the CPU/GPU at $329, you’ve got $11 left to work with to buy RAM and SSD, in order to be competitive with the base model Mac Mini.

  That’s what I mean. If you’re gonna come close to competing with the entry level price of the Mac Mini (to say nothing of frequent sales/offers/coupons that Best Buy, Amazon, B&H, and Costco run), you’ll have to sacrifice and use a significantly lower-tier CPU. Maybe you’d rather have more RAM/storage and are OK with that lower performing CPU, and twice the power consumption (around 65W rather than 30W), but at that point you’re basically comparing a different machine.