SpaceCadet

@SpaceCadet@feddit.nl

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⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

In many cases there’s no extra wear

You can’t change physics. More HP = more torque = more wear on the whole drive train. Also more boost = more stress on the turbo = it will fail sooner.

Also, back then, cars with the higher specced variant of the “same” engine almost always had mechanical upgrades compared to the lower specced engine: usually bigger brakes, a stronger clutch, and various other drive train components.

So while in many cases you could chip your car without much immediate harm, you were definitely cutting into various safety margins determined by automotive engineers who know much better than you and me.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube just quietly blocked Adblock Plus — the internet hasn't noticed yet, but I've found a workaround⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

Guys this content was by boomers for boomers

Tom’s Hardware sold out looong ago, sold in 2007 to some faceless consortium. The original “Tom”, Thomas Pabst, who is GenX and not a boomer btw, has had nothing to do with the site since.

The editor of this article looks to be a millennial btw.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube just quietly blocked Adblock Plus — the internet hasn't noticed yet, but I've found a workaround⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
DNS does nothing for youtube.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ChatGPT Is Still a Bullshit Machine⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
I think the problem stems from how LLMs are marketed to, and perceived by the public. They are not marketed as: this is a specific application of this-or-that AI or ML technology. They are marketed as “WE HAVE AI NOW!”, and the general public who is not familiar with AI/ML technologies equates this to AGI, because that’s what they know from the movies. The promotional imagery that some of these companies put out, with humanoid robots that look like they came straight out of Ex Machina doesn’t help either.

And sure enough, upon first contact, an LLM looks like a duck and quacks like a duck … so people assume it is a duck, but they don’t realize that it’s a cardboard model of a duck with a taperecorder inside that plays back quacking sounds.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ChatGPT Is Still a Bullshit Machine⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

LLMs are decent with coding tasks if you know what you’re doing

Only if the thing you are trying to do is commonly used and well documented, but in that case you could just read the documentation instead and learn a thing yourself, right?

The other day I tried to get some instructions on how to do something specific in a rather obscure and rather opaquely documented cli tool that I need for work. I couldn’t quite make sense of the documentation, and I found the program’s behavior a bit erratic, so that’s why I turned to AI. It cheerfully and confidently told me (I’m paraphrasing): oh to do “this specific thing” you have to use the –something-specific switch, and then it gave some command line examples using that switch that looked like they made complete sense.

So I thought: oh, did I overlook that switch? Could it be that easy? So I looked in the documentation and sure enough… the AI had been bullshitting me and that switch didn’t exist.

Then there was the time when I asked it to generate an ARM template (again, poorly documented bullshit) to create some service in Azure with some specific parameters. It gave me something that looked like an ARM template, but sure as hell wasn’t a valid one. This one wasn’t completely useless though, at least I was able to cross reference with an existing template and with some trial-and-error, I was able to copy over some of the elements that I needed.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Age Verification Is Coming for the Whole Internet⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

every service will get your ID or photo

To be fair, that’s not how it will work. The site and the identity verifier will be two different things, the verifier only attests that you are not underage and the site doesn’t get your identity.

Still harmful though, because you can be sure that there will be scamsites redirecting people to fake but real looking verifiers for blackmail and identity theft purposes.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
I think there are going to be a whole lot of phishing and blackmail scams in the future, preying on the stupid computer illiterate masses putting in their personal information into fake “age verifiers” to access porn or other adult content.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Ah I see, misunderstood your point then.

I guess that’s also why Google is going to use some kind of AI to determine whether or not a profile is underage. That way, existing adult users of their services are (most likely) not affected.

In my opinion, draconian government overreach in matters of civil liberties is one of the few instances where we should be on the side of big tech companies.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Actually, I don’t think this is industry mandated. I don’t think it’s in the interest of tech and content companies to create more friction to access their services. This one seems to have more to do with the governments wanting to exert more control over online affairs, and of course, over its citizens.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify fans threaten to return to piracy as music streamer introduces new face-scanning age checks in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
I mean, fuck Spotify and all that, but this one is really the UK government’s doing.

And soon, this shit will come to every country. They’re all drafting laws to mandate real age verification for adult content. The UK is just the first to implement it.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
FYI Belgian “site blocks” are still just simple DNS blocks at the ISP level.

You can easily get around it by using any of the well known public DNS resolvers.

Cheatsheet:
```
Google: 8.8.8.8
Cloudflare: 1.1.1.1
Quad9: 9.9.9.9
```
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Duckstation(one of the most popular PS1 Emulators) dev plans on eventually dropping Linux support due to Linux users, especially Arch Linux users.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Except this developer has created license terms that forbids the creation of “packages”, so he clearly does want to affect my ability to do just that.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Duckstation(one of the most popular PS1 Emulators) dev plans on eventually dropping Linux support due to Linux users, especially Arch Linux users.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Why should he get a say on how someone else installs the software on their own systems?

If I want to build an arch package instead, what business is that of his?
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Proton releases a new app for two-factor authentication⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Google Wallet is not so much a “wallet” for your cards but a way to link your cards to their own payment service, Google Pay.

Both Apple and Google had a lot of problems convincing banks to accept their respective services, and even then many stores still don’t support this payment method. A company with the clout and size of Proton has no chance to get their own service widely accepted.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Proton releases a new app for two-factor authentication⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Bitwarden authenticator is free for non-paying customers too.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK households could face VPN 'ban' after use skyrockets following Online Safety Bill⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

You obviously didn’t know how it works if I had to explain it was already possible.

If you read my comment properly, you’ll see that I wrote: “I know TLS termination and interception and recertifying with custom certificates is a thing”

And it isn’t “madness"

Yes it is. TLS interception should never be normalized because it breaks the chain of trust upon which TLS is based. It can be useful in some situations, like the fortigate firewall where you control the certificate, but ISPs nor the government should be trusted to wield this power over virtually the whole country. It is a very slippery slope.

I am not aware of any mobile device that prevents you installing a new root CA.

On Android, apps can’t install their own root CA. The user has to manually download it, then jump through a bunch of hoops and deeply nested menus to install it and in the process ignore all the scary warnings that they’re communication may be intercepted if they install and trust this certificate, and (at least on Pixel phones) they get a permanent warning in their notification tray that someone may be eavesdropping on them. Which is correct.

It is a vastly better option than onerously demanding adults provide their identity to random and potentially adult themed websites where they could be victims of identity theft or extortion

I’m strongly against age gates myself, but you’re objecting for the wrong reasons. You’re not providing your identity to the adult website. You’re providing it to the third party identity verifier, who then certifies to the adult website that you are an adult without passing on your actual identity. Keep this in mind when you’re arguing against it, because pro-age-gater puritans can use it to undermine your argument.

I object to it first and foremost on principle. I shouldn’t have to request permission from a third party or the government to do perfectly normal legal adult things in the privacy of my own home.

Secondly, there is still a privacy problem at the “identity verifier”. They may swear up and down that they do not store my identity data, but there is no way to prove that one way or another so I cannot trust that my data can’t be leaked through them.

Thirdly, when viewing adult content, I don’t want there to be any association between my real identity and the adult content whatsoever, even through a third party, and I don’t want there to be anything that uniquely identifies me.

Finally, I object to the (re)demonization of all things sexual in our societies. We seem to be backsliding into puritanism under the guise of protecting the children, while we’re doing nothing to protect them from real actually harmful online things that are damaging the younger generations beyond repair.

I have a Gen Z stepson, and all the ways in which he is fucked up by the online world (no attention span, permanent online-ness, no real world friends, always seeking instant gratification, unrealistic expectations about life, an overly materialistic worldview, plenty of manosphere bullshit, … ) have precious little do do with viewing porn.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK households could face VPN 'ban' after use skyrockets following Online Safety Bill⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
I know how it works, so spare me the explanation. It’s not that as easy as you make it out to be. OS and browser companies are actively fighthing “rogue” root CAs and making it harder and harder to use custom CAs, especially on mobile devices.

And for good reason, because by accepting a rogue root CA you’re basically undermining the whole trust system that SSL is based on and surrendering all your online privacy and security to the government and your ISP. Whoever has control over that custom root CA has the keys to your online life.

Rolling such a system out countrywide is utter madness.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK households could face VPN 'ban' after use skyrockets following Online Safety Bill⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

That’s a problem is for ISPs and content providers to figure out

No, there are very good technical reasons why this approach can’t work.

ISPs … deep packet inspection

There is no deep packet inspection on properly encrypted TLS connections. I know TLS termination and interception and recertifying with custom certificates is a thing, but even if it were feasible to implement this on millions of client computers that you don’t own, it is an absolutely god awful idea for a million reasons and much worse for privacy and security than the age-gate problem you’re trying to work around.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK households could face VPN 'ban' after use skyrockets following Online Safety Bill⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
The problem is that content filters don’t work all that well in the age of https everywhere. I mean, you can block the pornhub.com domain, that’s fairly straightforward … but what about reddit.com which has porn content but also legitimately non-porn content. Or closer to home: any lemmy instance.

I think it would be better if politicians stopped pearl clutching and realized that porn perhaps isn’t the worst problem in the world. Tiktok and influencer brainrot, incel and manosphere stuff, rage baiting social media, etc. are all much worse things for the psyche of young people, and they’re doing exactly jack shit about that.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Except this isn’t even the right wing nutters doing it. These are mainstream politicians executing their power grabbing agenda, with very little democratic oversight or public debate.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Another Google Pixel 6a catches fire after battery-nerfing update⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
The battery of my Pixel 6 started to bloat and leak last week. I contacted support. After a bit of back and forth where they asked me to provide proof of purchase and pictures of the phone, they sent me a brand new Pixel 6 and told me to just recycle the old one.

I reported the issue on Tuesday, received the new phone on Friday. That’s not bad support for a 4 year old device that’s long out of warranty. I fully expected them to tell me to go F my self.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Say Hello to the World's Largest Hard Drive, a Massive 36TB Seagate⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
Write speeds on SMR drives start to stagnate after mere gigabytes written, not after terabytes. As soon as the CMR cache is full, you’re fucked, and it stagnates to utterly unusable speeds as it’s desperately trying to balance writing out blocks to the persistent area of the disk and accepting new incoming writes. I have 25 year old consumer level IDE drives that perform better than an SMR drive in this thrashing state.

Also, I often use hard drives as a temporary holding area for stuff that I’m transferring around for one reason or another and that absolutely sucks if an operation that normally takes an hour or two is suddenly becoming a multi-day endeavour tying up my computing resources. I was burned once when Seagate submarined SMR drives into the Barracuda line, and I got a drive that was absolutely unfit for purpose. Never again.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Say Hello to the World's Largest Hard Drive, a Massive 36TB Seagate⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
That depends entirely on your usecase.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Say Hello to the World's Largest Hard Drive, a Massive 36TB Seagate⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
It matters to me. I got stuff to back up regularly, and I ain’t got all weekend.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Say Hello to the World's Largest Hard Drive, a Massive 36TB Seagate⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
The first copy of anything big will suck ass… and why else would you get a 36TB drive if not to copy a lot of data to it?
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Say Hello to the World's Largest Hard Drive, a Massive 36TB Seagate⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
monkey’s paw curls They’re SMR
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plex has paywalled my server!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Libre (from French) is sometimes used to solve the ambiguity of the word free in the English language, but it sounds kinda awkward in English and there’s certainly no consensus that this should be the official replacement, or that the term free even needs replacement.

Furthermore, the FSF who originally came up with the idea of “free software” still exists and is still called the Free Software Foundation, though Stallman uses both terms interchangeably.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plex has paywalled my server!⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Free as in freedom, not as in free beer.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: Non-violent protests are 2x likely to succeed and no non-violent movement that has involved more than 3.5% of the country population has ever failed⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Oh really, someone is being annoying to you? Oh noes!

BTW, you don’t have to announce it when you block someone.

You’re like some biblethumper

Your lack of self awareness is staggering.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: Non-violent protests are 2x likely to succeed and no non-violent movement that has involved more than 3.5% of the country population has ever failed⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

You, digging up an irrelevant non-event from half a century ago, a fixation of the rabid anti-communist US imperialist propaganda machine shows who is in an echo chamber.

You’re the one who got fixated on it sweetheart. I just showed you an image of a lego figurine and offff you went. You guys are so easy to trigger. 😂

And so you have nothing meaningful to offer as I expected.

Says the twerp who is afraid to even answer a simple yes/no question about this so called “irrelevant non-event” from half a century ago.

You’re like the holocaust denier or flat-earther who is afraid to answer the obvious question because they know they will be ridiculed and deep down they know they’re wrong and have no arguments to defend themselves.