vonbaronhans

@vonbaronhans@midwest.social

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam is 'an unsafe place for teens and young adults': US senator warns Gabe Newell of 'more intense scrutiny' from the government if Valve doesn't take action against extremist content⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Iirc, when the ADP put out their guidance on Pepe, it was during the 2016 election when Pepe was being actively coopted by alt-rightera and neo Nazis. One of those "take something innocuous and poison it by using it as a pseudo secret signal to other bigots.

  I vaguely recall them saying that Pepe was a hate symbol only insofar as it was being used for that purpose. I wonder if that changed, or if this investigation is ignoring that nuance to hamfist a “hate speech” argument.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Conversations like this are why I want more people, especially "normies", in the Fediverse⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The hexbear folks were the worst. Like, putting all of their political opinions aside, they would just swarm posts and flood it with low quality buzzwords and memes and every formatting option to be as visually obnoxious as possible.

  I don’t know if I blocked them, they blocked me, or if my instance defederated from then, but holy shit my Lemmy experience got so much better when I stopped seeing their shit everywhere.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Read-onlys are cancer. Post stuff you want to see.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Hey I comment from time to time, that’s contributing! Kind of!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube tests removing viewer counts — here’s what we know⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Rumble isn’t any better. It’s where my dad gets his COVID conspiracy material after folks got kicked off other platforms.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨IFIXIT: Victory Is Sweet - We Can Now Fix McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Long hard fight.

  We take our Ws where we can get them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone Put Facial Recognition Tech onto Meta's Smart Glasses to Instantly Dox Strangers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Clear temples?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Work from home⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m one of the “company-provided-phone-only” folks. Thankfully, I work for a pretty decent employer who has never abused that in the nearly 10 years I’ve worked there. But I realize that’s a pretty rare privilege.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stay Mad⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s true, it could be racism, it could be both.

  God, if Taylor Swift runs for president I’d be stunned. I mean, given the circumstances I’d vote for her, but geez Louise.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stay Mad⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The only outcome that might suck even more is if Biden did step down, Kamala steps up, and she still loses. Cuz then it’s like… oh so we’re just gonna be misogynistic as a voter base now, great, thanks fellow Americans. Like, we were ready to vote for a shambling shell of an old man but not a lady with Hillary Clinton energy, okay. 🤦

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stay Mad⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, in the current economy, the statistical indicators that economists rely on are booming. GDP, etc. What folks on the left like us are saying is that those indicators are easily measurable but do not paint an accurate picture of what most Americans are experiencing. It doesn’t feel like a boom out here because, well, it ain’t.

  It’s not like we’re sipping champagne, kicking it at the beach, and complaining that the guy next door has a nicer beach. We work just as hard as other generations and get a lot less to show for it.

  Acknowledging that is important, but corporate politicians in either party seem like they just don’t want to anything about it.

  Still voting for Biden, but yeah, not enthusiastically.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stay Mad⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah it’s not great, but like… coming across as coherent is important no matter the position. Biden kinda failed that basic competency test, probably just due to his age and not like, stupidity or a personal failing of any kind. I’m still voting for Biden, but yeah it’s not exactly an enthusiastic vote.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie games using retro graphics⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Pseudoregalia is a PS1-eta low-poly aesthetic 3D metroidvania with really, really slick movement mechanics. It’s the kind of game that really could’ve existed back then, had developers just known all the little quality of life design choices we have these days.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨USA | Alito Says SCOTUS Should Push Nation Toward “Godliness” in Secret Recording⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Boy howdy

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨USA | Alito Says SCOTUS Should Push Nation Toward “Godliness” in Secret Recording⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Except the US constitution does not include that language. The “a wall of separation between church and state” phrase most notably comes from an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association. Not a legally binding document by any means.

  I imagine you’re thinking of the Establishment Clause of the Constitution which forbids the US government restricting the free exercise of religion.

  I believe, iirc, the Supreme Court over several decades has affirmed and reaffirmed the overall position that the US government must remain secular and not favor a particular religion. Which is effectively what you’re getting at.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mona: Australia women's-only museum files appeal to keep men out⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Huh. Let women into the Freemasons, I guess?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Short games with lots of replay value?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you don’t mind an older recommendation, StarFox 64. You could beat the story in about 30 minutes, but there’s lots of secrets and challenges that unlock new completion paths, harder boss variants, etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is an average person living in the US supposed to do about corporations raising prices?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t live in that particular rural area anymore, so it could just be my ignorance, who knows.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is an average person living in the US supposed to do about corporations raising prices?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Guess it depends on where you live.

  In my hometown (rural Midwest), there’s a Walmart, a Schnucks (Midwest chain), maybe an IGA if it’s still around, and about five Dollar Generals (more convenience store than grocery). I don’t think I’ve seen a farmers market there my whole life, despite being literally in the middle of a million farms. Super odd now that I think about it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is an average person living in the US supposed to do about corporations raising prices?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  On the housing thing - there’s been a major intrusion of private equity firms into the regular house market. A report came out recently claiming as much as 40% of all single family homes sold in 2023 went to private equity firms to turn into rental properties (iirc). On mobile, otherwise would try to actually give you the source.

  I can’t speak to the food price increases. My only thought is that most people are creatures of habit and always have been, so I doubt that individual shoppers ‘not putting pressure on the stores’ would explain a historic rise in costs. That said, if we did find evidence that shoppers are less savvy or willing to change habits, my first guess as to why would be people overall being more overworked and stressed. But until the data comes in, who knows.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Smartphone manufacturers still want to make foldables a thing⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I feel like I’d feel similarly if I had a foldable, but the one guy I know who has one swears he’ll never buy one again. Granted, he got a gen 1 Galaxy Fold, so it’s got some major growing pains.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox Slammed For AI-Generated Art Promoting Indie Games⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It does make it different by virtue of sheer scale and efficiency.

  A single human artist, no matter how good and fast they are, could ever singlehandedly damage the livelihoods of millions of other human artists. But a machine can. That’s a meaningful distinction.

  Granted, your point is valid in its purest sense. If we lived in a world where everyone could benefit from AI art without the real-world downsides, I’d agree with you, full stop. But we do, and those ramifications matter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has google stopped working for finding anything?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That explains why my DDG searches have been less than helpful… it’s just as unhelpful as Bing. I usually find myself trying other search engines, but run back to Google when I can’t find anything relevant to the problem I’m trying to solve (most of my googling is tech help stuff).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has google stopped working for finding anything?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Would that work in the case of photographers? I would only think to use Maps for business that are likely to have or must have by necessity some building or office.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Scientists show how ‘doing your own research’ leads to believing conspiracies — This effect arises because of the quality of information churned out by Google’s search engine⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Curious, but was there ever a time when critical thinking was taught in US public schools above and beyond what is being taught in public schools now?

  US public schools are getting underfunded, of course, but curricula themselves have probably improved over time?

  I honestly don’t really even know how to begin researching this particular line of inquiry, and I have a background in social science research.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Weekly 'What are you playing?' Discussion⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Vermintide 2 didn’t hook me. But I’ve already got over a hundred hours in Darktide.

  Good stuff.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google admits it's making YouTube worse for ad block users⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve also felt like YouTube Premium was a pretty good deal, given the sheer amount of YouTube content I consume and how much I detest ads.

  That said, I also feel like most of what I really value from YouTube is on Nebula, to which I am also subscribed. I constantly wonder if it would be worth it to drop YouTube altogether, to save some money but also a huge amount of time.

  The only other thing really keeping me on YouTube Premium is the included YouTube music. Not like Spotify is much cheaper, and I’m not much into manually managing libraries of my own music files like I did in the days of my 2nd Gen iPod (it had a touch wheel!).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube is deliberately crippling Firefox on ARM systems⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It doesn’t, but that isn’t their point. They’re simply pointing out that existing net neutrality laws in the US usually only apply to ISPs and telcos, not internet businesses.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Very few people realise how environmentally devastating this game is.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  So… I actually really like golf. I think it’s fun. Haven’t played in over a decade, but I look back on my memories playing pretty fondly.

  That said, I have zero issue recovering a lot of that lost land and water usage to put them to better use.

  I’d be very interested to see a version of golf that is less ecologically destructive and less water intensive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nearly 500 smartphone brands have left the market since 2017⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  There have been plenty of phones and tablets with 3D camera systems. It’s just not something that most consumers really want or need, so it tends not to become mainstream.

  It still comes up every now and then. The iPhone 15 has a computational 3D camera thing it can do, but I’ve seen virtually no buzz about the feature.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Isn’t that what communities and subreddits are for?