mctoasterson
@mctoasterson@reddthat.com
- Comment on Researchers embed digital 'fingerprints' into 3D printed parts — tech may make future ghost guns more traceable 2 days ago:
This has to be borderline useless as a positive identification tool, given that people can…
- Make their own models
- Run open source slicing software
- Inspect their own gcode
- Print from flashcard on a 100% offline printer with known clean firmware, such as the most common Ender 3.
How about they just focus on other methods of apprehending violent criminals and leave hobbyists alone.
- Comment on "Very dramatic shift" - Linus Tech Tips opens up about the channel's declining viewership 1 week ago:
I dunno. Something about the content I think.
A few years back some of their content was fun and interesting. Now lately it’s all either “here’s a bunch of comparisons of hardware you can’t even afford” or “Linus puts some ridiculous tech in his own personal house - thanks for subsidizing his home improvement projects by the way”
I will still watch an occasional video but there are other tech related channels that I enjoy a lot more.
- Comment on i 💚 animals. 2 weeks ago:
Worse - Sociology
- Comment on Nvidia Sales Jump 56%, a Sign the A.I. Boom Isn’t Slowing Down 3 weeks ago:
Well it’s “here to stay” I agree. But there are some real economic indicators that it is also a bubble. First, the number of products and services that can be improved by hamfisting AI into them is perhaps reaching critical mass. We need to see what the “killer app” is for the subsequent generation of AI. More cool video segments and LLM chatbots isn’t going to cut it. Everyone is betting there will be a gen 2.0, but we don’t know what it is yet.
Second, the valuations are all out of whack. Remember Lycos, AskJeeves, Pets.com etc? During the dotcom bubble, the concept of the internet was “here to stay” but many of the original huge sites weren’t. They were massively overvalued based on general enthusiasm for the potential of the internet itself. It’s hard to argue that’s not where we are at with AI companies now. Many observers have commented the price to earnings ratios are skyhigh for the top AI-related companies. Meaning investors are parking a ton of investment capital in them, but they haven’t yet materialized long-term earnings.
Third, at least in the US, investment in general is lopsided towards tech companies and AI companies. Again look at the top growth companies and share price trends etc. This could be a “bubble” in itself as other sectors need to grow commensurate to the tech sector, otherwise that indicates its own economic problems. What if AI really does create a bunch of great new products and services, but no one can buy them because other areas of the economy stalled over the same time period?
- Comment on What are the most useful things you've printed? 3 weeks ago:
I had to fix some crap in the kitchen and needed custom brackets to attach lighting under the cabinets in certain spots. It is pretty satisfying to go from a few measurements to, in a few hours, having custom parts that 100% did not exist before and couldn’t be found in any store.
PLA+ is an awesome material.
- Comment on This CEO laid off nearly 80% of his staff because they refused to adopt AI fast enough. 2 years later, he says he’d do it again 4 weeks ago:
“It enabled us to shit out products in 4 days.”
Glad they incorporated such thorough testing in their process.
- Comment on Study: Social media probably can’t be fixed 5 weeks ago:
I think just going back to internet forums circa early 2000s is probably a better way to engage honestly. They’re still around, just not as “smartphone friendly” and doomscroll-enabled, due to the format.
I’m talking stuff like SomethingAwful, GaiaOnline, Fark, Newgrounds forum, GlockTalk, Slashdot, vBulletin etc.
These types of forums allowed you to discuss timely issues and news if you wanted. You could go a thousand miles deep on some bizarre subculture or stick to general discussion. They also had protomeme culture before that was a thing - aka “embedded image macros”.
- Comment on Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state where ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ 5 weeks ago:
Oracle is one of the worst companies in history and it’s products are ass.
- Comment on If you were born after 1990, you've never had this experience 5 weeks ago:
No Mingus Dew or Bebop Cola?
- Comment on India bans streaming apps you’ve never heard of — but millions watch 1 month ago:
People forget what a ridiculously large steaming market India is.
The second biggest YT channel by subscriber base is T-Series.
- Comment on Employees at Amazon headquarters were asked on Monday to volunteer their time to the company’s warehouses to assist with grocery delivery 2 months ago:
For those who haven’t been paying attention, ot appears Amazon is trying to “disrupt” the grocery market. Anecdotally they have been selling shit for crazy low prices and they’ll make like 30 separate trips to your house all on the same day with lined/insulated packing for the perishable items and frozen water bottles (no extra charge to the customer) in each bag to keep the food cool in transit.
It seems like there is no way they can be making money on this process, which tells me they are speedrunning Walmarts strategy of operating at a loss to force other grocers out of the market.
- Comment on YSK: NASA’s Moon landing relied on Nazi scientists — and a secret U.S. program brought them here 2 months ago:
Sure, although it requires a special kind of dedicated cynicism to not realize that technological capture of human capital with previously heinous associations, diverted toward inarguably more important scientific pursuits such as space exploration, is a net gain.
The US already had weaponized just about every other technology it had a reasonable grasp on, and had even used nukes by the end of WWII. So collaborating with former Nazis to develop peacetime rocketry for space exploration is pretty mild by comparison.
- Comment on You're not alone: This email from Google's Gemini team is concerning 2 months ago:
My understanding is that, in broad strokes…
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Aurora acts like a proxy or mirror that doesn’t require you to sign in to get Google Play Store apps. It doesn’t provide any other software besides what you specifically download from it, and it doesn’t include any telemetry/tracking like normal Google Play Store would.
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microG is a reimplementation of Google Play services (the suite of proprietary background services that Google runs on normal Android phones). MicroG doesn’t have the bloat and tracking and other closed source functionality, but rather acts as a stand-in that other apps can talk to (when they’d normally be talking to Google Play services). This has to be installed and configured and I would refer to the microG github or other documentation.
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GrapheneOS has its own sandboxed Google Play Services which is basically unmodified Google Play Services, crammed into its own sandbox with no special permissions, and a compatibility layer that retains some functionality while keeping it from being able to access app data with high level permissions like it would normally do on a vanilla Android phone.
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- Comment on You're not alone: This email from Google's Gemini team is concerning 2 months ago:
If you want you can install Pixel Camera (official Google camera) from Aurora Store, and deny it Network permissions and any other permissions you want. It still works pretty well for point and shoot but I can’t speak for every single feature. Also you can install simulated services that the Gcam requires to function, without having to run Play Services.
- Comment on Millions of Americans Who Have Waited Decades for Fast Internet Connections Will Keep Waiting After the Trump Administration Threw a $42 Billion High-Speed Internet Program Into Disarray. 2 months ago:
To be fair, this federal program was a cluster eff since they started it in about 2010. It passed a bunch of grant money through to the states, which all did different “things” with it. Most held semi-public meetings and planning sessions for 5-10 years or wrote detailed planning documents but never delivered any physical infrastructure (actual results to the residents).
- Comment on Here's your first look at the rebooted Digg | TechCrunch 2 months ago:
Maybe if they allow API access for alternative frontends that eliminate ads and block telemetry. Otherwise, not interested.
- Comment on Is the U.S. Vulnerable to a Drone Sneak Attack? 2 months ago:
Its possible a sleeper cell of terrorists could effectuate some small area drone strikes with commercial off the shelf drones and improvised explosives.
The large scale military drones you are envisioning that can do the same damage as military aerial bombardment, that is a much harder thing to “sneak” into the US at any kind of scale or to build in secret.
As for future state actor capabilities. It seems possible that China is working on drone tech deployed from submarines or other force-projection platforms. Yet another reason to avoid a hot war with near peer militaries in current year.
- Comment on AOSP isn't dead, but Google just landed a huge blow to custom ROM developers 2 months ago:
I am running GoS on a Pixel 7, which means I’ve had this device for ~2.5 years at this point, and back when I transitioned to this setup I was aware they were talking about being beholden to Pixels due to the hardware security module not being available on other devices.
It has been a known issue. I understand it is a very difficult and costly undertaking to develop new hardware and new entrants would be competing against the big guys for fab space, manufacturing and assembly etc.
We need some kind of nonprofit or independently financed group to advance this cause. Could it be FUTO, Framework, or some other company/organization like this?
There would be market incentive to solve these problems - There has got to be a lot of demand for a neutral hardware platform that meets the hardware security module and other requirements for bootloader security, custom ROMs, etc.
- Comment on YouTube relaxes moderation rules to allow more controversial content. Videos are allowed if "freedom of expression value may outweigh harm risk" 3 months ago:
They won’t ever say it out loud but they have always removed videos for mentioning alternative frontends or other technology they view as direct threats to their revenue stream.
- Comment on My AI Skeptic Friends Are All Nuts 3 months ago:
Dildo-as-a-Service
- Comment on Whatever happened to cheap eReaders? – Terence Eden’s Blog 3 months ago:
Side note -
I literally have the reader pictured in the thumbnail. It is a Kindle keyboard from 10+ years ago at this point. It still works fine. At one point the original battery went to shit, and it cost very little to get an aftermarket replacement and install it myself.
I keep it offline and read 100% sideloaded .epub books from various sources. The lockscreen ads don’t even try to display anymore.
Sure it isn’t backlit or waterproof but it still functions flawlessly as a generic reader. Old tech like this is awesome. Why not get a decade of use (or more) out of something that still works?
- Comment on YouTube tops Disney and Netflix in TV viewing 3 months ago:
I’m having an OK time with alternatives, namely GrayJay on Android and Windows desktop. Basically I had to make sure my subscriptions included the 50-75 creators I am actually interested in, then the list becomes 100% relevant because it is just videos from creators you are subbed to. On the Desktop app it still uses algorithm of some sort for sidebar content based on the current video you are watching only. So if you still want to “organically discover” things you can, but don’t have to.
The only bad part with the Windows desktop version is it will crash the entire app mid-playback sometimes. Hopefully the bugs get fixed eventually. Also the “home” tab of Grayjay is some weird pseudo political stuff but at least you can ignore that entire tab and just look at your own subscriptions.
- Comment on Warhammer 40,000 Maker Games Workshop Is Doing So Well It’s Giving $27 Million to Its Staff 3 months ago:
I dunno if there is a subculture of printing the models at home. I would think resin printers would have more than enough resolution to make good miniatures. Is that frowned upon? There is no reason to buy overpriced licensed shit.
- Comment on YouTube's new ad strategy is bound to upset users: YouTube Peak Points utilise Gemini to identify moments where users will be most engaged, so advertisers can place ads at the point. 4 months ago:
They already do it in Podcasts and it is usually extremely ham-fisted. The presenter will be mid sentence talking about something and suddenly IMPROVE YOUR DIET WITH FACTOR
- Comment on Nintendo Anti-Piracy Policy Device Lock Update Warns of Console Bricks for Unauthorized Use 4 months ago:
Is this to me counteract the Migswitch specifically?
Seems like a load of crap either way.
- Comment on Shinji need a little bit of motivation 4 months ago:
He would disappoint their expectations by not having enough length to fill even half of the hand tunnel.
- Comment on Fire Emblem on a TI-84 4 months ago:
It’s more like Advance Wars with individual characters instead of troop units.
- Comment on Recommendations for "girly" games? 4 months ago:
You could try Animal Well. Dark yet pastel-oriented colorschemes. Minimal “combat” but more of a puzzle and exploration style of gameplay. More mysterious than scary. Mild peril. Not romantic in the slightest, but very original.
- Comment on Mark Zuckerberg Says Social Media Is Over 4 months ago:
This is ironic because all the 40 year old chicks who are career users of FB since college, all cite the same justification for continuing to use it: “But all my photos and the current happenings of my friends”.
If you showed them epirical data that only 17% of what they consume on the platform is actually even tangentially related to their friends and family, maybe they’d finally decouple themselves from FB.
- Comment on Almost 19% of Japanese people in their 20s have spent so much money on gacha they struggled with covering living expenses, survey reveals - AUTOMATON WEST 4 months ago:
I knew this was a fucked up industry when I heard they were successfully diversifying into women-centric gatcha games where the game is also centered on gooning over various character designs but the gatcha pulls correspond to specific romance scenes and interactions.
Japanese companies really have minmaxed exploiting every demographic. They have this garbage for the young people and pachinko parlors for old people and rural folks.