mctoasterson

@mctoasterson@reddthat.com

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where can I buy used computers, and are they on a discount now because of Windows 10 end of life?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I would say this and also if you live in almost any medium sized place in the US, also try the local community college. You may have to bid on bulk lots but they sometimes sell individual PC hardware too, you may have to show up on a certain day that is usually advertised months in advance, online or on physical signage on campus. You might as well participate, since your county and local taxes likely subsidize the institution to begin with.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨As Microsoft Forces Users to Ditch Windows 10, It Announces That It’s Also Turning Windows 11 into an AI-Controlled Monstrosity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I didn’t “have to” but, a few reasons…

  1. Swapping the drive created a pretty easy rollback path that was just “put original drive back”

  2. The drive was ~10 years old, and was in the range of recommended replacement for an SSD with the amount of TBW and age it had.

  3. Original drive was kinda small and a new larger drive was available for not very much money.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨As Microsoft Forces Users to Ditch Windows 10, It Announces That It’s Also Turning Windows 11 into an AI-Controlled Monstrosity⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Microsoft literally wanted me to convert my desktop to e-waste as it lacks the magical TPM chip that Win11 demands.

  I said “fuck that” and pulled the Boot SSD, kept the existing non-boot drives for data, and put in a brand new SSD, encrypted it and installed Pop OS in one shot.

  Not only was it easy, I lost literally zero critical functionality vs. what I had with Win 10. There is a Linux app equivalent for everything I had before. I had a few driver issues but most were auto-discovered including obscure ancient printers and scanners on my network.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Immich 2.1 Released with Better Slideshow Shuffle, New Notifications⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Those who run immich, how have you been backing up your library?

  My deployment isn’t anything fancy, it is currently a Raspberry Pi 4 with a 2TB external drive for the photo library. Been running for more than 6 months with minimal issues. Now that we are at a stable release I need to get some kinda backup going for the photos themselves.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nvidia sells tiny new computer that puts big AI on your desktop⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If I had to come up with a steelman argument for small “AI focused” systems like this, I’d say that the more development in this space, makes the cost of entry cheaper, and actually eventually starves out the big tech garbage like OpenAI/Google/Microsoft.

  If everyone who wants to use AI can locally process queries to a locally hosted open-source model with “good enough” results, that cuts out the big tech douchebags, or at least gives an option to not participate in their data collection panopticon ecosystem.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Built to last⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  When it came out, Dreamcast legit felt like it was from 5-10 years in the future.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft just changed where your Word documents live — here’s why it matters⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  And they wonder why some of us are still using local installed and firewalled Office 2007.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: You should enable peak refresh rate in Android⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Depends on your device and a bunch of other factors. If you are trying to maximize battery life you are generally better sticking to 60.

  If you are consuming 120fps content or doing some kind of mobile gaming that actually supports it, you may benefit from 120.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK about Hiring.cafe - a free job scraping site that lets you filter out Workday and other nuisance ATS⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Nice. Bookmarked for future reference in case.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New U.S. gov't rule says chipmakers have to make one chip in the US for each chip imported from another country to avoid 100% tariffs — Trump admin allegedly preps new 1:1 chip export rule under new t⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Tostitos 'bout to enter the silicon production sector y’all

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The right to anonymity is powerful, and America is destroying it⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Almost more concerning is the way big tech has consolidated on standards that hurt anonymity, even though they aren’t legally required to.

  For example, have you tried to make a burner email account lately so you can register at some stupid app or site that you only intend to use once? It is surprisingly difficult now because all the “legit” email providers are moving towards requiring phone-based 2FA which inherently deanonymizes you in the US due to KYC laws.

  Also the throwaway email sites like GuerillaMail are being blocked more often by various sites. Their domains are now frequently blacklisted so you can’t use a burner account as easily to register anonymous social media or other website accounts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A ‘demoralizing' trend has computer science grads out of work — even minimum wage jobs. Are 6-figure tech careers over?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The secret of the CS and IT job is that it has always been the Neuveaux Blue Collar job.

  For every IT exec and formerly-technical middle-management douchebag making really good money, there are 2 to 10 actually technical resources making “okay” money relative to their skill and the insane hours and scenarios they are expected to work.

  Oh and let’s not forget they’re constantly trying to outsource as much of that support and engineering talent as possible.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Researchers embed digital 'fingerprints' into 3D printed parts — tech may make future ghost guns more traceable⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This has to be borderline useless as a positive identification tool, given that people can…

  1. Make their own models
  2. Run open source slicing software
  3. Inspect their own gcode
  4. 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 ⁨month⁩ 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.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Worse - Sociology

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nvidia Sales Jump 56%, a Sign the A.I. Boom Isn’t Slowing Down⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ 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?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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 ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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 ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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’⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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 ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  No Mingus Dew or Bebop Cola?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨India bans streaming apps you’ve never heard of — but millions watch⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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 ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨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 ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨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 ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My understanding is that, in broad strokes…

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨You're not alone: This email from Google's Gemini team is concerning⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨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.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨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 ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨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?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨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 ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨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.