tinkeringidiot
@tinkeringidiot@lemmy.world
- Comment on So You Think You Know Git? - FOSDEM 2024 9 months ago:
Nobody knows git. We all just run the few basic commands, then again with the -f switch just in case. Then if that doesn’t work, reclone.
- Comment on AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans 10 months ago:
Clearly you haven’t spent 3 minutes playing with StableDiffusion. AI has already plumbed the depths of human awfulness.
- Comment on AI-created “virtual influencers” are stealing business from humans 10 months ago:
If you only do the easy part, then yes that’s infinitely replaceable. Being a pretty face is exactly that, and AI can do that all day long.
Being actually entertaining and engaging, though, is a different story, and AI is struggling to pick that up. And of course teams of corporate marketers continually fail at this.
But yes, the “job” of “being attractive on the internet” can now be outsourced to machines.
- Comment on Researchers come up with better idea to prevent AirTag stalking 10 months ago:
Is it “don’t use them and just keep track of your stuff”? Because that seems like the most right answer here.
- Comment on Reddit's cofounder said that at first the company felt like 'a homework assignment that got out of hand' rather than a business 10 months ago:
That’s what I’m saying - there’s absolutely nothing about nonprofit status that demands a company not act like a total asshole. Have a look at all the really bad ones like the Komen Foundation or Red Cross if you want an example.
Best bet, barring adding more legal mechanisms to the law, is a private for-profit with careful leadership. Yeah, it can change, but companies that put values first can and often do confer those same values to future leadership. Versus, of course, publicly traded companies where rampant growth at all costs is the only legal requirement.
- Comment on Reddit's cofounder said that at first the company felt like 'a homework assignment that got out of hand' rather than a business 10 months ago:
Most nonprofits don’t do a lot with the general public. They have the community they serve (which is getting something for nothing and therefore “customer service” is not a thing) and the community that funds them (where, of course, service is king). How the company treats you on the outside very much depends on which side of that equation you’re on.
This is necessary behavior for nonprofits, at least in the US, because of the demand for charitable giving. It’s ultimately a decent structure for a charity, but a pretty awful way to run a product or service business, since the incentives are all on the opposite side of “good product/service”. Private for-profits with strong, conscientious leadership do much better - I encourage you to read up on Patagonia and Gore-Tex as examples.
- Comment on Reddit's cofounder said that at first the company felt like 'a homework assignment that got out of hand' rather than a business 10 months ago:
The idea that non-profits aren’t profiting-seeking is the biggest misunderstanding in the world. I work for a large one, and it’s absolutely the same rampant penny-squeezing 30%-unsustainable-growth-seeking monstrosity as anything in the Valley. The pittance that gets thrown to “charitable causes” is just another tax dodge in an otherwise profit-demanding venture. Swap “shareholders” with “the endowment” and there’s no difference at all.
Much better to be a for-profit company with a charter demanding where profits in excess of modest growth targets are spent internally.
- Comment on Reddit's cofounder said that at first the company felt like 'a homework assignment that got out of hand' rather than a business 10 months ago:
They need to make some money - infrastructure isn’t free, employees need paid, etc. they should be self sustaining.
They don’t need to be 2009-Google profitable though. That pipe dream needs to end. 3-5% YoY growth is plenty.
- Comment on How have you personally found the Lemmy community compared to its competition and other social media? 10 months ago:
I think you’re making a solid point, but I think the basic problem is a fundamental lack of the willingness to listen and digest someone else’s point of view. Sources of information are important to a debate, but they’re ultimately irrelevant if either side isn’t willing to even consider the possibility that there’s more to learn than what they already know.
- Comment on How have you personally found the Lemmy community compared to its competition and other social media? 10 months ago:
Agreed. Lemmy has exactly one political opinion, and woe betide any poor soul of another persuasion.
Otherwise the community is pretty great. Lots of good conversation with intelligent commenters.
- Comment on ProtonMail and SimpleLogin emails will be blocked from registering on websites 11 months ago:
That’s…a good portion of the free email providers on the planet. Even if companies are using this list as a filter for signups, it’s only going to be for a limited time.
Companies want new accounts. They don’t mind very much if those accounts are fake - big numbers get investor attention. It only takes a handful of support cases with “I tried to register but it says my email address isn’t allowed” before the C-suite makes it clear to IT that this filter is no longer in sync with the corporate strategy.
- Comment on US military says national security depends on ‘forever chemicals’ / PFAS can be found in everything from weapons to uniforms, but the Department of Defense is pushing back on health concerns raised... 11 months ago:
Unfortunately DoD is right. PFAS are terrible things, but they’re used everywhere (including consumer goods at an astonishing rate) because they’re really effective. Once there are good alternatives, yes let’s ban them forever, but until then we’d all notice their absence in our goods in a big bad way.
- Comment on The Feds' Vehicle 'Kill Switch' Mandate Is a Gross (and Dangerous) Violation of Privacy | Jon Miltimore 11 months ago:
According to the rental company I use for work travel, I’ve driven 33 different brand new cars this year, primarily sedans and small SUVs, all ICE (not a lot of EV on rental lots). Every single one had the auto start/stop feature.
Vehicles without it exist, especially as you mention full and partial electrics. But I’m perfectly comfortable with how I represented the situation based on my own experiences.
- Comment on The Feds' Vehicle 'Kill Switch' Mandate Is a Gross (and Dangerous) Violation of Privacy | Jon Miltimore 11 months ago:
It’s not explicitly required by law, but that doesn’t make it any less mandatory. It’s one of those “we’re not saying you have to, we’re just saying we’ll beat you up if you don’t” rules federal agencies (EPA, in this case) love so much.
Car and Driver explains some of the reasoning here, though they forget to mention efficiency standards that are explicitly mandated.
- Comment on The Feds' Vehicle 'Kill Switch' Mandate Is a Gross (and Dangerous) Violation of Privacy | Jon Miltimore 11 months ago:
Oh, sorry. American cars are require to ship with a feature that shuts the engine off at stop lights, and restarts it when you take your foot off the brake. It’s done to supposedly help the environment, which it doesn’t do in the least and is also incredibly irritating.
So car hackers reconfigure their cars to disable that feature.
- Comment on The Feds' Vehicle 'Kill Switch' Mandate Is a Gross (and Dangerous) Violation of Privacy | Jon Miltimore 11 months ago:
Cars are computers. All those fancy features run on software. Software can be patched to get rid of unpleasant functionality.
It’s not always easy, but it’s doable, and the more of these stupid features they add, the more people spend time working on undoing them.
- Comment on 'Morale is at an all-time low': Ex-Googler writes scathing latter slamming layoffs and 'eroded' culture 11 months ago:
It’s been much better for me, haven’t had an unsolicited e-mail hit my inbox yet.
- Comment on A Googler who just resigned after 18 years reflects on the decline of the company he loved 11 months ago:
Why would a union help at all? Organized workers won’t change the financial and legal obligations at the top. It won’t drive the focus away from quarterly earnings. Unions protect the workers, they don’t drive company culture.
There is no saving Google. The only way out of the hole they’re in is to have the integrity not to fall in in the first place.
- Comment on The Feds' Vehicle 'Kill Switch' Mandate Is a Gross (and Dangerous) Violation of Privacy | Jon Miltimore 11 months ago:
Can’t wait to patch that out, should be as fun as that dumbshit auto-shutoff they have now.
- Comment on Exclusive: OpenAI researchers warned board of AI breakthrough ahead of CEO ouster, sources say 11 months ago:
An overreaction by members of the board that wanted to keep AI development slow and “safe”. Sudden news that there was a major advancement toward AGI (which they believe will destroy humanity, there’s a seriously a whole cult around this in AI research circles right now) that they hadn’t been told about sent them off the deep end. Those board members thought they could fire Altman and throw the brakes on, not anticipating that 700 employees would side against them and potentially migrate to Microsoft where the “AI ethics” would have no influence at all.
They shot their shot and lost massively, for themselves and their fellow believers. That attitude toward AI is now being labeled a business liability in the minds of every decision maker in the whole AI world.
- Comment on YouTube warns it might make your viewing experience worse if you don't turn off your ad-blocker 11 months ago:
Same, I view the whole internet through uBlock and a pihole, so my value as an “impression” is virtually zero.
I’m not against for-profit websites making some money (and I run my own website, which generates a whopping $0), but Google has jumped the shark with their sketchy malware bullshit, and I’m starting to root for that organization to die.
- Comment on YouTube warns it might make your viewing experience worse if you don't turn off your ad-blocker 11 months ago:
These shenanigans have me rapidly transitioning from “I don’t want to see your annoying ads” to “I don’t want you to make any money at all”.
- Comment on CORRECTED EXCLUSIVE OpenAI researchers warned board of AI breakthrough ahead of CEO ouster -sources 11 months ago:
Well that puts the “Ethical Altruism” board members’ willingness to risk it all on such a wild dice roll in more context.
It’s probably lost their entire movement any influence on the future of AI research, but them’s the breaks.
- Comment on Microsoft pushes Azure Government Cloud as homefront defender 11 months ago:
Lots and lots (thousands) of government security requirements covering every aspect of the enclave and everyone who’s allowed to touch it.
GovCloud isn’t just some marketing label Microsoft made up to cash in. It’s a US federal system that operates in commercial clouds (AWS and Azure, thus far). And the federal government doesn’t trust cloud at all, so they’ve made earning the GovCloud designation about as painful as they possibly can.
Amazon has a good description of the standards they have to meet here, and it’s the same for Microsoft:
- Comment on Microsoft pushes Azure Government Cloud as homefront defender 11 months ago:
Quite a bit more to it than that, but yes definitely upcharging like crazy.
- Comment on Microsoft pushes Azure Government Cloud as homefront defender 11 months ago:
There are no big tech companies that have ever not been a part of it.
- Comment on OpenAI board in discussions with Sam Altman to return as CEO 11 months ago:
This is how you say “wait, shit, we fucked up” in Board of Directors.
Be interesting to see how many of them still have seats by Christmas.
- Comment on why do some people really dislike google?? 1 year ago:
You can be absolutely sure they’re selling it to every company and national government that will pay for it.
If you’re part of a marginalized group that some government would like to commit a human rights violation against in the last decade, chances are Google was a gleeful enabler on the government side.
- Comment on Omegle has officially shut down 1 year ago:
Wow, that’s a shock. RIP.
I’ll most miss the musicians spreading random delight. Those were always fun to watch.
- Comment on Google Asks Regulators to Liberate Apple's Blue Text Bubbles 1 year ago:
iMessage does end-to-end encryption by default, but only between iMessage clients (blue bubbles). I believe (someone correct if I’m wrong) that android’s basic messaging app does SMS by default, which does not support encryption. So iMessage can communicate with android phones, but only by falling back to basic unencrypted messaging, which it displays in a green bubble.
There are other proprietary iMessage features too, like animated messages, that don’t work for android at all. And I suppose to be fair to Apple users, it is kind of annoying having an android in a group chat because tagging a message (thumbs up or whatever) doesn’t actually tag it, it just sends a message that says says “so-and-so liked a message”. Not worth bullying someone over, but I get the irritation.