toddestan

@toddestan@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Maybe the RAM shortage will make software less bloated?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  To be fair, Windows 11 also runs like shit on a desktop with an i9 and 32GB of RAM.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Does playing audio at a high volume bluetooth wirelessly use more phone battery power than lower volume or are equidraining?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s the latter for all of the Bluetooth audio protocols that I’ve worked with.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI-generated code contains more bugs and errors than human output⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know about ChatGPT, but Github Copilot can act like an autocomplete. Or you can think of it as a fancier Intellisense. You still have to watch its output as it can make mistakes or hallucinate library function calls and things like that, but it can also be quite good at anticipating what I was going to write and saves me some keystrokes. I’ve also found I can prompt it in a way by writing a comment and it’ll follow up with attempt to fill in some code based upon that comment. I’ve certainly found it to be a net time saver.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dell and Lenovo may limit mid-range laptops to 8GB DDR5 RAM in response to rising memory prices⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Actually, the web browser is one of the major offenders when it comes to consuming large amounts of RAM.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Looks legit. What do you all think?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The van itself doesn’t make sense. It’s a weird mashup of Ford and Chevy styling and details, with a bit of Dodge thrown in for good measure. It’s actually pretty plausible and very realistic looking but that’s not a Chevy van (nor is it a Ford or a Dodge with a badge transplant). Some thing with all the cars in the background. They are all very plausible but I can’t actually ID any of them.

  Either someone has been busy with Photoshop, or the AI stuff is getting scary good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Looks legit. What do you all think?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Smells like AI slop to me…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm gonna need a walk-in shower soon enough⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Most American bathrooms you have a combo tub/shower. Since you have to step over the side of the tub to take a shower that’s not what many people consider a “walk-in” shower. In higher-end, generally newer construction sometimes they’ll have a separate shower and tub. Bathrooms with just a shower are somewhat uncommon. If you see a 3/4 bath listed in a house that’s a bathroom with just a shower and no tub.

  I’ve considered getting rid of my tub and just having a shower as I never use the tub part, but as I only have one full bathroom supposedly having a house with no tub hurts the resale value. I might do it anyway, but also what I have is working fine and I’m lazy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Word.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem is everyone expects Calc to be Excel, including full compatibility with reading and writing of Excel’s file formats. As Excel is a constantly moving target, following that path means you’ll forever be a second-rate Excel that’ll never quite be fully compatible.

  I find Calc to be a fine spreadsheet program myself, though I’m hardly a power user. If you want to use Excel, then just go use Excel.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why make 250GB m.2 disks instead of 1TB⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Earlier this year I needed a SSD for a PC I was going to use as a router. The smallest drive Microcenter had was 256 GB, which was massive overkill. It was also priced at $19, so I was like whatever and bought it.

  With the massive increases in price for flash memory, maybe we’ll start seeing smaller drives again.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We can play that game too⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s exactly how it works, well other than me having the dates off as the Boomers weren’t even born when Social Security was enacted by FDR. When Social Security was enacted, retirees started receiving benefits even if they never paid into the system, which was paid for by the current workers who were paying into the system. It’s been like that ever since. Social Security is also not a pension.

  You are correct that for most people would be better off investing their Social Security taxes into a hedge fund but workers don’t really have a choice in the matter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We can play that game too⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s not how Social Security works. The money the Boomers paid into the system went to paying benefits for the previous generations. The benefits the Boomers (at least the ones that have retired) are getting now is being paid by the workers in the younger generations. While it’s true the program has run a surplus, if the young taxpayers stopped paying into the system that surplus wouldn’t last very long.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We can play that game too⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not that I disagree, but 90 would be silent generation.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Crucial is shutting down — because Micron wants to sell its RAM and SSDs to AI companies instead⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s interesting. I’ve always wanted a bunch of blinkenlights but they also needed to be functional and serve some purpose. Kind of like the old Thinkpad I have that has a whole row of status LEDs under the screen. A bunch of meaningless lights just for the sake of having lights always seemed pointless.

  Anyway, with the last PC I built, the RGB stuff was pretty much unavoidable. I still went out of my way to get a case without a window though. I do have the RGB on, but it’s a solid blue-greenish color so there’s a bit of glow coming out the back of the case.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Crucial is shutting down — because Micron wants to sell its RAM and SSDs to AI companies instead⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s fine for things like office PCs where you just need it to work, don’t want to spend a lot of money, and performance doesn’t really matter too much.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft AI CEO Puzzled by People Being "Unimpressed" by AI⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My experience is an MBA from a T10 school is just as useless. On top of that, they think they should be paid more because of the school they went to.

  The sad thing, some of the material in an MBA program can actually be useful. It’s just the type of people who enroll in these programs aren’t the type to actually learn it and will just coast through doing the bare minimum. Or I suppose today, using AI to cheat. This is even more so for the people who think that the key to success is having a big name school on their resume. If anything, I’d put more weight on an MBA from no-name state U than T10 school. Which still isn’t much, but anyway.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK that americans can now deduce private jet expenses from their taxes⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Most poor people probably just take the standard deduction anyway. It’s not like they have enough money to accumulate a large amount of deductible expenses anyway. Possible exceptions might be large medical expenses or a mortgage.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows 11's adoption is much slower compared to Windows 10, claims Dell⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Has Lenovo stepped their game up recently? Work used to be all Lenovo, and a few years back they switched over to Dell because the Lenovos just weren’t reliable. Which is a shame because I still think the Lenovos are better designed with better keyboards, screens, port layout, etc. but it’s all moot if the thing craps out after a couple of years.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The moment we've all been waiting for: you now can have targeted ads on your 2k smartfridge⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If I really wanted something like that, I’d just buy a dumb fridge and rig up a camera inside of it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft confirms Windows 11 is about to change massively, gets enormous backlash - Neowin⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It actually wouldn’t surprise me to learn that most Windows installs nowadays aren’t pre-installs but rather images deployed from a corporate IT department.

  In some ways the biggest danger for Windows in the home market isn’t Linux or Mac but the people who decide they’ll just use their phone or tablet for everything. Then again, I’m not sure if Microsoft even cares about the home market.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is Fast Charging Killing the Battery? A 2-Year Test on 40 Phones⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The battery has a charge curve. What does the most wear or damage to the battery is the ends of the curve - either deep discharging the battery or charging it up fully to the point where it cannot take any more charge. It’s up to the manufacturer where they want to put 0% and 100% on the curve - to protect and extend the life of the battery most manufacturers don’t put 0% and 100% at the extreme ends of the curve.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Controversial startup's plan to 'sell sunlight' using giant mirrors in space would be 'catastrophic' and 'horrifying,' astronomers warn⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If I had to build such a system, instead of a few satellites with really big mirrors I’d instead have a massive number of small satellites with smaller mirrors. Obviously then any area I’d want to light up, I’d have to hit with a number of the satellites - probably dozens at least or even hundreds of them for decent sized area. That would at least alleviate a few of the problems - aiming would be easier. As satellites move out of range new satellites would be moving in range. Long shadows from the angle of satellite near the edge of their range wouldn’t be as much of a problem as I’d be hitting any spot from a variety of angles. That the satellites would be useless for about 75% of their orbit I could make up for by launching even more satellites.

  Of course, it would still be hugely impractical and there would still be major limitations. I’m still not sure how you could manage the aiming - the satellites would have to be continuously adjusting their aim to track their target. Reaction wheels can only do so much and using thrusters you’d burn through propellant like crazy. Launching the required array of satellites would be outrageously expensive and you’d need thousands of them. Eventually something would go wrong - you’d have a collision or one would break up and you’d Kessler yourself right out of business.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YouTube is taking down videos on performing nonstandard Windows 11 installs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  A lot of problems basically boil down to using an nVidia card and dealing with their drivers. Either use an AMD GPU or if you don’t need anything fancy the iGPU in an Intel CPU.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Good Halloween Games⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s always Don’t Starve which definitely fits the mood, though I’ve always found that game insanely difficult.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How gamers were nickel and dimed in 80s and 90s (besides arcades)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That was there for a CD-ROM add-on, which was planned from the start but never actually released. Nintendo was working on it as a collaboration with both Phillips and Sony. After it got canned, both Phillips and Sony still had rights to some of the technology as part of the collaboration. So Phillips decided to release their own gaming system based upon what they had, and that was the (largely forgotten) CD-i system. And of course Sony did the exact same thing, and that became the Playstation. The rest is history.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The demise of Flash didn't bring any big HTML5/JS equivalent for watching animations; fast internet and better video compression made those types of animations become raster videos as well⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I actually had some hope for that because we needed something to break the Flash monopoly, and I trusted Microsoft slightly more than I trust Adobe.

  However, it never went anywhere because everyone expected Microsoft was just going to kill it, and of course Microsoft killed it, and that was that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How long can someone physically walk for?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If you use the book’s pace of 4 MPH, which is actually what many people would consider a brisk walk, would take 75-100 hours, or around 3-4 days. That’s a long time to stay up without sleeping, let alone being physically active the entire time. I’d guess someone who is reasonably fit might be able to do half of that before collapsing. Perhaps someone who was using drugs or doping might be able to do it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Some people also have a lot of trouble understanding the Kimmel was a comedian.

  But hey, if we’re pulling things off the air for intentionally spreading misinformation for political purposes on live TV, then lets shut down Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft still can't convince folks to upgrade to Windows 11⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That every other version thing hasn’t been true for a while now. Every version after Windows 7 has been terrible.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨5 tomatoes⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  To me, Fahrenheit is a lot like inches and feet for carpentry. As in it’s fine for things like describing the weather and setting my house’s thermostat. It mostly falls apart for must other things, though it’s still okay for cooking and baking. From a scientific perspective, any temperature scale that isn’t zero at absolute zero is nonsense, so it’s pretty much Kelvin or bust.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨5 tomatoes⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d assume that if we are ever communicating with aliens and trying to figure out each other’s way of expressing numbers and doing math, dimensionless constants like pi, Euler’s number (e), the fine structure constant, etc. will be important first steps. As you say, our units of measure are purely human inventions. But the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is the same no matter what units you use to make the measurement.