toddestan

@toddestan@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotifies come and Spotifies go, but that folder of badly-sorted MP3s will still be there in the 2050s.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve got a directory like that on my computer, nested under a couple of /old_computer directories. At some point in the early 2000’s I switched to a system of (still not so well named) full albums as hard drive sizes increased and internet connections got faster, leaving the old original directory of one-offs from the dialup days to wither.

  My favorite part is the New Music directory where I’d stick new stuff I had obtained until I gave it a listen to it make sure that 1) it’s something I actually wanted to keep and 2) whether there was any quality issues with the encoding. There’s stuff in there with timestamps from like 2002. Yeah, I’m still planning to check that out…someday…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  For a lot of this type of stuff, the “lifetime subscription” is applies to the owner, not the vehicle. So when the vehicle is resold, the subscription doesn’t transfer and the new owner has to buy it again (or do without). At least Volkswagon claims that this will go with the vehicle unlike companies like Tesla, but we’ll see.

  Eventually, the manufacturer will stop supporting subscriptions on older cars. This could either because the money they bring in isn’t worth the cost of continuing to support a dwindling number of older cars, some technical limitation, or an intentional decision to cut off older cars with the hope it will push people to buy a new car.

  Considering cars are expected to last 15-20 years, I’m guessing that these vehicles will not age well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Forget Netflix, Volkswagen locks horsepower behind paid subscription⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Considering that the purpose of that 6th gear would be to lower the fuel consumption, that means we have a bunch of buses running around burning more fuel and polluting more all in the name of more profits.

  At least school buses spend a lot of time driving around at relatively low speeds so the lack of the extra gear probably has little real-world effect for most buses, but still…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why LLMs can't really build software⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You can certainly 3D print a building, but can you really 3D print a house? Can it 3d print doors and windows that can open and close and be locked? Can it 3D print the plumbing and wiring and have it be safe and functional? Can it 3D print the foundation? What about bathroom fixtures, kitchen cabinets, and things like carpet?

  It’s actually not a bad metaphor. You can use a 3D printer to help with building a house, and to 3D print some of fixtures and bits and pieces that go into the house. Using a 3D printer would automate a fair amount of the manual labor that goes into building a house today (at least how it is done in the US). But you’re still going to have people who know what they are doing put it all together. We’re still a fair ways away from just being able to 3D print a house, just like we’re fair ways away from having a LLM write a large, complex piece of software.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A 2003 complaint about Half Life 2⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The client is still rather resource intensive, it’s just that computers have gotten so much faster that you don’t notice it.

  Now, if Valve would ever deal with the download and sync issues, that would be nice.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft confirms it made $27 billion after laying off 9,000 people, and its CEO physically cannot stop talking about AI⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Just because a hammer makes for a lousy screwdriver doesn’t mean it’s not a good hammer. To me, AI just another tool. Like any other tool, there’s things it is good at and there are things it is bad at. I’ve also found it can be pretty good as a code completion engine. Not perfect, but there’s plenty of boilerplate stuff and repetitive things where it can figure out the pattern and I can bang out the lines of code pretty quickly with the AI’s help. On the other hand, there’s times it’s nearly useless and I switch back to the keyword completion engine as it’s the better tool for those situations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Death Of Industrial Design And The Era Of Dull Electronics⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  While your average early/mid 2000’s CRT TV is certainly not stylish, I do appreciate the buttons and convenient access to a set of inputs and the headphone jack. Today’s TVs are all form over function, which is especially annoying since the form ends is just a black slab.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apple sues YouTuber who leaked iOS 26’s new “Liquid Glass” software redesign⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This time it was a willful and intentional leak (at least if you believe the article’s version of the events), whereas the guy who left the prototype at the bar was a complete accident. It’s not surprising to me that Apple would fire someone who intentionally leaked something. As for the guy who left the phone at the bar, I guess it depends on how careless and negligent you think that was.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Prime Reasons to Avoid Amazon⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I avoid buying from Amazon as much as possible, but good luck doing anything online and avoiding AWS.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I require nothing more⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Some rope lights would be a nice touch.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Harbinger of the Dystopia⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That 1990’s McDonald’s picture is the specific restaurant that was across the entrance from the Dallas Zoo, hence the animal theme. While it’s now remodeled and much more dull, it still looked like the picture up until just a few years ago. In any case, it’s not typical of what a McDonald’s has ever looked like.

  As someone born around the same time as you, I do remember when the typical McDonald’s had a bright red roof with the yellow lights, which the 2000’s pic is a toned-down version of.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I've got something special for you⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It works out for Dvorak.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump says a 25% tariff "must be paid by Apple" on iPhones not made in the US, says he told Tim Cook long ago that iPhones sold in the US must be made in the US⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The other problem with moving manufacturing due to tariffs is that tariffs can always be changed, whereas moving manufacturing is a longer term investment that can cost millions, if not billions when it comes to things like chip fabs. No one wants to make an investment like that, only to have their investment suddenly become worthless because some politician decided to change how the tariffs work.

  Trump’s idiotic and constant flip-flopping on these tariffs have completely destroyed any chance of them actually accomplishing anything, because no one is going to move a factory to the US when Trump can and will change his mind based upon a whim or whoever is whispering in his ear that moment.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What techniques do bad faith users use online to overwhelm other users in online discussion and arguments?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Depending on what they are doing, it can be a form of sea-lioning.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Adobe Creative Curse⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think it’s incompetence, exactly. If you’re not going to pay for Photoshop (Lightroom, Audition, etc…), Adobe would rather you use a pirated Photoshop as opposed to learning something else. Because even a pirated version helps them keep their stranglehold on the market.

  It’s the same reason Microsoft doesn’t really crack down on pirated versions of Windows.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your favorite 1000+ hour games?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The only two games I have that I’ve put more than 1000 hours in are Factorio and Rimworld. I’d highly recommend both.