badgermurphy

@badgermurphy@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New York considers bill that would ban chatbots from giving legal, medical advice⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you may be falling into a false dichotomy. Not only is the choice being presented a bad one, it ignores real solutions to the root problem, leaving us to argue over the crappy “band-aid” solution to it.

  I believe that people needing health care should have no reason to ask a chat bot about their symptoms because they can ask a helpful doctor instead. The fact that they can’t do that is the problem, not their access or lack of it to the chat bot.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A Day in the Life of an Enshittificator⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I think what you are seeing is that these distilled, ideologically pure philosophies don’t seem to be able to exist outside of laboratory conditions. You can tell because none of them have ever been created at any scale or length of time in the real world in anything but name. The real world is too complex for these overly simplified, supposedly self-correcting systems that solve and account for everything, be it capitalism, socialism, communism, anarchism, whatever. As much as the human mind loves a simple solution, it turns out that really complex problems like getting everyone to get along together often require more complex solutions.

  “In my opinion, isms are not good.” – Ferris Beuller

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your car’s tire sensors could be used to track you⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  People that care about that have already controlled for that to the degree of their concern and/or ability. This is now one more door that needs to be locked.

  Its good to remind people of the various ways they could be tracked as you have done, but I prefer to try to frame these challenges in ways that encourage taking whatever steps we can toward privacy goals, rather than give up and figuratively lay down and die.

  I don’t think its productive to think in terms that diminish people’s efforts to try to maintain their privacy as best they can.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Your car’s tire sensors could be used to track you⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  So far I have had success in getting my new car unable to blast out all sorts of uniquely identifiable RF except for this TPMS thing. Does anyone have suggestions on how to deal with this one? Is there maybe a specific brand of sensors that doesn’t send out beacons like this once already paired?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Teams’ invasive Wi‑Fi tracking sparks backlash as users say Microsoft crossed a line — “There must be a team at Microsoft tasked with making Teams worse”⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s true. Their mission is not explicitly to make it worse, but to continually maximize value at all costs. Eventually, software usability has to be one of the costs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨(XMPP Setup Guide) Discord Was Never the End Game - TonyBTW⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  You could self host it anyway and just wait for the slow boil over at Discord to make the case for you. Surely they have only just begun making it worse.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨LibreOffice blasts 'fake open source' OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The Office ribbon is more recent than the previous menu styles, but newer!=better. The ribbon organizes fewer commands into less coherent groups, and replaced the descriptive text menu option for each setting with a tiny glyph instead, creating a modern hieroglyphic system known only to them. It then made sure this less efficient workflow took up more of the already limited vertical monitor real estate. The only benefit I can see would be for the illiterate, but what are they using an office site for if they can’t read?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨LibreOffice blasts 'fake open source' OnlyOffice for working with Microsoft to lock users in⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “The end-user” is another way to say “everyone in the developed world”, and nobody is refusing to collaborate with Microsoft here. What has happened that Microsoft then agreed to collaborate, did so in bad faith, and released what they are calling and open standard, but it is neither open nor standard.

  OnlyOffice appears to be trying their best to adhere to this “standard”, but their best efforts are still resulting in substantial rendering differences of the same document in OnlyOffice and Word. That means to me that at least one of the following must be true:

  • every of the many 3rd party attempts to adhere to the standard was done poorly and failed
  • the standard does not work or is not strict enough to be possible to adhere to
  • the standard is intentionally sabotaged so that it cannot work

  The dubious events around the establishment and adoption of this “standard” make me lean strongly toward the 3rd option,which is in keeping with entire documented history of Microsoft’s hostile, aggressive, and bad faith business practices.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EA invents new microtransaction nightmare as it breaks paywall promise on Skate: rent a playable area for 24 hours or buy a premium pass, bucko⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This is the gaming industry, though; their primary target market is children. They’re naive because they’re children. Maybe there’s some masochists out there volunteering for the abuse, but this is really adults failing to protect kids, by allowing it to be legal to use psychology tricks and gambling mechanics on minors.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨systemd has been a complete, utter, unmitigated success⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Bro I’m not making a single claim about the merits or flaws of systemd. I’m talking about the huge infighting and strong arming that went on back when it came out. I had an LTS server back then and just had my popcorn out to watch, since I don’t have the programming expertise to weigh the pros and cons of init systems at a philosophical level.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨systemd has been a complete, utter, unmitigated success⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Its not, though. The chain of events is well documented, with much of the original correspondence still there to read and evaluate for yourself. Its arguably not a conspiracy, either, since it was perpetrated by a single entity.

  Their motivations for doing it are the subject of a lot of speculation, some of it pretty wild, but the facts that they did do it and how it was done are public record.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft claims "2026 is the moment" for AI PCs, but its essay-length beginner explanation only creates more confusion — Is it any wonder adoption is slow?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For. Real.

  I switched over some months ago now and tried several different distributions before finally settling on one that mostly could be made to work with everything, as many of them had one or more hardware dealbreaker that prevented it from working out. I think its also fair to mention that while many things did just work “out of the box” on all of them, many also did not. Some were able to be cajoled into cooperating after varying amounts of troubleshooting, editing and general trial and error effort, but there are huge swaths of the user experience that are about as unpolished and manual as they were at the turn of the century.

  I still prefer using it to Windows 11, and it has improved a lot over the years, but I think the main thing that has made Linux increase in appeal over time is the relative continual decline in the quality and behavior of Windows.

  I’m sure a lot of these hindrances can be addressed by building or buying a computer purpose-built to run Linux, but I think the point stands that unless you just use your PC for the “Facebook, Email, YouTube” type of stuff, you’re going to run into things you have to do that require quite a bit of research to get to work.

  Don’t get me wrong; I don’t regret my decision in the slightest. Linux offers you very real ownership of your computer and user experience, it is just absolutely not for everyone, and I hope the Linux community at large one day grows to acknowledge that the tinkering and troubleshooting that many of them are not troubled by, and some of them even get enjoyment from, is fine with them because they are hobbyists and professionals. People outside that sphere see computers more exclusively as tools than hobbies, and tools that often give you trouble and take away your time are worse than similar ones that don’t.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Oh, good: Discord's age verification rollout has ties to Palantir co-founder and panopticon architect Peter Thiel⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It also seems he can’t shut up about the Antichrist, too.

  Spoilers: Its always whoever he doesn’t like that’s been in the news the most this week.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Its maddening, isn’t it? You can write what’s often a full stack web faxing application and they can’t spin up and host some pre-rolled forum VM? I have one in my laundry room and I’m the most amateur sysadmin ever.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nvidia CEO pushes back against report that his company's $100B OpenAI investment has stalled⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You know, for the kids!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The TV industry finally concedes that the future may not be in 8K⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Fires are more urgent than messes, but we have firemen and custodians and need them both. The poster can vote with his wallet to get the best energy efficiency possible in his home electronics and possibly vote at the ballot box to help regulate corporate energy waste.

  It doesn’t seem sane that he would have to forego every other endeavor in his life until the most urgent issue in it is resolved, even if there is no direct action he can take about that one at this time.

  I need a new car and also to do the dishes. The new car is much more important, but I have no means to work on the car issue today and am already standing in the kitchen. Is it more productive if I pace around wringing my hands in concern about the car problem, or maybe wash some dishes now and get a car in the morning when the dealership opens?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Apple to Soon Take Up to 30% Cut From All Patreon Creators in iOS App⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It totally could and probably would. I am a phone OS tinkerer myself, but the above poster is right that it is a lot of hobbyist type tinkering and you can brick your device and fuck it up so you can’t communicate with your friends and family.

  I agree with the main sentiment that these alternative OSs for phones and computers are a lot better in a lot of ways, but we are unwise to act like getting your computer or phone that way is that easy. Trying to get an alternative OS working well on a device can very easily consume an entire waking day or more, and bricking is not impossible, especially with phones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky just verified ICE⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  There is no Mastodon service. Its an application anyone can download and run. I understand your frustration, but it seems like you’re mad at the universe they exist in for its role in housing them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky just verified ICE⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  There is no Mastodon for them to be blocked on in the sense you’re talking about.

  Mastodon is similar in setup to Lemmy in that nobody owns it and anyone can run it. I am absolutely positive they are banned on tons of Mastodon servers and not banned on tons of others. If the server you are on is federated with even one server with one that isn’t banned, you could potentially see their posts, at which point you can either report those posts to your and their admins, or block them yourself.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A Project to Poison LLM Crawlers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe not, but at least in part because they don’t understand what the previous poster said. If their scrapers were more efficient at data harvesting by employing API calls instead of scraping your whole domain, it would be much less burdensome on the target’s server resources and one would think they would be less annoyed by that than if the same thing had happened without that burden.

  Their grievances with LLMs and their owners may not be limited to that, but they are certainly likely to include it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stop using MySQL in 2026, it is not true open source⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  They ware widely regarded as among the most villainous companies in history along with DeBeers and the East India Trading Company. Among their more infamous crimes against humanity include bribing the leaders of developing nations to sign over water rights to aquifers their people are using, which they take completely for bottling, destroying the local ecosystem and population. When the malnourished mothers can’t produce milk to feed their babies, they say things like “use our baby formula instead then, which is much healthier than natural milk”. If there’s not already a Behind he Bastards on them, someone could make a whole podcast just on their villainy.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dying Light⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  “What do you get for the guy that has everything?” 😂

  Mr. “Platinum Yendorian Express” over here!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dying Light⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m pulling for you over here! I never made it past the fortress fight after Medusa.

  Imagine my great sorrow when I discovered that turning Perseus back to a man didn’t make him friendly! 🥺

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

  For the most part, the answer seems to be yes. Some products did also ship with missing or reduced feature sets for a time, too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How AI broke the smart home in 2025⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I just saw an ad for Alexa+ at a family member’s house and was a bit surprised initially. The last I had known about the personal home assistant market was that both Google and Amazon were growing bored with its lack of annually doubling revenue and were slow-walking their whole participation in it to the grave, slashing those departments and walking back forecasted products.

  To the home automators like you and others, am I mistaken or has it seen a resurgence now that they realize they can take another crack at it with LLMs this time?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After GOTY pull, Clair Obscur devs draw line in sand: 'Everything will be made by humans by us'⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Regardless of why anyone involved did the the things they did, the rules were clearly stated. The violation of the rules may have been an honest mistake, but that doesn’t change the facts at hand.

  Furthermore, even if they removed every bit and pixel produced by or with the help of AI didn’t make it to the production release, the fact remains that it was used in the production process. It is hard to give them the benefit of the doubt on this part; how could it have slipped their mind that they did this?

  The awards are a contest with rules just like any other contest, and the rules are what makes it a contest in the first place. If football ignored some of their rules, it would just be a big field with 22 guys beating the shit out of each other for a ball.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Firefox Will Ship with an "AI Kill Switch" to Completely Disable all AI Features - 9to5Linux⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think its way more likely that the people taking issue with the addition of an AI agent into their browser has nothing to do with whether or not they have to use it or can turn it off; at least for me that is true.

  Firefox has limited resources, and can only work on so much at a time. They’ve got a list of open issues a mile long, some of them probably older than some of the people reading this. I would rather they focus their efforts on keeping their tools as sharp as possible rather than making additional dull tools.

  Also consider that the Firefox user base is almost entirely people who chose to use it over other bundled browsers. When they see the things they fled from in the other browsers coming to consume the one they fled to, it is obnoxious to say the least. Their users like Firefox because of its many differences from others, so the more like them it gets, the less they like it.

  Open yourself to the possibility that some of AI’s detractors dislike it for reasons you mat not understand, even though you may think you do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This massive new economic sector that is eclipsing the GDP of most nations combined in under 10 years, which is almost entirely subsidized by a combination of venture capital, which is being forced in to any product that involves electricity regardless of suitability, this industry and that loses money every time a user interacts with it (even the paying customers) is not a bubble?

  Please, enlighten us on what you think an economic bubble is. A lot of us were around for the dotcom bubble; to say it was not one, when we were standing there watching the market rise into the stratosphere and come crashing down, is a bit much.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Indie Game Awards Disqualifies Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Due To Gen AI Usage⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You may be able to have more involved conversations with an LLM-powered NPC, and it won’t be pre-scripted at repeated, but it is still likely to be both nonsense and not necessarily relevant to the game loop and may be setting-inappropriate dialogue. The pre-scripted and repeated dialogue would almost surely not have those problems the LLM would.

  Its important to remember that these LLMs are grievously power-hungry for what they do, so if they only trade one problem for another, you must also consider the loss of efficiency as yet another problem, even if its not always that big of one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨LG TVs’ unremovable Copilot shortcut is the least of smart TVs’ AI problems⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That hot take ignores human psychology’s known weaknesses.

  Blaming the public for falling victim to psychological manipulation that has being perfected for generations is like blaming a stabbing victim for bleeding so much.