FinishingDutch
@FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
- Comment on Is Google about to destroy the web? 1 week ago:
I’ll check out Brave, it’s been mentioned a few times.
I don’t mind companies making a dime, but now it’s really devolved in bad results that are profit-driven.
- Comment on Is Google about to destroy the web? 1 week ago:
What’s the best alternative, in your opinion? I’ve tried Bing and DuckDuckGo, but both showed me worse results for my particular searches.
I just want classic Google Search back, before everything got turned to shit. But I fear that doesn’t really exist since there’s such an economic incentive behind how search engines rank and show results.
- Comment on Is Google about to destroy the web? 1 week ago:
That fucking AI thing absolutely sucks for anything factual. I’m a journalist and noticed that it gleefully listed all sorts of factual errors in that AI summary. Stuff that you can see correctly on the original pages, but it somehow manages to misinterpret everything and shows incorrect information.
And knowing how lazy people are these days, most will happily accept Google’s incorrect information as fact. It’s making me very, very nervous for the future.
- Comment on Half of companies planning to replace customer service with AI are reversing course 1 week ago:
And one funny addendum to that story is that someone COULD reasonably think that Pepsi had an actual Harrier to give away. After all, Pepsi once owned an actual navy.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PepsiCo
In 1989, amidst declining vodka sales, PepsiCo bartered for 2 new Soviet oil tankers, 17 decommissioned submarines (for $150,000 each), a frigate, a cruiser and a destroyer, which they could in turn sell for non-Soviet currency. The oil tankers were leased out through a Norwegian company, while the other ships were immediately sold for scrap.
The Harrier commercial aired in 1996. The Harrier jet was introduced in 1978. It wasn’t too unreasonable to think that an 18 year old jet aircraft would be decommissioned and sold, especially after Soviet tensions eased. And if ‘they’ let Pepsi own actual submarines and a destroyer, doesn’t that seem more far fetched than owning a single old jet aircraft?
Guy should’ve gotten his Harrier.
- Comment on Why so much hate toward AI? 1 week ago:
If you don’t hate AI, you’re not informed enough.
It has the potential to disrupt pretty much everything in a negative way. Especially when regulations always lag behind. AI will be abused by corporations in the worst way possible, while also being bad for the planet.
And the people who are most excited about it, tend to be the biggest shitheads. Basically, no informed person should want AI anywhere near them unless they directly control it.
- Comment on How the US is turning into a mass techno-surveillance state 2 weeks ago:
God I miss the pre-9/11 US, when the worst thing happening was bad jokes on SNL about Bill Clinton and cigars.
- Comment on How the US is turning into a mass techno-surveillance state 2 weeks ago:
Uh, do the kids these days really not know about the post-9/11 Patriot Act?
- Comment on Most American headline 2 weeks ago:
Well then, I sincerely hope the place where you live gets better :-)
- Comment on Most American headline 2 weeks ago:
I agree. Kids should be fed. But that’s not the school’s job. It’s to teach.
The Netherlands has a robust social system. There’s welfare for people without jobs, there’s financial assistance for raising a child, there’s food banks, etc. Etc. And plenty of help getting into these assistance programs.
Basically, there is NO reason for a parent not to be able to feed their child. Even if they have zero money, there’s help. The only thing they (or the kid) needs to do is make some sandwiches to take with them for school lunch. That’s it.
- Comment on Most American headline 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, well, if a cheese sandwich was good enough for my grandparents and parents, it’s good enough for me.
We’re the tallest people in the world and I don’t think it’s humanly possible to be malnourished here, so maybe we’re doing something right :D
- Comment on Most American headline 2 weeks ago:
Yep. Our high school had a cafeteria where you could buy snacks, but none of the schools I went to ever supplied lunches as such. It’s basically the parents and kids responsibility to feed themselves. As it should be.
Maybe Dutch parents (used to be) much more responsible than those elsewhere. 🤷♂️
- Comment on Want a humanoid, open source robot for just $3,000? Hugging Face is on it. 3 weeks ago:
I’m designing the 3D-printable fleshlight mount right now. Hold your horses and give me ten minutes…
- Comment on Fediverse Social Media Guide 3 weeks ago:
I’m right where I’m supposed to be ❤️
- Comment on DOOM: The Dark Ages Has Reportedly Sold Less Than 1 Million Copies 4 weeks ago:
God I miss Quake. That was such a great series. Can you imagine what they could do with that on modern tech? I’d love to see a quake reboot a la 2016 Doom. That would be fucking awesome.
- Comment on DOOM: The Dark Ages Has Reportedly Sold Less Than 1 Million Copies 4 weeks ago:
I honestly don’t mind some story in games. Heck, I’ve got hundreds of hours in Skyrim and other RPG’s. Doom to me is run & gun. Doom 2016 had the perfect amount of story for a Doom game.
Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything else quite like it. If there is, I don’t know it. Most other shooters are either COD, SciFi, retro FPS or stuff like Borderlands that leans into comedy.
If this was ‘back in the day’, closest recommendation to it would likely be something like the Quake series. That’s id’s own successor to the original Doom. Sadly also long dead.
- Comment on DOOM: The Dark Ages Has Reportedly Sold Less Than 1 Million Copies 4 weeks ago:
Honestly, Doom Eternal really soured me on the franchise. I loved the original Doom games, loved 3 and played the absolute shit out of Doom 2016.
Then Eternal turned into a fucking frustration fest with all its platforming. I still haven’t finished it. Now the new one reinvents Doom yet again. And there’s somehow dragons?
Man, I’m fucking done. Give me more of that 2016 Doom or don’t bother.
- Comment on Helldivers 2 and Palworld devs wish players understood that 'easy' additions and updates are sometimes really hard: 'That's half a year's work. That takes six months' 4 weeks ago:
Well, the fact is that there are also a LOT of dumb customers willing to buy crap. God knows why.
Just look at the trending / best selling lists on Steam. There’s shit on there that I wouldn’t play if you paid me. Yet somehow there’s enough of a customer base for that that they sell it.
Honestly, Steam should look into setting a minimum quality level for things sold on the platform.
- Comment on Helldivers 2 and Palworld devs wish players understood that 'easy' additions and updates are sometimes really hard: 'That's half a year's work. That takes six months' 4 weeks ago:
It would also be great if devs added things during development that should simply be there at launch. Instead of, shit get rushed out the door with promises of future fixes and updates. And then devs get all huffy when people rightfully ask for things to be added that are supposed to be basic launch features…
- Comment on Every toddler becomes a hackerman when they find a tablet 4 weeks ago:
The narwhal shall forever bacon at midnight, even if its home has turned to shit :(
It all comes back to community. Back in those days, forums and platforms like IRC were great. They had a human scale; you quickly learned about the regulars, their personalities, likes and dislikes. Heck, on most forums that I visited, plenty of people used their actual name - including myself. The internet felt like a nice, safe community, like its own digital suburb.
Sometimes that was even literal. I used platforms like Cybertown and later on Second Life. Those let you own actual houses and and build stuff on there. In Cybertown - we usually just called it CT - I knew every resident on my block. I hosted house parties, had giveaways. We’d even have commemorative digital statues as gifts for guest. I still kept in touch when CT died. I still miss it.
- Comment on Every toddler becomes a hackerman when they find a tablet 4 weeks ago:
We’ve made tech way too accessible - and now we’re paying the price for it.
Back in 1995, we got our first family PC. Dad was never able to use it; despite our efforts to teach him. Couldn’t grasp left and right mouse button, much less concepts like directories, installing software, drivers, etc.
But on his iPad? He can do almost everything: e-mail, Facebook, watch TV, YouTube. And get subjected to boomer brainrot. Just like a toddler.
Is he more tech literate? Absolutely not. In fact, he’s regressing if anything. But we’ve made it so easy, even my completely tech illiterate dad can now argue with strangers on Facebook or post dumb shit on YouTube.
And it fucking shows. The amount of goddamn complete idiots online is shocking. I miss 1995, when you had to be a nerd to get online. It filtered out a lot of folks who simply shouldn’t be online.
- Comment on Some Reddit users just love to disagree, new AI-powered troll-spotting algorithm finds 5 weeks ago:
I’ve been online since 1995. And back in those days, about the worst argument people had was Star Wars vs Star Trek. That’s because the general online population at that time valued fact-based discussion and proper sources. Not like today, where someone’s feelings seem to trump actual fact.
If I post 1+1=2 with proper sources, some idiot is bound to come along to argue that 1+1=tomato soup, that the moon is made of aged brie and that 5G on phones is turning frogs gay. It’s exhausting.
There’s simply too many blithering idiots online who reject facts. And unfortunately instead of blocking them, people engage. Thus giving them incentive to keep doing it.
- Comment on Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College 1 month ago:
Back when I was in grade school in the mid 1990’s, we were one of the first families to have a computer. We weren’t allowed to ANY schoolwork on it. If you had to write a paper, it had to be written by hand. Which, as someone who could type much faster and used bigger words, was REALLY fucking annoying.
But yeah, I imagine we need to go back to dumb, disconnected computers in exam halls to keep things above board. It’s depressing to see how lazy this tech makes students.
- Comment on Windows Is Adding AI Agents That Can Change Your Settings 1 month ago:
Ah Christ. We’ve collectively regressed so much in computer knowledge that people can’t even find a settings menu? Even I have trouble believing that one.
- Comment on Choose a number, 1-5! 1 month ago:
You haven’t seen that before? It’s not that uncommon. The handles give a really nice, secure grip. It’s also perfectly safe for the dishwasher, doesn’t fade, doesn’t deteriorate, etc. We’ve had ours since the early 2010’s and they still look brand new.
- Comment on Choose a number, 1-5! 1 month ago:
2 if I had to pick from that drawer, but the actual answer: Victorinox Swiss Classic / Swiss Modern cutlery. Absolutely love the large handles, sharp knives and large spoons. Very nice feel in hand and mouth.
- Comment on Are there any Lemmy/Mbin instances by women for women? 2 months ago:
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
It really comes down to this: if you want your own space for particular interests, you should create one and find likeminded people to populate it. Just waiting for it to magically appear isn’t going to work. Be assertive.
- Comment on A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy 2 months ago:
Sure, plenty of small phones with good battery life back then. Owned a new phone every three months or so, innovation went that fast in the 90’s.
But those small phones have a few drawbacks. Too small for my hands and you can’t really shoulder it like we used to with landlines.
I also mis proper flip phones like the Motorola Startac. You could snap those closed with authority. Can’t quite do that with those modern folding screen flips.
- Comment on A 'US-Made iPhone' Is Pure Fantasy 2 months ago:
Don’t threaten me with a good time.
I’d looooove a return of the brick phone. Modern phones feel small and dainty in my giant hands. Meanwhile, battery life absolutely sucks. I’d love a modern brick phone that does calls, text and nothing else. And a battery life of a fulm week.
- Comment on This is unfair! 2 months ago:
GET your HAND off my PENISSSSS!
- Comment on Today's Survey. One point for everything that you have NEVER DONE 2 months ago:
Only one that I haven’t done is paper checks. Those weren’t really a thing here.
Of course, a few of those have come back around to be used by younger generations. There’s teens who rediscovered Polaroid and other film cameras in recent years. Ten years ago, cassettes saw a resurgence and vinyl was also selling well.
