PassingThrough
@PassingThrough@lemmy.world
- Comment on If tomorrow it was announced that aliens were real, highly intelligent, and in communication with our governments, no one would be talking about it by Halloween 1 month ago:
Tomorrow? Oh, so you already forgot the announcement from last month? Well, I mean I guess we have a lot of our own stuff going on right now…
/s?
- Comment on The phrase "Pics or it didn't happen" is largely meaningless now that AI is a thing. 1 month ago:
Yup. Or anything held against them is now just fakery.
- Comment on The phrase "Pics or it didn't happen" is largely meaningless now that AI is a thing. 1 month ago:
Sometimes it feels technology may doom us all in the end. We’ve got a rough patch in society starting now, now that liars and cheats can be more convincingly backed up, and honest folk hidden behind credible doubt that they are the liars.
AI isn’t just on the path to make convincing lies, it’s on the path to ensuring that all truth can be doubted as well. At which point, there is no such thing as truth until we learn yet a new way to tell the difference.
“They don’t need to convince us what they are saying, the lies, are true. Just that there is no truth, and you cannot believe anything you are told.”
- Comment on Are there any negatives side effects to using PGP all the time with email? 2 months ago:
One thing I can think of is an overzealous corporate security solution blocking or holding back your email purely for having an attachment, or because it misunderstands/presumes the cipher-looking text to be an attempt to bypass filtering.
Other than that might be curious questions from curious receivers of the key/file they may not understand, and will not be expecting. (“What’s this for? Is this part of the contract documents? Oh well, I’ll forward it to the client anyway”)
Other than that it’s a public key, go for it. Hard to decide to post them to public keychains when the bot-nets read them for spam, so this might be the next best thing?
- Comment on FAA grounds SpaceX after rocket falls over in flames. 2 months ago:
It’s not really because it fell over. It’s because it wasn’t supposed to fall over. Consumable launch materials don’t contend with this because failure to return is a success. This is a failure. This must be learned from and fought against/prevented going forward.
- Comment on Forgot to pay my domain for a year and now I have to spend £2200 ($3000) if I want to get it back 4 months ago:
Now would be a good time to look for a
.comyou like, or one of the more common TLDs.Sadly, all the cheap or fun TLDs have a habit of being blocked wholesale, either because the cheap ones are overused by bad actors or because corporate IT just blacklists “abnormal” TLDs because it’s “easy security”.
I got a three character XYZ to use as a personal link shortener. Half the people I used it with said it was blocked at school or work. My longer COM poses no issue.
- Comment on "Privacy-Preserving" Attribution: Mozilla Disappoints Us Yet Again 4 months ago:
Is there a list anywhere of this and other settings and features that could/should certainly be changed to better Firefox privacy?
Other than that I’m not sure I’m really going to jump ship. I think I’m getting too old for the “clunkiness” that comes with trying to use third party/self hosted alternatives to replace features that ultimately break the privacy angle, or to add them to barebones privacy focused browsers. Containers and profile/bookmark syncing, for example. But if there’s a list of switches I can flip to turn off the most egregious things, that would be good for today.
- Comment on Steam is getting an official controller, but Valve isn’t making it 4 months ago:
Sorry, no touchpads, no real interest from me.
I need a Steam Controller 2 with the same controls as the deck itself, so I can configure and learn one layout, not enjoy the virtual menus or trackpad mouse control on one and then go without on a basic Xbox layout in another.
- Comment on The Raspberry Pi 5 is no match for a tini-mini-micro PC 5 months ago:
You would go for a Raspberry Pi when you need something it was invented for.
Putting a computer on your motorcycle or robot or solar powered RV. Super small space or low-low power availability things, or direct GPIO control.
A MiniMicro will run laps around a Pi for general compute, but you can’t run it off a cell phone battery pack. People only related Pis to general compute because of the push to sell them as affordable school computers, not because they were awesome at it, because they were cheap and just barely enough.
- Comment on What is Windows 11 'AI Explorer'? Everything you need to know about Microsoft's upcoming defining AI PC feature (including it always watching you) 6 months ago:
I agree cash is the right idea, for now, but can you say for sure cash payment will be possible forever, or even the next 50 years? Wouldn’t it be better to blunder around with new ideas while cash is still a good fallback? Not saying I like crypto, and the cost on resources and the environment sucks bad, but I can least appreciate them trying something. Now we just need to come up with sustainable options…
I get that cash seems a pretty durable idea, and it’s lasted for hundreds of years, but it did so before the massive societal turn towards technology we’ve made in the last 30 years.
- Comment on Are you prepared for the ramifications of windows 10 EoL? 6 months ago:
Do you game at all? Gaming on Linux has made great strides, be be fair, but for a lot of titles you still need to consider a dual boot of some form of Windows, thanks to over the top anti-cheat, DRM, and developer support.
Something to consider for the gamers out there.
- Comment on LawBreakers Is Making An Unofficial Comeback Thanks To Fans 7 months ago:
FYI this is the kind of awesome thing big studios like Ubisoft would like to ensure is never possible again.
- Comment on Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV 7 months ago:
I wonder if it can be detected by the streaming apps. Some of them are really anal about ensuring you can’t record or whatever, and don’t work if it doesn’t get all the HDMI security stuff just right. I’ve had issues with bad cables and my portable projector(Anker) has to side load an alt version of Netflix because they couldn’t/wouldn’t get the device to pass Netflix “certification”.
I’m guessing this means new partnerships and money changing hands, or nobody on a Roku can watch Netflix anymore, or they put these ads at a higher level that bypasses whatever security/DRM Netflix uses. Probably the last one, but if Netflix thinks they will lost money to this they’ll probably just pull their certification anyway.
- Comment on Why does Microsoft want me to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11? 8 months ago:
I wouldn’t say it’s only Critical, LTSC still gets average security fixes. They don’t get Feature updates, but they still get Security updates, is how it’s normally put. And it’s not as bad as it sounds. Even as a gamer stability is a good thing, and there are plenty of third party softwares for any desirable “features” that get delayed or skipped. If LTSC gets any fewer security updates it’s because it has less built in crap to need updating.
I’ve never needed funny graphics in my taskbar search bar or Bing in my start menu or the Edge bar or whatever it was that now clutters my friend’s task bars as of the last Feature update. But I still get my security fixes and Defender definitions every Patch Tuesday.
But the trick is getting a copy, true.
- Comment on Why does Microsoft want me to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11? 8 months ago:
I won’t claim to know for sure, but I’ll place my bet on it still being about motivated by profit and growth. Supposedly Windows 10 was supposed to be the last Windows ever, and move to an eternal patching process, but I guess that didn’t stick. So obviously just keeping you on Windows isn’t enough, they found a need to create a refresh.
I did notice that refresh has new hardware requirements, like TPM modules and such. Deals with the OEMs to get people to buy/build new PCs?
There’s talk of advertisements and sponsored links in the very Start Menu, so partnerships with advertisers to get closer to your daily activities?
I won’t say I know for sure, because I only use Windows for video games. So, I too will be running Windows 10 until the games don’t work anymore. Might I recommend, if you can get a copy, Windows 10 LTSC? It is a bared bones version of Windows made (by Microsoft) for enterprises and governments who would never buy into consumer features like advertising and analytics, so it’s very clean, fast, and not full of spying junk or ads like the Home versions. And it hasn’t bugged me once about upgrading. All my games run fine after some one-time minor command prompt foolery to get the Store and XBOX game pass apps back.
- Comment on People can't truly understand history they haven't lived. 8 months ago:
Hrmm. You might be onto something there.
Any thoughts how I might approach this issue or is it kinda moot given the whole concept is how weak our ability to connect to factual history is?
- Comment on People can't truly understand history they haven't lived. 8 months ago:
I’m sorry to have spoiled your day/feed. Thanks for commenting though! I can never tell if the downvotes are meaningless bots or not.
- Comment on People can't truly understand history they haven't lived. 8 months ago:
Thanks for stopping by!
I’m…not actually sure. You’re right it seems to just be a fact of life. I was recently in a long winded political discussion about the current times, things like the whitewashing of slavery in history and how we seem to be on a road to fascism even though we’ve seen it all before and how people can care so little.
Some alternative facts got invoked that the guy seemed like he truly believed, and when the actual facts were present their sources were challenged and…it led down the rabbit hole of what makes our sources more right than his? Because someone said so?
It clicked for me that propaganda works, he truly believed his version of history, and even my version was just books someone wrote that I was raised to believe were the right ones. I have never been a slave, despite what people are starting to call employment, I have never known a slave. I only believe slavery was a horrible tragedy because a book told me so. I will never share the same level of care on the issue as someone who is or even directly knew someone affected. And with only a different book I could have very easily ended up just like him, as so many already have, believing in race replacement theories and reversals of oppression and whatnot. How can such different concepts both exist as facts? Because neither have true substance, only belief.
I guess all we can do is keep fighting the good fight for knowledge, keep any one side from choosing what we learn, hoping that in a tenuous balance we get the most fair education we can, and, if there is indeed a biological or literal inability to emphasize with recorded history, we need to come up with different ways to teach important concepts without relying on acceptance of history as fact. And/or learn as a society to accept that apathy to a problem is OK as time wears on.
Other than that I’m not sure what we can do. It does seem rather bleak watching society self-destruct over things that seem to have historical warning but it isn’t so clear for others, despite us all technically sharing the same world history. And it’s only getting worse as politics and religions invade our educations(again?).
- Submitted 8 months ago to general@lemmy.world | 9 comments
- Comment on New York City files a lawsuit saying social media is fueling a youth mental health crisis 8 months ago:
Depending on the channel, they weren’t wrong. And ironically, such channels are probably their favorites too.
Do as I say, not as I do and all that.
- Comment on New York City files a lawsuit saying social media is fueling a youth mental health crisis 8 months ago:
Because “protecting the children” is an easier political fight than trying to save adults from their own freedom, and the internet is not as clearly a threat as guns or drugs. And even guns are hard to restrict…
As an adult you have a right to make bad choices, as well as certain constitutional rights, and unless controlling your rights is can be accepted as required for the public good(like keeping you from driving a 2 ton murder box without training), it will die politically very, very quickly as government overreach.
- Comment on New York City files a lawsuit saying social media is fueling a youth mental health crisis 8 months ago:
I didn’t really have words for it then like I might now with the benefit of hindsight and outside observation…back then I just eventually recognized that it wasn’t making me feel good to participate, more drained and yet I had the need to continue.
Imagine a school social scene. Imagine those youthful desires to express yourself, the need to be recognized as a person and feel seen and maybe even appreciated by those around you. Maybe you decorated your notebooks or locker or dressed “weird” for expression, maybe you tried to enter different cliques and make friends, even shallow false ones for clout. Maybe you suffered under the school bully who always put you down. Maybe you were the bully, looking down on others to elevate yourself.
Now scale that up to what might appear to be the countless billions connected to the web. Now the whole world could be your friend, but also your enemy. You are now a mere speck in a sea of others begging for that same recognition. You post something, and an artificial number goes up to declare your success, but you need it to go higher, reach farther. That same number is also a testament to your failure to matter to literally thousands or millions of people instead of at most a couple hundred you could meet in school and town. You could lose hope, fall into depression that you are worthless, or try ever harder, ever edgier, ever more extreme to try and matter. In addition to your own image, you can also try to put others down, bully them and attempt to decrease their visibility, their reach, so it doesn’t eclipse yours. Just like they’ve been doing to you.
I was too meek to be the bully or the bitch, so my social media experience was trying to go beyond my means and post things that I thought would matter and get seen, while usually being beaten down by those who were not afraid to be assholes about my very existence. And always feeling that I hadn’t reached enough, accomplished enough. That I wasn’t “winning”. Made a whole MySpace page with all the cool widgets just to see a visitor counter(barely) go up. Tried to post my thoughts to a young Facebook and Twitter just to be told I should kill myself, if it reached anyone.
Kids and teens have enough trouble keeping stable in an environment where they have to work with 50-100 people a day at worst…and now they feel the need to catch the eye of millions. The struggle and burden on their mental state scales with it.
And this is before we start a discussion on today’s prevalence of malicious intent, pedophiles and abusers you can’t just walk away from and ignore, if you even recognize the threat. And before we weigh in on the corporations with their own nefarious exploitation of whatever makes more engagement and therefore money.
I’m older now and I can see this all for what it is and navigate around it to meet my needs without falling for it anymore, I don’t care at my age about the likes or upvotes aside from maintaining enough to get into the communities that set a bar to prevent spam. That’s all I need it for, so there’s an achievable goal now instead of an enduring need for ever more that kids have.
- Comment on New York City files a lawsuit saying social media is fueling a youth mental health crisis 8 months ago:
TBH I really do think there should be some regulations in place. I grew up on social media and it was bad enough for me that I got away from it…mostly, obviously I’m here…but I look at the next generation afraid for them and their future as I see these platforms define their very reasons to exist today. It’s so much worse today as they were able to get hooked younger and at their most impressionable.
I’m not even sure it can be safely cured at this point without some nuclear option. Kids today don’t know anything else.
I could blame the parents, but most of that generation is almost as addicted many of them don’t see the problem either.