Brain
@Brain@lemmy.zip
- Comment on U.S. Workers Are More Worried Than Hopeful About Future AI Use in the Workplace. 1 week ago:
I’m sorry slazer2au but our employment AI noticed you slacking off today, we’re going to need to terminate your employment at this time.
For real, at least in a lot of the southern US, companies look out for anyone that discusses unionization and will find a reason to fire them. At-will employment is a curse. My favorite busting technique is the tried and true “Who needs a union? We’re a family here.” Followed by a pizza party instead of a real bonus.
- Comment on Coming from someone who loves the game: it feels like BGS is quietly deciding to end it's post-launch support in favor on focusing on TES6. - REPOST 2 weeks ago:
This game had a lot of promise, but the hype could never be lived up to and on top of that they chose to use it as an experiment with the procgen stuff.
I think they have some good bones to work with going forward, seeing as it was Fallout 4 in Space, but they need a team to flesh out and then write a mountain of lore to go with it in the future. Elder Scrolls and Fallout tend to have excellent game lore that comes with their IP, something Bethesda at least in part inherited from the original creators of those games. Not realizing a lot of that is what makes their games special really hurt Starfield.
Other things that I didn’t like was they were too busy saying can we do this, instead of should, when it comes to the procgen systems. It was too ambitious for their first time out especially when their other games have well fleshed out worlds, yes I know Skyrim caves were similarish, but they weren’t the exact same thing every single time. Then to top it off, barely anything came from the Unity, they basically wanted you to play this game 10 times in a row to get all the achievements, which I did, but it ruined my want to play it again for a long time. Then you have the space aspect, sounded super cool, then it wasn’t, go to location, load screen, enter ship, load screen, go to space, load screen, map, find world you want, load screen, maybe have a battle, open map, choose planet, choose landing location, load screen… it was very repetitive and not always in a fun way.
In future games I think it would be way better if they focused on a core group of systems, IMO 5-6 would be best, if they want to actually keep most planets empty, which they claim was on purpose, then pump it up to about 10. Set a cool story in that area, then in Starfield 3, do another 5-6 new ones but only keep 2-3 from the game before. IMO, that would give them more longevity in the series and allow them time to build that lore and flesh out some stories. Think Elder Scrolls and how most games focus on a different region of the Tamriel.
Obviously this is just like my opinion, but man Starfield has a good idea with an overly ambitious and ultimately poor execution.
- Comment on Kroger’s Surveillance Pricing Harms Consumers and Raises Prices, With or Without Facial Recognition. 3 weeks ago:
I’ve read some comments on other articles about this saying that by using cash and avoiding the loyalty card they won’t have the data that shows how often you buy certain products and if you buy them at regular price or only during sales. I don’t know if that’s true, but it does seem somewhat logical to me that the AI is going to use your past purchases against you, they already use that same idea to send me paper coupons once a month based on stuff I usually buy.
- Comment on Britain Orders Apple to Build a Backdoor Into Your iPhone 4 weeks ago:
As far as I know Apple didn’t give in, Trump and the FBI wanted it during his first term but I don’t think it happened. At least I hope it didn’t.
- Comment on Britain Orders Apple to Build a Backdoor Into Your iPhone 4 weeks ago:
Global access is wild, basically it means if the UK could force this that any five eyes country would then have the same access without needing to look bad to their citizens.
Also, how hard do we expect Apple to fight this? I have a hard time believing they would just pull out of the UK but I could be wrong. From what I understand China has this type of access because they don’t allow E2EE.
- Comment on Google's slow Chrome Extension reforms anger developers 4 weeks ago:
I’m shocked I say, shocked… well not that shocked.
I think the most interesting part of that whole thing was the people at AdGuard and Privacy Badger apparently believing the advertising company wasn’t going to hurt them.
- Comment on Workers at NASA Told to ‘Drop Everything’ to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites 4 weeks ago:
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Don’t apologize, this shit is rage inducing.
- Comment on Mexico asks Google to reject U.S. renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. 5 weeks ago:
It’s not official until the Government enters it into the Geographic Names Information System. Once that happens Google will begin changing their maps.
- Comment on Trump signs exec order delaying TikTok enforcement action for 75 days 1 month ago:
It’s interesting that under the law ordering the shutdown or sale he could have given them 90 days and chose to only do 75.
Must be some kind of power move or they already have a deal and it’s all theater like that 12 hour “shutdown.”
- Comment on TikTok Users Gleefully Embrace Even More Chinese App To Spite US TikTok Ban 1 month ago:
I hate to defend Zuckerberg but if true he turned down investing and claimed short form wasn’t going anywhere it’s because he had some proof of that. Vine wasn’t doing well and eventually shut down, as did WWE backed short form video app Tout. At the time it looked like it wasn’t worth it.
- Comment on Plex redesigns its app to look more like a streaming service 3 months ago:
I’ve put a lot of effort into making plex posters that match/have a uniform look for 90% of my library, from what I’ve seen this will make all that useless as they switch to what appears to be fanart only. I don’t necessarily care for that change.
- Comment on Amazon is shutting down Freevee 3 months ago:
Once they added advertisements to Prime Video, they no longer had a need to have FreeVee. I assumed this would have happened sooner, but I’m not shocked. Hopefully this frees up space on all those Fire devices that were forced to have the app without the ability to remove it.
- Comment on The Open Source Project DeFlock Is Mapping License Plate Surveillance Cameras All Over the World 3 months ago:
Not only do you have to watch cities for these things, you need to read the privacy policy on some websites to see what their physical locations are doing. Lowe’s and Home Depot both have Facial Recognition and ALPR policies.
I can’t even come home at night without being hit by a Flock Camera, we have one outlet and they put it right when you turn into the neighborhood, for “safety” of course.
- Comment on The Pentagon wants AI to enhance the capabilities of US nuclear weapons systems 3 months ago:
Are they going to name it WOPR or Joshua? Maybe some teen will feed it crazy info and it’ll start trying to find the launch codes on its own.
- Comment on Massive generational gap: Gen Z flocks to multiplayer, while 55+ sticks to single-player 4 months ago:
I’m not that old, but time is flying at me, and in my experience it’s that older people don’t have the same time options and skill level to “git gud” at newer games and that just makes online games less fun for some of us. So single player games we can take our time on and finish without somebody in the headset barking at us. I really prefer things like Fortnite STW these days, I can log in and choose to pair up with others or go it alone and I have the option to choose my difficulty level with the different biomes.
It’s ok, one day Gen Beta will be the same way with the Z’s, it’s the circle of life.
I still play online some, but I’ve come to the conclusion I’m not great at it and never will be and I’m ok with that.
- Comment on GTA Online is no longer supported by Steam Deck thanks to a slightly baffling Rockstar anti-cheat update 5 months ago:
There have been posts on X/Twitter/Nitter and some Discords that some of the Mod-Menus have bypassed the anti-cheat, which makes all of this crappy for Deck players.
- Comment on Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions Gets First Gameplay Trailer, Will Launch On PlayStation Plus 7 months ago:
JK Rowling doesn’t believe Transgender people are the sex they identify with and as such is labeled a TERF, Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, and many, especially on the internet believe she should be boycotted and no self respecting person would give her or her properties a money. You typically will see some form of that comment in most postings related to her or Harry Potter.
- Comment on Google's Exclusive Reddit Access 7 months ago:
“Search or website ads” as a “commercial purpose” and that no one can use Reddit data without permission or paying a fee.
That stock isn’t going to sell itself, it needs value for Spez and friends to earn those golden parachutes.
This is bad for the open web, especially if more large sites follow this idea.
- Comment on Pornhub prepares to block five more states rather than check IDs 8 months ago:
Why won’t those people vote against the religious legislative class? Are they outnumbered?
For a lot of people religion is like a salad bar or buffet, they pick and choose the parts they like and ignore the ones they don’t. That seems to extend towards their politicians, be my brand of religion and policy and I’ll let you do almost anything because at least you aren’t that other person.
- Comment on Pornhub prepares to block five more states rather than check IDs 8 months ago:
If you live in a conservative run state, watch what they do, in Georgia on the final day of legislation they do “sine die” which we sometimes call sign or die day where they just push through a ton of shit with little or no going over it before hand, they passed one of these social media ID laws that targets porn too, and it went through without pretty much anybody knowing about it from what I can tell.
What kind of database of depravity to use against you are these people building.
- Comment on HELLDIVERS 2 sees over 130K bad reviews on Steam as Sony double down 10 months ago:
They should have taken the lumps on release when they couldn’t keep up with the demand to play and kept the Sony login requirement. It was there on day one but people couldn’t get in to make accounts so they suspended it. That was a mistake if this was going to be mandatory in the end. They also really screwed up by releasing the game in regions that don’t have PSN, how did that even happen is the big question I want to know.
On the other hand, waving it and allowing people to play it without the 3rd party requirement also showed it’s a crappy requirement that doesn’t seem to do much other than annoy people to allow Sony to collect data. Sony also looks like assholes by changing their web page from “login is optional to play Sony titles on PC” to “some games require login.”
Disclaimer here, I have a PSN account because I’ve owned multiple past Sony consoles so I’m not really affected so much, they already lost and sold my data multiple times. For everybody else, I get why they are pissed.
- Comment on FTC says Amazon executives destroyed potential evidence by using apps like Signal 10 months ago:
I see.
And because Amazon didn’t instruct employees to preserve messages sent in the app until more than 15 months after it was notified of the investigation
I somehow misconstrued this line into thinking they had been using it for those 15 months and were then notified they weren’t supposed to. I screwed up there.
- Comment on FTC says Amazon executives destroyed potential evidence by using apps like Signal 10 months ago:
Amazon is just one of several companies recently accused of turning to encrypted messaging apps like Signal that can permanently erase messages automatically.
You may recall the government making similar arguments about Sam Bankman-Fried’s use of Signal during his trial for fraud and how that verdict eventually shook out. Deleted chats were also a sticking point for at least one juror in Google’s recent courtroom loss to Epic Games and came up in the DOJ’s antitrust trial against Google.
So are they using these trials in their crusade against encryption and having articles like this in hopes of turning the public against it? Because it looks like it to me.
The FTC’s lawyers say Bezos, current CEO Andy Jassy, general counsel David Zapolsky, former CEO of worldwide operations Dave Clark, and other execs are all Signal users. Bezos is identified in the document as “a heavy Signal user” who instructed others to use the app, although the 2018 hacking of his personal cellphone may be part of the reason for that.
Then a few paragraphs later they reveal Bezos has been an encryption fan and user of the service for 5+ years while trying to get others to use it… I get it, Amazon is doing shady shit, but this feels to me like the government is trying to get encryption frowned upon.
- Comment on Roku has patented a way to show ads over anything you plug into your TV 11 months ago:
I’m surprised Google hasn’t done this with Google/Android TV because they already have special app permissions to draw over the top of other apps enabled in the settings, they just don’t seem to use it.
- Comment on Why is Saudi Arabia heading top UN gender equality forum? 11 months ago:
I would say that depends on a person’s situation, sitting behind a computer in America and seeing things that go bad, it’s easy for me to see them as dysfunctional. If I were sitting in Darfur or Sudan starving to death and they managed to get a convoy of food to my location, I’d probably see them as making life better even if I’m not happy with some of them doing bad things.
I guess it’s I think too often they tend to do things in a way that is less than efficient. Not being party to the myriad of laws they have to cut through to get aid to these places, I’m not sure what could be done better there, I’m very unhappy with the sexual abuse claims and how nothing seems to be done about it. So I guess it’s they are insufficient.
- Comment on Spotify’s second price hike in 9 months will target audiobook listeners 11 months ago:
At what point do these companies ring the turnip dry? YouTube Premium almost doubled, Netflix cracked down on passwords and increased pricing, and if you didn’t like it you could pay a little less if you would just watch some ads, which we joined Netflix to get away from, people didn’t care so those ads are now in Prime Video and other companies are joining in too. Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, and Peacock all had price increases in the last year. At some point, you have to dust off your peg leg and put on a tricorn hat.
- Comment on Why is Saudi Arabia heading top UN gender equality forum? 11 months ago:
Five countries with veto power on the UN Security Council control everything, and they spend almost all their time bickering with each other because they all want to be the big dog at the table. Sadly, most of those are currently involved in actions that the Security Council should be trying to stop, not engage in.
The UN Member States send somebody that represents whatever current administration is in power, not necessarily the citizens of the countries it’s supposed to represent. If I’m not mistaken a proposal was made in the late 90s about forming a Parliament Assembly but that went nowhere so we are stuck with the General Assembly whose votes mean nothing.
The sex scandals involving UN Peacekeepers. When Peacekeepers arrive, sexual abuse of children tends to go up. How do they do nothing about this?
The UN doesn’t function; some aid gets where it needs to be, but there have been past scandals with that from what I remember. I find the UN to be dysfunctional and set up to fail.
- Comment on Bill that could ban TikTok passes in House despite constitutional concerns 11 months ago:
A majority, or what looks like a majority, of Americans, do not want another Trump presidency because they fear his extreme authoritarianism and fascist views. Yet, they don’t want to ban TikTok, even though it’s owned by a company that must comply with the whims of an Authoritarian state. I don’t like the idea of a company whose terms of service state they can collect voice and face prints being accountable to a Government that doesn’t have checks and balances of any kind and may someday decide to use that against us, those people on the app are going to be politicians one day and that kind of stuff could be used against them.
And before people go but Facebook, etc… I agree, I don’t want them to have that data either and fully support a US bill that would codify the California data privacy restrictions, at a minimum.
- Comment on Cable And Satellite Providers Required To Disclose “All In” Pricing Under Newly Passed FCC Rules 11 months ago:
It’s why the FCC nominee was blocked for 3 years, Biden couldn’t get a pick in until September of 2023, almost his entire term they blocked him from having a functioning FCC because stuff like this scares some people.
- Comment on Scientists inch forward in efforts to resurrect an extinct giant 11 months ago:
It says they believe that mammoths, bison, horses, and reindeer will trample the grass, knock down trees and compact the snow which will cool the ground, based on a small 2020 study in Siberia that showed places that kept those animals, minus mammoths, had lower soil temps.
I think a much larger test is in order before I buy that’s going to save the permafrost.