Yaky
@Yaky@slrpnk.net
- Comment on Android will become a locked-down platform in 194 day 1 week ago:
This always gets brought up, and is the chicken-and-egg problem, but only sort of.
Supporting software designed for different platforms is not the phone’s responsibility. It should be the government and bank developers’ responsibility to build software for platforms their citizens and customers use.
Android and Apple do not jump through hoops to run Windows desktop software, for example, and the notion is kind of absurd to begin with. Yet this argument is used for Linux smartphones all the time.
Some of this also applies to people without phone / with dumbphone.
- Comment on New to android ROMs and degoogling and I have questions. 1 week ago:
I know of:
- LineageOS
- LineageOS+microg (is its own thing)
- GrapheneOS - this is what I use
- eOS - shiny degoogled Android
- iodeOS - degoogled Android with some extra features and parental controls - might be something you want?
Some other Android-derived projects are inactive: DivestOS shut down, CalyxOS is paused.
For 3, I think it has to do with popularity, unlockability, and the chipset.
- Comment on System requirements for a Matrix server? 2 weeks ago:
I have ran Synapse natively on 1 CPU 1GB RAM VPS for years. But it fills up a lot of disk space, eapecially with larger rooms, so get at least 100GB? (I had 20GB on my VPS, and with 4 regular users, was using up 15GB)
If you are looking at (new) official ESS Community, they recommend 2 CPU, 2GB RAM minimum for Kubernetes.
- Comment on Why do russian parents insist on being treated to home cooked meals? 2 weeks ago:
You see Ivan, birthday is for other people to eat, drink, and have fun, not for you.
Kinda like a big wedding in the US I guess? Bride and groom are not the ones having fun.
- Comment on Why do russian parents insist on being treated to home cooked meals? 2 weeks ago:
AFAICT restaurants were few, expensive, and difficult to get into (i.e. not for regular people on regular basis), and the option for regular people would be stolovaya (cafeteria?) which is simple, probably mediocre food.
So seems like if you don’t have the connections and want decent food, make it yourself.
- Comment on ai;dr | (ai; didn't read) 2 weeks ago:
This reads as vaguely anti-intellectualist.
I can’t imaging writing code by myself again
I don’t want to bother with readability, quality, or efficiency. Taking time to think is pointless.
The less polished and coherent something is, the more value I assign to it.
Taking time to organize and write my thoughts is pointless. There are plenty of unpolished, incoherent ramblings on the internet, many with ill intent, that should not be given any value. (Yes, I understand that was not the intended meaning, but author should proofread)
- Comment on Why do russian parents insist on being treated to home cooked meals? 2 weeks ago:
Are they (post-)soviet boomers? There are some cultural things that I noticed too, some amusing, some frustrating.
- Home food is automatically better than restaurant food, as you said. Also, somehow, any burger is automatically viewed as McDonalds burger (i.e. bad)
- Unsolicited advice and unprompted attempts to help.
- Insistence on getting you a gift or accepting a never-requested gift. “Here’s a nice thing, it was expensive and difficult to get, you should like it”.
- Viewing self as “a burden”. Being offered food, comfort, or accomodation is rejected because “I don’t want to impose”. Sometimes goes into “suffering builds character” mindset, which is nonsense.
- Comment on Why does most American's give shit to the French when if not for them we would have lost the revolution? 2 weeks ago:
From what I remember: France refused to join US war in Iraq in 2003, and around the same time I started hearing nonsense like “freedom fries” and “google french military victories and you get no results lolololol”, and it was all really fucking stupid. But some of that seemed to remain in popular culture.
- Comment on Is there a culture/country that doesn't have sarcasm in its language? 2 weeks ago:
Sounds pretty similar to US stereotypes towards Eastern Europeans, who are “always grumpy” and “rude”.
- Comment on Is there a culture/country that doesn't have sarcasm in its language? 2 weeks ago:
(Not first-hand knowledge) I read somewhere that tonal languages such as Chinese make it difficult to express sarcasm the same way Indo-European languages do, with accent and inflection.
- Comment on Matrix messaging gaining ground in government IT 2 weeks ago:
They have been heading in government-corporate direction for a while now. Good for them, yet from a perspective of a small server hoster, everything is more complicated now for no good reason.
(Official ESS requires Kubernetes and a dozen subdomains, third-party auth service is required to even register a plain username+password account, calls are all over the place between Element, Element X and web client)
- Comment on Spotify changes developer mode API to require premium accounts, limits test users 2 weeks ago:
Any FOSS / third party Spotify client I used already requires a premium account (I am fairly certain it’s about playing ads), so I was under assumption developer API was the same.
Anyway, I just stopped using Spotify altogether. I’ll support my local indie radio station instead.
- Comment on Spotify changes developer mode API to require premium accounts, limits test users 2 weeks ago:
For me it was the opposite: Every “made for you” mix and playlist is fairly popular songs from artists that I like… But they are always the same few dozen songs, just shuffled in different order.
Video suggestions seem to appear if/after you listen to podcasts or audiobooks. I had them, my partner did not.
- Comment on What's with companies naming things "MyNoun"? 3 weeks ago:
“I use a messenger”
“Which one?”
“You know, Messenger, the Facebook one”
- Comment on Sending someone LLM output in response to a question they ask is the intellectual equivalent of sending an unsolicited dick pic. 3 weeks ago:
The question I ask is “How do you justify saving your time at expense of others’ time?”
Haven’t heard a good answer, just mumbling “it can be set to be less verbose…”
- Comment on If you had native-level fluency in a language, and don't talk in that language for a while, can you develop an accent later-on when trying to talk in that language again? 3 weeks ago:
Not sure about an accent, but it will be noticeable.
From personal experience: I am aware that I often use structures specific to my current English-speaking region while speaking one of my native languages. Also, my slang and cultural references are really outdated. So I do not have an accent exactly, but it would be possible to tell something is off.
- Comment on I just realized there is not really a for "cuddling" in Chinese Languages... probably a reflection of the lack of Public Display of Affection in Chinese Culture... 3 weeks ago:
I don’t think it’s necessarily reflective of culture, but just the language never formed a word for it. E.g. in Ukrainian and Russian, hugs are generally considered more intimate, so expression describing cuddling would be “laying down hugging”.
On same note, Ukrainian and Russian has a word “тискати”/“тискать”, which (informally) means to squeeze affectionately (usually partners, babies, or pets, similar to “cute aggression” concept in US English). Doesn’t mean that speakers of other languages don’t do the same thing, there is just not a single word for it.
- Comment on Why doesn't my phone put all of my apps to "sleep" by default? 4 weeks ago:
Some general examples: Any active navigation keeping track of your location if you switch apps. Pebble monitoring notifications to be sent to a smartwatch. Email or chat client periodically checking for messages.
There is a Developer Setting in Android to instantly kill off-screen apps, but that would make multitasking a hassle.
On that note, what I have witnessed is the opposite, phone OS being overly eager to put apps in sleep / idle mode, to the point of ignoring user settings of “do not optimize battery” and “allow background processing”. Many (most “normal”) apps handle notifications through Google, but many FOSS and independent apps need to run in the background to check for messages, updates, etc.
- Comment on Messaging apps - XMPP vs Matrix vs ??? 4 weeks ago:
Matrix clients aren’t great
IMO the main advantage that Matrix-Element has for normal users is the branding: Element is Element on the web, Android and iOS. (Snikket is trying to do the same for XMPP though)
Matrix is too difficult for “normal” people
Agreed. Simple user+password login to a hosted (non-matrixdotorg) server takes 5-6 pages to click through.
Matrix public rooms have a CP problem
I was spammed with racist copypasta on XMPP once too. But being in large Matrix chats guarantees being invited/messaged.
…Matrix also pisses metadata to any server it federates with, including matrix [.] org
Replication+sync is a strange decision for chats. It sort of makes sense for slower fediverse posts, but creates a lot of strange scenarios and privacy issues with chats. Also, matrixdotorg is used for key backups and vectordotim is used for integrations IIRC.
- Comment on Messaging apps - XMPP vs Matrix vs ??? 4 weeks ago:
I hosted Matrix for several years. It mostly works fine, apps look consistent, bridges are nice, but is a pain in the ass in some aspects. Onboarding sucks. Data needs constant cleanup (or gigabytes of storage, even for a dozen users). Sometimes notifications are delayed hours. Sometimes images don’t load.
New Element Server Suite is more corporate-oriented, requires Kubernetes (!) to run, includes defacto mandatory services. Element X has no feature parity with Element Classic, especially calls.
I ran Snikket many years ago for a few months. But now they have smooth invites/onboarding, admin panel, and always had reliable notifications. Even bridges through Slidge. I plan to switch back to Snikket soon.
- Comment on What are your technology mispredictions? 1 month ago:
When Steam first appeared (and was required to play Half-Life 2 IIRC), I thought that was a ridiculous idea to have a middle man to play a game. Well, what do I know, everyone loves Steam now (yet hates on other launchers).
- Comment on genius 1 month ago:
IIRC that entire plane was a DIY plane from a popular kit, not a commercial vehicle.
(not clicking on a Google shortlink)
- Comment on The most bizarre tech announced so far at CES 2026 1 month ago:
TBF, specifically for games, enemy behavior has been called “AI” for decades.
- Comment on I'm there! 1 month ago:
More of a self-directed way, but check out eBird for submitting bird observations and iNaturalist for almost everything else. The cool part about iNaturalist is that your observations also get identified by other people, so you know the submissions haave been reviewed. And you could help identify others’ observations too.
- Comment on Apple announces more ads are coming to App Store search results 2 months ago:
Absolutely. Somehow, Apple and Google convinced people (even more tech savvy ones) to want constant app and security updates as if the world would end otherwise. I’ve seen complaints about gemini (the protocol not Google’s AI) browser not being updated (protocol has not been updated since 2022), and someone asking if it’s safe to boot up an old Android 7 phone.
And Apple dev license consting money does not help the situation.
- Comment on Apple announces more ads are coming to App Store search results 2 months ago:
Now up the challenge: In App Store, find a simple app that is not a “solution”, “ecosystem” nor a “lifestyle”, does not have ads, and does not require a subscription for basic functionality.
(Years ago, I tried about 10 RSS readers, News Reader was what I finally found, way down the list)
- Comment on Is there a word or (concise) phrase to describe the paradox of sharing something (like a website) that you don't like, but because you're sharing it you're tacitly helping it? 2 months ago:
That sounds like a Streisand effect, or a variation of it.
- Comment on WhatsApp status and channels now showing ads: Here's how to hide and manage them 2 months ago:
Snikket is an all-in-one XMPP server-client that supports calls.
But yes, in its current state, Matrix calls are pretty broken as there is no feature parity between Element Classic and Element X apps.
- Submitted 2 months ago to fixing@slrpnk.net | 0 comments
- Comment on Does anyone know of a plug-in or extension that will make your web browser convert all websites into what they would look like in 1999? 2 months ago:
There’s FrogFind, search engine + converter/proxy for old machines. Runs via non-secure HTTP of course, which was standard in 1999.
Some sites have simple variants, such as