Yaky
@Yaky@slrpnk.net
- Comment on I never understood what it was people did on Twitter. I understand it even less now that it is X. 21 hours ago:
It always seemed like shouting in a room full of people. Any coherent thought instantly became an unreadable mess due to the post character limit. Never understood live-tweeting. You could DM some company’s support person… but why?
And I blame link shorteners’ existence on twitter, too.
- Comment on Starlink rival ‘Project Kuiper’ rebrands to Amazon Leo 23 hours ago:
So did “Amazon”… :/
- Comment on Needy Programs 1 day ago:
The most obnoxious case of needy apps I witnessed was when I disabled Google Play Services on a OnePlus phone. Every default app (including Phone and SMS!) would spam notifications saying something like “Google Play not found, functionality is limited” every minute or two, while the real impact was minimal.
- Comment on Why Does So Much New Technology Feel Inspired by Dystopian Sci-Fi Movies? 5 days ago:
IMO not as good as The Circle. Although it follows one character, they move between so many departments, it reads more like a collection of short stories.
- Comment on Why Does So Much New Technology Feel Inspired by Dystopian Sci-Fi Movies? 1 week ago:
Did you read The Every yet? It’s a sequel, but instead of anti-privacy, it leans more into greenwashing, and how only the powerful corporations can save us from a climate disaster.
- Comment on How the Web Became Unreadable 1 week ago:
Welcome to Gemini!
- Comment on How the Web Became Unreadable 1 week ago:
There’s a widespread movement in design circles to reduce the contrast between text and background
This was the trend circa 2012 too, at least I recall Microsoft’s pages and software becoming less legible. Not sure if I got used to it, screens got better, or it went back to higher contrast.
- Comment on The 512KB Club is a collection of performance-focused web pages from across the Internet. To qualify your website must both be actually useful and under 512KB in size. 1 week ago:
.kkrieger for those who want to look it up
- Comment on Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users? 1 week ago:
Ironically, this was the first thing I tried for Matrix deployment circa 2019. Worked like a charm… Until a reboot. Then, since I did not know where anything was installed and how it worked, I had no idea where to even start.
I guess it would make more sense now that I know a bit more.
- Comment on Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users? 1 week ago:
What will I see? I mean I am seeing some corporatization and incompatibilities as I described.
- Comment on Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users? 2 weeks ago:
Same for me, I initially went with Matrix for the bridges.
I think for XMPP it’s gateway or transport, Slidge author (Nicoco) has developed some in the last year.
- Comment on Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users? 2 weeks ago:
Any hidden nuances that one has to know for Snikket nowadays?
E.g. with Matrix Synapse, user accounts cannot be deleted via API, DB accumulates hundreds of thousands of records in state_groups_state taking up space, and for client-side, onboarding is a pain
- Comment on Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users? 2 weeks ago:
Why did you switch? I went from Matrix to XMPP around 2019 since Riot/RiotX (matrix client) at the time would not get notifications in time and/or was a battery hog. And then went back to Matrix when it seemed more stable, to avoid messing with prosody configs.
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to selfhosting@slrpnk.net | 20 comments
- Comment on When was the last time you actually laughed while playing a game? 2 weeks ago:
Stardew Valley has plenty of silly and funny moments to begin with. But the last patch added a “green rain” event, and during the first occurrence, all villagers are hiding inside, except Demetrius. This guy is just walking around in a full hazmat suit, collecting samples and babbling about mushrooms.
- Comment on Replacement.AI: Humans no longer necessary 3 weeks ago:
Yeah, after seeing plenty of “quirky”/“edgy”/“ironic” culture in 2010s, and given the absurdity of current world and tech leaders, I cannot tell if something like this is genuinely delusional or just satire.
- Comment on Is there a way to listen to only the radio topics I actually care about? 4 weeks ago:
And its neighbor, WSTB 88.9 The Alternation, with local bands, indie/emo/pop-punk, sometimes clueless DJs, regular news and weather.
- Comment on What's the best chat to self host? 4 weeks ago:
IMO Snikket (XMPP) is the easiest all-in-one solution with audio/video chat at the moment. Pretty good on resources too.
I currently host a Matrix Synapse server, but:
- Matrix seems to be expanding in the corporate / institutional direction, more services are expected for regular functionality
- Element X (upcoming client) breaks calls compatibility with old Element, now requiring Element Call. It’s kind of a mess, I presume this is to support group calls, but makes it a PITA to use currently.
- Even with small number of users, Synapse DB grows in size due to state_groups_state table, non-deletable users, and copying ALL data from other servers’ rooms (this one is by design but still…)
- Comment on What options of resistance are programmers creating to not submit to AI culture? 4 weeks ago:
AI is a tech debt generator.
Any programmer who worked with legacy code knows a situation where something was written by a former employee or a contractor without much comments or documentation, making it difficult to modify (because of complexity or readability) or replace (because of non-existing business documentation and/or peculiar bugs and features)
AI accelerates these situations, but the person does not even exist. Which, IMO is the main thing that needs to be called out.
- Comment on xmpp and iphone 5 weeks ago:
I ran prosody server and used Siskin IM as a client, it worked pretty well. But as others mentioned, since this is Apple, the client developer has to run a push server, no background processes and long-polling allowed. Some other XMPP clients (Secret Messenger I think) did not have that set up and do not have notifications.
- Comment on Using Termux to create a tiny selfhosted hidden chat server with E2EE. 1 month ago:
- Comment on I wrote a simple tool chain for creating HTML pages for my self-hosted website. I released it publically under GPL3. Source linked inside 1 month ago:
Nice! Writing a similar converter was my first step when I set up my parallel site-capsule.
Love gemtext, it’s so simple yet pragmatic. (And there is just one version of it, unlike Markdown)
- Comment on Why is it called linux phone? 1 month ago:
“Android is Linux” is a bit oversimplified.
What the is issue, still simply, the way I understand it:
- Linux kernel contains drivers for the specific hardware used in devices (processors, modem, memory, display, camera, etc.)
- Each Android smartphone has different hardware configuration
- Hardware manufacturers want to guard their secrets, so they sign contracts and NDAs with phone manufacturers
- Phone manufacturers create a unique, dead-end fork of a Linux kernel that contains drivers and is configured specifically for that model. (There are exceptions, but generally)
So yes, Android uses a Linux kernel, but in most cases, a very specific one.
Why not replace it? This requires:
- Access to the bootloader and ability to read/write to internal storage on low level, and manufacturers lock it down.
- Knowing the hardware and the drivers. As mentioned, manufacturers will provide drivers only to their contracts. So someone would need to write a driver.
- Once someone writes a driver, it can be added to mainline Linux, available to all.
- That is why “mainlining” a device is a big deal - that means that the kernel for that device can be built, and going forward, that device will be supported for all future kernel versions.
- Comment on The USA prided itself on a nation of immigrant, heck even the Statue of Liberty says it. When did immigrants (US citizens from the old world) become anti immigrant and why? 2 months ago:
DOJ did denaturalize many members of the German American Bund due to their ties with the Nazi party.
Source: You Are Not American by Amanda Frost, great book.
- Comment on My Beko washing machine must be junked because it thinks the load is imbalanced? 2 months ago:
FWIW: I had a Samsung washer that would throw “unbalanced load” error during the spin cycle. It was a top-load, with the motor+drum suspended on 4 springed/dampened rods. The only two solutions that worked were either: 1. Arrange clothes to one side to compensate the unbalanced drum (lots of trial and error there). Or 2. Put a foam mat around the suspended drum (had to take off the top part of the washer to do that). Somehow that dampens the shaking/imbalance just enough to not trip the sensor.
Don’t buy Samsung appliances.
- Comment on AI Killed My Job: Translators 2 months ago:
How good is LLM training data for a language spoken by less than 10 million people? Keep in mind that most of those people are probably multilingual (i.e. categorizing which language is which by person is harder), and language itself is similar to its neighbors. And then, again, terms.
- Comment on I think I 'm witnessing the beginning of a wasp nest in the wall of my living room? 2 months ago:
That looks more like a mud dauber, which are solitary and do not eat wood.
(Then again, I am only familiar with some NE US insects, and poster is probably not in the US)
- Comment on AI Killed My Job: Translators 2 months ago:
I know someone who was a translator between two (less widely spoken) languages, and some specifics I recall from our conversations about work:
- Sometimes the translations use many technical terms, and getting those wrong (trusting LLMs) is not an option. (This was for some patents IIRC)
- Some terms simply do not exist in another language, and it could be up to the translator to invent a term to define and carry the information across. (This was for some government digital service, and the term was similar to “digital queue”)
- Tone and nuances are very difficult to translate. Phrasing can have implications and connotations. (Simplest example: “i am afraid” does not imply fear, it’s an established politeness phrase) Neutral in one language could be viewed as hostile in another, too. (And with politicians being petty, could have consequences)
None of those would be addressed with LLMs. Small training set for language (and language being similar to a few others) is an issue. Anything technical or non-existing would be prone to hallucinations. And tone is difficult enough to convey through text to begin with, let alone with LLM translation.
- Comment on DM me on Spotify: Spotify launches a messaging feature. 2 months ago:
Imgur had the social media element since mid-2010s at least, maybe longer.
- Comment on What are the most useful things you've printed? 2 months ago:
Most useful was probably this holder for two 1/2in PEX pipes. Printed in ABS, it holds cold and hot pipes in parallel, and uses a #8 screw for attachment. All commercially available holders are for a single pipe, and use nails. Hammering nails in tight spaces (and doing so twice) is not particularly convenient for me, thus, this contraption was born.
Other than that, stuff that is so practical it is easily forgettable: wall mount for a garage door opener, Y splitter for an exhause fan, various covers and containers.