BananaTrifleViolin

@BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Native English, very basic German from school.

  I want to learn another language but can’t decide which.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Goodbye Google - I self-host everything now on 4 tiny PCs in a 3D printed rack (CaptainRedsLab)⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Its an interesting build and cool, but this seems overpowered and overspecced to me?

  From his reddit post he’s hosting: Immich, Nextcloud (file sync across all devices), Frigate NVR (Coral AI detection + Home Assistant integration), Plex (with full *arr stack), pfSense (firewall, DNS, DHCP, WireGuard VPN, ntopng monitoring), Vaultwarden and Pfblocker. He says on the Youtube video: Plex, Home Assistant, Pi-hole, Immich, Nextcloud, Frigate, and more.

  Does this really needs 4 Lenovo PCs (1 used as the router) to run all this? Maybe he has multiple users and is going hard on the Immich and the security camera set up (including video processing?). Even then I just can’t see how this would make full use of all this hardware?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Tech seems to often seems to follow the Pareto Principal of 80:20 split; where one company dominates and gets at least 80% of the market share. In tech its often more extreme and 90% domination often occurs, and is even expected by investors.

  It’s debatable where this is cause or effect - e.g. whether tech would naturally move to such dominant splits or whether this is actually the effects of bad regulation allowing monopolies to form. I personally favour the latter but thats irrelevant.

  So in the space of “forums” Reddit has taken a dominant position. In some ways it gets away with this because it’s regarded as “social media” and as such is no where near dominant, with Meta dominant (Facebook, Instagram) and big players like TikTok etc. But in terms of the forum style discussion platform it really is dominant. It’s so dominant that people who host communities on there seem to unquestioningly believe Reddit when it says it owns them and all it’s content.

  Lemmy, MBin, and PieFed show that actually anyone can host their own instances of Reddit like forums, but Reddit does still dominate as a single location hosting and controlling lots of other peoples content.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Sound of Contamination: All Analysed Headphones on the Central European Market Found to Contain Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  This is a potentially interesting study but there is a key gap which is around the actual health risk.

  The figures around safety mg/kg are to do with the rate the toxic materials leach out of, not the absolute concentration within the materials or artificial lab based maximum leach rates. The quoted 10 mg/kg is also not an actual limit:

  10 mg/kg limit originally proposed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

  The limit orignally proposed is not the same as the actual limit. As far as I can see it is 0.05mg/kg leach into food, 0.04mg/l for toys, and as far as I can see there are no other limits in place. They are essentially being restricted in food contacting materials and toys, and requiring clear labelleling in other uses: https://www.echa.europa.eu/hot-topics/bisphenols

  What really matters is under what circumstances the “maximum concentrations of 351 mg/kg” were reached. If that is an artificial lab test with no relatability to real world situations then it’s meaningless. If that rate of leach occurs at body temperature with a bit of moisture then it’s very worrying. But even then the absolute amount of the bisphenols in the products also matters - for example it might be there amount mixed into the plastics in a ear bud is too small to actually be toxic to a human.

  Without that information this feels like sensationalist reporting of the findings - the article is implying there is a health risk when there may be none, and they are also implying there is wrong doing or failure of the EU enforcement of its regulations when there may be none.

  It is worth reading the disclaimer at the end; while their aims may be laudable they are not conducting independent research and it’s not clear their work is even peer reviewed. Instead this is a single issue lobbying group, part funded by EU funds, producing research with a political aim.

  About ToxFree LIFE for All: The ToxFree LIFE for All project (LIFE22-GIE-HU-101114078) is an EU-funded initiative aimed at protecting citizens from hazardous chemical exposure through awareness, testing, and policy advocacy. Partners include VKI (Austria), Arnika (Czechia), dTest (Czechia), TVE (Hungary), and ZPS (Slovenia). Funded by the EU Life Programme (LIFE22-GIE-HU-ToxFree LIFE for All, 101114078) and the Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or other donors. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valve says 5,863 titles earned over $100,000 on Steam in 2025⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  So 113k released between 2016 and 2025 is about 12600 a year. We have only been told that 5863 games made more than 100k last year, not what their total lifetime revenues are. Bearing in mind games generally make the most money in the first year of release (of course there there is big variation and there is a tail but mostly), then very crudely as much as 46% of new games could be making at least 100K in the first year. That’s an overestimate for many reasons but 5% is also a huge underestimate as the figure is using at all games released across 9 years and diluting the the 1 year figure we have. Also we need to bare in mind how much of the Steam library is slop and not an actual fully formed game, or is place holder entries for things like demos and even DLC.

  The real figure will sit between those two extreme limits, it’s not going to be as low as 5% but also not as high as 46%.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows 12 release date in 2026 possible, with AI features that may force CPU upgrades⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  At this rate we’ll need a Wine/Proton that runs on Windows to allow you to run Windows software.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is the USA attacking Iran?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So this is one where actually it really makes no sense for the US to attack Iran - this comes down to a bad president making impulsive decisions. It certainly benefits Israel. Trump seems to think he is untouchable after attacking Iran last year and kidnapping Venezuela’s president. This war seems to be him shooting from the hip and not being restrained by those around him from making very bad decisions.

  From a US strategic point of view, it can’t achieve regime change in Iran by bombing the country (it’d need troops on the ground) and it has low supplies of air defence munitions thanks to selling stocks to Ukraine and also using up some supplies in it’s 2 day war against Iran in 2025. Going to war now is foolhardy - Iran just needs to prolong this war beyond a few weeks and the US will be in trouble. It will need to pivot to a defensive posture to protect its allies in the region as defenses run out, which will be tough and cost US servicemen and women’s lives. It will also cost a fortune to prosecute this war without any real benefit.

  US allies in the middle east have been drawn into a conflict they certainly didn’t want, global trade will be disrupted by closing the Strait of Hormuz (a very major shipping route), oil prices will spike and could stay high if oil infrastructure is damaged in the war, air traffic will remain disrupted and the gulf states economic hub plans (building up Dubai as an Economic centre etc) will be damaged. It’s possible this could even tilt the global economy to recession, or even precipitate an earlier end to the AI stock-market bubble.

  This war is looking like a major strategic blunder by the US; more stupid than the Vietnam war (which was at least thought-out by strategists). Its likely the Pentagon was against this war, but sadly Trump and his clown-car cabinet are pulling the shots. It’s a war that’s goals cannot be achieved, yet will costly the longer it runs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It is 2003, I am playing a new expansion for Diablo 2 as the US starts a war in the Middle East. It is 2026, I am playing a new expansion for Diablo 2 (!) as the US starts a war in the Middle East.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah! So it’s your fault! Get him!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Either the aliens have listed Earth as a no-contact planet or we are probably alone in the universe.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If we built a self replicating probe and sent it to the nearest system, and from there it sent off 2 more probes and so on, in 2 million years they’d have reached every system. The only cost would be the initial probe. and any species that has mastered it’s own star system could do that. They could send out their own genetic material and spread their form of live.

  They don’t have to go themselves out into space, they can send automated machines. We’ve already started doing just that with very basic machines for scientific curiosity. I see no reason why we wouldn’t send out replicating probes when we have the technology to do it.

  However we do come back to Fermi’s Paradox: the universe is 13800million years old. So far we have no evidence a probe has reached our star system. Where are they? Maybe we just haven’t stumbled across one yet. Or maybe life really is very rare?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So who benefits from $30bn in spending on Laptops and Tablets? Oh Apple and Microsoft. Not students. Surprise surprise.

  As with many of these articles there is a big caveat - Gen Z in the USA. It does not follow that this research applies across the world. It’d be interesting to see how other rich countries outcomes are different with their differing approaches to this. For example here in the UK I don’t believe there has been a wholesale move to laptops/tablets for every student in schools. Technology is certainly used but it’s not solely about students using laptops and tablets. Its things like smart wide boards, and the use of digital content to engage attention and so forth. Spending billions on laptops for all would be a scandal when school buildings need renewing for example.

  I would hazard to suggest that the US education system is being corrupted in a similar way to other parts of the US state, with big expensive projects decided at state level by the Republicans and Democrats thanks to lobbying, benefiting big companies but not citizens. This is instead of money going to areas of proven benefit such as more teachers, school infrastructure renewal, or funding of homework clubs, after school activities, breakfast clubs or free school meals. Things proven to make a difference across the world but things that don’t benefit big US corporations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Firefox is ending support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In fairness to Mozilla, Firefox and Thunderbird are platform agnostic. It’s not really for them to tell users what OS to use. It’d cause them more aggro than its worth from all the people who have differing opinions on what the best OS is or the best distro to use. It’s already a tightrope act keeping their users happy when they announce things like AI in the browser. I think they’re right to focus on their own areas of interest.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tune a fish⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  tuna steak is fish, so why isn’t it tuna fish steak?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tune a fish⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Americans do love redundancies. e.g Just barely, only just, just a bit, true facts, free gift, end result, advance warning etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google criticizes Europe's plan to adopt free software⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Nah that’s it. Their logic is seemingly if you don’t give the money to Google it’s not contributing to economic growth.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Im curious what they will come up with⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I seem to be the only one confused by this - what leak? Is it just a typo?

  A leak is when something is released without authorisation? So far the only information is authorised releases of the files with lots of stuff redacted, and allegations there is more being held back. Has there been a leak too?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is Wikipedia's Volunteer Model Facing a Generational Crisis?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The article is very biased - it basically suggests young people are unwilling to read, that AI is a good thing and that the wikipedia contributors are being unreasonable. It goes on to talk about how AI has “extracted value” from Wikipedia in an unquestioning way - no mention of compensation to the project, just talking about what a triumph Wikipedia is a source for AI to train on.

  The “Simple Summaries” situation is less to do with the summaries and more to do with the risk of AI slop being introduced into Wikipedia unquestioned. The summaries were unchecked and unverified, which add a real chance that wikipedia started serving up inaccurate summaries and undermined it’s own reputation.

  In addition that idea that younger generations don’t have the concentration span to “read a wall of text” is pernicious and patronising nonsense part of a general media bias against Gen Z and Gen Alpha. There seems to be this barely questioned narrative that they have short attention spans and are unwilling or even unable to read, just because they grew up in the era of social media like Instagram and latterly Tik Tok.

  I’ll give a better hypothesis for why younger generations spend less time on wikipedia: the big tech giants like Google have stolen all the information people have put on there and serve it up in their own summaries on the search engine (preventing click throughs) or through their own AI slop engines. They don’t want people clicking through to Wikipedia, they want them clicking through to an ad. The problem is not Wikipedia, and the problem is not Gen Z or Gen Alpha; the problem - as is frequently the case - is the tech mega-corporations who steal everything (including wikipedia) and sell it back to us with ads or via AI slop.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The $100 Billion Megadeal Between OpenAI and Nvidia Is on Ice⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Both sides announced this to boost their share prices as they’re both growth stocks. Growth stocks are a trap - no company can keep on growing forever.

  This announcement is a sign the AI boom is probably soon to end. Nvidia quietly announcing the $100bn deal isn’t going to happen, is Nvidia trying to reduce it’s exposure to the bubble popping. Unfortunately for Nvidia, it’s already way way too far and the vast majority of it’s value is speculative. The question is have they damaged their core business by chasing the AI bubble, and what liabilities will they be left with if their customers go bankrupt and don’t pay them for their product.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’d totally forgotten this trick - I used to use this when I was a kid after I heard about it. Was never quite sure if it was real because I remember being told to use it in Win 98 too and it didn’t do anything afaik.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI boom could falter without wider adoption, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella warns⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Wow it really is heading towards crisis point when you have people saying “keep feeding the beast or it’ll eat us”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨He must be a great guy⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Only the healthiest of relationships use whatsapp to accuse your partner of theft

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wine 11 runs Windows apps in Linux and macOS better than ever⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The Microsoft strategy often seems to be “It worked well, but we completely redid it because we need to justify out existence. Now it barely works with new bugs”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Never understood why they were always pink⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Apparently cost - made from recycled paper which looked grey as poor quality, so they added a little red dye to make it look better. Then it became a standard, partially as it easily stood out from white and yellow paper in offices. TMYK

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cities: Skylines upheaval: Developer and publisher announce “mutual” breakup⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I loved CS1 and have had CS2 since launch. I just can't get into CS2 - it's just not fun.

  A large part of that is Paradox Mods in CS2. When CS1 launched from day one you could go onto the steam workshop and download player made models - houses, offices, train stations, roads etc. It grew rapidly and continuously, and it meant every city you made you could customise and change. The game was constantly refreshing and fun, and you could make whatever you wanted.

  For CS2, 2 years on and you still can't add custom assets to the game. Paradox/CO have released themed region based asset packs that they have made and the mods are there, but the player made assets remain largely missing. And I suspect the reason is Paradox Mods and the upcoming console version - the PC version seems to have been held back from being good so Paradox can get it's console launch. There seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding that the player made content was what made CS1 so great. I suspect CO get that, while Paradox only cares about DLC.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cities: Skylines upheaval: Developer and publisher announce “mutual” breakup⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Wow this is terrible news. Basically Paradox owns the IP to Cities Skylines and Colossal Order seemingly want out.

  I'd say a large reason CS2 has been such a mess is because it was rushed out, the paradox mod system is just not fit for purpose and there remains a ridiculous focus on getting the console version released + move on to DLCs rather than fixing the main game. I'd put most of the blame on Paradox's shoulders to be honest.

  It'll be interesting to see what CO does next. CS1 was a great game, CS2 could have been a great game. Will they do another city sim or more onto something else? Seems a shame if they move on as they have grown so much expertise in the genre. I'm hoping they're cutting free to do a game with their own vision, which was how CS1 came to be.