rollin
@rollin@piefed.social
- Comment on Video games, random friend requests, and scammers! 10 hours ago:
conceal your IP in non peer to peer games based on the settings under “Steam / Settings / In-Game / Steam Networking”
Good tip thanks! Here’s the Steam page about it. The upshot seems to be that Steam itself won’t reveal your IP to others, but games might depending on how multiplayer is implemented.
“Steam doesn’t share your IP address with other players. Whenever peer-to-peer networking is needed, for example in a voice chat, that communication is always relayed. However, we don’t control what games using peer-to-peer connectivity do.”
- Comment on Video games, random friend requests, and scammers! 10 hours ago:
They do appear to be an actual human yes, and one who does enjoy playing online games (because we play together and they are getting on with the game just like every other player). I’ve just looked at their account - thanks for the tip - and while they don’t have loads of games, all appear pretty normal paid-for things, and all are kinda similar in appeal - e.g. The Forest, 7 Days to Die. Actually there are a couple of what could have been giveaways/freebies - but all those have zero hours on.
So that does look very normal lol
- Comment on Video games, random friend requests, and scammers! 10 hours ago:
Yeah I am talking with them, they do seem legit so hopefully I’m just being paranoid/overly cautious.
The reason I thought I’d post here is to make sure I’ve not missed something obvious and to understand what the risks are. I guess “something shady” would be asking me to do something weird like install unknown software, or asking lots of personal questions out of the blue.
- Submitted 13 hours ago to games@lemmy.world | 9 comments
- Comment on How to avoid bird droppings while birdwatching 1 week ago:
Where do I purchase whatever this guy was smoking?
- Comment on New research finds that ChatGPT systematically favours wealthier, Western regions in response to questions ranging from 'Where are people more beautiful?' to 'Which country is safer?' 1 week ago:
I wonder what difference it makes when the user isn’t using English. They don’t mention that they aren’t considering this and don’t mention it on their https://inequalities.ai/How_it_Works page, but they do in the paper’s abstract: “Finally, our focus on English-language prompts overlooks the additional biases that may emerge in other languages.”
They do also reference a study by another team that does show differences in bias based on input language which concludes, “Our experiments on several LLMs show that incorporating perspectives from diverse languages can in fact improve robustness; retrieving multilingual documents best improves response consistency and decreases geopolitical bias”
The subject of how and what type of bias is captured by LLMs is a pretty interesting subject that’s definitely worthy of analysis. Personally I do feel they should more prominently highlight that they’re just looking at English language interactions; it feels a bit sensationalist/click-baity at the moment and I don’t think they can reasonably imply that LLMs are inherently biased towards “male, white, and Western” values just yet.
- Comment on Stone tablet found with carved symbols that do not match any known language 1 week ago:
They think it’s language because some characters repeat and there appears to be a “full-stop” separator character.
- Comment on Stone tablet found with carved symbols that do not match any known language 1 week ago:
The rock actually appears to be local:
Measurements put the slab at 9.5 by 7.9 in, close to book size. Researchers identified vesicular basalt, volcanic rock with bubble-like holes, and traced the material to volcanic outcrops around the lake.
- Comment on Why do we have a bunch of ways to say good night, but only one way to say good morning? 1 week ago:
Was it the part that’s normally responsible for pooping?
- Comment on Hundreds of Millions of Audio Devices Need a Patch to Prevent Wireless Hacking and Tracking 2 weeks ago:
my information might be out of date yeah! I’ve just skimmed their wikipedia which hasn’t helped clear things up! Seems they did have difficulties around 2011 - “After two decades in decline, Philips went through a major restructuring, shifting its focus from electronics to healthcare.”
Then, “On 29 January 2013, it was announced that Philips had agreed to sell its audio and video operations to the Japan-based Funai Electric for €150 million [..] Funai was to pay a regular licensing fee to Philips for the use of the Philips brand.[59] The purchase agreement was terminated by Philips in October because of breach of contract[61] and the consumer electronics operations remained under Philips”
It’s a long wiki article with a hell of a lot of transfers and acquisitions, and it’s not clear how up to date some sections are. So I’m not sure what the current situation is.
- Comment on Hundreds of Millions of Audio Devices Need a Patch to Prevent Wireless Hacking and Tracking 2 weeks ago:
Phillips is another one not on that list. European company that AFAIK have mostly resisted the enshittification urge.
- Comment on QWERTY Phones Are Really Trying to Make a Comeback This Year 2 weeks ago:
Same. This hardware keyboard is taking up potential screen real-estate.
If you want a hardware keyboard, just use a bluetooth one, you can get folding ones which fold up pretty small.
- Comment on Keir Starmer abandons plans for compulsory digital ID 2 weeks ago:
Drop the OSA, free all the non-violent protesters, drop the threat to Jury trials, and publicly apologise for being a complete fascist cunt. Then, maybe they deserve a second chance.
- Comment on How Hackers Are Fighting Back Against ICE 3 weeks ago:
If you’re a firefox person, there’s an add-on called Peertube Companion which will convert peertube links to use your instance. So for me, that link takes me to peertube.wtf rather than peertube.gravitywell.xyz
Apparently it will also redirect you to your peertube instance when you watch a video on YouTube that also exists on peertube (I’ve never had this happen though! Not sure how it does the comparision - hashes I suppose?)
- Comment on This EV Was Already Cheap, Then Dacia Knocked Off Nearly $6,000 3 weeks ago:
Ah ok that’s one I’d heard (the other being Day-see-ah like the other guy said). Glad to have it cleared up, thanks!
- Comment on This EV Was Already Cheap, Then Dacia Knocked Off Nearly $6,000 3 weeks ago:
I didn’t even know Dacia was its own brand before Renault got it!
I’d love to know how you pronounce it though - specifically the ‘C’. Do you (i.e. Romanians) pronounce it like an S or a K or something else??
- Comment on China Has Reportedly Built Its First EUV Machine Prototype, Marking a Semiconductor Breakthrough the U.S. Has Feared All Along 1 month ago:
Yep. The rest of us switched to metric a long time ago.
- Comment on Gatekeeper: The first open-source DDoS system. Has anyone tried mass hosting this as a group? 2 months ago:
Not sure if this is a joke, but if not this software is to help protect *against* ddos attacks, not for running them 😂
- Comment on Artist sneaks AI-generated print into National Museum Cardiff gallery 2 months ago:
Not without the correct licence, no
- Comment on How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral 3 months ago:
This requires someone to spot the AI stuff, but for less common languages, there are fewer people who even can read an article. Thus AI articles in rare languages are more likely to slip through unchecked, and if other AIs are training themselves on wiki articles, this could cause a feedback loop where rare languages become distorted. Something like that I think, didn’t actually read the article sorry.
- Comment on DIY YouTuber builds cheap VR headset and makes it open-source 3 months ago:
It seems to only have an Arduino as processor, so presumably the former i.e. you need a PC to plug this into. It seems to have highly simplified tracking compared to something like a Quest - a single Inertial Measurement Unit. All enough for sim racing which is this guy’s jam, but I wonder how well the tracking stays calibrated.
- Comment on GOG: We’re thrilled to announce that the Crysis Remastered Trilogy has joined our catalog, and the original Crysis is now part of the GOG Preservation Program! 3 months ago:
Thanks for the info. I’ll look into that. The issue with shutter glasses is, in addition to the wire, the fact that you are only seeing every other frame, alternating in each eye, making the image appear at half brightness. Still workable though, if you’re a 3D fan like me. I had a pair of shutter glasses ages ago, when Nvidia drivers used to support them - you could turn any DirectX game into 3D. VR has surpassed that now, by a long shot. I’ll def look into the projector though, it sounds more practical for watching movies with more than one person.
- Comment on GOG: We’re thrilled to announce that the Crysis Remastered Trilogy has joined our catalog, and the original Crysis is now part of the GOG Preservation Program! 3 months ago:
Projectors still mostly support 3D
These require glasses I assume?
I’m one of the few people who actually love 3D for movies. I’d heard of the TVs but not projectors. I’d watch all movies in 3D if I could, particularly on a large screen like a projector’s. It’s especially great IMO for movies with lots of computer-generated effects - I saw the first Avatar in 3D at an IMAX and it was amazing. - Comment on [deleted] 4 months ago:
Won't it get hot as hell in there, all that wood and foam and rubber?
- Comment on Mastodon says it doesn't 'have the means' to comply with age verification laws 5 months ago:
You can have nodes on a mesh network which act as gateways to the internet, but such nodes are going to have to go through an ISP. There's no other way to connect to the internet at large unfortunately.
- Comment on Mastodon says it doesn't 'have the means' to comply with age verification laws 5 months ago:
this is what the mesh networks are that people have mentioned elsewhere in this thread.
It is theoretically possible to create a purely peer-to-peer network where each individual connects to people nearby, and then any individual can in theory communicate with any other, by passing data packets to nearby people on the network who then pass it on themselves until it reaches the other person.
You can probably already grasp a few of the issues here - confidentiality is a big one, and reliability is another. But in theory it could work, and the more people who take part in such networks, the more reliable they become.
- Comment on Parental controls on children’s tech devices are out of touch with child’s play 5 months ago:
The other approach is not to try to block out all non-approved internet sources, and instead teach your child about the dangers out there, and how to handle them.
If a young child becomes addicted to online porn for instance, it's an indication of deeper issues and it seems to be missing the point to put the blame on network operators for not blocking children effectively enough. I don't think a healthy well developed child would become addicted to porn in the first place.
That's the real challenge for parents: they don't need to be a part-time network über-wizard but rather a stable trustworthy figure for their children to rely on and who can guide them through the often difficult journey of growing up.
- Comment on These fish may feel pleasure while being groomed by other fish 5 months ago:
they're mammals though, sharing a common ancestor with pigs (who are also renown for their intelligence)
- Comment on Labour to abolish most short prison sentences in England and Wales 5 months ago:
Community service is a classic punishment which I think makes good sense for nonviolent crime.
It should be a good option, but it's more difficult to run effectively than it might appear. The ideal would be for it not to be purely punitive, but to offer in itself some level of rehabilitation. For instance, a bike thief might be sentenced to helping out in a community bike workshop, or someone who committed low-level fraud might be required to help poor people manage their finances.
At the moment the reality is quite different I think, and people end up being sentenced to pointless busywork. I know someone who was given a community sentence for fighting and he described it as a bit of a joke. Every Saturday, they were supposed to clean up litter from grass verges, but the main issue was no one wanted to be there, not least the supervisor. So they'd generally just mess around for a bit and go home early.
- Comment on 5 months ago:
If it was in Europe, people being made redundant are typically given several months pay, but it's America so he probably just got a t-shirt and a cardboard box.