SaraTonin

@SaraTonin@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨xkcd #3184: Funny Numbers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s got nothing to do with height. It’s a Chicago police code for murder. The rapper whose song this was taken from is from Chicago and the the context in which it appears in those lyrics make it clear it’s also about murder.

  The 6’7” thing was made up by people trying to find reason or rhyme as to why a shibboleth they didn’t know would be said at a basketball game and inventing that it had to be connected to the height of one player.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Explained: Why you can't move Windows 11 taskbar like Windows 10, according to Microsoft⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  “People find the right-click menu overwhelming, so we’ll reduce it from 23 options to 19 options. That’ll make it less confusing and won’t annoy the people who now need an extra click for basic functionality “

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Creating apps like Signal or WhatsApp could be 'hostile activity,' claims UK watchdog⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Up until basically after the last election this was essentially a two-party state. However much of a shitshow Labour is, the Tories were guaranteed to be much worse.

  Also, there was a mind of unspoken assumption that human rights lawyer Keir Starmer would gradually move the party back to the left once in power, instead of spending 99% of his time trying to court the small minority of far-right voters who’d never vote Labour in a million years, which is what has actually happened.

  And, unless there’s electoral reform in the next 3 years it looks like the actual far-right party will win the next election, because we’ve still got a system designed for a two-party stare in what is now really a 5-party state, meaning that Reform’s current 30% polling would see them with 100% control of the country, if the voting matched the polls.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨No AI* Here - A Response to Mozilla's Next Chapter - Waterfox Blog⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The thing is, Let’s say that there’s a foolproof system in place which makes you press an “ok” button every time is going to take an action on your behalf…how many people are actually going to check everything that it’s going to do every single time it asks? And for those that do, is it actually going to save them any time?

  Just look at cookie pop ups. I have Consent-O-Matic and when that fails i manually reject and on those sites where you have to individually untick 100 boxes I just find another site, but i can’t tell you the number of people I’ve seen just accept everything because it’s quicker. That’s exactly how most people would treat a “do you want me to do this?” prompt from an agentic AI without checking what it’s actually asking to do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK to “encourage” Apple and Google to put nudity-blocking systems on phones⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re obviously going about it the wrong way, but this is inching towards the right way to go - keep age verification like biometric verification, encrypted and on-device. That’s a million times better than getting random pron sites to ask for your biometric data.

  If they’d started with this thought and then kept thinking from there, they could have ended up with something decent and effective, rather than the current shitshow.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RAM prices soar, but popular Windows 11 apps are using more RAM due to Electron, Web components⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Or, even better, let’s start developing for separate platforms again, and optimise software for the platform that’s going to be running it. Rather than just developing everything for Chrome.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hey look, a giant sign telling you to find a different job⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not even retail. I can’t count the number of professional emails I’ve had, including from managers with huge salaries with basic grammar and spelling mistakes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump wants the NFL to change its name so that soccer is the only sport called football: ‘We have to come up with another name for the NFL stuff’⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That would be hilarious. Please let him accomplish that and nothing else.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's so annoying⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve found it’s been struggling a bit over the last year. I’ve definitely had to do it manually a lot more than i did before.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Leak confirms OpenAI is preparing ads on ChatGPT for public roll out⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I use Perplexity for most of my searches. Not because of ads (I have robust adblocking to the point that I’m genuinely gobsmacked whenever I’m in a situation where I can’t browse any other way, like on someone else’s machine), but because of third-party SEO and first-party paid-for search results. Perplexity is far from flawless, but unlike google, Bing, etc. and the engines which rely on them (DuckDuckGo is Bing, for example), it’s actually designed to return you the answer to your question.

  We can discuss the exact meaning of “ads” and whether the paid-for search results count. I’d say they’re similar but with subtle differences. And it’s not what’s being suggested for ChatGPT here, although for over a year now I’ve been suggesting that the AI-equivalent of SEO & paid-for search results is where we’re headed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The reason women cover their drinks⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No i didn’t

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The reason women cover their drinks⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I hate that I like his suit

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Turing test has been inverted.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They’re generally treated as different animals, but toads are actually a subset of frogs. All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨FACTS⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There are genuinely and unironically men out there who don’t wash their own arses because touching a man’s arse is gay.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m burnt out on it at this point. In the whole bullet haven gameplay loop.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve got something like 200 hours in Vampire Survivors, and it cost me less than a fiver

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gaming Pet Peeves⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve got perhaps an unusual one - 99% of the time I play games with the music turned off. I just find it much more immersive and I enjoy, for example, not knowing that combat is about to start because the music’s just changed.

  There are plenty of games where you can’t turn the music off. I’m not a fan of that, but I get it. The devs want you to play their game in a certain way, and turning the music off isn’t part of that. No complaints.

  But then there are games which allow you to turn the music off, but all the rest of the sound has been made under the assumption that the music will be playing. The music often covers up a litany of jankiness like background sound effects not looping well. And sometimes the atmosphere sounds (say the drone of an engine in a spaceship) are also controlled by the music slider.

  So, if you’re going to give the option to turn the music off, make sure that the game still sounds good without the music.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gaming Pet Peeves⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For me, it’s cutscenes in general. I know there are people who do care in general, but for me a game where I care about the plot is very rare. And the examples I can think of (Outer Wilds, or Ico, for two examples) either have no cutscenes or very few brief ones, and tell the story in a different, more immersive way.

  For me, a general rule is - if the game forces moments on me when I can put the controller down and wander into a different room, then that’s not what I’m interested in. I want to actually play the game.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is your favorite Metroidvania?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If you like 8-bit gaming, I recommend getting the free BBC micro emulator BeebEm

  Then get the ROM Citadel

  It’s a Metroidvania from before either Metroid or Castlevania. It still plays well, it’s still difficult, the puzzles are logical but require thought, and it’s several hours of gameplay to complete.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's been downhill from that day ⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not that many years ago Noddy Holder said that with royalties “Merry Xmas Everybody” he can live comfortably for the entire year. I imagine Carey gets a lot more than he does.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me"⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “We’ve released this feature which works 80% of the time and which we feel morally obligated to tell you can install malware, or simply send all your files to a malicious actor. Why aren’t you jizzing yourselves?”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me"⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I do have several external harddrives, three monitors, and a MIDI keyboard. But “this computer will run fine as long as you don’t use the usb sockets” isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement itself.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If it were possible to travel back in time and manipulate events, we could take a book back in time and publish it before the author historicallt does... as a prank...⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve thought before that if i were to be dropped back maybe 200 years ago i could maybe do okay for myself by passing off existing stories as mine. You’d have to change some details here and there, but you could absolutely write the terminator as a book and pretend it was your idea, for example. And people would never have read anything like it.

  I don’t think you’d become rich and famous, because success is as much about time and place as it is ideas and talent. But I’m sure you’d be able to get them published and thus sell well enough to pay your bills on ideas alone.

  Not true for something like Tolkien. Those need to be his words for the books to work. But Alien? Psycho? The thing? The day the Earth stood still? Forbidden planet? Arrival? You could sell those on ideas alone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft AI CEO pushes back against critics after recent Windows AI backlash — "the fact that people are unimpressed ... is mindblowing to me"⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I literally don’t turn my computer off because even with an SSD windows takes so long to boot up properly. I still have to restart it every few days because memory management is shit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The moment we've all been waiting for: you now can have targeted ads on your 2k smartfridge⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I once asked why anybody would want a smart fridge. Most people didn’t seem to know. The most common answer was that it could act as a focal point for a busy family for keeping track of things like appointments.

  So, like a blackboard/whiteboard, cork board, or even a normal fridge, some paper, and magnets.

  I’m no Luddite. I’ve got smart lamps so i can change the lighting in my living room & bedroom without getting up. And I’m looking into heating so i can have my heating come on when i leave work, rather than at a specific time. That saves effort and money.

  But i just see no reason whatsoever for anybody to have a smart fridge.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Truth is way more fucked up than fiction⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  More significantly, he’s one of the key instigators and powers behind the current us government. Explicitly wants to create a technocratic dictatorship.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft confirms Windows 11 is about to change massively, gets enormous backlash - Neowin⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Here’s the thing - the same thing that Microsoft is being roasted for saying they’re going to implement is the thing that Apple are being roasted for not having implemented yet. The difference is -rightly or wrongly- people trust Apple in a way that they simply don’t Microsoft.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They were well informed.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think this is accurate. I think they’re brought in by the dinosaurs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Hardware [new Steam Controller, Steam Machine, and VR headset Steam Frame, coming in 2026]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ll buy the VR headset if, as well as streaming games, you can also play video/mirror your desktop. I know that’s not the market they’re going for, but it seems to me that those are the main use-cases of VR headsets aside from gaming and to my non-tech way of thinking it doesn’t seem harder than streaming a game.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ban a Pro-Palestinian Group? The U.K. Government Thought Few Would Care.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The law used to arrest protesters, section 13 of Britain’s Terrorism Act 2000, makes it a crime to wear, carry or display an object in circumstances that “arouse reasonable suspicion” that someone is a member or supporter of a proscribed organization, and can be punished with up to six months in prison.

  This is bot highlighted enough. What’s the crime? Is it bring a member of a terrorist organisation? No. Is it being a supporter of a terrorist organisation? No. It is a crime to be suspected of being a supporter of a terrorist organisation.

  That’s what’s illegal. Having a police officer look at you and think you might be up to something. Whether or not you actually are is irrelevant. Someone else’s suspicion of you means that you have committed a crime. A crime which could see you spend 6 months in prison.

  Leaving everything else aside, I’m sure there’s no way this could lead to discrimination on the basis of race or religion.

  This is something the government should be repealing, not applying to grannies holding signs.