dan
@dan@upvote.au
Aussie living in the USA. https://d.sb/
- Comment on Dell kills the XPS brand 3 weeks ago:
Neither my wife nor I own any Apple devices, but living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I’m surrounded by people that do. There’s no need for companies to copy Apple’s questionable decisions.
- Comment on Microsoft Bing is trying to spoof Google UI when people search Google.com 3 weeks ago:
SearX is dead; you should use SearXNG now.
- Comment on HDMI 2.2 will require new “Ultra96” cables, whenever we have 8K TVs and content 3 weeks ago:
“Ultra96” sounds like it could have been a codename for the Nintendo 64.
- Comment on Dell kills the XPS brand 3 weeks ago:
simplified naming scheme with labels like ‘Pro’ and ‘Max.’
How is that “simplified”? Which one is better?
Actual simplified naming would probably be names like “Basic”, “Business”, “Gaming”, or numbers like what Intel does with Core 3/5/7/9.
- Comment on Dell kills the XPS brand 3 weeks ago:
How though? Is “pro” better than “max”?
- Comment on Awkward 3 weeks ago:
That’s what self checkout or online shopping is for.
- Comment on Apple CEO Tim Cook Donating $1 Million to Trump's Inaugural Fund 3 weeks ago:
No worries - it’s a pretty common misconception that tech companies sell data. I’ve worked on ads systems at big tech companies so I’ve seen some parts of how it works. The companies are very protective of their data as it’s essentially their highest-value asset. Employees can’t see any of your data either - it’s very tightly locked down, with strict ACLs and audit logging.
Large advertisers generally don’t get any special access either - the tools/apps that large advertisers use are mostly the same as what small advertisers / individuals can see and use.
- Comment on Apple CEO Tim Cook Donating $1 Million to Trump's Inaugural Fund 3 weeks ago:
less interest than Google in selling data for advertising
Google don’t sell data. The data is what makes them valuable, so it wouldn’t make sense. If they did sell data, the other big tech companies would just buy their data to remove their competitive advantage.
What Google actually sells is your attention. Advertisers can target people based on demographic data, things you like, etc, but the advertiser never sees the data used for targeting.
You can use Google and Facebook’s Ads Manager sites yourself and see exactly what advertisers see.
- Comment on LegalEagle Suing PayPal's Honey 3 weeks ago:
I’m curious as to whether the industry will start moving from last-touch attribution to first-touch (or multi-touch) attribution instead. Last-touch (last affiliate link gets all the credit) is commonplace now because it’s easy to implement, but the industry really wants first-touch (first affiliate link or ad you click gets the credit) or multi-touch (the payment is split between every affiliate).
- Comment on LegalEagle Suing PayPal's Honey 3 weeks ago:
They’d replace affiliate link cookies with their own
Practically every coupon site does this too though, as do other coupon extensions.
- Comment on LegalEagle Suing PayPal's Honey 3 weeks ago:
The fact that BugMeNot and RetailMeNot grew so huge is interesting. They were created by two Australians, and for a while were only popular in Australia.
- Comment on Commonwealth Bank to charge customers $3 'withdrawal fee' to access their own cash 1 month ago:
I moved away from CommBank once they started charging me a monthly fee while I was still a teenager. Convinced my whole family to switch to NAB. I hope NAB don’t follow suit.
- Comment on Commonwealth Bank to charge customers $3 'withdrawal fee' to access their own cash 1 month ago:
those done through an actual bank teller
That’s the only type of cash withdrawal I do these days though. I’ve been living in the USA for a while but it was the same for me when I lived in Australia too. I can’t be the only one?
When buying stuff at a store, I tap my watch or card to pay. For sending money to other people, I use Zelle, which is embedded in the apps and sites of all major US banks (the equivalent in Australia would be PayID).
If I want cash, it’s usually because I want money for tips when travelling, and in that case I want smaller denominations ($1, $5, $10) so I go to the bank to get them. The ATMs only have $20s and $50s.
- Comment on Let's Encrypt is 10 years old today ! 2 months ago:
Shouldn’t be too difficult to swap it out for ZeroSSL. You’d need to remember to update CAA records though.
- Comment on Let's Encrypt is 10 years old today ! 2 months ago:
I think Cloudflare enshittifying is a bigger risk that Let’s Encrypt.
- Comment on Let's Encrypt is 10 years old today ! 2 months ago:
ZeroSSL, plus a few paid companies support ACME (I know Sectigo and GoDaddy do). Sure, the latter are paid services, but in theory you can switch to them and use the exact same setup you’re currently using with Let’s Encrypt.
- Comment on Let's Encrypt is 10 years old today ! 2 months ago:
They also made it a open protocol, so now there’s a bunch of certificate providers that implement the same protocol and thus can work with the same client apps (Certbot, acme.sh, etc).
- Comment on Let's Encrypt is 10 years old today ! 2 months ago:
I remember the days when each site that wanted to use SSL had to have a dedicated IP.
- Comment on Let's Encrypt is 10 years old today ! 2 months ago:
TLS certificates have huge margins, so web hosts love selling them.
- Comment on Let's Encrypt is 10 years old today ! 2 months ago:
I’d also argue that the fact that it’s automated and their software is open source makes it objectively more secure. On the issuing side, there’s no room for human error, social engineering, etc.
- Comment on Horse denier 2 months ago:
also birds… they’re just spy drones.
- Comment on Solar modules now selling for less than €0.06/W in Europe 2 months ago:
At least here in California, having solar panels on a non south facing roof usually only reduces production by 10-20%, as long as it’s not entirely north facing. Solar systems are often slightly undersized - it’s more cost effective to size it so it handles average load rather than the summer peaks you only see for a few weeks per year - so the actual difference for a given system may be less.
With my system, I see the best output from south-east facing panels since they get the morning sun. West facing panels are also fairly popular here due to time-of-use electricity plans. Some electricity plans have peak pricing from 4 to 9 pm, so people want to try and collect as much sunlight as possible during that period before sunset.
- Comment on Solar modules now selling for less than €0.06/W in Europe 2 months ago:
They’re installing ridiculously small systems so that they’re barely compliant.
- Comment on What's Mastodon precious? 2 months ago:
Frendica and GNU Social/StatusNet date back to 2010. That’s nearly 15 years ago.
- Comment on AI tool that sounds like elderly grandmother created to waste scammers' time 2 months ago:
AI makes it different because this is likely dynamically synthesized speech that sounds real. Previous TTS engines wouldn’t have sounded real enough to be believable.
- Comment on AI tool that sounds like elderly grandmother created to waste scammers' time 2 months ago:
A phone company built this? Based.
- Comment on AI tool that sounds like elderly grandmother created to waste scammers' time 2 months ago:
Lenny isn’t AI; it’s just a collection of prerecorded messages.
- Comment on Dropbox lays off 20% of staff, says it overinvested and underperformed 2 months ago:
What do you mean? Dropbox is integrated into Windows using the Cloud Files API, which handles dynamically downloading files as needed, the ability to mark files so they’re always available offline, etc.
Or did you mean a deeper integration like how Windows shows ads for OneDrive?
- Comment on Dropbox lays off 20% of staff, says it overinvested and underperformed 2 months ago:
For the same money Microsoft offers equal storage, plus office.
Plus email! Same with Google (Google Workspace).
- Comment on Robinhood admits it’s just a gambling app. 2 months ago:
The point of the worldwide stock is to reduce risk in case the US has a recession, as not all other countries will be affected by that. The aim of the Bogleheads three-fund portfolio is to be reasonably balanced in terms of risk vs reward, which is why it includes bonds too.
If you’re not risk-averse then 100% US stock is fine.