sparky
@sparky@lemmy.federate.cc
Lead administrator of federate.cc and its services. Please don’t DM me for support with federate.cc, make a post in /c/meta instead.
Originally from Fort Lauderdale 🇺🇸, lived many years in Vienna 🇦🇹, now living in Setúbal 🇵🇹. Software engineer specialized in Apple platforms. 🌎
- Comment on Old gamers don't understand what mobile gaming has become 2 days ago:
yes, but mobile games now are literally casinos, with research going into making them as addictive as possible to maximise in app purchase and advertisement revenue
source: worked in ad tech for several years, specifically in the mobile gaming industry and cost/ad optimisation. a job I regret ever taking and which feels very scummy in retrospect.
- Comment on Tesla's European car sales nosedive for fifth month as customers switch to Chinese EVs 1 week ago:
I uh… you sure about that dictator thing? xi jinping enters the chat
- Comment on Slrpnk instance is down till mid July; they might relaunch their server on piefed. 3 weeks ago:
Is it run out of a private residence? How could it happen if it’s in a real data center…?
- Comment on Xitter Pause Encrypted DMs. 5 weeks ago:
As it happens, you shouldn’t trust Lemmy DMs either, as they’re not encrypted and can be read by instance administrators. So don’t use them to say anything that you wouldn’t be okay making public.
- Comment on Telegram and xAI agreed a one-year deal to distribute Grok; Telegram will get $300M in cash and equity from xAI and 50% of subscription revenue 5 weeks ago:
Well it’s gonna learn to post crypto spam ads and swastikas then. Which come to think of it… might be the point
- Comment on Telegram and xAI agreed a one-year deal to distribute Grok; Telegram will get $300M in cash and equity from xAI and 50% of subscription revenue 5 weeks ago:
So you’re telling me that Grok is so bad that they have to pay developers to integrate it? How backwards. People are willing to pay for Grok’s competitors.
- Comment on xAI to pay Telegram $300M to integrate Grok into the chat app | TechCrunch 5 weeks ago:
So you’re telling me that Grok is so bad that they have to pay developers to integrate it? How backwards. People are willing to pay for Grok’s competitors.
- Comment on Russia to enforce location tracking app on all foreigners in Moscow 1 month ago:
That’s kinda my point. Even if Russia tries to order them to make it available, they can’t do so except to Russian users, which defeats the purpose.
- Comment on Russia to enforce location tracking app on all foreigners in Moscow 1 month ago:
Seems like the app stores could derail this by simply not approving the app outside of Russia, which would fall outside of Russia’s jurisdiction to do anything about.
- Comment on Every Sex scene and Nudity from All Leisure Suit Larry Games 1 month ago:
Wow, the YouTube account was straight up banned
- Comment on Don’t watermark your legal PDFs with purple dragons in suits - Ars Technica 2 months ago:
Motion for summary dismissal, brought to you by Mountain Dew
- Comment on If you’re in the market for a $1,900 color E Ink monitor, one of them exists now - Ars Technica 2 months ago:
I’m no optometrist, but I would love to hear the opinion of one.
- Comment on If you’re in the market for a $1,900 color E Ink monitor, one of them exists now - Ars Technica 2 months ago:
Not whoosh, my comment makes sense even if you get the inverted unit joke. So uh, uno reverse card whoosh?
- Comment on If you’re in the market for a $1,900 color E Ink monitor, one of them exists now - Ars Technica 2 months ago:
If the answer matters then your use case isn’t this monitor’s use case. If you spend all day in Excel, or an IDE, something like that, then it could be awesome for eye strain reduction.
- Comment on If you’re in the market for a $1,900 color E Ink monitor, one of them exists now - Ars Technica 2 months ago:
Not necessarily just corporations, but certainly text-based workflows. I can see this being great if your day job is writing code, working on spreadsheets, editing documents, etc. In those use cases, framerate hardly matters. Would be great for reducing eye strain.
- Comment on EU fines Apple $568m for deterring third-party payment methods on App Store 2 months ago:
Well, they used to sell one, right? Windows Phone used to be a thing. As I recall though, it was equally locked down with an app store as the sole distribution method.
- Comment on EU fines Apple $568m for deterring third-party payment methods on App Store 2 months ago:
Yes but I don’t believe consoles are a target of the DMA or this investigation. While would be nice if consoles were opened up and forced to allow side loading and alternative stores, I think there’s an argument that they’re single purpose appliances - a PlayStation is sold to you with the intention of it being a gaming box and not much else.
A smartphone or tablet though is at this point a general purpose computer, and it’s reasonable to expect to have the same freedoms and open environment that you would on a PC.
- Comment on Airbnb will now show users the total cost of their stay right away 2 months ago:
Laughs in European
- Comment on Google has illegal advertising monopoly, judge rules 2 months ago:
Well, that’s what I mean by “not really”, as opposed to “not at all”. It’s a single as placement - searching in the App Store. One result. That’s it.
They used to have a real advertising business but shut it down some years ago, it was called iAd.
- Comment on Google has illegal advertising monopoly, judge rules 2 months ago:
Apple doesn’t really have an advertising business. You can criticize them for many things, but it’s hard to fault them for a market they don’t operate in.
- Comment on Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk would like to ‘delete all IP law’ | TechCrunch 2 months ago:
So basically the bluesky source code is now public domain?
- Comment on Nintendo Switch 2 Game-Key Card Overview 2 months ago:
Switch cards hold a maximum of 32GB, maybe that’s why? Although it seems no excuse for Switch 2, given it’s a whole new generation, why not support larger cards? I mean you can buy a 256GB microSD for $15, and that’s a private individual buying one; at scale, the memory can’t be too expensive…
- Comment on In the latest Windows 11 preview build, Microsoft removed the “bypassnro” command, which let users skip signing into a Microsoft Account when installing Windows. 2 months ago:
True, but realistically for most people the lack of Google Play is a non starter. Unless you’re really technical and committed to FOSS, you’re going to need every day apps in there.
IMO the biggest issue on mobile is not even the stores but the fact that both platforms are so tightly integrated with the cloud and the account signed into the OS. Again, if you’re an ordinary user, you can barely do anything without it being tied to your Google account or whatever.
- Comment on In the latest Windows 11 preview build, Microsoft removed the “bypassnro” command, which let users skip signing into a Microsoft Account when installing Windows. 2 months ago:
You can still very easily use macOS without an Apple ID or iCloud account, actually. You lose out on iMessage, FaceTime and the App Store, basically. But that’s about it. And they don’t nag you about it ever again unless you try to send an iMessage or what have you.
On iOS and Android it’s effectively a requirement though, because App Store / Google Play. Phone is not too useful if you can’t install any apps.
- Comment on In the latest Windows 11 preview build, Microsoft removed the “bypassnro” command, which let users skip signing into a Microsoft Account when installing Windows. 2 months ago:
It increases security ^of the Microsoft share price^
- Comment on After 50 million miles, Waymos crash a lot less than human drivers 3 months ago:
Why sell $2 light rail fares when you can sell $40 Waymo fares? Now you’re thinking with capitalism!
- Comment on Tesla recalls all Cybertrucks ever made over trim falling off | Electrek 3 months ago:
I’m not sure that really says much. I hate swasticars as much as y’all do, but like, $400 phone versus $100K car. Makes sense the fire phone sold better. And I mean, it wasn’t being pushed by a literal Nazi so that helps.
- Comment on Discord going public. Plz help a future refugee. 3 months ago:
Kibo lives!!!1
- Comment on The Humane Ai Pin Will Become E-Waste Next Week 4 months ago:
I love that this meme can be fully depicted using emojis. I demand emoji versions of other common memes.
- Comment on Italy to require VPN and DNS providers to block pirated content 4 months ago:
Making something illegal and actually stopping it are two different things. Also see: drugs.