blind3rdeye
@blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
- Comment on The end of Windows 10 is approaching, so it's time to consider Linux and LibreOffice 1 week ago:
Have you ever looked at what’s in that thing? It’s not exactly transparent. There’s heap of data that’s is not clearly labelled or easily readable. Also, again, what data is sent can changes from update to update - without any any control from the owner of the computer; and without so much as a notification or even an update log.
- Comment on The end of Windows 10 is approaching, so it's time to consider Linux and LibreOffice 1 week ago:
Now with AI! So Windows can use your processing power to record and analyze every use of your computer, and report back useful findings to MS. What data is sent back? Who knows? You certainly won’t be told what ‘core telemetry’ is required at any point in time.
- Comment on Been a good couple of years 2 weeks ago:
Well kind of yes and kind of no. I never closed my R account, and I still check there maybe once a week. So in that since “yes”. But on the other hand, the quality of posts and discussion is pretty low. It feels like a lot of the content there is posted to meet some goal, such as selling a product or influencing opinions - rather than just sharing thoughts and ideas. I find that pretty off-putting. Despite the very high comment counts, genuine discussion there is almost non-existent. But the one bit of value I do sometimes get is it often has some piece of niche news that I’m mildly interested in.
- Comment on Been a good couple of years 2 weeks ago:
My understanding is in the case of lemm.ee they were getting enough donations to cover the technical operating costs, but they did not have enough high-quality volunteers for admins (and presumably not enough money to pay admins. It would require a lot of money to pay fairly for that work).
- Comment on Been a good couple of years 2 weeks ago:
In 10 days my account will be 2 years old.
I’ve enjoyed it, and this has been one of my most visited websites during that time. But I’m still not sure I’ll stick around after lemm.ee shuts down at the end of this month.
- Comment on What's going on with Borderlands 2? Steam is giving it for free, but the game has 23% positive recent reviews. 3 weeks ago:
but ask those same people whether facebook should be allowed to collect and use all that data, and people will generally say ‘no’.
- Comment on Hit it and quit it 3 weeks ago:
From your point of view it is ‘all the risk’, but you must understand that the biggest most important risk is what they are trying to avoid: going to hell. For people who believe in that kind of thing, it’s the only risk of any real significance.
- Comment on ‘The Worst Internet-Research Ethics Violation I Have Ever Seen’ | The most persuasive “people” on a popular subreddit turned out to be a front for a secret AI experiment. 1 month ago:
Realistic AI generated faces have been available for longer than realistic AI generated conversation ability.
- Comment on What would this list look like for your generation? 1 month ago:
It means death. -1 life.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
It’s crazy how you missed that point yet harp about intelligence.
I’m not sure why you said that. The person you are responding didn’t ‘miss that point’. They were themselves pointing out that other people have missed it. You are both criticising people for missing the same point.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
I’d rather download a bear than download a strange man, that’s for sure.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
The full list: code.gouv.fr/sill/list
Hold on. That page does not list VLC or KeePass. Is there more info about this other than the list? Or is the info in the title of this post incorrect?
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
It does kind of feel like the UN could use a refresh. In particular, the veto powers given to certain countries feels bad. There may be good reasons for that system, but the system is not good - and the details of the reasons have definitely shifted over time such that the choice of countries with veto power is now highly questionable.
- Comment on ChatGPT spends 'tens of millions of dollars' on people saying 'please' and 'thank you', but Sam Altman says it's worth it 2 months ago:
My point was that “lose money on every prompt” would be true in a technical sense regardless of how much people were paying for a subscription. The subscription money is money in, and the cost of calculations is money out. It’s still money out regardless of what is coming in.
As for whether the business is profitable or not, it’s not so easy to tell unless you’re an insider. Companies like this basically never make a ‘profit’ on paper, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t enriching themselves. They are counting their own pay as part of the costs, and they set their pay to whatever they like. They are also counting various research and expansion efforts as part of the cost. So yeah, they might not have any excess money to pay dividends to shareholders, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t profitable.
- Comment on Doom (2016) now DRM free on GOG 2 months ago:
I reckon this is a really good game, and it’s great to see it on GOG.
Missing features always feels bad though, even if those features are not important. (The multiplayer modes are ok, but the playerbase isn’t there anymore anyway. I never used snapmap at all.) But it’s kind of a philosophical thing. Missing features just make it feel like a worse. But on the other hand GOG does have one cool feature compared to the previous release: DRM free. Not as visible, but perhaps more important.
(I still probably won’t buy it on GOG though, because I don’t love the game so much that I need a second copy.)
- Comment on ChatGPT spends 'tens of millions of dollars' on people saying 'please' and 'thank you', but Sam Altman says it's worth it 2 months ago:
People don’t usually interact with a hammer by talking to it. They interact by holding it, placing it, hammering with it. Respect for a hammer (or similar tool) would be based around those kinds of actions.
Whereas people do interact with a chatbot by talking to it. So then respect for a chatbot would be built around what is said.
People can show respect for a hammer, a house, a dinner prepared by their spouse, their spouse, a chatbot, etc… but respect for each of those things will look a bit different.
- Comment on ChatGPT spends 'tens of millions of dollars' on people saying 'please' and 'thank you', but Sam Altman says it's worth it 2 months ago:
Well sure, answering the queries continues to cost the company money regardless of what subscription the user has. The company would definitely make more money if the users paid for subscription and then made zero queries.
- Comment on Are there any Lemmy/Mbin instances by women for women? 2 months ago:
I didn’t get technical on you - that’s kind of the point. But whatever; I was just trying to help with some context. Ignore if you like.
- Comment on Are there any Lemmy/Mbin instances by women for women? 2 months ago:
Look man, from a technical language point of view there is nothing whatsoever wrong with calling people ‘females’. However, by speaking to such people face-to-face you quickly learn that basically not one likes to be called that. The reasons are subtle, and frankly not very important. But the fact remains that calling people ‘females’ is now seen as a sign that you don’t understand or respect them - on the grounds that you are using a phrase that you’ve been asked not to use. Just say ‘women’ instead.
- Comment on Are there any Lemmy/Mbin instances by women for women? 2 months ago:
That’s true on face value. The issue is that accusations of misandry are almost always unfounded, and only made as a way to deflect and to attack women. So when people start talking about misandry, that’s generally a red flag.
It’s similar to how “all lives matter” is definitely a true and good value - but yet it is almost always said as a way to divert support away from vulnerable groups. So although the literal meaning is good, it is fair to assume that people saying it do not have good intentions.
- Comment on Are there any Lemmy/Mbin instances by women for women? 2 months ago:
It’s pretty harsh to just casually suggest that a person be a TERF without any specific evidence.
- Comment on France to ban students from keeping smartphones in schools 2 months ago:
I don’t know what you mean by favouritism. The reasoning for the phone ban goes something like this:
- Teachers and education researchers have agreed that children are less productive in school due to mobile phones.
- But preventing children from using their phones in school creates significant additional workload, due to conflicts and arguments.
- Various governments have recognised this, and have created a law which can remove the phones without the workload.
If you’re talking again about the fact that teachers are allowed phones but students are not, then I’m disappointed. I’ve put in quite a bit of good faith effort into talking about this stuff. At the start of our conversation I felt that I was answering genuine questions, and perhaps helping clarify why someone might want a law like this. But now I’m starting to feel like that was entirely wasted, because you never wanted to think about it anyway - you only wanted to fight it. That’s how I’m starting to feel. Maybe I’m wrong, but this ‘how does the law prevent favoritism’ seems like a totally bullshit line to reasoning to me.
Different laws and rules target different groups of people for different reasons. There’s a huge list of rules and responsibilities that apply exclusively to teachers and not other professions. And there’s a heap of rules that apply to children and not adults. There can be different rules for different reasons. As for phone usage, I’d personally be totally fine if all smart phones were phased out for everyone for all purposes across the entire world. But I do think it’s a false equivalence to say that if phones are banned for students they should also be banned for everyone else. It a totally separate argument. And note: I’m not introducing this law. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t design it. I don’t even live in the country that the article is from. I’m only try to outline what I understand to be the motivation. If you think something negative is going to result from this law, you should try to outline what that is. What-aboutisms are not helpful.
- Comment on France to ban students from keeping smartphones in schools 2 months ago:
The primary purpose of making it a government policy is to defuse the endless arguments and pushback that schools were fighting to stop students using phones.
If the rule is a case-by-case thing implemented by individual classroom teachers, it doesn’t work at all - because students will quickly see and exploit differences in how the rule is enforced by different teachers. It means the phones still get used, and any attempt to remove that distraction becomes a massive battle of “why are you targeting me. That other student is allowed to use theirs. The other teachers don’t mind.” etc etc.
Having a clear school-wide policy mostly fixes that; but it still gets a very similar effect from the parents. “I give my child permission, because they need it for such-and-such reason”. It can be dealt with, but it is genuinely a large burden on the school. But having a clear government policy removes that battle for the school. The answer is always clear “it’s a government policy, it is not our decision to make”. (By the way, there are still some exemptions for medial reasons; but again, there are no case-by-case arguments, because the policy is the same for all schools.)
So in short its about consistency; to reduce conflict between teachers and students, and between schools and parents.
- Comment on France to ban students from keeping smartphones in schools 2 months ago:
To avoid any risk of legal liability the school rule becomes “do not bring a mobile phone to school”, similar to the advice that schools give about valuables in general - especially on sport days. Bring at your own risk. This is especially true when it is a government policy - i.e. not the school’s decision.
Note, this article is talking about France. But as has been pointed out, France is not the first country to do this. I live in Australia, and my comments are based on the phone bans here which have been in place here for a few years (I think the state of Victoria was first, and all states have seen one-by-one followed that example because they see it as a good idea.)
The discussion about whether or not teachers should have smart phones is a separate issue. It has a totally different pros and cons, benefits and challenges.
- Comment on France to ban students from keeping smartphones in schools 2 months ago:
day-dreaming isn’t intrinsically bad. People do need time to think about stuff, and have their mind drift from topic to topic. Some modern teaching practices advocate deliberate “brain breaks” for students.
The issue with phones isn’t so much that students are sometimes off task, but rather that the phone consumes their attention entirely. It uses up the students’ useful concentration as well as their ‘rest’ time.
- Comment on France to ban students from keeping smartphones in schools 2 months ago:
About ‘better at hiding them’; maybe so; but that will largely be down to how the rule is enforced. Some schools basically just say “please don’t carry your phone. Put it in your locker.” In those schools, basically every student has their phone in their pocket. Whereas other schools are more strict about it. The phone can be confiscated on site, and in some cases require the parent to collect it. In those cases, compliance goes way up.
As for ‘no phones for teachers and admin’; unfortunately, some of the jobs and responsibilities of teachers are done using a phone. Teachers are required to carry a phone during yard-duty, for emergency purposes. And teachers often use their phone to mark class attendance rolls. … But its definitely a bad look when a teacher is walking down a school corridor staring at their phone while student phones are banned.
As for the reasons for the ban… well, they are many and varied - including all of the things you mentioned. (liability, mental health vs bullying in particular, and distraction from class activities.)
- Comment on jared 2 months ago:
Ads make everything worse. Block them without hesitation or remorse.
- Comment on YouTube removes 'gender identity' from hate speech policy 2 months ago:
and yet somehow google made it worse. Not only are there more ads than ever before, but now it’s also a panopticon.
- Comment on How to love 2 months ago:
Repeat yourself? Why?
I’m confused.
- Comment on GOG seems to be considering paid membership option 2 months ago:
Making porting gog to linux a priority which has by far the smallest market share for computer gaming is the dumbest thing anyone in this thread is saying
Building a bridge across the river is totally stupid, because no one crosses that river to get to where they are going.
Building a house on that hill is dumb, because no one lives there.
Creating that new type of device is a waste of time, because no one has ever bought one like that.
…
You see the point, right? Not that I’m trying to give business advice. I’m just saying that these things aren’t necessarily as stupid as you seem to think.