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Pxtl

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Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

I have my own shopping list of Mastodon features that i watched languish in PRs on GitHub. I like Rochko, but he completely failed to meet the moment of Twitter’s explosion and make the massive flood of excitement about Mastodon into the real permanent gains that were up for grabs.

Most of my wish list have nothing to do with safety because I’m a straight cis white guy and so my experience of Mastodon is that its userbase is painfully anodyne.

But the point stands that a hard fork with a focus on development velocity is long overdue.

Pxtl ,
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Never turn on remote admin. You don’t need to admin your router from outside of your house.

Pxtl ,
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Merlin has the problem that it doesn’t have something like like aimesh where you can auto synch the config between all your routers. I’ve got a network of three Asus routers and they work great and I can admin them like they’re one router, and I’d hate to have to give that to up.

Pxtl ,
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The other two are in AP mode.

Pxtl ,
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The animation and aesthetic is amazing and I like the music but … what’s the gameplay? I confess I got a little disappointed when it shifted to platformer perspective.

Pxtl ,
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WearOS, at least the Samsung variant of it, is goddamned awful. It seems to want to be a full standalone device when I want it to just be an extension of my phone, and it’s an extension of my phone when I want it to stand alone. Worst of both worlds.

I miss my Pebble. Week-long battery, truly always-on-screen, and knew what it was trying to be (just show me notifications)

Pxtl ,
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They’re great hardware but the software is bad.

Pxtl ,
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As somebody who occasionally had to develop for android: the churn of improvements to app security was a huge pita. And as a user I know many of the abandoned apps that I liked that lost compatibility was for that reason.

So the fact that in spite of this pain, Android security still allows apps to do horrible crap like that is infuriating.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

That’s not what I mean. I’m not thinking about Play Store security, but Android OS security. Like, your app physically has to ask for permission (or even require the user manually change settings) to do most unsafe things.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

DevOps is bad because for some reason we’ve decided to invent new programming languages that you can’t debug locally and so you have to keep pushing commits to the pipeline server. It’s bullshit.

“Why do you write all your pipelines as shell scripts and then wrap them in yaml at the very end”?

Because then I can run them locally quickly and test individual components of them instead of “edit, commit, push, wait 10 minutes, read error message, repeat”.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

Absolutely.

Bing Chat Assistant is better than Google, Bing search, or DDG today. If I search for “how do I do X in software Y” on a normal search, I get zillions of dead-link-filled MS pages, some interesting tangentially-related stackoverflow posts, and a bunch of old blogspam.

If I ask the robot, I often get “no, there’s no supported way to do that officially” which is the clear clean answer I can’t find elsewhere. Or sometimes it misunderstands the question and gives me a tangentially-related result, which is bad but is the same thing I get from Google via StackOverflow, except Bing is much more responsive to me saying “no, I didn’t mean that way, I meant this” in which case I often get either the right answer or the “no” answer, which is still good and accurate! The problem is as you iterate, the conversation accumulates cruft and becomes more erratic and hallucinatory.

But right now, with the level of SEO that has ruined all major search engines (ironically partially caused by AI), Bing Chat is the best search on the market now imho. <homer>The cause of and solution to all of life’s problems </homer>

So yeah, in terms of “things where AI has lived up to its potential”? It is winning the search war today. Everything else is something on the horizon in various distances (art, music, text generation, true general AI) but better search for information is here right now.

Pxtl ,
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Bing Chat provides its sources.

Pxtl ,
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I mean yeah. I’m not disagreeing with any of that (except the fact that AI caused it - search engines got destroyed by SEO before AI textgen started crapflooding).

But it is what it is. The SEO spammers won. They defeated Google and Microsoft and DDG’s respective search algorithms. Traditional search got killed. The internet got worse instead of better.

In light of this miserable new reality, AI-based content synthesizers (particularly ones that can coherently point to the references for their synthesis) are the current solution to SEO spam. Maybe this is another temporary plateau that the SEO spammers will murder. And yes, it’s tragic that this energy-pig of AI is the best solution to something that used to be doable with a simple trie.

But still: there is a real problem today for which an AI-based tech provides the current best solution. In this one specific case, the AI lives up to the hype. It swallows the hellscape of noise of the internet and gives you the signal.

4 months durability for an $800 phone!

My old $200 Motorola G9 Power phone lasted almost 4 years with only very minor scratches. Obviously in that period I have dropped it a few times getting out of the car, where the phone sometimes work itself out of my pant pocket while I drive, and then it slips out when I get out of the car. But no problem on my previous phones,...

Pxtl ,
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Glass backs are the dumbest idea in the history of stupid.

The only way things like that could be defensible if they were easy to replace (bring back Moto-Z style magnetic backs!), but since phones are all held together with glue now, that’s not a thing.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

I wish they could come up with a more honest term for it than “vegan leather”. Call it “upholstery vinyl” or something. Frustrating how there’s no good standard quality grades for that stuff too. Like, the seats in my Prius don’t wear the way my belt and my boots do, and they’re all made of pleather vinyl.

Pxtl ,
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Okay but I still have to fold my own laundry.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

And I don’t make my own paints either when doing art. I still agree with the basic original point:

It is disappointing that we’re currently automating creativity far faster than manual labour. I’m angry that my art is getting automated away faster than my folding of laundry.

Pxtl ,
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Except there isn’t much of a Google stealing their thunder. Bing isn’t better. DDG isn’t better.

Pxtl ,
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I have a simple opinion on paywall bypassers:

If it’s possible to bypass the paywall, that means there’s already a class of unauthenticated clients you’re allowing to see it. I have no interest in complying with whatever infrastructure you use to implement this discrimination.

Implementing a true hard paywall is trivial software. The only reason bypassing is possible is because they’re trying to have their cake and eat it too by allowing (eg) search engines to see it unauthenticated.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

This feels like a workaround for a core problem: Media (particularly games) are no longer transferable goods.

What’s needed is a proper legal standard WRT resale-ability and server support. Clear requirements on what a piece of software must be able to do without its private and impossible-to-acquire cloud server, and clear requirements on allowing transfers of ownership of non-recurring-subscription-based digital goods.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

I have a gwatch 4 and the hardware is fine. The flaw is Google’s half-assed android fork WearOS, and then the layer of Samsung software that somehow makes it worse.

You could have infinite memory and processor in there and it wouldn’t solve the jank.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

I dunno, these extreme tall phones are a pain to type on. Keyboard usability seems to be defined by the squareness of the phone.

No, electric vehicle sales aren’t dropping. Here’s what’s really going on (www.cnn.com)

No, electric vehicle sales aren’t dropping. Here’s what’s really going on::Tesla has been slashing prices. Ford just cut the price of its Mustang Mach-E, too, plus it cut back production of its electric pickup. And General Motors is thinking about bringing back plug-in hybrids, arguably a step back from EVs.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

Yeah, this. For people with short commutes and in the market for a compact I strongly recommend the Prius Prime. Having a vehicle that can get to work and back without using gas at all, but also can go on long road trips without range anxiety? Perfect. And as an entry-level into the plug-in world, it’s nice that I can charge it on regular 110 instead of having to think about an upgrade to an oven-port.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

So, do you have to have an account to drive a Tesla?

Pxtl ,
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They also don’t have the thumb touchpads that Valve has put so much effort into. That’s a huge form-factor advantage.

This tiny, tamper-proof ID tag can authenticate almost anything (news.mit.edu)

TL;DR MIT researchers have developed an antitampering ID tag that is tiny, cheap, and secure. It is several times smaller and significantly cheaper than the traditional radio frequency tags that are used to verify product authenticity. The tags use glue containing microscopic metal particles. This glue forms unique patterns that...

Pxtl ,
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Oh, physical tag. I thought this was going to be about cryptographic data signing.

Pxtl ,
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Like the old joke:

The “S” in IoT is for “Security”.

Pxtl ,
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The secret trick here: nobody will make a new username and password - nor should they. They’ll only log in if they have a convenient login with Google/FB/MS button. Which gives Google premium position in tracking.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

God damn how is it that Sega has never released a Sonic Adventure-style game with that kind of online multiplayer? It’s so freaking obvious and yet we’ve never seen it.

Some of the gameplay mechanics look a bit… unnecessary? Like riding on vehicles, at least at speed. And I’ve always thought the Sonic Adventure rail grinding was tedious. But still overall it looks like a fun adaptation of the 3D sonic gameplay albeit with a slightly dated-looking art style.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

As a software developer: MS has been 100X better to work with under Nadella. He may not know what to do with the operating system side of things, but the .NET/Azure/android/linux etc side has never been healthier.

Pxtl ,
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Give me back my vertical side-docked taskbar or STFU.

No, I don’t want to deal with Explorer Patcher.

They warned you: Someone allegedly used a politician's cloned voice to interfere with an election | It will most assuredly not be the last time this happens (www.techspot.com)

They warned you: Someone allegedly used a politician’s cloned voice to interfere with an election | It will most assuredly not be the last time this happens::undefined

Pxtl , (edited )
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

I keep saying: none of this will end until we get a clean, cryptographically secure, government-backed way to ID who is sending us something, and it becomes an expectation to use it all the time for anything important. Which is why I have conspiracy theories about the conspiracy theories about government ID.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

sounds dystopian.

So does the total death of objective fact.

An end to internet anonymity isn’t great, but given the alternative I’ll take it.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

From the title I assumed it was going to be about the F-104 Starfighter AKA Widowmaker AKA Lawn Dart AKA Aluminium Death Tube.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

Some men just want to watch the world burn

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

C++, but a very ugly and oldschool dialect of it.

Pxtl ,
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C is simple in the same way that a circular saw with no safety features is simple. I like having fingers better.

Pxtl ,
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Yes, but DDG seems to have worse organic results in my experience. I mean the bar is low, but DDG falls under it.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

Lock screen widgets were a neat idea but the original implementation was ugly as hell.

Just let me put read-only widgets on the lock screen.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

Civ Beyond Earth has the neat approach that it replaces the old “build a spaceship to alpha Centauri” with three different technological endings each with different moral implications. The game is about human transcendence so any ending is going to be about changing humanity.

The problem is that the game itself is not one of the better entries in the Civ series otherwise.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

Yes, many many many years ago. Beyond Earth is the palest of pale imitation.

Pxtl ,
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Trial balloon.

This character is the thin edge of a very large wedge.

Pxtl ,
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Honestly, as somebody who really loved the early era of Android gaming, I’m really disappointed how ephemeral it all was between the Play Store delistings and the absolutely atrocious approach to backwards compatibility in the Android OS.

Pxtl , (edited )
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

I just wish Google would release some kind of 32-bit Android 4.4 sandboxed compatibility layer for old games. Android 4.4 was the standard Android version for a super long time for a zillion devices, and I’d bet 99% of the dead .APK games out there would run on that version.

Give me a tool with a crapload of slow, clumsy emulation wrappers covered in tedious config options and a launcher any time I want to run an app through this compatibility layer and let me play Amazing Alex again.

edit: it occurs to me I basically want an Android emulator for Android. Or like, a psuedo-emulator that’s not really an emulator like WINE/Proton.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

I’m so annoyed that all my 32-bit Humble APKs don’t run on my Pixel.

Also, would it kill them to rename their .zips to .apks before I download? I know the Humble .apks are basically abandonware but at least rename the files for Pete’s sake!

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

Ahh, you know, it’s about the convenience of not having to juggle another device. I still have an old Galaxy Tab kicking around the house that plays all that stuff pretty well, but it’s not the same as being able to pull it out of my pocket on the bus.

Pxtl ,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

Rescheduling an event in Google Calendar with your voice. You can still schedule a new event.

This feature is underutilized because I could never get it to work.

Pxtl ,
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Batman hooking into the Gotham power-grid to shock Superman, from Miller’s Dark Knight Returns

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