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ominouslemon

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ominouslemon ,

I don’t know what a “gravy seal” is, but I’m trying to picture it and I’m kinda laughing to myself

ominouslemon ,

Do you usually complain when anything else in life is not completely free?

Either it’s paywalls or horrible ads+tracking. I don’t know why people expect to get everything for free, just because it’s on the internet. Especially something that takes time and effort to make.

PSA: you don’t get to complain about “the media” if you’re not even willing to pay for quality outlets

ominouslemon ,

Why?

ominouslemon ,

Yes please :,(

ominouslemon ,

Whose boots would I be licking?

ominouslemon ,

uBlock Origin only shows Chartbeat and Quantcast as trackers on The Atlantic’s website, so I’m gonna say you’re talking out of your ass.

ominouslemon ,

“Modest ads” were never a thing: if you were on the internet 10-ish years ago, you’ll remember that pop-up ads were everywhere.

Also, ads were never able to support newspapers, even if they used to be more lucrative. Newspapers were desperate to reach new audiences and they basically started to publish stuff at a loss. That’s why media is in the situation they’re in right now: underfunded and in perpetual search for new ways to monetize so they do not die altogether.

ominouslemon ,

It’s a chicken and egg problem. Media on the internet started doing clickbait stuff to get clicks and to be able to survive. I’d argue that you should be paying money to the ones who do an honest effort to do a good job.

Also, you talk about “big news companies” like it’s actually a thing. There are no really big news companies anywhere. Not by market cap, nor by employees, nor by any other metric. There are influential ones, such as the NYT, but none of them are really big if you compare them to any other economic sector. News is not a good business, like any other public utility: it’s essential to society but does not make any money.

ominouslemon , (edited )

Just having a bad day, lol. I did come off a bit too strong, I admit it. Truth is, I am a journalist and it pisses me off that people constantly expect me to work for free.

ominouslemon , (edited )

The thing is that economies of scale do not really work with (good) journalism. You’ll never get a ton of clicks on an in-depth, nuanced and well-researched story, because it’s not really “sexy”. That’s why even serious publications need to put out clickbait content, as it essentially funds the actual serious journalistic work. The problem here is that clickbait articles cause a reputational damage to publications.

A paywall makes it possible to avoid all of this, but then you run into the problem that fewer people have access to your content, rendering what you do less impactful.

As a journalist, let me tell you something: the reality is that news is an awful business. It’s hugely useful for public discourse, but it does not make any money. It’s essentially a public service, like roads or public transportation or schools: they are essential parts of society and they don’t work as a business.

Some countries realized that, and they have public-funded or state-funded media, like the BBC (on NPR, in a different way). While this poses huge problems with regards to conflicts of interest and freedom of the press, that’s the only economic model that actually works.

ominouslemon ,

You owe me $10

ominouslemon ,

That’s my gripe as well. I currently subscribe to 3 or 4 online news outlets, and that’s probably because I work in news. I can’t do more.

Still, there are services like Apple News+ and Pressreader. I wish they would do more, but I guess it’s better than nothing

ominouslemon ,

Is it a lack of vision to know that everything has a cost, even on the internet? Do people genuinely think that basic economics don’t apply to digital products?

ominouslemon ,

It’s annoying seeing ads in paid products, but having multiple revenue streams is a basic financial strategy that every business employs, so no surprises here

ominouslemon ,

Yep. All major US digital news outlets (with the notable exception of the NYT) are either owned by rich people (WaPo, The Atlantic), publicly funded or in perpetual crisis (Buzzfeed News has closed, Vice has closed, etc).

ominouslemon ,

Publicly funded media is also under constant attack by populist parties (NPR, the BBC, the Italian broadcasting company, the Swiss one, etc). They are being accused of being leftist, irrelevant, too big, or too expensive. Which are all excuses to destroy them and to be able to free up the market for huge private conglomerates that have an agenda

ominouslemon ,

That’s Business Insider for you

The FTC wants to ban hidden 'junk fees' that jack up the price of your purchases (www.engadget.com)

The FTC wants to ban hidden ‘junk fees’ that jack up the price of your purchases::A new rule proposed by the FTC targets hidden and “bogus” fees businesses often add onto their services at checkout, aiming to do away with the deceptive practices.

ominouslemon ,

Yet again, I can’t understand the rationale behind the FTC’s choice of their targets

ominouslemon ,

Sure, but I’d rather see them tackle something bigger and more substantial

User data stolen from genetic testing giant 23andMe is now for sale on the dark web (www.businessinsider.com)

User data stolen from genetic testing giant 23andMe is now for sale on the dark web::User data from 23andMe accounts has been leaked and put up for sale on a dark web forum after what appeared to be a “credential stuffing” cyberattack.

ominouslemon ,

You can say whatever you like about Google invading privacy and generally spying on us, but they are probably the best tech company when it comes to security. They practically never get hacked

ominouslemon ,

Google shouldn’t be trusted with the data we give them in the first place.

While I agree with this, I also must say that yes, EU law literally says that you have to disclose data breaches in 72 hours or something (can’t remember exactly how many). If something happened, we would probably know it

ominouslemon ,

Stop saying that Google and Meta etc “sell/share your data”. It’s just plain wrong and muddies the water and makes fighting them way more difficult. They sell access to the people from whom those data were taken, which is veeeery different.

Data brokers sell data. Google, Meta etc do not sell data. It’s their biggest asset, why would they just give it away?

ominouslemon ,

You have a point there, but I meant that Google does not do that as a business. Every company must provide data to the NSA, the problem is not Google per se

ominouslemon ,

Poor woman must have one of the most difficult jobs in tech

ominouslemon ,

Yes, but also the “deal with Elon every day” type of job. I could not do it for all the money in the world

ominouslemon ,

man, those screenshots hurt

ominouslemon ,

If you’re still not very knowledgeable, “Sophie’s World” by Jostein Gaarder is an awesome read. Don’t let the fact that it’s a novel fool you, it’s perfect to understand who’s who across philosophy’s history.

ominouslemon ,

Sony could do wonders with these phones, if only they would market them properly. And yet…

ominouslemon ,

The hardware is great, though. Have you tried installing LineageOS on your phone? I’m guessing a lot of your issues would disappear

Panos Panay Reportedly Quit Microsoft Due to Budget Cuts (www.techpowerup.com)

Panos Panay did not present at Microsoft's recent Windows event in New York City—his departure from the titanic technology corporation was announced on September 18; so only three days before an official unveiling of new Surface products. Panay and his (now former) executive colleagues painted a positive picture regarding the...

ominouslemon ,

They already have tons of products to stick AI in: Microsoft 365. You don’t put AI in hardware products, you integrate it in existing software. Microsoft was never an hardware company, despite having some hardware products. Most of them (Zune, the Nokia partnership, mice and keyboards) have failed

Edit: also XBox (the console) is failing - they sell them at a loss

ominouslemon ,

What was its origin?

Any good tech sites without the fluff?

I am looking for some good tech sites that have longer articles and indepth reviews. Preferably without an obvious biased towards a particular company or brand. edit: I should have clarified what to was looking for. I would like to compile a list of lesser-known but useful websites so that I can stay current on tech news without...

ominouslemon ,

LOVE Notebookcheck. It’s probably my most trusted source when buying / recommending laptops and components

ominouslemon ,

Could someone explain to me the advantage of using snap? I’ve never really got it. Repository systems with dependencies have always served me well and I’ve never felt the need for something else

ominouslemon ,

globally, traffic actually went down. Somebody posted some data a while ago and it was very clear. I would not worry about it (I think to a certain extent it’s physiological), by still

ominouslemon ,

You’re right, the stats I saw were not about traffic

ominouslemon ,

The Zenfone line will not be discontinued. Asus confirmed it

ominouslemon ,

Just speculation

ominouslemon ,

I certainly hope not!

ominouslemon ,

honestly, the web interface is great. Simple, clean and with everything you need

Threads blocks searches related to covid and vaccines as cases rise (www.washingtonpost.com)

Meta acknowledged in a statement to The Washington Post that Threads is intentionally blocking the search terms and said that other terms are being blocked, but the company declined to provide a list of them. A search by The Post discovered that the words “sex,” “nude,” “gore,” “porn,” “coronavirus,”...

ominouslemon ,

The purpose of the article is reporting on something. It’s just facts, not an opinion piece

ominouslemon ,

Moderators would be the government. A user blocking another one would be a restrictive order. An instance blocking another one would be a cold war. Voting is voting

ominouslemon ,

Dan Harmon once responded in a similar way on an AMA. It was about writer’s block, but I feel it’s the same principle.

My best advice about writer’s block is: the reason you’re having a hard time writing is because of a conflict between the GOAL of writing well and the FEAR of writing badly. By default, our instinct is to conquer the fear, but our feelings are much, much, less within our control than the goals we set, and since it’s the conflict BETWEEN the two forces blocking you, if you simply change your goal from “writing well” to “writing badly,” you will be a veritable fucking fountain of material, because guess what, man, we don’t like to admit it, because we’re raised to think lack of confidence is synonymous with paralysis, but, let’s just be honest with ourselves and each other: we can only hope to be good writers. We can only ever hope and wish that will ever happen, that’s a bird in the bush. The one in the hand is: we suck. We are terrified we suck, and that terror is oppressive and pervasive because we can VERY WELL see the possibility that we suck. We are well acquainted with it. We know how we suck like the backs of our shitty, untalented hands. We could write a fucking book on how bad a book would be if we just wrote one instead of sitting at a desk scratching our dumb heads trying to figure out how, by some miracle, the next thing we type is going to be brilliant. It isn’t going to be brilliant. You stink. Prove it. It will go faster. And then, after you write something incredibly shitty in about six hours, it’s no problem making it better in passes, because in addition to being absolutely untalented, you are also a mean, petty CRITIC. You know how you suck and you know how everything sucks and when you see something that sucks, you know exactly how to fix it, because you’re an asshole. So that is my advice about getting unblocked. Switch from team “I will one day write something good” to team “I have no choice but to write a piece of shit” and then take off your “bad writer” hat and replace it with a “petty critic” hat and go to town on that poor hack’s draft and that’s your second draft. Fifteen drafts later, or whenever someone paying you starts yelling at you, who knows, maybe the piece of shit will be good enough or maybe everyone in the world will turn out to be so hopelessly stupid that they think bad things are good and in any case, you get to spend so much less time at a keyboard and so much more at a bar where you really belong because medicine because childhood trauma because the Supreme Court didn’t make abortion an option until your unwanted ass was in its third trimester. Happy hunting and pecking!

ominouslemon ,

Loudness war is real (it’s been for quite some time) and it’s a plague

ominouslemon ,

If people still use it that way, it should be in the dictionary. Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive

ominouslemon ,

To people who don’t know any better it’s become synonymous with “the internet”, much like Internet Explorer in its heyday.

Also, websites saying that they only work with Chrome is a pretty big deal.

ominouslemon ,

Another reason to avoid gender reveal parties, I guess

Reddit’s replacement mods may be putting its communities at risk — With institutional knowledge seeping out of the site, poor moderation could have real-world impacts as more misinformation is allo... (www.theverge.com)

Reddit’s replacement mods may be putting its communities at risk — With institutional knowledge seeping out of the site, poor moderation could have real-world impacts as more misinformation is allo…::Reddit’s moderator purge could have real impacts on reliability and information safety as it rushes to replace mods with...

ominouslemon ,

Then read the article and not just the headline. There are various examples of why that’s happening.

There’s a canning recipe that’s been allowed to stay up despite the potential to make people sick. A moderator with zero 3D-printing experience joined as a “joke” to replace a mod whose expertise included identifying functional gun printing recipes. A new home automation moderator insists expert knowledge is unnecessary in a subreddit where bad advice can lead to electrocution or compromised cybersecurity.

Your examples are just funny, but when (good) journalists write “could”, it means that they have analyzed something and they are predicting its outcome based on the data they have collected. It’s not like they’re just making stuff up

ominouslemon OP ,

Click Here sounds awesome, thanks for the recommendation!

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