thehatfox

thehatfox , 5 days ago

I’ve ordered various things from AliExpress before, I’ve never had any major issues. One item was DOA, and another never arrived, but In both cases I got refunded quickly and easily.

It seems no worse than any other online marketplace now.

I assume these 3DS units are some sort of refurb. Are they Chinese region units?

thehatfox , 13 days ago

Ofc, Apple being Apple, I wouldn’t put it past them to artificially “break” things or arbitrarily introduce limits between RCS and iMessage

I’m guessing RCS support will be as barebones as possible while still technically functioning. All of the fancy bells and whistles will remain exclusive to iMessage.

Some iMessage features might not be possible to implement with RCS I suppose. Maybe RCS messages will get a different colour. All Apple said in the WWDC keynote was RCS would be supported, they didn’t elaborate any further.

thehatfox , 17 days ago

A lot of open source graphics software is made by programmers who also need to edit images sometimes. Both the lack of UI polish and featureset choices make more sense when looked at from that angle.

However, a lot of the criticism that gets thrown at these programs is also a bit unfounded. I regularly see people dunking on GIMP for not being a pixel-perfect clone of Photoshop for free. There is more than one way to design an image editor, and inability of some to learn another is really a user issue. GIMP could be better, but it still can and should be GIMP.

thehatfox , 17 days ago

The content is being uploaded to Adobe’s servers, they likely have the right and may even be legally required to moderate it to some degree.

This yet another reminder that the cloud is just somebody else’s computer. Somebody who might want to impose some degree of control with what is done with their computer, for whatever reason.

thehatfox , 25 days ago

Just put the extra napkins in your pocket/bag, now you never need to buy tissues.

thehatfox , 30 days ago

Generally you want to the reference material used to improve that first version to be correct though. Otherwise it’s just swapping one problem for another.

I wouldn’t use a textbook that was 52% incorrect, the same should apply to a chatbot.

thehatfox , 30 days ago

As an aside, can we get back into desktop cubes again? With all the upheaval in Windows land it’s the sort of eye candy that can win over new Linux users.

thehatfox , 30 days ago

Seems a hard sell to go subscription on such a niche platform. I wish anyone luck that could challenge the Apple/Android duopoly though.

thehatfox , 30 days ago

I think it’s becoming fair to label a lot of commercial AI “scams” at this point, considering the huge gulf between the hype and the end results.

Open source projects are different due to their lack of commercialisation.

thehatfox , 30 days ago

I’d say it’s more that parents (companies) should be more responsible about what they tell their kids (customers).

Because right now the companies have a new toy (AI) that they keep telling their customers can make thunder from clapping. But in reality the claps sometimes make thunder but are also likely to make farts. Occasionally some incredibly noxious ones too.

The toy might one day make earth-rumbling thunder reliably, but right now it can’t get close and saying otherwise is what’s irresponsible.

thehatfox , 30 days ago

Any distro should be fairly stable and supported on an older Thinkpad.

I’m currently using Debian stable on my X220 and it’s rock solid.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

}

I think you dropped this.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

There was a similar thing done as an art installation between London and New York called the Telectroscope in 2008. Apparently it was the site of a few marriage proposals.

Look how far we’ve come…

thehatfox , 1 month ago

Well it’s a step forward for efficiency at least. Now I can see the LLM generated crap straight it in the search page, rather than having to click through to an automated blogspam page.

If they are really going all-in on this, it almost feels like Google admitting defeat on search, having now been drown by the (partially self inflicted) deluges of SEO and now “AI”.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

It’s that daft haircut, he’s adopted a different style recently and suddenly looked 10x more human.

No amount of barbers can disguise the blokes behaviour though.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

Platforms like Facebook have an incredible hold on some people. I remember a few years ago when the “Momo” hoax happened, an older coworker arrived at the office and started warning us about the danger of “Momo” they’d seen on Facebook. I’d already heard about the hoax (and was aware of the original creepyasta origins), and brought up a few news articles explaining it, including an official statement from the police. Everyone seemed satisfied by the truth, except for the Facebook addict. They just gave me a blank stare, and a few hours later I heard them telling another group of colleagues to beware of “Momo” getting to their children.

I have family members and longstanding family friends who have succumbed to this. Interestingly almost all of them were decrying the internet as something that couldn’t be trusted before the age of social media.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

2018 according to Wikipedia, so 6 years ago!

thehatfox , 1 month ago

This is how I take pictures, I take pictures of the things I am seeing so I can look back at those moments later. I don’t experience life in third person, observing myself from overhead like a video game, so why would I want myself in the pictures?

thehatfox , 1 month ago

There’s satisfaction to be found when labour results in a tangible and lasting result.

Some of the people I know who quit the IT industry did so because they felt all of the effort they put in never seemed to achieve anything. Too many jobs at startups who exist only to be bought and shut down by bigger fish for some IP etc.

For some work is not just about wages or challenges, it’s about building something useful and meaningful, whether figuratively or literally.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

I’ve still got a 3310 in a drawer, it still turns on, and if I had a SIM card for it would be fully working as the UK still operates a 2G network (for now at least).

There’s even removable fascia plates still for sale on eBay.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

There was an ID card system in the works in the UK a few years ago, but it was scrapped. There was a lot of opposition to it ok the grounds of civil liberties and privacy.

There’s a lot of wariness about a “paper’s please” society in the country, there hasn’t been a national ID system since just after WW2. Driver’s licenses and passports are used a sort of substitute, but even the UK drivers license doesn’t have to be carried to actually drive.

The proposed ID card system was also attached to an identity database system that was considered to have a lot of features creep and be too invasive.

A free, simple ID card system would probably make a lot of sense (the existing drivers license system could be repurposed/expanded for it), but there’s just a lot of uneasiness about it among the British for better or worse.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

Voting ID requirements have not been universally seen as a good thing in the UK, there’s been a lot of opposition to it.

There is no national ID in the UK, instead there is a patchwork of secondary ID systems such as passports, drivers licenses, travel cards etc. In most cases they have a monetary cost or are not universally available.

It’s been seen as an attempt at voter suppression as many poorer British people may not have suitable ID. The rules also reject many forms of ID commonly held by younger voters, while accepting a wider range of ID held be older voters. There is supposed to be a free voting ID available but implantation has been left to local councils and has been criticised as hard to access.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

That’s a big part of the Boris Johnson myth. The “Boris bike” system in London was actually created by his Labour predecessor Ken Livingstone. The system officially opened shortly after Boris became mayor, who then took the credit for it.

The guy does ride a bike, but not as much as other’s coattails.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

Using nano as a vim user is a lot less clunky than trying to use vim as a vim non-user though.

Or so I would imagine, all of the vim novices are still too busy trying to exit vim to share their experiences.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

Youtube has made similar changes a while back. YouTube recommendations feature small/tiny channels with few subscribers a lot more often.

It’s mixed results for viewers but it does help to good small channels to not be drowned out by the bigger players.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

All of the apps on the rabbit run in the cloud anyway, as well as the AI bits. Nothing is running locally on the device. There’s nothing the rabbit device does that couldn’t be done via an app or web portal to those cloud services instead.

At least with the Humane AI Pin it was an attempt to create a new class of device. The rabbit r1 however is effectively just an oddly shaped Android phone locked to running a single app. The only reason it seems to exist is to allow an existing hardware company to jump on the AI bandwagon.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

Regulatory hurdles kept crypto out of most mainstream products. There are no such barriers for AI, and any that are put up may come too late.

There are also more possible mainstream use cases for AI - if the technology works as promised. That’s the biggest for AI currently, and some products like the Humane Pin are already tripping over it.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

can also easily cause depression by constantly seeing (usually) fake people flaunting their (usually) fake life and wealth

That’s a problem with many social media platforms and the “influencer” culture they host. Instagram has been particularly criticised for this.

These heavily curated content posted on these platforms does not reflect the warts and all reality of real life. People who get too engrossed in it can quickly start to feel their lives are inadequate.

I’m not sure what the solution is for this, other than trying to better regulate the algorithms used by these platforms.

thehatfox , 1 month ago

It’s all vertical video as well. YouTube pushes Shorts fairly aggressively on the desktop website, and it’s a crappy experience.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

It’s not just about data and spying, it’s also about media and influence. The argument being made that it’s not a good idea to have a “hostile” nation effectively controlling one of the major/dominant social media platforms.

There is also the trade issue of reciprocity, China bans many if not most of the western platforms, while they have free rein to operate theirs in the west.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

Compiz won over so many new users back then. Wobbly windows and desktop cubes may not have been super practical, but they sure looked impressive.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

Thing is with the iMessage argument is nobody is forced to use it. If green bubbles really are “ruining relationships” wouldn’t Americans be installing WhatsApp or another messenger like the rest of the world?

There are plenty of good reasons to criticise Apple’s behaviour. But I’m not convinced the popularity of iMessage is one of them.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

With how aggressive Microsoft is becoming with ads, services, and data collection they could at least make Windows itself free.

But no, you still have to pay £100+ per license to have the pleasure of putting up with this crap.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

Terrible products like this might end poisoning the well for genuinely useful AI projects further down the line. “AI” will loose it’s buzz and instead become synonymous with failure to consumers and investors alike.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

What is with Linux projects and confusingly pronounceable names? Even the name “Linux” itself has a fair bit of spoken variation.

Then there’s Ubuntu, and GNOME with the hard G to name a few.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

The 8th of The Ten Commandments, Thou Shalt Not Steal, seems the closest direct answer to our question but also raises an age-old piracy dispute – is copying theft?

I’m no theologian, but considering the writing of Exodus is dated around 500 BC, and based upon much older oral traditions, and any formal idea of intellectual property being a much more recent invention, I don’t think the context of the 10 Commandments would consider copying theft.

The comparison to Jesus and the loaves and fishes also seems quite apt. Jesus seeds.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

The wording of the new App Store rules say developers are responsible for any software offered in an app, and there’s been a bit of debate going on as to what that means in practice.

I haven’t heard if any emulators have or haven’t passed Apple’s review process yet.

thehatfox , 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago)

It seems crazy when a list of the 12 best “small” phones have an average screen size above 6 inches.

Phone	Screen Size (in)
Galaxy S24	6.2
Xiaomi 14	6.36
Google Pixel 8	6.2
Google Pixel 7a	6.1
Asus Zenfone 10	5.9
Motorola Edge 30 Neo	6.28
Apple iPhone 13 mini	5.4
Apple iPhone 15	6.1
Apple iPhone SE 3	4.7
Sony Xperia 5 V	6.1
Motorola Moto Razr 40 Ultra	6.9
Oppo Find N2 Flip	6.8
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5	6.7
Average	6.13

The iPhone 13 mini has also been discontinued, and the reviewer discourages the iPhone SE 3, describing it the “smartphone equivalent of herpes”. So that removes 2 of the smallest of the “small” phones which makes the situation even worse.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

There’s two main reasons to want a smaller phone. A smaller overall physical size so it fits better in a pocket, or a smaller screen so it’s more reachable when used with one hand.

I suppose the new flip foldable phones might satisfy the first but not the second.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

The small phone debate is not just about the overall physical size, it’s also about how reachable UI elements are when using a phone with one hand.

For one handed operation, screen size does matter regardless of bezel size. The larger the screen becomes, the harder it is for the thumb to reach the top of the screen because the top gets ever further away from the thumb.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

In the AI age we are going to need some way to have lasting likeness rights, in life and death.

There should be some sort of protection against having a persons appearance hijacked, especially for commercial purposes.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

I’ve got some jobs to do round the house, depending on the weather.

But I will mostly be eating. I’m in a queue at the bakery right now.

thehatfox , 2 months ago

Quake 2 also had a Linux port, as did Return to Castle Wolfenstein. iD Software was one of the few early supporters of Linux for commercial games.