andrew_bidlaw

andrew_bidlaw , 3 days ago to Technology in Russian authorities prepare to block Discord.

I doubt it's anyhow important for them, it's just Discord is one anothee channel to block that isn't used by his core support base, and the goal is to block everything or\and draw nice monthly reports about that process.

andrew_bidlaw , 5 days ago to Memes in “You will be more conservative as you grow older”

If something, as years roll on talking to people with different experiences enriched me as a person.

andrew_bidlaw , 7 days ago (edited 7 days ago) to Memes in curved it is

Probably the round thing (a shield?) fooled us both. For me it looked like a two-hander.

andrew_bidlaw , 7 days ago to Memes in curved it is

Althoigh this sword\katana discourse is all known at that point, I can't help myself but adding rapier at the western side to spice things up.

Would rapier\katana comparison work better?

andrew_bidlaw , 7 days ago to Memes in curved it is

Just how long is that? I struggle to calculate it from what I see.

andrew_bidlaw , 7 days ago to Technology in Meta fined $102 million for storing passwords in plain text

And you can imagine someone thinking it's super clever and secure.

andrew_bidlaw , 8 days ago to Technology in Smart TVs take snapshots of what you watch multiple times per second

It may be them either not trespassing their territory (as a part of a deal or as a precaution) or TV apps sharing\telegraphing that info without the need of screen cap analysis as they work on TV itself and may as well be special modified apks. At least, they differed

Laptop sends only it's video and audio outputs, apps' code executes at it's hardware, so TV needs a workaround to know what you are watching. And as it's incapable of such analysis itself, it channels that data to it's real owner.

andrew_bidlaw , 13 days ago to 196 in Rulecab

pocket_sand protocol: engaged

andrew_bidlaw , 13 days ago to Technology in How breaking up Google could lower your online shopping bill | A DOJ win in Google's ad tech monopoly trial could benefit everyone, experts say

Glad to hear your points fleshed out.

As I read this thread and your response to my jaggernaut quote, I feel like it'd be okay to reduce my view of Google from an american pov (and I'm russian lol) to some artifact from a folklore tale, like a sure-striking sword. The carrier of such pointy thing concluded it pierces the heath of their enemies by itself and never fails, but is oblivious to other properties it has. They would have a great time weilding it, occasionally getting a king's contract and their daughter's hand, but them putting their whole life on the line depending on a behavior of such an unpredictable magic thing. That is a very insecure position to be in. And anti-trust legistations are kinda nice, but touting them as an adequate and a timely measure sounds kinda weak in a world where corpos like Big Mouse can shape and abuse patent law to it's profits, and Google isn't better.

andrew_bidlaw , 13 days ago to Technology in How breaking up Google could lower your online shopping bill | A DOJ win in Google's ad tech monopoly trial could benefit everyone, experts say

That is an interesting argument to have, and I choose to disagree with you. Besides what's told in the article, my own problem with the likes of Google is that this amount of corporate power makes them, like oil barons, an international governing body that affects policies worldwide. They can unintentionally, like Facebook in Myanmar, enable genocide by slacking on getting bhirma-languaged moderators and just not giving a damn about what they give platfrom for. Like a butterfly effect, something decided in Silicon valley may cause a tornado on the opposite side of Earth. And supporting Google we delegate such power to their board of directors we can't even choose, let alone impeach. They are akin to kings blessed by a god of capital and have more reach than modern hereditary monarchs in spite of that being not as obvious and direct. The Algorythm deciding what to show you, may it be ads or an answer to your question, controls you and your worldview on the level a step higher than the resources they reference. Like, we all know there's this crazy Conservapedia, and now imagine, that it's the first result in every google search, everything you want to ask the internet about is explained by insane rightwingers. Google chooses not to do that, to rank it down, thanks, but they can change that at any point and we wouldn't even know, because they are completely closed to external review. That's nice they are kinda aligned with what the US+Europe do for now, but as we see with Twitter getting musk-off with it being a propaganda vehicle, we somehow forget that it's a nearly irrelevantly small spot compared to a jaggernaut like Google that is The Internet, the start page for billions of people, and it navigates the decision making of almost all of our world now, while, uhm, building their business around reselling that influence to third parties for money. Right now, they plan to ban adblocking in Chrome and their sole real competitor Mozilla is majorly paid by them, they also has a saying on how we use our phones\tablets due to android popularity, so they are a judge and the executioner of how we use the common internet we live our digital lives in. And they succeed at flying under radar for how long they exist.

That's actually frightening to think how much power they hold, and that the things in the article is them holding themselves back to appear neutral, reasonable and uninvolved. At the same time, I suppose, even the coming US elections won't shape the world just as much as the politics of Google's board of directors. And, if they've wished so, they could pick a winner just by what ads and resources they show to most of the voters.

The power of an american corporation can't be good for americans (and the world) if it isn't even controlled by them. It's just their interests don't explicitly cross those of the US. But you can guess that if there's something really uncomfortable to Google, they have enough connections and bribed politicians to undo it in it's uterus.

andrew_bidlaw , 14 days ago (edited 14 days ago) to 196 in Fool rule

I'm seeing him blasting 'Out of Space' by Prodigy on his dj deck.

andrew_bidlaw , 17 days ago (edited 14 days ago) to Technology in Why I’m So Desperate for the Return of Microsoft Word to Our Prison Library

While I get that security certifications (and existing contracts with the right people!), the slowness of such laws ans disdain for prisoners, especially doing their law research, are big factors, I see a point that even prison admins shall consider. Besides big cuts in spending on capable clients, opening the ability for inmates to write whatever they want in a word processor as easily as it can be is a plus to the surveiliance. Authocracies of today don't ban their own social medias because an illusion of privacy makes people snitch on themselves.

andrew_bidlaw , 20 days ago to Interesting Global News in NATO official: Ukraine has legal right to strike deep into Russia

Every war is weird it's own way, but that thing is probably unprecedented. How can a war-torn country fight with one hand strapped to the back with a country with a 4x population and resources? And still managing to resist after 2,5 to 10 years? Imagine that in fiction and you'd call it unbelievable.

andrew_bidlaw , 20 days ago (edited 20 days ago) to Lefty Memes in Rule

I'd up that to 95% and I feel it's for our own good,

andrew_bidlaw , 20 days ago to Lefty Memes in Rule

I'm surprised BC hasn't been ruined by Epic yet. At the time of a deal I was very afraid for them declining fast but I still don't see any effect on the platform. I guess EG has that much money they don't need to milk BC for what ammounts to a pocket change for them. They just wanted their presence in that market too.

!remind me in 5 years, lol