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gila

@gila@lemm.ee

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gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Literally the state of California would have lower CO2 emissions today if Tesla didn't exist.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Unscrupulous companies in this case referring to every car manufacturer, they wouldn't have a systemic incentive to foster an EV monopoly that is anti-consumer and actively stymies the growth of the local EV sector.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Wouldn't that need to be done via some kind of API for cross-platform compatibility? An API which could be exploited to detect ad segments?

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

So that the timestamp adjustment can be propagated via uploader or user comments across YouTube clients on all platforms... i.e. to avoid having to hardcode each adjustment for each ad on each video on every client

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Doesn't work on Twitch for me (using Firefox). I've had some success using 'Purple Adblock', but it works by connecting to a public proxy in an ad-free country for the duration of the ad - so it has issues during peak and can get you stuck in a loop

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Thanks! Got the script from the TwitchAdSolutions GitHub and it seems to work well

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Firefox blocks statcounter tracking by default. It's an inherently flawed metric, though Firefox is definitely in the minority still vs Chrome

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

They'd still resolve via DNS to an address in ASCII though, right? Wouldn't that only be an issue if ICANN didn't have a monopoly on DNS registration? i.e what we already depend on for a semblance of convenience without totally compromising opsec

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

It also explicitly states in the posted screengrab that the opting-out user's workspace won't contribute to the underlying models. How would that be separate from using info on their workspace as training data for any kind of model? My interpretation of that is the data would be used to inference on the models, not train them.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Good news, they have had a better fix for several years now. About a month after the PS5 came out, so what you described was possibly an actual factor in it.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Correct me if I'm wrong, but on PS5 you'll need to send individual images to a friend, to be able to download them from your chat session on the mobile app. Or on Xbox, you'll need to pay for OneDrive or it'll be removed after 90 days. Both more annoying from my perspective.

After announcing increased prices, Spotify to Pay Songwriters About $150 Million Less Next Year (www.billboard.com)

When Bloomberg reported that Spotify would be upping the cost of its premium subscription from $9.99 to $10.99, and including 15 hours of audiobooks per month in the U.S., the change sounded like a win for songwriters and publishers. Higher subscription prices typically equate to a bump in U.S. mechanical royalties — but not...

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

As an Apple hater; Apple Music. Cheaper, good cross-platform frontends, more equitable to artists (though by no means satisfactorily so), has a Wrapped equivalent (though who actually cares). Maybe Spotify added something it doesn't have in the several years since I switched but, I doubt it

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Yup

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

If Tiktok doesn't deserve to spy on Americans, is it the counterpoint that US big tech does?

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

You put forward a couple of different points - I'm not conflating things, just hoping to skip past the constitutional one (which in my opinion is non-sequitur) to address the other. I might have boiled it down to a one-liner, but here's some light further reading/viewing which may help to scratch below the surface of why this corruption as you put is probably happening: https://youtu.be/Fhgm5b8BR0k

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Smokin' on the finest dope, ay-ay-ay-ah

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

I think we just need to move on from this methodology of data collection. Firefox is often cited as very unpopular because it blocks statcounter tracking by default, social networks have absorbed some search volume too. I do think it makes logical sense that people are dropping 11; I did so myself last year. But this data is likely bad, so it's pointless to try and extract a reason based on it.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

This disables a small subset of notifications you might get using Win10/11 that are tips about using Win10/11. It absolutely does not 'banish ads from notifications'. You will still get ads in the notification center almost as frequently after performing this action, including from Microsoft, including about Windows.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Dolphin is in a better state than it's ever been, now has a resampler so you can get those crisp pixels like on original hardware. For anyone whose interest is in actually playing old Nintendo games over speculating on their IP, even if they own a cartridge, they're probably playing on Dolphin.

ajsadauskas , (edited ) to Fuck Cars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

Looks like the Boring Company's Las Vegas tunnels are going about as well as you'd expect from an Elon project...

"The muck pooling in the tunnel at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip had the consistency of a milkshake and, in some places, sat at least two feet deep. ... At first, it merely felt damp. But in addition to the water, sand and silt—the natural byproducts of any dig—the workers understood that it was full of chemicals known as accelerants.

"The accelerants cure the grout that seals the tunnel’s concrete supports, helping the grout set properly and protecting the work against cracks and other deterioration. They also seriously burn exposed human skin. At the Encore dig site, such burns became almost routine, workers there told Nevada’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. An investigation by the state OSHA, which Bloomberg Businessweek has obtained via a freedom of information request, describes workers being scarred permanently on their arms and legs. According to the investigation, at least one employee took a direct hit to the face. In an interview with Businessweek, one of the tunnel workers recalls the feeling of exposure to the chemicals: “You’d be like, ‘Why am I on fire?’”"

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-02-26/elon-musk-las-vegas-loop-tunnel-has-construction-safety-issues?gaa_at=la&gaa_n=

Paywall bypass: https://archive.is/su7fa

@fuck_cars

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

If e_www r are on pig loop

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Literally the interference is with Cloudflare, i.e competing silly internet restrictions.

You can easily install a harmless Firefox extension and be blocked from all the same sites, for example.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Practically, the biggest obstacle to overcoming EV suppression is Tesla. They are mainly profitable through sales of carbon credits via various emissions offset schemes, which they sell to other manufacturers such that they can show required carbon offsets by just paying some money. A whole lot easier than upending their business model to actually produce EV's, and creates a positive feedback loop where Tesla retains position as only significant EV game in town. The EV development happening right now is targeting China, not the US.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

I don't think entry level users are what will be converted, at least first. It's users like you and me. Users that, for whatever reason, haven't preferred Linux historically. I've tried the new popular distro every few years to 'check in' with Linux, and each time I ended up running into some issue which reaffirmed my preference for Windows sooner or later.

Until I tried Debian 12 a couple of months ago, that is. Between nonfree drivers, Wayland and its compatibility throughout the ecosystem, and updates to GNOME, it's honestly been refreshingly user-friendly and feels more optimised than Windows.

Importantly, in searching for alternatives to Windows-only software I use, I didn't have any problems and in one case actually ended up finding new software I prefer.

The peace of mind of my OS not trying to sell me something or trying to farm my engagement is nice too, but not why I'd recommend giving it a try. I've always gotten behind it in principle support of free software, but now I can get behind it actually using it. I'd recommend it because it genuinely seems better in my general use.

Music Piracy Is Back, Baby (gizmodo.com)

"Muso, a research firm that studies piracy, concluded that the high prices of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music are pushing people back towards illegal downloads. Spotify raised its prices by one dollar last year to $10.99 a month, the same price as Apple Music. Instead of coughing up $132 a year, more consumers...

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

This makes me sad. I had so much fun growing up learning about compression and encoding, ripping, tagging, spectral analysis. Listening to 24/96 vinyl FLACs on my parents old stereo with my pinky up. Hanging out with a bunch of 40-year olds on IRC. Good times, man

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Who do you think controls ETC? IOHK? It's an open-source project.

It had some 51% attacks a few years ago, is that what you are referring to?

I'm honestly just curious what you mean

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Oh nice, that's how high Solana's TPS has gone in testing (in practice it hovers around 5-10k TPS). There's also newer chains like Aptos that claim to be able to handle 150k TPS with subsecond finality. Of course, neither of these chains are very decentralised, but at least they aren't fully permissioned and centralised. Especially on a network belonging to a partisan, anti-competitive, anti-trust law-breaking, Wikileaks funding thieving Israel supporters like Visa.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Ah yes, Bitcoin bad because some people that use it are bad, how did I never think of that

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

It depends on whether you're interacting with the blockchain directly, or via a custodial solution more appropriate for end consumers. Same like how you don't get a refund if you operate a western union branch and fuck up the wire.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Bitcoin is open-source software, a network of nodes running Bitcoin core, the source code for which you can find here: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin

Morals are a consequence of free will, which Bitcoin does not have. There are valid moralistic concerns about Bitcoin, but they are related to the impact of Bitcoin, rather than whether it is a moral system.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

So are you pushing a non-blockchain based decentralised ledger solution then, or did the point they were dodging actually just go over your head?

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Well, it's been about 15 years, and everything else we've found so far has been shitter. So just, give up on decentralisation I guess?

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Then I guess you misunderstand that the hard fork resulting from the DAO hack was the result of consensus of the network participants, not a unilateral action taken by the Ethereum foundation. Indeed, the protocol facilitated that's the only way it could happen.

The historic source code is still hosted, if you think ETH devs have the ability to 'edit whatever they want' then you should be able to point to the lines of code where that ability is afforded to them. Or someone should, 8 years should have been enough time to have a flick through.

Your anti-ETH comment came across as an anti-ETC comment to me, that's why I responded. I stand with you in disagreement with the 2016 hard fork. Mostly because many people would lose money anyway, and did. ETH corrected 50+%.

ETC is literally the original chain, sans Ethereum foundation's branding (which is why your reference to it confused me). Founding members left and continued to support ETC, and went on to found other foundations with a basis in academic rigor, which formed the fundamental basis of the ideological disagreement between participants.

You said this showed ETH/ETC devs have a 'kill switch in their back pocket', but the part of Ethereum that was 'killed' is alive and much larger than it was in 2016.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

You've almost put all the pieces together. A decentralised linked list is ... ? oh wait

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

I'm pointing out that the DAO hack transactions are not muted on ETC, they still exist as transactions in a validated block on that chain. Whether its state of mutability exists in binary or on a spectrum, ETC is shown to be immutable using your criteria, further showing that it's not as simple as "crypto isn't really immutable". Different chains, even directly originating from the same project, have different characteristics with respect to mutability. It's not to say that ETH is worse and/or better than ETC, or that either of them are good, it's just what's been observed as a matter of record, contrary to your depiction

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

You were supposed to have the eureka moment where you realise that's not a thing, oh well.

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Agreed, but consider this: centralisation in this context is intended to refer to the distribution of power and control toward any authority or party, including entrenchment of VC. It's definitely a valid point for something like Solana, less so for Ethereum I feel. At a certain point, the sum of involved interests are simply too disparate to be utilised together toward some nefarious end. Of course, robust on-chain community governance is critical for anything that wants to push beyond the microcap experiment stage that Ethereum was in during 2016.

gila , (edited )
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Direct revenue is logically a better model for creators, but I don't like that the share of youtube premium revenue is determined by a black box. If it's distributed according to my total monthly watch time, how can anyone say for sure whether the direct revenue split for a given channel >= potential advertising revenue had I watched without premium or adblock? I don't think even creators could tell you based on the analytics available to them via Youtube.

I canceled and set up memberships on a few channels instead. That way I actually get something out of it (member perks), and I know that at least my favourite creators get 70% of those amounts. Also, sponsorblock

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

I think a compromise on copyright could be a good middle ground in future. In the same way that I'm happy to wait for a game to go on sale before I buy and play it, I'd be happy to wait until a movie or series enters the public domain so I can consume it without paying. Obviously not for hundreds of years, or 56 years. But if Netflix/HBO etc shows and movies became free to watch after 6-7 years, most piracy traffic could be easily captured by legal platforms that are more convenient and accessible to more viewers. I struggle to see how it would not further relegate piracy to a niche activity done by very few, or be bad for the content producers in any significant way

gila ,
@gila@lemm.ee avatar

Yeah we're deprioritising the platform you use, because it's niche. We have analytics, and they say your use case doesn't matter. Just accept it and keep paying us, like all those other times

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