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peak_dunning_krueger

@peak_dunning_krueger@feddit.de

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Microsoft to separate Teams and Office globally amid antitrust scrutiny (www.reuters.com)

Microsoft (MSFT.O) will sell its chat and video app Teams separately from its Office product globally, the U.S. tech giant said on Monday, six months after it unbundled the two products in Europe in a bid to avert a possible EU antitrust fine.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

As a side note, because I don't know how American antitrust laws work, maybe someone can explain:

They are "separating" the products, but it's still all owned by Microsoft. So what's the intended effect here? There is still the global megacorp you can't escape in control of both. How does this harm the "trust" that's supposed to be fought with "antitrust" laws?

peak_dunning_krueger ,

Internet companies usually have clauses that they can terminate the agreement at any time for any reason, including "because they feel like it". They usually don't have to tell you why, either.

Same deal with all the "licensing" things and "digital goods ownership". In two words: you don't.

But it's been that way for ages.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

Let's be real here: They are trying to create a "platform"^TM and "ecosystem"^TM to later wall off, embrace, extend, extinguish or otherwise enshittify.

There is no actual problem they are solving.

It's venture capital bait.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

That's not good, but it's not like we can switch to a more secure alternative. ;)

HP’s 'All-In' Printer Rental Watches Everything You Print, Tells HP All About It (www.extremetech.com)

In addition to tracking the printer’s online or offline status, page count, and ink levels, your rented printer will look at the types of documents you’re printing (e.g., PDF, JPG, Word), the types of devices that initiated the print job, “peripheral devices,” and other “metrics” related to the service, the All-In...

peak_dunning_krueger ,

If anyone seriously believes HP will develop two copies of operating software, one with "send everything to HP" and one without, they are delusional.

It may very well be that there will be a contract saying something completely different than what is happening in those machines.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

Oh sure. They could do this. But they don't.

But there is absolutely no way to verify what they are doing, no fear of getting caught and thus there is no incentive to behave with integrity.

At least my state of knowledge is that this: https://reproducible-builds.org/ isn't fully functional and even if it were what HP does on their machines is closed source stuff.

And even if there were companies or organizations that are big enough to enforce transparency, like a big multinational or a government, there will be plenty of cases where smaller companies with sensitive data can't, like doctors offices or independent lawyers.

It is way easier to charge for a "data privacy" subscription tier and then still just not honoring the wording of that, than to actually put in the effort.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

...and whose fault is that, private publishing industry? Hmmm? Who didn't invest here?

Also for allowing it to happen of course.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

Yes, but I don't think it matters. It's not hyper specialized yet, but the initial problem of "there are no users" is gone. I don't think anything can stop the fediverse now. The protocol is just too useful to not support.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

Not sure about unsung, but definitely heroes in my book.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

And to be fair, this Orwellian oversight could be a good thing. Literally over the last few weeks, we’ve witnessed a huge manhunt for a guy suspected of being involved in a chemical attack. At the time of writing, he was last seen on the Victoria Line. So if this AI technology had already been rolled out across the Tube network, it could have conceivably been possible to find him before he had even left the station.

But what makes the tech powerful is also what makes it scary.

Really. Ya think. What gave it away.

You know what this feels like? It feels like this sketch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_4J4uor3JE

peak_dunning_krueger ,

The cost of switching to an unfamiliar Interface and workflow is high enough, charging money to do it will further increase the barrier to entry.

Paying for open source software sounds good on paper, but if it is required, the software will never accumulate the users to make the development have any meaning.

There has to be a "try it before you buy it" too. Otherwise the permutations of scams are obvious and nobody will fall for that. Idk how you would prove that the software works, without giving an actual copy of the software.

Also, legalities between different countries. You will just not get your money back from "trustworthy nigerian software dev who just needs 50$ to give you some software".

So no.

Do donate if you can though. If you value the software you use, you will pretty obviously recognize the utility and the cost to you, should it go away.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

The game Mindustry is one example.

Yes. And as you can see it has 14k reviews on steam while factorio has 141k reviews.

It's also a game, so there is no productivity gain or loss associated with it. There is no on call IT support, but you also don't need any and if something breaks, you lose nothing except the ability to play THIS game for a short while. It's not a... webserver you run your online shop through where every hour of downtime costs you X hundreds of euros or dollars.

The game was also made by what looks like one guy. It's not, you know libre office. With hundreds and thousands of contributors and a huge problem of how to distribute the money.

Of course you're allowed to distribute it. And of course you're allowed to charge for it. But realistically, nearly nobody would use it.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

This is a good post, but I'm not sure it belongs in technology. Hmm.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

That is true, nevermind me.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

Eh. It's a bit more handwavey than that. It's whatever you want it to be.

Virtual reality was supposed to be simulated, but "actual still science fiction" levels of simulated. seamless 3d environment, intercepting nerve signals to look and intuitively control an avatar or ready player one had a haptic suit.

AR stems from that and was supposed to be "the real world, but cyber". Or "VR, but with real world elements". In the novel "virtual light", it's supposed to overlay that "datasturce of cyberspace" on the real world. Even then it was never really clear what purpose cyberspace as a 3d world would have, what data looks like or should look like, and what the advantage of that visualization would be. Or why would rather see that than what the world looks like.

Mixed reality is also that. Imo. It sounds the same to me too.

The whole thing is like hand gesture control. It looked great in minority report, but we had it since one of the 2010s xboxs and it went absolutely nowhere.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

The guy I want to hear from, this dude:

https://www.youtube.com/@MrBtongue

posted every 3 months or less and he hasn't uploaded for a decade.

I hope he's alive and well tbh.

peak_dunning_krueger ,

I mean, I won't deny that small bit of skill it took to construct a plausible sounding explanation for why the public should support your investment, because it's "not illegal (yet)".

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