kbal

@kbal@fedia.io

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox requires age verification now⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Yoti, a trusted third-party identity verification provider

  Sure they could do it without relying on a third party, but Microsoft knows its users are going to have an easier time trusting "Yoti" rather than trusting Microsoft.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Give me a single reason why Sora2 should exist.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well I dunno, I just watched their demo video and otherwise know nothing about it, but it looks like an interesting experiment. Maybe some day — if they keep throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at it for another decade or two — it'll get good enough to justify however much it costs to run.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are there pyramids in Egypt?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  To be fair, if they weren't too heavy to move then by the time England got there they probably would've found that some of them had already been relocated to Rome or Constantinople.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Here's what would happen if the UK abolished landlords overnight⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Let’s assume being a landlord is made illegal overnight. Tenants won’t be made to leave their homes, however, until the landlord has been able to sell up.

  I mean obviously we're not going to abolish landlords overnight unless we abolish a whole lot of other things along with them in some kind of incredibly successful revolution, but thinking that we'd keep them around long enough to profit from the sale of their real estate assets is just a failure of imagination. Let's assume that all mortgage debt is cancelled and ownership of every dwelling is granted to whoever's been living in it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tories set a low bar after misspelling Britain on conference chocolate⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Good call there over at the Grauniad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Brits in disbelief as new refillable drinks ban implemented across UK⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes... that is the topic of discussion. I'm just saying it's manifestly unfair if they apply that tax to refills of your cup at Nando's, but don't charge extra for each lump of sugar in a cup of tea.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Brits in disbelief as new refillable drinks ban implemented across UK⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In order to be consistent they'll need to start charging tax per lump of sugar as well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RUMOR: 'The Future of Xbox is Software Publishing' as Next Console Generation Faces Doubts⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  RUMOR: There is no future for Xbox.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Keir Starmer says digital ID cards an ‘enormous opportunity’ for the UK⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  "You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It's as simple as that."

  Ah, I get it. The idea is to give a massive boost to the underground economy, forcing everyone without a digital ID to work completely off the books.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Keir Starmer expected to announce plans for digital ID cards⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Making Britain less attractive to illegal migrants, at the cost of also making it less attractive to everyone else.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft forced to make Windows 10 extended security updates truly free in Europe⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There's still a catch, though — you have to keep running Windows 10.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg unveils new smart glasses powered by AI⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it would sell better if it had more surface areas for sensors, one near the mouth for a mic, and a big compartment over the nose to contain the battery in

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I dunno whether that's Facebook pushing it more often to men (because their analytics shows it works on their audience) or men clicking on it more often because it works on the Facebook audience.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Some fraction of the harm they do is by carelessness rather than malice. That some mindless algorithm intended to find and exploit for advertising purposes the posts that got the most engagement disproportionately selected ones featuring images of cute teenagers does not seem unlikely.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Weird that the man assumes those images were chosen to target him, but horrifying that he might be right.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨4chan will refuse to pay daily UK fines, its lawyer tells BBC⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  They tried that. Don't underestimate the progress already made towards building the Great Firewall of Britain. I guess the main problem was that when the filtering was optional, too many people chose to opt out.

• 4chan will refuse to pay daily UK fines, its lawyer tells BBCwww.bbc.co.uk ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩ | ⁨28⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• Submitted ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨science_memes@mander.xyz⁩ | ⁨0⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Opinion | Don’t Get Fooled Again by Crypto⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  If I were looking to assign blame, I'd start with the coal and gas operators who are digging up fossil fuels that would otherwise remain in the ground just to fuel their bitcoin mining rigs, those who peddle specious arguments claiming that it somehow isn't a problem, those who turned the whole thing into a machine for separating the gullible from their money, and those who've built the shaky, buggy, mostly proprietary, convoluted, half-finished, untrustworthy, horrible mess that is the software ecosystem surrounding the whole cryptocurrency sphere. Perhaps none of that could have been foreseen by whoever designed bitcoin. On them we can instead put the blame for the failure to make it anywhere near sufficiently scalable, and the ridiculous choice of mechanism for the bitcoin monetary policy which serves to make it function only as a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme and not a durable currency. Regardless of who's to blame, it's got to go.

  Perhaps there's already an alternative out there somewhere which is actually useful and not based on avarice, fraud, unsustainable resource usage, or unsustainable hype, but if so it's currently hidden under such an enormous pile of shitcoins that it's impossible to identify. At least the internal combustion engine was good at doing the thing it was supposed to do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Opinion | Don’t Get Fooled Again by Crypto⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  If you can afford more than a small plot of land in this economy, you've probably been hoarding too much wealth. I know it's a very popular hobby, but it's quite bad for you if taken to excess. But this is getting somewhat off-topic.

  Some kind of technology that resembles today's cryptocurrencies may or may not have a future. As they exist right now none of them are anything like a good investment opportunity or a safe store of value.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Opinion | Don’t Get Fooled Again by Crypto⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  A small plot of land with good soil and a steady supply of fresh water, a good education, and a sturdy pair of boots.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Opinion | Don’t Get Fooled Again by Crypto⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, which are far more energy efficient than Bitcoin

  Calling those that don't depend on proof-of-work "more energy efficient" is underselling it to the point of being dishonest. The difference is not that they're more efficient in any conventional way. It's that they don't have the amazing bitcoin feature of relying for their operation on the practice of deliberately wasting enormous amounts of energy for the purpose of being able to prove that you've wasted enormous amounts of energy.

  All the way through the cryptocurrency crash that the average reader of headlines thought must've put an end to it by now, the bitcoin network has kept on burning up absurd amounts of power.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Elon Musk’s misinformation machine made the horrors of Southport, a small town in the UK, much worse⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Elected officials, journalists, activists, it's gradually becoming clear that everyone who uses centralised social media is part of the problem. Promoting the fediverse ought to be a national security goal.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Elon Musk’s misinformation machine made the horrors of Southport, a small town in the UK, much worse⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem isn’t merely that Elon Musk is manifestly unsuited to the job of unelected social media tsar. The problem is that no one should have that job.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨4 things white people can do to start making the fediverse less toxic for Black people (DRAFT!)⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  It may sound crazy, but there is a precedent:

  @Column('boolean', {
  	default: false,
  	comment: 'Whether the User is a cat.',
  })
  public isCat: boolean;
  

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Logitech has an idea for a “forever mouse” that requires a subscription⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I'm an Xfce user, in the habit of dragging windows around with the "super" key + left mouse button.

  For instant access to the browser back button, I have it positioned in the far top-left corner so that just swiping the mouse in that direction hits it without having to look at it. Unless it's on the other monitor, which is mildly annoying when it happens but you know, probably not by enough to change my decades-old habit of buying the cheapest and simplest mouse that's easily available in much the same way as I like to shop for socks: reluctantly, when it's necessary.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Logitech has an idea for a “forever mouse” that requires a subscription⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah it is mostly the extra buttons that annoy me personally, I don't really know why. I have better ways of doing the things you mention but I'm sure there could theoretically be some use for them. I've played games where they might've been useful, but it seems like no software is designed to rely on them and I always found their placement made it too easy to hit them by accident. Maybe my hands are the wrong shape or something.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Logitech has an idea for a “forever mouse” that requires a subscription⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  • A third mouse button showed up
  • A scrollwheel showed up
  • Optical sensors showed up.
  • Better optical sensors showed up
  • Polling rate improved

  ... and then everybody joined me in thinking that this would be a good place to stop and actively avoided the continued attempts to sell us on new features that further complicate things.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Logitech has an idea for a “forever mouse” that requires a subscription⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I'm using a Logitech mouse from probably 15 years ago that gets daily use and works just fine. I'm not sure how much it cost, but I don't think I've ever paid more than about $20 for a mouse and probably the only reason I'd have picked one from Logitech is that it was the only one available at the shop I happened to be in at the time that wasn't a ridiculous overpriced "gaming" product.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What a lucky crab⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Cool crab but how do they know what time it logged in to Outlook?