Powderhorn
@Powderhorn@beehaw.org
Editor and tech enthusiast
At some point, I have to admit neither is true. Let’s see …
Wage slave and vandweller.
- Comment on 99% of My Website Traffic Is Bots: A year of fighting scrapers on my 1.5 million-page website. What I tried, how I failed, and what's working now. 1 day ago:
Has it not occurred to you that writers know both HTML and Markdown? This is the em-dash complaint on steroids. “My god, they’re formatting correctly” is less an indication on its own of LLM use than the low standards people now expect from writing. “We need errors or it isn’t real!”
There used to be people who fixed that for a living. We called them editors.
- Comment on Flock Offers Employees Buyouts as Customers Flee 6 days ago:
I mean, at a certain point, you have to go with the angle of the current story. I know this is going to be a hell of a stretch, but that’s sort of like expecting any car review of a new Ford to include the founder’s anti-Semitism.
- Submitted 6 days ago to technology@beehaw.org | 18 comments
- Comment on The case for a robot tax to redistribute wealth 1 week ago:
Why institute a robot tax when you could just fund the government with corporate and wealth taxes using existing structures? (Rhetorical question; we all know why.)
The U.S. did just fine without an income tax until the 1910s, and the circumstances under which that even happened are suspect, but that’s a tale for another day.
The sheer logistics of a “robot tax” ensure a lack of compliance. Are we charging by the hour while it’s in service (where are the service logs?)? Sheer numbers in the fleet? All options I can come up with are easily gamed; we end up exactly where we were, but lawmakers can say they “did something” instead of the more extreme action of doing something useful.
- Comment on Republican bill would order ISPs, DNS providers, and VPNs to block piracy sites 1 week ago:
Yet again they trot out billions in losses for the MPA caused by piracy.
- How Three Brothers Built an AI Slop Empire by Buying Legitimate News Sites and Turning Them Into Zombie Content Farms That They Say Get 50 Million Page Views per Monthfuturism.com ↗Submitted 1 week ago to technology@beehaw.org | 9 comments
- Comment on Solar panel costs have plummeted from $6 per watt in 2000 to just 12 cents today 1 week ago:
For reference, 100W panels were running 66 cents/W when I did my build in 2023. Larger panels have always been cheaper per watt, but it means prices have dropped by up to 80% in just three years.
- Submitted 1 week ago to technology@beehaw.org | 9 comments
- Comment on Dating Apps Are Dying 1 week ago:
gets up from rocking chair I never really got the purpose of dating apps, as I was still married when they came out, and when the ex and I separated, I had a Plan B inadvertently lined up via work. The latter and I did use apps on her phone, but it was just for the purposes of making fun of the banality of cookie-cutter pictures and bios while drinking on the porch.
- Comment on Another big James Talarico interview is punted to YouTube due to FCC threats 2 weeks ago:
The issue the GOP is facing isn’t new. They go apeshit when a pastor dares to teach the actual teachings of Jesus in a soft-spoken way.
Just add in an order of magnitude if Texas.
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to technology@beehaw.org | 4 comments
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to technology@beehaw.org | 5 comments
- Comment on Australia to force social media platforms to allow users to opt out of algorithms 2 weeks ago:
The thing is, those of us old enough to remember dialup aren’t anyone’s target demographic, and the cohort that is has been conditioned over time to believe that the current situation is the natural order of things. They were raised to consume, not seek.
- Comment on Australia to force social media platforms to allow users to opt out of algorithms 2 weeks ago:
I absolutely cannot stand algorithmic feeds. Unless I can.
Here’s the thing: I left Facebook when I stopped seeing anything my friends posted. At the same time, YouTube wouldn’t be all that useful without suggestions. My subscriptions is my home page, so I’m getting videos in chronological order from users I’ve decided to follow, and then the algorithm occasionally serves up a suggestion that leads to a new subscription.
So just saying “social media must provide an opt-out method” is something of a sledgehammer. Moreover, companies will bury that method behind a bunch of dark patterns so no one ever ever gets to it, even if it technically exists.
- ‘We’re plausibly close to crossing the line’: are warnings of uncontrollable AI coming true?www.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 2 weeks ago to technology@beehaw.org | 14 comments
- Comment on If You Rented a Car or Bought Weed Recently, Your License Is Likely for Sale on the Dark Web. Protect Your Identity Now 3 weeks ago:
ID scanning has become very common in Texas. Lowers insurance rates for sellers and gives the state a full database of alcohol purchases.
- Comment on If You Rented a Car or Bought Weed Recently, Your License Is Likely for Sale on the Dark Web. Protect Your Identity Now 3 weeks ago:
It’s unclear how this is feasible. Also, are we saying “cookies” these days?
- Comment on Google Has Removed Manifest V2 Extensions From the Chrome Web Store, Including uBlock Origin 3 weeks ago:
With NordVPN? Cool. You know what the top of a funnel looks like?
- Comment on Google Has Removed Manifest V2 Extensions From the Chrome Web Store, Including uBlock Origin 3 weeks ago:
The tech-savvy relative should have had them on Firefox long ago. They don’t need a fork. Firefox will do.
- Comment on Google Has Removed Manifest V2 Extensions From the Chrome Web Store, Including uBlock Origin 3 weeks ago:
It’s hard to understand how anyone who was using uBO on Chrome was unaware this was coming. The Manifest V3 shit started years ago, and I expect uBO users to be more technically literate than the general public.
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to technology@beehaw.org | 1 comment
- Comment on Meet Orexin, The Brain Chemical Behind Staying Motivated 4 weeks ago:
This is definitely one of those “the longer you look, the worse it gets” things.
At lower right, we apparently have a real-world option to turn off that damn noise. Moving slightly up, at the top of what appears to be a pneumatic lift towering to six inches are marshmallows or ice cubes. Both are an issue as they are known for not being pink.
We have avocado-shaped markings on these … what are they, anyway? The one on the left literally has a pig snout and ears, plus something from Tron designed for a dog.
To the right? The ultimate symbol of depravity (one notes Macavity wasn’t there). This is a rat who isn’t just evil (red … thing) but also poorly stroked. Can you imagine going through life with one or two points of white outline on your body?
Rats, as we know, famously enjoy caviar, hence our friend at the counter both speaking and thinking about red spheres.
- Comment on Meet Orexin, The Brain Chemical Behind Staying Motivated 4 weeks ago:
We have found a new use for a dashed yellow arrow!
- Comment on Dozens of engineers laid off at Apple headquarters 4 weeks ago:
I expect to see waves of Dolly Parton-related layoffs in the coming months.
- Comment on Popular erectile dysfunction drug linked to eye disease that can cause irreversible vision loss 4 weeks ago:
Great. Relevance to the topic at hand?
- Comment on Popular erectile dysfunction drug linked to eye disease that can cause irreversible vision loss 4 weeks ago:
Going to Faux News for science is … a choice. Also, jesus christ, kids these days and the luxury of having the space to replace “glaucoma” with “eye disease that can cause irreversible vision loss.”
We all fucking know what glaucoma is. This isn’t some 2026 development that’s flown under the radar.
I also have no idea what this has to do with technology.
Anyway, for those interested in the paper, it’s here.
- Comment on YouTube Premium is getting yet another price hike for users across the globe 4 weeks ago:
I prefer buying my music by the track at a reasonable price, having a couple of backups and not paying monthly.
- Comment on Apple lays off staffers ahead of CEO change 4 weeks ago:
Yeah, and I’m going to urinate ahead of death. At least, I hope so.
Point being, the hed is a cheque the threadbare story can’t cash. There’s no causality. “Apple lays of staffers ahead of heat death of universe” also works. In the latter case, no reasonable person would see entropy at fault.
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to technology@beehaw.org | 2 comments
- Comment on Amazon aims for delivery drones to reach 500 US neighborhoods by end of 2026 5 weeks ago:
The Texas cities are an AP Style aneurysm.
