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 Risks to children playing Roblox ‘deeply disturbing’, say researchers 1 day ago:
This is a great rundown. I’ve never been in the ecosystem and thus have zero exposure.
But part of me thinks, having done development in noncoding roles and getting zero further compensation for, say, something that could save a corporate giant $7 million a year if fully rolled out, this is just grooming kids for what they’ll be subjected to after going into massive debt for a degree.
- Comment on Risks to children playing Roblox ‘deeply disturbing’, say researchers 1 day ago:
I never had kids of my own, but seeing what my stepkids got up to from 2009-2016 (they were 6 and 7 to start), I became very worried about how things had shifted to online interaction. They wouldn’t have their own computers for another couple of years, but I gave them my netbook (remember those?) once I’d gotten a tower built (UPS drop-shipped my old one, and that’s not a euphemism … thank god I had the presence of mind to remove the hard drives).
It’s one thing to play SimCity for hours on end locally, which my parents allowed. It’s something entirely different to foist the whole of the internet on them without having concepts of online hygiene.
- Submitted 1 day ago to technology@beehaw.org | 2 comments
- Submitted 1 day ago to technology@beehaw.org | 9 comments
- Comment on But what if I really want a faster horse? 3 days ago:
“A horse walks into a car wash” is a Vaudeville joke, not an impossibility.
- Comment on But what if I really want a faster horse? 3 days ago:
Horses can absolutely go into space. No use in beating them at that point.
- Comment on But what if I really want a faster horse? 3 days ago:
OK, I’ll bite. Where can cars go that horses cannot?
- Comment on Facebook Is Just Craigslist Now 3 days ago:
How many people use them instead of defaulting to FB Marketplace or Craigslist?
- Comment on Facebook Is Just Craigslist Now 3 days ago:
Class is dead. Has been awhile; that was actually what started the decline in local newspapers.
- Comment on Midjourney introduces first new image generation model in over a year 1 week ago:
That’s not a handout photo from Midjourney, so it’s entirely possible that with so many problems, it was used intentionally to convey the state of the art in a way words can’t on this topic.
I’ve definitely engaged in some editorial shenanigans when I knew a source was full of shit but didn’t have the option of spiking. I’ve also intentionally run such pieces with a recast angle subtly calling out the bullshit.
- Submitted 1 week ago to technology@beehaw.org | 7 comments
- Submitted 1 week ago to technology@beehaw.org | 7 comments
- Comment on Trump Accused of Using ChatGPT to Create Tariff Plan After AI Leads Users to Same Formula: 'So AI is Running the Country' 1 week ago:
Gives the government “we didn’t know:” cover.
- Comment on The Trouble With TikTok Is Getting Old 1 week ago:
TikTok is no more in a death spiral than Facebook. This is about complete domestic control of major social media platforms. It’s unclear that ByteDance would sell rather than shut down completely in the U.S.
- Submitted 1 week ago to technology@beehaw.org | 19 comments
- Comment on Trump Accused of Using ChatGPT to Create Tariff Plan After AI Leads Users to Same Formula: 'So AI is Running the Country' 1 week ago:
My initial response was “JFC!!!” but given the gap between thinking that and starting to type, I realized “of course they’d do this” was the correct reaction.
Maybe they can get a couple of chatbots and a rural PTA member into a Signal group chat this time.
- Comment on I don't know who needs to hear this, but DO NOT EVER expose Jellyfin to the internet 1 week ago:
OK. I’ll revise. No one with any sense is doing this. “Hi, RIAA and MPAA, come after me” is an asinine approach. I realize we have at least one generation unfamiliar with Napster, KaZaa and LimeWire, which replaced ratio FTP servers (which in turn replaced F-Servs in IRC. This is terrible online hygiene. You don’t leave your media out there for all to see. At least password protect access before linking to your friends.
- Comment on We should talk more about air-conditioning 1 week ago:
Not exactly. Much of it radiates out into space. If all the sun’s energy remained in the atmosphere, climate change wouldn’t be a concern, as the Earth wouldn’t have been habitable for humans to even evolve.
- Comment on We should talk more about air-conditioning 1 week ago:
Another feedback loop is that, thanks to thermodynamics, the heat being removed from homes and businesses is transferred into the environment, further raising temperatures.
- Comment on I don't know who needs to hear this, but DO NOT EVER expose Jellyfin to the internet 1 week ago:
Who has the technical wherewithal to run Jellyfin but leaves access on the open web? I get that sharing is part of the point, but no one’s putting their media collection on an open FTP server.
The level of convenience people expect without consequences is astounding. Going to be away for home for a few days? Load stuff onto an external SSD or SD card. Phoning home remotely makes no sense.
- Comment on T-Mobile Shows Users the Names, Pictures, and Exact Locations of Random Children 1 week ago:
I grew up in the '80s. It was absolutely unnecessary then, and a pressing need has not since developed. “Be home by dinner” was perfectly serviceable when I’d head off on my bike to see which friends were available to hang out with. Often, I’d be invited to dinner, and the parents would talk so mine knew where I was, usually followed by an invite for a sleepover since it was by then dark.
Abductions of and assaults on kids are statistically far more likely to happen with a known party. This tracking obsession stunts normal childhood experiences, and I’ve not seen any study conclude that kids are overall safer from this level of surveillance.
If uncle Bob is molesting you but your parents trust him, this is all theatre. “At least they’re safe … they’re at Bob’s” my ass. But got forbid you meet of with your friends to build a tree fort outside of an arbitrary radius.
- Comment on Vibe Coded AI App Generates Recipes for Cyanide Ice Cream and C*m Soup 1 week ago:
That sounds like a terrible pairing. Who wants cum soup with ice cream on the side?
- Comment on OpenAI Finalizes $40 Billion Funding at $300 Billion Valuation 2 weeks ago:
There’s inherent self-selection going on by being on Lemmy in the first place. Plenty of people are happy to just take in what the algorithm feeds to them and are unaware of how URLs work; they just click links.
- Comment on OpenAI Finalizes $40 Billion Funding at $300 Billion Valuation 2 weeks ago:
What is this? “Give us another $40 billion and we can have a compelling product”? AI at this point is glorified Clippy. And Altman has already said he needs $7 trillion.
I’ve used ChatGPT in daily work, and while it does things I need it to do, it’s a timesaver, not some sort of view-the-whole-world-in-a-new-way-after-losing-one’s-virginity solution, which is what it’s been sold as since (apologies) release.
- Comment on Lithium-ion battery waste fires are increasing, and vapes are a big part of it 2 weeks ago:
I switched from cigarettes to vaping in 2016 – after trying and failing multiple times through an eGo stage – once box mods had evolved to the point of being reliable and delivering a satisfying hit. That mod worked until 2023.
I’ve since had three fail, and you don’t want to spend $100 (when it’s not Black Friday and your mod dies, that’s the going rate at local vape shops, since I guess the margin on a single-18650 mod isn’t good enough) to be able to use your remaining $12 of juice when a disposable that lasts for a few weeks runs $20.
As such, I’ve been using disposables for several months now. I don’t like this transition given the waste and danger involved, but nicotine addiction is a bitch.
- Comment on A former Meta employee reviews the new Facebook memoir 2 weeks ago:
This isn’t particularly surprising and is useful context. By the 2010s, Facebook had already morphed from having any veneer of being about connecting people to a financial and political machine with outsized aspirations. To be willing to work in that environment for any length of time – especially in such a high position – inherently points to complicity.
- Comment on Reddit’s 50% Plunge Fails to Entice Dip Buyers as Growth Slows 2 weeks ago:
I watched it once and somehow didn’t understand that it was satire, which made it something of a frustrating slog. I expect I’d like it a lot more on rewatch.
- Comment on Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account 2 weeks ago:
Arch … famous for being the distro friendly for Linux newcomers with a welcoming community.
- Comment on Musk Loses Bid to Thwart Investor Suit Over Twitter Purchase 2 weeks ago:
Yes, I’m telling you that.
- Comment on Musk Loses Bid to Thwart Investor Suit Over Twitter Purchase 2 weeks ago:
One wonders about the timing of xAI acquiring Xitter.