TehPers

@TehPers@beehaw.org

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Epic says its new vibe-coded Epic Games Launcher is faster than Steam⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Breaking news: software written from the ground up in 2026 opens faster than software that’s been developed, extended, bloated, and maintained for over two decades.

  Steam releasing a performance patch so soon after makes it even funnier.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI Company Lets Cops Pinpoint Specific Houses Based on a Single Interior Photo - 404 Media⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  if you have any sort of cloud-connected cameras in your home, get rid of them now

  It really shouldn’t take anything like this for someone to get rid of their cameras. Did everyone forget Eufy’s camera feeds being publicly available?

  Security systems (and baby/pet monitors) should be local network only. If it needs an internet connection, don’t bother with it. If you need access to the feed from outside your home network, then just run something like Tailscale.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Star Wars: Galactic Racer Gives Me What I Want: To Go So Fast That I Explode⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  If anyone’s curious:

  $60/$49 = ~1.22, or ~22% more from 2021 to 2026 (~4.5%/yr) $49/$32 = ~1.53, or ~53% more from 2001 to 2021 (~2.7%/yr)

  Time periods are vastly different of course (5y vs 20y) but inflation has accelerated drastically since the pandemic (specifically 2021).

  None of this is representative of spending power, of course.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alright I want to adress the AI moding because people don't understand how anything works and their is a needless panic. No AI won't replace modding.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Maintaining projects, keeping them up to date and fixing bugs etc really isn’t difficult for them.

  They tend to bloat codebases over time. It takes someone who understands the code to know how to use them correctly, and it often takes about as long to direct and correct them as it takes to just write the code, at least based on what I’ve experienced at work.

  The step I’ve seen a lot of people skip when using these coding agents is learning what the code actually does, which includes learning all the libraries and functions being used rather than looking at a call and going “yeah that seems right” because it looks like it’s doing what it should. Without that, it’s impossible to maintain a codebase over a long time, LLMs or not.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alright I want to adress the AI moding because people don't understand how anything works and their is a needless panic. No AI won't replace modding.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Like Name 10 AI games for example I dare you.

  I could probbaly find 10 just by going to recent releases on the App Store or Play Store, but I don’t really subject myself to those stores.

  ---

  Anyway, on the topic of LLMs used in modding: they are. There are a lot of mods made primarily with LLMs. Having recently installed mods for several games and worked on a modding project locally while in an active modding community, there are mods that even admit on the mod page itself that it’s basically written entirely by AI.

  This is usually for mods that are primarily code, though. I don’t know how prevalent AI-generated assets are, honesty.

  Personally, I don’t really have an opinion on it. I’m not going to dictate to someone who I’m not paying how they should work on their own project. I may choose to avoid them if they generate their whole mod, though.

  Also, in the past, I learned a lot from writing my own mods, and I only got that experience from doing it myself. It’s a shame, but people generating their mods will likely not get any of that experience themselves and will forever be dependent on LLMs as a result.

  The code is the only thing that gets more available but even with that you need to know how code actually works. What the hell is code and what does it actually do. Their is books on C++ and even the creator of it said you don’t actually need to know the code fully to work with it. Ironically Code bases have become so bloated that you need to use AI to actually explain what the hell are you looking at.

  Many mods for Starfield (which is Creation Engine as well, though later) are AI-generated. They generate either Papyrus or Lua (if they use SFSE) usually. Assets are another story of course, but I don’t think many of these AI-generated mod creators actually know how the code works.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨People are asking ChatGPT to help them decide how to vote in the midterms⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, I have no idea what’s going on in conservative spaces, but they’ve been taking quotes out of context for well over a decade at this point (if not longer but I haven’t paid attention much longer than that). It’s entirely possible he said that and they’re quoting it, though the conclusion I’d have without more context is that he’s referring to something like binary partisanship, not gender.

  But yeah, it’s going to spout nonsense. Even ignoring the potential for foul play, it makes shit up even with its “harmless” responses. My point was more that it at least lowers the barrier for people who would have done no research anyway, and those people often tend to lean right.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨People are asking ChatGPT to help them decide how to vote in the midterms⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Using ChatGPT (or any LLM) for this purpose is obviously incredibly flawed and very likely to lead towards bias (both intentional by the service provider and unintentional from the training), and in a world of mass misinformation, a chatbot is going to be no better at filtering the facts from the bullshit than a person would be, and we know how good people are at that.

  But if there’s one silver lining: anybody who did no research before who now does this at least is exposed to more perspectives, hopefully. One would imagine this is a possible gateway to further self-directed research.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google Accused of Illegally Killing a Massive Forest for Its New Data Center Project⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  300 hectares — the equivalent of almost 500 football fields

  Thanks for the context. As someone who lives in the US, I wouldn’t have been able to put that to scale otherwise.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yep, tokenmaxxing is a thing at some companies now. It often aligns with the same people competing to see who can generate the most lines of slop code (losc, which is different than sloc of course).

  It wasn’t long ago where people understood that every line of code you write is a line of code that could have a bug in it. The good devs still know this, but many are also being forced to generate shitty code just to appease their shitty management now.

  As an aside, I have yet to see a case where tokenmaxxing generates a profit for either the consumer or the provider. It just reeks of the same “market capture at all costs” mindset that have plagued SV startups for so long.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reddit is putting more limits on Old.Reddit.com⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Also buried in the article is that they’re killing off RSS feeds (unless you moderate that sub I guess).

  I haven’t touched Reddit in a long time now, and I have no plans to go back. But if I still did use it, killing old Reddit would have me leaving entirely. Their “new” interface was atrocious on release and I assume it’s far worse now that they’ve ramped up hard on ads.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Discord gives more advertisers more tools to target its users⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They also have been showing video ads occasionally to nitro subscribers, which kills any value nitro could have had.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered’ Hits A Metacritic Review Score Record⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There are almost certainly bugs. Like any game, give it a few weeks (or months) before playing it unless you want to bugtest it.

  You can switch to an older version of the game in Steam if you want by going to the game properties in your library.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New Mexico jury finds Facebook liable for over 43 million violations of consumer protection law—and Meta could owe over $200 billion in penalties⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  From my understanding, only federal criminal charges (and convictions) can be pardoned anyway, whereas I believe this is a state civil case (a lawsuit).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US being left behind in EV charging speeds as China goes sub-5 min to 70%⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ok I had to look up what the federal limit is here in the US and it’s apparently 10gal/min (~38L/min). Your pumps are just firehosing it then considering your fast one is more than triple the flow rate of the fastest pumps we can have here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US being left behind in EV charging speeds as China goes sub-5 min to 70%⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Either your tank is tiny, or your pump is firehosing that gas.

  Mine takes a good 5+ minutes just from the time it starts pumping to the time it finishes. It’s a >20gal tank though so I don’t fill it very often.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨GTA 6's $1 million billboard goes up despite protests from local police as Rockstar's real-life Miami takeover gets underway⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  From an article linked in this one:

  Via WSVN, Bermudez claims he’s “not against video games, but to go out and get a video game where – which glorifies not only our first responders getting shot, but also pedestrians and residents – it’s nonsensical.”

  Republican sheriff Cordero-Stutz similarly points to GTA’s crime-centric themes, adding: “At a time when law enforcement is working every day to reduce violent crime, prevent robberies and car thefts, combat drug trafficking, and build stronger relationships between our deputies and the communities we serve, I believe we need to seriously consider the message we send when our own government promotes a fictional identity centered around many of those same crimes.”

  Remember, kids. Guns don’t kill people. Games about guns kill people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New York sues prediction market Polymarket, calling it an unlicensed gambling operation⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not driving under the influence, I’m travelling under the influence.

  These people are just sovereign citizens with a lot more money.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Flock Offers Employees Buyouts as Customers Flee⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The article seems to conveniently hide the rampant corruption between Flock and local governments. Not that Wired has an obligation to include it, of course, but it’s still relevant context as to why everyone hates Flock.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Republican bill would order ISPs, DNS providers, and VPNs to block piracy sites⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I love how the Republicans like to talk shit about China, then turn around and propose their own Great Firewall, cameras on every corner, and so on.

  And sure, the Democrats aren’t much better here, but these seem to be pushed more aggressively by the Republicans it seems. Plus, for a party that claims to want less government, it’s very obvious that this goes against their brand.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hackers Got Inside a Flock Camera. Its Data Shows How the System Really Works⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This. You’d definitely want the cameras to have only the public key. If they’re not doing that, then their security must be as bad as their morals because they know people are tearing these down everywhere already anyway.

  Of course, not using assymetric encryption makes them more auditable by “third parties” which is an unexpected benefit.

  I wonder if they at least use a different key per camera. This would be less necessary for asymmetric encryption, of course, but they don’t seem to be using it. If all the cameras are using the same key, then you can theoretically use the key these people pulled to access data on every other camera as well (possibly remotely if you can remote in somehow).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨South Korea gives 400 stalking victims app to track their stalkers in real time⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  FWIW, this seems ripe for data collection and field testing for free. (unless it’s a paid sub, then that’s worse)

  Exploiting abuse survivors to test a surveillance system is a new low —even for government. 🖕🏼

  Did you even read the article?

  Here, I’ll help you:

  The app’s effectiveness depends on courts ordering suspects to wear electronic tags, something that remains relatively rare in South Korean stalking cases.

  Police arrested 29,404 people on stalking charges across 2024 and 2025. Authorities made 1,187 applications for electronic monitoring during that period, but courts approved only 427.

  Your “surveillance system” is court-ordered ankle monitors for known stalkers. Which, sure, is surveillance. You know, for a convicted stalker.

  Whether the ones who were stalked want to know where there stalker is might be a different story, but there’s this cool thing you can do with apps where you turn off notifications and hide the app somewhere you never go. That way they don’t have to see where the stalker is and they still get the benefit of “if that distance falls below 1km, police and probation authorities receive an alert and contact the victim.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Patches a Record 974 Security Flaws in Biggest Update Ever⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This could be the “new normal” for 2026 and beyond, with monthly totals climbing sharply since mid-year.

  This would require there to constantly be security flaws to patch. Sure, vulnerabilities are inevitable, but steps can be taken proactively to avoid them, and no operating system (most of these vulnerabilities were in Windows) should be introducing an uncontrolled stream of constant vulnerabilities (in many cases against the user’s wishes).

  Anyway, patching security holes is a good thing at least so long as the total surface area of holes actually decreases over time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨World-first biological data center packs 16 mn living human neurons⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh hey! Actual man-made horrors beyond comprehension!

  (Sorry, the fly brain simulation stuff felt so tame compared to this field)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google mapped the brain and nervous system of a fruit fly, and modders forced it to play Doom⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This. Unlike the people using actual brains, these simulated brains are, for the most part, just linear algebra and no more a lifeform than a LLM. They lack all of the components of organic life, lack all the chemicals that make a real lifeform actually “feel”, and so on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenAI admits it didn't disclose rogue AI wiki hijacking incident⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If nobody receives a criminal conviction for illegal hacking, then there was no hacking.

  So pick one. Is it illegal hacking? Or is it marketing? You can’t choose both.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘We’re plausibly close to crossing the line’: are warnings of uncontrollable AI coming true?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Remember when Claude Mythos/Fable was the end of the world?

  I guess you can’t end the world if the world already ended in 2012.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘We’re plausibly close to crossing the line’: are warnings of uncontrollable AI coming true?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  No.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s mostly just management dictating from the top-down. I’ve heard everything from “it’s our company’s direction” to “investors are only funding AI expenses” and nothing actually grounded on (B2C) customer feedback.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft Paint and Photos Embed Server-Issued GUIDs as Invisible Watermarks in Locally-Generated Images⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Notepad had a “Copilot” button at one point. No clue if it’s still there though since I’m fully on Linux now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US says Chinese hackers broke into Justice Department, NASA, Federal Reserve, Senate, and more⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  On the one hand, you can’t really believe the US government these days. On the other, the same can be said about the Chinese government.

  You know what would solve this, though? Make the government actually exciting to work for. Get people excited to work there, and you’ll find some talented security people who can lock things down. Instead, all the good positions are offered by companies, and the government isn’t on anyone’s radar especially after Trump/Musk fucked around with it and fired everyone.

  For all the money spent pointlessly on military, you could hire the most talented people in the country to run government services and you wouldn’t even need to sacrifice anything in the military if you just allow them to shop around and buy from the companies that won’t bend them over and beg for it. Hell, you could do all that and still provide healthcare to the entire nation.