riskable
@riskable@programming.dev
Father, Hacker (Information Security Professional), Open Source Software Developer, Inventor, and 3D printing enthusiast
- Comment on Get stoned. 1 day ago:
Talk about taking your bathroom for granite!
- Comment on I choose innovation and patching it all together. 1 day ago:
True story: This is how programming works a lot of the time. Especially if it’s a game or back-end software at a big company 👍
- Comment on $1K a month is a good deal 1 week ago:
Just 1k/month? Some of us have to pay more than that 😞
More like $1.5k/month.
- Comment on Carcinisation? 2 weeks ago:
This is just the AI bias showing through: It’s all that training.
- Comment on Mass arrests at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade as anti-Israel protesters block path 3 weeks ago:
I appreciate that they called them anti-Israel protesters and not antisemites (or similar).
- Comment on I wonder why people litter in the USA? 3 weeks ago:
In the US we teach kids that trash men are suckers and idiots that didn’t work hard enough in school! Also, that trash is an externality: Someone else’s problem.
“We pay taxes for people to clean that up! Why should I spend my valuable time doing someone else’s job‽”
It’s an awful culture.
- Comment on I wonder why people litter in the USA? 3 weeks ago:
They get paid more than most people would think but it’s still not enough based on the hazards of the job. They get exposed to all sorts of nasty things that can ruin their long term health and they have increased likelihood that they’ll get a life-altering injury at work.
- Comment on Do you think being left-handed gives any unique qualities or advantages compares to other right handed? 3 weeks ago:
You’re never right 🤷
- Comment on Palworld Developer Reveals The Pokémon Patents Nintendo Claims It's Violating 4 weeks ago:
The largest contributors to Open Source make their money from patents and other IP.
The data in that video is (probably) accurate but your statement is completely wrong: In that list only Intel makes anything but trivial amounts of money from patents. In fact, Microsoft, Google, and Docker have famously lost shittons of money thanks to patents. They basically siphoned money out of those companies into the pockets of lawyers and provided absolutely no benefit to society.
For fuck’s sake: Features were removed from Android because of software patents!
Not only that but Google makes almost all of its money from advertising, not “IP”. Same for Meta which is oddly missing from the graph (even though they contribute to and maintain a ton of FOSS stuff).
Then let’s talk about #1: Redhat. They absolutely would be 1000% behind banning software patents. It’s nothing but trouble for them.
I’d also like to note that Microsoft has been very much in favor of software patents since they were invented by the courts (remember: no legislation added software as a category of patentable subject matter: They exist as a result of court rulings!) because they thought they would put an end to open source software (see: Halloween documents). However, software patents have actually cost Microsoft more than they ever helped the company! In short: They’re idiots. They opened a can of worms that’s kept them constantly under attack but because those worms also hurt their perceived enemies they’ve doubled down on their decision.
- Comment on Palworld Developer Reveals The Pokémon Patents Nintendo Claims It's Violating 4 weeks ago:
Software existed for decades without (software) patents and has innovated and evolved vastly more quickly than any other science. Then we created software patents and things actually started to slow down (because lawsuits take time and threaten to end great software before it even exists).
Software is already covered by copyright which is all that was necessary for some of the richest companies in the world to come into existence (e.g. Microsoft, Oracle). Software patents shouldn’t exist!
- Comment on Palworld Developer Reveals The Pokémon Patents Nintendo Claims It's Violating 4 weeks ago:
Imagine if any company could just copy an indie game and scale it up/polish a bit and get all the sales.
You’re describing the entire mobile games industry. You think all those top apps in the app stores are 100% original? No. They copied other games.
Also, patents have nothing to do with that. Software is covered by copyright.
Furthermore, “back in the day” manufacturing was expensive and required huge factories to build stuff (in quantity). The barrier to entry was enormous! People were mostly uneducated and there was not much in the way of “shared engineering knowledge”. Ten thousand people could look at a car engine and have no friggin clue how it worked. That’s why patents were necessary: Disclosure
These days disclosure has become irrelevant. Any engineer can look at an invention or product and figure out both how it works and how it was made. At the very least, they can figure out a way to make it. Just look at all the Youtube channels where every day people are making complicated machines, parts, and electronics! The mysteries are gone. Disclosure is unnecessary.
Since the entire point of patents was disclosure why do we still need them?
- Comment on Palworld Developer Reveals The Pokémon Patents Nintendo Claims It's Violating 5 weeks ago:
Software patents shouldn’t exist!
- Comment on Websites: Then vs Now 5 weeks ago:
Trying the back button to get out of an ad infestation? You get a new ad! Trying again? Believe or not, straight to another ad!
- Comment on Websites: Then vs Now 5 weeks ago:
There’s vastly more malicious code now than there was back then. Every company that has an online presence is constantly under attack. Constantly. There isn’t an IPv4 address that exists that isn’t scanned and have an attempt at hacking performed within seconds of being connected.
Not only that but today’s malicious code is much better at what it does with hundreds of amazing features and methods of branching out using different attack methods. Today’s malware is so good it updates itself very carefully/as secretly as possible so that some old compromised machine that no one thinks about anymore can become the next vector of attack inside your network.
All it takes is one active vulnerability
Keep all your shit up to date, people! When was the last time you checked your router to see if it had updates? Hmm‽
- Comment on Websites: Then vs Now 5 weeks ago:
People are accepting of ads because ads are literally everywhere. A world without ads would be very strange indeed!
Every logo that exists and every product that has its own name/brand printed on it is an ad. Every product name in a catalog or simple list is an ad.
A world without ads would be like hundreds of years ago when you could buy soap that just looked like soap with no labels and no packaging at all. When the only food you purchased was bare produce/meat (or the whole animal). But even then any assembled/manufactured product would have some sort of “maker’s mark”.
I mean, how long have humans been branding cattle? That’s the original use of that term!
- Comment on Pocketpair reveals specific patents featured in Nintendo's lawsuit against Palworld 5 weeks ago:
Software patents shouldn’t exist!
- Comment on Why do Republicans bring up Kamala's "lies"/shortcomings as a way to claim Trump is better? 1 month ago:
Surely they can’t all be this dumb.
After a few decades following American politics you’ll realize that yes, yes they can all be that dumb.
Just have a general conversation with your most conservative neighbors about basically anything and you’ll quickly learn that there’s nothing they don’t have an opinion on and their level of ignorance is… Impressive.
Like, dude, you’re 60+ years old and you think hurricanes are a conspiracy‽ The point where they lost their mind was long ago.
Sooner or later you can’t help but wonder if they ever had sanity or they just faked it long enough to have a career/survive until retirement.
- Comment on Please don't crash. Please don't crash. Please don't crash. 2 months ago:
It’s probably just full of unplayed Steam games.
- Comment on Diego Garcia: What is on the secretive UK-US island in the Indian Ocean? 2 months ago:
Anyone care to guess how long before that island is completely submerged due to rising seas?
Doesn’t exactly seem like a long-term base.
- Comment on How do I avoid enshitification of my keyboard and mouse 2 months ago:
Building your own keyboard is supposed to be fun. You do some research to figure out what you want. Maybe order some sample switches to try out, pick out a keycap set you like, and eventually settle on a kit.
When you order your kit it’ll include a case, a top plate, and a circuit board. If you get one with hot swap sockets you will not have to solder anything. You can literally just press the switches in.
Then when you’re done you screw everything together, put your keycaps on, and you have a working keyboard. Sometimes you have to flash the firmware as a final step but that’s not rocket science. You do not have to know how to program.
- Comment on How do I avoid enshitification of my keyboard and mouse 2 months ago:
You don’t have to solder if you use hot swap sockets for your switches. Even if you never plan to swap the switches the hot swap sockets mean you’ll never have to solder a thing 👍
- Comment on How do I avoid enshitification of my keyboard and mouse 2 months ago:
Just build your own keyboard. That’s what I did (and it turned out fantastic) 🤷
Mice are much easier to deal with since there’s 500 million of them to choose from. Just pick a generic, no-name brand that doesn’t need drivers and you’re all set.
Aside: Building a keyboard isn’t rocket science. It’s just a bit tedious (buy a kit). Unless you invent your own 3D printable keyboard switch and stabilizers from scratch then design an analog circuit board to work with them (also from scratch). Then it’s a bit more like rocket science 🤣
- Comment on Oxygen 2 months ago:
God’s keyboard
- Comment on Be more specific 2 months ago:
Astronomers: The Sun is a recent development
- Comment on Men: What sequence do you fellow to dry your body off after showering or bathing? 2 months ago:
I just shake myself off like a dog.
- Comment on Ayaneo officially enters the U.S. gaming market — $399 Next Lite and $999 Kun now available at Best Buy 3 months ago:
The thing runs Windows so it’s not a Steam Deck competitor… It’s a has-been at launch.
Windows is absolute garbage for a handheld gaming device. When are these manufacturers going to learn and just ship the things with Linux? Many Chinese devices (made for running emulators) ship with some customized Linux so why aren’t more mainstream manufacturers doing it? Seems like a no-brainer to make a better device and save money on licensing costs.
- Comment on LED Sign 3 months ago:
It’s the WiFi password
- Comment on Why is Kamala Harris being held at such a higher standard than Trump this election? 3 months ago:
Rich people believe that no matter how rough the world gets they will be fine as long as they remain rich. History has shown repeatedly that this is a false assumption, demonstrating that the rich in America really are just as dumb as poor conservatives who get suckered into voting against their own interests every election.
Also many of the absurdly wealthy are sociopaths and narcissists (because our economic system allows people like that to succeed by stepping on everyone else). To them, all that matters is how they look among their “in group.” So if they think they’ll look better by being a few billion richer they do whatever it takes to get there… No matter the long term consequences. Either to them or anyone else.
- Comment on How different would the world be if school never ended but you could leave and come back anytime you elect to? 3 months ago:
It’s already like that except the funding part. There’s free online learning for basically anything available to everyone in the world, 24/7. And people do take advantage of it.
You can learn whatever TF you want from reliable, trusted sources it’s just that all you get from it is the knowledge. You don’t normally get a degree or a certificate or anything like that. Because those things are for traditional institutions (and how they make money).
If you really want to learn something, go learn it. What’s stopping you?
- Comment on How different would the world be if school never ended but you could leave and come back anytime you elect to? 3 months ago:
It’s already like that except the funding part. There’s free online learning for basically anything available to everyone in the world, 24/7. And people do take advantage of it.
You can learn whatever TF you want from reliable, trusted sources it’s just that all you get from it is the knowledge. You don’t normally get a degree or a certificate or anything like that. Because those things are for traditional institutions (and how they make money).
If you really want to learn something, go learn it. What’s stopping you?