LukeZaz

@LukeZaz@beehaw.org

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨TikTok set to be banned in the US after losing appeal⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I agree with you that “free market” standpoints aren’t very good places to criticize this decision from – except to point out the hypocrisy of the right-wing, which I do think the original comment was trying to do – but it has to be said that nobody is obligated to criticize both China and the U.S. equally in order to not be a hypocrite.

  One simple example of why would be that most if not all users here have absolutely no say at all as to what China does. There aren’t a lot of Chinese citizenry here. But there are a lot of Americans. It so follows that it makes sense to criticize the U.S. more, because many people on Beehaw can actually do something about it, especially in aggregate.

  It doesn’t help to criticize China much either, anyway. China’s bad, yes; we know. Even among honest-to-god capital-C Communist circles, China is controversial. Posts about it tend to do three things: 1) Create a sort of misery/anger circle-jerk, 2) arbitrarily and unnecessarily signal to others that you aren’t a tankie, when nobody should really need to clarify that in most scenarios, and 3) further U.S. propaganda interests by taking people’s time and attention away from issues they’re more likely to be able to do something about.

  I’m obviously not in favor of forgetting what China’s done, either, but there’s a happy middle-ground I think a lot of Western-centric sites sail right past, and I don’t think any of it is helpful.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨TikTok set to be banned in the US after losing appeal⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Some American or other company should just hurry up and make TokTik and rake in the bucks.

  Google’s already trying. Let’s not encourage them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Right Has a Bluesky Problem⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Eh, I’ll take it. Bluesky’s learned some lessons from the past, for what it’s worth. It has more than a few features that make the network lock-in less intense, so while I fully expect it to enshittify, I do think it’ll be less severe of an affair than it was for Twitter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Social media users probably won't read beyond this headline, researchers say⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I can’t say I’m too confident about data that was obtained by methods including 1) Facebook data collection (we trust that now?), 2) machine learning and 3) potentially nebulous, unspecific definitions of various political groups. Still, allow me to indulge in some confirmation bias, if you will:

  This shouldn’t surprise anyone, if you ask me. People are stressed and limited on time. Of course they’ll take shortcuts!

  On places like Bluesky, most articles, videos or news content I’d share would have more to do with how much I trust the person posting or sharing it than with its main body of content. I figure that someone I value has read it, and so I skip it, because reading it would feel like work and I have to deal with enough of that as it is.

  Places like here, I take more caution, but as a direct consequence of that you’ll notice I really don’t post very much at all. Comments, sure, but that’s because those are more my opinion than anything else. I don’t have the bandwidth to put through more effort than I already am.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New slop just dropped, from OpenAI⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe learn how to use it correctly in its current state

  The slop being talked about in this article was made by OpenAI themselves. You know, the company at the forefront of the AI bubble, with billions of dollars of money behind it?

  I don’t know what kind of mythical standard it is that you believe AI is capable of, but when even the organization at the forefront of the tech can’t make this shit look good, you can’t exactly claim it’s a skill issue.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Humane slashes the price of its AI Pin after weak sales⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Mainly to identify plants and mushrooms.

  Considering modern-day “AI” track records at this, the only thing I’d trust a device like that to do is massively increase poisoning deaths.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Annapurna Video-Game Team Resigns, Leaving Partners Scrambling - Bloomberg⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve always trusted games published by Annapurna to be something exciting, new, and high quality.

  That didn’t make them good either, though. Companies like them and Devolver Digital have had a bad habit of, for lack of a better term, using up developers and throwing them to the curb after. You’ll notice that a lot of stuff they publish get marketed as though Annapurna made them, which ends up hiding the actual developers behind the curtain, thereby robbing them of fans and thus seriously hurting their long-term prospects.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Heaven 17 claims it turned down GTA 6 soundtrack offer over pay offer: ‘Go f*** yourself’ [VGC]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re coming out here arguing in favor of a megacorporation keeping even more money for itself instead of artists getting paid for their work. I feel like you should have expected to have upset people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Risk of Rain developers join Valve, announced in a twitter post.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They’ll get better at managing bugs. What we’ll have to watch out for is other shit.

  In particular, I’m not keen on the main menu ad for the DLC they slapped on, which stays even if you own the DLC.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Monopolies depend on the government to exist.

  I very much disagree but respect a desire to not get into a debate, so I’ll leave it there.

  I really don’t know what that means

  “Your freedom ends at my face” is a saying used often here to contend with right-wing group’s insistence on “freedom,” often the kind that involves harming others; e.g. free speech absolutism and the “freedom” to spout neo-Nazi rhetoric that advocates for the murder of minorities, or the “freedom” to not get vaccinated and thus worsen a pandemic. A more full version might be “Your freedom to throw a punch ends where my face begins.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know if libertarianism courts a different audience in Brazil, but in the U.S. it has a very rabidly right-wing audience who effectively want to tear down as much government as possible, and who view “your freedom ends at my face” as an insult. It’s the ideology of an extraordinarily unregulated market – a true “free market” – which is a monopolistic and wildly unethical disaster waiting to happen.

  Anarcho-capitalism, which your username references, is all of that, only more. So you might understand why effectively everyone here is going to treat that with extreme suspicion.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨TikTok must face U.S. lawsuit over the platform's viral “blackout challenge” that several parents blame for their children’s deaths, an appeals court ruled⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is why I think monitored access is a better idea than total withholding. Kids are going to end up on social media; either as they grow up and eventually become adults, or as a result of peer providing access & pressure. Best to let them on, but ensure they are safe, know how to be safe, and know why to be safe.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨TikTok must face U.S. lawsuit over the platform's viral “blackout challenge” that several parents blame for their children’s deaths, an appeals court ruled⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Makes me wonder if it’s intentional to try to make society a worse place with inventive uses of pushing certain trends on international versions of tiktok instead of filtering them out.

  Good lord, this is a massive reach. A much simpler explanation is that algorithmic garbage is profitable, and China’s government does not care about negative ramifications that occur outside China itself and so do not regulate it.

  China’s run by a terrible government, not an MCU villain.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Around 50 of 100 Tango Gameworks Staff Moving Over to Krafton - IGN⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Though I hope you’re right, there’s no guarantee of that:

  It’s unclear why the remaining approximately 50 staff didn’t join Krafton, but it’s possible they had already found jobs elsewhere as the studio’s closure was announced three months earlier in May 2024.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Second Wind and Frosts leavinf⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  (Disclaimer: I’m a Phoenix supporter of SWG)

  I’ve followed this drama pretty closely in the last few days, and it’s really not all so damning as others here have found it. I could write up something longer, but I don’t want to get too far into the weeds, so I’ll leave it at a few paragraphs.

  The long and short of it is that the way this video was made and posted, in combination with the general atmosphere of the internet trending towards Huge Drama^tm, makes this look like more than it actually is. From everything I’ve seen and heard, I’d characterize Nick’s actions as “flawed human making mistakes” — which is to say, perfectly forgivable. He’s since owned up to the more egregious things, such as his comments in the Gameumentary call, and the folks at SWG have reined in his influence recently due to things like his social media troubles. I personally feel like this was a very good call, and will likely be enough to cover the complaints raised.

  It is also worth noting, though, that not all of the accusations are worth much. I really don’t know how $10 in alleged Twitter bucks is even worth mentioning, especially considering the claim later looks to have turned out to be a misunderstanding entirely.

  All in all, while I believe it’s very fair to want to address these things, and it’s also fair to want to do so in a way that Patreon supporters both existing and potential can use said info to make better assessments with regard to their money, the reality is that the method and platform upon which these grievances were aired lead to a far more bitter and unproductive outcome than was necessary. I still respect Frost, and I don’t think he meant for this at all, but it still happened. Such is the nature of the web, sadly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨10 Years Ago, Hideo Kojima's P.T. Scared the Hell Out of Us on PS4⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, it still amazes me that this never got successfully ripped and emulated. I’ve heard that it’s because there isn’t a reliable PS4 emulator, but frankly that surprises me as well. I’d think that the sheer popularity of this game alone would encourage one to be made pretty heavily, especially since this game looks to be on track to becoming lost media otherwise.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster will no longer grant ‘Erotica’ points for taking photos of women [VGC]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Equal representation’s good, and I never liked this mechanic to begin with. Works for me!

  I still won’t buy it, but that’s because it lacks T.J. Rotolo, not anything to do with this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Proton Now Has a Bitcoin Wallet⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not to mention the obscene fees with using it. Crypto is rife with issues.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google Is the Only Search Engine That Works on Reddit Now, Thanks to AI Deal⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think we’re looking at a future where Google ensures we don’t ever have to worry about making such a choice.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is Firefox supposed to do?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This really doesn’t make Brave look any better though, seeing as it has its own version of “privacy-focused” attention-monetization schemes (Basic Attention Tokens) and its own fair share of controversies. Not to mention being Chromium under the hood and being developed by a company headed by Brandon Eich of all people — a massive homophobe.

  None of which make Firefox impeccable or ever did. But all of which made Brave decidedly worse to me, including after this all happened.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Proton Now Has a Bitcoin Wallet⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I… can’t tell if this is sarcasm?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Police Really Want a Cybertruck, Email Shows⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The core problem is that there are so many things that can help prevent the problems from arising to begin with that need to be done before policing is even considered. Better healthcare, housing, education, etc. Police are, at best, a last resort solution to desperate cases, and they tend to be hammers looking for nails as a result. It might be possible to do it well, yes, but it’s very hard, and you should really be looking for a less antagonistic solution first.

  To take your idea of “speeding at 100+” as an example: This could be solved by replacing cars with public transport, such that people don’t really have so many opportunities to go 100+ to begin with, or by using traffic calming techniques to make it feel too unsafe for anyone to want to try, or using alternative road layouts to make it significantly harder to pull off at all (e.g. roundabouts). There are many options, almost all of which are better – and less punitive – than the police.

  Also, tangential, but…

  crisis councilors aren’t going to be driving trying to perform a PIT maneuver.

  Of course not; PIT maneuvers would kill people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Police Really Want a Cybertruck, Email Shows⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly? Considering how little the police actually do to help anyone, versus the huge amount of harm they cause, I’m not entirely convinced that “Get rid of all police” wouldn’t be a good idea. And I’ve seen a lot of leftists who felt similarly. So “those on the other side” aren’t entirely wrong; they just don’t understand how incredibly bad police are.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Goldman Sachs: AI Is Overhyped, Wildly Expensive, and Unreliable⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I find comments like these on places like Beehaw almost amusing in a way. It’s like watching a drunk person stumble from a bar all the way to a courthouse and getting upset the clerk won’t sell them more liquor.

  Seriously though, I’m not sure what you hope to accomplish here. Just about everybody here disagrees and isn’t keen on a take like this, and I’d figure you’d have been able to tell as much before posting. So… are you just here to argue?