Yaky

@Yaky@slrpnk.net

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨On new installations, Android rebinds the power button to open up Google Assistant⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The best explanation I saw several years ago: Large tech companies drive change through competing individual teams and projects. So some manager pitched a half-assed idea, somehow convinced upper management to go with it, got developers to heroically implement it, and might have gotten some bonus for doing so. It doesn’t matter if there was no value as long as some decision maker thinks there is (or does not care, or numbers were fudged anyway).

  It is literally change for the sake of change.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Ironically, this was the first thing I tried for Matrix deployment circa 2019. Worked like a charm… Until a reboot. Then, since I did not know where anything was installed and how it worked, I had no idea where to even start.

  I guess it would make more sense now that I know a bit more.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  What will I see? I mean I am seeing some corporatization and incompatibilities as I described.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Same for me, I initially went with Matrix for the bridges.

  I think for XMPP it’s gateway or transport, Slidge author (Nicoco) has developed some in the last year.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Any hidden nuances that one has to know for Snikket nowadays?

  E.g. with Matrix Synapse, user accounts cannot be deleted via API, DB accumulates hundreds of thousands of records in state_groups_state taking up space, and for client-side, onboarding is a pain

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Why did you switch? I went from Matrix to XMPP around 2019 since Riot/RiotX (matrix client) at the time would not get notifications in time and/or was a battery hog. And then went back to Matrix when it seemed more stable, to avoid messing with prosody configs.

• Is (Matrix) Element Server Suite overkill for a dozen users?
  Submitted ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨selfhosting@slrpnk.net⁩ | ⁨20⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When was the last time you actually laughed while playing a game?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Stardew Valley has plenty of silly and funny moments to begin with. But the last patch added a “green rain” event, and during the first occurrence, all villagers are hiding inside, except Demetrius. This guy is just walking around in a full hazmat suit, collecting samples and babbling about mushrooms.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a way to listen to only the radio topics I actually care about?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  And its neighbor, WSTB 88.9 The Alternation, with local bands, indie/emo/pop-punk, sometimes clueless DJs, regular news and weather.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What options of resistance are programmers creating to not submit to AI culture?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  AI is a tech debt generator.

  Any programmer who worked with legacy code knows a situation where something was written by a former employee or a contractor without much comments or documentation, making it difficult to modify (because of complexity or readability) or replace (because of non-existing business documentation and/or peculiar bugs and features)

  AI accelerates these situations, but the person does not even exist. Which, IMO is the main thing that needs to be called out.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why is it called linux phone?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  “Android is Linux” is a bit oversimplified.

  What the is issue, still simply, the way I understand it:

  • Linux kernel contains drivers for the specific hardware used in devices (processors, modem, memory, display, camera, etc.)
  • Each Android smartphone has different hardware configuration
  • Hardware manufacturers want to guard their secrets, so they sign contracts and NDAs with phone manufacturers
  • Phone manufacturers create a unique, dead-end fork of a Linux kernel that contains drivers and is configured specifically for that model. (There are exceptions, but generally)

  So yes, Android uses a Linux kernel, but in most cases, a very specific one.

  Why not replace it? This requires:

  • Access to the bootloader and ability to read/write to internal storage on low level, and manufacturers lock it down.
  • Knowing the hardware and the drivers. As mentioned, manufacturers will provide drivers only to their contracts. So someone would need to write a driver.
  • Once someone writes a driver, it can be added to mainline Linux, available to all.
  • That is why “mainlining” a device is a big deal - that means that the kernel for that device can be built, and going forward, that device will be supported for all future kernel versions.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The USA prided itself on a nation of immigrant, heck even the Statue of Liberty says it. When did immigrants (US citizens from the old world) become anti immigrant and why?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  DOJ did denaturalize many members of the German American Bund due to their ties with the Nazi party.

  Source: You Are Not American by Amanda Frost, great book.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I genuinely can't wait for Mobile Linux to become a thing⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The complaints I see about custom OS the most:

  • Bank or payment apps don’t work due to Play Integrity API (blame Google)
  • Some other Google apps don’t work correctly (well… duh)
  • Obscure functionality that is usually overlooked or intentionally ignored, but is a complete dealbreaker for that user.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it worth selling on eBay in 2025?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve sold a few things (games and electronics and such) on eBay within the last year without much hassle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where are all the successful "red cities"?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There are some mathematical models similar to a Voronoi diagram, which would make districts convex polygons.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where are all the successful "red cities"?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  With the new gerrymandering 2.0 Ohio is proposing, soon all of their cities will be “red” (on paper)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where are all the successful "red cities"?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A small town, or a suburb of a city that is described as “a great place to raise a family”. From what I have seen, that usually means one of two things:

  1. The town/suburb is closer to the city, but is wealthy, real estate is expensive, usually very car-centric, which excludes anyone poor (or even middle class, sometimes).

  2. The town/village is far away from the nearest city, not necessarily wealthy, but usually ran by a group of people that know each other (good old boys club), probably heavy on religion or other “traditional” values.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Late Soviet Union might be a similar to what you are looking for? I wasn’t alive back then, but from what I recall from reading old science magazines as a kid, there were few home computers, lots of “radio-hobbyist” stuff (DIY electronics from radio to computers), and praise for “inventor and rationalizer” for the good of the people. On paper at least. I think most interpersonal communication was over the phone or amateur radio, or even telegrams.

  I don’t know much about how modern China goes about it though.

  But TBF it’s very difficult to speculate about message encryption. Thinking back from my own experience, digital communication (over the internet or even SMS over cell phone networks) was not common until 90s-2000s, and encrypting them became a concern not too long ago, early 2010s I think? Before that, it was HTTP (without the S) and unencrypted AIM chats over the Jabber protocol.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do websites now prefer IP-based geolocation rather than the `Accept-Language` HTTP header?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Honestly, plain old ignorance. (and some anglo-centrism)

  I am a software dev, worked on two translation projects at different points in time, and both of them were kind of a mess. In one case, translation team was all Americans (US company), and I was the only person who spoke another language and had firsthand experience with bad translation in media. When I asked how to switch the language in their app, senior dev told me to switch my OS language. Translations themselves often sounded overly verbose, robotic, or plain weird in other languages.

  And then, the typical oversights like not leaving enough screen space for longer translated text, using ambiguous terms without providing context, badly splitting phrases. Text-in-image, etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do fancy cars look fancy and cheap cars don't? Can't you just slap a Lamborghini-style chassis onto a lawnmower engine if you want?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know much about cars either, but that does happen. For example, Cadillac Escalade was/is based on a less-fancy-looking GMC SUV (Suburban?). Chevy Volt is also Cadillac ELR (different body and interior, same drivetrain), Opel Ampera (in Europe), and Buick Velite (in China, because Buick has a better brand recognition there)

  Some cheaper car models come with variety of “sport editions” and out-of-factory tint and spoilers, which would be the equivalent to the RGB computer peripherals that you mentioned, and appeal to specific customers.

  TBH I don’t know why some expensive car designs are perceived as “fancy” or “impressive”. I think they are mostly boring. And quality-wise, anything above bottom tier would have materials that last decades now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what’s the difference between “he died” and “he’s dead”?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Interesting, as an ESL speaker of US English (for several decades nonetheless) the timing sounds the reverse for me:

  “I thought he died” seems to imply the death was recent, and “I thought he was dead” implies the death happened some time ago.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨glupi jebeni bot⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Recently, saw some survey that explicitly said 1-7 is “poor”, 7-8 is “OK”, and 9-10 is “great”. Wild, not sure what the point of the scale is then.

  Same with book ratings. Looking at StoryGraph, the average ratings I see is somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5. While I would rate a decent book a 3.

  Born in Eastern Europe, live in the US, maybe that’s why.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  When I read books, picturing everything in my head is a part of the enjoyment. Often, books describe senses and feelings that would be more difficult to portray in images or video. Some examples:

  Right now, I am reading Ancillary Justice (by Ann Leckie), and the main character (who is the narrator) has difficulty with recognizing gender, so, unless explicitly stated, it is up to me to decide how characters look. Also, main character controls multiple bodies at once, and some paragraphs are full of parallel events and thoughts.

  Annihilation (by Jeff Vandermeer) has a movie adaptation, but it’s different from the book. The book goes deeper into the main characters own thoughts, concerns and regrets. It also describes smells and physical senses quite often, and the creature the main character encounters evokes emotions more so than just a description. And throughout the story, in addition to the general eeriness of Area X, there is just a feeling of being lost. (I should give credit that It Follows does the uneasy feeling really well, too)

  And just to be annoying, I can extrapolate your logic to “video does not show what happens around the camera, VR is better”, and “VR does not bring the senses of touch, smell, and heat, fully immersive simulators are better” :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How I view others in social media⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I am the same way, if I write something, I try to make it a complete, and informative statement.

  IMO this trend started with Twitter 10+ years ago, where short messages were equivalent of shouting into the crowd, and more frequent shouts got more retweets. Then there was the trend of “first” comments, glad that is mostly gone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨how do I avoid becoming conformist, lazy and completely incapable of learning something new?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I knew a guy in his 30s that has similar attitudes: thinks that his ways and opinions are the only valid ones, thinks he is smarter than most people, has instant assumptions about people based on appearance, and does not take criticism well.

  From talking to him, I would say that to avoid becoming someone like him:

  • Do not define yourself in terms of work or money. Yes, most people need a job to pay bills to live. But find a hobby, passion, or charity that you like. Trying to make / hustle / gamble money for the sake of a larger number in your account (with no other goal) is honestly sad.
  • No one is out to get you. Stop seeking enemies or blaming problems on others.
  • Do not make IRL opinions from online “content” (I don’t even wanna know which subreddits and YouTube people this guy follows) Interact with real people.
  • If your friends are repeatedly calling you out on questionable or insensitive actions and opinions, listen and think for a minute.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their proprietary counterparts?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It also works as a weather provider for Gadgetbridge!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What programs do you wish a good FOSS alternative existed, but doesn't or most of the FOSS alternatives simply aren't good?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I have been using OpenSCAD to make models for 3D-printing. I know this is a specific use case, and I have no experience with the “real” CAD software, but OpenSCAD makes sense to me as a programmer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What programs do you wish a good FOSS alternative existed, but doesn't or most of the FOSS alternatives simply aren't good?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You might be interested in postmarketOS They try to mainline older Android devices. It works pretty well on the PinePhone, too.

  As far as I understand, the hardware-adaptive part is difficult to implement because ARM systems do not have automatic hardware detection like x86/x64 PCs do, so the hardware list (tree) has to be known for each device, that hardware is mostly proprietary and requires proprietary drivers. All of which results in Android phones using different per-phone-model kernels.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their proprietary counterparts?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The code is on Codeberg, as seen on their site.

  And it’s free on F-Droid. Playstore has it for $8, which goes to the developer (and probably supporting the conversations.im XMPP server)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their proprietary counterparts?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Markor: one of the few Android text editors/notepads that saves text to text files (crazy idea, right?) and works rally well with Syncthing.

  Conversations.im for Android is an incredibly well made XMPP/Jabber messenger, and their message polling and real-time message delivery is unmatched AFAIK.

  ratbag (and the frontend, piper) is a tool for remapping buttons on mice with a sensible interface. Beats installing proprietary Logitech software.