NGram
@NGram@piefed.ca
- Comment on ‘There isn’t really another choice:’ Signal chief explains why the encrypted messenger relies on AWS 54 minutes ago:
I don’t think that’s necessarily incompatible with what I suggested. They could just leave the backup servers offline until they’re actually needed which shouldn’t cost them anything (or at least not much; some cloud providers charge for a VM’s storage usage regardless).
Assuming that Signal’s servers were designed by competent engineers, the engineering cost to make a change like this shouldn’t be that bad. Though judging by Whittaker’s comments, that may be a bad assumption.
- Comment on Bloodlines 2 is losing a drinking buddy as spinoff Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt plans server shutdown 1 hour ago:
So when are they releasing the servers for us to run?
Since I’m reasonably sure they won’t, anyone interested in writing a server emulator?
- Comment on ‘There isn’t really another choice:’ Signal chief explains why the encrypted messenger relies on AWS 1 hour ago:
It is true that there really isn’t another cloud provider that they could choose. All of the other cloud providers (major and minor players) are prone to the same sort of systemic failure. But it isn’t true that they didn’t have another choice.
The solution to service failure is redundancy. Making the redundancy as different as possible makes it even more resilient. In this case, that would be having redundant servers on other cloud providers which can be used in the event that the main one fails. Even better if they can use all of them simultaneously to share the load and let failover happen more gracefully.
- Comment on [Mujin] It's Time to Accept That Nintendo is a Supervillain 4 days ago:
I guess now is better than later, but plenty of people already knew that litigious and rich companies are never good.
- Comment on The Ofcom Tea Party: 4Chan Lawyer publishes Ofcom correspondence, British regulator claims “sovereign immunity” to defend itself – and sovereign powers to regulate foreign companies 1 week ago:
The author's take is a bit baffling to me. Trying to apply the US constitutional amendments against a foreign government institution to protect a US company is dumb. Those amendments strictly apply to the US government. As long as the company provides services in the UK, they are subject to UK laws on those services. If I start shipping firearms from the US to the UK it'd be perfectly reasonable for the UK to stop those packages at the border and destroy them. Network packets don't just magically transcend borders.
The reasonable consequence of noncompliance is to block the service. Yes, that's essentially paving the way for a national internet filter like China's Great Firewall, but that's why we have to fight the entire law not just the enforcement of it.
The Online Safety Act is horrible and a nightmare for so many reasons, but arguing it's unenforceable on the grounds of being in a different country is just blatantly wrong.
- Comment on [Eurogamer] Pokémon Legends: Z-A review 1 week ago:
a joyful proof of concept
Wow that's a sad thing to say about the second game in that (sub)series. Even the first should've been more than a proof of concept. It would be excusable for a $20 early access game on Steam to be a tech demo of this calibre, but not a $85 (CAD) game. It does interest me enough to consider eventually picking up a used copy do dump to my Steam Deck, which is about the highest complement I can offer a Nintendo game.
- Comment on A Flagship Smartphone With Kill Switches? Meet the Murena-Powered HIROH Phone 4 weeks ago:
Yeah, so did I. I've got a Fairphone 4 which has midrange specs and a flagship price. But that wasn't my point; the article is wrong, the specs are not flagship territory.
Paying more for less is stupid, but paying more for things that others don't value so highly (e.g. a headphone jack, privacy, ethical production, durability, etc.) is actually smarter than buying the popular thing.
- Comment on A Flagship Smartphone With Kill Switches? Meet the Murena-Powered HIROH Phone 4 weeks ago:
Hopefully it sells better than the other phones on the market with hardware switches (e.g. PinePhone).
the phone is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 8300 SoC, paired with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of internal storage. These specs place it firmly in flagship territory
That's not a flagship processor according to MediaTek; it's in their "premium" category (8000 series) which is one step down from their "flagship" category (9000 series). The RAM and storage seems possible to get on decent midrange/high-end phones in the USD $600-700ish range too. I found the Vivo V60 and OnePlus Nord 4 with similar specs pretty quickly. The Hiroh phone is definitely priced like a flagship though.
Now, I'm not saying flagship specs are really worth it these days (except maybe camera stuff), but this is definitely not a flagship phone.
- Comment on Microsoft blocks Israel’s use of its technology in mass surveillance of Palestinians 4 weeks ago:
Apparently genocide is ok but mass surveillance isn't, so they'll continue to do business with Israel but just won't let one unit use it.
Microsoft must completely stop all service to everyone in Israel. Anything less is still supporting genocide.
- Comment on Framework Laptop 16. Upgraded! 1 month ago:
It's never really been about upfront price so much as longevity. If you can avoid a laptop upgrade e.g. every 5 years by upgrading just a few components instead, it'll last you longer and cost you less longterm.
Fundamentally, the cheapest way to build electronics is with very little modularity. Making parts swappable is more complicated to design and needs more components to be included. Both drive up the cost of the product.
No sweat if it's too expensive or that's not what you care about (ok, though you should sweat not caring about longevity), but making it all about the price is sort of missing the point. Capitalism is a tool for improving our lives but is not the only tool for that.