definitemaybe

@definitemaybe@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Youtube can detect VPNs now... the fuck?⁩ ⁨⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Sure, but there are also lots of other ways around it. Non-chrome browsers (or Chromium-based browsers) still allow for good extensions that can block YouTube ads.

  Firefox + uBlock Origin still works great, even when all the front-ends are broken.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Youtube can detect VPNs now... the fuck?⁩ ⁨⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Pipepipe has been more reliable for me, lately.

  But who knows how long these alternative front-ends will last? It’s a constant cat and mouse game between volunteers and Google.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A tangled web of deals stokes AI bubble fears in Silicon Valley⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The challenge, as always, is to never underestimate a bubble’s capacity to outlast your solvency. I personally know people who have been heading against the housing “bubble” in Canada bursting since 1999. They’ve spent a lot of money with nothing to show for it, yet, and missed out on housing prices, like, quadrupling? Quintupling?

  So, good luck. Buying out-of-market puts might be a safer bet, since you’re most likely to “just” lose all your money, with a small chance of a massive payout of it “properly” crashes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A tangled web of deals stokes AI bubble fears in Silicon Valley⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Exactly right. Parent poster is conflating the investment in “AI” since 2022 (almost exclusively meant to mean LLMs, like ChatGPT) and specialized “AI” systems (almost exclusively “machine learning” systems).

  A LLM is just about useless for any sort of surveillance or data analysis tasks. The bigger fear with LLM proliferation is as a propaganda machine, astrotufing the whole Internet with mass LLM-generated bullshit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft doing shady Microsoft stuff again⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe try ReviOS? It’s a “playbook” file you run on a clean Windows 11 install that strips out all of the telemetry and junk, and mostly “just works”. The only big potential pain point, imho, is not getting automatic driver updates from Windows Update.

  I just installed CachyOS with virt-manager running ReviOS in a virtual machine. For my needs, it’s amazing. Arch Linux allows for easy updates to the latest versions of software and CachyOS further improves it with optimized, pre-compiled packages, which is particularly relevant for a smooth gaming experience. (Outdated packages aren’t a good mix with new games, and the optimized packages improve performance.)

  The only “big” challenge I’ve had with Windows is getting videoconferencing working smoothly (my webcam is flickery), but that’s not a big deal. Zoom in Linux works great, and Teams/Zoom both work well in browser (in Linux). So, most of my work stuff is in the VM, but I have Zoom and a separate browser (for Teams meetings) installed in Linux.

  This setup requires a bit of technical skill; you need to be able to find and follow guides. (Ex. I need to troubleshoot why I couldn’t change the VM resolution, and the fix was to download a set of VM tools in Windows.) If you have light technical skills to search for and read guides, it shouldn’t be too challenging.

  (I use Arch, by the way.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨have some standards⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Sure, but even so: that hardware isn’t going to be obsolete or wear out for a long time.

  Compared with going to a concert that can be $10K for 2 people to attend a single show.