fakeman_pretendname
@fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk
- Comment on Petition: Ban behavioural data extraction for advertising 5 days ago:
Tony Blair’s in 2006 originally, then it got binned off for a while, but came back under the Tory/Libdem coalition, which has gradually morphed into what we now use. More info on wiki page
Sadly doesn’t give us a very good idea behind the intent without, as you say, reading a lot more about it.
- Comment on Be alert. Don't let Santa trick you 5 days ago:
“That’s a challenging wank”
Sean Lock on “8 out of 10 Cats” (skip to 3 minutes in)
- Comment on Petition: Ban behavioural data extraction for advertising 5 days ago:
Short answer : Not a lot.
Long answer : If they reach a certain amount, they get discussed in parliament and you get an official response to the issue. The response is normally “no”. I don’t know of any occasion of one causing major changes.
What it does do though, is force (somebody within) the government to take a position on an issue, and they can no longer say they are ignorant of it. Having an official response means they must explain their counterarguments and reason for denial. If this is then brought up by other means in future, you know what you’re arguing against.
Depending on where you live and who your local MP is, you may get better results writing to your local MP, who in theory should be supporting the views of their constituents.
Ultimately, it’s a bit weak. Perhaps the response is worth it, as a stepping stone to further methods on an issue - though it’s been suggested that it’s a distraction, making people fill in a form to “get the anger out of their system”, and then not protesting or raising awareness by other means.
I still fill them in, but I don’t expect much from them.
- Comment on Asking the important questions. 6 days ago:
I wish I could be a big enough
thotcapitalist to sell my farts for $45k.You should give them away for free, comrade. They are the people’s wind.
- Comment on Pineapple was never the problem 1 week ago:
I know society expects me to dislike a macaroni cheese pizza, but that looks absolutely delicious.
- Comment on Meta seeks to block further sales of ex-employee’s scathing memoir 2 weeks ago:
Also available on Kobo (Canadian Company) as an e-book. It does contain Adobe DRM though, so you would need to remove that with Calibre if you want to keep it on other devices.
- Comment on Got y'all some nightmare fuel 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, but with “RFK Jr” in charge of everything medical, and Donald’s age, poor health and probable lack of a vagina, I don’t anticipate either the baby or the birthing-parent surviving childbirth.
So when we take the horrific pain, and 0% survival rate into account, perhaps it’s more of a "twisted and bleakly sadistic dream’ than a nightmare?
- Comment on Murica 4 weeks ago:
Revolution to mean revolving/rotating
- Comment on Current chain of command 5 weeks ago:
Surely the child has a toy bear or glove puppet that outranks Trump in the chain of command?
- Comment on What do you use to digitize your old vacation VHS? From SECAM tapes?!? 5 weeks ago:
The TV card looks promising - I’ve never tried one myself - do let us know what you end up with, and how well it works - it’s good to know about other options :)
- Comment on What do you use to digitize your old vacation VHS? From SECAM tapes?!? 5 weeks ago:
The MiniDV camcorder was being used basically for its Firewire output (ignoring the actual tape deck), but I don’t think Firewire tended to be used for output on any VHS kit.
I can’t confirm the linked one off Amazon definitely works, but it’s that type of device I used with Linux, just a ten year old one. I think I ended up running it through VLC to capture, or possibly I’d found a small dedicated program for it. I’d likely use OBS, if I was doing it again.
I don’t know why it killed your previous device - that looks a lot more well made than the shoddy little wire thing I was using!
- Comment on What do you use to digitize your old vacation VHS? From SECAM tapes?!? 5 weeks ago:
I’ve previously used a bog-standard £20 “video capture to USB” device (like this sort of thing (amazon link)), but from about 10-15 years ago. That particular one says it does Secam, apparently.
Anyway, this went into an S/Video/RCA to SCART adapter, which went into the VHS player.
The VHS player played PAL, SECAM and NTSC. The majority of tapes I was working with were PAL, but there were a handful of SECAM and occasionally NTSC, so I can’t 100% confirm that device worked with SECAM - but If it didn’t… this other method must have…
The other method I used was running the signal through an old Mini-DV camera, which I guess must have had an input through the AV port (3.5mm jack from RCA) or an Svideo port, then it outputted through the DV/iLink/Firewire port, then into the Firewire port of the computer - through this “daisychain”, you could capture VHS directly into Mini-DV capturing software, but also output video from the computer directly to VHS.
Bear in mind I was mostly doing this between 2002 and 2008 (and even using “Windows XP”), so I can’t guarantee that pathway even works these days.
The USB capture card method I’ve done far more recently on Linux.
- Comment on "Reach" news websites 1 month ago:
Other than the ads, there’s also the issue of them posting local articles for other towns on all of their linked websites, without necessarily specifying what town it relates to.
Especially “fun” if they have an article about a really interesting local project or a shock workplace closure etc, and get everyone excited/worried but the newspaper website doesn’t reveal it’s actually from an unrelated town 300 miles away.
- Comment on Twinkle Tush 1 month ago:
Looks like someone’s been reading the Thesaurarse / Thesaurass.
- Comment on I will take no arguments 1 month ago:
That sounds amazing. I’d love to see a photo. I’d planned a similar project with an old radio, but it’s one of those things that’s been on my “I’ll get round to it eventually” list for 5 years :)
- Comment on I will take no arguments 1 month ago:
I guess it’s very much a matter of taste.
Ten years or so earlier, you could still get a TV where the sides of the case were made of wood. Wood, metal and black plastic throughout. Physical buttons that went ‘clunk’, a physical slider to adjust the volume, a metal dial for tuning.
To me, that was peak design.
- Comment on It's coming 1 month ago:
- Comment on WH Smith in secret talks to sell historic high street arm 1 month ago:
I suspect that whoever they sell it to is going to carry on doing exactly the same thing. I’m sure part of the appeal in the sale is all of those “captive audience” shops in train stations etc.
- Comment on my escaping the matrix moment was when i stopped being ashamed of my anthropomorphic wolf porn obsession 1 month ago:
I believe it’s an artist’s rendering of close-up of a cartoon rabbit’s bumhole.
- Comment on Digital driving licences to be ‘put on phones this year’ 2 months ago:
I don’t know about guest user stuff either actually - I might look into it at some point if I feel the need.
And yes, I’ve only ever used the “pin app” practically for letting young relatives play games and stuff on my phone, knowing they won’t be able to switch apps and send anyone a message - like the “Poo poo willy bum” incident last year :)
- Comment on Digital driving licences to be ‘put on phones this year’ 2 months ago:
Well yeah, if they really wanted to “get you” for something, I’m sure they’ll find a way - but it’s a good bare minimum for casual snooping - avoiding the awkwardness of someone accidentally swiping onto your Jerboa app and then you having to explain how “writing silly comments about guillotining billionaires and throwing right-wing politicians into the sea isn’t actually a serious terrorist threat, officer”.
- Comment on Digital driving licences to be ‘put on phones this year’ 2 months ago:
It won’t solve the above, but if you’re not aware already, you can “pin” an Android app to lock it to the screen, so nobody can easily switch to another app without using your login pin/code/pattern.
Firstly, to turn it on, you need to go to Settings>Security & Privacy>Other Security Settings and switch on “Pin App”. The location of this setting may be different depending on the manufacturer of your mobile phone.
Then, to lock a particular app to the screen, press the three-lines button (maybe a square on your telephone?) to open up the program switcher, then press the circular thumbnail of the icon at the top of the screen, to open up the menu you didn’t know existed, and select “pin this app”.
Without your password or login pattern, your telephone will only show the currently open app. Nobody can switch to other programs or mess with other stuff without unlocking the phone.
To unlock it afterwards, you then hold the < and the three lines buttons for a few seconds, then enter your normal login code/pin/pattern to unlock. It will tell you this when you lock it.
- Comment on Darn it 2 months ago:
The invention of Racism is often credited to Scottish inventor Alexander Graham Racism - though it’s generally now considered that German inventor Johann Philipp Reisism had a practical example of Racism fifteen years earlier.
- Comment on He died trying to suck his own penis, RIP. 2 months ago:
It was trying to plug its power output plug into one of its power input sockets to get “free electricity”.
- Comment on Nigel Farage distances himself from Elon Musk on Tommy Robinson 2 months ago:
That might be a bit tricky - perhaps he could simply distance himself from both dry land and boats, by “Maxwelling” himself into the sea?
- Comment on British girls outdrink boys — and most of Europe 2 months ago:
It is often traditionally considered to be an achievement in Britain, yes.
Ideally you don’t get drunk though - you should be able to drink as much alcohol as possible, whilst showing as few effects as possible, for some reason. If you become drunk after too few alcoholic drinks, you “can’t handle your drink” and you are a “lightweight”. These are both negative characteristics in a person.
I’m not saying I necessarily agree with this, I’m just saying it exists :)
- Comment on Anons make the worst game ever 2 months ago:
Why are they starting with “starting the game”?
They forgot to start with a kernel-level anticheat and a pointless, slow to load “need an account, always online” launcher.
- Comment on Hubris 2 months ago:
Too late, I’ve already dipped me Hob-Nob in me mug o’ Bisto.
- Comment on Uh. So how are the Maplin's in your area doing? 3 months ago:
A lesser known UK option that may be worth checking is ebuyer.com for some of your A/V, networking and computer stuff. Nowhere near the full range of Maplin/Amazon etc, but they will deliver quickly from UK warehouses - and if you’re trying to avoid using Amazon, always worth an extra option.
- Comment on Vegan drink Oatly can’t call itself ‘milk’, judges rule 3 months ago:
Actually, now I think about it, that only covers one section of the market.
You should also release exactly the same product with with different packaging a few times:
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One with an off-brand Mr T character mascot, called “I Pity The Gruel”.
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One called “Bilk : Better than Milk”.
That’s a few shelves of supermarkets covered with selling the same thing. I’m sure you can cover some more with a few like “Barista Supreme: Oat-based Cream”, “Oat Water”, “Oat Juice” and simply “Oat-based Drink”. Maybe even “Oat Blood”, for Goths and “My dad was a gruelmaker” for Keir Starmer fans.
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