Barney's recent activity
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Comment on Epic Games announces Lore open-source version control system in ~tech
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Comment on Smartphones arrived just before the US fertility rate plunged. One study says it’s a direct cause. in ~health
Barney Link ParentIndeed, which will naturally happen no matter what since people have to live somewhere. Mortgage usually requires a 20% down payment, which most people do not have, so they're forced to rent their...Indeed, which will naturally happen no matter what since people have to live somewhere. Mortgage usually requires a 20% down payment, which most people do not have, so they're forced to rent their entire lives. Additionally, and this is the most concerning part, houses and flats these past 2 decades have been rapidly appreciating assets.
To give an actual example, the flat I've been renting for the past 10 years cost 550k when it was built 10 years ago. It is around 800k at the moment, meaning its value increased by 250k simply because it's older. No renovations, no additional features or anything, it's simply older. Which means, if I were saving up to buy this flat, if I'd saved up less than 250k over the past 10 years (2083 / month), I would be farther from buying it today than 10 years ago. And I'm not even living in one of the big cities.
Which is mental.
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Comment on Smartphones arrived just before the US fertility rate plunged. One study says it’s a direct cause. in ~health
Barney Link ParentA minor correction regarding this point. Homeownership rates will not increase unless legislation is passed to facilitate it. I am in Switzerland, and a formidable percentage of homes are owned by...with homeownership rates only increasing as the Boomers die off.
A minor correction regarding this point. Homeownership rates will not increase unless legislation is passed to facilitate it.
I am in Switzerland, and a formidable percentage of homes are owned by insurance companies and private pensions. The property of an old homeowner dying will more often than not end up in the hands of the aforementioned parties, not working or even middle class citizens.
The average person has already been, and unless things change, like will remain priced out of ever owning a home.
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Comment on Arch User Repository compromised, 1500+ packages affected in ~tech
Barney (edited )Link ParentI think it's very important to note, that while yes, the AUR is unofficial etc., there's an astronomical difference between and There is no justification for this sloppy of a process. At the very...These PKGBUILDs are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly* vetted.
I think it's very important to note, that while yes, the AUR is unofficial etc., there's an astronomical difference between
"use these at your own risk, we're not thoroughly vetting them"
and
"literally anybody with 0 track record can claim thousands of orphaned packages without any need for approval and immediately push changes to them".
There is no justification for this sloppy of a process. At the very least, a new maintainer claiming packages people have installed needs some approval process, even if it's community driven. I.e, if it gets X downvotes in a week, it doesn't go through. Something MusicBrainz does for example.
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Comment on Earth’s east–west albedo symmetry in ~science
Barney Link ParentIf you consider clear-sky albedo, cloud radiative effect and open-ocean fraction combined, yes. However, purely for Earth's albedo as a whole, it's guaranteed to exist somewhere. Still, the fact...If you consider clear-sky albedo, cloud radiative effect and open-ocean fraction combined, yes. However, purely for Earth's albedo as a whole, it's guaranteed to exist somewhere.
Still, the fact all three are equal is fascinating. There's still so much we don't understand about global weather phenomena and geophysics. Very interesting times.
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Comment on Earth’s east–west albedo symmetry in ~science
Barney (edited )Link ParentCan we assume that the function is sinusoidal? Its derivative need not be symmetric between hemispheres either. The Earth's surface is very heterogeneous, so I don't think we can assume that it...Can we assume that the function is sinusoidal? Its derivative need not be symmetric between hemispheres either. The Earth's surface is very heterogeneous, so I don't think we can assume that it is.
Imagine a hypothetical planet where one half of it is covered in ice while the other half is made up of forests. The IVT still guarantees that you can choose a part of the planet that's albedo equals the rest, but it need not be two equal parts. And in this hypothetical planet's case, it trivially isn't. IVT only results in two equal hemispheres if the planet itself is homogenous.I'll leave the above example here for posterity but it's obviously incorrect and in no way refutes the claim lmao.
Edit:
After thinking about it a bit more, the only requirement for this to hold is that the albedo of the Earth, when measuring across a longitude, or indeed any dividing plane that passes through the centre, is continuous, since the choice of meridian is free. It doesn't even need to be sinusoidal. It truly is just the IVT after all.
Thank you for the great thought exercise @whbboyd, it would never have occured to me that this could be due to such a fundamental theorem.
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Comment on Earth’s east–west albedo symmetry in ~science
Barney Link ParentThe intermediate value theorem only guarantees that you can divide it into 2 parts of equal overall albedo, not that those parts are equal in size, which the 27° E meridian does. That is the...The intermediate value theorem only guarantees that you can divide it into 2 parts of equal overall albedo, not that those parts are equal in size, which the 27° E meridian does. That is the surprising part of this finding.
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Comment on Humble Choice - June 2026 in ~games
Barney (edited )LinkAnother month, another massive win for WINE / Proton! Love to see it! Really cool set of games as well! I intend to play Octopath Traveler 2 and Hell Clock. Seems like a silly little ARPG....- Exemplary
Another month, another massive win for WINE / Proton! Love to see it!
Really cool set of games as well!
I intend to play Octopath Traveler 2 and Hell Clock. Seems like a silly little ARPG. Probably nothing shockingly good, but reasonably interesting!That leaves me with the following games I have no need for:
Life is Strange: Double ExposureIndikaCitizen Sleeper 2- Construction Simulator
- Overlooting
If anyone would like any of these games, please respond here and I'll DM you the redeem link!
Do note that some games may or may not be region locked (I am in Europe). If for some reason you are not able to redeem the game due to region locking, please relinquish it to someone else :)
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Comment on My Accessibility Stack and the future on Wayland in ~comp
Barney Link ParentHave you read the post I linked? Gnome devs are constantly abused everywhere on the internet, at times simply for being a Gnome dev other times for their UI design philosophy. Read from section...Have you read the post I linked?
Gnome devs are constantly abused everywhere on the internet, at times simply for being a Gnome dev other times for their UI design philosophy.
Read from section 3.3 in particular.
I fully expect everything I say in this article to be dismissed or be taken out of context on the basis of ad hominem, simply by the mere fact I’m a GNOME Foundation member / regular GNOME contributor. [...]
I can’t speak for other regular contributors, but I presume that they don’t feel comfortable talking about this because they dared be a GNOME contributor. At least, that’s how I felt for the longest time.It’s so unfair and infuriating that all the work I do and share online gain very little activity compared to random posts and articles from privileged people without disabilities that rant about the Linux desktop’s accessibility being trash. It doesn’t help that I become severely anxious sharing accessibility-related work to avoid signs of virtue signalling.
We simultaneously need more interest from people with disabilities to contribute to free and open-source software, and the wider community to be significantly more intolerant of bullies who profit from smearing and demotivating people who are actively trying.
We should take inspiration from “Accessibility on Linux sucks, but GNOME and KDE are making progress” by OSNews. They acknowledge that accessibility on Linux is suboptimal while recognizing the efforts of GNOME and KDE. As a community, we should promote progress more often.
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Comment on Clanker: A word for the machine in ~tech
Barney Link ParentThat's a shockingly good parallel. An LLM "expressing", for the lack of a better word, remorse or any sort of regret, guilt etc. when it makes a mistake is complete fluke. When it encourages or...That's a shockingly good parallel. An LLM "expressing", for the lack of a better word, remorse or any sort of regret, guilt etc. when it makes a mistake is complete fluke. When it encourages or praises you, there is nothing real behind it.
Almost exactly like the demons in Frieren imitating human behaviour and appealing to their emotions.
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Comment on My Accessibility Stack and the future on Wayland in ~comp
Barney Link ParentI think you misunderstand their point. I won't claim to know what that particular developer meant by their comments, but the accessibility topic is very much a double edged blade. See this post by...I think you misunderstand their point. I won't claim to know what that particular developer meant by their comments, but the accessibility topic is very much a double edged blade. See this post by EvilSkeleton, one of the Gnome devs putting in most of the accessibility work.
And the above comment by BuckyMcMonks really resonates with their frustration. There's no we in accessibility development. We are not putting in any of the work. We are only using what's given to us, and then complain that it's not complete.
Accessibility is a very important topic, and if you follow the development channels, there is actual work being done across the board. The thing is, there is a lot of work to do and not enough people to do it. Being more demanding or assuming bad faith is not the right way to go about this.
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Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk
Barney Link ParentNot to mention how incredibly uncommon this is here. Certainly possible that it's a coincidence, but definitely makes one think.Not to mention how incredibly uncommon this is here. Certainly possible that it's a coincidence, but definitely makes one think.
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Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" in ~humanities
Barney Link ParentWhich becomes even more apparent when put this way. A monotheistic religious person already rejects and doesn't believe in thousands of gods, for no particularly convincing reason, yet they rarely...Which becomes even more apparent when put this way.
A monotheistic religious person already rejects and doesn't believe in thousands of gods, for no particularly convincing reason, yet they rarely entertain the thought why those gods and that faith can be dismissed as false so easily.
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Comment on New Steam Controller reportedly $99 in ~games
Barney (edited )Link ParentFrom the video: So just having steam running in the background isn't enough.From the video:
If you want to play non-steam games with gamepad controls, you'll need to launch them through steam.
So just having steam running in the background isn't enough.
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Comment on New Steam Controller reportedly $99 in ~games
Barney Link ParentThis is the exact Steam / Valve apologism I was talking about. Yes, the developer could change it, but why is Steam getting waved through for encouraging these outrageous prices in the first...This is the exact Steam / Valve apologism I was talking about. Yes, the developer could change it, but why is Steam getting waved through for encouraging these outrageous prices in the first place? Why do you think that they are not responsible for it?
How about indie games? How is an indie developer supposed to know which regional prices are fair and rich aren't? And why would they lower a price for a region, if Steam recommend a higher one?
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Comment on New Steam Controller reportedly $99 in ~games
Barney Link ParentThat sort of supports my point, I think. The things you listed are the bare minimum service expected from an online store. They're doing nothing praise-worthy. As for fairly priced games, I have...That sort of supports my point, I think. The things you listed are the bare minimum service expected from an online store. They're doing nothing praise-worthy.
As for fairly priced games, I have to completely disagree. Let's take a popular AAA game as an example that's available on GOG too, Baldur's Gate 3.
On Steam, the game costs 59.99 USD, which is with current exchange rates 48 CHF. On Steam, Baldur's Gate 3 costs 69.99 CHF, which is 89 USD. Excuse me, what?????
The same game on GOG costs 58 CHF, 17% cheaper, and I actually own the game. This is the exact same for the overwhelming majority of games. Steam is actively scamming Switzerland (the most), among other countries. I know developers can change their regional prices, but pretty much nobody does. 60 USD games are almost always 70 CHF.
I generally support regional pricing for poorer countries, but the opposite is ridiculous. They also do 1 USD = 1 EUR in their pricing, even though the exchange rate is 0.85. Poland sometimes gets prices close to Switzerland, with a significantly lower median income.
Steam's pricing is in no way fair and are absolutely gouging the consumer for all they're worth.
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Comment on New Steam Controller reportedly $99 in ~games
Barney Link ParentThis is only tangentially related to the controller, but This is something I personally have never understood. From my personal experience, Steam is just as bad and predatory as every other...This is only tangentially related to the controller, but
people love steam so much they will never bat an eye at being forced to use it.
This is something I personally have never understood. From my personal experience, Steam is just as bad and predatory as every other company out there, yet they seem to get a free pass by the community for some reason?
They take a whopping 30% cut from sales, you still don't own the games you purchase on steam (unlike GoG, for example) and their desktop app is a slow, overall dreadful a resource hog. Their regional pricing is completely unfair and exploitatory and the list goes on.
It really annoys me when people (not meaning you) talk about steam like they're some benevolent, charitable entity. And the positive reception and complete disregard for this controller's shortcomings is an excellent example of that. If Epic Games or EA released this controller, the reception would 100% be different.
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Comment on New Steam Controller reportedly $99 in ~games
Barney Link ParentIt needs steam to be running, which is quite annoying.With anything running Steam
Steam Controller works with any PC or device running Steam or the Steam Link app. This includes Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs, as well as tablets and smart phones.
It needs steam to be running, which is quite annoying.
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Comment on New Steam Controller reportedly $99 in ~games
Barney Link ParentIt will act like the layout of the thing you pair it to. So there will be a button / sign mismatch on PC, since the version that supports both PC and Switch comes with a Switch layout. I totally...It will act like the layout of the thing you pair it to. So there will be a button / sign mismatch on PC, since the version that supports both PC and Switch comes with a Switch layout.
I totally get where you're coming from though, I found AB stuff difficult to get used to as well.
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Comment on Fits on a floppy - a manifesto for small software in ~tech
Barney Link ParentThanks! For iOS it's a bit easier since there's at least a framework you can rely on. For linux, pretty much nothing is guaranteed to be on the system and there's no real OS-wide standard, so I...Thanks! For iOS it's a bit easier since there's at least a framework you can rely on. For linux, pretty much nothing is guaranteed to be on the system and there's no real OS-wide standard, so I was wondering where the line is drawn.
Really cool idea! Cheers!
I don't have much to add because one really needs to try it to see how brilliant it is.
JJ was the biggest quality of life improvement I have ever made to my coding flow.
It is actually incredible.