Cycloneblaze's recent activity
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Comment on Proposed amendments to Denmark's laws on copyright and broadcasting would see VPNs limited for common uses under changes to combat access to illegal streaming services in ~tech
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Comment on EU drops 2035 combustion engine ban as global electric vehicle shift faces reset in ~transport
Cycloneblaze LinkHow disappointing. What rank hypocrisy for Volkswagen, famed cheater on emissions tests, to act like they care about emissions from the cars they build. Their support for this climbdown should...How disappointing.
"Opening up the market to vehicles with combustion engines while compensating for emissions is pragmatic and in line with market conditions," said Germany's Volkswagen, Europe's biggest carmaker by volume.
What rank hypocrisy for Volkswagen, famed cheater on emissions tests, to act like they care about emissions from the cars they build. Their support for this climbdown should have been a poison pill.
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Comment on Proposed amendments to Denmark's laws on copyright and broadcasting would see VPNs limited for common uses under changes to combat access to illegal streaming services in ~tech
Cycloneblaze Link ParentWho are these serious human rights organisations, who are these "other groups" who are saying that mass surveillance of digital communication is the only way to prevent crimes? Because I can think...I want to reiterate: There's still no workable solution in this thread to mass surveillance of digital communication. That's not something to forget. I also want to remind everyone that all these law enforcement agencies all over the world, serious human rights organizations, all sorts of groups we should listen to are saying it's the only way.
Who are these serious human rights organisations, who are these "other groups" who are saying that mass surveillance of digital communication is the only way to prevent crimes? Because I can think of a few who would say that the ability to hide your digital footprint is a paramount civil right.
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Comment on Statement from Mozilla's new CEO in ~tech
Cycloneblaze Link ParentYeah the strategy document has a lot to dislike, what jumped out at me: Not for me they won't! And I'll stop using Firefox and Thunderbird if this is what they transform into!Yeah the strategy document has a lot to dislike, what jumped out at me:
New AI-native interfaces will replace traditional browsers and email clients.
Not for me they won't! And I'll stop using Firefox and Thunderbird if this is what they transform into!
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Comment on Without looking, do you have a vague idea of your coordinates? in ~talk
Cycloneblaze LinkI'm quite familiar with how far north I am, to a whole number of degrees, and judging how far east I am on the same scale isn't difficult since I'm so close to the meridian. That's good enough to...I'm quite familiar with how far north I am, to a whole number of degrees, and judging how far east I am on the same scale isn't difficult since I'm so close to the meridian. That's good enough to locate myself on like, a national level. I wouldn't know well enough to navigate in my city or anything.
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Comment on You’re probably using the wrong dictionary in ~books
Cycloneblaze Link ParentI would not call Webster's Dictionary a thesaurus. A thesaurus gives you alternatives for words. Webster's intention was very much to give definitions for words. He did so in a very different way...I would not call Webster's Dictionary a thesaurus. A thesaurus gives you alternatives for words. Webster's intention was very much to give definitions for words. He did so in a very different way to modern dictionaries, but they were still definitions.
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Comment on Cloudflare down again in ~tech
Cycloneblaze Link ParentThere was also an AWS outage in us-east-1 earlier this year, which has pretty much the same impact on end users, so that contributes to a recency bias as well even though it's not Cloudflare.There was also an AWS outage in us-east-1 earlier this year, which has pretty much the same impact on end users, so that contributes to a recency bias as well even though it's not Cloudflare.
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Comment on Bun is joining Anthropic in ~tech
Cycloneblaze Link ParentOkay, lots of tech companies have their issues but you cannot be collapsing the distinction between "AI company" and "tech company" so easily here, I'm sure you're familiar with plenty of...Okay, lots of tech companies have their issues but you cannot be collapsing the distinction between "AI company" and "tech company" so easily here, I'm sure you're familiar with plenty of AI-company-specific reasons why people might actively not use their products!
One relevant reason here might be: how stable are Anthropic's finances? If finances become a problem a small non-priority team might go poof, and that's not a great outcome for anyone else using Bun's software.
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Comment on Reality check: EU Council chat control vote is not a retreat, but a green light for indiscriminate mass surveillance and the end of right to communicate anonymously in ~society
Cycloneblaze Link ParentIt's not a news article, it's more like a press release. If Breyer didn't write it himself, someone on his staff* probably did, but the purpose is to set out his position on the chat control...It's not a news article, it's more like a press release. If Breyer didn't write it himself, someone on his staff* probably did, but the purpose is to set out his position on the chat control policy. An actual newspaper could use it to get background on the Council vote or to quote him. I find the writing and style unremarkable for a press release from a politician like this, but it's certainly different from other kinds of writing.
*I don't know if he has any staff right now, he did when he was an MEP.
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Comment on Some people can't see mental images. The consequences are profound. in ~health.mental
Cycloneblaze Link ParentI think having an internal monologue should be described as the condition!I think having an internal monologue should be described as the condition!
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Comment on Pennies are being canceled and the US Mint won't make any more. What does that mean? in ~finance
Cycloneblaze Link ParentI agree with you on the legality, I'm a little surprised no-one else mentioned it. I think it's a failure of Congress more than anything else. On the impact of rounding, I had the naive assumption...I agree with you on the legality, I'm a little surprised no-one else mentioned it. I think it's a failure of Congress more than anything else.
On the impact of rounding, I had the naive assumption that if transaction totals (not individual item prices) are uniformly distributed, then digits which round down appear as often as digits that round up, resulting in no net impact on you. So I looked for some statistics. I found This recent report from a Federal Reserve Bank and this analysis by a Canadian economics student back in 2013; both suggest that there will actually be a negative impact on consumers based on transaction totals, especially for small numbers of items (which makes sense because if you buy one or two items priced x.99, your total is x.99 or x.98). However they both also suggest that the vast majority of payments already end in 5 or 0, so aren't rounded. I guess you know how common this is for you with the things you buy.
Worth noting that it will be gradual; pennies are still legal tender and they'll only disappear gradually, so businesses will also only introduce price rounding gradually. In Ireland where I experienced it, it was a little more coordinated (the Central Bank basically conducted an information campaign to get retailers and customers aware of rounding all at once, but it was never mandatory) but I expect it'll be a lot more haphazard there. Also since rounding will not be a legal mandate in the US either (as far as I can see), you could always just ask to pay with exact change when it will make a difference to you.
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Comment on Denmark is facing one of the largest legal bills in English legal history, running into hundreds of millions of pounds, after the country lost a high-stakes tax fraud case in London in ~finance
Cycloneblaze LinkThe judgement can be found here.The judgement can be found here.
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
Cycloneblaze Link ParentYou're tarring with a pretty big brush here, would you care to give some examples of the policies that you specifically think we don't find normal?The reality in the post-communist Europe where I live is that the actually leftist democrats like AOC or Mamdani propose a strange mixture of policies, some of which just seem normal like the article claims, and others seem insane and/or remind us of dysfunctional soviet communism.
You're tarring with a pretty big brush here, would you care to give some examples of the policies that you specifically think we don't find normal?
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
Cycloneblaze Link ParentThe cure is worse than the disease... When I read people like you (by which I mean "ideologically right of centre") say things like this I really wonder if you actually find the disease to be so...The cure is worse than the disease... When I read people like you (by which I mean "ideologically right of centre") say things like this I really wonder if you actually find the disease to be so bad. You talk a lot about how hopeless you find communism in this comment, but most of Europe has been politically dominated by centre-right politics for the last few decades (something I know from living here) and I am not confident in how much will there is to actually help the poor, much less progress on that front. You are not going to convince me that my goals and principles are bad by likening them to communist failures.
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Comment on Python Foundation goes ride or DEI, rejects US government grant with strings attached in ~society
Cycloneblaze Link ParentAccording to the blog post from the PSF, this was a completely new grant for them; they didn't have this $1.5 million before. They're losing out on funds they wanted to use on some fairly...According to the blog post from the PSF, this was a completely new grant for them; they didn't have this $1.5 million before. They're losing out on funds they wanted to use on some fairly expensive projects, but they aren't losing any resources they already had.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
Cycloneblaze LinkBorders are fake and we should stop pretending that they're real. I mean this seriously, but in the intended spirit of the thread, feel free to take this argument to ridiculous conclusions :) A...Borders are fake and we should stop pretending that they're real.
I mean this seriously, but in the intended spirit of the thread, feel free to take this argument to ridiculous conclusions :)
A related take: if we're going to have political borders, we should be a lot better about making them follow geography - rivers, mountains, watersheds and so on. Straight line borders are ugly!
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
Cycloneblaze Link ParentI think it's more that some of the people who previously would have made the counterargument have just left Tildes. I don't think that's a good thing on the whole...- Exemplary
I think it's more that some of the people who previously would have made the counterargument have just left Tildes. I don't think that's a good thing on the whole...
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
Cycloneblaze Link ParentWhich country is this? Because I have also lived in Europe all my life and I have never seen thisWhich country is this? Because I have also lived in Europe all my life and I have never seen this
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
Cycloneblaze Link ParentThey are closely related however - silicon is an element, of course, and silicone is a polymer made of silicon, with oxygen and varying other elements. There are several kinds of silicone...They are closely related however - silicon is an element, of course, and silicone is a polymer made of silicon, with oxygen and varying other elements. There are several kinds of silicone depending on the exact chemical composition, but it always includes silicon. So there are several "silicones" and several uses for them other than kitchenware - thermal paste and silicon grease for bike chains come to mind.
I knew silicon and silicone weren't the same, but always thought they must be related in some way since the names are so close, so if you were like me now you know too!
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Comment on Sweden's health minister has urged the EU to push ahead with social media restrictions for kids while insisting it be treated as a pressing matter in ~tech
Cycloneblaze LinkWorth pointing out (again, I hope) that there is no scientific evidence to support the conclusion that social media is unequivocally harmful to young people, or that it needs to be banned. An...Worth pointing out (again, I hope) that there is no scientific evidence to support the conclusion that social media is unequivocally harmful to young people, or that it needs to be banned. An intervention like straight-up banning social media is simple and it's clear but that doesn't mean it's right...
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00902-2
the [...] repeated suggestion that digital technologies are rewiring our children’s brains and causing an epidemic of mental illness is not supported by science. Worse, the bold proposal that social media is to blame might distract us from effectively responding to the real causes of the current mental-health crisis in young people
The critics are relatively united that, rather than banning phones, scaffolded use that ensures teenagers learn to deal with phones and social media in a safe way - helped by the above regulation - is the sensible way forward.
“We should be teaching kids to live in a technological world,” argues Przybylski. “Are we going to let kids just cope with that on their own at 16?["]
“[communicating using] phones has been a way I have seen young people support each other through really difficult times and that would not have easily happened without that phone because of how far those young people were comfortable with face-to-face relationships during those periods,”
Which is not to say that more targeted regulations couldn't be helpful (and not just for young people). The Nature article again:
Second, that considerable reforms to these platforms are required, given how much time young people spend on them [...] including stricter content-moderation policies and requiring companies to take user age into account when designing platforms and algorithms. Other [reforms], such as age-based restrictions and bans on mobile devices, are unlikely to be effective in practice — or worse, could backfire given what we know about adolescent behaviour.
It doesn't serve young people to look at them and act drastically without thinking.
I don't know, is it undoubtable? There's nothing to say that a greatly expanded digital surveillance infrastructure would actually be used to prevent more crimes. Sure, it's likely that some number of crimes could be prevented with it, but there would also be some number of additional civil rights violations, and the opportunity to wield that surveillance infrastructure for selfish purposes might become more interesting than using it to prevent crimes. Hell, if deployed by a corrupt government - or inherited by one - you might imagine, being corrupt, that they would use it to preserve organised crime!
So actually, I think nacho misses the point with the effects of banning tools like VPNs, but I don't think we necessarily need to accept their premise either.