Lexinonymous's recent activity

  1. Comment on In email, Microsoft suggests Windows 10 users trade in or recycle their PC in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    Resentment of Windows XP was not hard to find upon release. Being the first version of Windows NT designed for the consumer market, there were a number of compatibility shortcomings where people's...

    Windows XP was revolutionary because it was the first NT kernel for the home market.

    Resentment of Windows XP was not hard to find upon release.

    • Being the first version of Windows NT designed for the consumer market, there were a number of compatibility shortcomings where people's software and games wouldn't run correctly.
    • The UI skin was considered ugly and unserious. "Fischer Price UI" was a common jab in this vein.
    • Most notoriously, XP was the first version of Windows to require internet activation. One of the biggest internet memes of the era was a picture of a burned copy of Windows XP with the famous FCKGW CD key on it, taken in front of an advertisement for Windows XP with a digital readout stating that the launch was in 35 days.
    5 votes

  2. Comment on In email, Microsoft suggests Windows 10 users trade in or recycle their PC in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    I think that we can agree to disagree on this point. Windows 11 has more than enough refinements to where I would find downgrading to 10 to be an annoyance. I find the UI and UX changes agreeable...

    An os that is straight downgrade in usability and utility over even Windows 10.

    I think that we can agree to disagree on this point. Windows 11 has more than enough refinements to where I would find downgrading to 10 to be an annoyance. I find the UI and UX changes agreeable for the most part, there are a few "must have" features I love like global Windows Terminal and GUI apps in WSL. Other than that it feels like an iterative release, kind of like an XP, 7 or 8.1, rather than one that rips up the floorboards. The version number even claims to still be 10 if you open up the Command Prompt.

    Though to be frank, I'm also tired of Windows users complaining about every new release of Windows. I feel like aside from 7, every new version of Windows for the past 25 years was disliked on release for various reasons. And if I may indulge in some Windows hot takes, I think Vista was vastly overhated, and Windows 8.1 is the best the Windows Desktop ever looked and only needed a dark mode to be perfect.

    13 votes

  3. Comment on Repeatedly upvoting violent content on Reddit can now get you flagged in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    It is rather ironic that Reddit is talking tough on moderation given how little attachment most users have to their Reddit accounts. You don't even have to choose a username when you sign up anymore.

    It is rather ironic that Reddit is talking tough on moderation given how little attachment most users have to their Reddit accounts. You don't even have to choose a username when you sign up anymore.

  4. Comment on Repeatedly upvoting violent content on Reddit can now get you flagged in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    Reddit has a myriad of issues from both a content and moderation perspective which is very easy to surface from just a casual perusal of the site. And it's not just what is posted for a wide...

    Reddit has a myriad of issues from both a content and moderation perspective which is very easy to surface from just a casual perusal of the site. And it's not just what is posted for a wide audience, if you say the wrong thing you can be on the receiving end of violent threats, racism, misogyny, and any kind of phobia you can imagine.

    It's very understandable why this rule is being made, the least we can do is to not pretend that it's for any altruistic reason or that it signals a paradigm shift for the better in the way they generally moderate the site.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Texas officials report that an unvaccinated child has died of measles in ~health

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    And to further complicate things, what someone might say is the reason for their deeply personal beliefs is rarely their actual reason.

    "They can't be that bad, they also believe my deeply personal beliefs!"

    And to further complicate things, what someone might say is the reason for their deeply personal beliefs is rarely their actual reason.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on Firefox's new Terms of Use grants Mozilla complete data "processing" rights of all user interactions in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    For reference, this is the privacy notice they're talking about.

    For reference, this is the privacy notice they're talking about.

    15 votes

  7. Comment on Resigning as Asahi Linux project lead in ~comp

    Lexinonymous
    Link
    Regardless of my feelings about Rust, it seems like the crux of the issue was that some Linux maintainers were doing their best to sabotage the work of the Rust for Linux team, despite whatever...

    Regardless of my feelings about Rust, it seems like the crux of the issue was that some Linux maintainers were doing their best to sabotage the work of the Rust for Linux team, despite whatever earlier reassurances there were.

    Perhaps the folks on the Asahi Linux side of things could have handled their communications better in response, but I know I would've been quite cross to know that despite reassurances, I had in essence wasted an enormous amount of my own time and energy on something that never had a chance to be merged - time that I could have spent doing something more productive, and more importantly time that I can't get back.

    I hope folks on the Linux side consider this the next time they pontificate about how difficult it is to find maintainers.

    27 votes

  8. Comment on Nvidia’s $589 billion DeepSeek rout is largest in market history in ~finance

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    From what I understand, the open source version you can download and run locally has full knowledge of these topics.

    From what I understand, the open source version you can download and run locally has full knowledge of these topics.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on Are LLMs making Stack Overflow irrelevant? in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    Your picture is incomplete. Suppose that I wanted someone to make an artistic rendition of my face, for use as an avatar, in the style of a specific artist. I could either commission that artist...

    I've seen similar arguments with art, where it's both claimed that AI can't be creative and can't create anything new and interesting... but also it will somehow put all artists out of work. And, well, which is it?

    Your picture is incomplete.

    Suppose that I wanted someone to make an artistic rendition of my face, for use as an avatar, in the style of a specific artist. I could either commission that artist to create that artwork, or I could spend a few hours with AI and have results sooner and at a fraction of the cost.

    If I go with AI, it's certainly more convenient and cheaper for me, but that's money that's not going to the artist who was responsible for the body of work that AI is copyright-washing.

    In short, AI is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

    7 votes

  11. Comment on Bluesky advertises itself as an open network, they say people won't lose followers or their identity, they advertise themselves as a protocol ("atproto"). These three claims are false. in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    If anything, I think that Mastodon had quite nice UX by the standards of most FOSS projects, especially if you were using an app. Yet it almost seemed like there was palpable glee in certain...

    Speaking purely for myself, it's not that I don't understand, it's that I'm jaded after seeing the same pattern repeating over and over. I'm more than happy to talk about alternatives to those who will listen but I no longer have the motivation to convince people that centralized closed-source platforms are inherently unsustainable when the never-ending cycle of enshittification failed to do so.

    If anything, I think that Mastodon had quite nice UX by the standards of most FOSS projects, especially if you were using an app. Yet it almost seemed like there was palpable glee in certain crowds of Twitter users pointing out shortcomings of the project.

    As someone who dabbles in FOSS contributions from time to time, this does not entice me to improve on UX - on the contrary, I get the impression that I'd be better off re-prioritizing features from users who are actually willing to engage in good faith.

    11 votes

  12. Comment on Nepenthes: a tarpit intended to catch AI web crawlers in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    I would suggest an edit pass on your post. There are much better ways of presenting your argument than reducing opponents of AI into a ridiculous strawman, as well as making unfavorable...

    Oh, no, new technology! Indiscriminately bad! Let's break it for no reason other than we don't like it! It's giving luddites of the 19th century, and I think we can do better than that.

    I would suggest an edit pass on your post. There are much better ways of presenting your argument than reducing opponents of AI into a ridiculous strawman, as well as making unfavorable comparisons to a movement that is itself commonly strawmanned.

    12 votes

  13. Comment on US$ 30 million to reinvent the wheel (Bluesky vs. Mastodon) in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    No. People thought that "tweet" was stupid when Twitter was new, and people got over it. It's just that Mastodon didn't have the marketing budget of a real company, and so it couldn't afford that...

    am I the only one who thinks that Mastodon already lost the race when it started, because of its very unappealing name?

    No. People thought that "tweet" was stupid when Twitter was new, and people got over it. It's just that Mastodon didn't have the marketing budget of a real company, and so it couldn't afford that "cool" or "hip" factor.

    The name is a red herring. Mastodon would be in precisely the same spot it is today no matter what it was called.

    25 votes

  14. Comment on US Supreme Court unanimously backs law banning TikTok if it’s not sold by its Chinese parent company in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    Out of curiosity, what effect does this have on TikTok's web presence? Could they not simply skirt the law with a PWA? What about sideloading on supported platforms?

    Out of curiosity, what effect does this have on TikTok's web presence? Could they not simply skirt the law with a PWA? What about sideloading on supported platforms?

    7 votes

  15. Comment on I hate 2FA in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    Agreed. I'm fine using 2 factor, but the fact that I need 3 apps (2FAS, Steam, Duo) plus insecure SMS messages is a pain in the neck.

    Agreed. I'm fine using 2 factor, but the fact that I need 3 apps (2FAS, Steam, Duo) plus insecure SMS messages is a pain in the neck.

    7 votes

  16. Comment on Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    If there was, I would find it difficult to find even a crumb of sympathy for Mullenweg. Heck, I don't even feel that much sympathy for WPEngine either. I feel sorry for clients and developers who...

    Maybe I'm crazy or paranoid for thinking there's orchestrated scandal and press aimed at Mullenweg. But what if I'm not?

    If there was, I would find it difficult to find even a crumb of sympathy for Mullenweg. Heck, I don't even feel that much sympathy for WPEngine either. I feel sorry for clients and developers who have to put up with this BS.

    To me, this isn't about David vs Goliath, it's more like Game of Thrones - a bunch of business nincompoops vying for a crown at the expense of the rest of us. The good guy isn't the one who stops the wheel with themselves on top, the good guy is the one who breaks the wheel, and nobody involved seems willing to do that.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    It's not about transphobia, it's about how he treats people when he has power or leverage over them. It is brought up because you can make direct equivocations between his behavior then and now. I...

    I know nothing about the tumblr thing. It sounds like he’s a transphobe and that’s a bummer and another mark against him.

    It's not about transphobia, it's about how he treats people when he has power or leverage over them. It is brought up because you can make direct equivocations between his behavior then and now.

    But Matt has always put WordPress first.

    I don't see this as being magnanimous. WordPress itself was open source not only out of necessity, but because businesses have learned to treat Open Source like a loss leader - giving away a product for free in return for developer mindshare and labor without paying them, not even giving them a meaningful say in the direction of the product.

    The problem is that Matt is now learning that such a strategy only works so long as there isn't a bigger fish in the sea who can simply out-scale you. Having a loss leader like Wordpress fail to adequately translate into profits for the business isn't a requiem for a community. Matt just wasn't as business-savvy as he thought he was, and now he's panicking.

    6 votes

  18. Comment on Matt Mullenweg deactivates WordPress accounts of contributors planning a fork in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Passing up money matters little to someone who is post-economic, and his actions over the past year can only be described as repeatedly throwing lit bombs into the development community he...

    The difference is that I’ve seen Matt act in the best interests of keeping the WordPress codebase open and try his best to keep a large community of developers from imploding and pass up money for the sake of the whole thing.

    Passing up money matters little to someone who is post-economic, and his actions over the past year can only be described as repeatedly throwing lit bombs into the development community he supposedly prizes. He doesn't seem to care in the slightest about the problems he's causing, either.

    His recent erratic behavior is also not limited to just Wordpress, but instead fits a pattern of abusive behavior in other contexts as well.

    11 votes

  19. Comment on Revisions of ‘hateful conduct’: what users can now say on Meta platforms in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    Part of the problem? Garbage on Meta platforms isn't a problem, it's a symptom. The problem is with Meta itself.

    Part of the problem? Garbage on Meta platforms isn't a problem, it's a symptom. The problem is with Meta itself.

  20. Comment on Announcing Supporters of Chromium-based Browsers in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    Presumably that money will be spent in no small part on chromium-related labor.

    Presumably that money will be spent in no small part on chromium-related labor.