Lexinonymous's recent activity

  1. 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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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.

  13. 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.

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

    Lexinonymous
    Link
    Huh? Chromium is not some community project contributing to the societal greater good, it's an open source project stewarded by a monopolist who uses it as a tool to enforce their supremacy over...

    Huh? Chromium is not some community project contributing to the societal greater good, it's an open source project stewarded by a monopolist who uses it as a tool to enforce their supremacy over web standards and the greater web ecosystem.

    This just seems like an invitation for other companies or individuals to contribute free labor in the interest of continuing that monopoly. No thanks.

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

    Lexinonymous
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    True, and I'm also not sure what would happen if there was a "login with facebook" that I had used previously and forgotten about. I've been pondering ways to deal with the potential fallout -...

    True, and I'm also not sure what would happen if there was a "login with facebook" that I had used previously and forgotten about. I've been pondering ways to deal with the potential fallout - perhaps changing my name/personal info and removing vulnerable contacts before I do so.

    I suppose it's a matter of how likely it is that whoever gets my account will try and pretend to be me in a spear phishing attack, as opposed to changing it to pictures of an AI supermodel and spamming about weight loss pills.

    Personally, I look at it as a form of enshittification accelerationism. You want to turn your platform into a cesspool? Fine, let me give you kindling for the fire. Anything for engagement, right?

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

    Lexinonymous
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    It seems like Facebook is doubling down on being a cesspool, hoping it will boost engagement. I've been mulling on the idea of a form of revenge - handing my social media accounts off to spammers...

    It seems like Facebook is doubling down on being a cesspool, hoping it will boost engagement.

    I've been mulling on the idea of a form of revenge - handing my social media accounts off to spammers and scammers, and if asked simply saying I got hacked and I don't care enough about those platforms to get my accounts back.

    Frankly, at this point, the only thing that's stopping me is that I actually wouldn't know how. Compromised social media accounts are clearly in demand, but I actually don't know where to begin when it comes to "Hey, you can have this account for free without having to hack it."

    12 votes
  17. Comment on Why aren't we talking about the real reason male college enrollment is dropping? in ~life.men

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    It doesn't matter what language you use, because the language will be redefined and villified regardless. See what happened to "woke" for a perfect example.

    If you know it is a landmine, why not avoid the term and talk about the concepts more directly?

    It doesn't matter what language you use, because the language will be redefined and villified regardless. See what happened to "woke" for a perfect example.

    10 votes
  18. Comment on Why aren't we talking about the real reason male college enrollment is dropping? in ~life.men

    Lexinonymous
    Link Parent
    I can't help but be reminded of conversations around "toxic masculinity." It's yet another sore subject concerning privilege with a concrete definition. The comparison it makes is a useful one,...

    I don't know. I think the comparison is a useful one and doesn't condemn the men involved inherently.

    I can't help but be reminded of conversations around "toxic masculinity." It's yet another sore subject concerning privilege with a concrete definition. The comparison it makes is a useful one, but even mentioning it in passing will attract incalculable amounts of anger by those who equate the saying with "all men are toxic."

    It's endlessly frustrating. At what point do we stop arguing over parlance and start arguing over the substance of what is being said?

    12 votes
  19. Comment on Anyone interested in trying out Kagi? in ~tech

    Lexinonymous
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    In my experience, situations like these are pretty representative of how HN behaves when queerness happens to crop up in conversation, and I was tired of being ambushed by it. I also found myself...

    In my experience, situations like these are pretty representative of how HN behaves when queerness happens to crop up in conversation, and I was tired of being ambushed by it.

    I also found myself disinterested in the way technical conversations would tend to unfold if they were either at all controversial (systemd, Rust) or if they were the hot-button tech craze of the week with tons of funding behind it (Crypto, NFT's, or AI.)

    Also, somewhat related to the above two points, I find Hacker News to be much more eager to downvote/flag as a means of disagreement than Reddit.

    4 votes