Macha's recent activity

  1. Comment on I'm tired of dismissive anti-AI bias in ~tech

    Macha
    Link Parent
    It's a solved problem which the AI companies ignored the solution to in their rush to gobble up as much data as possible before their competitors got their first or regulators could slow them...

    It's a solved problem which the AI companies ignored the solution to in their rush to gobble up as much data as possible before their competitors got their first or regulators could slow them down.

    I'm not sure how anyone can be surprised that that leads to resentment or a lack of faith that AI companies will ever be motivated to fix their crawlers

    21 votes

  2. Comment on Bluesky’s quest to build nontoxic social media in ~tech

    Macha
    Link Parent
    Eventually they no longer care about growth though. Once you're locked in, they figure they can extract some money from you and sell the site onto the next sucker before it comes crumbling down....

    Eventually they no longer care about growth though. Once you're locked in, they figure they can extract some money from you and sell the site onto the next sucker before it comes crumbling down. It takes effort to uplift your social circle to another platform, so it's usually a decent way into enshittification before users actually start leaving.

    How are Tumblr, Deviantart and even Twitter doing in terms of user satisfaction amongst the groups that used them at their peaks these days?

    10 votes

  3. Comment on Bluesky’s quest to build nontoxic social media in ~tech

    Macha
    Link Parent
    The mistake here is assuming that venture capitalists care about value for users in the long run. They care about value for users only long enough to pump the user numbers, then they care about...

    The mistake here is assuming that venture capitalists care about value for users in the long run. They care about value for users only long enough to pump the user numbers, then they care about revenue at the expense of users, then they care about how much they can sell it for at IPO, and then at that point it's not their problem anymore.

    Execs similarly are compensated based on what the market did this quarter, and not what the ~2 year outlook for their user counts is when they switch the squeeze on.

    17 votes

  4. Comment on What's an opportunity that you missed? in ~talk

    Macha
    Link Parent
    Of course, even if you had obtained some, probably you would not have held until the current market value and instead sold at like $10/$100/whatever, and then this post would end up being wishing...

    Of course, even if you had obtained some, probably you would not have held until the current market value and instead sold at like $10/$100/whatever, and then this post would end up being wishing you hadn't sold. So I think I'm at peace with a similar situation for myself, since nobody had a crystal ball.

    9 votes

  5. Comment on Megathread: April Fools' Day 2025 on the internet in ~talk

    Macha
    Link Parent
    I don't have them often, but is the covering not just regular sugar? The flavouring is part of the jellies themselves I thougt

    I don't have them often, but is the covering not just regular sugar? The flavouring is part of the jellies themselves I thougt

  6. Comment on Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account in ~tech

    Macha
    Link Parent
    Isn't the green screen just for their insider/beta program? Like, not a thing that's in the program to roll out after testing, but as a means to specifically identify beta crashes

    Isn't the green screen just for their insider/beta program? Like, not a thing that's in the program to roll out after testing, but as a means to specifically identify beta crashes

    7 votes

  7. Comment on Amid calls for sovereign EU tech stack, Swedish startup Evroc raises $55M in Series A funding to build a hyperscale cloud in Europe in ~tech

    Macha
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I suspect it's a few things: the big clouds already have a lot of data centres in Ireland, which means a lot of competition. E.g. eu-west-1 is in Ireland which is quite popular from people trying...

    I suspect it's a few things:

    • the big clouds already have a lot of data centres in Ireland, which means a lot of competition. E.g. eu-west-1 is in Ireland which is quite popular from people trying to target western Europe but also having decent links to the US
    • the Irish power grid has been having scaling trouble which has caused delays to data center projects in recent years, as well as in some cases protests as there are some people who believe data center usage has a larger impact on local energy prices than it probably actually has.
    • if your pitch is specially European data centers for European clients serving European customers, more central locations are geographically preferable for latency reasons.
    4 votes

  8. Comment on Important 2025 Plex updates in ~tv

    Macha
    Link Parent
    (in fact, emby trying just that is the jellyfin origin story)

    (in fact, emby trying just that is the jellyfin origin story)

    6 votes

  9. Comment on Question about routers and access points in ~comp

    Macha
    Link
    You'll want to put the Netgear router into AP mode (see page 113 of the manual: https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/XR300/XR300_UM_EN.pdf ). Then the device you put in front will handle...

    You'll want to put the Netgear router into AP mode (see page 113 of the manual: https://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/XR300/XR300_UM_EN.pdf ). Then the device you put in front will handle most of the advanced functionality and the Netgear will just provide WiFi.

    Alternatively, you can operate the Netgear normally behind the other router but that will lead to a lot of problems with double NAT (especially if you play games with P2P networking, which is a lot of gameshttps://www.downloads.netgear.com/files/GDC/XR300/XR300_UM_EN.pdf), and it won't help if the problem is your netgears performance in the first place.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on Disney scales back ‘Snow White’ Hollywood premiere amid Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot controversies in ~movies

    Macha
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    There are definitely other dwarfs that disagree with dinklage: https://movieweb.com/dwarf-actors-peter-dinklage-refute-comments/ I'm not sure how widespread each view is, since we only ever really...

    There are definitely other dwarfs that disagree with dinklage: https://movieweb.com/dwarf-actors-peter-dinklage-refute-comments/

    I'm not sure how widespread each view is, since we only ever really hear from the like 10 celebrities with dwarfism, so there's a lot of room for sampling bias either way. (And of course it you're an actor that makes your living playing dwarfs on movies or tv, that might make you more favourable to those roles continuing to exist)

    7 votes

  11. Comment on What works do you think should be added to the literary canon? in ~books

    Macha
    Link Parent
    Night Watch is probably my favourite Discworld novel, but despite being seemingly standalone in its plot, I'm not sure it really would hit as hard without having read some of the prior...

    Night Watch is probably my favourite Discworld novel, but despite being seemingly standalone in its plot, I'm not sure it really would hit as hard without having read some of the prior ankh-morpork books to understand the progress that's at stake

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Digg is relaunching under Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian in ~tech

    Macha
    Link Parent
    "Popcorn tastes good" - Alexis Ohanian, 2015, responding to complaints about firing of an employee Spez being the sole leader since kn0thing's withdrawal has done wonders for Ohanian's image, but...

    "Popcorn tastes good" - Alexis Ohanian, 2015, responding to complaints about firing of an employee

    Spez being the sole leader since kn0thing's withdrawal has done wonders for Ohanian's image, but he had his share of community upsets too.

    8 votes

  13. Comment on Why is ~society not listed among all the other groups in the sidebar when logged out? in ~tildes

    Macha
    Link
    The sidebar lists your subscriptions. ~society was added relatively recently and only those participating on related threads were automatically subscribed.

    The sidebar lists your subscriptions.

    ~society was added relatively recently and only those participating on related threads were automatically subscribed.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on EA releases source code for several Command and Conquer games under GPLv3 in ~games

    Macha
    Link
    Includes: Tiberian Dawn & Red Alert 1 (remastered was already open source, this is the original windows release) Generals and Zero Hour Renegade This is pretty much the source as is, so doesn't...

    Includes:

    • Tiberian Dawn & Red Alert 1 (remastered was already open source, this is the original windows release)
    • Generals and Zero Hour
    • Renegade

    This is pretty much the source as is, so doesn't build unless you can get yourself a copy of things like DX5, but potentially useful for fan projects, modders, or OpenRA.

    12 votes

  16. Comment on How core Git developers configure Git in ~comp

    Macha
    Link
    A lot of these are unlikely to ever become a default for fear of breaking tools that rely on parsing git's CLI output, which makes me wonder if the Git CLI needs something like Rust's "editions"...

    A lot of these are unlikely to ever become a default for fear of breaking tools that rely on parsing git's CLI output, which makes me wonder if the Git CLI needs something like Rust's "editions" to improve it's ergonomics. Set core.edition=2025 or run git --edition 2025 and get all these as defaults rather than have to configure them individually.

    9 votes

  18. Comment on HP ditches mandatory fifteen-minute wait time policy due to 'feedback' in ~tech

    Macha
    Link Parent
    So the idea with it is by making calling be unpleasant, there would be fewer calls and therefore less work for the call center staff collectively. Agreed so far. Bit of a blunt solution. But...

    So the idea with it is by making calling be unpleasant, there would be fewer calls and therefore less work for the call center staff collectively. Agreed so far. Bit of a blunt solution.

    But assuming it would be good for the call center workers individually seems to be missing why the call centers are so high stress. It's not just because of the volume of calls, but because the companies employing them keep staffing to the minimal possible level. If there's less work for the staff, companies will just take that slack and use it to have less staff, not to ensure a more reasonably paced and pleasant work environment.

    And then you're just making things worse for consumers to reduce staffing costs for companies that have already been paid for products and services. I don't see why this would be a good idea.

    8 votes

  19. Comment on What low-stakes drama is going on in your circles right now? in ~talk

    Macha
    Link Parent
    Used to have two dogs, one large and one small. We bought a larger bed for the big dog when he got bigger. The small dog would kick him out of it, so we had to get two big beds in the end.

    Used to have two dogs, one large and one small. We bought a larger bed for the big dog when he got bigger. The small dog would kick him out of it, so we had to get two big beds in the end.

    7 votes

  20. Comment on HP ditches mandatory fifteen-minute wait time policy due to 'feedback' in ~tech

    Macha
    Link Parent
    Or they'll just cut staffing numbers

    it does allow for some wiggle room for those working the call center

    Or they'll just cut staffing numbers

    8 votes