ThrowdoBaggins's recent activity
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Comment on What's a product or service that you use but don't want to pay for and why? in ~life
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Comment on I am angry at Google and wanted to share (rant) in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentApologies if you’ve already checked them out, but does FastMail fit what you’re looking for? I’m not sponsored or anything, but I’ve been thinking of switching to them recently, and I saw (some)...Apologies if you’ve already checked them out, but does FastMail fit what you’re looking for? I’m not sponsored or anything, but I’ve been thinking of switching to them recently, and I saw (some) localised pricing on their website, but it might still not meet what you’re looking for.
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThere kinda is a limit, yeah. It’s called a “Planck second” and you can look up the number associated with it, but it’s so impossibly tiny as to be meaningless unless you’re doing physics. You may...What is the smallest possible unit of time? Is there a fundamental minimum “tick” size, or is every duration infinitely divisible?
There kinda is a limit, yeah. It’s called a “Planck second” and you can look up the number associated with it, but it’s so impossibly tiny as to be meaningless unless you’re doing physics.
You may already know that the universe has a maximum speed limit (the speed of light).
And you might be able to imagine that there’s a minimum size; if you have an apple, and cut it in half, then cut one piece in half again, and again and again, eventually you’ll have a single molecule/atom/subatomic particle depending on how far you want to keep going, but eventually you’ll hit a limit. This is called the Planck length.Then if you combine these concepts, what happens when you have the fastest possible speed and the shortest possible distance, then you end up with the briefest possible moment — any moment more brief can only be had if something is faster than the fastest speed, or a distance is shorter than the shortest length. But these two limits put a cap on their shared relationship via time, and so you have the briefest possible time. The Planck second.
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Comment on What are some of your routines or habits? in ~life
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI am jealous (or unsettled) by your hours of sleep per night. If I get less than 9 hours, I’m grumpy for the whole day. I’m pretty sure this is one of those things where I need to just bite the...I am jealous (or unsettled) by your hours of sleep per night. If I get less than 9 hours, I’m grumpy for the whole day.
I’m pretty sure this is one of those things where I need to just bite the bullet and follow up with my referral to talk to the nose surgeon (deviated septum and some other thingy that means I snore like a freight train) because from other people who have had similar sleep apnoea and gone for surgery, they’ve told me that they wake up more refreshed even with less sleep than they used to need, so I’m hoping it can do the same for me.
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Comment on What are some of your routines or habits? in ~life
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThank you for that tiny Windows 11 text hint! Our workplace upgraded last month (I know, pretty late to the party, I’m pretty sure Win10 end of support is really quite imminent) and I’ve learned...Thank you for that tiny Windows 11 text hint! Our workplace upgraded last month (I know, pretty late to the party, I’m pretty sure Win10 end of support is really quite imminent) and I’ve learned that the power button never actually shuts down, but I’ve trusted the start>shutdown button so far. Maybe I’ll switch to holding Shift and see if it behaves differently?
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Comment on What are some of your personal misheard lyrics? in ~music
ThrowdoBaggins LinkStill sing it, turns the song into a surreal trip or deep philosophical discussion I think it’s actually: All of us stand and point our fingers“I don’t understand the point of fingers”
Still sing it, turns the song into a surreal trip or deep philosophical discussion
I think it’s actually:
All of us stand and point our fingers
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI suspect there’s some truth to this, as it’s very similar to what I’ve heard about the hate towards vocal fry. Which has been a thing for a very long time, it certainly wasn’t invented in the...I think what happened with 'literally', is that it was a common linguistic trope within a certain valley girl-esque social stratum, and people found this usage (and the social stratum as a whole) annoying. The prescriptive notion that the word is being used incorrectly was invented as a way to legitimize this sense of annoyance, and it was further confounded by the fact that the word is itself being used figuratively (which is an antonym of 'literally').
I suspect there’s some truth to this, as it’s very similar to what I’ve heard about the hate towards vocal fry. Which has been a thing for a very long time, it certainly wasn’t invented in the last few decades, but it’s recently become very popular in some places to hate on vocal fry with or without the explicit valley-girl association in the same breath
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentFor an example, I think generally people would accept that “the Russian Federation is a continuation on from USSR, or it followed after the USSR, but you can’t really say that it is still the USSR...For an example, I think generally people would accept that “the Russian Federation is a continuation on from USSR, or it followed after the USSR, but you can’t really say that it is still the USSR because too much had changed”
I believe OP’s point is that you can’t really say the Byzantine Empire had changed enough from the Roman Empire to call it a different thing, it’s still the same thing so why are you giving it a different name and pretending there’s some substantially relevant difference between them?
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentWith the context of words, does “nauseated” have a common root with “nautical”? Like, is “seasick” just saying the same word twice?With the context of words, does “nauseated” have a common root with “nautical”? Like, is “seasick” just saying the same word twice?
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Comment on Updates to Xbox Game Pass: Introducing Essential, Premium, and Ultimate plans in ~games
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentSteam Deck 2: Episode 2 in 2031?Steam Deck 2: Episode 2 in 2031?
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Comment on California attorney fined for using twenty-one AI hallucinated cases in court filing in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI think this might be one of those examples where a more conventional ML model that’s not an LLM would be more helpful — I suspect if even rare hallucinations are still a dealbreaker, trying to...I think this might be one of those examples where a more conventional ML model that’s not an LLM would be more helpful — I suspect if even rare hallucinations are still a dealbreaker, trying to make any LLM work is just setting yourself up for a bad day.
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Comment on My take on Apple's Liquid Glass in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI wonder if that’s from the designer/developer not realising that human light sensitivity doesn’t scale linearly, so they need more contrast at higher brightness than they would need in dark mode?Flat design light mode themes tend to have worse contrast than their dark counterparts too, for some reason. Like where in dark mode a slightly lighter background color might be used to signify a grouping light mode will either use a gray so light it’s barely distinguishable or forego the grouping color altogether.
I wonder if that’s from the designer/developer not realising that human light sensitivity doesn’t scale linearly, so they need more contrast at higher brightness than they would need in dark mode?
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Comment on Dark patterns killed my wife's Windows 11 installation in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI could be wrong, but I suspect your experience as an IT person using windows in a professional environment is substantially different to anyone who is using the most basic or cheapest version of...I could be wrong, but I suspect your experience as an IT person using windows in a professional environment is substantially different to anyone who is using the most basic or cheapest version of windows available.
I haven’t looked into Windows 11 much because I was immediately turned off by early reports of embedded advertising and Recall, but I remember when I was researching for Windows 10, it was clear to me that even though I could have claimed a “free upgrade” from windows 7, that it was a much better idea for me to buy a proper full windows 10 licence, in order to access the features I wanted (and to be honest, most of the “features I wanted” were to “be able to uninstall Internet Explorer and Cortana and loads of other bloat that I hated”)
Again, I’m not a windows expert my any means, but given their history of reinstalling stuff and changing my settings with an update which never mentions what the update changes (or better yet, just taking you to a “knowledge base” page that enumerates every single change in order to be overwhelming to the general user, so that I don’t spot that it’s reinstalling something I deliberately removed previously), I am not surprised at all by any of the individual claims of this article. Which, even if the specifics of this article are fabricated, the fact that it’s believable is still an indictment on the state of windows and its updates.
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Comment on Are touchscreens in cars dangerous? in ~transport
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI recently came across a reaction channel on YouTube which was doing a series on “traffic safety ads” and while some of them were quaint “hey kids, remember to look both ways before crossing the...I recently came across a reaction channel on YouTube which was doing a series on “traffic safety ads” and while some of them were quaint “hey kids, remember to look both ways before crossing the road” from the 60s and 70s, there were also some incredibly potent, devastating, emotional ones in the mix which might help visualise some of the risks of distracted driving.
I don’t know if there are any recent enough to show the dangers of built-in touchscreens, but in general if you look for ads from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand; they tend to not hold back when it comes to showing you the possible consequences without necessarily being gory.
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Comment on Dark patterns killed my wife's Windows 11 installation in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentAs someone who is not quite a power-user but definitely competent, I’d like to push back against this worry, mostly because for me, having these skills (to troubleshoot and problem-solve just...I guess I'll just say, it seems really dangerous in this day and age to build products that keep the users so far removed from any understanding of how they function when the entire world increasingly relies on those products.
As someone who is not quite a power-user but definitely competent, I’d like to push back against this worry, mostly because for me, having these skills (to troubleshoot and problem-solve just about anything that I come across) is rendered immediately useless by the fact that my corporate laptop is significantly locked down.
What is the point of knowing exactly how to describe an issue, to find solutions on the internet, to be comfortable with simple registry edits and maybe copy-paste a command line or two; when said solutions are a complete non-starter for my work laptop, because it’s got so many added guardrails to prevent me from taking anything but the most basic steps?
I think the whole world has gone in that direction, and I think risk-averse corporate IT teams have moved in tandem with user-hostile tech companies in the push towards locking down devices to “save users from themselves”. So I’m no longer convinced that it’s an important skill for the everyday person to have, in the everyday environments that they operate in.
(Edited to add final thoughts:)
I hate to admit it, but I think kids arriving at college who don’t know what a filesystem is, are actually perfectly adapted to the future work environment, and I’ll be the old man yelling at clouds in a few decades when “things used to just behave themselves when I knew how they worked” — I suspect in much the same way that people who love tinkering with cars today will lament electric cars becoming commonplace.
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Comment on Dark patterns killed my wife's Windows 11 installation in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI feel like this describes how I gained my computer expertise as a kid — we always had a family computer growing up, but I got my very own laptop when I was in high school, and I think I had...But now I wonder how badly someone just tech savvy and bold enough to try with zero understanding could mess with a computer...
I feel like this describes how I gained my computer expertise as a kid — we always had a family computer growing up, but I got my very own laptop when I was in high school, and I think I had broken something or other and needed to completely reformat and reinstall MacOSX from the installation CDs at least three times within the first year of having it (and less often but still happened occasionally for the many years that I had that laptop).
As long as nothing on the computer is precious, I think it’s fine. It taught me a lot about what breaks a computer and also how easy it is to reinstall the OS, both of which are valuable skills even though I’ve never had a tech job.
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Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI can’t remember where I came across it, but I believe if you dig deep into settings you might be able to create custom vibration patterns — so maybe you could encode the Morse code into the...I can’t remember where I came across it, but I believe if you dig deep into settings you might be able to create custom vibration patterns — so maybe you could encode the Morse code into the vibrate pattern instead of beeps, and that way you can keep the phone as silent as you want it?
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Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentWhen I switched from an iPhone with the home button to this new one without the home button, I found it so difficult to go back to the home page or to switch between apps in landscape mode, so...I also have a double tap for the tapback to go to the home screen. I don't use it a lot, but it has come in handy
When I switched from an iPhone with the home button to this new one without the home button, I found it so difficult to go back to the home page or to switch between apps in landscape mode, so I’ve ended up binding the “action button” to go to the Home Screen (via the world’s simplest shortcut, because it’s not one of the default options)
I have backtaps set to double-tap to go greyscale, and triple-tap to invert colours. I’ve also set an automated shortcut to put the phone into greyscale mode during my “bedtime” because it makes things just a little less attractive to pick up my phone when I should be sleeping. And the triple tap invert colours is mostly for effectively on-demand dark mode for apps/websites that don’t support it on my terms.
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Comment on Your phone already has social credit. We just lie about it. in ~finance
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThere’s been some drama recently about the incredibly chilling effects and direct action that video game developers have been hit by recently, including and up to being removed from large online...There’s been some drama recently about the incredibly chilling effects and direct action that video game developers have been hit by recently, including and up to being removed from large online game stores (such as itch and Steam).
As best I understand it, Steam and Itch have taken these actions not because of specific games being shown to break specific laws, but rather because payment processors have given vague statements about inappropriate themes. As attention was drawn to it, rather than provide any specific examples of games which break any laws, the payment processors hid behind vague rhetoric of illegal content in games in general. When the games platforms directly reached out to the payment processors with the intention of working with them for games which had been identified, the payment processors declined to work with them.
Out of fear of losing all access to payment processors entirely, Steam and Itch hid or deleted large swathes of porn themed games even when there was no direct evidence of direct lawbreaking, because neither platform has the kind of legal or moderation teams to undertake a review/audit of every single game on their platform at once.
As is often the case with this kind of broad, sweeping action, there were non-sexual LGBT-themed games which got caught up in things too, but I believe many of these have since been reviewed and restored.
And all this began not because of any criminal proceedings, or the outcome of an audit or anything, but rather because a vocal group from Australia intentionally put pressure on these payment providers because they don’t like sex in games. I believe the group is religiously associated, possibly Christian-based? And they have a history of attempting this kind of pressure with the intention of removing all sex media by hiding behind arguments of legal liability and criminal content, and usually in general terms, rarely identifying any specific media or relevant laws as they launch their campaigns.
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Comment on iPhone 17, 17 Pro and Air announced in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins LinkIn March/April this year, I was on the fence about buying a new phone. My previous phone was holding up fine, so it wasn’t urgent, and I was tossing up between getting the 16 Pro Max or holding...In March/April this year, I was on the fence about buying a new phone. My previous phone was holding up fine, so it wasn’t urgent, and I was tossing up between getting the 16 Pro Max or holding off until the 17 was announced.
Ultimately I decided to go for the 16 mostly because I wanted nicer cameras before heading to a festival, so I could take lots of photos while I was there. I was even considering getting the 16 and then upgrading to the 17 as soon as it came out, since I know there’s a trade-in/upgrade program if your phone is still in good condition.
Seeing the hideous 17 Pro Max I am so glad I jumped on the 16, and I will not be considering upgrading until the phones look half decent again. I could even forgive their lack of black/grey option if it was basically a single colour all over, but that horrible two-tone back panel and the mismatched colours around the raised section are so ugly to me.
Unless
you’re using Firefoxyour web browser reports that it’s Firefox. They’ve been caught a few times in recent years where videos would take a few seconds to load even on a totally fresh installation of Firefox, but simply changing the ‘user agent’ to Chrome immediately had the problem disappear.