ThrowdoBaggins's recent activity
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentOkay fantastic! Last year I already moved all my photos away from google, so I don’t even have that as a consideration anymore. But your benchmark tells me that my barely-used 2TB external drive...Okay fantastic! Last year I already moved all my photos away from google, so I don’t even have that as a consideration anymore. But your benchmark tells me that my barely-used 2TB external drive is easily enough to hold onto everything well into the future. Thank you!
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Comment on Dissecting bad internet bills with a digital rights advocate: KOSA, SCREEN Act, Section 230 repeal in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins LinkOhhh I completely misunderstood “bad internet bills” and thought it was someone needing digital rights advocates to help them go through a horribly convoluted nvoice from their ISP in order to...Ohhh I completely misunderstood “bad internet bills” and thought it was someone needing digital rights advocates to help them go through a horribly convoluted nvoice from their ISP in order to challenge unnecessary costs and charges!
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI’ve had an Apple account since the very early iTunes days, I believe since around 2005 or so, and my family’s financial situation growing up trained me to never trust credit cards or have...I’ve had an Apple account since the very early iTunes days, I believe since around 2005 or so, and my family’s financial situation growing up trained me to never trust credit cards or have services linked to my actual bank account. I’ve been buying those $20 and $50 “iTunes gift cards” as the only way to buy apps or in-app purchases for literally decades. I think of it somewhat like having my bank account airgapped from my spending, as a way to help mitigate against impulse spending.
Last year, when I finally decided to upgrade my phone, my brother had credit card bonuses which needed him to spend a certain amount within some time limit, so he bought Apple gift cards up to the amount that my phone cost, since I was making the purchase anyway and didn’t care what method of payment.
There’s nothing illegitimate about buying that much Apple credit, especially for someone who already has invested into the ecosystem. I could easily imagine someone spending that credit over a few years on subscriptions for whichever professional macOS or iPad software they needed, so why not get a bunch of it all at once?
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentIn this thread, I’ve seen “Google Takeout” referenced a few times — can you give me an indication of your usage of Google services, which services you actually use the Takeout for, and the end of...In this thread, I’ve seen “Google Takeout” referenced a few times — can you give me an indication of your usage of Google services, which services you actually use the Takeout for, and the end of year file size that you have to work with once it’s arrived?
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThat’s a little disappointing to hear, because one of the reasons I finally bought a domain this year was because I was sick of websites saying the ‘+’ character makes my email address invalid. I...Several times a site or app wouldn't allow me to create an account without using a large provider's domain like gmail or outlook, particularly those relating to job-hunting, claiming my email address wasn't valid.
That’s a little disappointing to hear, because one of the reasons I finally bought a domain this year was because I was sick of websites saying the ‘+’ character makes my email address invalid.
I heavily lean into “myname+service@gmail” format when I create a new account, both as a scam-protection measure (if this is a legitimate email from my bank then why was it sent to myname+petsupplies@gmail?) and also to see which service leaked/sold my email address to spammers/scammers.
I’m hoping that by having my own custom email domain, I can do the same one-email-alias-per-service system without being snagged by the ‘+’ character. If too many services don’t even allow my own domain then that’s going to be pretty disappointing.
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Comment on Modern Christmas carol renditions that aren't mediocre CCM? in ~music
ThrowdoBaggins LinkI don’t think he ever turned it into a whole album, but my single favourite Christmas cover is “Little Drum n Bass Boy” by Andrew Huang (cover of Little Drummer Boy) and going back to it just now...I don’t think he ever turned it into a whole album, but my single favourite Christmas cover is “Little Drum n Bass Boy” by Andrew Huang (cover of Little Drummer Boy) and going back to it just now to find the link makes me realise it’s basically 15 years since he made it!
Anyway, it’s definitely a novel take on the song, and I love it so maybe you’d be interested too?
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Comment on Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world in ~health
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentIt took me half a second to realise you were referring to “fruity weirdos” here as the subject of your sentence, and not “vaccines” 😅 /noiseI used to think they were harmless, but now I recognize them as actively harmful to society
It took me half a second to realise you were referring to “fruity weirdos” here as the subject of your sentence, and not “vaccines” 😅
/noise
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentCopyright law is the easiest example I can think of, and various other intellectual property (IP) laws. But given my example included someone not just saying “pretty please” but also enforcing...Where does the notion come from that you can post anything you want online and then exclusively decide exactly how people use it?
Copyright law is the easiest example I can think of, and various other intellectual property (IP) laws. But given my example included someone not just saying “pretty please” but also enforcing their wishes with a paywall and robots.txt then to my mind it’s clearly also protected by laws against circumventing technological barriers (to grossly simplify, “anti-hacking laws” etc)
Plagiarism (taking things as is) is a very specific case that we forbid.
Plagiarism is a much more narrow slice of IP, and I mostly see it discussed in an academic environment, but that’s about crediting the original source (which LLMs are also bad at). But it’s certainly not the only case that’s forbidden.
If I start printing and selling copies of the Harry Potter books verbatim (without a licensing agreement), but I make it clear on the front of the book that I’m not the original author, then this isn’t plagiarism, specifically. But this is definitely still illegal under copyright and other IP laws.
Moreover, for 10 years everyone was free to copy this content, save it on their computers, run algorithms, study that data, transform it, make it into something else, sell the results and it was fine.
There’s a huge difference between what’s simply possible and what’s permitted. I think all of this has been possible, but I disagree with the idea that it’s been legally permitted this whole time. If you can give me some examples so that I have a better idea of what you’re referencing here specifically, that would be great.
Oops wrote out a whole tangent on Fair Use which isn’t really relevant to the conversation currently
And there’s also a significant difference in how these actions are viewed (e.g. when examining if Fair Use applies) when the results are for educational purposes, or for personal/private use, or for commercial reasons, or if the results of the data processing are themselves also freely shared or not.
For example, if I scraped the internet for all writing (including copyrighted works, like LLMs have been doing) and then created an LLM that I never distributed and only kept on my home computer for personal use, then there would be a very weak case against me.
Or if I did the same and wrote academic papers about what I’d learned in the process, and provided educational materials for how this new transformer style model could do much more than markov chains, that would also be a fairly weak legal case against me.
Or if I did the same as both of the above, but also released the entire model free to the world to use, then there would be a bit of a stronger case against me, because now I’m making protected works available to the public, albeit in a somewhat scrambled way.
But it’s been proven than LLMs can be prompted to reconstruct entire copyrighted works, so saying “it’s transformative” as my defence is pretty weak when the model is fully capable of recreating entire non-transformed unaltered works.
But doing all of the above and then putting it all behind a paywall, I’ve now clearly swayed all four factors of Fair Use against myself, and if I don’t have Fair Use to hide behind then it’s pretty clearly in the territory of copyright infringement.
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Comment on Russians confront wartime internet cuts with public shrug, private fury in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentOne person’s learned helplessness may be another person’s survival instinct. After all, you’re right that this is not a recent experience, and at a population level, I feel like you’ll eventually...One person’s learned helplessness may be another person’s survival instinct. After all, you’re right that this is not a recent experience, and at a population level, I feel like you’ll eventually see survival-of-the-shruggiest (to borrow words from the article), because the individuals and families who are inclined to kick up a fuss or fight for their freedoms are less likely to continue growing the family tree if they end up being disappeared.
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Comment on The final straw: Why companies replace once-beloved technology brands in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentNow I’m picturing Lina Khan wielding an enormous oversized sword, and that seems fun! /noiseNeed some demonslayers.
Now I’m picturing Lina Khan wielding an enormous oversized sword, and that seems fun!
/noise
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI’m not sure what you think “not explicitly stated” means, but if a website has a robots.txt that permits only a google search web crawler, or otherwise enumerates the options that the website...I’m not sure what you think “not explicitly stated” means, but if a website has a robots.txt that permits only a google search web crawler, or otherwise enumerates the options that the website owner writes up, I think that’s pretty explicitly stated intentions.
I think it’s ludicrous to assume that a new technology or a new use case for harvesting data somehow gets a free pass by default, instead of a requirement to seek permission first by default. Especially in the context of a for-profit company locking the result behind a paywall but paying for none of the pieces.
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Comment on SAG Awards change name to the Actor Awards starting in 2026 in ~movies
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentMaybe it’s just my exposure to medieval fantasy tropes, but “The Guild Awards” could have been an excellent switch! Could even nickname them “The Guildies” to go with the Emmy’s and Grammy’s at...Maybe it’s just my exposure to medieval fantasy tropes, but “The Guild Awards” could have been an excellent switch! Could even nickname them “The Guildies” to go with the Emmy’s and Grammy’s at least in pronunciation if not spelling
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI’m not sure why that should be an exemption either. If I created a blog 10 years ago and my intention was “nobody should be able to read my blog unless they pay me for it” and then I put up a...I’m not sure why that should be an exemption either. If I created a blog 10 years ago and my intention was “nobody should be able to read my blog unless they pay me for it” and then I put up a paywall, and then I go “okay one exception is for google search crawlers to index my blog so more people can find my works and pay me for access” then why should this new technology get an exemption to my initial intentions? Just because it’s new?
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Comment on AGI and Fermi's Paradox in ~science
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentMatter and energy are exchangeable, and energy is fungible. Why spend any amount of effort or energy on securing these resources which are under competition, when instead those resources are...To achieve U, the AGI may require physical resources. If other agents compete for these same resources (or regions of space), would the AGI prioritize its resource access and stability to prevent goal interruption?
Matter and energy are exchangeable, and energy is fungible. Why spend any amount of effort or energy on securing these resources which are under competition, when instead those resources are available and uncontested? The only threat to fungible energy is an attempted claim at all energy.
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentLicensing is the solution to piracy, legally speaking, so I assumed they go hand-in-hand in a discussion about piracy. After all, if I have a licence from the creator to do XYZ then by definition...Licensing is the solution to piracy, legally speaking, so I assumed they go hand-in-hand in a discussion about piracy. After all, if I have a licence from the creator to do XYZ then by definition when I do XYZ it isn’t piracy.
I’ll also push back against the claim of fair use, which is an affirmative defence against copyright infringement, but which is often misused across the internet. Caveat that I’m not a lawyer or a judge, but it’s fairly easy to look up what fair use actually means and where it applies and what considerations form part of this defence.
Creating a for-profit business by harvesting entire works without credit and without even attempting to discuss licensing with original creators and not freely sharing your result smashes all four factors of fair use. Illegally downloading the latest Disney+ exclusive movie to watch at home is much closer to fair use than anything OpenAI or their competitors have done in this space.
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Comment on Leaker reveals which Pixels are vulnerable to Cellebrite phone hacking in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentOh that’s a great idea, I didn’t even think about subdomains for whatever I’m hosting! That’s another thing to consider, thank you! I was entirely thinking about subdomains for emails (eg...Oh that’s a great idea, I didn’t even think about subdomains for whatever I’m hosting! That’s another thing to consider, thank you!
I was entirely thinking about subdomains for emails (eg email@youtube.baggins.com, email@jobhunting.baggins.com) because I’m not sure if FastMail makes subdomains super easy. Based off nothing but vibes, I feel like they probably have that as default behaviour given they already let me do infinite email forwarding from my own domain.
(I don’t actually have baggins.com domain, that’s just an example)
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Comment on Microsoft is adding AI facial recognition to OneDrive and users can only turn it off three times a year in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link Parent100% agree. I was reading through these comments and came to the same realisation, that if it was “can only be switched on X times per year” then it would be a complete non-storyIf it was only possible to turn it on three times a year and the default was off I don't think there would be any story here.
100% agree. I was reading through these comments and came to the same realisation, that if it was “can only be switched on X times per year” then it would be a complete non-story
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Comment on Leaker reveals which Pixels are vulnerable to Cellebrite phone hacking in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI just wanted to come back to this comment and say thank you! Your experiences with how simple it was helped me take the jump into buying a domain! I’ve also signed up for Fastmail’s 30 day free...I just wanted to come back to this comment and say thank you! Your experiences with how simple it was helped me take the jump into buying a domain! I’ve also signed up for Fastmail’s 30 day free trial, so I’ll see how it goes but I’ll probably be jumping into this too, and slowly migrating my accounts to the new email address.
Like you, I expect this will be a slow, maybe even years-long process to be fully migrated over, but I’m happy to have started, at least a little bit!
Edit: now to start figuring out how much I can do with subdomains...
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Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentMy caveat being this is all from websites that list specs, so there’s a chance that the steam frame controllers actually have features that aren’t mentioned, but the capacitive features come to...My caveat being this is all from websites that list specs, so there’s a chance that the steam frame controllers actually have features that aren’t mentioned, but the capacitive features come to mind.
Having capacitive triggers, capacitive face buttons, and capacitive joysticks mean you can do much finer gestures than just “button is pressed or not” and even “trigger is held X%” — there aren’t a lot of games that I’ve played which use it, but being able to see my in-game hand slightly curling because my finger is close to, but not actually touching, the trigger is something that I’ve enjoyed experiencing.
Having that extra input can allow for much more dexterous interaction, and I think adding more inputs is always better for the games that want to explore those options.
Yeah okay, I can always hold onto my gmail and set up email forwarding if needed, that’s a good point.
I’m in Australia, so businesses here are kinda half and half between sensible European style “you want a service, we offer it, let’s not try to make things complicated” on one side and the more American style “can we please harvest your entire digital identity to piss ads directly into your eyeballs, to opt out you need to access our unfindable privacy page at exactly 4:07am on the night of a full moon” on the other.