UniquelyGeneric's recent activity
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Comment on Google halts its four-plus-year plan to turn off tracking cookies by default in Chrome in ~tech
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Comment on Google halts its four-plus-year plan to turn off tracking cookies by default in Chrome in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric LinkPosting this because it’s relatively big news in privacy and advertising and has seemingly gone under the radar here. My personal thoughts are that Google wants to position itself as being out...Posting this because it’s relatively big news in privacy and advertising and has seemingly gone under the radar here.
My personal thoughts are that Google wants to position itself as being out between a rock and a hard place due to potential antitrust enforcement which limited their actions, but their move to push the question of cookies onto the users is a feckless shirking of responsibility.
In general I’m opposed to placing systemic issues at the hands of individual to solve, but in this case it’s worse because the main beneficiary of this move is Google.
When Apple implemented their App Tracking Transparency, opt-in rates were 10-30% in general. If we assume similar opt-in rates for Chrome’s new consent prompt, then the following things would likely happen:
- Adtech’s house of cards crumbles for smaller companies who didn’t have the resources to test with the Privacy Sandbox.
- Ads on the web for the majority of users become contextual, which means smaller advertisers generally lose out to big brands with marketing budgets that can cover the lack of targeting.
- Users who are convinced by Google’s consent prompt that they want to retain third-party cookies will still have their privacy invaded and tracked, sustaining the shady ecosystem off of the less informed/easily swindled.
- Websites cannot handle the loss of 60% of their advertising revenue and so the smaller ones are either bought up or shut down.
- Google continues to rake in the lion’s share of advertising revenue and remains an industry leader because of its monopolistic position and ability to create its own rules. By hiding behind user choice it can pretend to be impartial while it leaches off the decay in the rest of the advertising industry.
Does privacy improve for the users that opt-out completely? Sure, but that was always an option for the privacy-conscious. Are users who opt-in to Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox better off than those using third-party cookies? Maybe, although I’m not sure the Privacy Sandbox is even necessary to provide untargeted/contextual ads, so it’s certainly not better than those completely opting out.
Is the improvement in privacy for some portion of users worth the changes in adtech? Long term, I doubt it. I believe we’re witnessing the beginnings of another great consolidation of the web, which has broad implications for capitalism and democracy. I don’t think privacy for a privileged few can justify letting our information sources be controlled by so few players.
Maybe I’m just overreacting because I don’t trust Google’s intentions, but perhaps some other Tilderinos have different perspectives.
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Google halts its four-plus-year plan to turn off tracking cookies by default in Chrome
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Comment on [SOLVED] Looking for help getting my VPN to work with Firefox privacy settings in ~comp
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentFrom a privacy perspective, IPv6 exposes your device IP rather than your home’s IP (i.e. if your device is behind a NAT), though I would bet the more likely reason they don’t advise IPv6 is...From a privacy perspective, IPv6 exposes your device IP rather than your home’s IP (i.e. if your device is behind a NAT), though I would bet the more likely reason they don’t advise IPv6 is because it lacks ubiquitous support. This Firefox bug might be one of the very use cases why they don’t default to IPv6.
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Comment on Introducing Surfboard for Tildes in ~tildes
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentJust wanted to write a note of appreciation for the work you’ve already done. When the app expired and this thread implied it might be gone forever, I was genuinely bummed out. I had previously...Just wanted to write a note of appreciation for the work you’ve already done. When the app expired and this thread implied it might be gone forever, I was genuinely bummed out. I had previously used Tildes web interface on mobile for years and, while it is perfectly serviceable, Surfboard finds little efficiencies and QoL improvements that remind me of the good ol’ days using Apollo.
Glad to hear the app is coming back and the mitigation steps you’re taking to preserve it for posterity’s sake. An app this good doesn’t deserve to fade into the abyss!
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Comment on An uncompromising guide to sleep masks (for side-sleepers) in ~health
UniquelyGeneric LinkThis post is timely because I recently had a conversation last night with my girlfriend about night masks. Particularly about this one she uses. The defining feature is that it’s a blindfold...This post is timely because I recently had a conversation last night with my girlfriend about night masks. Particularly about this one she uses. The defining feature is that it’s a blindfold style, which I think can eliminate some of the light creep-in from the sides when you move around in bed. It also has the eye-cups to reduce pressure so it seems to hit some major points, from your top pick (of which, this is the same brand).
Chromakode, you tried a variety of sizes of masks and materials, but was there any reason you didn’t consider a blindfold-style? I’d be curious to see how it holds to your evaluation criteria.
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Comment on Upcoming (and past) concerts in ~music
UniquelyGeneric LinkI saw Gary Clark Jr. earlier this week. His recent album was made during covid and explores a variety of genres and so his concert is a fun eclectic mix. He still does some of the best blues in...I saw Gary Clark Jr. earlier this week. His recent album was made during covid and explores a variety of genres and so his concert is a fun eclectic mix. He still does some of the best blues in the biz, and at my venue they had the cameras focused on his hands the whole time so you could see all his solos, even from the mezzanine level. The A/V was also on point, which rounded out the experience for me.
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Comment on Must see touring artists? in ~music
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI worked a Flaming Lips concert and it was a really fun show with lots of audience engagement. They handed out laser pointers to everyone and turned off all the lights so that we could align them...I worked a Flaming Lips concert and it was a really fun show with lots of audience engagement. They handed out laser pointers to everyone and turned off all the lights so that we could align them on Wayne Coyne’s silhouette. He then brought out a mirror to reflect all the lasers into a smoke cloud. He also crowd surfed inside a giant bubble-boy hamster ball, among other antics. Got to meet Wayne as well and he seems like a genuinely nice guy.
I saw a 3D audiovisual experience with Flying Lotus that was pretty cool, but I can understand if his music otherwise isn’t the most compelling concert.
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Comment on Pacific Highway trip from San Francisco to San Diego on a motorcycle in ~travel
UniquelyGeneric LinkNorthern California has the more beautiful view, imho, so I would spend more time up there if you can. Specifically, Big Sur is worth its own trip, and if you have time for a hike it has some...Northern California has the more beautiful view, imho, so I would spend more time up there if you can. Specifically, Big Sur is worth its own trip, and if you have time for a hike it has some flat/easy ones that can be fit in without making a whole camping trip out of it. I wouldn’t try to rush it either, though, since part of its magic is appreciating the majestic untouched splendor. You could potentially stay in Monterrey if you want to make a day out of it.
Solvang is a quirky little town that can be a quick visit. It’s modeled after Danish villages so it feels surreal to see it in the middle of California, but can be a fun detour on your way to Santa Barbara (also worth spending time in).
Santa Barbara has a lot of wineries which practically operate as bars if you’re into that. Depending on when you go there’s also a Summer Solstice festival that is cool to see.
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Comment on Indiana judge rules tacos, burritos are sandwiches in ~food
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentPut another way: the map is not the terrain. I think some of the most interesting topics of debate are those that attempt to disambiguate the grey areas of language/philosophy. We develop...Put another way: the map is not the terrain.
I think some of the most interesting topics of debate are those that attempt to disambiguate the grey areas of language/philosophy. We develop convenient abstractions to help model our universe in a way that can be acted upon, but that gives way to another aphorism: all models are wrong, but some are useful.
Some fundamental quandaries are predicated on how you define your model:
- When does life begin? When does it end?
- What is a soul? What is consciousness?
- synthetic vs. natural ingredients
- nature vs. nurture
- wave-particle duality
- mind-body problem
- imposter syndrome / “fake it ‘till you make it”
- life imitating art (and vice versa) / What is art?
- machine learning and copyright
If I understand Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem well enough, we may not be able answer any/all of the problems above. In fact, doing so may require hitching your logic to a model that presupposes its own conclusion.
With regards to tacos and sandwiches, most cultures have found some way to combine carbs, vegetables, and protein into a convenient delivery mechanism. Debating over the topology is how you get claims that a coffee mug is no different from a donut, which serves little practical purpose.
In practice, tacos are tasty, and that’s about as far as I’m concerned with them.
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Comment on Megalopolis | Teaser trailer in ~movies
UniquelyGeneric LinkI was a bit surprised to see Shia LaBeouf listed among the cast at the end, as I had assumed he had been cancelled from his sexual abuse allegations and overall being “difficult to work with”...I was a bit surprised to see Shia LaBeouf listed among the cast at the end, as I had assumed he had been cancelled from his sexual abuse allegations and overall being “difficult to work with” (which I read as an industry phrase for being an “asshole”).
Looking it up it seems his trial is set for October this year so perhaps there is still some benefit of the doubt legally, even if he seems to be losing in the court of public opinion.
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Comment on Is TV advertising still relevant? Does anybody under 60 even watch traditional TV anymore? in ~tv
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI can also shed some light on this as an insider. Nielsen ratings for linear TV dominated the broadcast industry due to the dinosaur executives running media corps not understanding how to...the content providers hated this and had it contractually either eliminated from their channels or limited to 7
I can also shed some light on this as an insider. Nielsen ratings for linear TV dominated the broadcast industry due to the dinosaur executives running media corps not understanding how to monetize OTT/CTV. Those Nielsen ratings are called C3 and C7 ratings, basically content viewed within 3 or 7 days, respectively. After 7 days, there's essentially no more money to make off the original ads baked into the broadcast feed. The ads themselves are being sold around this time of year during what's called "upfronts" because the deals commit millions of dollars upfront in the Spring, but are actually applied to the following Fall season and beyond. Media corps can expect to make 50-80% of their annual revenue in these massive upfront deals, which hinge on the viewership captured in C3/C7 measurement.
After 7 days, the worthless ads can be stripped and replaced with remnant inventory (often called "scatter" as it's often used to fill in gaps), which is priced far lower than the upfront inventory. The kicker is that the C3/C7 ratings often do not account for digital distribution, despite that being a growing audience. Media execs effectively see the content itself as worthless outside of C7 ratings, which is also partly why Aereo/Locast were killed by the industry: networks didn't make more money off of it. Rather than band together and create an easy method for consumers to access Live TV content, all these companies have siloed their live broadcasts into their digital fiefdoms where they can nickel and dime the consumer for access.
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Comment on Is TV advertising still relevant? Does anybody under 60 even watch traditional TV anymore? in ~tv
UniquelyGeneric (edited )LinkHere's a personal tale of how traditional television is killing its own future: I was a previous user of the ill-fated Locast free broadcast streaming service, which I mostly used to watch Late...Here's a personal tale of how traditional television is killing its own future:
I was a previous user of the ill-fated Locast free broadcast streaming service, which I mostly used to watch Late Night TV (e.g. Colbert, Seth Meyers) because I couldn't access the content via any over-the-air broadcasts on my digital antenna (my apartment windows faced the wrong way).
It seemed, at the time, totally fair to me that I should be able to watch the otherwise-free content while being simulcast online, at basically no cost to me. Yes, there were uninterruptible ads trying to convince you to donate $5 to keep the service running (and to stop the ads begging for $5...i.e. the Spotify model of converting customers), but those ads were in addition to the ads from the original broadcast feed. Ultimately $5 was a more reasonable deal than paying $100+ for multiple subscription services to access Live TV that I occasionally used for an hour or two during late night. This wasn't piracy, it was publicly accessible with the equipment I already owned.
Unfortunately, Locast suffered the same fate as its predecessor, Aereo, and got shutdown by US courts on behalf of the TV networks. Aereo's fatal flaw was trying to profit off of a re-broadcast of local TV stations without giving the station owners a cut. Locast attempted to work around that established case law by streaming local broadcasts as a non-profit organization, which was legally protected at that point. Locast even geolocated your IP address to ensure you only viewed your local station's broadcast. This, again, felt fair to ensure that the local advertisers (who only get 2 minutes each hour) were only seen by the relevant locals they purchased ads for.
The app was a little janky at times, but I could still cast the service to a TV from my phone, which powered multi-viewer experiences like watching celebrity hosted-SNL at apartment parties, or impromptu watching football games with my fantasy league. This should have been the empowering technology to finally connect the decentralized (yet massive) Internet audience with the centralized (and human-scale) media industry.
Instead, our only legal option is a reinvention of the cable bundle. I'm sure there's plenty of families today in America without access to any other live news sources than what their phones can currently provide (which usually defaults to social media). The reason I discovered Locast initially was because the broadcast stations I had were sparse! The only major networks I had access to were ABC and FOX...I couldn't get NBC and see the Olympics at home despite that same station being played at every single bar in my city.
Live/Linear TV is arguably the most highly valued content there is (hence why sports are the last holdout to transition to digital streaming). Despite this fact, I think Live TV's active hindrance to its own accessibility will ultimately be to its own chagrin. Regular people's time is limited, and so users will migrate to the most available free sources (i.e. YouTube) to spend what little time that could have been otherwise watched on live network TV.
It seems ridiculous today that people once watched the Seinfeld finale live in Times Square...at this point, even Game of Thrones watch parties feel anachronistic. We seem to have lost the cultural touchstone of watching live events altogether, and perhaps that lack of a collective experience is contributing to some of the current friction and strife we're seeing all around these days.
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How do you organize all your electronic gadgets/accessories?
I'm in the process of moving apartments, and I'm realizing I don't have an elegant solution to all of the tech gadgets/accessories/junk my hoarding tendencies refuse to let go of. By electronic...
I'm in the process of moving apartments, and I'm realizing I don't have an elegant solution to all of the tech gadgets/accessories/junk my hoarding tendencies refuse to let go of.
By electronic accessories I mean all the cables, flash drives, SD cards, dongles, headphones, power bricks, etc. that have I've gathered over the years. There are some larger items like musical instrument cables, wireless speakers, an computer mouse, even an old PS3 I don't really know what to do with. While most don't get used frequently, there have definitely been times where one of these items comes in clutch.
I'm not opposed to getting dedicated furniture like an under-desk cabinet, although I would want to make sure the space is used efficiently, and that it can be sturdy enough to be multipurpose (e.g. my work office cabinets have a cushion that can be used for sitting on top of). I'm in NYC so space is a premium and there's a low likelihood that I'll have extra space in existing drawers/closets, so I'd prefer a standalone solution.
Hoping there might be some clever solutions/suggestions Tilerinos find handy, even if it's accepting that a Marie Kondo-style purge of unused electronics is necessary.
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Comment on ChatGPT provides false information about people, and OpenAI can’t correct it in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentIn the eyes of privacy law, a hash does not prevent data from being personally identifiable. If you hash an email address, the uniqueness of the hash can still be used to identify you in another...In the eyes of privacy law, a hash does not prevent data from being personally identifiable. If you hash an email address, the uniqueness of the hash can still be used to identify you in another dataset with hashed emails.
In this way, an pure obfuscation of data does not obliviate its data provenance, and so by extension the weights in an LLM that were trained off of personal information should still carry the obligations of data deletion/correction.
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Comment on Is there an intuitive (but powerful) music thingie? in ~music
UniquelyGeneric LinkHave you heard of the Artphon Orba? It’s a more intuitively built looper that lets you layer drum, bass, chords and a solo of various electronic sounds. It doesn’t take much music know-how because...Have you heard of the Artphon Orba? It’s a more intuitively built looper that lets you layer drum, bass, chords and a solo of various electronic sounds. It doesn’t take much music know-how because all the notes are automatically in the same key. There’s an app you can change three key as well as experiment with various sound packs to use, but the real fun is just doing an impromptu jam when you’re bored.
Easy to travel with and it can connect via aux cord to a speaker. It can output midi through USB to use with a DAW but I’ve never tried doing that with a whole loop going, so it may only capture the currently played voice.
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Comment on Man sets himself on fire near courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial in ~news
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentYes! That’s the one! I had the same reaction as you, so I didn’t focus too much on what he looked like, but I want to say he seemed younger/college-aged and so unlikely to be the one who...Yes! That’s the one! I had the same reaction as you, so I didn’t focus too much on what he looked like, but I want to say he seemed younger/college-aged and so unlikely to be the one who self-immolated.
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Comment on Man sets himself on fire near courthouse where Donald Trump is on trial in ~news
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI saw a guy holding a “Ponzi Papers” protest sign walking through Washington Square Park earlier this week. If it wasn’t the same guy, then he has at least one follower, which is disconcerting. I...I saw a guy holding a “Ponzi Papers” protest sign walking through Washington Square Park earlier this week. If it wasn’t the same guy, then he has at least one follower, which is disconcerting.
I had been outside the courthouse for Trump’s initial arraignment for this hush-money case, and the park had so many wild protestors who had come out of the woodwork for the event. A person dressed as a pile of shit holding a sign with indecipherable screed, a black woman who painted herself white sexually harassing the pro-Trump protestors, a guy in a banana costume, and many other political factions waving their various flags.
It seems the circus these events have become attracts the people on the fringe including the mentally ill. They don’t even need to be directly addressing the court case itself, just taking advantage of the limelight. Perhaps even the media coverage itself is introducing people to these fringe views, furthering radicalization.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but I’m not looking forward to the run up to the election this November as tensions will certainly be ramped up.
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Comment on There used to be a people’s bank at the US Post Office in ~finance
UniquelyGeneric (edited )LinkFor reference, the initial deposit limit is ~$16K today, and the expansion became ~$52K. The data last collected by the Federal Reserve in 2019 places the US average household savings at $41,600,...The system could operate “only in designated post offices, redeposit its funds in existing banks, and pay a noncompetitive 2 percent interest rate,” Shaw writes. There was also a $500 deposit ceiling.
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Ferocious opposition by bankers, however, prevented such expansion, except for an increase in the deposit ceiling to $2,500 in 1918.
For reference, the initial deposit limit is ~$16K today, and the expansion became ~$52K.
The data last collected by the Federal Reserve in 2019 places the US average household savings at $41,600, with a median at $5,300. This implies that the vast majority of Americans could be serviced by the Postal Savings System’s initial configurations (adjusted for inflation). It’s also likely those numbers are more optimistic than more recent studies suggest.
The 2% interest rate is also something unheard of today as most savings accounts offer 0.5% at best, putting high yield savings accounts aside (which most poor Americans wouldn’t use anyways). People probably shouldn’t use a savings account as an investment vehicle, but it’s hard to argue against the security of a government-backed bank.
I’m a big fan of the US Postal Service and I despise the constant attempts to make it unprofitable as a way to justify the privatization of it. It provides better services than its private counterparts (e.g. true last-mile delivery, PO Boxes, Informed Delivery), and has a crazy cheap cost (the recent stamp increase to 73¢ is still far cheaper than every alternative), especially given its connection to the global Express Mail Service Cooperative (servicing 180 countries).
The idea that Republicans bandy about, that we should disband one of the fundamental services baked into the US Constitution (due to Ben Franklin, nonetheless), is abhorrent to me. It’s arguable that the USPS’s ubiquity and government backing is what powered the US’s prominence as information needed to travel at an increasing pace on the run up to the Information Age we currently live in.
This banking “side-gig” also seems to have supported Americans during a period that had the most economic strife as well. I’m all for bringing it back, and the cursory research I did to write this comment has only solidified my opinion that the USPS is a net-benefit to society, and can do even more if we just don’t let private interests get in the way.
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Comment on What's something you've been mulling over recently? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI also compulsively bring a steam deck on flights. What I noticed really improved my experience (and allowed me to play more than 30 mins before giving it up), was to use a stand and a controller....I also compulsively bring a steam deck on flights. What I noticed really improved my experience (and allowed me to play more than 30 mins before giving it up), was to use a stand and a controller.
I got a 3D printed stand off Etsy (with an external battery attachment), and I prefer a DualSense controller. Add on noise-cancelling headphones and you can really mentally exit the airplane experience without needing a Vision Pro.
Late at night it would be nicer to have an OLED screen to dim some of the brightness, but I’m usually sleeping on those flights anyways. Removing the discomfort of holding the steam deck at a low angle made the most difference. I’ve seen “clip your tablet here” type seatbacks, and that would be ideal with my setup to have the steam deck at eye-height.
When I travel with my girlfriend we can kill an hour playing a coop game by using the kickstand on a single person’s tray table and sharing headphones (pairing two Bluetooth headsets is more troublesome on Linux). We each have a separate controller and it’s fun to play a split-screen platformer like It Takes Two or Sackboy given the screen size.
Ahh, I had been waiting during the week for a post to show up and then late last night decided I would just post it myself to generate discussion, so I must have missed that post.
I do think that the Ars Technica article I shared provides more context on the whole saga of Google and cookies. Google's prior missteps are relevant since it demonstrates fallibility in their decisions, which is what give me concern that this latest move is not done with user interests/benefit at heart.