Wuju's recent activity
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Comment on Hisense TVs show ads during normal operation in ~tech
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Comment on A day in the life of an ensh*ttificator in ~tech
Wuju (edited )Link ParentThe Wikipedia page I linked does mention that. It also says findings showed that was likely an unintended side effect. Besides, reducing the clock speed of your computer or phone's processor draws...The 1,000 hour light bulb was a standard at which that tradeoff was set.
The Wikipedia page I linked does mention that. It also says findings showed that was likely an unintended side effect.
Regulators in the UK and some independent engineers have noted that there are benefits to shorter bulb lifespans, as shorter-life bulbs can be brighter for the same wattage. Nevertheless, both internal comments from cartel executives and later findings by a US court suggest that the cartel's direct motivation for the change was to increase profits by forcing customers to buy bulbs more frequently.
Besides, reducing the clock speed of your computer or phone's processor draws less power per cycle allowing you to perform more actions for the same amount of power in the long term. But when Apple did so on older phones... Well... Yeah... Still a class action lawsuit.
I wouldn't call this planned obsolescence either. It sounds like just... making good products? Is having new designs a bad thign?
Planned obsolescence means that the item failing after a predetermined amount of time is by design. This is often done by using a metal that can't quite handle the stress of a joint, or putting a heat sensitive system close to a heat generating system. As such, the system will work for a while, but the stress of being used will force it to break faster than it otherwise would. Slightly delaying the time it takes to break doesn't make it not planned obsolescence if it's still not made to last. More likely, it just means the market couldn't handle an item that was so quick to break.
Some other good examples from the Wikipedia page on Planned Obsolescence:
For example, inkjet printer manufacturers employ smart chips in their ink cartridges to prevent them from being used after a certain threshold (number of pages, time, etc.), even though the cartridge may still contain usable ink or could be refilled (with ink toners, up to 50 percent of the toner cartridge is often still full). This constitutes "programmed obsolescence", in that there is no random component contributing to the decline in function.
The cartridges simply stop functioning after a set amount of uses regardless of ink used. They could increase the the uses, but if they still have an effective self-destruct system after a set amount of uses, it's still planned obsolescence.
Some portable products ... are designed in a way that denies end-users the ability to replace their batteries after those have worn down, therefore leaving an aging battery trapped inside the device, which limits the product lifespan to its shortest-lived component.
... On a device with a sealed back cover, a manual battery replacement might induce permanent damage, including ... risking serious, even irreparable damage to the phone's main board as a result of having to pry the battery free from strong adhesive in proximity to delicate components. Some devices are even built so that the battery terminals are covered by the main board, requiring it to be riskily removed entirely before disconnecting the terminals.
... Earlier mobile phones (including water-resistant ones) had back covers that could be opened by the user in order to replace the battery.
Generally, manufacturing uses the smallest amount of material as they can reasonably get away with to save money. But from personal experience, the amount off glue they sometimes employ on these batteries is nothing short of excessive. I repaired my wireless mouse recently, and I am not exaggerating when I say I was seriously worried I was going to puncture the battery just trying to pry it out of it's little plastic enclosure from the utterly excessive amount of glue they used to hold it down. There was absolutely no reason to use that much glue except to prevent the replacement and force me to buy a new one when the battery would no longer charge.
OK, maybe that one just reminded me of a frustration I had and made me go off on a bit of a tangent. But the point is, these products are made to fail, even as they increase battery life. It's still a good example because it's something that probably anyone can relate to in this day and age, especially as it's a relatively recent and very visible change. You could very easily argue that moving the battery to an internal irreplaceable part is enshittification, but what we had always designed electronics with non-replaceable batteries?
There are thousands of great examples out there of planned obsolescence if you look, many of them completely unrelated to enshittification. But regardless of how they are designed to fail, someone, somewhere is going to come up with some excuse about how it's better for the consumer. Especially as countries like France and the rest of the EU and the world enforce or put into effect their anti-planned obsolescence laws. Worse, it's especially hard to prove planned obsolescence if it's part of the original specs, and not something that is added to later iterations.
That's why I think they're different concepts. Something completely new the world has never seen before can be specifically designed to fail after a set amount of time; how could it be enshittification if there's no precedent for it making something worse?
Edit: My bad, I mistakenly thought you were quoting a different part of my comment.
From the same Wikipedia page, the origin of the phrase "planned obsolescence" is releasing new designs over time to entice buyers to get a newer version before a replacement is needed rather than the general current usage of products being designed to fail.
In 1924, the American automobile market began reaching saturation point. To maintain unit sales, General Motors executive Alfred P. Sloan Jr. suggested annual model-year design changes to convince car owners to buy new replacements each year[.] ... Sloan often used the term dynamic obsolescence, but critics coined the name of his strategy planned obsolescence.
[T]he phrase was first popularized in 1954 by Brooks Stevens, an American industrial designer. Stevens was due to give a talk at an advertising conference in Minneapolis in 1954. ... From that point on, "planned obsolescence" became Stevens' catchphrase. By his definition, planned obsolescence was "Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, a little sooner than is necessary."
The meanings of words to change over time, hence why it now encompasses a bit more, but I would argue there's no good word or phrase to replace planned obsolescence in this way. At least, not one that that can be generally agreed upon, which is the important bit in a word or phrase's meaning.
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Comment on A day in the life of an ensh*ttificator in ~tech
Wuju Link ParentI personally would. While they do have similarities and can overlap at times, they are certainly different. Planned obsolescence is generally where failure is part of the design. Old fluorescent...I personally would. While they do have similarities and can overlap at times, they are certainly different.
Planned obsolescence is generally where failure is part of the design. Old fluorescent light bulbs are a good and common example. Light bulb life expectancy was reaching 2,500 hours when the Phoebus Cartel was formed and made a plan to decrease bulb life expectancy to 1,000 hours to increase sales. Reducing the expected lifespan from the planned obsolescence or adding planned obsolescence to an item that didn't previously have it would be a case of enshittification, but the act of having it is not.
A different case of planned obsolescence would be fashion. And not just clothes, but having the newest and bestest items, be that phones, cars, or whatever other status symbols you can think of. They change the designs on these items every year so that a certain type of people can say, "I've got the best of the best." I'm not sure anyone would argue that this is a case of enshittification.
Enshittification on the other hand is actively making a functional product worse than they previously were, generally, motivated by profit. Things like forcing updates to use their service, but oh, the new update removes some features or otherwise makes it worse for the user, and "coincidentally", it also increases the advertisements shown. Or how new vehicles don't have any physical buttons, and "coincidentally", these touch screens are a lot cheaper to install in the cars than manufacturing and installing all these proprietary buttons and switches. And, as I said earlier, the act of adding planned obsolescence to an item that didn't previously have it.
So, there is overlap where both are true and even they aren't, the two do share traits. However, I would still call them different concepts. I think the best example I can give is reducing the planned obsolescence; if an item was designed to fail after 6 months of usage, but then newer models were designed to fail after 12 months, could you still call that enshittification?
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Comment on What would you do with a video game style inventory? in ~talk
Wuju Link ParentFood in general would be just incredible. I do so little with fruits and vegetables because they often go bad before I decide to eat or cook with them. If there's no guilt about them potentially...Food in general would be just incredible. I do so little with fruits and vegetables because they often go bad before I decide to eat or cook with them. If there's no guilt about them potentially going bad, I could always just have a little bit of everything available and eat a lot healthier.
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Comment on US orders diplomats to fight data sovereignty initiatives in ~society
Wuju LinkHow about no? I don't see how this is any different than how the fight the US had with TikTok before putting a law into effect just last year. Let us have our privacy.How about no? I don't see how this is any different than how the fight the US had with TikTok before putting a law into effect just last year. Let us have our privacy.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Wuju Link ParentWait. It was better before the update? When I played it several years ago, the only gameplay mod I had was a driving one because the vehicles were all so light they all had a complete inability to...Wait. It was better before the update? When I played it several years ago, the only gameplay mod I had was a driving one because the vehicles were all so light they all had a complete inability to turn if you weren't at a complete stop and would get launched 6 feet in the air from a crack in the asphalt while going as little as 15km/h. And I don't think that's really even hyperbole; it genuinely felt like the vehicles would have been heavier if they were made out of paper.
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Comment on Finland is leading the race to decarbonise industrial heat emissions, using sand to produce fossil-free steam in ~enviro
Wuju LinkGiven that they have just started industrial level testing last month, I would imagine there's not a lot of information on it. Still, perhaps someone is knowledgeable enough and can tell me how...Given that they have just started industrial level testing last month, I would imagine there's not a lot of information on it. Still, perhaps someone is knowledgeable enough and can tell me how this technique differs from using fire bricks?
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Comment on What are some of your recent "little" failures? in ~talk
Wuju LinkMade an appointment with the optometrist to get my prescription updated for a new pair of glasses. Didn't realize I booked the appointment at the wrong place until I walked into the place I booked...Made an appointment with the optometrist to get my prescription updated for a new pair of glasses. Didn't realize I booked the appointment at the wrong place until I walked into the place I booked the appointment. Didn't feel like canceling on them literally last minute and also waiting extra week or two for a new pair of glasses so went ahead with it. Ended up costing a bit more than my usual place and I'm pretty sure that's where this cold or pneumonia or whatever this is came from...
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Comment on You are being misled about renewable energy technology in ~enviro
Wuju Link ParentI am fairly certain he means directly powered by petroleum and can accept any alternative fuel source, be that wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, or something else. The few things in this household I...I am fairly certain he means directly powered by petroleum and can accept any alternative fuel source, be that wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, or something else. The few things in this household I can think of that use petroleum as a sole power source can be counted on one hand.
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Comment on Crunchyroll to end ad-supported streaming at the end of 2025 in ~anime
Wuju (edited )Link ParentEdit: Never mind. My sense of time is off."Everything is free except for the latest episode" wasn't making the numbers go brr fast enough
From what I understand, they got rid of that before the Sony buyout and only a limited selection of old shows have been available for free with ads for quite a while now. Even then, I don't believe it was the full show in a lot of cases. I saw some talk about how only the first 25~ episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was available, but the remaining were paid subscription only.Edit: Never mind. My sense of time is off.
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Comment on Prime Video pulls eerily emotionless AI-generated anime dubs after complaints in ~anime
Wuju LinkIn case anyone was wondering, it was just as bad as you can imagine. It's been quite a while, but I do believe all of those clips are from very first episode too.In case anyone was wondering, it was just as bad as you can imagine. It's been quite a while, but I do believe all of those clips are from very first episode too.
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Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk
Wuju Link ParentWith how common the letter E is, I think it'd be funnier to alternate between 'ewe' and 'eye' randomly.I as in eye (ok, technically breaks the pattern, but c'mon)
With how common the letter E is, I think it'd be funnier to alternate between 'ewe' and 'eye' randomly.
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Comment on Mullvad - Shutting down our search proxy Leta in ~tech
Wuju Link ParentFirefox has a hidden setting that makes fingerprinting you somewhat unreliable by randomizing things it reports to sites each day. Things such as time-zone, fonts, whether your system is in dark...Firefox has a hidden setting that makes fingerprinting you somewhat unreliable by randomizing things it reports to sites each day. Things such as time-zone, fonts, whether your system is in dark or light mode for the defaults, and likely some other stuff.
Honestly, it makes browsing kind of frustrating. But for those who don't mind some pain in exchange for a bit more privacy, you can go to
about:configand setprivacy.resistFingerprintingto true. -
Comment on Crunchyroll is destroying its subtitles for no good reason in ~anime
Wuju Link ParentI would not count on competition nor fans to fix this issue. With competition, it's not about being better than your competition, it's about not being worse. If you hold the rights to a show,...I would not count on competition nor fans to fix this issue. With competition, it's not about being better than your competition, it's about not being worse. If you hold the rights to a show, people will be forced to come to you to watch it, regardless of your quality. So as long as it's not unreadable, people will watch anything sufficiently popular. More than that, I find majority of people don't even care. Often when I talk about anime with people, they talk about things they watched on Netflix. Stuff that I often don't bother with because of their useless subtitling.
One more extreme example is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. When it aired, my friends were raving about it, but I was sitting around waiting for it to get some fansubs. After a while, I eventually caved and, to no one's surprise, had some major issues in just the first episode. See, at several points, people get phone calls on their AR phones (or whatever they are), and the artists then animate a scrolling transcription of what the other side is saying. So Netflix, in their infinite wisdom, just decided to not put subtitles for that side of the conversation and let us rely on the artists' translation.
However, the animated phone text (if I remember correctly) is some sort of neon green in a really janky font and slightly green background, making it difficult to read at a glance. Worse than that, there were even one or two scenes where it showed the person receiving the call from the front. So the text being a holographic display in front of them, was then mirrored and completely unreadable. As I was watching with the Japanese voice-over and English subtitles, I had to rewind and pause several times just to get the gist of what they were saying. When I vented about this to my friends, they just said, "Did it? Oh, yeah. After your specific example, I guess they did. Well, they do it properly in the rest of the show." They did not.
As for fansubs, I can't help but feel as though manga and anime are just completely different beasts when it comes to translations. Some of my assumptions on it may be a little off as I don't read manga pretty much at all, so keep that in mind. The first, and probably most notable, aspect is that anime already gets same day translations. With manga, I don't believe this is the case at all. So there's an incentive to beat the official translations; you get a lot more prestige, or ad revenue, or whatever it is the translators are chasing by simply staying ahead of the official translation.
The next is the work involved. Anime often covers several chapters of manga in a single episode. Chapters that are released weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or sometimes even less frequently than that. So there's often just more to translate. Granted, with a lot of them, they can rely on the source material that they are likely already familiar with, so they may be ahead of things a tiny bit in a way. But also, the work to make sure things are readable. With manga (and again, this might be my assumptions at play), there's not as much a worry in things being perfectly legible¹ because people can read it at their own pace. With anime, there's very much a limit to what you can do. There's limits on words per minute. When multiple people are talking at the same time, you can't just put each person's text into their respective bubbles, you have to figure out how to convey who's talking. When there's a sign, it needs to be readable at a glance without distracting the viewer away from the things that people are saying. And lastly, the timing; the text needs to line up with certain things to minimize the distraction that the changing subtitles may cause.
And lastly, fansubs have already been dying out. Most the new fansubs I see pop up are things from before Crunchyroll became such a big player. Other times, they're just restylized, upscaled, or fixed versions of a fansub that someone else released. Other times, they're just Crunchyroll/Netflix/whoever's official subs with proper typesetting and signing. I've little doubt the amount of groups that are doing original subtitles for currently airing shows at any given time are countable on one hand, and then they're generally at least a week behind the official subs. Good luck avoiding spoilers if you want to discuss that show.
So, I really don't believe there's any hope that things will improve without Crunchyroll or one of the other major corporations actively deciding to do better. We could theoretically push them towards improving by unsubscribing until they do. But as I said, I don't believe majority of people care enough. So it would be a slow burn and by the time they take measures to improve, the writing for them may already be on the wall.
¹I have no doubt manga translators have some standards and put a lot of work into making sure it's all readable and fits with the art. However, I do believe they occasionally use a less legible font at times in order to convey certain emphasis or tone. Something the original Japanese version is likely doing as well.
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Comment on Crunchyroll is destroying its subtitles for no good reason in ~anime
Wuju LinkYeah, this has been upsetting me for a little while now. I already almost refuse to watch Netflix and Amazon anime because it's really not uncommon to just have them do some janky subtitles at...Yeah, this has been upsetting me for a little while now. I already almost refuse to watch Netflix and Amazon anime because it's really not uncommon to just have them do some janky subtitles at some point that end up just detracting from the experience. Sure, there may not be things like on screen text or multiple people talking every episode, and sometimes don't happen in a show at all, but there's no way for me to know that without watching it. And if I'm watching it, then when those things do crop up, I'm pulled out of the show as I suddenly need to decipher who's saying what and what signs are where.
In the event that a fansub group doesn't pick a Netflix/Amazon show up in the first couple weeks, I often don't bother. I'd much rather just wait a few years, maybe remember that they had a show I wanted to watch, then do a quick check to see if anyone has put out some quality fansubs.
But, alas, at least for me, this enshittification may be coming at an opportune time; my interest in anime has already been rapidly dwindling these past couple years, this season definitely included. So it's possible my dwindling interest may be due in part to this, but it's hard to say. Maybe I'm just being a drama queen, but if this trend keeps continuing, then I don't know how much longer I can watch anime.
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Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk
Wuju Link ParentWould it? I would just assume 2pm is closer to dawn for them. In fact, for something as personal as breakfast, I might personally include how far long before/after dawn that is for me were I was...Would it? I would just assume 2pm is closer to dawn for them. In fact, for something as personal as breakfast, I might personally include how far long before/after dawn that is for me were I was talking about it.
What I want from it is for people in different time-zones (majority of my friend group) to be able to say a time and have everyone immediately on the same page without having to remember the time-zone of each and every person in the conversation then having to do some math and remember who and if anyone is currently observing Daylight Savings. That and not have to deal with seeing a time for an announcement from a company with a time-zone I'm not familiar with and have to throw it in some awful date/time converter online.
And don't even get me started the horribly inconsistent date formatting used across the world. The only formattings I don't think are used are the ones with the year between the day and month, for obvious reasons. Is it too much to ask to read an expiry date and know if it's actually expired? The only time I can be sure is when the company uses two digits for the day or year and 3 letters for the month, which is astonishingly rare here.
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Comment on What ridiculous thing would you spend billions on? in ~talk
Wuju LinkHow much would it cost to abolish time-zones and DST as well as force everyone to use the same date formatting around the world? Is billions even enough to convince 8 billion people? I just want...How much would it cost to abolish time-zones and DST as well as force everyone to use the same date formatting around the world? Is billions even enough to convince 8 billion people? I just want to see a time on the internet and say, "Ah, yes. I know how long until/since then." without having to do anything more than simple addition/subtraction. Is that selfish enough?
And yes, it would absolutely be ISO 8601 if I have my way. Though, I wouldn't be opposed to renumbering the months and days within them for things like October being the 8th month and all months having 30 or 31 days on consistent intervals.
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft Hardcore - Live at 20:00 UTC today in ~games
Wuju Link ParentYou can dig straight down pretty safely by standing on the border between two blocks. Dig one of those sides straight down 3 blocks. Then swap to the other side. If a cave or lava pool opens up...You can dig straight down pretty safely by standing on the border between two blocks. Dig one of those sides straight down 3 blocks. Then swap to the other side. If a cave or lava pool opens up beneath you, you're still half standing on one block and can't fall in. So you can just use a water bucket on the hole and descend in safely, which also leaves you a way out and a sort of beacon for your exit. The only real risk is lava pouring in from the side which is extremely reactable with either a water bucket or jumping up and replacing the block you just mined.
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Comment on If you're forced to use Windows 11, here's how to steal some of your time back in ~comp
Wuju Link ParentFor me, it always seems to happen after Discord updates. The same goes for other program icons that are hidden; always after they get an update. But it doesn't happen for all programs. My best...For me, it always seems to happen after Discord updates. The same goes for other program icons that are hidden; always after they get an update. But it doesn't happen for all programs. My best guess, based off of what I've seen is that it's hidden because the program is now launching from a new executable, so it might be more of a Discord/other program issue rather than a Windows issue.
Of course, it wouldn't be an issue at all if Windows just gave us the option to always show all icons like they did in previous versions of Windows...
My friend previously often had a similar issue with some programs because he always adjusted a program's volume in the Volume Mixer instead of in the program itself for the same reason.
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Comment on How did you ruin a game for yourself? in ~games
Wuju LinkThere's been a few games I've gotten notably deep into, took a break from to play something with some friends, and then just failed to return to. Now, I can't bring myself to complete because I...There's been a few games I've gotten notably deep into, took a break from to play something with some friends, and then just failed to return to. Now, I can't bring myself to complete because I was too far into it to want to redo everything, but at the same time it's been so long that the story will be lost on me or the mechanics impossible without restarting. So, you might say I've ruined those.
Consequentially, this has prevented me from playing some games until I'm full and ready to play from start to end. I was looking forward to Hollow Knight even before I started seeing the internet go wild about it, yet it remains in my library untouched. Maybe someday, maybe someday...
So how long until it becomes commonplace for tech enthusiasts to start jailbreaking their TVs and flashing an open source OS onto them? (If it isn't already.)