babypuncher's recent activity
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Comment on These tacky men with ridiculous glasses want you to wear them too in ~life.style
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Comment on These tacky men with ridiculous glasses want you to wear them too in ~life.style
babypuncher Link ParentI think you hit the nail on the head. These glasses will always look tacky until this is no longer the broader context of their existence, which may never happen. These things have been on the...Now the bigger question is, are smart glasses useful for anything people want to do? Unless you’re the sort of creep who takes up skirt photos, the answer seems to be “no.”
I think you hit the nail on the head. These glasses will always look tacky until this is no longer the broader context of their existence, which may never happen. These things have been on the market in some form or another for years now, but there's still no obvious gamechanging everyday use case. It's not like smartphones where "the internet, readily available in your pocket" was a huge leap in convenience.
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Comment on Apple announces significant price increases for MacBooks, iPads, more in ~tech
babypuncher Link ParentBut they won't make it a priority because software quality is way harder to measure and quantify than the number of features shipped or lines of code produced. And if the tools get good enough for...But they won't make it a priority because software quality is way harder to measure and quantify than the number of features shipped or lines of code produced. And if the tools get good enough for someone with no expertise to shove out crap that is barely "good enough", these companies won't want to pay for that expertise at all anymore.
And the users won't care because they lack the technical literacy to understand how the software they use everyday could be so much better than it is. Just look at how hopelessly addicted people are to software that is actively hostile to the wellbeing of its userbase (Facebook, Instagram). The market forces simply no longer exist to promote the success of good software.
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Comment on Apple announces significant price increases for MacBooks, iPads, more in ~tech
babypuncher (edited )Link ParentIt's not that we don't exist, it's that tech companies prioritize software quantity over software quality. It's why AI coding is actually a disaster for the industry as a whole, because it is...It's not that we don't exist, it's that tech companies prioritize software quantity over software quality. It's why AI coding is actually a disaster for the industry as a whole, because it is almost exclusively being used to further prioritize quantity.
When is the last time a tech company put out a new piece of software that people actually love? It's all just crap users toloerate. I remember back when Adobe would launch a new version of Photoshop and people would actually get excited about dropping $500 on an upgrade, rather than feel resentful that their Creative Cloud subscription just go more expensive to justify some half-baked new feature nobody cares about.
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Comment on SpaceX stock tumbles 23% from its high as average investor sees gains wiped out in ~finance
babypuncher LinkI'm literally incapable of feeling bad for anyone who is losing money on SpaceX.I'm literally incapable of feeling bad for anyone who is losing money on SpaceX.
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Comment on Yum Brands sells Pizza Hut to private equity firm LongRange Capital and Yum China for $2.7 billion in ~food
babypuncher LinkDoes this mean the world's last KenTacoHut will soon just be a KenTaco?Does this mean the world's last KenTacoHut will soon just be a KenTaco?
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Comment on Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 in ~tech
babypuncher LinkOh look, more stupid bullshit toys for billionaires. I miss the days when normal people could buy computers and tech companies shipped software that didn't suck.Oh look, more stupid bullshit toys for billionaires. I miss the days when normal people could buy computers and tech companies shipped software that didn't suck.
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Comment on Halo: Campaign Evolved | Cinematic story trailer in ~games
babypuncher (edited )Link ParentI want to count the MCC PC release as a separate line item, solely because they actually went back and fixed 99% of the issues the Xbox MCC version of Halo 1 inherited from Anniversary and the...I want to count the MCC PC release as a separate line item, solely because they actually went back and fixed 99% of the issues the Xbox MCC version of Halo 1 inherited from Anniversary and the Gearbox PC port. This was no small technical feat.
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Comment on Final Fantasy Resonance | Trailer in ~games
babypuncher Link ParentCD keys and disc checks were way more annoying than any DRM I deal with today. And when they stopped being effective, we got draconian online activation limits, where you could only install a game...CD keys and disc checks were way more annoying than any DRM I deal with today. And when they stopped being effective, we got draconian online activation limits, where you could only install a game 3-5 times before needing to call customer support to have the activation limit reset.
Disc checks and activation limits were enforced by third party software that fucked with CD drives, blocked you from using disk virtualization software, and was so notoriously insecure that Microsoft eventually deliberately blocked it from even being installed on newer versions of Windows, rendering retail copies of many games unplayable by the '10s. I had to download cracks for the majority of games I owned legitimately because playing them the right way was genuinely onerous.
This is where Steam came in. Valve correctly recognized that piracy was a service issue. Steam (more specifically Steamworks) provides DRM protection to games in a way that is mostly transparent to the user. No stupid disc checks, no activation limits, no dangerous software running in the background. It just "works", provided you first run the game while connected to the internet to activate it.
Denuvo is similar to Steamworks in that it is completely transparent to the end user. It does have an activation limit, but it is more of a rate limit; dozens of activations are allowed per license per day, rather than 3-5 activations allowed across an entire lifetime. The main difference between Denuvo and Steamworks is that Denuvo is actually difficult for pirates to crack.
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Comment on Final Fantasy Resonance | Trailer in ~games
babypuncher Link ParentYou would have absolutely hated PC gaming in the '00s, DRM was far more impactful of the actual user experience back thenYou would have absolutely hated PC gaming in the '00s, DRM was far more impactful of the actual user experience back then
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Comment on Final Fantasy Resonance | Trailer in ~games
babypuncher Link ParentDenuvo is like the boogeyman at this pointDenuvo is like the boogeyman at this point
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Comment on Recommendations for e-ink tablets? in ~tech
babypuncher (edited )LinkI like my Boox Go Color 7. I don't think it quite fits the bill of what you're looking for. It does support a stylus, and has Play Store access, but at 7" its primary use is reading with note...I like my Boox Go Color 7. I don't think it quite fits the bill of what you're looking for. It does support a stylus, and has Play Store access, but at 7" its primary use is reading with note taking as an extra. That said, I've been impressed enough with its capability in that department that I can see their other tablets geared more towards that use case being fantastic.
A word of caution about Android e-ink tablets: Having full Play Store access is awesome, but most apps are not designed with e-ink displays in mind, so they can be unpleasant to use. The custom Android mine runs lets you tweak some behaviors on a per-app basis to mitigate some unpleasantness, like changing the screen refresh mode or having it wait for animations to finish before updating the display, but these are largely band-aid solutions.
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Comment on What do you think of robots in the military? in ~tech
babypuncher LinkAs and American, I think we've pretty thoroughly proven we cannot act responsibly with the military resources we currently have, and the only movement I want to see on that front is a massive...As and American, I think we've pretty thoroughly proven we cannot act responsibly with the military resources we currently have, and the only movement I want to see on that front is a massive scaling back of military spending until we figure out how to get our shit together.
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Comment on Your URL bar can be a CLI for searching websites in ~tech
babypuncher LinkI've been doing this for 20 years in Firefox at this point and still get excited when other people discover it.I've been doing this for 20 years in Firefox at this point and still get excited when other people discover it.
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Comment on Movie fatigue in ~movies
babypuncher Link ParentI'm getting the rest of Leone's westerns (Once Upon a Time in the West, Duck, You Sucker!), and two from Sergio Corbucci (Django, The Great Silence). I'm particularly excited about that last one....I'm getting the rest of Leone's westerns (Once Upon a Time in the West, Duck, You Sucker!), and two from Sergio Corbucci (Django, The Great Silence). I'm particularly excited about that last one.
I watched another piece of Italian genre cinema today, The Inglorious Bastards, which was also a lot of fun
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Comment on Movie fatigue in ~movies
babypuncher LinkI just watched the entire Dollars Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) over Memorial Day weekend and had a blast. I had always seen the third...I just watched the entire Dollars Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) over Memorial Day weekend and had a blast. I had always seen the third one ranked as one of the greatest films of all time, and now I understand why. I highly recommend all three of these movies.
I have a few more highly regarded spaghetti westerns coming in the mail and the anticipation is palpable at this point.
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Comment on Valve raises Steam Deck OLED prices by up to $300 in ~games
babypuncher Link ParentI'm well aware that my proposal is ridiculous, that's sort of the point. I'm out of realistic ideas on how to fix the problem, so I'm just going to contribute to the growing chorus of discontent...I'm well aware that my proposal is ridiculous, that's sort of the point. I'm out of realistic ideas on how to fix the problem, so I'm just going to contribute to the growing chorus of discontent against the class responsible.
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Comment on Valve raises Steam Deck OLED prices by up to $300 in ~games
babypuncher Link ParentOr, we change the constitution to declare anyone with a net worth > $500m legally not a person, but a noncitizen physical manifestation of their financial assets with almost none of the rights and...Or, we change the constitution to declare anyone with a net worth > $500m legally not a person, but a noncitizen physical manifestation of their financial assets with almost none of the rights and protections afforded to the rest of us. They can get their personhood back by charitably donating enough of said assets to bring their personal wealth below that threshold.
This would solve so many problems. For one, they could no longer pump money into elections under the guise of "free speech" because the First Amendment would no longer be applicable to them.
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Comment on Valve raises Steam Deck OLED prices by up to $300 in ~games
babypuncher Link ParentI don't see that happening. Smartphones aren't built to run AAA PC games, and anyone building more bespoke Android gaming handhelds will face the exact same problems Valve is right now. Plus, why...Steam for Android compatibility so that they don't have to deal with new hardware pipelines in a world where all this nonsense is going on. Maybe branded Retroid hardware?
I don't see that happening. Smartphones aren't built to run AAA PC games, and anyone building more bespoke Android gaming handhelds will face the exact same problems Valve is right now. Plus, why even run Android when SteamOS is purpose built for this exact job?
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Comment on Valve raises Steam Deck OLED prices by up to $300 in ~games
babypuncher Link ParentI legit think we should start berating and spitting on them in public. They shouldn't feel welcome in regular society, they should be treated with the same level of disdain they clearly have for...I legit think we should start berating and spitting on them in public. They shouldn't feel welcome in regular society, they should be treated with the same level of disdain they clearly have for the rest of us.
Even if the glasses can do it perfectly, how much more convenient is it to perform this task on your glasses than it is with your smartphone? It's certainly slightly less cumbersome than pulling something out of your pocket, but is enough so for the average person to justify spending hundreds of dollars on an extra device?