balooga's recent activity

  1. Comment on Razer's new keyboard is basically cheating in ~games

    balooga
    Link
    Would this type of keyboard have any other applications besides games? I’m guessing not, but curious if anyone can think of any.

    Would this type of keyboard have any other applications besides games? I’m guessing not, but curious if anyone can think of any.

    2 votes

  2. Comment on Windows gets Linux's sudo superpower: Here's how to turn it on in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    You’re absolutely right, I shouldn’t have implied a connection between the two. All I meant was that the CrowdStrike incident demonstrated how reliant the world is on Windows systems and what can...

    You’re absolutely right, I shouldn’t have implied a connection between the two. All I meant was that the CrowdStrike incident demonstrated how reliant the world is on Windows systems and what can happen when they fail en masse. And, also, Microsoft has had a terrible security track record lately, and they’ve been luckily not to have been responsible for something on the scale. But I worry it’s only a matter of time, the way things are going.

  3. Comment on Windows gets Linux's sudo superpower: Here's how to turn it on in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Reading about the ongoing CrowdStrike fallout, I have the same sinking feeling. Microsoft’s security track record has been abysmal lately. As Steve Gibson would say, what could possibly go wrong?

    Reading about the ongoing CrowdStrike fallout, I have the same sinking feeling. Microsoft’s security track record has been abysmal lately. As Steve Gibson would say, what could possibly go wrong?

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Disney+, Hulu, Max bundle now available in ~tv

    balooga
    Link Parent
    That sounds nice. I’d be down for just about anything besides ads. Show an image of Cinderella’s castle and play some muzak version of the old Disney songs. Maybe a slideshow of non-political news...

    That sounds nice. I’d be down for just about anything besides ads. Show an image of Cinderella’s castle and play some muzak version of the old Disney songs. Maybe a slideshow of non-political news headlines. Bob Iger’s family vacation reel? Even a completely blank screen would be preferable to ads.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Google now only search engine allowed to provide results from Reddit in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Ah! Thanks for the info! Figures that it was some sort of commercialization/monetization story.

    Ah! Thanks for the info! Figures that it was some sort of commercialization/monetization story.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Has sexual content invaded too much of the internet? in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Modern antivirus is way better but personally I’m downloading executables much less frequently than I did in those days. Back then there was a culture of PC personalization, there were so many...

    Modern antivirus is way better but personally I’m downloading executables much less frequently than I did in those days. Back then there was a culture of PC personalization, there were so many programs to customize icons, fonts, scrollbars, cursors, sound effects, etc. Not to mention little “desktop toys” and interactive screensavers and animated wallpapers and bonzi buddies and the like.

    Maybe it’s just because I grew up, but I used to spend loads of time fiddling with that stuff and it just doesn’t interest me in the same way now. I think the market for it has largely dried up. OSes have locked down a lot of the APIs that enabled those things, so they’re not even possible on modern systems. So now, if I’m downloading an application it’s one that actually does something I need, from a trusted source. Most people probably don’t vet their software that thoroughly but just that broader change in culture protects them from a whole class of malware that doesn’t exist anymore.

    6 votes

  7. Comment on Google now only search engine allowed to provide results from Reddit in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Interesting! That would make it easy to block every IP except Googlebot, but if Reddit wants to allow users too, they’ll need to do a more detailed analysis of request timing and behavioral...

    Interesting! That would make it easy to block every IP except Googlebot, but if Reddit wants to allow users too, they’ll need to do a more detailed analysis of request timing and behavioral patterns, to try to determine who the humans are and filter out the rest. That still leaves a lot of room for crawlers to imitate real users and fly under the radar.

    ValKey (formely known as "Redis")

    Oh, I hadn’t heard about the rebranding. I wonder why they did that? Will need to look into it.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Has sexual content invaded too much of the internet? in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    I’ve been at this as long as you and it’s absolutely, definitely more prevalent now. Those 50 images you opened at once were 480x360 if you were lucky and like you said, it took an eternity to...

    I’ve been at this as long as you and it’s absolutely, definitely more prevalent now. Those 50 images you opened at once were 480x360 if you were lucky and like you said, it took an eternity to download them, praying the whole time that mom wouldn’t pick up the phone and kill the dialup connection. That’s nothing compared to instant-loading 4K livestreams of today. Hell, you can pull up a grid of them all running Brady Bunch style if you’re so inclined. Every fetish imaginable. You want pics? Vids? Full 360° POV interactive VR? Whatever, dude. The ‘90s had nothing on this.

    But I think what OP is really talking about is (largely, but not entirely) the spam moderation problem. Adult content is being peddled at scale on Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Discord, Reddit… mainstream, ultra-popular sites where people of all ages congregate. It’s at such a volume that containing it all is impossible. The spambots are blasting it faster and wider than any system is capable of responding to. It’s “obfuscated” to blend in with legitimate content and circumvent automated detection.

    I am slightly optimistic that we’ll soon see better automated moderation through LLMs and image recognition models. This will be capable of looking at user-posted content like a human would, analyzing its contextual connotations and relevance, and determining whether it’s NSFW, spam, or both. I think that is basically possible today but doing it instantly at a scale that can withstand the firehouse of modern social media, that’s probably a couple years away at least. But I bet it’ll help get this situation tamed somewhat.

    13 votes

  9. Comment on Google now only search engine allowed to provide results from Reddit in ~tech

    balooga
    Link
    Time for the other search engines to roll up their sleeves and start disregarding robots.txt and spoofing Googlebot’s user agent. They don’t have to take this lying down. Reddit can try escalating...

    Time for the other search engines to roll up their sleeves and start disregarding robots.txt and spoofing Googlebot’s user agent. They don’t have to take this lying down.

    Reddit can try escalating the anti-scraping arms race but the more draconian they become the more they’re only shooting themselves in the foot. A free and open internet is the way. Anything contrary to that is going to put itself out to pasture.

    Looking forward to the FOSS decentralized/distributed volunteer crawler networks and pirate search clients that consume them.

    26 votes

  10. Comment on [SOLVED] Looking for help getting my VPN to work with Firefox privacy settings in ~comp

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Huh, I think that was the problem. The Mullvad client has a setting called "Enable IPv6" which has a help icon revealing this: I toggled that on and things appear to be working normally now....

    Huh, I think that was the problem. The Mullvad client has a setting called "Enable IPv6" which has a help icon revealing this:

    When this feature is enabled, IPv6 can be used alongside IPv4 in the VPN tunnel to communicate with internet services.

    IPv4 is always enabled and the majority of websites and applications use this protocol. We do not recommend enabling IPv6 unless you know you need it.

    I toggled that on and things appear to be working normally now. That's so funny, before reaching out here I tried just about every other setting in Mullvad, Firefox, macOS settings, and my router admin. Turns out the issue was the one thing I assumed it wasn't! I'll post here again if I have any other trouble but for now this appears to be solved.

    Thanks, @0x29A!

    8 votes

  11. Comment on [SOLVED] Looking for help getting my VPN to work with Firefox privacy settings in ~comp

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Ah, that's interesting. I'll poke around with IPv6 settings and see what I can learn. Thanks!

    Ah, that's interesting. I'll poke around with IPv6 settings and see what I can learn. Thanks!

    2 votes

  12. [SOLVED] Looking for help getting my VPN to work with Firefox privacy settings

    ~comp Ask
    I recently moved to a new place with a new ISP, and my Mullvad VPN isn't playing nicely with Firefox like it used to. Can any of you networking gurus please help me troubleshoot? When the VPN is...

    I recently moved to a new place with a new ISP, and my Mullvad VPN isn't playing nicely with Firefox like it used to. Can any of you networking gurus please help me troubleshoot?

    When the VPN is enabled, most requests from the browser fail immediately. If I pull up the dev tools Network tab, I can see that these requests fail with an NS_ERROR_FAILURE message before any data is transferred.

    I have Firefox configured to use "strict" Enhanced Tracking Protection. When I reduce it to "standard" my requests go through.

    I'm also trying to use DNS over HTTPS with a custom provider (Mullvad, via https://dns.mullvad.net/dns-query). I'm configuring this in Firefox, using the "Increased Protection" DoH setting. When I do that, Firefox reports the DoH status as "Status: Not active (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)". This happens even when Enhanced Tracking Protection is set to "standard" — in other words, that reduced setting fixed the NS_ERROR_FAILURE for HTTP requests, but not for DoH.

    So how do I fix this so Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection, DNS over HTTPS, and Mullvad all work together? I never had this problem with my old ISP, so I suspect something's being blocked at the WAN level that I need to circumvent.

    • OS: macOS Sonoma 14.5
    • VPN protocol: WireGuard
    • ISP: AT&T Fiber

    I'm just using the official Mullvad client app with mostly default settings. The fiber gateway modem/router came with some default packet filtering firewall rules but I disabled everything in the admin panel. Weirdly, rebooting my machine fixed this temporarily, but the next time I disconnected/reconnected the VPN it broke again. Other browsers (with default settings and no DoH) are working fine when the VPN is connected.

    Edit: Solved! Solution here.

    4 votes

  13. Comment on We unleashed Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms on blank accounts. They served up sexism and misogyny. in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the definition, I used it in ignorance. The term “thirst trap” you included is closer to what I had in mind anyway. I’ll be more mindful about “thot” in the future, that’s not the kind...
    • Exemplary

    Thanks for the definition, I used it in ignorance. The term “thirst trap” you included is closer to what I had in mind anyway. I’ll be more mindful about “thot” in the future, that’s not the kind of language I should be slinging around carelessly.

    Anyway, I counted all of those thumbnails separately as the first image seemed to be a collage meant to exemplify what the study was about.

    18 votes

  14. Comment on We unleashed Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms on blank accounts. They served up sexism and misogyny. in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    I totally agree! And maybe there is. I am running my mouth off about a hypothetical algorithm function, but I don’t actually know how it works. Of course, these algorithms are all famously opaque,...

    I totally agree! And maybe there is. I am running my mouth off about a hypothetical algorithm function, but I don’t actually know how it works.

    Of course, these algorithms are all famously opaque, so nobody really knows. That in itself is a huge problem.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on We unleashed Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms on blank accounts. They served up sexism and misogyny. in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    11/12 examples were, that’s the vast majority of them. I assume if a user sends some kinds of positive feedback signal for the first eleven, the recommendation engine serves up the occasional...

    Not even all the examples in the article were "sexy" rather than "sexist"

    11/12 examples were, that’s the vast majority of them. I assume if a user sends some kinds of positive feedback signal for the first eleven, the recommendation engine serves up the occasional twelfth since it considers that “related content” according to other existing (misogynistic) associative data.

    Fill your feed full of thirst traps if you like, but that isn't really what the article was talking about.

    Again, 11/12 examples shown in the article were exactly that. I think the point is that thirst trap content is inherently sexist, and I don’t actually disagree with that. Still, if those pics showed up on my phone while I was mindlessly swiping through a feed, I’m sure I would unconsciously hesitate in my swiping for a moment. If that’s all it takes for the algorithm to think I want more of that, then I guess my feed would look more like that over time too, even though I wasn’t intentionally seeking it out.

    But like I said I’m just speculating about how the recommendations work; I read that TikTok uses “time watched” as an engagement metric, I don’t know about Facebook and Instagram. Seems like they’re all tripping over each other to copy functionality though. I don’t use any of these platforms.

    Plus "thot?" Come on. Can we not bring the misogyny back home?

    Apologies for that, apparently there’s more coded in that word than I realized.

    16 votes

  16. Comment on We unleashed Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms on blank accounts. They served up sexism and misogyny. in ~tech

    balooga
    Link
    I’m going to speculate a bit here because I don’t use these platforms and really don’t know how they work nowadays… but if you scroll quickly past some posts but spend more time with others on...

    I’m going to speculate a bit here because I don’t use these platforms and really don’t know how they work nowadays… but if you scroll quickly past some posts but spend more time with others on your screen, isn’t that considered algorithmic feedback? If the people running this experiment were swiping through benign content and Office memes, but paused to screenshot and tally every time a scantily clad woman appeared, wouldn’t that in effect be telling the app that those posts are more “engaging” to the user, therefore more like them will be recommended over time?

    I feel like, as a control, another batch of blank accounts should be created for the purpose of “determining whether the platforms serve up increasingly more Office memes over time” or whatever. Then all other posts would be deliberately swiped through quickly but Office memes would receive the screenshot and tally treatment, or whatever specific actions the researchers were taking with the sexist or misogynistic content they identified in the first round. That would determine if the platforms really are pushing this content on people automatically, or if there are other variables that weren’t accounted for.

    That said, I wouldn’t be shocked if the original thesis was proven correct. Sex sells. That’s nothing new. I’m a straight male… if you put an image of an attractive woman in front of me, I’m gonna look at it. It’s not an indicator of sexism or misogyny in me. It’s an instinctive, biological response to sexual, visual stimuli. I think the algorithms know this, and capitalize on it. I doubt anyone at Meta is actively trying to propagate Andrew Tate’s worldview, but I fully believe they know that lots of people like looking at thots for no other reason than dopamine. So of course these feeds end up full of thots.

    29 votes

  17. Comment on Are you a hiring manager/recruiter in tech? In this Circus Funhouse Mirror tech economy, how do candidates even get an interview? in ~tech

    balooga
    Link
    Well this is depressing… unemployed tech worker checking in, having just moved from a tech mecca to a place with nearly zero tech economy. All my hunting has been for remote work through LinkedIn,...

    Well this is depressing… unemployed tech worker checking in, having just moved from a tech mecca to a place with nearly zero tech economy. All my hunting has been for remote work through LinkedIn, and it feels impossible to actually get a foot in the door. I’ve got a great resume and track record but I’m a whisper in a packed arena. Starting to get a little worried, I’ve been applying for about 5 months and haven’t gotten further than one hiring manager interview. I’ve been in the industry for over 15 years and I’ve never had this much trouble getting seen.

    13 votes

  18. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

    balooga
    Link
    It might be fun to use a collaborative playlist so people can add songs directly, but maybe that's too trusting. Alternatively, a semi-official Tildes Jam would be a cool experiment in realtime...

    It might be fun to use a collaborative playlist so people can add songs directly, but maybe that's too trusting. Alternatively, a semi-official Tildes Jam would be a cool experiment in realtime listening together.

    Anyway, here are my picks for the moment:

    3 votes

  19. Comment on A summer Covid-19 wave in ~health

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Unless it was spoken with a tone of congratulation, I'd be looking for a new doctor. Healthcare workers sneering at masks is the modern-day equivalent of the doctors Florence Nightingale had to...

    Unless it was spoken with a tone of congratulation, I'd be looking for a new doctor. Healthcare workers sneering at masks is the modern-day equivalent of the doctors Florence Nightingale had to deal with, who thought washing their hands before surgery was beneath them. I guess if this is a post-surgical follow-up all that's left is a mention of that in a review on Yelp or some other surgeon recommendation site.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on A summer Covid-19 wave in ~health

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Weekly numbers in the hundreds. I’d be interested to see the weekly counts of flu deaths, cancer deaths, heart disease deaths, and homicides for comparison. Covid was absolutely terrifying for a...

    Weekly numbers in the hundreds. I’d be interested to see the weekly counts of flu deaths, cancer deaths, heart disease deaths, and homicides for comparison.

    Covid was absolutely terrifying for a couple years. It’s still dangerous but has largely been defanged. Of course I speak from a place of privilege as someone not from a high-risk group so apologies for my insensitivity to those who still require vigilance. I spent longer than most isolating, masking, installing medical-grade air purifiers in my home, and zealously disinfecting every surface. It’s exhausting, and I sympathize. But it’s a huge victory (for all of us) that the majority of the population doesn’t need to keep that up today.

    14 votes