delphi's recent activity
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Comment on Spotify is adding direct messaging to their music streaming app in ~tech
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Spotify is adding direct messaging to their music streaming app
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Comment on Question about Marginalia Search in ~tech
delphi (edited )Link ParentWhile that may be true, and I can't deny a certain honesty and authenticity in the mascot idea, the issue I have with it isn't that it exists at all, but that it is shown before a usually...While that may be true, and I can't deny a certain honesty and authenticity in the mascot idea, the issue I have with it isn't that it exists at all, but that it is shown before a usually completely unrelated page is loaded. If it was just their mascot and on their project website, I wouldn't care the slightest bit, and considering the many horrible mascots the open source community usually gets I'd even welcome the change. But it's not. It's shown to everyone, which also includes those that don't even know what it is, and it usually de-loads fast enough for you to not even be able to read the whole "Checking if you're a bot, powered by Anubis" text. If I was looking for an anti-crawling solution (which I'm not, I don't even think Anubis is very good at this, delenda est and so on) I'd pick one that doesn't... impose its own style on my website before anything else, so to speak.
Additional thought: Maybe I'd mind less if the character weren't making eye contact.
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Comment on Question about Marginalia Search in ~tech
delphi LinkThe whiplash from seeing the anime girl making sure I'm not a bot on websites with Anubis installed is something I'll never get over. Way to make sure your project's not gonna be taken seriously...The whiplash from seeing the anime girl making sure I'm not a bot on websites with Anubis installed is something I'll never get over. Way to make sure your project's not gonna be taken seriously
As for Marginalia, I can't say I've ever used it, but I did have a lot of fun with Kagi's Small Web, which is a similar idea in concept.
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Comment on Make new friends here! in ~life
delphi LinkI've always had a few online friends - since I used to be quite active as an artist on instagram, that used too be my crowd, but now that I'm 25 the crowd there just skews too young for me. So...I've always had a few online friends - since I used to be quite active as an artist on instagram, that used too be my crowd, but now that I'm 25 the crowd there just skews too young for me. So here's my introduction:
I'm Ruby (they/them), as mentioned before I'm 25 years old, and I'm a graphic designer by trade. Looking for any means of conversation, if you're local to the Central Europe Tri-State we could even hang out (Grand Est / Baden-Württemberg / Northwestern CH)
General interests
Writing, design and the abstract notion of computers. I've written four novels (and published none), love to world build and do concept art. I'm a big believer in the IndieWeb and am part of the XXIIVV webring, and am looking for likeminded people to build a little circle of other IndieWeb accomplices. If that's not you though, we can still be friends! I'd just like to know more people in that area.
Media I'm currently on
- The Sopranos (finally getting around to it)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (replaying it with the DLC)
- Indie / Dad Rock
- The Vergecast (every Friday)
Other things to know
I use and love my Mac every day, and I'm almost treating it like a deck builder rogue like - I collect apps, the more specific the better - and I love managing my tasks and personal knowledge (I set up a Linear.app instance for my apartment) and I love gadgets probably a little too much (I'm one of the few people that bought the Even G1 smart glasses, even though I definitely don't need them).
You can contact me any way you see fit - Tildes, Bluesky, Email, and you can look at my website here: https://rmv.fyi/ (desktop preferred, mobile works but is still WIP)
Thanks for making this thread!
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Comment on What's a question you could ask to determine if someone is an expert in your line of work? in ~talk
delphi Link"Why are the pieces in a game of Go not the same size, and how does this relate to the Google logo not being a perfect circle?" Answer A white stone in Go will always appear slightly larger than a..."Why are the pieces in a game of Go not the same size, and how does this relate to the Google logo not being a perfect circle?"
Answer
A white stone in Go will always appear slightly larger than a black one, so to compensate for this visual instability - that doesn't actually exist when measured - black stones are made just a tiny bit larger. This is in service of visual balance, a concept in graphic design that underpins most of typography.
You see, perfect circles rarely appear in nature. The earth isn't actually a sphere - it's a spheroid, slightly squashed at the top and bottom. So, perfect circles - especially when in a pattern with other non-circle shapes - often distract the eye and kind of unnerve the viewer without them realising why. Plain and simple, it looks bad.
This also applies to type. For example, the "o" in the word "Foxtrot" is slightly taller than the top of the "x". If it wasn't, the eye would see that as unbalanced, so we make it slightly taller to compensate for this illusion. It's called Overshoot, and it's a fundamental concept in graphic design that every designer needs to know about. So, to answer the question concisely:
Black stones look smaller than white stones despite being the same size, so you make them a bit larger to compensate. Similarly, the G in Google doesn't fit in a perfect square because it would throw off the visual balance of the entire logo.
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Comment on Understanding what a VPN can do for you and how to pick the right one in ~tech
delphi Link ParentYou might wanna look into Tailscale's Mullvad integration. I'm not professional or knowledgeable enough to use it to its fullest extent, but Tailscale has a quite frankly overwhelming amount of...You might wanna look into Tailscale's Mullvad integration. I'm not professional or knowledgeable enough to use it to its fullest extent, but Tailscale has a quite frankly overwhelming amount of options when it comes to forwarding and exposing client services, and integrates flawlessly with Mullvad through a partnership integration. Could work for you.
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Comment on Understanding what a VPN can do for you and how to pick the right one in ~tech
delphi Link ParentHonestly, there's no specific reason and maybe I'm a bit too mean to PIA, but I always felt like the consensus was that those services don't pass the "vibe check", whatever that means. Just felt...Honestly, there's no specific reason and maybe I'm a bit too mean to PIA, but I always felt like the consensus was that those services don't pass the "vibe check", whatever that means. Just felt that if you needed a VPN to hide what you're doing because it's mission critical, you're probably rolling your own, for the same reason that you don't want the risk of knowing someone could listen in. These services just didn't feel like they were "for us", as high power nerds.
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Comment on Understanding what a VPN can do for you and how to pick the right one in ~tech
delphi LinkThis is a tiny issue that only I will care about: These commercial hide-your-IP services are not VPNs. I mean, sure they use the same tech, but they're not making a virtual private network. A VPN...This is a tiny issue that only I will care about: These commercial hide-your-IP services are not VPNs. I mean, sure they use the same tech, but they're not making a virtual private network. A VPN is designed to connect remote devices as if they're in the same local network, which is useful if you need to connect to a computer over the internet, but don't want to expose it to the web. As a bonus, that virtual connection is usually encrypted.
As for the video, I'm not very happy with it. First, the real title - EXPOSING The Billion Dollar SECRET VPN Companies Are Hiding - is just plain clickbait and doesn't do much to help the perceived legitimacy of LaMarr's work. Then, the first fourth of the video is about the Facebook Onavo scandal, which is a little story that as far as I can tell is mostly folklore about how Facebook used a VPN service to spy on users that went to Snapchat instead. LaMarr claims that the app recorded "Every tap" on the user's device, something that's just plain impossible on iPhones, even with the most invasive of management solutions installed.
The next chapter is about Kape tech, the company owning ExpressVPN, PIA and a bunch of other miscreants in the sector. Everyone worth their weight in salt knows not to trust these over advertised pieces of junk anyways, so whatever, I guess for the layman this could be news. She then asks, provocatively, "Still feel safe with your VPN?" without giving us any real reasons as to why we shouldn't be, when those are PLENTIFUL. Just the first one - how can you be sure they don't keep connection logs after all? How do you know your traffic is actually encrypted, other than the big glowing padlock in their exceedingly horrible apps? Simple questions to ask, but LaMarr just doesn't. This is again self-evident to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the problem, but that's not who she's targeting with this video. A little more education and less fear-mongering (even if totally justified here) is in order. She also makes some truly out there claims that I can't verify from the - count 'em - FIVE whole sources (four if you take out the random twitter thread) she provided, all articles from at least to me pretty unknown sites. Of course, the B-roll with the hackers in hoodies and dark rooms is all over this video.
Next chapter - smaller channels advertising VPN services without doing their due diligence. I can't argue with this, except that there are some wildly confident but unsourced claims about how 80% of VPN ads made "false claims". Again, the sources don't seem to talk about this. There's an article about VPN influencer marketing, but the number 80% doesn't appear at all in it.
The "What a VPN actually does" section is also just plain misleading. Yes, technically speaking a VPN tunnel does encrypt your traffic, but that's very selective. The Virtual Private Network is a very specific piece of enterprise technology designed mostly for remote access of sensitive computers, and "hiding your IP" or all that privacy nonsense is not at all what they're primarily designed for. "Hides your IP from websites you visit"? Seriously? No, that's not what a VPN does! It can, yes, but the stuff the commercial services do is very rarely actually designed to link together remote devices for convenience and security! Not even mentioning the original technology's main advantage makes me think that LaMarr has no idea what she's talking about, and the "buckle up" and "delve into" shibboleths make me doubt she actually wrote this herself.
But what can actually protect your privacy online then, Addie LaMarr? Do you have some thoughts on this for us? Ah, fear not - she does. Browser hardening is one part, which she doesn't really explain but I'm willing to chalk up to me just not recognising the very basic advice as advice - stuff like installing an ad- and tracking blocker, and being mindful of what you actually do on the web. Then, if you still need to mask your IP, she lays out a list of things a "good" VPN should check - that being third party audits (the thing she decried in the previous chapter to be usually a scam and fake anyway), transparent ownership, open-source practices and anonymous payments. Also, "privacy first features" like a kill switch, DNS leakage protection or a Tor bridge, without - of course - explaining what these are, what they do or why we should care.
The final section is just a list of "known good" VPN providers, an oxymoron of epic proportions, if you ask me. But if you need to know, the "good ones" are Mullvad (which she, classy as ever, talks about while B-roll of a guy working on a computer with four monitors wearing a Guy Fawkes mask plays), IVPN, and Proton. These are "trustable". Oh golly, good to know! I guess I can trust them now, since someone who doesn't know what a VPN is told me.
The other tools she recommends are DNS over HTTPS, which, fair enough, can't go wrong there, and perplexingly... Tor? If you don't know enough about the internet to understand why the commercial VPN providers suck, don't touch the onion, man! You don't know what to look out for, and once you connect to a few sites over Tor (which should take you a couple of minutes, nice UX there) you'll quickly run back to Chrome or whatever. A hard sell, especially in the section that says "better privacy tools than VPNs". But thankfully, hardened Firefox is also an option she touts. Turn off WebRTC, use container tabs, again, without explaining what they do or why we would care.
I'm just going to stop here. I know there's around a minute left, but I truly believe that there's nothing LaMarr can add that will make this a good or even passable video. There's no science communication here. No education. Just fear mongering and half-knowledge. I expected much more from someone who claims to have been in cybersecurity for 14 years.
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Comment on I accidentally bought Cyberpunk again, if you want the key, it's yours in ~games
delphi Link ParentThanks! I've already given it away, so I didn't think the topic needed to stay.Thanks! I've already given it away, so I didn't think the topic needed to stay.
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Comment on I accidentally bought Cyberpunk again, if you want the key, it's yours in ~games
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Comment on The hater's guide to the AI bubble in ~finance
delphi LinkI didn't think I'd read the entire thing, out loud, but it's just too compelling. Ed talks about every single thing I believed and wasn't smart enough to articulate. My feelings on the technology...I didn't think I'd read the entire thing, out loud, but it's just too compelling. Ed talks about every single thing I believed and wasn't smart enough to articulate. My feelings on the technology haven't changed, nor are they relevant here - but he's right. This particularly cancerous growth of the tech economy is rotten to the core, and as a rotten tree falls it will still shred its neighbours and cause untold damage.
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Comment on Starting a tool library in ~tech
delphi LinkI am actually working on the exact same thing right now. I've been volunteering with a local library of things for nearly three years now and am now doing all of their design, comms and a good bit...I am actually working on the exact same thing right now. I've been volunteering with a local library of things for nearly three years now and am now doing all of their design, comms and a good bit of IT as well.
The quick answer is: Do it yourself. None of the existing solutions - including my own - is ideal. MyTurn is commercial software, so for a small operation out of the question, and also in my opinion that just goes against the point of a library like this. There are other options, like a WordPress based solution whose name escapes me at the moment, but those also lock you into their way of thinking. At my library, we used a spreadsheet to coordinate along with physical kanban cards, but that got unwieldy quickly. Stuff like Koha requires a literal degree in library sciences to use (MARC bibliographic framework, anyone?), and are more meant for media than for objects, although I have seen people bend it into shape. It's not ideal, though.
At its core, you just need three databases: Users, Items and Signs. They're interconnected and should impose stuff on each other - Signs should be visible from Users, when an Item is Signed Out it shouldn't be able to be Signed Out again, and so on. You're smart, I'm sure you can figure it out. But a bigger stock makes it more complex. How do you deal with copies of items (something we call Instances)? Can item 1 have two of it? Or would that be item 1-A and 1-B? Or item 1 and 2?
These kinda questions you can really only answer for yourself once you've actually started working at your library and figured out the usage patterns of your users. Make no mistake - this is not a trivial problem. In fact, it's mind-bogglingly complicated once you even hit 100 items and 500 users, and with ones on the scale of my library (1000+ items, 5000ish users) it's damn near unmanageable unless you roll your own, bespoke solution. For smaller libraries, I guess a simple SaaS-deal like Notion or Airtable could work reasonably well, but in the long run, custom is the only option, IMO.
But it's doable. And if you need help, I'm always here for a DM. Best of luck!
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Comment on Why is Cloudflare trusted with encryption? in ~tech
delphi LinkSeems to me the simplest answer is that most people don't care. It's a low volume product compared to Domains and SSL, which is their big money maker. I mean, you said it yourself. You use tunnels...Seems to me the simplest answer is that most people don't care. It's a low volume product compared to Domains and SSL, which is their big money maker.
I mean, you said it yourself. You use tunnels to "much about" with "low risk apps". I suspect someone who's looking for a modern and proven solution for a use case like this that's load bearing and mission critical would probably go to Tailscale first. If you just need to test something, you probably don't even want the option to manage your keys. Just set it and forget it, have it work as quickly as possible.
If you need more than that, chances are you're a business that needs it to operate. And then, they can charge you.
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Comment on Explain Linux controversies to me in ~tech
delphi Link ParentUnity was the semi-proprietary desktop environment for Ubuntu before they switched to classic GNOME.Unity was the semi-proprietary desktop environment for Ubuntu before they switched to classic GNOME.
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Comment on Explain Linux controversies to me in ~tech
delphi LinkI'm gonna take the systemd one. Systemd is, for those that are unaware, the system in most modern flavours of linux that essentially wakes the system up when you turn your computer on. Systemd's...- Exemplary
I'm gonna take the systemd one.
Systemd is, for those that are unaware, the system in most modern flavours of linux that essentially wakes the system up when you turn your computer on. Systemd's job is to start services like the activity monitoring system (journalctl), mounting the file system, starting the network manager, getting the current time and date, and essentially getting your computer to a finished state. Sounds great, right? Well, some people didn't think so.
See, before Lennart Poettering developed Systemd in 2010, Linux was started through a system they got from their UNIX grandmothers called System V (5) Init. System V Init doesn't actually do much - it just starts a lot of other services, essentially gives the computer a kickstart, starts other programs doing other things, and then sits there. It has the process number 1 (called PID 1) and if it ever dies, the computer hard crashes.
To Lennart, there were problems with this approach. For instance, Init didn't really have a concept of running things in parallel - something that would obviously make the boot process a lot faster. If it can do things simultaneously instead of having to wait for processes to finish, in theory, that would make it a lot faster and resilient, since the processes Init starts kind of have to wait for the previous one to finish. What if they never do? What if there's a malfunction? You'd be none the wiser.
So, brilliant, right? Systemd was adopted by the major distros, everyone loved it, story done. Well, no, of course not. Critics regard it as too complex, too monolithic, and therefore violating the UNIX philosophy (essentially, do one thing and do it well). Some critics are of the unshakeable belief that all PID 1 should ever do is nothing at all, aside from starting the other processes and taking in any processes that lose their parent.
Course, this is all a matter of opinion. I personally do not believe in the UNIX philosophy as a hard unshakeable rule, and on GNU systems it's even more questionable (Did you know GNU stands for GNU's Not UNIX?). But, whatever. I can deal. Unfortunately, people who did not feel like that, started sending death threats to Lennart for presenting a new idea, and thought that this simply would not do.
In the end, though, basically every system uses systemd now, and those that don't make a specific point not to do so for what's essentially culture war reasons.
TLDR: The init system in UNIX was brutally simple, Linux adopted it, a guy named Lennart Poettering thought he could do better and made systemd, some very vocal assholes thought he should die for this.
Note: A major component to the systemd hate is probably that it's in concept very similar to Apple's launchd, which is how Macs and iPhones start all their stuff. And we all know how Linux users can be when faced with good ideas coming from closed source software.
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Comment on Starlink is surprisingly good, actually in ~tech
delphi Link ParentI'm sure my fifty bucks a month will turn the tide against fascism in fascism's favour. Come on, hate the game, not the players. If I had better options, I would. And to me, 60 for 100 is...I'm sure my fifty bucks a month will turn the tide against fascism in fascism's favour.
Come on, hate the game, not the players. If I had better options, I would. And to me, 60 for 100 is absolutely not within reason, and is closer to 75 after taxes and EU conversion.
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Starlink is surprisingly good, actually
Haven't seen anyone mention that project in a few years, but now I'm in the unique position to talk about it. I live somewhere where I can't get any proper internet service - mobile broadband is...
Haven't seen anyone mention that project in a few years, but now I'm in the unique position to talk about it. I live somewhere where I can't get any proper internet service - mobile broadband is slow, DSL or fibre lines are not brought out to where I live, and the only other option is cable internet access, which I've 1. had bad experiences with in the past and 2. where I live is operated by a company with laughably bad reviews at exorbitant prices for what they offer. We are talking about 60 USD (eq) a month for 100 megabit service.
So I shopped around to see what other options there are, and Starlink made me an offer. Free equipment, which is usually 400 bucks, delivered to my house, and then an unlimited data plan at whatever speeds I can get where I live for 50 a month, with a one month free trial. I said yes, paid with Apple Pay (seriously, did not have to fill out a single form or sign anything) and the dish arrived the next day.
Now, I know, Starlink is run by Musk, who is somewhere around the top 10 of my nightmare blunt rotation and also pretty likely to be an actual neo-Nazi, but I say whatever. It's not like the alternatives are much better, and at least SpaceX has some actual value for humanity, if you ask me. I might put a "I bought this before Elon went crazy" on my router, though.
I got the dish delivered and set it up on my roof. The app - which is excellent - tells you to orient it north if you're on the northern hemisphere, and to roughly point it up. I built my own mounting solution - a wooden board with mounting holes that snaps in place on my roof - and set everything up, not expecting much.
I was absolutely blown away. The app, once more, is stellar and incredibly easy to use, and a joy to play around with. I got a satellite connection in minutes, and did a speed test. I got 200 down and 50 up in the Starlink app, but independent speed tests as well as my own experience routinely hit 400 down and around 80 up. Genuinely impressive. Ping around 30, by the way. Consistent as well.
The next few days were a similar experience, although I did notice a drop in speeds if there was heavy rain. The speeds dropped however to around 150 over 30, which is still more than usable, and latency was not impacted at all as far as I can tell.
Honestly, it's a super compelling package. Setup was so simple my grandma could have done it, the hardware is beautifully made and very robust, and the designers really did think of a lot here. The cables are just weatherproofed Ethernet and you can bring your own (although they don't recommend it), the router is Wifi 6 and looks damn snazzy, the dish can even heat itself up to melt snow in winter.
If you're looking for reliable internet service, I really can't recommend Starlink enough. If where you're planning on running it is within the service area and you're fine with the 50 dollar a month price point (no speed or data caps, by the way) I'd say go for it.
Now, there are people who will say that it's a good option for remote places, but not that great for densely populated areas in buildings that could get for example cable service, and you shouldn't rely on it. But, well, I haven't been completely honest here:
The real sting in the tale is that I live in one a large European city with plenty of access to other internet methods (just unlucky in terms of my specific building, which is getting fibre next year), and mounted the dish on top of my townhouse in one of the most dense districts in town. It works flawlessly, and it's been the fastest internet service I've ever had, period.
Course, it can't compete with a fibre line, sure, but many people don't have those - and then, service or hardware might still add large costs on top of that. And with Starlink, I can just take it with me whenever I move, and don't need to ever worry about ISPs again.
I don't have many sufficiently nerdy friends to talk about this with, so if you're curious or have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them. If you have Starlink too and feel like I missed something, feel free to contribute to the conversation.
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Comment on Have a hard time letting go of old tech? in ~tech
delphi LinkI know how you feel. Ever since a tech friend of mine jokingly asserted that "The retrocomputing threat level is now orange - all hardware made before the Opteron is now classed as 'Don't throw it...I know how you feel. Ever since a tech friend of mine jokingly asserted that "The retrocomputing threat level is now orange - all hardware made before the Opteron is now classed as 'Don't throw it out even if it's broken, you'll regret it'" I've been maintaining and cleaning my old tech every now and again. An IBM-compatible, a Mac Performa 200, a few old amplifiers and radios - and I'm reminded every time that they truly don't make them like they used to.
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Comment on Every tech YouTuber is talking about the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge now, so here’s a TLDR in ~tech
delphi LinkWarning: Rant. This phone's probably fine, but I can't imagine many people will buy it. I genuinely don't really understand why all of these companies even still try, apart from the obvious dollar...Warning: Rant. This phone's probably fine, but I can't imagine many people will buy it.
I genuinely don't really understand why all of these companies even still try, apart from the obvious dollar signs. Far be it from me to claim that "phones have gotten boring", that's not the point I'm trying to make and I also don't think it's true. I can't help but think though that slowly but surely, many if not all companies in the space are really running out of ideas.
The S25 Slim or whatever isn't what anyone (hyperbole) wanted. It's really the opposite. A tiny bit of a thicker chassis wouldn't bother most people, especially because they just slap a case on it anyways, and the battery life improvements would pay off in spades. This really seems like the natural consequence of making foldable phones and spending a LOT of R&D on making those devices thin enough they can fold in half and still feel somewhat normal. They want a return on those investments, and even if people generally like the Flip, that's not really what Samsung envisioned here.
Same with Apple, frankly. I use an iPhone and I quite like it, but I won't ever forgive them for getting rid of the Mini and replacing it eventually with the rumoured "Air" thin iPhone. Once again, probably a gimme if they're working on foldables, but... I mean, at least in a foldable, the thickness or lack thereof is a necessary problem to solve.
It genuinely baffles me how little innovation we're getting lately. I mean, if you're not a complete niche user (like me, who only got the iPhone 15 Pro because of its capability to record Log video, a real upgrade for mobile videographers) there's no reason to upgrade.
Yes, yes, I'm aware that the paradigm isn't and hasn't been upgrading every year for a while now, and that all those incremental upgrades do add up and feel significant if you're not hopping one generation, but four or five. But I can't be the only one who feels that this industry has lost its lustre, especially on the android side where everyone is offering the same experience, sans or plus a few software crimes between manufacturers. Everyone's got the 120 Hz screen (after successfully convincing the android crowd that that's something everyone definitely needs, we promise), the big screen with the hole for the camera, the USB-C port with insane charging speeds, anywhere between two and twenty camera lenses with varying reasons for being there, the Snapdragon Something-8-other, the AI assistant, whatever, dude, it's a phone.
The industry has been around for a long time now, and everyone's solved their problems to around the same level of general satifaction, and everyone's within a few percentage points of each other except in areas where they're doing a bad job on purpose because they have been denied the known objectively ideal solution due to economics or IP law bullshit.
I'll hold on to my iPhone 15 Pro well into the 22-series, hopefully.
I can't imagine anyone wants this. Sharing music using links already works fine, and I don't really fancy having another conversation in another app to keep track of. And, seriously, what even is Spotify anymore? Is it music streaming? Podcasts? Audiobooks? A social network? A messaging app? They must've completely lost the plot.
I don't even like their focus on playlists, myself. Switched to Apple Music years ago, and am much happier with how that service puts the music front and centre, not itself.