donn's recent activity

  1. Comment on Python Foundation goes ride or DEI, rejects US government grant with strings attached in ~society

    donn
    Link Parent
    It's less "in spite of not being free" and more especially because some places are not free. Authoritarianism is rewarded by institutions like the IMF because unpopular market reforms can stick...

    It's less "in spite of not being free" and more especially because some places are not free. Authoritarianism is rewarded by institutions like the IMF because unpopular market reforms can stick for years which is less likely to happen in liberal democracies. Example; investors until the last election were spooked about Argentina despite Milei being an IMF simp who is making Argentina amenable to markets, because all it takes is one bad election cycle to undo his reforms.

    You can be corrupt and authoritarian, but being capricious or inconsistent is a death knell. Unfortunately it appears the current US administration is all four.

    7 votes
  2. Comment on Python Foundation goes ride or DEI, rejects US government grant with strings attached in ~society

    donn
    Link Parent
    It is a huge chunk of their revenue, yes. They appear to have made $160k in unqualified donations because of this decision though. Not nearly as much but you know. They stuck by their principles...

    It is a huge chunk of their revenue, yes. They appear to have made $160k in unqualified donations because of this decision though. Not nearly as much but you know. They stuck by their principles and I really appreciate it.

    13 votes
  3. Comment on Super PAC aims to drown out AI critics in US midterms, with $100M and counting in ~society

    donn
    Link Parent
    I really hope so. There's some part of me preparing for an apocalypse scenario when this bubble pops. Even if you don't work in AI, so much of the invested money is keeping other tech industries...

    If the AI boom fizzles, it might be pretty big news for the economy, but probably not bigger news than the 2008 recession.

    I really hope so. There's some part of me preparing for an apocalypse scenario when this bubble pops. Even if you don't work in AI, so much of the invested money is keeping other tech industries afloat.

    2 votes
  4. Comment on How Zohran Mamdani fought the master plan | The key factor isn’t his ads or charisma — it is a public campaign finance system that can be replicated across the US in ~society

    donn
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    Well, now I'm concerned. If his success involves passing similar laws around the US then it's borderline irreplicable.

    Well, now I'm concerned. If his success involves passing similar laws around the US then it's borderline irreplicable.

    10 votes
  5. Comment on Subnautica 2 publisher Krafton will be an "AI-first" company, with AI HR, AI R&D, in-game AI services in ~games

    donn
    Link Parent
    In fairness HR could possibly be replaced with an AI with a prompt of "you are to waste as many people's time as humanly possible"

    In fairness HR could possibly be replaced with an AI with a prompt of "you are to waste as many people's time as humanly possible"

    7 votes
  6. Comment on What's your video game comfort food? in ~games

    donn
    Link
    Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. I don't know why. I can replay this game endlessly I suppose.

    Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

    I don't know why. I can replay this game endlessly I suppose.

    1 vote
  7. Comment on Upgrade desktop to win11 when hardware isn’t supported? in ~tech

    donn
    Link
    The officially sanctioned and least-headache-prone way way is to buy a "hardware TPM" ($25 range) if your motherboard has a header for it - outside of this, Windows 11's minimum requirements are...

    The officially sanctioned and least-headache-prone way way is to buy a "hardware TPM" ($25 range) if your motherboard has a header for it - outside of this, Windows 11's minimum requirements are actually quite lenient: https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/what-is-a-tpm-and-why-do-i-need-one-for-windows-11

    There are a variety of workarounds outside of that but I'm unsure of the limitations, some claim Windows Update stops working, some claim that they're getting regularly patched, etc. I'm sure other Tilde users will chime in about their experiences doing so.

    7 votes
  8. Comment on Grand Theft Auto made him a legend. His latest game was a disaster. in ~games

    donn
    Link Parent
    And yet! There was a period of time where Shigeru Miyamoto was unquestioned and it lead to Star Fox Zero. Him realizing it's time to hand the reins over and take a more supervising role was really...

    And yet! There was a period of time where Shigeru Miyamoto was unquestioned and it lead to Star Fox Zero. Him realizing it's time to hand the reins over and take a more supervising role was really good for their subsequent game output.

    7 votes
  9. Comment on Grand Theft Auto made him a legend. His latest game was a disaster. in ~games

    donn
    Link
    Much like history I don't like the "great man" approach to game development. Sometimes it even gets to THEIR heads and this happens.

    Much like history I don't like the "great man" approach to game development. Sometimes it even gets to THEIR heads and this happens.

    21 votes
  10. Comment on Microsoft warns that Windows 10 reaches end of support today in ~tech

    donn
    Link Parent
    It's probably easier to do these days but I want to say two years ago it was a major, major hassle

    It's probably easier to do these days but I want to say two years ago it was a major, major hassle

    2 votes
  11. Comment on Microsoft warns that Windows 10 reaches end of support today in ~tech

    donn
    Link Parent
    Modding Skyrim is when I finally caved in and just ran Windows 11 on my gaming PC bec getting the modding tools to run in the same Wine prefix as Skyrim was a minor nightmare

    Modding Skyrim is when I finally caved in and just ran Windows 11 on my gaming PC bec getting the modding tools to run in the same Wine prefix as Skyrim was a minor nightmare

    6 votes
  12. Comment on This site is fast in ~tildes

    donn
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    This is what the web is meant to be. Not a gigantic OS compatibility layer so companies can hire people who only know JavaScript and make it everyone's problem.

    This is what the web is meant to be.

    Not a gigantic OS compatibility layer so companies can hire people who only know JavaScript and make it everyone's problem.

    8 votes
  13. Comment on Bipartisan plan to get money out of politics in Montana in ~society

    donn
    Link
    That's really smart! They also address the part that concerned me when I first saw the headline: If the current SCOTUS decides to get creative, it could just decide "yeah corporations in other...

    That's really smart! They also address the part that concerned me when I first saw the headline:

    The move binds both in-state and out-of-state corporations. The authority of states to regulate all corporate activity within their borders is as old as the republic. In 1869, the Supreme Court held in Paul v. Virginia that a state may decline to grant out-of-state corporations powers “prejudicial to their interests or repugnant to their policy.”

    If the current SCOTUS decides to get creative, it could just decide "yeah corporations in other states are people now," esp. that part of that ruling has been overturned. But still, this is 100% worth trying.

    6 votes
  14. Comment on Do other people who grew up with an anonymous internet feel a bit hopeless at the moment? in ~society

    donn
    Link Parent
    For starters, the platform being linked to now know it's your Reddit account, so if that was private that deanonymizes you. They can use your interests from your Reddit account to better build an...

    For starters, the platform being linked to now know it's your Reddit account, so if that was private that deanonymizes you. They can use your interests from your Reddit account to better build an advertising profile for you.

    Second, if it's 100 or more people that's actually less useful for them- the key is if it's like 4 or 5 people off a Discord server. Then you most likely know each other and share similar interests, so again, you and these people's activities would be linked, which further contributes to all of your advertising profiles.

    Of course, all of this information can be subpoenaed, sold, or exfiltrated.

  15. Comment on Do other people who grew up with an anonymous internet feel a bit hopeless at the moment? in ~society

  16. Comment on Do other people who grew up with an anonymous internet feel a bit hopeless at the moment? in ~society

    donn
    Link Parent
    There's no link, this was released without fanfare and pretty much only the privacy-conscious know. This adds a unique tracker (si) as a URL parameter to links copied from the share menu. When you...

    There's no link, this was released without fanfare and pretty much only the privacy-conscious know.

    This adds a unique tracker (si) as a URL parameter to links copied from the share menu. When you post this link somewhere, this does two things:

    • As the link is unique to your user account, it is able to link wherever you posted it with your user account
    • Whoever clicks the link is marked as related to you somehow

    This is how trackers work in general. A variant was used for a very long time in advertising: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTM_parameters

    2 votes
  17. Comment on Hamas releases Israeli hostages, US President Donald Trump gets standing ovation in Israel's parliament in ~society

    donn
    Link Parent
    It's just going to be status quo ante more or less I suppose. It's not like Israel wasn't known to bomb Gaza every once in a while, but hopefully by the time the international peacekeeping force...

    It's just going to be status quo ante more or less I suppose. It's not like Israel wasn't known to bomb Gaza every once in a while, but hopefully by the time the international peacekeeping force is in place they'll stop the wanton bombing.

    Maybe I'm overdosing on copium. idk

    6 votes
  18. Comment on Do other people who grew up with an anonymous internet feel a bit hopeless at the moment? in ~society

    donn
    Link Parent
    Yeah it's like within the year. Also allows YouTube to theoretically tie your social media account to your YouTube account if you post the link there. It's insidious.

    Yeah it's like within the year. Also allows YouTube to theoretically tie your social media account to your YouTube account if you post the link there. It's insidious.

    8 votes
  19. Comment on Do other people who grew up with an anonymous internet feel a bit hopeless at the moment? in ~society

    donn
    Link
    My late computer security professor- God rest his soul- put it to me this way. To an adequately-funded state actor, you're pretty much doomed if you're targeted. They can legally compel your...

    My late computer security professor- God rest his soul- put it to me this way.

    To an adequately-funded state actor, you're pretty much doomed if you're targeted. They can legally compel your operating system providers, and absent that (foreign governments or Linux,) they have the best-funded hackers in the world to compromise your system. The only solace you can take here is that they won't burn vulnerabilities on small fry. This is something I just internalized and live with.

    If you're not targeted, which is the overwhelming majority of people, the situation is actually not all that bad everything considered. VPNs and such definitely help; anything to decrease your digital footprint helps, because companies like Palantir and Meta scrape all available information and try to link your profiles and such, and nothing is off the table- IP addresses, Photo metadata, you name it. If you click on a YouTube link with a si= — boom, profile linked to whoever shared that video. Some for t= on Twitter. So the less info they have to work with, the better.

    With regards to things like ID laws, we really have no other choice but to raise awareness and use VPNs. The laws are in my view intentionally this bad and sloppy so they can justify further crackdowns later. For the record though, awareness DOES work. https://www.computing.co.uk/news/2025/legislation-regulation/germany-rejects-eu-s-chat-control-law

    17 votes