ducc's recent activity

  1. Comment on Happy 6th Birthday, Tildes! in ~tildes

    ducc
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    I'm glad I've stuck around for so long - I stay away from most of the "social" internet these days, but Tildes has remained a valuable source of news, information, and discussion for me.

    I'm glad I've stuck around for so long - I stay away from most of the "social" internet these days, but Tildes has remained a valuable source of news, information, and discussion for me.

    20 votes

  2. Comment on Scientists push new paradigm of animal consciousness, saying even insects may be sentient in ~enviro

    ducc
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    I've always found it hard to believe that there's a binary between human-level sentience and non-sentient living creatures. There's gotta be some sort of gradient, right?

    I've always found it hard to believe that there's a binary between human-level sentience and non-sentient living creatures. There's gotta be some sort of gradient, right?

    43 votes

  3. Comment on The free Delta game emulator for iPhones is live on Apple’s App Store in ~games

    ducc
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    Never thought I'd see the day. I'm assuming these things can't use JIT compilation though, yeah?

    Never thought I'd see the day. I'm assuming these things can't use JIT compilation though, yeah?

    3 votes

  4. Comment on FYI: This site claims to have harvested 4B+ Discord chats, today all yours for a price in ~tech

    ducc
    Link Parent
    Right. I've wondered why we haven't really seen more cases of hacked API tokens for bots resulting in nuked / compromised servers - most bots request full admin permissions by default and you have...

    Right. I've wondered why we haven't really seen more cases of hacked API tokens for bots resulting in nuked / compromised servers - most bots request full admin permissions by default and you have to manually edit the invite link to change it.

    In this case specifically though, it's suspected they're using self bots (i.e. regular accounts piloted by a bot) which are joining servers based off of scraped / submitted invite links.

    9 votes

  5. Comment on FYI: This site claims to have harvested 4B+ Discord chats, today all yours for a price in ~tech

    ducc
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    Obviously, this sucks if you value your privacy. Looking around their website, their motives seem suspect too - taking a look at their page to submit a server for scraping, (you have to be logged...

    Internet-scraping outfit Spy.pet claims to have harvested more than four billion public messages made by nearly 620 million users on more than 14,000 Discord chat servers – and is selling access to this trove.

    The service (for a lack of a better word) has been active since November 2023, vacuuming up user and server activity. Yes, all the info is already public in a way – Discord is kinda like IRC on steroids – and it's a reminder that it's not impossible to gather up all this chatter using bots for various purposes (if not surveillance then training AI models.)

    The website presents the data it's collected in several ways. Each known user has a profile, which contains all known aliases, pronouns, connected accounts to other platforms such as Steam and GitHub, Discord servers joined, and public messages. If you wanted to quite literally spy on a Discord user or users, Spy.pet lets you do that, for a fee.

    Obviously, this sucks if you value your privacy. Looking around their website, their motives seem suspect too - taking a look at their page to submit a server for scraping, (you have to be logged in to see it) they want "interesting servers," including "LGBTBBQ" forums. This seems like it will definitely be used as a tool to doxx people. the not-so-subtle "LGBTBBQ" dog whistle is pretty concerning.

    If you're in any large public servers and value your privacy, it might be a good idea to be cautious - your information is most definitely in this database.

    44 votes

  7. Comment on Kagi recently changed their dark mode, fix inside in ~tech

    ducc
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    Ah! Thank you so much. I figure enough people will ask for a darker dark theme and they'll eventually add an official one, but this works great for now.

    Ah! Thank you so much. I figure enough people will ask for a darker dark theme and they'll eventually add an official one, but this works great for now.

    6 votes

  8. Comment on ‘Money dysmorphia’ traps millennials and gen Zers – mixed signals about the economy have made it tough for some younger adults to know where they stand financially in ~finance

    ducc
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    The word "dysmorphia" is typically associated with body dysmorphia, the preoccupation with one's body image. The root "-morph" also suggests that the word has something to do with the shape of...

    The word "dysmorphia" is typically associated with body dysmorphia, the preoccupation with one's body image. The root "-morph" also suggests that the word has something to do with the shape of something. The word "dysphoria" means "abnormal depression or discontent", so it seems like it fits the definition of what they were going for better.

    In either case, it reads as totally out of touch, IMO.

    8 votes

  9. Comment on Researchers were able to isolate the brain from the rest of the body of a pig, and kept it alive and functioning for five hours in ~science

    ducc
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    I'm not sure that I have anything productive to add to the conversation here, other than that this makes me viscerally uncomfortable. The idea of being a brain-in-a-jar sounds incredibly terrifying.

    I'm not sure that I have anything productive to add to the conversation here, other than that this makes me viscerally uncomfortable. The idea of being a brain-in-a-jar sounds incredibly terrifying.

    71 votes

  10. Comment on My new apartment’s most aggravating feature (latch smart locks) in ~tech

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    I was in an apartment with Latch locks for a while. To make matters worse, the elevator also needed to be unlocked with latch before the floor buttons would work (except for the lobby). 75% of the...

    I was in an apartment with Latch locks for a while. To make matters worse, the elevator also needed to be unlocked with latch before the floor buttons would work (except for the lobby). 75% of the time when I got into an elevator, I would be whisked away to another floor before I could get the app working, and I'd get a look of mutual commiseration from whoever called the elevator once the door opened.

    Absolutely a prime example of technology being put in places it doesn't need to be.

    29 votes

  11. Comment on Is fandom.com actually getting worse? in ~tech

    ducc
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    I don't have a lot to contribute to this discussion in terms of what using Fandom is like - but if you don't already have it, I'd highly recommend the extension Indie Wiki Buddy. It has options to...
    • Exemplary

    I don't have a lot to contribute to this discussion in terms of what using Fandom is like - but if you don't already have it, I'd highly recommend the extension Indie Wiki Buddy. It has options to either provide a banner at the top of or to automatically redirect fandom wikis to either an alternative off-fandom wiki if it exists, or to proxy it through a breezewiki instance which strips all of the cruft out. Since you have no intention of using an adblocker you'd probably mainly be interested in the feature which redirects to an alternative wiki if one exists.

    47 votes

  12. Comment on GTA 6 trailer 1 to be released December 5 at 9AM EST in ~games

    ducc
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    It hasn't explicitly been said that this is GTA 6, they say here that it's "the next grand theft auto". I think it's unlikely that it is anything but GTA 6, but I think it would be hilarious if it...

    It hasn't explicitly been said that this is GTA 6, they say here that it's "the next grand theft auto".

    I think it's unlikely that it is anything but GTA 6, but I think it would be hilarious if it was actually GTA 5 Online 2™ or something.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on What six months of Denver’s Basic Income Project tells us in ~finance

    ducc
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    I'm pretty interested in the idea of UBI, but not having a control group which wasn't given anything seems like a large problem to me. They explicitly state this was done on purpose: While I get...

    I'm pretty interested in the idea of UBI, but not having a control group which wasn't given anything seems like a large problem to me. They explicitly state this was done on purpose:

    Additionally, this study uses an active comparison group rather than a control group. A control
    group typically receives “treatment as usual,” meaning they would not receive any monthly
    stipend from DBIP. However, due to ethical and research engagement concerns, the DBIP
    program and research design team decided to employ an active comparison group,
    hypothesizing that $50 a month would be enough money to incentivize and compensate
    participants to engage in DBIP, but a significantly smaller sum of money than that given to
    participants in Groups A and B such that the research design would still be able to capture the
    impact of different cash payments for outcomes of concern.

    While I get the reasoning, I think the approach doesn't do a great job at isolating confounding factors (such as changing economic conditions as a whole). The differences in between comparison groups are promising, but it still doesn't tell us what UBI does compared to doing nothing.

    12 votes

  14. Comment on Dating can be a time suck - SFGATE contributor Amy Copperman explains why co-working makes for such a good first date in ~life

    ducc
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    A little bit of meta-commentary on this whole concept: does it feel weird or dystopian to anyone else that this even needs to happen in the first place? To me, it feels sad that our modern...

    A little bit of meta-commentary on this whole concept: does it feel weird or dystopian to anyone else that this even needs to happen in the first place? To me, it feels sad that our modern priorities are such that finding a partner is second to making money, and we have to spend so much time working that doing anything else is a "time suck".

    41 votes

  15. Comment on Iraq tells Sweden it will cut ties if Quran burned again in ~humanities

    ducc
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    They are rather authoritarian, but I think what you meant is that they're not autocratic.

    They are rather authoritarian, but I think what you meant is that they're not autocratic.

    13 votes

  16. Comment on The incredible latent abilities of living things — slime mould is amazing! in ~science

    ducc
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    This is really interesting stuff, but I'm a little confused about his obsession with bioelectricity. For example: Maybe it's just the way he said this or the article is written, but he seems to be...

    This is really interesting stuff, but I'm a little confused about his obsession with bioelectricity. For example:

    But as soon as there’s carcinogen exposure or maybe an oncogene that gets expressed, the electrical connection starts to weaken. It’s a feedback loop, because the more you have those thoughts, the more you’re like, “Well, maybe let me just turn that connection down a little bit. Now I’m really coming into my own. Now I’m out of here. I’m metastasizing.”

    Maybe it's just the way he said this or the article is written, but he seems to be pushing the idea that this bioelectrical "circuit" is the be all and end all of behavioral regulation. But, we already know about and have extensively studied chemical epigenetics - and oncogenes and tumor growth are specifically really well studied examples of this. I'm sure electrical signaling has a role to play, but it definitely isn't the ultimate factor.

    2 votes

  17. Comment on Self-hosters! Share your reasons for self-hosting and favorite apps! in ~comp

    ducc
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    I can second Miniflux! I mainly use it for subscribing to a couple Tildes groups, some webcomics, a few blogs, and YouTube channels (so I don't find myself accidentally getting sucked into YouTube...

    I can second Miniflux! I mainly use it for subscribing to a couple Tildes groups, some webcomics, a few blogs, and YouTube channels (so I don't find myself accidentally getting sucked into YouTube when checking my subscriptions feed). I use it through the Google Reader API and NetNewsWire on my phone, and the web interface on desktop. It works great, no issues so far!

    2 votes

  18. Comment on Anyone daily driving a jailbroken iPhone? in ~tech

    ducc
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    That's fair, I just wanted to steer the conversation away from a mobile OS flame war since the question was worded a little antagonistically IMO. It may not have been your intent, I just read it...

    That's fair, I just wanted to steer the conversation away from a mobile OS flame war since the question was worded a little antagonistically IMO. It may not have been your intent, I just read it that way.

    2 votes

  19. Comment on Anyone daily driving a jailbroken iPhone? in ~tech

    ducc
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    I suppose it is a valid question - it was just worded a little antagonistically (it may not have been their intent, but that's how it reads to me). Things like this seem to devolve into mobile OS...

    I suppose it is a valid question - it was just worded a little antagonistically (it may not have been their intent, but that's how it reads to me). Things like this seem to devolve into mobile OS flamewars, so I was trying to avoid that. It seems like OP wanted to discuss was tweaks people are using - convincing them to use Android wasn't really the purpose here.

  20. Comment on The four best Reddit alternatives: As Reddit melts down, users are fleeing to lemmy, kbin, tildes and more in ~tech

    ducc
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    I think the objections to those comparisons are more about comparing it to the culture and format of modern Reddit. It's undeniable that the format of Tildes is near identical. However, compared...

    I think the objections to those comparisons are more about comparing it to the culture and format of modern Reddit. It's undeniable that the format of Tildes is near identical. However, compared to modern Reddit, it doesn't have user-created groups (one of the, if not the major draws of Reddit), doesn't directly support images, is designed to avoid facilitating useless noise comments and posts, isn't meant to hold your attention for hours, doesn't have a mobile app on purpose, etc.

    When you get into the semantics of it, sure. This place could be considered a "Reddit alternative". However, I feel like it's a bad idea to message it as such to newer users throughout this whole exodus, because I feel like it gives the idea that this is another place to come and doomscroll for hours, upvoting memes and getting into quarrels. And I feel like that messaging has lead to a number of users coming here expecting something else, and then suggesting that Tildes add all of these things that were deliberately left out and misunderstanding the established culture here.

    28 votes