lynxy's recent activity

  1. Comment on Anyone interested in trying out Kagi? (trial giveaway: round #2) in ~tech

  2. Comment on Could AI lead to a revival of decorative beauty? in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    One doesn't have to sell a better product to undercut existing manufacturing. The average consumer's judgement of quality isn't exactly fine-tuned, and many people are happy with something that...

    One doesn't have to sell a better product to undercut existing manufacturing. The average consumer's judgement of quality isn't exactly fine-tuned, and many people are happy with something that passes at a glance- though I'm not sure how many of these do. I've already spotted multiple six-legged sheep in the examples.

    11 votes
  3. Comment on Could AI lead to a revival of decorative beauty? in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link
    So Davies and Marsh didn't create this AI, only collect enough photographic examples of Delftware tiles to vaguely train it on a style off the internet. They don't host this AI- it's hosted, at...
    • Exemplary

    So Davies and Marsh didn't create this AI, only collect enough photographic examples of Delftware tiles to vaguely train it on a style off the internet. They don't host this AI- it's hosted, at great expense, in America and running on Nvidia chips. They don't even, as the article initially frames the situation, perform any of the "technologically advanced" printing process. This is handled by Digital Ceramics, a more typical company with a focus on traditional lithography printing techniques.

    These two men have started a business in which they middleman AI generated slop and a printer, undercutting an old and internationally loved industry and appropriating a style from the Dutch. You may like the outcome and I won't hate on you for putting it in your house, but in my honest opinion I find these men repulsive.

    27 votes
  4. Comment on Growing up Murdoch in ~finance

    lynxy
    Link
    A very engaging read, and an interesting, if (as already pointed out) one sided accounting of the familial drama behind what is arguably one of the most damaging organisations (or dynasties? they...

    A very engaging read, and an interesting, if (as already pointed out) one sided accounting of the familial drama behind what is arguably one of the most damaging organisations (or dynasties? they seem to be treated as the same thing by the Murdochs) of the modern world.

    And yet, despite how biased in-favour of James Murdoch it inherently is, even with the author's attempts to contact names mentioned for comment, I feel absolutely no sympathy towards James himself- nor would I even if it appeared like the most recent skirmish wasn't going his way. It is repeatedly hammered home that James is "dissatisfied" with the approach that NewsCorp takes to politicised issues in the media, almost immediately followed by an account of how James stepped up and.. fell into line. He claims that he can't just quit because that would allow evil to win, and instead he just participates in evil whilst grumbling. He turns around and attempts, once again, to make a name for himself by building yet more problematic empire. It doesn't matter how much you donate to vague "foundations" which aim to combat the evil you are complicit in.

    Instead of convincing me to consider James Murdoch as a potentially more moralistic scion of a rich old bastard, it paints a picture of a family of awful people in which James is impotent at best, and directly responsible for the evil at worst.

    6 votes
  5. Comment on TRMNL - Open source e-ink "companion" device in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    It certainly seems like a good option for hanging next to the front door and displaying upcoming departures from your local bus stop- a project I've been meaning to get on with for some time, as...

    It certainly seems like a good option for hanging next to the front door and displaying upcoming departures from your local bus stop- a project I've been meaning to get on with for some time, as I'd prefer to line up leaving with a bus if possible. Less waiting around in the cold.

    8 votes
  6. Comment on Framework (2nd gen) event: 25th February in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    It's certainly getting there, and I'd love to see a company like Framework contribute to that progress. I'm still watching with interest what comes out of the partnership between Valve and the...

    It's certainly getting there, and I'd love to see a company like Framework contribute to that progress. I'm still watching with interest what comes out of the partnership between Valve and the Arch Linux team- especially in the aarch64 package distribution space.

    3 votes
  7. Comment on Framework (2nd gen) event: 25th February in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    Ohh, I love the idea of a convertible chassis Framework. My favourite form-factor laptop so far has been the Dell XPS 2-in-1 with the 360 degree hinge (not the tablet + keyboard thing, that was.....

    Ohh, I love the idea of a convertible chassis Framework. My favourite form-factor laptop so far has been the Dell XPS 2-in-1 with the 360 degree hinge (not the tablet + keyboard thing, that was.. a miss-step).

    3 votes
  8. Comment on Framework (2nd gen) event: 25th February in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    I politely disagree- the former thread from half a week ago discusses the availability of individual parts of a Framework product. This is an upcoming announcement about the future direction of...

    I politely disagree- the former thread from half a week ago discusses the availability of individual parts of a Framework product. This is an upcoming announcement about the future direction of the company.

    18 votes
  9. Comment on Framework (2nd gen) event: 25th February in ~tech

    lynxy
    (edited )
    Link
    It looks like Framework will be announcing the "second generation" of something, whether that be the 13" or 16" latop chassis (unlikely to be the 16", IMO, as the first generation is quite...

    It looks like Framework will be announcing the "second generation" of something, whether that be the 13" or 16" latop chassis (unlikely to be the 16", IMO, as the first generation is quite recent), or a new form-factor entirely. They don't usually make so much fanfare about new chip architectures, so I think it's also unlikely to be that. Whatever it is- I'm intrigued!

    There are apparently a number of "clues" on the announcement page- anyone have any ideas?

    Edit: Using the inspector, the "emojis" used in the header paragraph are labelled "wave", "color wheel", "yoga", "bolt", "lan party", "gamepad", and "cheetos". I couldn't make out what one or two were supposed to be, and it would make sense that the image names are just generic, but knowing that "lan party" and "gamepad" are used is interesting.

    7 votes
  10. Comment on Building a personal, private AI computer on a budget in ~comp

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    It is still the case that the open weights include an amount of "post training" which encourages the LLM to censor itself on certain topics, even when hosted locally. I've had a go at running it...

    It is still the case that the open weights include an amount of "post training" which encourages the LLM to censor itself on certain topics, even when hosted locally. I've had a go at running it using Ollama, both the 7B and 32B models.

    3 votes
  11. Comment on TikTok and TikTok Lite APK are available on TikTok.com in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link
    I'm a little confused- I get the TikTok website with options for either Android or IOS, but both pages include only a QR code which, when scanned on my Android device, attempts to open the Google...

    I'm a little confused- I get the TikTok website with options for either Android or IOS, but both pages include only a QR code which, when scanned on my Android device, attempts to open the Google Play Store (which it can't do because I don't have it). In what way is this APK provided sans-store? Maybe it's location locked for USA only? I am in the UK currently.

  12. Comment on Let's Encrypt is ending support for expiration notification emails in ~comp

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    After a couple of days of thinking about it, I too finally got off my ass and set up auto-renewal on a couple of my important domains. Luckily Certbot has a plugin for DNS challenge (required for...

    After a couple of days of thinking about it, I too finally got off my ass and set up auto-renewal on a couple of my important domains. Luckily Certbot has a plugin for DNS challenge (required for wildcard certificates) on PorkBun (the registrar I use), so it just required a Bash script and a Systemd timer for it to run every couple of months. Maybe this is the better solution than waiting for an email and waiting until it's urgent to SSH in and manually renew the certs!

    2 votes
  13. Comment on Single most useful program you daily use? in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link
    Not a program, per se, but as everybody else has already outlined the ones that I feel are important (terminal, firefox / fennec, various app-launchers and editors), I'm going to go for uBlock...

    Not a program, per se, but as everybody else has already outlined the ones that I feel are important (terminal, firefox / fennec, various app-launchers and editors), I'm going to go for uBlock Origin. I would not be able to use the internet without it- it would drive me mad.

    95 votes
  14. Comment on Global Capslock key in ~comp

    lynxy
    Link
    There are not enough people using it at the moment to mAKE IT INTERESTING, But it does work well enough. Neat find! Hilarious idea.

    There are not enough people using it at the moment to mAKE IT INTERESTING, But it does work well enough. Neat find! Hilarious idea.

    16 votes
  15. Comment on I hate the new internet. I hate the new tech world. I hate it all. I want out, and I can't be the only one. in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    There is a certain amount of doom spiralling, I won't deny that, but a large portion of the complaints are perfectly justified push-back against the way in which technological advancements (that...

    There is a certain amount of doom spiralling, I won't deny that, but a large portion of the complaints are perfectly justified push-back against the way in which technological advancements (that effect all of us- we can't avoid them without disappearing off into the woods and living in a van) have been twisted and corrupted by big tech companies. Are you saying that people shouldn't be openly dissatisfied by this? It's frustrating, and I wish there was more we could do besides trying to avoid the walled gardens and content slop as best we can.

    28 votes
  16. Comment on Right to root access in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    The point is that the number of options for devices that are still unlockable / rootable is getting pretty damned small. Oppo have been complicating the process. Asus have disabled their tool and...

    The point is that the number of options for devices that are still unlockable / rootable is getting pretty damned small. Oppo have been complicating the process. Asus have disabled their tool and backend. Xiaomi have introduced restrictions. Nubia devices require leaked EDL files, or some alternative exploit. Samsung devices can only be unlocked in certain countries.

    It's easy to say "just buy a device that supports it" when it's not a problem that effects you. When you don't know the extent of the problem.

    13 votes
  17. Comment on Right to root access in ~tech

    lynxy
    Link Parent
    I agree. Google's walled garden is just as insidious as Apple's, despite Android having been marketed as the more open alternative to IOS for the longest time, and safetynet is just the tip of...

    I agree. Google's walled garden is just as insidious as Apple's, despite Android having been marketed as the more open alternative to IOS for the longest time, and safetynet is just the tip of that iceberg. The way Google has centralised a lot of important functionality in their Play Services back-end is definitely anti-competitive and anti-consumer. Excusing centralised notifications as a battery saving measure while operating one of the largest and most profitable data harvesting and selling operations in tech history is egregious.

    18 votes
  18. Comment on Right to root access in ~tech

    lynxy
    (edited )
    Link
    Not my blog, but a post I found while venting my frustrations about the way the ability to unlock the bootloader of an Android device has been slowly stripped away in the past few years by a...

    Not my blog, but a post I found while venting my frustrations about the way the ability to unlock the bootloader of an Android device has been slowly stripped away in the past few years by a number of manufacturers.

    I fully agree with this viewpoint- and I don't much care for the exploitative arguments against it. I'm absolutely exhausted by what feels like an unwinnable battle against big-tech to simply use a device I have purchased and own how I would like to use it.

    16 votes