Macha's recent activity
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Comment on Fear the Mad Catz - The worst video game controllers ever in ~games
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Comment on Ireland can’t blame its anti-immigrant problem on Rishi Sunak – The sudden arrival of European-style populism in Irish politics is the result of thirteen years of government complacency in ~misc
Macha (edited )LinkI think the upcoming elections will be the show here, but I don't think this movement has the popular support here proportional to the press coverage it's getting (especially abroad). Opinion...I think the upcoming elections will be the show here, but I don't think this movement has the popular support here proportional to the press coverage it's getting (especially abroad).
Opinion polls put Aontù, the largest party that actually has an anti-immigration policy, at about 5%, which seems more representative.
I think there are real failings in the housing sector — People have seen immigrants housed and feel resentful that many in their 30s are forced by economic circumstances to live with their parents. That has certainly led some vocal groups to attempt to pin the blame on immigration rather than the collapse of our construction sector in 2008, and our planning system which means that developments can be held up by NIMBYs or rival developers for 5+ years.
I don't think blaming immigration for the housing crisis is quite a fair reading of the situation. Some of the anti-immigrant voices are feeding on that to try and give people someone to blame, but housing has been screwed since 2014/2015 which is also close to our local minimum for immigration. And most of the housing that immigrants are being put in is stuff that native Irish people would rather live in their parents than deal with. Think 8 people in a 3 bedroom apartment, or hotels, or disused office buildings etc.
I think tying the immigration increase here to the UK's small boats nonsense is also foolish. The reality is most of the numbers are Ukrainians and I do think this is a case of our government actually looking at the fact that our official neutrality policy prevents us contributing militarily to the situation in Ukraine and so saw taking in a much larger amount of Ukrainian refugees proportionally than the rest of western Europe as a way for Ireland to contribute. And I mean there's definitely been some hate directed at Ukrainians (and before them it was Brazilians and before that it was Polish), but this hate really blew up since the Dublin riots where people started tying it to Muslim immigrants which are really a small proportion of the increase.
That makes me a bit embarrassed to be Irish, to be honest. In general, I think our immigration policy of 2012-2022 was pretty reasonable given the challenges we had, and I think while the government clearly did not think through the practicalities of how many Ukrainian refugees they took in, we are in a time where there's a land war in Europe and considering how much that e.g. the UK, Germany and France are contributing, the least we can do is take in some refugees. I'd hate for us to shift to being more nasty on the matter, just because our government uncharacteristically tried to do the right thing.
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Comment on Weekly Israel-Hamas war megathread - week of April 29 in ~news
Macha LinkIsrael shuts down local Al Jazeera offices, in dark day for media (The Guardian) ... ... ...Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices, in dark day for media (The Guardian)
Israeli authorities shut down the local offices of Al Jazeera on Sunday, hours after a government vote to use new laws to close the satellite news network’s operations in the country.
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Israeli officials said the move was justified because Al Jazeera was a threat to national security. “The incitement channel Al Jazeera will be closed in Israel,” the country’s prime minister posted on social media after the unanimous cabinet vote.
A government statement said Israel’s communications minister had signed orders to act immediately to close al Jazeera’s offices in Israel, confiscate broadcast equipment, cut the channel off from cable and satellite companies and block its websites.
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Al Jazeera said the accusation that it threatened Israeli security was a “dangerous and ridiculous lie” that put its journalists at risk.
“Al Jazeera Media Network strongly condemns and denounces this criminal act that violates human rights and the basic right to access of information,” the company said in a statement. “Al Jazeera affirms its right to continue to provide news and information to its global audiences.”
A pre-recorded “final report” listing the restrictions placed on the network by a reporter in Jerusalem was broadcast on the network after the ban came into effect.
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The Foreign Press Association, a NGO representing journalists working for international news organisations reporting from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza accused Israel of joining a “dubious club of authoritarian governments”.
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Comment on Take-Two publishes WARN notice about seventy layoffs and studio closure in Seattle, possibly affecting Kerbal Space Program 2 developers Intercept Games in ~games
Macha Link ParentIn this case, the pre-takeover studio was also not, by all accounts, a great place to work, which resulted in turning over the entire dev team.In this case, the pre-takeover studio was also not, by all accounts, a great place to work, which resulted in turning over the entire dev team.
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Comment on I made a mistake, I started using Reddit again in ~talk
Macha Link ParentI think people have a very poor idea of what Reddit-the-company can do in terms of bans, and what Reddit moderators can do. Subreddit moderators have no idea if you're using a VPN, do not have...I think people have a very poor idea of what Reddit-the-company can do in terms of bans, and what Reddit moderators can do. Subreddit moderators have no idea if you're using a VPN, do not have access to shadowbans, or invisibly removing comments.
In this case, it appears the moderators just enabled the Reddit ban evasion detector and assumed its accuracy is 100%.
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Comment on All the good email clients go to hell in ~tech
Macha Link ParentGeary's current design predates Apple Mail's current Big Sur era design, for what it's worth. I remember looking at that redesign of Apple Mail and thinking "wow, that looks like Gnome mail"...Geary's current design predates Apple Mail's current Big Sur era design, for what it's worth. I remember looking at that redesign of Apple Mail and thinking "wow, that looks like Gnome mail" (which is what Geary is labelled in your typical Gnome install)
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Comment on Looking for advice on replacing my motherboard in ~tech
Macha Link ParentIt's got no onboard RAM which is going to hurt performance, I personally would avoid.It's got no onboard RAM which is going to hurt performance, I personally would avoid.
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Comment on Texas is replacing thousands of human exam graders with AI in ~tech
Macha Link ParentSeeing how some education software has botched the rollout of e.g. anti-plagiarism software before, and blamed the students for the computer coming up with the wrong answer (or even some...Assuming the limitations of the AI are understood and systems are put in place to ensure that the scores are accurate, I don't have a problem with using this to improve efficiency.
Seeing how some education software has botched the rollout of e.g. anti-plagiarism software before, and blamed the students for the computer coming up with the wrong answer (or even some enterprising individual educators with LLMs specifically last year, remember the "ChatGPT says your essay is written by ChatGPT" stories/drama last year), I'm not sure we can assume that.
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Backdoor in upstream libxz targeting sshd
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Comment on "PS5 has no games" in ~games
Macha Link ParentI think the problem as well is it's not just the PS4, but the Series S that is going to continue to constrain game design. The Baldur's Gate 3 local co-op showdown was one case where a developer...I think the problem as well is it's not just the PS4, but the Series S that is going to continue to constrain game design. The Baldur's Gate 3 local co-op showdown was one case where a developer squared off with "look, we just can't have feature parity on the series S to the series X/PS5/PC", but most developers aren't going to risk their xbox revenue. A lot of devs would just constrain local co-op to keep players on the same screen, or drop the feature for consoles altogether.
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Comment on Redis adopts dual source-available licensing in ~tech
Macha Link ParentIt's the companies switching to shared source licenses that started to paint it in terms of obligations. Like a lot of their messaging is "people don't support open source like they should so...It's the companies switching to shared source licenses that started to paint it in terms of obligations. Like a lot of their messaging is "people don't support open source like they should so we're forced into switching to this kind of license".
That's why the distance between how they treat the products they build on and how they expect people building on them to treat them bothers me.
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Comment on Redis adopts dual source-available licensing in ~tech
Macha Link ParentThe thing that burns me about this move, is that these software companies are building on the real open source ecosystem and not contributing to that as they feel people should contribute to them....The thing that burns me about this move, is that these software companies are building on the real open source ecosystem and not contributing to that as they feel people should contribute to them.
To put it another way: Where's redis' funding of Lua and GCC? If they took the approach redis did, would redis have been built? Or the Linux kernel that their hosted service runs on?
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Comment on Reddit pops as much as 70% in NYSE debut after selling shares at top of range in ~tech
Macha Link ParentMeanwhile their CEO said during the API kerfuffle that they were unprofitable. Which is it?82% margin
Meanwhile their CEO said during the API kerfuffle that they were unprofitable. Which is it?
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Comment on Does anyone else have posting anxiety? in ~tech
Macha Link ParentOn some sites, especially HN, I've found this to be less and less true as time goes on. A lot of the cause of rewriting/deleting drafts is the burden of making pedant proof posts on sites like...Everyone who responds usually means well.
On some sites, especially HN, I've found this to be less and less true as time goes on. A lot of the cause of rewriting/deleting drafts is the burden of making pedant proof posts on sites like that.
The other part is when topics approach on the political and then you get people from either extreme trying to have a go at you because you're seen as both too much in favour of a point and insufficiently in favour of a point at the same time.
My "favourite" example of this was discussing IMAP. I remember thinking while writing a post, that I can't just say email providers should support IMAP because IMAP in the spec doesn't support TLS and I knew in context I'd get yelled at for that. So I put IMAPS in my post, but as predicted, someone yelled at me there because there's no spec for IMAP over TLS officially so officially IMAPS isn't a thing despite approximately every email provider supporting it. I suppose they wanted me to include that whole aside in my post about data portability as much as explaining all that would derail from the point I was trying to make.
I remember this clearly because it was a point where I realised just how unpleasant the site culture had become even outside the politics-adjacent topics. But Reddit and twitter had gone through similar transformations. I think it's a point scoring mentality egged on by things like the upvote or retweet counts.
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Comment on What do you use to manage your music library? in ~music
Macha LinkI store and manage music with Jellyfin, and purchase it mostly with Qobuz and Bandcamp.I store and manage music with Jellyfin, and purchase it mostly with Qobuz and Bandcamp.
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Comment on How social media’s biggest user protest rocked Reddit in ~tech
Macha Link ParentYeah, I replaced some of my Reddit time with Tildes, seperate forums etc., but much of the time I used to spend there has gone into learning Japanese, which is going pretty well.Yeah, I replaced some of my Reddit time with Tildes, seperate forums etc., but much of the time I used to spend there has gone into learning Japanese, which is going pretty well.
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Comment on Your theme for 2024 in ~talk
Macha LinkIt's maybe a bit at risk of turning into a goal, but my so far my planned theme is Nihongo Jouzu. The actual phrase is a bit of a meme in the Japanese learning community. Literally it's just...It's maybe a bit at risk of turning into a goal, but my so far my planned theme is Nihongo Jouzu. The actual phrase is a bit of a meme in the Japanese learning community. Literally it's just "good/skilled at Japanese". But the reason it's become a meme is that if someone is actually really good at a language, you probably don't start complimenting them on their language skills. So the actual stage where someone says "your English is very good" or "日本語上手" is usually a stage where you're functional but clearly not an expert at the language.
And really being functional in Japanese is sort of the target. It's another skill to bring up and some of the recent going ons in the world have convinced me that it's probably good to diversify a bit rather than just picking up another tech stack, and I've been learning this for 1.5 years now and am at the stage where I can handle material that's specifically aimed at beginners or kids, so the idea is to expand that into a broader range.
I have thoughts about what it means in terms of examinations or specific material I'd like to be able to manage it, but listing them would really turn them it into a goal.
For comparison, while it wasn't a theme in the Cortex sense, 2022 was effectively a year of Health for me as I got from overweight to healthy weight and took up some more activities, and 2023 was more a year of "taking things seriously" as there was a lot of stuff in my life I'd been just kind of bumbling along in that I wanted to sort out.
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Comment on Book recommendation request: An introduction to the Israeli-Arab conflict for non-academics in ~books
Macha LinkI am curious why you think a European perspective is biased but e.g. an American or Australian one is not.I am curious why you think a European perspective is biased but e.g. an American or Australian one is not.
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Comment on US stores increasingly reverse course on self checkout in ~tech
Macha Link ParentThe German supermarket chains here are known as the fastest checkouts and they provide seats for their staff, as a counterpoint.The German supermarket chains here are known as the fastest checkouts and they provide seats for their staff, as a counterpoint.
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Comment on Can someone please recommend me a no BS printer I can use like half a dozen times a year in ~tech
Macha LinkBrother laser printers are the answer. The inkjets have started rejecting unofficial cartridges, but if you print a few times a year, then pretty much any ink based product is going to dry up long...Brother laser printers are the answer. The inkjets have started rejecting unofficial cartridges, but if you print a few times a year, then pretty much any ink based product is going to dry up long before you've dented the capacity. Whereas at that usage, a laser toner might last you the life of the printer.
I seem to recall X to drive being kind of common in PS1/PS2 games before we transitioned to the modern standard of triggers for this. For that matter, X to shoot also happened occasionally if I remember right.