mordae's recent activity

  1. Comment on Suggest media in which the antagonist is an idea or an abstract concept rather than a person or intelligent entity in ~talk

    mordae
    Link
    People say Kafka is good. Never read him myself, though.

    People say Kafka is good. Never read him myself, though.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    Was this written by a chatbot?

    Was this written by a chatbot?

  3. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    There is a lot to unpack, so. Not just demography. A frickin unique identifier that can be linked with other cooperating apps and a real time location. These brokers have been repeatedly hacked....

    There is a lot to unpack, so.

    but there's a pretty big difference between a company selling your demographic data to an advertiser who uses it to enhance your ad profile for more targeted ads

    Not just demography. A frickin unique identifier that can be linked with other cooperating apps and a real time location.

    These brokers have been repeatedly hacked. They do not take care to protect the data and generally eventually sell the data to scammers who DO target you.

    versus an attacker putting an infostealer on your phone and taking your social security number to open credit cards in your name

    How? Because apps are sandboxed on phones. If they escape the sandbox, it's an issue with the sandboxing and should be rectified promptly.

    EU specifically asks vendors now to ensure security updates or they are fined and kicked off the market.

    So unless the user goes out of their way to install an app that obviously poses as another, I fail to see how this vector is unmitigated.

    And again, getting a vulnerable person to pose as your "developer" is trivial so developer identity checks are a theater designed to prevent alternative distribution channels and secure Google's dominant position. Not effective countermeasure.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on GrapheneOS refuses to comply with new age verification laws for operating systems — group says it will never require personal information in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    There is no isle in the US. And definitely not after Citizens United.

    There is no isle in the US. And definitely not after Citizens United.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    Well in my experience the apps that went on to send my data to brokers were completely legit weather apps comissioned by a public agency. That went on to stop paying to maintain them and made a...

    Well in my experience the apps that went on to send my data to brokers were completely legit weather apps comissioned by a public agency. That went on to stop paying to maintain them and made a worse new app. The original app authors, a registered, mostly reputable company, just sold the user base with position tracking to said brokers for extra cash.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    mordae
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Sigh. If people are idiots, how hard is it to just pay couple bucks to them to register as software developers for your malware? And most successful scams don't rely on apps. They just purchase...

    Sigh. If people are idiots, how hard is it to just pay couple bucks to them to register as software developers for your malware?

    And most successful scams don't rely on apps. They just purchase info on people and start calling once they turn 65. Which will get ever more dangerous as it becomes trivial to deepfake grandkids.

    The only real protection is having more people in the loop for important stuff. Daughter calls they've had an accident and need tow, please instant transfer to this account. So they do, it's above limit, kids get pinged and call in to check what the grandma is doing.

    And above all else, get rid of the "legitimate" spyware that enables this.

    OK, how about malware that e.g. mass mails / mass messages your contacts? Where are decent mechanisms to retract messages? Where is account recovery anchored in reality? Why are we not seeing e.g. collaboration between data protection agencies, public notaries and online platforms to work out opt-in schemes to make accounts recoverable?

    I am not buying this bitcoin-style idea that e.g. money transfers are irreversible. That property transfers are irreversible. Make it a huge red blinking warning that you are sending money to somewhere your legal system cannot reach.

    And work towards making mistakes those silly people make rectifiable. Easy to claim being misled. Swiftly investigated and resolved. Insured.

    6 votes

  7. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    Once they have the ability to block not just apps they directly ship via their store, they will block all apps that "facilitate use of online services contrary to their terms (aka abuse)" and say...

    Once they have the ability to block not just apps they directly ship via their store, they will block all apps that "facilitate use of online services contrary to their terms (aka abuse)" and say bye to newpipe.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on Bernie vs. Claude in ~society

    mordae
    Link Parent
    Right. When it hit Bernie with "you are absolutely right" I cringed. Because you cannot treat anything these little syccophants say seriously without consulting more authoritative sources. But, at...

    Right. When it hit Bernie with "you are absolutely right" I cringed. Because you cannot treat anything these little syccophants say seriously without consulting more authoritative sources.

    But, at the same time, I was like: Good luck explaining why exactly is your machine saying "you are absolutely right" to Bernie, but it's just a fluke, because that's not Anthropic's standpoint at all.

    3 votes

  9. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    Well on my phone the primary way I install apps is from f-droid. So what you call side-loading is my front-loading. It's a kinda big deal if companies engage in newspeak to mislead people and...

    Well on my phone the primary way I install apps is from f-droid. So what you call side-loading is my front-loading.

    It's a kinda big deal if companies engage in newspeak to mislead people and succeed. The point is that it's the user who should be able to use their device in any way they like. We should be empowering users, not manufacturers.

    So repeat after me:

    Android to debut "advanced flow" to deter users from installing applications made by people Google does not approve of.

    We don't need Google deterring elderly from installing applications. We need Google to make it trivial to allow care giving family members to gently insert themselves between elderly and their bank accounts. And in some (more civilized) places with such institutions, public guardians, if there are no family members able to do it.

    11 votes

  10. Comment on Bernie vs. Claude in ~society

    mordae
    Link
    Bernie Sanders session with Claude on privacy. Somewhere between hilarious and Black Mirror.

    Bernie Sanders session with Claude on privacy. Somewhere between hilarious and Black Mirror.

    7 votes

  12. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    Yes. Very hard to install F-droid + NewPipe on your friends phone so that they can play ad-less music through the evenings inevitable YouTube party when there's the 24h cooldown.

    Yes. Very hard to install F-droid + NewPipe on your friends phone so that they can play ad-less music through the evenings inevitable YouTube party when there's the 24h cooldown.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Android to debut "advanced flow" for sideloading unverified applications in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    It's not called sideloading. It's called installing and we've had it for decades. This is just another chapter in the war against general purpose computing. In this case, they simply don't want...

    It's not called sideloading. It's called installing and we've had it for decades. This is just another chapter in the war against general purpose computing.

    In this case, they simply don't want you to be able to install newpipe on your friend's devices. Same as they kneecapped uBlock in Chrome.

    30 votes

  14. Comment on That one study that proves developers using AI are deluded in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    Dude, hosted models at competitive pricing are burning through single-digit dollars per minute with context packed this much. If you can actually afford to let it run, it means you are on a huge...

    Anywhere over 100k tokens with Claude and the chances of stupidity start to go up.

    Dude, hosted models at competitive pricing are burning through single-digit dollars per minute with context packed this much. If you can actually afford to let it run, it means you are on a huge subsidy from Anthropic. When the subsidy goes away and you pay in full, you are paying more than you earn for that code at an above-average developer compensation.

    7 votes

  15. Comment on That one study that proves developers using AI are deluded in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    Exactly my experience. I don't touch "agents" anymore, because having those models expand context with their dumb mistakes just burns through tokens at exponential rate with nothing to show for...

    Exactly my experience.

    I don't touch "agents" anymore, because having those models expand context with their dumb mistakes just burns through tokens at exponential rate with nothing to show for it. The doom loops are real.

    What works surprisingly well is getting a first draft of not overly complicated constructions. Or getting a canned solution from some more specialized sub-fields (like DSP). I really don't remember how to calculate coefficients for a direct form 2 biquad IIR filter, but even self-hosted Qwen3.5 9B does. With just light prompting to stop it from over-complicating.

    Those models work pretty decently as librarians (for me), but not much else. Not even as sounding boards, those little sycophants. I've actually learned to just write my thoughts into a text file instead of LLM textbox. It doesn't cost anything and makes me understand what I am doing way better. Which resulted in me coding about twice as fast than before, without constantly falling into the slot-machine loop.

    Let me repeat that: getting into the habit of just opening a text file (per-project) and appending my current thoughts about the task at hand and pondering "aloud" in text for a bit:

    1. Increases my motivation by making the next steps tangible.
    2. Doesn't stress me by forcing me to fit my thoughts into checklists or issues or whatever.
    3. Makes it clear where my understanding is incomplete and forces me to address those gaps.
    4. Despite taking time it actually saves time overall, because it enables me to get into flow at will.

    And I can still invoke LLM if I get stuck and ask what's wrong with the code only for it to point out I've make a copy-paste error on line 123 and four other "absolutely critical bugs" that are actually not. Or ask it to generate some boilerplate after which I have to add all the missing arguments and delete half of it because it's useless. Then get back to building the right abstractions for what I have in mind.

    9 votes

  16. Comment on What radicalized you? in ~talk

    mordae
    Link Parent
    Did you know many people suffer from breathing-related sleep disorders? Something like 25% of population is affected. Sure, it gets worse with higher BMI, but lack of sleep translates to feeling...

    Did you know many people suffer from breathing-related sleep disorders? Something like 25% of population is affected. Sure, it gets worse with higher BMI, but lack of sleep translates to feeling less energized and thus people go for sugar instinctively just to cope.

    People are also generally pretty shitty, unless rested.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud in ~tech

    mordae
    Link Parent
    I am not joking. I run all my audio through ceramics. It is somewhat important to choose decent ceramics and you would definitely hear the difference in bass if you used not enough of it. Learn More

    I am not joking. I run all my audio through ceramics. It is somewhat important to choose decent ceramics and you would definitely hear the difference in bass if you used not enough of it.

    Learn More

    9 votes

  18. Comment on Voyager Technologies CEO says space data center cooling problem still needs to be solved in ~space

    mordae
    Link Parent
    You have just described a classic Fachidiot.

    You have just described a classic Fachidiot.

  19. Comment on Voyager Technologies CEO says space data center cooling problem still needs to be solved in ~space

    mordae
    Link Parent
    They can, though. It's trivial for US or China to shoot your datacenter down with a missile.

    They can, though. It's trivial for US or China to shoot your datacenter down with a missile.

    3 votes

  20. Comment on What are your favorite home remedies or comforts when you're sick? in ~health

    mordae
    Link
    Elderberry flower + Linden flower tea. Definitely makes colds milder. Next to useless for COVID and flu. Fill IKEA teapot sieve with 50:50 mix, pour over and leave for 20 minutes. You can collect...

    Elderberry flower + Linden flower tea. Definitely makes colds milder. Next to useless for COVID and flu. Fill IKEA teapot sieve with 50:50 mix, pour over and leave for 20 minutes.

    You can collect them from the trees outside basically as you wish. Nobody cares. Then dry them.

    I am eyeing Elderberries themselves. One needs to be careful and boil them enough so as not to poison themselves, but there is evidence they work even better.

    1 vote