papasquat's recent activity

  1. Comment on Apple announces iPhone Duo, its first foldable iPhone in ~tech

    papasquat
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    Nice, I can't wait for all the breathless reviews and comments online implying that Apple invented folding phones.

    Nice, I can't wait for all the breathless reviews and comments online implying that Apple invented folding phones.

  2. Comment on GPS tracker for an interstate move in ~life

    papasquat
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    As someone else mentioned, air tags are probably a much better solution for this. GPS trackers have a lot of limitations. Their battery life isn't that good because they require both a gps...

    As someone else mentioned, air tags are probably a much better solution for this.

    GPS trackers have a lot of limitations. Their battery life isn't that good because they require both a gps receiver and some sort of cell radio to actually transmit their location info.

    They also notably do not work well/at all indoors. Trucking/shipping companies typically take goods from trucks with metal roofs directly into warehouses with metal roofs. Its very difficult to get a gps signal through that. Usually, logistics companies put GPS and RFID trackers on the outside of shipping containers, or put antennas on the outside of vehicles to get around this.

    The airtag sidesteps all of those limitations by just using the existing infrastructure of ios devices that exist worldwide.

    I don't even have any apple devices and I'd still probably use an airtag for this.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Software for humans in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    The thing about the frontier models is that theres no real secret sauce. They advance mostly based on throwing raw compute power into training, which is why all of the frontier labs have similar...

    LLMs as they are right now (opaque closed-source models, tightly controlled and guarded by billionaire-owned corporations) are the complete antithesis to FOSS ideals

    The thing about the frontier models is that theres no real secret sauce. They advance mostly based on throwing raw compute power into training, which is why all of the frontier labs have similar performance. Those models get distilled, and cheaper Chinese and open source models see similar performance within six months to a year. Openai, anthropic and Google are controlled by billionaire run corporations, LLMs as a whole aren't though.

    One of two things is going to happen. We're going to see increasingly diminishing returns, where in order to get any improvement, more capital and power than exists on the planet is required, and open source competitors will close the gap and catch up. Or, these models will never stop getting significantly better, in which case we're likely fucked as the technology dominates the human race.

    I think the former is the more realistic option, but I don't see anything besides harsh multilateral government enforcement of a total ban being feasible if it's the latter.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    That alone is baffling too, because cable was originally pitched as a premium, subscription based TV option that didn't require ads. No idea how long that lasted, but I don't think it was a while.

    where it's viewed just how our parents' generation viewed ads on cable.

    That alone is baffling too, because cable was originally pitched as a premium, subscription based TV option that didn't require ads. No idea how long that lasted, but I don't think it was a while.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    You do, I do, maybe even most people on this site do, but that's not a representative sample. The general populace at large doesn't care that much about this stuff. If they did, any company that...

    I mean I do, but what can you realistically do these days?

    You do, I do, maybe even most people on this site do, but that's not a representative sample. The general populace at large doesn't care that much about this stuff. If they did, any company that was found to be violating people's privacy would very quickly go out of business, just like a TV manufacturer that doesn't make TVs bigger than 30", or refuses to... I don't know, put HDMI ports on their TVs would.

    I do think that regulation is needed in situations like this where the free market isn't responding to harmful business models, but the reason the free market isn't responding to it is thet most people really just don't care that much. At least not compared to size, price, image quality and so on.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on What are your current pain points with Linux? in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    You can absolutely do that. I ran KDE with i3 as the wm for years, and it was great. I had helpful utilities for connecting to wifi, suspending, dimming the screen and so on, while using the...

    My ideal would be something like i3/sway with just a few key bells and whistles from a larger DE.

    You can absolutely do that. I ran KDE with i3 as the wm for years, and it was great. I had helpful utilities for connecting to wifi, suspending, dimming the screen and so on, while using the window manager I wanted.

    The people that endlessly scream about bloat aren't worth listening to, they're not living in the same world as normal people.

  7. Comment on What are your current pain points with Linux? in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    Mobile OSes had a huge advantage in that they were a greenfield implementation during a time that security started being taken seriously in OS design, and they've had the luxury of being...

    Mobile OSes had a huge advantage in that they were a greenfield implementation during a time that security started being taken seriously in OS design, and they've had the luxury of being controlled by a single entity that also controls the major distribution of software on it.

    Microsoft wishes they had the level of control that apple and Google have over their OSes. It vastly simplifies things when you can say "hey, were making this change to our sandboxing/permissions structure/whatever, fix your apps in 3 months, or we'll yank it off the app store".

    Linux, and even windows will never have that level of control, which makes doing "proper" security much, much more difficult.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    Pretty horrible practice from both the provider and the consumer's POV. As a consumer, you get to have random people siphoning the bandwidth you're paying for, and the risk of misconfigured ACLs...

    Pretty horrible practice from both the provider and the consumer's POV. As a consumer, you get to have random people siphoning the bandwidth you're paying for, and the risk of misconfigured ACLs on the device exposing your traffic.

    As a provider, you get to lose out on potential customers who don't feel the need to pay you anymore when they can use their neighbors wifi through the wall for free.

    No clue why a default open SSID would be desirable for anyone. (Except people who want to mooch off their neighbors wifi I guess)

    5 votes

  9. Comment on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    Yeah. If the data is valuable enough to them, that would absolutely be within the realm of possibility. I've also heard of manufacturers embedding LTE radios in devices for communication like...

    Given the initial topic I wouldn't be surprised if LG was considering a deal with Comcast just for that kind of thing at this point.

    Yeah. If the data is valuable enough to them, that would absolutely be within the realm of possibility. I've also heard of manufacturers embedding LTE radios in devices for communication like this, but I have to imagine that an individuals data isn't valuable enough for that to make sense at scale for a TV.

    Plus, they can count on 90% of people just connecting the thing to their wifi anyway, so all of these games are probably unnecessary for their bottom line.

    5 votes

  10. Comment on Farmers turn to perennial grains as one solution to extreme weather in ~enviro

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    Yeah. One of the problems with living in a democracy unfortunately. People do not generally vote for bitter pills that improve their lives in the future. They mostly vote like children, for things...

    Yeah. One of the problems with living in a democracy unfortunately. People do not generally vote for bitter pills that improve their lives in the future. They mostly vote like children, for things that they see benefiting them right now.

    Its the root cause of why so many long term issues get kicked down the road forever.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    I see networks without WPA2/WPA3 a lot, but those are almost always locked down with captive portal authentication. Xfinitywifi definitely is, as part of comcasts "Xfinitynow" service (which as a...

    I see networks without WPA2/WPA3 a lot, but those are almost always locked down with captive portal authentication.

    Xfinitywifi definitely is, as part of comcasts "Xfinitynow" service (which as a sidenote, is also fucked as a business model). LG TVs wouldn't have access to those without paying Comcast.

    Its possible that someone is either running a 25 year old router, or manually removed the password on their AP, but basically any consumer wifi router of the past few decades has WPA2 authentication out of the box, and most of them have randomized passwords.

    Its of course entirely possible to find open public wifi, but personally I've just never encountered it in the past 10 years or so.

    8 votes

  12. Comment on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    Yeah, but would lots of other people? That's always been the issue with privacy concerns. I hate tracking, I hate ads, and I hate being spied on. I'm willing to pay an extra $1000 for a TV that...

    Regardless, personally I would rather pay the cost upfront rather then be nickel and dimed and a/b tested and exploited and influenced for decades.

    Yeah, but would lots of other people? That's always been the issue with privacy concerns. I hate tracking, I hate ads, and I hate being spied on. I'm willing to pay an extra $1000 for a TV that doesn't do those things.

    Is the average consumer though? Probably not. They will mostly just buy whatever has the biggest screen at the cheapest price.

    Screen brightness, color reproduction, and contrast are all things that move the needle at the high end, but probably still isn't, even in the market that high end LG TVs compete in.

    Its just something that, bafflingly to me, most people don't care about.

    18 votes

  13. Comment on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    I use a Google TV streamer. There are probably other, better (cheaper) options for android set top boxes, I've heard the Walmart brand one is actually quite good. To me, android is where its at...

    I use a Google TV streamer. There are probably other, better (cheaper) options for android set top boxes, I've heard the Walmart brand one is actually quite good.

    To me, android is where its at for streaming boxes.

    It strikes the right balance between a good 10 foot user interface and lack of fucking around with it, that a lot of open source HTPC projects don't, and openness allowing me to stream content from wherever I want, including legally grey areas, that solutions like the apple tv and Roku don't.

    My wife is pretty smart and techie, and could figure out an HTPC, with a little pain, but it wouldn't be very pleasant. My parents and friends that come over absolutely could not though, and I don't want to give everyone that comes to my house and uses my TV a 20 minute course on how to fuck around and put a YouTube video on.

    If Google ever truly gets rid of sideloading on android, I'll be once again searching for something acceptable, but for now, Android TV is where its at for me.

    7 votes

  14. Comment on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in ~tech

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    I don't know about you, but I haven't seen an open SSID in years. I've heard this concern before, but realistically, where are people still running unauthenticated wifi networks?

    I don't know about you, but I haven't seen an open SSID in years. I've heard this concern before, but realistically, where are people still running unauthenticated wifi networks?

    11 votes

  15. Comment on Farmers turn to perennial grains as one solution to extreme weather in ~enviro

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    How do you do that though? I guess you could tarrif the hell out of out of season foods, but it doesn't seem like a political strategy that's likely to gain many votes. The practical platform...

    How do you do that though? I guess you could tarrif the hell out of out of season foods, but it doesn't seem like a political strategy that's likely to gain many votes. The practical platform you'd be running on would be something like "vote for me, I'll make bananas more expensive". It doesn't seem like something with a lot of political support behind it.

  16. Comment on Farmers turn to perennial grains as one solution to extreme weather in ~enviro

    papasquat
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    Doesn't traditional wheat get completely ripped up during the harvesting process? If these are perennials, and the goal is to presumably not do that, do you need a more specialized kind of combine...

    Doesn't traditional wheat get completely ripped up during the harvesting process? If these are perennials, and the goal is to presumably not do that, do you need a more specialized kind of combine to harvest them so that they aren't destroyed?

  17. Comment on Starting a video game creation club in ~creative

    papasquat
    Link Parent
    Second this. There's a very clear difference between doing work with the goal of learning and doing work with the goal of making money. If you're out to make money, you should use whatever tools...

    Second this.
    There's a very clear difference between doing work with the goal of learning and doing work with the goal of making money.

    If you're out to make money, you should use whatever tools are at your disposal to keep costs down, and quality and output high.

    If you're out to learn, you should only use tools that help you achieve that goal.

    They're completely different motivations, and in my opinion, if you're doing projects with the aim of learning, using AI is just completely wasting your time. You might as well just not bother doing anything. Sure, you'll get a finished game quicker if you use AI, but getting a finished game delivered isn't the goal. Learning about game development is.

    To me, it has no place in learning. A lot of that process is just frustratingly banging your head against the wall until something quick. There's no shortcuts to that process. That's the reason why when you ask a teacher a question about something you're stuck on, any half decent teacher isn't going to just straight up give you the answer. They'll ask questions to make you think about certain fundemental things until you're able to come up with the answer yourself. That's learning. Just asking a question and receiving an answer is just... receiving information, which you may or may not actually understand.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Starting a video game creation club in ~creative

    papasquat
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    I wouldn't necessarily say that. Games are as simple or as complex as you make them. With cursory, basic programming knowledge, you can make a simple text adventure game in Python in 15 minutes....

    I wouldn't necessarily say that. Games are as simple or as complex as you make them.

    With cursory, basic programming knowledge, you can make a simple text adventure game in Python in 15 minutes. You can make a simple puzzle game in a few hours with some basic GUI programming skills.

    You can use a tool like RPG maker to make a basic RPG in a few hours.

    Of course, making a game good enough to make money is another thing entirely, and that shouldn't be the focus of any club at all, because at that point it's not a club, it's a job, and jobs have a tendency to no longer be fun.

  19. Comment on Musk | Official teaser trailer in ~movies

    papasquat
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    Sorry, best we can do is "he had his flaws just like anyone, but ultimately, he's a visionary and forever changed the world for the better and will be remembered for millennia"

    Sorry, best we can do is "he had his flaws just like anyone, but ultimately, he's a visionary and forever changed the world for the better and will be remembered for millennia"

    12 votes

  20. Comment on Proposal to ban development of AI superintelligence by US Senator Bernie Sanders and US Representative Greg Casar in ~society

    papasquat
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    Honestly, I don't really see that ever becoming a thing at scale, just because it's not a very efficient way to spend tokens or compute power, and it's not really how we've seen technology develop...

    Honestly, I don't really see that ever becoming a thing at scale, just because it's not a very efficient way to spend tokens or compute power, and it's not really how we've seen technology develop in the past. Like, when tractors were invented, they weren't shaped like mules and slotted into a yoke with a person driving them.

    I suspect what work looks like in the future looks similar to the evolution you see today. Instead of having, say, 5 engineers on a team, you have one or two, and those engineers just prompt most of the time. Instead of having 5 layers of management, you flatten it out and have maybe 2, because you don't need as many people to do the same work, so you don't need as many people to manage them.

    Headcounts shrink, but people don't necessarily get 1:1 replaced with an AI agent, and the people running the agents are doing different kinds of work than they once were.

    2 votes