qob's recent activity
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Comment on Pornhub to block access in thirteen states as age-verification laws expand across US in ~tech
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Comment on Pornhub to block access in thirteen states as age-verification laws expand across US in ~tech
qob Link ParentPornhub is just one site. Children will still have unlimited access to porn even if you somehow manage to block all domains that are dedicated to porn because you can find porn on sites that...Pornhub is just one site. Children will still have unlimited access to porn even if you somehow manage to block all domains that are dedicated to porn because you can find porn on sites that usually don't host porn, and because porn sites can just create thousands of new domains per second if they want to.
And porn is just one topic that isn't suitable for kids. The internet simply is not a place to let your kids lose and forget about them, much like most of the real world.
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Comment on Tenant unions are coming. US landlords aren't ready. in ~life
qob Link ParentThe difference is that you would lease it from the local government, which should ideally be run like a community, not as a business, and definitely not for profit. Your lease wouldn't go to...The difference is that you would lease it from the local government, which should ideally be run like a community, not as a business, and definitely not for profit. Your lease wouldn't go to shareholders, it would go to the local community, like a property tax.
But yeah, that was a shower thought and I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. I'm just tired of neofeudalism, and making it impossible to invest in land is one way to fight it.
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Comment on Tenant unions are coming. US landlords aren't ready. in ~life
qob Link ParentYes, of course. Housing cooperatives should be the default for multi-tenant housing and owning a house you don't use yourself but rent to someone should be weird. I even think owning land should...Yes, of course. Housing cooperatives should be the default for multi-tenant housing and owning a house you don't use yourself but rent to someone should be weird.
I even think owning land should be weird, at least in cities, and the norm should be to lease it from the local government. If you die, the land goes back to the community and your kids get dibs on leasing it again.
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Comment on Tenant unions are coming. US landlords aren't ready. in ~life
qob Link ParentAir BNB is essentially just another manifestation of private property ownership being the basic issue. If you own a house for profit, Air BNB is a great way to increase your rent per square meter...Air BNB is essentially just another manifestation of private property ownership being the basic issue. If you own a house for profit, Air BNB is a great way to increase your rent per square meter per time. Remove the ability to profit (excessively) from owning a house, and that issue is gone.
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Comment on Tenant unions are coming. US landlords aren't ready. in ~life
qob Link ParentIn existing homes. I don't know about other countries, but the average space per person has been doubled in my country in the last 50 years or so. And I'm not saying no housing should be...In existing homes. I don't know about other countries, but the average space per person has been doubled in my country in the last 50 years or so.
And I'm not saying no housing should be constructed. I'm saying building new houses in popular places is a losing battle, because popularity moves and houses don't.
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Comment on Tenant unions are coming. US landlords aren't ready. in ~life
qob Link ParentI don't think more housing would really solve the issue. Rent is high in popular areas (usually big cities) because everone wants to live there. If you increase available housing, the rent drops,...I don't think more housing would really solve the issue. Rent is high in popular areas (usually big cities) because everone wants to live there. If you increase available housing, the rent drops, so more people can afford to live there and drive up rents again. There is no equilibrium because there are millions upon millions waiting in line. This cycle continues until the city is eventually completely plastered with houses, making the whole place unlivable because the impervious surface kills the microclimate with heat waves and flooding. Now everyone wants to live in another densely-but-not-too-densely populate area. Rinse and repeat. And if we ever want to win against climate change, building hundreds of millions of new homes is impossible.
In my opinion, the issue is private property ownership. Popular land is a very scarce resource and it should not be subject to market forces. Housing should be rented to cover the costs of housing, not to increase profits for investors. One such solution that I really like is the model where everyone who lives in a house partially owns that house, and when they move out, they lose it. Here in Germany, this keeps rents very low even in high-rent cities. Together with city-owned houses that are also rented at cost but managed by the city should drop rents dramatically.
Of course, this is a pipe dream and will probably never happen on large scales, but I don't see any real reason why this shouldn't work.
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Comment on Legacy is a delusion in ~talk
qob (edited )Link ParentI think most people would actually agree with you because legacy is not the goal, it's just an effect of the goal. The actual goal is to have a positive impact on the world. If I can improve the...I think most people would actually agree with you because legacy is not the goal, it's just an effect of the goal. The actual goal is to have a positive impact on the world.
If I can improve the lives of those around me, I will obviously be remembered in a positive light when I'm gone. When people say they care about their legacy, they are taking a mental leap from "I am a good person" to "people know that I am a good person" to "I am such a good person that people will remember me even when I'm no longer around".
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Comment on Tom Merritt's opinion on if Mozilla should join Chromium in ~tech
qob Link ParentYeah, but I don't see how anyone can make a browser more popular. Google can tell their users that Gmail works best with Chrome (and make sure that's true). They can gear Chrome towards the ad...They can limit the influence by making a fork that could be more popular
Yeah, but I don't see how anyone can make a browser more popular. Google can tell their users that Gmail works best with Chrome (and make sure that's true). They can gear Chrome towards the ad industry, making it more likely that any random website works better with Chrome. They can invest billions in building a brand so that Chrome feels better than all the alternatives, even if it isn't. They can influence web standards to make them more complex and geared towards how Chrome compared to other browsers, wasting scarce development resources of other browsers.
Basically, they can do everything they have been doing since they first announced Chrome. Why would they stop if there's another alternative or fork?
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Comment on Tom Merritt's opinion on if Mozilla should join Chromium in ~tech
qob Link ParentI don't see how anyone could even attempt to limit the influence of Google within Chromium. There is no democracy. It's Google's browser. If I create a project on GitHub, I might accept...I don't see how anyone could even attempt to limit the influence of Google within Chromium. There is no democracy. It's Google's browser. If I create a project on GitHub, I might accept contributions, but I'd still be in control of the project. If someone forks Chromium, there would be another browser with 0.2 % market share and that's it. Even if someone could take over Chromium development, Google could just fork it and 90 % of users would (be forced to) switch to Google's fork.
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Comment on US officials urge Americans to use encrypted apps amid unprecedented cyberattack in ~tech
qob Link ParentOnly in theory. In practice, everyone (state, companies and consumers) uses all kinds of IT products from the US. There are efforts to mitigate this, but that would cost money and political...I gather things are better in the EU due to better regulation, but I'm not sure how much better.
Only in theory. In practice, everyone (state, companies and consumers) uses all kinds of IT products from the US. There are efforts to mitigate this, but that would cost money and political effort, and there's always something more important than changing a somewhat working system.
I think the issues are very similar across the world, and they basically come down to this: With physical products, they feel bad if they are creaking, leaking, gunky, etc, even as a complete layman. An IT product can have all kinds of severe issues and still feel fancy and polished. And then there are things like social media or mass surveillance, for which we haven't really understood the large scale consequences they can have on societies, even if they were impeccably implemented.
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Comment on The CEO of UnitedHealthcare (insurance company) has been assassinated in NYC in ~news
qob Link ParentBut AFAIK those were "reverse" revolutions, i.e. the goal was the opposite of democracy and equality.But AFAIK those were "reverse" revolutions, i.e. the goal was the opposite of democracy and equality.
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Comment on Missing camper found safe after more than five weeks in Canada's Northern Rockies in ~news
qob Link ParentThat just opens up more questions! How do you survive a wolf chasing you? You can't outrun them, so even if you somehow survive this, how do you get so far from your path that you can't find your..."But he did say that he did get lost because he was getting chased by a wolf."
That just opens up more questions! How do you survive a wolf chasing you? You can't outrun them, so even if you somehow survive this, how do you get so far from your path that you can't find your way back? If the wolf was really chasing you, he'd be on your throat in seconds. Maybe he saw the wolf from far away and went too far away from the path to avoid an actual encounter? But I wouldn't call that "chased by a wolf".
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Comment on Coffee prices surge to highest since 1997 on supply fears in ~food
qob Link ParentAnd no society has been truly fighting for a government that takes climate change seriously. Far weaker societies have brought down and revolutionized far more powerful governments throughout...And no society has been truly fighting for a government that takes climate change seriously.
Far weaker societies have brought down and revolutionized far more powerful governments throughout history. Uncountatble lives have been sacrificed for less serious issues. In modern societies, not a single drop of blood would have to be shed to change government policies, yet we keep investing our money on maximizing consumption. Everyone hates Amazon, but they keep increasing its overwhelming market share because of the better service, i.e. it allows them to consume more crap more conveniently.
I'm so tired of people.
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Comment on United States Department of Justice will push Google to sell Chrome to break search monopoly in ~tech
qob Link ParentI don't have an answer to your question, but I want to point out the absurdity of this situation: A browser is infrastructure modern societies increasingly rely on for their core functionality. It...I don't have an answer to your question, but I want to point out the absurdity of this situation: A browser is infrastructure modern societies increasingly rely on for their core functionality. It costs a tiny fraction of other infrastructure like transportation, energy, justice, etc. Yet here we are, struggling to figure out how to maintain something that is, in comparison, quite simple, for the benefit of all.
With Linux, we have an example that shows this is possible. We just need to figure out how to get there. But I would bet real money that Chrome will be bought by some other mindless for-profit corporation or a whacky billionaire, things will become a lot worse and everyone will just keep using it. It's so frustrating.
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Comment on James Webb Space Telescope finds stunning evidence for alternate theory of gravity in ~space
qob Link ParentThere's a great video from Angela Collier about the misconception of dark matter being a theory. She says it's not a theory, it's a problem. "Dark matter" is a bunch of observations that can't be...Dark matter has always struck me as a placeholder, similar to junk DNA, that will eventually be discarded when we have a better understanding.
There's a great video from Angela Collier about the misconception of dark matter being a theory. She says it's not a theory, it's a problem. "Dark matter" is a bunch of observations that can't be explained with established theories without breaking other established theories.
It's very long (1 hour) and she keeps repeating herself too much (as usual), but it's great fun to watch.
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Comment on How do people get over enshittification? in ~life
qob LinkIf you're worried about waste and materialism, you should be thankful for enshittification: There's less tempting crap to buy. :) But seriously, it's all just stuff. Buy the best stuff you can...If you're worried about waste and materialism, you should be thankful for enshittification: There's less tempting crap to buy. :)
But seriously, it's all just stuff. Buy the best stuff you can find and if that's not good enough, don't buy it. If reddit enshittifies, spend more time on Tildes or find something else to do. That not only improves your quality of life, you are also no longer contributing to the problem by consuming shit.
If you take a step back and look at the big picture, we're all just wild apes who suddenly became self-entitled to have the best socks. Just a short while ago, there weren't any socks around, not even the worst kind you can imagine.
I guess I'm not really helping here, but that's how I see it. The world doesn't owe me socks, and I'm thankful for the socks it offers me.
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Comment on Touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are back. Rachel Plotnick's "re-buttonization" expertise is in demand. in ~design
qob Link ParentNot the modern knobs I know. They send one signal if you turn them one way and another signal if you turn them the other way. I assume the software doesn't even know if it's a button or a knob. It...Not the modern knobs I know. They send one signal if you turn them one way and another signal if you turn them the other way. I assume the software doesn't even know if it's a button or a knob. It just needs to be able to react to "button press" events reasonably fast. But even if it doesn't, the user can just turn the knob some more until the display says what it should say or the volume is what it should be.
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Comment on Touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are back. Rachel Plotnick's "re-buttonization" expertise is in demand. in ~design
qob Link ParentThere are so many things where buttons are used where rotary knobs would be far superior! Buttons are for boolean stuff and everything else should be a knob. I don't understand why every device is...There are so many things where buttons are used where rotary knobs would be far superior! Buttons are for boolean stuff and everything else should be a knob.
I don't understand why every device is so heavy on buttons. Knobs can't be that much more expensive, and from a hardware perspective, I would assume that they (can be made to) produce the same signals as a button press.
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Comment on Touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are back. Rachel Plotnick's "re-buttonization" expertise is in demand. in ~design
qob Link ParentThis reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer gets to design a car.This reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Homer gets to design a car.
I think it's virtue signalling. They show the people that they do something that is good, even if it's just on the label. Most people tend to not know enough about the details to see through it, and those who do and call bullshit have to deal with accusations of not wanting to protect the children before they can explain why it doesn't protect them at all. It's the downside of democracy, and the only antidote is education.