rkcr's recent activity

  1. Comment on The FBI’s new tactic: Catching suspects with push alerts in ~tech

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    Android developer here (so I can't speak to iOS at all). Also, it's been many years since I've implemented push notifications so I could be a little fuzzy (aka wrong) here. tl;dr - everyone is...

    Android developer here (so I can't speak to iOS at all). Also, it's been many years since I've implemented push notifications so I could be a little fuzzy (aka wrong) here.

    tl;dr - everyone is susceptible, disabling push notifications will likely not help.


    There's a point of confusion here: the word "notification" is overloaded.

    The "notification" users think of is the little message that pops up while using the phone. Apps determine when those show up, and they can be disabled at will. However, in this context, a "push notification" is a low-energy way of communicating between the server and the device.

    While UI notifications and push notifications are often linked, there's no reason they have to be! The app can show a UI notification without having received a push notification, and a push notification can be received without the app showing a UI notification.


    With that clarified, let's dig into push notifications.

    Android uses Firebase Cloud Messaging as the basis of all push notifications. The lifecycle flow shows push notifications are a two-step process: first you register your device, then you can send/receive messages.

    As noted above, this whole process works separately from UI notifications. So even if your notifications are disabled, the app may still register your device, and might even run the logic to try to send a notification - you just won't see it. Why? Because apps might be using push notifications for more than just UI notifications - for example, a push notification could tell an app that there's new data to sync in the background, so that the next time you open your app it has fresh data.

    If the app only uses push notifications to show UI notifications, then a privacy-focused app developer could prevent FCM from initializing (and thus registering) your device. However, that's extra work and I doubt most developers would go that extra mile; the main reason developers would do this work is in cases where the same app is delivered in contexts where FCM is not available (e.g. Amazon Kindle).


    One last point: I don't think the individual apps can use the push notification token they receive to figure out your identity. However, since Google knows all the push notification tokens, they could figure out that the same device that uses push notifications for app XYZ is also the same device that has push notifications for Gmail (and thus can find the user's identity that way).

    10 votes
  2. Comment on Bitcoin tops $57,000 price level for first time since late 2021 in ~finance

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    It's not an "all or nothing" situation - it's a matter of degrees. You can contribute a lot or a little to our extinction, depending on your choices.

    It's not an "all or nothing" situation - it's a matter of degrees. You can contribute a lot or a little to our extinction, depending on your choices.

    17 votes
  3. Comment on I’m worried that the Israel-Palestine conflict is tearing Tildes apart in ~tildes

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    I'm guessing there's a lot of us who feel the same way, and thus have never participated in these discussions. Even if the people commenting on these threads are getting into flamewars, many of us...

    I'm guessing there's a lot of us who feel the same way, and thus have never participated in these discussions. Even if the people commenting on these threads are getting into flamewars, many of us are actually just avoiding them. So what you're seeing is still just a subset of Tildes.

    13 votes
  4. Comment on George Carlin estate sues creators of AI-generated comedy special in key lawsuit over stars’ likenesses in ~tech

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    Unfortunately (or fortunately?), it's not actually interesting/novel anymore. The creators of the show have now stated that AI was not involved at all: IANAL so I don't know how the rest of this...

    the copyright infringement side of this is really interesting and novel legally.

    Unfortunately (or fortunately?), it's not actually interesting/novel anymore. The creators of the show have now stated that AI was not involved at all:

    “It’s a fictional podcast character created by two human beings, Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen,” Del wrote in an email. “The YouTube video ‘I’m Glad I’m Dead’ was completely written by Chad Kultgen.”

    IANAL so I don't know how the rest of this will play out, they may still have a case on voice/likeness.

    18 votes
  5. Comment on Electric cars are not the future – In cities at least, e-bikes make more cultural and consumer sense in ~transport

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    Fair enough. I was reacting more to the mid-level comment about more extreme weather. I still think it's rather disrespectful to claim that someone's lived experience is actually just media hype;...

    Fair enough. I was reacting more to the mid-level comment about more extreme weather.

    I still think it's rather disrespectful to claim that someone's lived experience is actually just media hype; that's mainly what I'm reacting to, I suppose.

    6 votes
  6. Comment on Electric cars are not the future – In cities at least, e-bikes make more cultural and consumer sense in ~transport

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    You need to take into account the context of this thread. The top-level comment is about how cars solve the problem of transporting 1. children 2. in extreme weather. I'm not trying to shut down...

    You need to take into account the context of this thread. The top-level comment is about how cars solve the problem of transporting 1. children 2. in extreme weather.

    I'm not trying to shut down someone who wants to talk about bikes vs. cars in other circumstances. But you can't just disregard the premise of the discussion. You have to engage with the topic, not just hand-wave the very case being discussed as "an edge case."

    20 votes
  7. Comment on Electric cars are not the future – In cities at least, e-bikes make more cultural and consumer sense in ~transport

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    It's pretty wild to call places where tens of millions of people live (e.g. Canada) "an edge case". I feel like you've been discounting other peoples' lived experiences all over this thread. You...

    This kind of edge case gets exaggerated all over media and creates a misleading perception of impracticality.

    It's pretty wild to call places where tens of millions of people live (e.g. Canada) "an edge case".

    I feel like you've been discounting other peoples' lived experiences all over this thread. You don't live in a frigid environment and you don't have kids - maybe listen & learn from people who are in that situation, instead of trying to convince them they're going about life wrong.

    30 votes
  8. Comment on Stuff we figured out about AI in 2023 in ~tech

    rkcr
    Link
    Simon Willison maintains one of the most informative blogs about LLMs, and his overview of the past year is a great summary of recent advances, discoveries, and setbacks.

    Simon Willison maintains one of the most informative blogs about LLMs, and his overview of the past year is a great summary of recent advances, discoveries, and setbacks.

    11 votes
  9. Comment on Game recommendations, specifically in ~games

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    Here's a few ideas: The Stanley Parable - more of an art piece than a game, it fits your request pretty well. Paradise Killer - Your compatriots have been murdered and you are the detective. You...

    Here's a few ideas:

    The Stanley Parable - more of an art piece than a game, it fits your request pretty well.

    Paradise Killer - Your compatriots have been murdered and you are the detective. You can call for the trial at any time. You are gated on what your character knows (but you learn it at the same time so I think it matches).

    Subnautica - This only partially matches (since you still need to do in-game research & material gathering), but so much of this game is about understanding how everything fits together and how the world's systems work.

    Baba is You - It's a lot like the Witness in that you need to solve one puzzle to get to the next, but understanding the mechanics of the game is a huge part of it.

    Her Story or Immortality - FMV games that let you explore as you want. There's a story there, but you have to piece it together based on your explorations.

    7 votes
  10. Comment on This dev conference organizer seems addicted to making up women in ~comp

    rkcr
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    Eduards Sizovs, the organizer behind the Devternity and JDKon developer conferences, admitted that at least one woman speaker’s profile was ‘auto-generated.’

    7 votes
  11. Comment on Norway brought heat pumps in from the cold – device installed in two-thirds of households suggests switching to greener heating can be done in ~enviro

    rkcr
    Link Parent
    I live in Minnesota. It can sometimes get below -34C (-30F). I installed an air source heat pump last year (for a forced air system) and I've gotten through one winter with it. The heat pump has...

    I live in Minnesota. It can sometimes get below -34C (-30F).

    I installed an air source heat pump last year (for a forced air system) and I've gotten through one winter with it. The heat pump has 100% efficiency down to -20C (-5F), but even at colder temperatures it still works up to ~75% efficiency.

    My backup (for the coldest days) is electric resistance coils, which are expensive to run, but doesn't happen all that often. There's a discount my energy provider gives you if your heating is all electric, and as a result my heating bills are actually cheaper than when I had gas.

    Basically - you can go all electric in real cold climates these days. It's totally doable and will only get easier as the technology improves.

    10 votes
  12. Comment on Solved: If Miyamoto never said his most famous quote, who did?! in ~games

    rkcr
    Link

    "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad" is a quote often attributed to Miyamoto, but where's it really from?

    6 votes