scojjac's recent activity

  1. Comment on TCL's bet on screens that look like paper in ~tech

    scojjac
    Link
    Now that we all piled on about the links, I should say something about the actual topic. ;) It's nice to have something other than Samsung Frame and other display techonologies entering the mix. I...

    Now that we all piled on about the links, I should say something about the actual topic. ;)

    It's nice to have something other than Samsung Frame and other display techonologies entering the mix. I definitely feel overwhelmed by display time, so a display that is more paperlike in appearance and its effects on our eyes is welcome.

    10 votes
  2. Comment on TCL's bet on screens that look like paper in ~tech

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    I understand. The accessibility issue is that the hyperlink text acts as a description of what will be found at the link. People who use screen readers will often tab through the links, so instead...

    I understand. The accessibility issue is that the hyperlink text acts as a description of what will be found at the link. People who use screen readers will often tab through the links, so instead of hearing "Marques Brownlee tested", they may hear "h-t-t-p-s-colon-slash-slash..."

    This is also why it's not a good practice to make the text something like "click here" or "learn more".

    11 votes
  3. Comment on TCL's bet on screens that look like paper in ~tech

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    For accessibility and overall readability, hyperlinks should be part of the text, not after the statement. As one example, "Marques Brownlee tested" would be better than putting the link after the...

    For accessibility and overall readability, hyperlinks should be part of the text, not after the statement. As one example, "Marques Brownlee tested" would be better than putting the link after the sentence.

    Alternatively, you could go Wikipedia-style and put all the references at the bottom. That's not as web native, but it keeps the post flowing.

    7 votes
  4. Comment on Proton CEO tweets support for Donald Trump's Department of Justice pick and the US Republican Party in ~society

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    Certainly, and there's a similar pattern today. It's a tough pill to swallow, but these purchasing decisions do not make a difference. These people have so much more money, power, and influence,...

    Certainly, and there's a similar pattern today. It's a tough pill to swallow, but these purchasing decisions do not make a difference. These people have so much more money, power, and influence, it's incomprehensible.

    Recognizing what we can control and what we cannot is important to happiness. Make the decision that helps you sleep at night. My great-grandfather served in the US military during WWII. He despised seeing someone he believed to be a "Hitlerite" in the US government. And he took Bayer Back and Body every day because it helped to relieve his aches and pains.

    5 votes
  5. Comment on Proton CEO tweets support for Donald Trump's Department of Justice pick and the US Republican Party in ~society

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    I largely agree with your perspective. It's surprising and disappointing for an executive of a privacy-focused firm to make the statements he made. As we look around us, though, it's evident that...

    I largely agree with your perspective. It's surprising and disappointing for an executive of a privacy-focused firm to make the statements he made. As we look around us, though, it's evident that the vast majority of companies are willing to do whatever will allow them to stay open and turn a profit. I encourage anyone that feels shocked to take a look at Wikipedia's List of companies involved in the Holocaust. And the world goes 'round.

    Google sucks; I pay for Workspace. Microsoft sucks; I'm studying for one of their certs. Apple sucks; I have several of their devices. Meta sucks; I still use WhatsApp. Nestle sucks; I love a bottle of Pellegrino on occasion. The brands and conglomerates we do business with are not our identities. Living with integrity and as a person of character is so much more than flitting from one corporation to another.

    12 votes
  6. Comment on Bearblog: A privacy-first, no-nonsense, super-fast blogging platform in ~tech

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    Yep! My site https://scojjac.com runs on Bearblog. I'm slowly migrating old posts over, too. I actually have other bearbloggers email me occasionally, which has been cool. The Discover page...

    Yep! My site https://scojjac.com runs on Bearblog. I'm slowly migrating old posts over, too. I actually have other bearbloggers email me occasionally, which has been cool. The Discover page surfaces some cool ones, too.

    4 votes
  7. Comment on What contemporary books do you think will still be widely read 100 years from now? in ~books

    scojjac
    Link
    Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. That book truly reads like a classic. It gave me the same sort of feeling as The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. It has rich potential for literary analysis, but it's also...

    Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. That book truly reads like a classic. It gave me the same sort of feeling as The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. It has rich potential for literary analysis, but it's also enjoyable. You feel the larger world swirling around Sunja, the way it affects her, how she affects (or fails to affect) others—

    Out of the books I've read for pleasure, that is easilyy top pick for this query.

    11 votes
  8. Comment on Op Ed from UnitedHealth Group CEO: The US health care system is flawed. Let’s fix it. in ~society

    scojjac
    Link
    This probably isn't reasonable of me, but the current state of things makes me want to forgo a Marketplace plan and health insurance entirely. My premiums next year will be lower for the same plan...

    This probably isn't reasonable of me, but the current state of things makes me want to forgo a Marketplace plan and health insurance entirely. My premiums next year will be lower for the same plan thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act. The increase is really just more money going into the profits of my insurer.

    This year, I used my annual check-up visit, a couple telehealth visits, pharmacy benefit, an urgent care visit, a couple specialist visits. I'm nowhere near my $700 deductible or $3,000 out-of-pocket max. I suppose I should be thankful, since that's because of having co-pays instead of co-insurance.

    The current system is like a caricature of the Insuricare scene in The Incredibles.

    6 votes
  9. Comment on What do you use for 2fa? in ~tech

    scojjac
    Link
    To be almost as vague as @skybrian, even if you use a password manager that handles auth codes and passkeys and syncs cross-platform, you will probably still end up using: another auth app for...

    To be almost as vague as @skybrian, even if you use a password manager that handles auth codes and passkeys and syncs cross-platform, you will probably still end up using:

    • another auth app for that app's codes
    • specified auth apps required by online service providers

    You might also consider whether physical keys are worth setting up for your most critical online accounts. (h/t @kacey)

    6 votes
  10. Comment on Are we all capable of being slaveowners or nazis? in ~humanities

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    I'm going to add a very personal example here. My great-great grandfather was convicted of high treason, along with a few other men he associated with, for printing materials opposing Hitler. He...

    I'm going to add a very personal example here. My great-great grandfather was convicted of high treason, along with a few other men he associated with, for printing materials opposing Hitler. He was imprisoned then moved about concentration camps. He died in Dachau in 1941. From what I can tell, while he was imprisoned, my great-grandmother wrote him to ask if she could join the Hitlerjugend.

    After he died and her mother died, she went to live with an aunt and uncle who also became political prisoners. She then left Germany and began working as a telephone operator in one of the German helferinnen (female auxiliary services) groups. Researchers say this choice was usually made because of the opportunities it provided, not explicitly with helping the war effort or political aims in mind. Based on my personal time with her and what I know of her youth and early adulthood, she was probably trying to not stand out and protect herself.

    I hope to make different decisions, but I choose not to think less of her for what she did in an extremely bitter time in her life. I think her choices are a reflection of the fact that many people will make decisions that they believe will give them the best chance of survival or improving their lot. Rarely will people make self-sacrificing decisions based on moral principles when it comes down to brass tacks.

    Regarding those that simply want to live without being concerned with the sociopolitical environment around them, I found the book Pachinko pretty remarkable for the way it presented this, particularly from Sunja's perspective.

    28 votes
  11. Comment on Had an amazing trip to New Mexico. Has anyone else been? What would you suggest for a return trip? in ~travel

    scojjac
    (edited )
    Link
    I'm so glad you enjoyed yourself. I lived in southern New Mexico and El Paso, TX for over 20 years and never made it to those two places. The northern part of the state is particularly beautiful...

    I'm so glad you enjoyed yourself. I lived in southern New Mexico and El Paso, TX for over 20 years and never made it to those two places. The northern part of the state is particularly beautiful and has amazing lightning storms in the summer.

    • Jemez is beautiful along with Valles Caldera National Preserve and Bandelier.
    • Kasha-Katuwe is a slot canyon with tent rocks, cool trail.
    • I haven't been but would LOVE to see Chaco Canyon. I believe it's one of the oldest and most culturally significant indigenous sites in the state and was a major trade crossroads.
    • Gila National Forest and Cliff Dwellings
    • White Sands
    • Albuquerque has Sandia tram and the BioPark on the river.
    • Santa Fe has Meow Wolf.
    • City of Rocks State Park has cool formations, camping, and is a great place to see the stars.

    Enjoy the red and green chile, the sunsets, the low humidity, and hiking. Unfortunately, it seems like fires are affecting the state more than in the past. Happy to answer follow up questions.

    11 votes
  12. Comment on Germany: 288,000 foreign workers needed annually until 2040 in ~society

    scojjac
    Link
    We have considering seeking a certificate of citizenship due to recent law changes regarding eligibility. Collecting the right documentation takes time, and at the end of it, there is still the...

    We have considering seeking a certificate of citizenship due to recent law changes regarding eligibility. Collecting the right documentation takes time, and at the end of it, there is still the wait for everything to be processed. For my mother, it's more about the connection to her grandmother than a desire to leave the United States. For me, I suppose having more options is nice. I'm under no illusion that emigration is easy or that other countries are problem-free. Nationalism is rearing its ugly head around the world.

    What's funny is that when we talk to various German friends about pursuing citizenship, they say in disbelief, 'Why would you want to do that?' I suppose they see the problems in their own country in finer detail and see only broad strokes of the US (though I suspect they are more informed of US events than many Americans). If the attitude of our own friends is to discourage us from living there, I can only imagine what it is like for Ausländer that are non-white or lack a strong support network.

    6 votes
  13. Comment on Your boss is probably spying on you: New data on workplace surveillance in ~life

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    There are sufficient numbers of incompetent and unethical managers who feel important by collecting and re-arranging vanity metrics (and can't be bothered to learn and use a more effective method)...

    or at least have semi competent managers

    There are sufficient numbers of incompetent and unethical managers who feel important by collecting and re-arranging vanity metrics (and can't be bothered to learn and use a more effective method) or who are impressed by how much info they can collect from unaware subordinates. I think it scratches a very primal peeping itch, it can be done under the guise of security and efficiency, and it gives people in power the same feeling that a predator might have while watching trapped prey.

    10 votes
  14. Comment on Your boss is probably spying on you: New data on workplace surveillance in ~life

    scojjac
    Link
    This has always been a wise, though discouraging, view to take. Unfortunately, we live in a very surveillance-happy society. I don't only mean airport security theater, or NSA mass data...

    This has always been a wise, though discouraging, view to take. Unfortunately, we live in a very surveillance-happy society. I don't only mean airport security theater, or NSA mass data collection, or allowing corporate tracking for questionable ancillary benefits, or school spyware for digital learning platforms and school-owned devices, but also products like Life360 that allow parents to check on location and myriad other details about their children at any time.

    The linked article mentions that the motivation and usage of monitoring tools matters. If the purpose is to promote well-being and there are policies to that effect, it might not cause an immediate detrimental effect. Yet, even when such systems are marketed this way, they are often used to harass and discipline the surveilled. And even if one administration (whether government, school, or parent) may not abuse the tools, another will.

    Collectively, we are too comfortable allowing others to watch and catalog everything we do. As @x08 appropriately noted, though you may think you have nothing to hide today, someone may dig it up and use it against you someday. And that day may come sooner than you think.

    15 votes
  15. Comment on Thousands of Americans see their savings vanish in Synapse fintech crisis in ~finance

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    Fair point. I'm inclined to think the dollar will lose all its value before I'll feel compelled to dive into gold or crypto. Having a system implies structure and rules that are followed, and I'm...

    Fair point. I'm inclined to think the dollar will lose all its value before I'll feel compelled to dive into gold or crypto.

    Having a system implies structure and rules that are followed, and I'm not sure we can reasonably expect that much longer. We are instead entering an era where consistently applied rules and protections are very much not de rigueur.

    Money in a HYSA isn't any good if its gone because of deregulation or frozen under anti-terrorism pretense.

    5 votes
  16. Comment on Turkish woman convicted under anti-terror laws for sharing Guardian article on social media in ~society

    scojjac
    (edited )
    Link
    Unsurprising, really, which is a statement about such laws or the nature of human government, not about Türkiye in particular. The US and Russia have likewise used such laws to target peaceful...

    Unsurprising, really, which is a statement about such laws or the nature of human government, not about Türkiye in particular. The US and Russia have likewise used such laws to target peaceful individuals and groups. Expect more of this as the world slides into nationalism once again.

    8 votes
  17. Comment on Thousands of Americans see their savings vanish in Synapse fintech crisis in ~finance

    scojjac
    Link
    I had a great experience with Simple (nee BankSimple) — and then they sold to BBVA Compass, who sold to PNC, who shut the product down. So now I avoid any fintech banking service. For FDIC to say...

    I had a great experience with Simple (nee BankSimple) — and then they sold to BBVA Compass, who sold to PNC, who shut the product down. So now I avoid any fintech banking service. For FDIC to say it's not their problem seems crazy to me.

    Tangentially, while this is very unlike me, current events have me wondering whether I even want to keep my money in banks or the Treasury anymore.

    7 votes
  18. Comment on How has your industry changed in the past decade? in ~life

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    That might be. I usually find the answers to be some combination of wrong, fictional, and overly generic. Also, while there are some heuristics for the reliability of a webpage (domain authority,...

    That might be. I usually find the answers to be some combination of wrong, fictional, and overly generic. Also, while there are some heuristics for the reliability of a webpage (domain authority, amount of ads/popups, formatting), all of that is stripped away in genAI. Even tools like Perplexity that cite their sources are not trustworthy on their own, so (in my case) I'm back to reading through source material to determine accuracy and reliability. For finding answers to questions, I find it god-awful.

    6 votes
  19. Comment on How has your industry changed in the past decade? in ~life

    scojjac
    Link Parent
    Looking at your comment and @jackson's comment above, genAI is creating both time and financial costs for workers and companies. What's fascinating to me is that some users insist that, when...

    Looking at your comment and @jackson's comment above, genAI is creating both time and financial costs for workers and companies. What's fascinating to me is that some users insist that, when wielded properly, genAI can save tremendous amounts of time and mental energy. Others find that it requires so much prompting and checking over copious output that it doesn't actually save them any effort.

    I wonder where the discrepancy in perception of genAI's usefulness lies. Is it truly that some people just aren't putting the time and effort into effectively using genAI, or are they doing different kinds of work, or are they inaccurately estimating the time/energy expenditures with/without it, or something else?

    For myself, I prefer to work on a problem myself than supervise a computer that pretends to think. Prompting output is so much worse than producing output. I don't want to deny that some people are having positive experiences with such tools. At the same time, I see high costs and low benefits, resulting in negative value overall.

    12 votes
  20. Comment on The Business-School research scandal that just keeps getting bigger in ~science

    scojjac
    Link
    Juliana Schroeder was one of Francesca Gino's peers and launched an intense effort to verify the papers in question. Regarding her and the field at large: It's no shock that there is deep rot in...

    Juliana Schroeder was one of Francesca Gino's peers and launched an intense effort to verify the papers in question. Regarding her and the field at large:

    In October 2023, a former graduate student who had helped tip off the team of bloggers to Gino’s possible fraud wrote her own “post mortem” on the case. It paints Schroeder as exceptional among her peers: a professor who “sent a clear signal to the scientific community that she is taking this scandal seriously.” Several others echoed this assessment, saying that ever since the news broke, Schroeder has been relentless—heroic, even—in her efforts to correct the record.

    But if Schroeder planned to extinguish any doubts that remained, she may have aimed too high. More than a year since all of this began, the evidence of fraud has only multiplied. The rot in business schools runs much deeper than almost anyone had guessed, and the blame is unnervingly widespread. In the end, even Schroeder would become a suspect.

    It's no shock that there is deep rot in business schools; one only has to look at what MBAs have wrought in the real world and the thick disdain people hold for them.

    I'm not at all surprised that research students, like Ms. Brooks at Wharton, make up data. Based on my own high school experiences, it's completely believable that smart, tired students take shortcuts and make things up as long as its convincing enough to 'get the grade', so to speak. As one who tried to do things the right way even if it meant a worse score, I was continually frustrated by such behavior.

    A highlighted quote in the article, from Uri Simonsohn, goes, "It’s embarrassing how few protections we have against fraud and how easy it has been to fool us."

    It's remarkable how well that statement applies to modern society. A large swath of the population is absolutely fooled, not trying too hard to find truth or verify, because it would mean grappling with inconvenient realities. When this phenomenon is discussed with regard to the world outside academia, it's said that this is a result of lack of education. Yet here we have highly educated people falling susceptible to the same sorts of problems.

    Ambitious students, researchers, and business people are united by that ambition and are willing to forego rigor and ethics if it gives them an edge. In a cutthroat world where the incentives are for an exceedingly few at the top, some will do anything to stand out and reap rewards. How can they be expected to put in much work or great risk for vanishing returns?

    There are no doubt concerns specific to academia and publishing, but they are symptoms of more fundamental forces that, terminally unchecked, are rending society apart.

    8 votes