tauon's recent activity
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Comment on Framework announces dual M.2 module for Framework Laptop 16 in ~comp
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Comment on US Joe Biden administration grants California waiver to ban gas car sales in 2035 in ~transport
tauon Link ParentAnd this is before also factoring in the glaring efficiency losses from the internal combustion engine. Something that is expected to get hot enough to boil water during use is bound to lose more...Even if a portion (<100%) of that electricity is generated using fossil fuels, it is necessarily cleaner than if it were 100% fossil fuels!
And this is before also factoring in the glaring efficiency losses from the internal combustion engine. Something that is expected to get hot enough to boil water during use is bound to lose more energy on the way to “energy gets converted into moving forward.”
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Comment on Framework announces dual M.2 module for Framework Laptop 16 in ~comp
tauon Link ParentHm, I have pretty much no clue about the space, but I was under the impression most ARM chips so far (outside of Apple’s) were more in the mobile device class in terms of performance (as in,...Hm, I have pretty much no clue about the space, but I was under the impression most ARM chips so far (outside of Apple’s) were more in the mobile device class in terms of performance (as in, benchmark scores etc. – of course their wattage is amazingly low).
If my knowledge there isn’t outdated (I’m classifying the Qualcomms for MS Surfaces under the mobile category :P), maybe that’s what’s holding them up for a “workhorse” laptop?
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Comment on School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood in ~health.mental
tauon Link ParentGood comparison, imo. History has proven e.g. prohibition to be… bad, but increasing prices on alcohol and nicotine definitely works. So it would seem our core issue here, in comparison to the...Good comparison, imo. History has proven e.g. prohibition to be… bad, but increasing prices on alcohol and nicotine definitely works.
So it would seem our core issue here, in comparison to the other addiction examples society has deemed undesirable, might be that a “free” (unpaid) online service cannot – especially for minors – be meaningfully taxed?
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Comment on Framework announces dual M.2 module for Framework Laptop 16 in ~comp
tauon (edited )Link ParentYeah, maybe the title can be edited to include the dot in M.2… That said, you got me thinking now with Asahi Linux being a thing – couldn’t Framework, hypothetically*, buy like M-series Mac Minis,...Yeah, maybe the title can be edited to include the dot in M.2…
That said, you got me thinking now with Asahi Linux being a thing – couldn’t Framework, hypothetically*, buy like M-series Mac Minis, extract the motherboard/chipset, and ship all that ARM with Linux?
*I’m not saying this makes financial or “moral” (given the company’s goals otherwise) sense for them to do, I’m just a bit curious about the technical aspect.
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Comment on Elon Musk’s attack on F-35s fuels debate over expensive fighter jets in ~society
tauon Link Parent<noise> We’re well past the point of there clearly being conflicts of interest anyway, so I don’t think the distinction makes a meaningful difference anymore. But it’s good to know nonetheless.<noise>We’re well past the point of there clearly being conflicts of interest anyway, so I don’t think the distinction makes a meaningful difference anymore. But it’s good to know nonetheless.
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Comment on School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood in ~health.mental
tauon (edited )Link ParentDo you live someplace that doesn’t have national ID? Genuine question. I’ll link to previous discussion on here which greatly shaped my own opinions on the topic (I thought it impossible prior to...Do you live someplace that doesn’t have national ID? Genuine question.
I’ll link to previous discussion on here which greatly shaped my own opinions on the topic (I thought it impossible prior to that comment, too). TL;DR it is not only very much possible, but has been done so in e.g. Sweden with BankID for years now.
Admittedly, the above example is not quite the same principle as what I described earlier, but again… This was supposed to be a “what if” scenario that required open source government code bases first (for the independent verification of “as few data retained as possible”). The takeaway is that this is definitely possible to implement, so even if it may not be feasible currently, I believe we should consider working towards it.
I didn’t really intend for this to result in a realistic, practical, step-by-step guide with no further changes needed, I hope it didn’t come off as such. -
Comment on Study: essay graders rarely detect AI, give higher grades in ~tech
tauon Link ParentIssue is that this, in general, is impossible to predict. Not only because there’s a bunch of different ones out there and no outsider knows their inner workings (justifiably so). For many of the...what the checkers are looking for
Issue is that this, in general, is impossible to predict. Not only because there’s a bunch of different ones out there and no outsider knows their inner workings (justifiably so).
For many of the same reasons, OpenAI literally cancelled their own “AI text detection” tool. It’s not possible to do so verifiably and reliably enough to justify the potential pitfalls with the implications when there’s a false positive. But a bunch of companies offering a subscription and a supposedly easy fix to people who don’t know how LLMs work won’t care about that.
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Comment on School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood in ~health.mental
tauon Link ParentI thought about this some more after my initial comment, and I think it’s a combination of “teens have always stayed up too late” and the ease of access to an entertainment device you’re not just...I thought about this some more after my initial comment, and I think it’s a combination of “teens have always stayed up too late” and the ease of access to an entertainment device you’re not just figuratively addicted to. Maybe this is similar/comparable to excessive pornography consumption in adults becoming more of an issue with increased internet adoption.
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Comment on School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood in ~health.mental
tauon (edited )Link ParentLate edit: see to the very bottom of this comment. Good point, I agree as a privacy-minded person that there need to be very careful approaches regarding legislation like this, and I hadn’t really...Late edit: see to the very bottom of this comment.
Good point, I agree as a privacy-minded person that there need to be very careful approaches regarding legislation like this, and I hadn’t really thought about it in my original comment. That said, it is technically very much possible, although not in the current state of most governments, to implement this well, i.e. privacy-respecting (see below).
I think in general most things regarding this issue ought to be possible to do, we just gotta get a bit creative with it. I will try, and please point out any flaws you (to any reader) see:
Requiring identity information
Government service which gives out a yes or no for being aged over 18 or not, and maybe one for 16/13 or wherever the other line gets drawn. No name, no ID number, sure as hell no image/video of the ID gets transmitted, uploaded, let alone stored anywhere.
extensive reporting infrastructure
Start by making it per-app, then. Or have the OS enforce it via some screen-time mechanism already in place (which in turn complicates it for kids with e.g. phone + tablet, meaning at some point some people smarter than me will have to come up with a better mechanism, which I’m sure is feasible.
apparatus that can also collect usage data, making it accessible to other companies and governments.
In an ideal world, the above age verification mechanism would be anonymous (to the providing authority) to use and verifiably doesn’t log which citizen used it where. I know that is unlikely, but if we want to make things better, we gotta start somewhere. Besides, I consider this effectively a thought experiment due to the likelihood of such legislation coming, so let’s treat it as a creative exercise…
Never mind, what constitutes "social media?"
(At least for the initial implementation phase) don’t get philosophical, use app store categories for this. Or screen time categories. Or start simple with an explicit set of like 4-5 obvious, clear-cut social platforms which don’t have messaging as the primary purpose. That’d already help. Since we’re not trying to implement aforementioned full ban, we don’t face all the same issues those lawmakers did/do.
The effects of reduced self-esteem, online bullying or other “algorithmic feed” effects on kids and teens are well-documented. I’ve said it on here before under different topics too, but it’s time to do something about it because it sure as hell cannot be left to a handful of tech companies to dictate the next generations’ addictions. This goes for the status quo on misinformation/fake news too, but I think that’s a related, yet separate can of worms.
Where there is a will, there is a way to do it (that also doesn’t completely suck). I just think there is no political will to begin with, at least as of today’s majority of people. Probably because most don’t even know about the issues, much less care a lot.
The aforementioned late edit;
I guess what I really wanted to bring across with my post, originally, wasn’t a discussion of the (important to discuss!) technicalities involved in setting a law like this up in a reasonable way, but rather: who would be against screen time limitations, if that were the only consideration in place and implementing it was easy, safe, and issue-free? And why? Since most of the argument since then has revolved around the “how,” I feel that the real issue – at least here – isn’t the thing this idea is actually about, but rather in what way to bring it into existence. Which is important nonetheless, but not what I meant with “who could argue against screen time limits being a thing.” -
Comment on School smartphone ban results in better sleep and improved mood in ~health.mental
tauon Link ParentWere there functional (read: non-bribable, efficient) lawmaking available to us, we wouldn’t have to rely on companies obviously not deciding against their own best interests. I’ve been meaning to...I would really like the platforms themselves to take some initiative here […], but we of course know that will never happen
Were there functional (read: non-bribable, efficient) lawmaking available to us, we wouldn’t have to rely on companies obviously not deciding against their own best interests.
I’ve been meaning to write my state, federal, and EU representatives about this for a while now. Maybe I can finally get around to doing it. Who can, in good faith, argue against a time limit, mandatorily enforced by social media platforms, of say six hours per day for teens? (Yes, that’s already way too long, but you gotta start somewhere.) It’s not like with the complete bans where there are legitimate arguments against it, like kids being excluded from their way of following the news and such.
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Comment on A manifesto against for-profit US health insurance companies — by Michael Moore in ~society
tauon (edited )Link ParentExcellent point about support staff on the “good” side fighting for approvals more than necessary, too. I genuinely tripped over this wording. Took me a while to articulate my idea, but after...Excellent point about support staff on the “good” side fighting for approvals more than necessary, too.
since their entire business model relies on denying care
I genuinely tripped over this wording. Took me a while to articulate my idea, but after reading all this coverage it’s kind of easy to forget a (health) insurer is actually not in the business of denying care elsewhere in the world (outside the US), but rather insuring.
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Comment on What are your predictions for 2025? in ~talk
tauon Link ParentQuestion is if it’ll matter to the base who caused it if he can’t fix it. It feels a bit like it could be a “reverse” of e.g. Biden’s immensely ambitious infrastructure investments going unnoticed.Question is if it’ll matter to the base who caused it if he can’t fix it. It feels a bit like it could be a “reverse” of e.g. Biden’s immensely ambitious infrastructure investments going unnoticed.
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Comment on Contempt culture and its currency in ~tech
tauon Link ParentYup. I wasn’t commenting on it being a sensible/“meaningful” thing to argue about… just a possible rebuttal for when some shmuck feels like attacking one’s career.Yup. I wasn’t commenting on it being a sensible/“meaningful” thing to argue about… just a possible rebuttal for when some shmuck feels like attacking one’s career.
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Comment on Contempt culture and its currency in ~tech
tauon Link ParentFor future reference: HTML together with CSS (and user interaction) is Turing-complete, which is a definition of “real” programming language this type of person will most likely have to accept as..."HTML isn't a real programming language."
For future reference: HTML together with CSS (and user interaction) is Turing-complete, which is a definition of “real” programming language this type of person will most likely have to accept as defeat. :P
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Comment on What are your predictions for 2025? in ~talk
tauon Link ParentIn this vain, I tend to agree. Maybe (wishful thinking incoming) there’ll even be weather-related disaster causing turmoil and a critical mass of people to realize that we needed to eliminate...The social climate feels like its at nearly an all time high for turmoil (maybe slightly less bad than it was in 2020)
In this vain, I tend to agree. Maybe (wishful thinking incoming) there’ll even be weather-related disaster causing turmoil and a critical mass of people to realize that we needed to eliminate climate change as a global threat to humanity like, 30 years ago.
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Comment on Sweden's government considering imposing age limits on social media platforms if tech companies find themselves unable to prevent gangs from recruiting young people online in ~tech
tauon LinkIt seems the issue is gang activity, not social media? And I say this as someone who normally wouldn’t be opposed to a total screen time limitation for everyone including the adult population, and...It seems the issue is gang activity, not social media?
And I say this as someone who normally wouldn’t be opposed to a total screen time limitation for everyone including the adult population, and other measures, with regard to social media.
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Comment on Kagi Small Web in ~tech
tauon (edited )Link ParentThank you for remaining level-headed! In the end, we’ll now both leave with hopefully a better understanding of each other’s idea, instead of turning this into a shouting contest, like it probably...Thank you for remaining level-headed! In the end, we’ll now both leave with hopefully a better understanding of each other’s idea, instead of turning this into a shouting contest, like it probably would have on other platforms…
I may have worded it poorly: by “whole line of argument” getting invalidated from that AI-as-optional-features knowledge, I meant just literally this one argument.
For example, I don’t agree with Kagi’s supposedly doomed financial future and irrational pricing scheme (it has seemed fairly stable and profitable for easily >half a year), but I do think the founder could, at times, be a little less “neutral at all costs” in his stances. And back when they’d first announced the introduction of sales tax/vat around a year ago, I also thought that was a bit strange (and sounded an awful lot like an excuse for them really just having neglected to collect it up until that point). I haven’t made up my mind yet regarding what to think about Kagi and privacy.
I see the same also happen when people have some investment in the thing that is being addressed.
Oh I’m absolutely biased – as a happy user – and not into trying to hide it. But it is good to hear out the other perspectives from time to time so as to not end up in a dream castle/bubble, so I appreciate you sharing that blog post in the first place.
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Comment on Kagi Small Web in ~tech
tauon Link ParentWow, I didn’t even know about that option, but it makes sense. This does confirm me in my take quite a bit, haha.Wow, I didn’t even know about that option, but it makes sense. This does confirm me in my take quite a bit, haha.
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Comment on What possession(s) do you have that continue to delight you every time? in ~talk
tauon Link ParentDefinitely thanks for the idea, I appreciate it and will look into those!Definitely thanks for the idea, I appreciate it and will look into those!
Thanks for the correction (and the chipset’s name :P). That’s impressive! And good to hear that Apple doesn’t have the sole competitive offering in that market segment. Admittedly, it’s been a fair while since I last checked in on that topic, and back then I recall reading about some performance complaints (in addition to the relative lack of software), although I couldn’t quantify that/set it in relation to happy users, of course.
Although, as someone who has ran an ARM-based Linux VPS for about a year now with little to no issues in that regard, I’d imagine the lack of software to be mostly confined to Desktop/GUI applications, and probably moreso still under Windows than Linux?