tauon's recent activity
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Comment on Should I stop using Kagi because they do business with Yandex? in ~tech
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Comment on Undersea telecom cable between Lithuania and Sweden damaged in ~tech
tauon Link ParentYes, I believe you are right and both sentiments are accurate; I forgot to mention this in my comment. Link to the discussion for those who missed it.I think it's more likely a reaction to the current administration allowing the use of US weapons within Russia.
Yes, I believe you are right and both sentiments are accurate; I forgot to mention this in my comment. Link to the discussion for those who missed it.
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Comment on Undersea telecom cable between Lithuania and Sweden damaged in ~tech
tauon (edited )LinkThis comes the same day as reports about the undersea cable between Finland and Germany having been severed (original article in Finnish, English here) just a couple of hours later, apparently...This comes the same day as reports about the undersea cable between Finland and Germany having been severed (original article in Finnish, English here) just a couple of hours
priorlater, apparently fully as communication links are down.And just a week ago, we had "Russia Issues Ominous Warning About Undersea Internet Cables".
There is also this, ahem, incident from a few days ago: Russian spy ship escorted away from area with critical cables in Irish Sea.
Call me conspiratoric, but I’m starting to see a pattern. Also, these occurrences (I’m not calling them attacks just yet) come suspiciously timed after a certain figure with the intention of withdrawing Ukraine support was elected the next US president.
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Undersea telecom cable between Lithuania and Sweden damaged
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Comment on United States Department of Justice will push Google to sell Chrome to break search monopoly in ~tech
tauon Link ParentLet me preface this by saying I’ve been “de-googled” for a couple of years now (hope this is okay to hear, looking at your background :p). I do keep an installation of de-googled base Chromium,...Let me preface this by saying I’ve been “de-googled” for a couple of years now (hope this is okay to hear, looking at your background :p). I do keep an installation of de-googled base Chromium, though I rarely need to use it.
From that lens, I’ll list the following:
- Websites tell me to install Chrome.
- Websites do not work properly in Safari and crucially, not even Firefox.
- Chrome cannot do things I would like to do (e.g. limit profiling) – and even if it allows for it or at least exposes the controls, I have browsers which will block much more third- and first-party tracking, spam, and other noise by default, which is what I would want to have installed for elderly relatives. Safe browsing with little upkeep or maintenance.
- Google admitting to having and/or desiring to have a (near-)monopoly with Chrome by telling me in a specific ad that “websites will work better with chrome” (This is more of a personal grudge, but still, wtf?)
- Not a problem per se, but concerns of a monopoly wrt web standards and who gets to decide what should and shouldn’t be part of them. Having honest, open discussions that are not solely guided by one firm’s short-, medium-, and long-term profit incentives is probably a good idea.
- Lastly, and I might shoot myself and my previous arguments in the foot here, but controversially, I don’t actually believe the forced breakup of Chrome from Google will do
anythingmuch to help. I believe it was in a recent-ish discussion on Kagi that first brought up this idea of “you need to break up the core of what makes the monopoly, not a symptom (or multiple) of it” – in our case, that would mean the much more difficult task (on both the technical and business level) of breaking up Search, which I’d wager even the numbers would likely confirm to be the “bigger” monopoly (in terms of market share).
Edit: it seems the aforementioned discussion was actually based on a blog post from Kagi which first introduced this idea, at least as far as I’m aware. So we should probably take that “thought experiment” with a grain of salt and consider alternative scenarios and outcomes first. But then again, luckily for us, we are not the regulators involved in having to decide this… and also, given the duration and extensiveness of these investigations, it might be a bit too late to pivot now.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
tauon LinkTwo days or so ago I finished reading my first novel in like, forever. It was Andreas Eschbach’s latest thriller Die Abschaffung des Todes, which approximately translates to “the abolition of...Two days or so ago I finished reading my first novel in like, forever. It was Andreas Eschbach’s latest thriller Die Abschaffung des Todes, which approximately translates to “the abolition of death”, although be warned, it’s relatively recent – I don’t think it has been translated into other languages from the German original yet. Publisher link.
For the presumed majority who don’t know the author; Eschbach often writes these sort of “realistic/believable science-fiction” novels, of which I’ve already enjoyed a few in the past, so when I saw this title and recognized his name above it in the bookstore, I picked it up right away.
Without giving away too much, there were interesting concepts brought up (as usual), as well as clear and obvious references to real-life events and companies (though given different names) and some meta-level fun about being an author, publishing contracts, etc.
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Comment on AirPods or not? in ~music
tauon Link ParentI have Loops (though not sure if this specific model, I pretty much never interacted with the brand/company again after my happy purchase. Although after this comment, I’m probably going to put a...I have Loops (though not sure if this specific model, I pretty much never interacted with the brand/company again after my happy purchase. Although after this comment, I’m probably going to put a backup/replacement pair on my shopping list :P).
They are really amazing for concerts, especially front-row goers. I keep them with me in a jacket pocket or bag somewhere basically all the time just as a backup for loud situations, which is feasible since even with case, their footprint is sufficiently negligible for nearly all types of pockets or other containers. That said, in everyday life… they don’t play music or other audio. On the flip side, I haven’t tried AirPods’ noise cancellation at a concert yet either, so I don’t really have a direct comparison. I more tend to use each for distinct activities, if that makes sense. But overall yeah it’s safe to say, both are great products in the noise suppression department.
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Comment on Waymo’s robotaxis are now available to everyone in Los Angeles in ~transport
tauon Link ParentUnless you’re listening to Elon Musk intending to replace trains with his cars.it’s definitely not vapor ware at this point.
Unless you’re listening to Elon Musk intending to replace trains with his cars.
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Comment on The Browser Company announces Arc Browser will no longer be their flagship product in ~tech
tauon Link ParentThis is something I almost touched on in my comment as well, and I agree. If for example OpenAI had to offer e.g. GPT models at-cost instead of operating at their current loss, they’d be in huge...I would also guess that currently that price is set too low, since the LLM industry is heavily subsidized by investors, hiding the actual costs.
This is something I almost touched on in my comment as well, and I agree. If for example OpenAI had to offer e.g. GPT models at-cost instead of operating at their current loss, they’d be in huge trouble (moreso than they are already).
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Comment on The Browser Company announces Arc Browser will no longer be their flagship product in ~tech
tauon (edited )Link ParentThe founder of Kagi, the search engine, has previously stated that LLM features cost them approximately 1/10th of a web query, which really surprised me. While I knew searches need quite a bit of...Running queries (called inference) is significantly cheaper than training the models. It's still not free, but then again neither are things like Google searches either.
The founder of Kagi, the search engine, has previously stated that LLM features cost them approximately 1/10th of a web query, which really surprised me.
While I knew searches need quite a bit of energy in comparison to people taking them as granted for free/not thinking about it, still, I would’ve expected for LLMs to be much more costly on average.
Also, I’m not sure whether this holds true across the industry or just for them.
Edit: grammar/typo
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Comment on ADHD and TODO lists in ~health.mental
tauon (edited )Link ParentYour concept in helpful app form (I believe iOS-only, sorry folks): TwodosYour concept in helpful app form (I believe iOS-only, sorry folks): Twodos
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Comment on Kagi Translate in ~tech
tauon (edited )Link ParentAs one of the mentioned, ahem, dedicated types who (very occasionally) “hangs out” in their Discord – Vlad has mentioned in the past that they have a more or less neutral stance towards AI...I must say, I use the Quick Answer feature a lot. I find it super handy for a lot of things. But yeah, they are definitely leaning into AI.
As one of the mentioned, ahem, dedicated types who (very occasionally) “hangs out” in their Discord – Vlad has mentioned in the past that they have a more or less neutral stance towards AI features/LLMs specifically; but it’s (a subset of) the users requesting them. They need this stuff implemented to be unique, or at the minimum competitive, in the search business. Since the “AI” portion of features can pretty much all be ignored without effort or downside and aren’t really shoved in your faces anywhere in the core product, I don’t mind that logic, in fact, I think it’s a pretty reasonable approach.
I had some interactions with Vlad and the team in the early days exactly about their privacy statements, and gdpr, and was met with much the same response, and it took the (perceived, to me) slide in ddg results quality over 18 months or so for me to decide to give them a try.
That said, it does feel like they’re throwing a lot of experimental features at the eager user wall to see and figure out what might stick. But: I don’t think that’s a bad thing! Their business model will never scale as much as e.g. Google’s, since the overwhelming majority of people will never become paying users. So why not try to capture them with a browser/summarizer/translation/email/whatever other feature offered and try to convert and or upgrade from there? Hell, that’s my story too, and I was convinced and ready to subscribe before using up the 100 free searches you get.
I have been happy enough with the results, which I guess is /fine/. And as I say, I find Quick Answer useful. Didn't even know about the other services offered and proposed.
Thinking about it for a bit, I think I stay subscribed because of the “clean” results. No SEO spam, surprisingly few LLM slop “articles” and help pages/fake guides, and no ads. Zero. Not a single sponsored search result, no flashy unrelated product imagery, just peace of mind when browsing.
I've kind of always had a spidey sense tingle about Kagi, but never could put my finger on it, but that blog post nails it.
Opposite for me (and to be clear, that’s completely fine!). Kagi actually became a Public Benefit Corporation recently. If it weren’t for that, I could see how superficially you could get the “tech bro” impression from them. But to me, this sealed the deal. Zero marketing expenses/only word-of-mouth growth and a nice product and all these additional features are cool, sure, but what tech company in this day and age actually dedicates themselves to a goal that’s not “grab as much VC cash as you can, then burn all users” (or their experience)?
Oh, and their T Shirts are poor quality.
Opposite experience for me. :-)
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Comment on Mindless games, preferably mobile in ~games
tauon LinkOh boy, this post reminded me of two games I had installed probably a decade ago… and somehow, after just checking, they’re still available for me right now (iOS App Store)! Need for Speed – Most...Oh boy, this post reminded me of two games I had installed probably a decade ago… and somehow, after just checking, they’re still available for me right now (iOS App Store)!
- Need for Speed – Most Wanted
- Where is my Water? which apparently also has a successor, though I don’t think I know much about that one.
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Comment on German government coalition collapses as Olaf Scholz sacks Finance Minister Christian Lindner in ~society
tauon Link ParentAh yes, thank you. I knew there was a site like this but it’s been too long to remember, plus I wasn’t sure if maybe they weren’t around anymore due to some Elon games…Ah yes, thank you. I knew there was a site like this but it’s been too long to remember, plus I wasn’t sure if maybe they weren’t around anymore due to some Elon games…
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Comment on Thoughts on a Democratic postmortem in ~society
tauon Link Parent… And the conclusive answer as to why Harris could not win the swing states probably doesn’t exist, right?… And the conclusive answer as to why Harris could not win the swing states probably doesn’t exist, right?
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Comment on Thoughts on a Democratic postmortem in ~society
tauon (edited )Link ParentThis perspective is completely new to me (as someone not American), and to be frank, still quite infuriating. Even if the outcome wouldn’t have been changed due to where those votes went missing,...This perspective is completely new to me (as someone not American), and to be frank, still quite infuriating.
Even if the outcome wouldn’t have been changed due to where those votes went missing, it’s kind of depressing to think voters in so many states just don’t “matter” for this (outside of more local elections, that is).
Thanks for bringing this point up, though!
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Comment on German government coalition collapses as Olaf Scholz sacks Finance Minister Christian Lindner in ~society
tauon Link ParentA friend sent me this (caution, dead bird site link): (a headline screenshot from December 2021) The quoted tweet is a news story about a state CDU leader having met with someone in AfD leadership...they’ll cave and cooperate with the AfD
A friend sent me this (caution, dead bird site link):
CDU party leader: Whoever cooperates with AfD is thrown out of our party
(a headline screenshot from December 2021)
The quoted tweet is a news story about a state CDU leader having met with someone in AfD leadership for presumably the first time ever…
I also do not like this direction at all, but maybe we have time to swing opinions around. The idea that the party of ≈20 years of no progress is now supposedly the savior for everything (as well as far-right extremists being part of government) needs to die.
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Comment on What is happening outside the US? in ~talk
tauon Link ParentThe idea of (an early) general election was just brought to the table in Germany. Our (non-right wing) coalition seems to have failed. Unfortunate. Edit: Not sure how I saw this topic before the...The idea of (an early) general election was just brought to the table in Germany. Our (non-right wing) coalition seems to have failed. Unfortunate.
Edit: Not sure how I saw this topic before the appropriate Tildes post.
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Comment on California EV maker Aptera unveils solar car with 64 km of daily, charge-free range in ~transport
tauon Link ParentLet me counter-assume anyone getting this intends on leaving it parked under the sky.(assuming covered parking)
Let me counter-assume anyone getting this intends on leaving it parked under the sky.
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Comment on I think it's time to give a "news detox" a try in ~talk
tauon Link ParentPractical question: How do you know who you want to vote for? Where I live, there’s these as-neutral-as-possible quizzes (in German) that just ask for one’s opinion on a bunch of matters to help...Practical question: How do you know who you want to vote for?
Where I live, there’s these as-neutral-as-possible quizzes (in German) that just ask for one’s opinion on a bunch of matters to help you decide, but to be honest, you’d still need some background information for it to make the most sense.
Also unrelated to the post topic, but I agree with Discord being so far removed from the best platform for this; in Kagi’s case, for actual feedback, bug reports, etc., they’ve built their own fully independent platforms which are really well made and easy to use. And, crucially, browsing doesn’t need an account and search is actually useful.
Furthermore, the “official” news always gets posted to their own website as well, so while you’re definitely not getting to know everything, at least their “Q&A ecosystem” is usable fairly well.
But in general… yeah, most small- to medium-sized companies and a lot of OSS projects unfortunately don’t bother when supposedly free hosting & infrastructure is right there. Either it’s Discord or straight up no public “forum” functionality at all.