text_garden's recent activity
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Comment on Statement from Mozilla's new CEO in ~tech
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentI'm replying to you, as you can already tell. You said that you 'don't think it's ever really fair to tell people "this is why you shouldn't put all your data in the trust of apple" without a...Who are you writing this for?
I'm replying to you, as you can already tell. You said that you 'don't think it's ever really fair to tell people "this is why you shouldn't put all your data in the trust of apple" without a reasonable alternative to the question'. I responded to you both to argue that
- it is fair regardless of whether I can present reasonable alternatives
- that there are reasonable alternatives
- that the author if anyone should have known better than to trust Apple with their data
Each of these points stand on their own.
You’re not writing it for me or people like me
No, I'm not responding to "people like you", but to you specifically. I struggle to interpret this as anything but a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters and further misrepresent the argument that I've already stated clearly. Please stay on track: "who I am writing this for" is irrelevant to the content and validity of my argument.
I’m trying to put a modicum of reality checks in this conversation.
Reality check: you shouldn't put your data in the trust of Apple, because stuff like this can happen. This is fair, because it's evidently true. It's true regardless of whether I can present alternatives, and regardless of whether you agree that the alternatives I present are available or immediately obvious to "MOST PEOPLE". It doesn't somehow become less true because some users may not have considered the implications of trusting Apple with all their data. Consequently, it doesn't become less fair to say it.
Nevertheless, I have presented simple alternatives (i.e. maintaining local copies of your important documents and not using Apple for all of a bunch of services they provide for which there is no shortage of alternatives), none of which require you to become a "digital prepper" in any sense I can reasonably interpret that term. I further argue that the author's ignorance can't be excused by general incompetence.
What's difficult for a novice user, if anything, is to consider the possibility of being locked out at all. WIthout having considered that, there are few incentives to use alternatives to Apple's walled garden. With that in mind, it's not only fair to say that you shouldn't put all your data in the trust of Apple, but helpful and constructive.
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentNo, this misrepresentation of my argument, which doesn't mention photos at all. It's immaterial to my argument whether the data is photos or anything else. 6 TB of data is 6 TB of data, whatever...You and everyone else is responding to me like the guy actually just lost some photos. This is clearly not the case.
No, this misrepresentation of my argument, which doesn't mention photos at all. It's immaterial to my argument whether the data is photos or anything else. 6 TB of data is 6 TB of data, whatever its content and wherever you keep it. A 6 TB platter disk costs < $300.
Yeah it’s easy to back up photos and email once. It’s not TERRIBLY difficult to set up a cronjob to do it regularly (though you won’t know if that one stops working because some access token expired and you didn’t set up lifecycle alerts … oops my backups stopped three years ago guess I’m fucked).
You're overthinking it. Copying files is basic computer literacy. Doing it automatically is a minor convenience on top of that. Doing it using a globally accessible network service is another inconvenience on top of that. If for a lack of technical know-how you have to pick either access to "20 years of digital life" or slighly more convenient means of copying files, what is the wise choice?
But then you still don’t have access to your damn email address anymore do you?
Why not? I don't see how trying to redeem a gift card for buying music and software should render my email account inaccessible. Then again, my email provider is an email provider, not a massively integrated everything-service.
What about apple’s password manager?
Don't use it? Why should your phone manufacturer be your OS developer, your cloud backup provider, your email provider, your software store, your music store, your file sharing application, your software publisher, your authentication provider and the arbiter of whether you have access to your passwords?
It's an idiotic concept. Even children intuitively understand the wisdom of not putting all eggs in one basket, but otherwise sensible adults just sort of forget this when it comes to online services. I don't expect everyone to be wise, but I vehemently disagree that it's "unfair" to point out that it is unwise.
It’s not enough to set up a NAS, you generally want something you want to share. If you used iCloud for this, congrats all your share links are gone forever and it’s not like there’s any backup of those.
Seems like a minor inconvenience on top of having lost access to your data yourself. They key difference here is that if you still had access to your own data, you could find some other way to share it, with no shortage of alternatives. With all eggs in Apple's basket it is of course only Apple that can provide that service, leaving you at their mercy.
Doesn’t sound like you eh?
No, it doesn't sound like me. It doesn't sound like my 80 year old uncle either. Understanding that your cloud backup server is not an alternative to having local copies of your files, but a safety measure in addition to that, is not rocket science. It's not beyond the grasp of an average person.
Your idea that in order to have redundant copy of 20 years of your digital life, you need to be a "systems engineer", set up and maintain a NAS, cronjobs, self-host keepass etc. sounds more like a inclination on your end to tinker with stuff like that for the sake of long-term convenience. I give you that it's less convenient to mind your own business than to let someone else do it for you unless you are technically inclined. That's how Google and Apple get people to make such bad decisions. But if you value "20 years of digital life" and 6 TB of data, maybe that slight inconvenience is worth it.
Regardless, the author isn't some computer illiterate schmuck, but a computer scientist, software developer and technical writer. Their problem is clearly an unhealthy level of trust in an amoral megacorporation, not a lack of a technical proficiency. He calls himself "effectively an evangelist", and it boggles the mind that it would not occur to him after putting it in those words that this isn't a normal relationship to have with an entity which is realistically incapable of caring about his existence.
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Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentThe domain name is just a name. What you're describing is of course still fully centralized. So I don't see how it strikes a balance at all. Evidently, liability is also a problem whether you...I think the best solution is to pay for a Google Workspace account to use with your own domain, which is what i do. It gives a good balance between centralization and liability.
The domain name is just a name. What you're describing is of course still fully centralized. So I don't see how it strikes a balance at all. Evidently, liability is also a problem whether you manage your own data or let some corporation do it for you.
I don't think it's ever really fair to tell people "this is why you shouldn't put all your data in the trust of apple" without a reasonable alternative to the question: "I have terabytes of life data to manage. This is impossible to handle it all by myself. What service will help me with this without turning this in a whole Project?"
How is it not fair? It is what it is; you either do the "whole Project" of buying e.g. a big mechanical disk and simply storing copies of your most important documents there (i.e. stuff that only requires very basic computer literacy), or you give yourself conditional access to "20 years of digital life" at the whims of the cloud ecosystem of some amoral megacorporation you have naively trusted with your life.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden LinkWorked some more on my Rogue port for gaming handhelds, but not much. I'm restructuring it all so that you can evaluate a single turn by passing a player command to a function. The function may...Worked some more on my Rogue port for gaming handhelds, but not much. I'm restructuring it all so that you can evaluate a single turn by passing a player command to a function. The function may return a prompt for more input, in which case you call it again with the original command but with the required input data as well. This means that all the keyboard input function calls and internal input-feedback loops using e.g.
getcharneed to be removed.Most of that is actually done now, and I have my own main loop with commands bound to buttons. There are a few y/n confirmation prompts in the game that I need to deal with, but other than that the input functions are gone from the code.
I also removed quite a few commands. For example, in my version you can't rename items, nor can you quick-fight with
forF, The former because I think it's rather pointless given that the game auto-renames items as you discover what they do, and the latter because it's a convenience function that would be less convenient when such things would only be accessible through menus.I've also wrapped all the Curses terminal output functions so I can eventually implement my own subset of Curses tailored for the game. The device I'm targeting (R36S) has a 640x480 screen which should fit the entire game screen nicely, but it's rather small, so I'd like to implement zooming and scrolling.
Most of the stuff I add on top of the game are written in Zig, and the main loop is written in Zig now as well. I've used Zig-C interop before, but this is a nice battle test for me. The ergonomics of that setup so far is great. I also replaced the original Makefile with the Zig build system.
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Comment on November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion in ~games
text_garden Link ParentThanks for the shoutout and I'm glad you like Acid Web! You're right that the music is generated, using a template-based system that generates compositions, and a drum machine and synthesizer that...Thanks for the shoutout and I'm glad you like Acid Web!
You're right that the music is generated, using a template-based system that generates compositions, and a drum machine and synthesizer that plays it back. The sound effects are also all generated. The only thing I'm using recordings for are the individual drum hit samples.
It's quite subtle, especially with some of the built-in synths, but the spider's position on-screen controls the music synthesizer, so the slow modulations you hear are always due to your own movement.
I've been meaing to play NOLF. How are you playing it? Does it work fine on modern operating systems or would I need to patch it? I did enjoy Shogo back in the day, but that's about the only Lithtech shooter I've played outside the Blood 2 demo. I can recommend that if you like the campy mecha anime theme and don't mind a few frustratingly difficult sections (which I'm guessing you don't if you're still enjoying Acid Web :))
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Comment on Suggestions for uses of old computer hardware? in ~comp
text_garden LinkRun a copyparty-based NAS!Run a copyparty-based NAS!
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden Link ParentThanks! It's only side loading for now, but once development slows down a bit I will try to get Portmaster to accept it. I'll give it maybe one or two more weeks depending on feature requests and...Thanks! It's only side loading for now, but once development slows down a bit I will try to get Portmaster to accept it. I'll give it maybe one or two more weeks depending on feature requests and bug reports. The release package follows all Portmaster convention so it shouldn't be too much work.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden (edited )LinkI released an initial (fully functional) version of Pocket Acid, my software groovebox for cheap Chinese gaming handhelds (which I last mentioned here). It's all written in Zig and works nicely on...I released an initial (fully functional) version of Pocket Acid, my software groovebox for cheap Chinese gaming handhelds (which I last mentioned here). It's all written in Zig and works nicely on a range of aarch64 devices as well as PCs. There have been some requests for new features, so I've been working through those. Here's a demo and here's the GitHub repository. It seems a success in terms of response and I am happy with the functionality myself, but eventually I want it to support multiple workspaces.
Meanwhile I've also started on my next project: adapting the Rogue clone found in e.g. NetBSD for gamepads and small screens. For those not familiar with the original game, it's a sort of minimal, turn-based, text-graphics dungeon crawler. It's the game which roguelikes are like, if that means anything to you. Verb actions on the environment and inventory are all bound to keyboard keys, making it utterly unsuitable for gamepad control as is. For example, to eat a piece of food, you press 'e' followed by a letter corresponding to an inventory slot. So there's a bunch of stuff that needs to be changed.
The game uses Curses and imperatively presents options and prompts for keyboard input as it goes. Mostly for directions (e.g. when throwing something) or inventory items (like in the eating example above). I'm currently rewriting it so that there is a single
runCmdfunction which accpepts a single command like eat, quaff, wield, move, drop etc. and may or may not return a request for input. It will only perform the action when all prerequisite requests are fulfilled. That way I get a lot of flexibility in terms of how the presentation layer is used to produce commands and fulfill requests, and I can drive the main loop myself instead.The next step is to replace Curses with my own implementation based on a virtual text screen. Rogue only uses some small subset of the full Curses functionality so it shouldn't be too hard.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
text_garden LinkYouTube saw fit to recommend me a live recording of a performance of Frame By Frame by King Crimson, kindling my interest in their 80s stuff with Adrian Belew. So I've been listening a lot to...YouTube saw fit to recommend me a live recording of a performance of Frame By Frame by King Crimson, kindling my interest in their 80s stuff with Adrian Belew. So I've been listening a lot to Discipline and Beat the past few weeks.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
text_garden LinkI played through A Webbing Journey, a physics platformer/puzzler where you control a spider and work through a to-do list of tasks in whichever order you want. The puzzles are with a few...I played through A Webbing Journey, a physics platformer/puzzler where you control a spider and work through a to-do list of tasks in whichever order you want. The puzzles are with a few exceptions very open ended; you don't have to follow some arbitrary sequence of steps along the way towards the end goals but are given great freedom to come up with your own solutions using very satisfying movement and webbing mechanics.
It's in a pre-release state so not all levels have been finished. There are three rooms, in which I've spent 7.8 hours in total, and the developers are planning on implementing a fourth room. Highly recommended if any of that sounds interesting.
I also played Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor but it wasn't so much for me. The environments are very drab looking, the premise just not very interesting to me, all that collect/upgrade cruft on top never interest me and the combat feels disconnected from player actions. I will not say too much, because I don't think I've gotten very far into the game.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed En Garde! which I think is mechanically quite similar to Shadow of Mordor in terms of combat. Despite that, combat felt much more interactive and also quite challenging. The same basic principles apply: you press buttons to block, dodge or attack in response to very clearly telegraphed enemy actions, but enemies don't wait for their turn so obviously and will easily overwhelm you if you let too many get close, so you have to come up with ways to separate them. To that end, the environment is filled with props that can be used to stun, confuse or hurt enemies, and you rely on moving around between these to fight well. The result is very slapsticky, like Zorro tuned to 11.
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Comment on Microsoft is adding AI facial recognition to OneDrive and users can only turn it off three times a year in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentIt seems dubious that you would be shocked by Apple merely following the same continuing trend it has for the ~25 years OS X has existed. They took a workstation OS (NextStep) and for all the...It seems dubious that you would be shocked by Apple merely following the same continuing trend it has for the ~25 years OS X has existed. They took a workstation OS (NextStep) and for all the cruft they added to make it more palatable to general consumers they've never made it not a workstation OS. It's always been a thing for power users as much as anyone else.
I'm not a fan of OS X for a variety of reasons but it seems clear to me that Apple has nothing to gain from alienating a significant niche it's found among e.g. software developers.
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Comment on What makes a game, a game? in ~games
text_garden LinkI think the language in the survey is sometimes too specific and sometimes too broad to support my view. In my view, a game is participatory entertainment based on activity around an artificial...I think the language in the survey is sometimes too specific and sometimes too broad to support my view.
In my view, a game is participatory entertainment based on activity around an artificial premise. Participatory in the sense that you create the entertainment for yourself by participating in the activity, not merely as a bystander. Artificial in that the premise is something you have created or made up for the purpose of that entertainment, not simply a matter of fact that exists regardless.
The premise isn't necessarily a set of rules. It can be supported by rules, but I think many activities which qualify as games don't really have or aren't primarily based on rules. For examples, kids playing cops and robbers.
To elaborate on the idea of an artificial premise, "I have to jump over a hole to get past it" is a suitable premise for a game if there is no hole. Also if there is a hole, but you don't have to jump to get past it". Also if there is a hole, you'd have to jump to get past it, but don't actually have to get past it. On the other hand, if there actually is a hole, you actually have to get past it and you actually have to jump over it to do that, it's not an artificial premise and jumping over the hole is not a game. I use "have to" very loosely here for any incentive other than immediate, personal entertainment.
I guess the most controversial aspects of this definition is that almost all kinds of child's play are games and that professional sports aren't necessarily.
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Comment on Paid e-mail providers - your experiences, how you use them and how I would use it in ~tech
text_garden LinkI use the €3.00 plan on https://mailbox.org It's cheap, it's German, it works with IMAP/SMTP, they have a guide on how to set it and your domain records up.I use the €3.00 plan on https://mailbox.org
It's cheap, it's German, it works with IMAP/SMTP, they have a guide on how to set it and your domain records up.
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Comment on Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of November 2 in ~games
text_garden LinkI picked up two older games yestarday, for <2€ each, that can both be played using modern, cross-platform ports: Arx Fatalis, which can be played using Arx Libertatis. It's an immersive, first...I picked up two older games yestarday, for <2€ each, that can both be played using modern, cross-platform ports:
- Arx Fatalis, which can be played using Arx Libertatis. It's an immersive, first person action RPG set in an underground city of a dying world. Based on first impressions it wears its inspiration from the Ultima Underworld series on its sleeve.
- X-COM: UFO Defense, which can be played using OpenXcom. This is a turn-based tactics game that you have probably already heard of if that genre interests you. Widely recognized as a classic, and I look forward to playing it more.
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Comment on Project N - a fork Daggerfall Unity seeking to add all of Tamriel in to the Daggerfall engine in ~games
text_garden Link ParentI think the manual might have implied that you could walk between cities in Arena, but what actually happens if you leave a city and walk for long enough is that the surrounding countryside wraps...I think the manual might have implied that you could walk between cities in Arena, but what actually happens if you leave a city and walk for long enough is that the surrounding countryside wraps around and repeats over and over again. I'm guessing the designers were hoping that hiking players would give up before they noticed.
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Comment on Project N - a fork Daggerfall Unity seeking to add all of Tamriel in to the Daggerfall engine in ~games
text_garden LinkInteresting project, although a lack of land to explore isn't exactly among my chief criticisms of the original game. My main gripe with it is rather that it doesn't use its size very effectively....Interesting project, although a lack of land to explore isn't exactly among my chief criticisms of the original game. My main gripe with it is rather that it doesn't use its size very effectively. I can travel hundreds of kilometers in it, but the ways in which it makes a difference are either very obscure, subtle or skin deep.
That said, I still like that it doesn't shy away from its scale. Towns in later games in the series feel like wild west movie prop towns by comparison: very game-like and oriented towards advancing the various narratives of the game. In Daggerfall they feel more realistic in a way: massive population living in hundreds of houses, most of which are absolutely uninteresting to you because not every NPC and location in the game is there to serve as the subject of some questline. It's just that the quest and dialogue systems don't quite support that level of ambition. NPCs give canned/template responses to every question, the quests are all from a handful of "go to x, get y and bring it to z" type templates. Everything is the same.
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Comment on Wikipedia:Signs of AI writing in ~tech
text_garden LinkIt seems practical that many of the signs of AI writing are also just bad writing, poor communication, non-NPOV, speculation, misattributed statements and so on. Almost all of the examples are...It seems practical that many of the signs of AI writing are also just bad writing, poor communication, non-NPOV, speculation, misattributed statements and so on. Almost all of the examples are already frowned upon on Wikipedia for other reasons.
Having used large language models I also doubt that we're in a "well, that's just the LLM generated text you notice" type situation where there is a significant amount of it without glaring red flags. ChatGPT for example seems utterly incapable of some of the qualities that Wikipedia demand, like not attributing its own speculation to sources that may or may not exist. People are bad at this, too, but not as consistently bad as ChatGPT.
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Comment on Scripts I wrote that I use all the time in ~comp
text_garden LinkGood article, and good thread to keep an eye on! I use the following oneliner to open a document of notes for the day: #!/bin/bash exec $EDITOR $HOME/docs/notes/$(date --iso-8601).txt I'll warn...Good article, and good thread to keep an eye on!
I use the following oneliner to open a document of notes for the day:
#!/bin/bash exec $EDITOR $HOME/docs/notes/$(date --iso-8601).txtI'll warn that it's for GNU date and I don't know that *BSD or busybox implement
--iso-8601.I use this to browse and search my music library with fzf and play back albums using audacious:
#!/bin/bash cd $HOME/storage/musik/shared case "$1" in "") exec fzf --walker=dir --bind "enter:execute($0 play {})" ;; play) audacious "$2" & disown ;; esacThe library is organized in an <artist name>/<album name> hierarchy, and I tend to listen to music in units of albums. Consequently I don't use the library features of audacious.
I also use the following script to synchronize the music library to VLC on my phone (an Iphone) using ifuse and rsync:
#!/bin/bash set -e mkdir ~/iphone-syncmusic trap "rmdir ~/iphone-syncmusic" EXIT idevicepair pair ifuse --documents "org.videolan.vlc-ios" ~/iphone-syncmusic rsync -Lrvu --progress --delete ~/storage/musik/shared/ ~/iphone-syncmusic/shared/ umount ~/iphone-syncmusic -
Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
text_garden Link ParentI challenge you to eat the sea like a soup! Most people can't stomach it; the sea is not food and is generally not edible at all. Even if the ocean had a soup-like quality, that should not extend...I challenge you to eat the sea like a soup! Most people can't stomach it; the sea is not food and is generally not edible at all.
Even if the ocean had a soup-like quality, that should not extend to the things you take out of it, and the arthropods within are only considered food once you take them out of and wash off the "broth" of the sea and turn them into non-soup.
If it were the case that crustaceans are edible because they were once of a soup that is the sea, the non-hypocritical arthropod connoisseur should accept tarantulas and king crickets once they've been sufficiently soaked in ocean water.
vs.
So will it evolve into an "AI browser" or will it in fact remain a web browser where AI features are inconsequential to its primary function and can easily be turned off?
Sounds like another set of additions to the growing multitude of settings I have to adjust when I choose to install Firefox on a new system. Will be looking at Waterfox or Librewolf henceforth.
My tip for anyone else too curious not to read the article is to mentally replace "AI" with "smurf".