ThrowdoBaggins's recent activity
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Comment on My take on Apple's Liquid Glass in ~tech
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Comment on Dark patterns killed my wife's Windows 11 installation in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI could be wrong, but I suspect your experience as an IT person using windows in a professional environment is substantially different to anyone who is using the most basic or cheapest version of...I could be wrong, but I suspect your experience as an IT person using windows in a professional environment is substantially different to anyone who is using the most basic or cheapest version of windows available.
I haven’t looked into Windows 11 much because I was immediately turned off by early reports of embedded advertising and Recall, but I remember when I was researching for Windows 10, it was clear to me that even though I could have claimed a “free upgrade” from windows 7, that it was a much better idea for me to buy a proper full windows 10 licence, in order to access the features I wanted (and to be honest, most of the “features I wanted” were to “be able to uninstall Internet Explorer and Cortana and loads of other bloat that I hated”)
Again, I’m not a windows expert my any means, but given their history of reinstalling stuff and changing my settings with an update which never mentions what the update changes (or better yet, just taking you to a “knowledge base” page that enumerates every single change in order to be overwhelming to the general user, so that I don’t spot that it’s reinstalling something I deliberately removed previously), I am not surprised at all by any of the individual claims of this article. Which, even if the specifics of this article are fabricated, the fact that it’s believable is still an indictment on the state of windows and its updates.
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Comment on Are touchscreens in cars dangerous? in ~transport
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI recently came across a reaction channel on YouTube which was doing a series on “traffic safety ads” and while some of them were quaint “hey kids, remember to look both ways before crossing the...I recently came across a reaction channel on YouTube which was doing a series on “traffic safety ads” and while some of them were quaint “hey kids, remember to look both ways before crossing the road” from the 60s and 70s, there were also some incredibly potent, devastating, emotional ones in the mix which might help visualise some of the risks of distracted driving.
I don’t know if there are any recent enough to show the dangers of built-in touchscreens, but in general if you look for ads from the UK, Australia, and New Zealand; they tend to not hold back when it comes to showing you the possible consequences without necessarily being gory.
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Comment on Dark patterns killed my wife's Windows 11 installation in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentAs someone who is not quite a power-user but definitely competent, I’d like to push back against this worry, mostly because for me, having these skills (to troubleshoot and problem-solve just...I guess I'll just say, it seems really dangerous in this day and age to build products that keep the users so far removed from any understanding of how they function when the entire world increasingly relies on those products.
As someone who is not quite a power-user but definitely competent, I’d like to push back against this worry, mostly because for me, having these skills (to troubleshoot and problem-solve just about anything that I come across) is rendered immediately useless by the fact that my corporate laptop is significantly locked down.
What is the point of knowing exactly how to describe an issue, to find solutions on the internet, to be comfortable with simple registry edits and maybe copy-paste a command line or two; when said solutions are a complete non-starter for my work laptop, because it’s got so many added guardrails to prevent me from taking anything but the most basic steps?
I think the whole world has gone in that direction, and I think risk-averse corporate IT teams have moved in tandem with user-hostile tech companies in the push towards locking down devices to “save users from themselves”. So I’m no longer convinced that it’s an important skill for the everyday person to have, in the everyday environments that they operate in.
(Edited to add final thoughts:)
I hate to admit it, but I think kids arriving at college who don’t know what a filesystem is, are actually perfectly adapted to the future work environment, and I’ll be the old man yelling at clouds in a few decades when “things used to just behave themselves when I knew how they worked” — I suspect in much the same way that people who love tinkering with cars today will lament electric cars becoming commonplace.
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Comment on Dark patterns killed my wife's Windows 11 installation in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI feel like this describes how I gained my computer expertise as a kid — we always had a family computer growing up, but I got my very own laptop when I was in high school, and I think I had...But now I wonder how badly someone just tech savvy and bold enough to try with zero understanding could mess with a computer...
I feel like this describes how I gained my computer expertise as a kid — we always had a family computer growing up, but I got my very own laptop when I was in high school, and I think I had broken something or other and needed to completely reformat and reinstall MacOSX from the installation CDs at least three times within the first year of having it (and less often but still happened occasionally for the many years that I had that laptop).
As long as nothing on the computer is precious, I think it’s fine. It taught me a lot about what breaks a computer and also how easy it is to reinstall the OS, both of which are valuable skills even though I’ve never had a tech job.
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Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI can’t remember where I came across it, but I believe if you dig deep into settings you might be able to create custom vibration patterns — so maybe you could encode the Morse code into the...I can’t remember where I came across it, but I believe if you dig deep into settings you might be able to create custom vibration patterns — so maybe you could encode the Morse code into the vibrate pattern instead of beeps, and that way you can keep the phone as silent as you want it?
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Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentWhen I switched from an iPhone with the home button to this new one without the home button, I found it so difficult to go back to the home page or to switch between apps in landscape mode, so...I also have a double tap for the tapback to go to the home screen. I don't use it a lot, but it has come in handy
When I switched from an iPhone with the home button to this new one without the home button, I found it so difficult to go back to the home page or to switch between apps in landscape mode, so I’ve ended up binding the “action button” to go to the Home Screen (via the world’s simplest shortcut, because it’s not one of the default options)
I have backtaps set to double-tap to go greyscale, and triple-tap to invert colours. I’ve also set an automated shortcut to put the phone into greyscale mode during my “bedtime” because it makes things just a little less attractive to pick up my phone when I should be sleeping. And the triple tap invert colours is mostly for effectively on-demand dark mode for apps/websites that don’t support it on my terms.
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Comment on Your phone already has social credit. We just lie about it. in ~finance
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThere’s been some drama recently about the incredibly chilling effects and direct action that video game developers have been hit by recently, including and up to being removed from large online...There’s been some drama recently about the incredibly chilling effects and direct action that video game developers have been hit by recently, including and up to being removed from large online game stores (such as itch and Steam).
As best I understand it, Steam and Itch have taken these actions not because of specific games being shown to break specific laws, but rather because payment processors have given vague statements about inappropriate themes. As attention was drawn to it, rather than provide any specific examples of games which break any laws, the payment processors hid behind vague rhetoric of illegal content in games in general. When the games platforms directly reached out to the payment processors with the intention of working with them for games which had been identified, the payment processors declined to work with them.
Out of fear of losing all access to payment processors entirely, Steam and Itch hid or deleted large swathes of porn themed games even when there was no direct evidence of direct lawbreaking, because neither platform has the kind of legal or moderation teams to undertake a review/audit of every single game on their platform at once.
As is often the case with this kind of broad, sweeping action, there were non-sexual LGBT-themed games which got caught up in things too, but I believe many of these have since been reviewed and restored.
And all this began not because of any criminal proceedings, or the outcome of an audit or anything, but rather because a vocal group from Australia intentionally put pressure on these payment providers because they don’t like sex in games. I believe the group is religiously associated, possibly Christian-based? And they have a history of attempting this kind of pressure with the intention of removing all sex media by hiding behind arguments of legal liability and criminal content, and usually in general terms, rarely identifying any specific media or relevant laws as they launch their campaigns.
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Comment on iPhone 17, 17 Pro and Air announced in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins LinkIn March/April this year, I was on the fence about buying a new phone. My previous phone was holding up fine, so it wasn’t urgent, and I was tossing up between getting the 16 Pro Max or holding...In March/April this year, I was on the fence about buying a new phone. My previous phone was holding up fine, so it wasn’t urgent, and I was tossing up between getting the 16 Pro Max or holding off until the 17 was announced.
Ultimately I decided to go for the 16 mostly because I wanted nicer cameras before heading to a festival, so I could take lots of photos while I was there. I was even considering getting the 16 and then upgrading to the 17 as soon as it came out, since I know there’s a trade-in/upgrade program if your phone is still in good condition.
Seeing the hideous 17 Pro Max I am so glad I jumped on the 16, and I will not be considering upgrading until the phones look half decent again. I could even forgive their lack of black/grey option if it was basically a single colour all over, but that horrible two-tone back panel and the mismatched colours around the raised section are so ugly to me.
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Comment on iPhone 17, 17 Pro and Air announced in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI’m in the same boat. Earlier this year I finally took the gamble of going with the biggest phone that Apple sells, from the smallest (iPhone SE -> iPhone 16 pro max) and I agree with all of your...Never had a problem with that on my 5" phone. And I did the majority of my reading on public transit on that screen. But I have 20/20 vision and a steady hand...
I’m in the same boat. Earlier this year I finally took the gamble of going with the biggest phone that Apple sells, from the smallest (iPhone SE -> iPhone 16 pro max) and I agree with all of your points. It’s not big enough to run two apps, and even if realistically it could based on pixel density, too many UI decisions these days just try to add too much blank space around everything anyway.
I have great eyesight, so when I switched I did notice that the new phone was not only physically bigger, but also decently higher pixel density (going from 326 ppi to 460 ppi if the stats pages are correct) and honestly if I could have got an iPhone with the higher pixel density and tiny bezels on the older form factor, I might have been tempted to stick with the smaller one.
For now, I think I’ll continue this experiment to see if the larger size that requires two hands to type will ever feel as effortlessly natural as the smaller size, or if I eventually ditch it and go back to whatever the smallest option is. That said, the extra fancy cameras are pretty nice…
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Comment on Looking for some video game suggestions based off some specific parameters in ~games
ThrowdoBaggins LinkI’d like to recommend Mount & Blade and Banished Mount & Blade is kinda difficult to describe. It’s in a medieval setting, you pick your starting character like an RPG but then after the tutorial...I’d like to recommend Mount & Blade and Banished
Mount & Blade is kinda difficult to describe. It’s in a medieval setting, you pick your starting character like an RPG but then after the tutorial “quests”, you can completely ignore the quests, story, exploration, and while there are no “unlocks” there are shops which sell higher stat weapons/armour/horses for exponentially more money, so you can’t access the best of the best right from the get go. You can visit small villages and recruit the peasants to your army, and as they get more experience in fighting, you can sorta “level them up” by buying them better equipment and gear (or rather, paying some gold to instantly upgrade them, and they will magically have the new better gear straight away)
It has my favourite combat system ever — slightly physics-based combat, where you swing your weapon and it has to actually collide with the target to deal damage, and if you have much faster or slower relative velocity then you deal more or less damage. Think shooting an arrow at a horseback rider — if they’re moving towards you, the relative speed is much higher, and if they’re riding away from you, the relative speed is much lower.
Banished is also medieval setting, but it’s much closer to a city builder. There are no “unlocks” (that is, you can build any and all buildings right from the start as long as you can collect the resources) but there is progression — it’s much easier to collect enough wood for a wooden house than it is to collect enough stone for a stone house. However, the stone house consumes much less firewood per winter than the wooden house. You have a handful of villagers to start with, and you can build specific buildings and assign the villagers those jobs.
The game is pretty difficult because it doesn’t hold your hand with the simulation — I’ve had my village wiped out because I didn’t build enough houses early on (children will not pair up and make new villagers if they’re still living at home with parents) or because I made too many houses early on and couldn’t produce enough food in the middle of a population boom. I’ve had a tornado rip through the village, and I’ve had nomads join the village only to spread a pox across the whole town. I’ve had my townsfolk freeze to death because the distance between their workplace and their home was too great and they couldn’t warm themselves in winter. I’ve had large successful towns spiral into decay because we didn’t have enough iron to make quality tools and the entire township’s productivity suffered and our food collapsed, or our farm animals were diseased, or the fields and orchards were hit with blight, or the local blacksmith caught fire and I didn’t build a water well close enough. And after all this, I still love it, probably because it’s so unforgiving.
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Comment on Don’t like joining in? Why it could be your superpower. in ~life
ThrowdoBaggins Link Parent“When a measure becomes a target, it ceased to be a useful measure” (Oh god I just realised this is entirely how the tech industry works — every measure must become a target always and forever!)...While it helps get conversation styles going, I feel like the moment you start relying too heavily on it, the navel gazing begins.
“When a measure becomes a target, it ceased to be a useful measure”
(Oh god I just realised this is entirely how the tech industry works — every measure must become a target always and forever!)
If you’re using these things to get an idea of how to better relate to people, that’s useful and good. But as soon as it turns into “well if you’re not XYZ then we won’t hire you” then it immediately stops being useful in any way.
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Comment on What is a business/org that's so terrible no one should use if possible? in ~life
ThrowdoBaggins LinkOptus is a telecommunications provider in Australia. They’ve fucked up a number of times in recent years, but there’s one in particular that stands out in my mind. Many years ago, I was with...Optus is a telecommunications provider in Australia. They’ve fucked up a number of times in recent years, but there’s one in particular that stands out in my mind.
Many years ago, I was with Virgin Mobile, who used Optus as their carrier but Virgin handled my account information and just piggybacked off the Optus network for their customers.
When they announced that they were closing down operations in Australia, they offered a pretty decent deal to switch to Optus, so I took them up on it. While it was still the same network, so I was generally happy with my coverage, their customer support was much much worse and their plans were noticeably more expensive than the switch-over deal, so after a year or two I left them and went to another competitor. When I left, I made sure to confirm my account was completely closed and deleted (for as much as that word means anything anymore)
Many years after I left, Optus emailed me with the sadly fairly standard “we’re sorry that we got hacked but don’t worry, your account is not compromised” email that I’m used to seeing. Only, I happened to know that my account is the least of my worries with that particular security breach...
They made national news for being hacked, but rather than the usual “oops our username/password database was stolen so you need to change your password now” this one was much worse — this one was “for some reason we still had a copy of your full ID (multiple forms) saved on our servers, and the hackers stole a copy now, so they can do full identity theft and basically open credit cards under your name etc”
Our version of DMV had to literally change the way drivers licence ID numbers work across the board, and reissue a new licence to every affected customer (and former-customer!!!), because otherwise the hackers (and anyone who they later sold the details to on the black market) had enough forms of ID that they could open bank accounts/credit cards/etc under your name if you were impacted.
So yeah, if you ever see a drivers licence from Victoria, Australia (and maybe some other states, I wasn’t paying attention to the rest of the country at that time) and see the extra digits on the back of the card, know that the only reason they exist is because Optus fucked up a security breach so badly that they caused the licence issuer to add a new security feature to literally everyone’s licences.
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Comment on Could a space traveler accelerate at 1g forever? in ~space
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentTraffic? Hah! Genie should have asked more questions before trying to curse my wish — my commute doesn’t involve traffic, we have great public transit! Traffic is a problem for those who have to...Traffic? Hah! Genie should have asked more questions before trying to curse my wish — my commute doesn’t involve traffic, we have great public transit! Traffic is a problem for those who have to drive to work, and that ain’t me!
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Comment on Could a space traveler accelerate at 1g forever? in ~space
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI think I see 25 hours per day, and given how much of my week is eaten by my commute, I would like to vote in favour of 25 hours per day please! Just to give me a bit more time in the week to get...(Totally cheating on this math)
I think I see 25 hours per day, and given how much of my week is eaten by my commute, I would like to vote in favour of 25 hours per day please! Just to give me a bit more time in the week to get stuff done!
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Comment on Could a space traveler accelerate at 1g forever? in ~space
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentIt’s been a long time since I was looking at relativity and the expansion of the universe, but if the rate of expansion is increasing, wouldn’t you automatically cross the effective “observable...I'm really not sure if you can ever truly leave the observable universe in the sense that eventually, no light from you will ever make it back to earth, but I feel like it should be possible?
It’s been a long time since I was looking at relativity and the expansion of the universe, but if the rate of expansion is increasing, wouldn’t you automatically cross the effective “observable universe boundary” (as defined by Earth’s perspective) just by being arbitrarily close to the boundary today with zero relative motion and waiting for the universe expansion to do its thing? I thought the definition of the “observable universe boundary” is the point where the space between Earth and that point expands faster than c and therefore light cannot reach us?
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Comment on Spotify is adding direct messaging to their music streaming app in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins LinkThis is actually really frustrating if there isn’t a way to disable it behind a passcode or something. Without going into details, my younger brother is incredibly vulnerable to scams, and after...This is actually really frustrating if there isn’t a way to disable it behind a passcode or something.
Without going into details, my younger brother is incredibly vulnerable to scams, and after the most recent blowout, we’ve locked down his phone (with his support) to significantly reduce his exposure to contact with random people who may exploit him in future. Spotify is one of the few apps his phone can have at the moment, and it sounds like even this might need to be revisited in future if it allows anyone to message him.
I really wish companies would stay in their own lanes sometimes...
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Comment on How Tea’s founder convinced millions of women to spill their secrets, then exposed them to the world in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentCommon sense from the customer doesn’t shield you from terrible security practices of companies though. I recently had to verify my identity for my phone provider by emailing my ID, and when I...People just generally need more common sense. It's one thing to upload your ID to your bank where they legally need it,
Common sense from the customer doesn’t shield you from terrible security practices of companies though. I recently had to verify my identity for my phone provider by emailing my ID, and when I pointed out that email isn’t a secure method of sending, they just responded “no need to worry, we delete IDs from our records within 48 hours” — also there was no other method to provide my ID to them
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Comment on AI is a mass-delusion event in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThat’s true for now, and that’s useful because the majority of those links are currently human-written and have at least some semblance of a reason to exist, but as more of the internet is created...That’s true for now, and that’s useful because the majority of those links are currently human-written and have at least some semblance of a reason to exist, but as more of the internet is created by AI summarising other pages which themselves are AI-written summaries... at some stage the percentage of the internet not written by AI will plummet and then you’ve got the same problem on a larger scale.
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Comment on What's a question you could ask to determine if someone is an expert in your line of work? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentFrom your link: Suddenly I’m imagining these incredibly technical roles as done by joyful woodland creatures, and that tickles my brain! Vast majority of everything else in that link is completely...From your link:
Two operations master roles are present at the forest level:
Suddenly I’m imagining these incredibly technical roles as done by joyful woodland creatures, and that tickles my brain!
Vast majority of everything else in that link is completely unfathomable to me, even as a relatively competent computer end-user.
I wonder if that’s from the designer/developer not realising that human light sensitivity doesn’t scale linearly, so they need more contrast at higher brightness than they would need in dark mode?