vuzzar's recent activity

  1. Comment on Norway is to enforce a strict minimum age limit on social media of fifteen as the government ramped up its campaign against tech companies it says are “pitted against small children's brains” in ~tech

    vuzzar
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    They're talking about enforcing the requirement through use of the national ID system called BankID (used for digital authentication to all services that require identification - banks, government...

    They're talking about enforcing the requirement through use of the national ID system called BankID (used for digital authentication to all services that require identification - banks, government services, health services etc).

    I am personally not a fan, as I want a certain level of privacy online. Requiring BankID would give the social media service a guaranteed verification that the account is connected to me (they probably know already, but eh), and will absolutely lead to me abandoning most, if not all of my social media accounts.

    Of course, tech literate people will just VPN to another country or whatever to avoid the ban, but a geo block is enough for 95% of people to comply/not deal with the hassle of avoiding it

    10 votes

  2. Comment on What is a scam that more people should be aware of? in ~life

    vuzzar
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    A lot of places don't support +-signs in email addresses, so what I've resorted to is to purchase my own domain. I have a catch-all rule at my domain provider (they also provide a rudimentary...

    A lot of places don't support +-signs in email addresses, so what I've resorted to is to purchase my own domain.

    I have a catch-all rule at my domain provider (they also provide a rudimentary email service) that forwards any email received to my real email account, and outgoing mail is sent via that same email service.
    That way I can give someone randomaddress@mydomain.com and still receive the email, reply using that very same address as an alias, and figure out who leaked my address/easily filter it to spam (without them having any idea what my real address is).

    Also in my opinion it looks more professional when you use a custom domain name instead of a generic Gmail/Hotmail address, but that's besides the point.

    16 votes

  3. Comment on Norway is to allow mining waste to be dumped in its fjords after the government won a court case against environmental organisations trying to block the plan in ~enviro

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    Correct. And if they at any point during their period lose that majority support in parliament, they will have to step down and a new government has to be voted in (not a public election - just...

    Correct.

    And if they at any point during their period lose that majority support in parliament, they will have to step down and a new government has to be voted in (not a public election - just internal strife between parliament parties/politicians).

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Norway is to allow mining waste to be dumped in its fjords after the government won a court case against environmental organisations trying to block the plan in ~enviro

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    Good question. It happens because it's not always possible to create majority governments, due to conflicts of interest or that the parties that would have to cooperate is too many/too far...

    Good question. It happens because it's not always possible to create majority governments, due to conflicts of interest or that the parties that would have to cooperate is too many/too far apart/certain parties who straight up refuse to cooperate with certain other parties.

    As an example of the last one: the progressive party has stated that with no uncertain terms, they will never enter into a government with the green party.

    If no majority government can be formed, then the only possible outcome is a minority government. At that point the parties discuss among themselves and with the parties they would like to create a government with, come up with a suggestion, and vote for the alternative they want during the next parliament meeting. The alternative that receives more than 50% of the votes in parliament is then effectively the new government (exactly the same process as for a majority government, except that the answer isn't given beforehand and takes a bit more work).

    Why would a party approve of a government that they are not a part of? Even if a party (say the socialist left) wants to be in the government, they would much rather have their side (the political left, which both the worker and central party are a part of) hold a minority government with them as a supporting party, than see the political right in government. The ministry posts that government representatives are put into have value after all.

    Minority government is about as common as majority governments in Norway - the conservatives were actually in a minority government most of the time between 2013-2021.

    After the 2013 election, conservatives and the progressive party formed a minority government, supported by the liberal party and christian party.
    The 2017 election didn't change much.
    In 2019 (in between the 2017 and 2021 election) the liberal party and christian party was invited to join them, making it a majority government.
    In 2020 the progressive party left the government due to a disagreement, once again making it a minority government.

    5 votes

  5. Comment on Norway is to allow mining waste to be dumped in its fjords after the government won a court case against environmental organisations trying to block the plan in ~enviro

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    The company applied for this waste dump in 2008, and it got approved all the way back in 2015 (formally approved in 2016 because they received complaints), when the right wing parties were in...
    • Exemplary

    The company applied for this waste dump in 2008, and it got approved all the way back in 2015 (formally approved in 2016 because they received complaints), when the right wing parties were in government.

    The reason why this was brought up again today is that the environment organizations who sued the government for environment crimes lost their case today (and they don't have enough funding to bring it to a higher court. Unless someone with big pockets step in to help, the case will be lost).

    I am not too surprised by the outcome given the political climate these days (it is still sad to be a Norwegian these days 🥲).
    The two parties currently in government are:

    • The Workers party (48 mandates)
    • The Centre party (28 mandates, previously called the farmers party)

    neither of which have shown that they care much about environment cases if they don't provide more jobs or helps Norwegian farmers/the more rural parts of Norway directly.

    The parties in government when the dump was approved was:

    • Conservatives (36 mandates, 2nd most right wing party, less taxes for the rich and less money for the poor)
    • The Progressive party (21 mandates, the most right wing party, the people who dislike immigrants/helping foreign countries, less taxes on tobacco/alcohol, cheaper cars etc)
    • The Liberal party (8 mandates, still somewhat right wing, but they do vote for environmental causes)
    • The Christian party (3 mandates).

    Looking at the votes it wouldn't have mattered which parties were in government or not - this dump would still have been approved. Both the workers party and the conservatives voted for the thing, and they have close to a majority vote on their own. Given that all of the parties listed above voted for, and the total number of mandates in parliament is 169, it would have passed regardless if one of them changed sides (keep in mind that I use mandate numbers from the 2021 election. The right wing government had majority votes in 2015, but the parties relative sizes were more or less the same).

    Unfortunately the parties that actually want to do things that are positive for the environment are too small to have a real impact in anything but the rare edge case where their vote actually tips the scale one way or the other.

    The parties that actually front cases, vote for and want to do positive stuff for the environment (according to what I see on parliaments suggestions and voting lists) are:

    • The Red party (8 mandates, all the way on the left. A group that separated from the communist party, and wanted to bring them more towards socialism)
    • The Socialist left party (13 mandates, somewhere in between the red party and workers party).
    • The Green party (3 mandates. Their full Norwegian name roughly translates to "environment party the green" - a relatively unknown party before 2005, got their first parliament mandate in 2013 - their name very much gives away how they vote and what cases they front).

    These are the big, established parties. There are of course many smaller parties, but bar one party (the patient party, based on the hospital uproar and ambulance plane crisis in northern Norway), none of them received parliament mandates in the 2021 election.

    A lot of people have environment fatigue these days as well. People don't want change, and when there are road bumps implementing new, environment friendly stuff (like the electric bus issues in Oslo this winter - it is the first really harsh winter with electric buses, and they have to charge more often and for longer to keep up, which means there are big headlines about the delays and cancellations), people understandably get upset and blame everything on the environment parties, saying how everything was better before with the good ol' [insert previous technology].

    Fun fact: I have heard several people refer to the current workers party as conservatives lite, and the central party is referred to as farmers progressive party. Both of which seem just about right in my mind.

    10 votes

  6. Comment on Norway is likely to become the first country in the world to move forward with the controversial practice of commercial-scale deep-sea mining in ~enviro

    vuzzar
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    This is a sad day to be a Norwegian - it got approved in parliament earlier today (none of the parties I have ever voted for said yes, but that doesn't help when the farmers and capitalist parties...

    This is a sad day to be a Norwegian - it got approved in parliament earlier today (none of the parties I have ever voted for said yes, but that doesn't help when the farmers and capitalist parties sees unexploited resources that they can profit off of).

    Parliament claims that the approval will lay the groundworks for "profitable, sustainable and responsible mining operations at sea". Good fucking luck doing anything other than ruin our seas and seafloor

    7 votes

  7. Comment on What password management solution do you use and why? in ~tech

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    Using Bitwarden both personally and at work. The password sharing features work great if you've set up a organization - the only hassle is adding new users, which up until I left the company...

    Using Bitwarden both personally and at work. The password sharing features work great if you've set up a organization - the only hassle is adding new users, which up until I left the company needed to be done manually.

  8. Comment on Steam's oldest user accounts turn 20, Valve celebrates with special digital badges in ~games

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    The flagging was definitely automated - in the same e-mail notifying me of the sale they included the following text: But my account didn't get suspended until 12 hours later - during early office...

    The flagging was definitely automated - in the same e-mail notifying me of the sale they included the following text:

    The purchase price for this item is unusual. Funds received from this sale will be held temporarily.

    Funds from this sale will be held by Steam for up to five days. In the meantime, the funds will be included in your pending wallet balance. In some situations, Steam Support may reverse the transaction and return the item to your Steam Inventory.

    But my account didn't get suspended until 12 hours later - during early office hours in USA - leading me to believe that the suspension itself was manually reviewed. I looked it up online and it seems others have received the same message (and threat of account closure) for even smaller amounts. Depending on the marketplace history of the item, people have had it trigger on things sold for a few cents above the average value. It seems that it startet happening mid spring this year (march/april), so it is likely a very new system with quirks that need to get worked out.

    But yes, I totally agree with your second paragraph - instead of creating a system that flags and/or ban accounts that sell items at a suspiciously high price, why not deny the transaction from going through in the first place? Put a price cap on items (200% of the average value) or something.

    Fun fact: They only reversed the money part of the transaction. I never got my item back despite their own text stating otherwise.
    Regardless I'll shy miles away from marketplace trades going forward. No way am I going to risk my account for a tiny amount of money (relative to the account value).

    Now that I am on my PC I also have access to the ticket log. Here is the word for word reply I received from support:

    You arranged the sale of one or more items at inflated prices on the Steam Community Market. All of the funds you received from these sales were obtained through fraud.

    We have removed items and games added to the account since these transactions as well as any remaining fraudulent wallet funds. These items, games, and funds will not be restored.

    Avoid all offers of Steam Wallet funds through the Steam Market or you may inadvertently become involved in payment fraud.

    For more information, please review our Market Scam FAQ.

    I have unlocked your account at this time. Please note that this will be the only warning you will receive. Similar behavior on this or any related account in the future will result in a permanent lock without further notice.

    So If I had bought anything on the Steam store - even with my own credit card - in the 12 hours between me receiving the funds and when they locked my account I would have lost that money forever. Thanks Steam.

    5 votes

  9. Comment on Steam's oldest user accounts turn 20, Valve celebrates with special digital badges in ~games

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    The biggest issue with Steam now is their customer support. I put up all my CSGO items on the marketplace for above market average during the price boom (around the CSGO2 announcement this...

    The biggest issue with Steam now is their customer support.

    I put up all my CSGO items on the marketplace for above market average during the price boom (around the CSGO2 announcement this spring). 3 months later one of them unexpectedly got sold (average price was $4. I put it up for $50).

    The following night my account got locked, with a message telling me to contact customer service. I sent in a ticket as soon as I got up and saw the message. It took them several days to get back to me - and when they did they hard accused me of market manipulation and accepting money from fraud/stolen accounts. Got off with a warning, but I was told that my account will stay locked if it ever happens again.

    I just put up an item on the marketplace? Of course, the value was way inflated, but the prices had gone way up on several other items so I was hoping I'd get lucky. I have no say in who buys my items or how their money was acquired - that is all controlled by Valve/Steam.

    I then replied to the ticket, giving a bullet point list of questions like how to follow the recommendations they gave me (for example not accepting steam funds on the marketplace, even though there is no option for that when posting an item for sale), and how I'd never risk my account for such a petty amount - my account is almost 20 years old and worth close to $8'000 USD. I was very stressed out by the previous CS response - almost on the verge of crying - and wanted some reassurance from them and clarification on how I could avoid another ban.

    Do you want to know what they did? They gave me probably the coldest and shortest non-response I've ever received from any customer support. They permanently closed my ticket telling me that they've solved the initial problem, and if I had any question regarding something /not/ related to the account closure issue I'd have to submit another request.

    Before this happened I didn't have any qualms about buying stuff on Steam, but it's been a month now and I'm still not sure if I ever want to put another dollar into my account. The way customer support threatened me made me really unwell, and I can feel my stomach and chest tightening just writing this comment.

    I had a few interactions with customer support in 2008-ish, and back then it felt personal and human. Nowadays I guess they're on the grind and pressured by numbers, and as a result it feels like they have zero compassion with the end user.

    12 votes

  10. Comment on Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome in ~tech

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    The User-Agent Switcher addon solves most of those sites for me. It's not that they don't work, the website owner just don't want them to work (or some barely noticeable feature is missing/not...

    The User-Agent Switcher addon solves most of those sites for me. It's not that they don't work, the website owner just don't want them to work (or some barely noticeable feature is missing/not working, so they're forcing everyone onto their preferred alternative).

    5 votes

  11. Comment on Norway has a chance to transform climate finance – the country's windfall from the energy crisis should be used to underwrite investments in developing countries in ~enviro

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    Yeah I'm using Three cheers exclusively, so that's probably why. Thanks for the heads up!

    Yeah I'm using Three cheers exclusively, so that's probably why. Thanks for the heads up!

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Norway has a chance to transform climate finance – the country's windfall from the energy crisis should be used to underwrite investments in developing countries in ~enviro

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    Since I can't edit my post? I'll post a correction here: The electricity is bought from a electricity delivery company (literal translation), while the power grid is maintained by a network...

    Since I can't edit my post? I'll post a correction here:

    The electricity is bought from a electricity delivery company (literal translation), while the power grid is maintained by a network delivery company (again, literal translation).

    Something something the government (especially blue-blue, but also the blueish-red we got now) really wants to fuck consumers by liberalizing the whole thing and integrating us into the European market. It's been going strong for 30 years now and probably will get even worse over time.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Norway has a chance to transform climate finance – the country's windfall from the energy crisis should be used to underwrite investments in developing countries in ~enviro

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    There are two bills for electricity in Norway: One is for the electricity itself, paid to whoever the subscriber chooses to buy electricity from. There are many vendors to choose from, and many of...

    There are two bills for electricity in Norway:

    • One is for the electricity itself, paid to whoever the subscriber chooses to buy electricity from. There are many vendors to choose from, and many of them have several tiers of subscriptions to choose from based on what suits the subscriber. Some plans have a set price throughout the year (very rare now with the power crisis going on for almost 2 years - huge fluctuations in price), while most plans nowadays follow market price + whatever they charge on top of the price. Some companies also offer a CO2 offset addon, where you pay a premium on top of your power price to plant trees or whatever the company chooses to support.

    • A second one is for the power delivery company - or the company that transfers the electricity from the generator to the consumer. They maintain their part of the power grid.
      This is not optional, and since they have monopoly in their given region you cannot choose. On the upside they have heavy regulations enforced upon them, and they have a government mandated cap on how much they can charge the consumer.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on Western Digital refused to answer our questions about its self-wiping SanDisk SSDs. Oh, and it’s also getting sued. in ~tech

    vuzzar
    Link Parent
    I have been using Samsung SSDs for over 10 years now (starting with the 840 Pro). They've never let me down - or anyone I know for that matter. Paying a slight premium is definitely worth it for...

    I have been using Samsung SSDs for over 10 years now (starting with the 840 Pro). They've never let me down - or anyone I know for that matter. Paying a slight premium is definitely worth it for the reliability.

    7 votes