whbboyd's recent activity
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Comment on George R.R. Martin says 'The Winds of Winter' is 'the curse of my life' in ~books
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Comment on Notorious image board 4chan hacked and internal data leaked in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentIs it? 4chan is not notorious for /g/ or /v/ or /a/ or even, like, /d/. It's notorious for /b/ and, to a lesser extent, /pol/ and /k/ and their ilk. The parts of the site which are more-or-less...Is it? 4chan is not notorious for /g/ or /v/ or /a/ or even, like, /d/. It's notorious for /b/ and, to a lesser extent, /pol/ and /k/ and their ilk. The parts of the site which are more-or-less insular don't really matter, because they stay on the site. It's the parts which coordinate raids and/or literal terrorism off-site and IRL which matter to everyone who's not just posting yet another APOD to /wg/.
(Also, at one point /b/ was a significant majority of the site's traffic, but I have no idea if that's still the case.)
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Comment on Anubis works in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentWhat Rectangle said. If a bot sends a non-browser useragent, then server operators can ban away by useragent without worrying they'll hit legitimate browser-based users. The useragent check is...What Rectangle said. If a bot sends a non-browser useragent, then server operators can ban away by useragent without worrying they'll hit legitimate browser-based users.
The useragent check is also obviously incidental; it would be trivial to remove. It's a harm mitigation technique, not a fundamental part of the protection model.
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Comment on Anubis works in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentAh, you're right, I lost the context somewhere between reading and replying. Thank you for the correction.Ah, you're right, I lost the context somewhere between reading and replying. Thank you for the correction.
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Comment on Anubis works in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentThe original premise is just to increase the cost of being badly-behaved enough that it's no longer worth it. Empirically, the problematic scrapers masquerade as browsers and rotate through large...The original premise is just to increase the cost of being badly-behaved enough that it's no longer worth it. Empirically, the problematic scrapers masquerade as browsers and rotate through large numbers of (largely residential¹) IP addresses. If you clearly identify yourself as a bot useragent, or maintain a consistent IP address, then you mostly bypass the expense of Anubis's checks but can easily be throttled by traditional means.
The mechanism is also not really subject to an arms race; it is, to bend the metaphor quite a lot, a nuclear option. There is no getting around doing the work required for the proof-of-work.
¹ Yes, this probably means that a bunch of these are being routed through people's hacked smart toasters. Remember, the "S" in "IoT" is for "security".
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Comment on Why do AI company logos look like buttholes? in ~design
whbboyd Link Parent"Pulled it out of one's ass" is an idiom in English, as well. The subtext definitely translates here. =)"Pulled it out of one's ass" is an idiom in English, as well. The subtext definitely translates here. =)
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Comment on Anubis works in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentThey'd have to all come from the same IP address, making them easy to throttle by traditional means.They'd have to all come from the same IP address, making them easy to throttle by traditional means.
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Comment on Why do AI company logos look like buttholes? in ~design
whbboyd LinkThe lobste.rs thread on this got deleted (probably appropriately, it was a popular lightning rod but definitely off-topic for the site), but it carried a great snarky comment, which I will...The lobste.rs thread on this got deleted (probably appropriately, it was a popular lightning rod but definitely off-topic for the site), but it carried a great snarky comment, which I will reproduce here (archive link):
Form follows function, I guess.
—icefox -
Comment on Rolex Caliber 7135: featuring a new indirect impulse escapement and high frequency movement using silicon in ~hobbies
whbboyd Link ParentI think compared to Rolex one could comfortably call Seiko "unorthodox"…? ;) But thank you for the correction.I think compared to Rolex one could comfortably call Seiko "unorthodox"…? ;) But thank you for the correction.
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Comment on Rolex Caliber 7135: featuring a new indirect impulse escapement and high frequency movement using silicon in ~hobbies
whbboyd Link ParentNote that the article consistently refers to the material in use as silicon, an elemental crystalline solid, not silicone, a class of silicon-containing polymer oils and plastics. (Both are...Note that the article consistently refers to the material in use as silicon, an elemental crystalline solid, not silicone, a class of silicon-containing polymer oils and plastics.
(Both are conceivable inside a mechanical watch, but the use of a plastic material for the actual mechanical components would be… unorthodox, at least.)
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Comment on Are you tech-savvy enough? in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentWhile I agree with this, I would also like everyone responsible for an interface or program to stop fucking churning it pointlessly like a shark tank full of chum, pleaseandthankyouverymuch....I want everyone to be savvy enough that a change in interface or program is not a world-ending event.
While I agree with this, I would also like everyone responsible for an interface or program to stop fucking churning it pointlessly like a shark tank full of chum, pleaseandthankyouverymuch.
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Comment on Are you tech-savvy enough? in ~tech
whbboyd LinkThis article is… really weird to me. Like, okay, the guy clearly values stability. But then he says: I… just don't believe him. If he's having that much trouble with routine updates on any of...This article is… really weird to me. Like, okay, the guy clearly values stability. But then he says:
Updates on Linux were always like Russian Roulette. I would restart and pray to every deity in human history for nothing to break. Mind you I didn’t use Arch, that was my experience on Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE.
I… just don't believe him. If he's having that much trouble with routine updates on any of those three, then either his install or his hardware (or both, I guess) are super fucked up. But even if it were true, if you care about stability, why wouldn't you try a distro with a reputation for stability? I've been using Debian since 2010 or so, and it has broken itself under me zero times.¹
In contrast, the consensus on MacOS version upgrades these days seems to be somewhere between "don't" and "at least give it a month for the critical bugs to shake out". And my personal experience with MacOS is almost entirely negative: basically nothing just works! My work Macbook's battery won't last a weekend on standby!²
Any assertion about why Apple's products are popular that doesn't address their titanic marketing budget immediately falls flat on its face, to be honest. So here's my equally-evidenced counterargument to the article's thesis: Apple's products are popular because of their titanic marketing budget, and the author has drunk their kool-aid.
¹ Not to say that I haven't broken it, of course. But it's always been very clear that I was doing something ill-advised, and the breakage was on me. And, of course, it's hardly difficult to utterly fuck up a MacOS install if you put your mind to it.
² Because I am tech-savvy enough, I actually know why: it's far, far too sensitive to various inputs while in sleep mode. So I bump my desk and it jiggles the mouse by two pixels, or turn my bluetooth headphones on across the house, and it wakes up and then happily idles until the battery dies, which takes a lot less than the 60 hours between Friday night and Monday morning. But Apple doesn't get any benefit of the doubt for making deliberate design decisions which make their products behave badly!
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Comment on Why I recommend against Brave in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentI think you're underestimating the amount of effort required to build a modern browser by three or four orders of magnitude. Microsoft, of all the bloated, overresourced organizations, declared...I think you're underestimating the amount of effort required to build a modern browser by three or four orders of magnitude. Microsoft, of all the bloated, overresourced organizations, declared bankruptcy on it, and Edge is just a Chrome skin. Ladybird and Servo are great efforts, and I hope they succeed, but my strong prediction is that they won't: if either project ever reaches the point of making releases, I think that from the web user perspective, they'll be an awful lot closer to Dillo than real competition for Chrome or Firefox.
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Comment on Introducing two new PebbleOS watches! in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentAhahaha, a few years ago I also switched from a Pebble (Time Round, no intervening smart watches because I could pretty much just look at the feature lists and go "no") to a Timex Expedition. =)Ahahaha, a few years ago I also switched from a Pebble (Time Round, no intervening smart watches because I could pretty much just look at the feature lists and go "no") to a Timex Expedition. =)
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Comment on Anyone interested in trying out Kagi? (trial giveaway: round #2) in ~tech
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Comment on Anyone interested in trying out Kagi? (trial giveaway: round #2) in ~tech
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Comment on Anyone interested in trying out Kagi? (trial giveaway: round #2) in ~tech
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Comment on Long-term experiences with Google search alternatives? in ~tech
whbboyd LinkI've been off Google as my primary search engine for (checks notes) wow, probably more than five years now. I used DDG for most of that, with Google as a fallback, and switched to Kagi about a...I've been off Google as my primary search engine for (checks notes) wow, probably more than five years now. I used DDG for most of that, with Google as a fallback, and switched to Kagi about a year and a half ago.
I failed to switch to DDG waaaaaay back in 2012 or so. The results were just too bad compared to Google. I'd have to fall back on nearly every search. In the time since, DDG has gotten a little better, and Google has gotten a lot worse. When I switched, DDG was worse, but no longer comparatively abysmal; my guess now would be that it's a little worse, but basically comparable. Neither DDG nor Google are very good these days. I think it's likely your difficulties with DDG are more because it's not very good than user error.
Kagi is… not as good as Google back when I first failed to switch away from it. But it is significantly better than Google now. They do a better job of filtering absolute garbage ("script tag", Kagi versus Google; note w3fools is nowhere to be seen in Kagi's results, but tops Google's, although also note that there's a lot of overlap between results), but the bigger strengths are probably the customization and more rigorous handling of search terms. (Also the lack of garbage nobody asked for, like instructions to glue cheese to pizza.)
As for whether it's worth paying for? I obviously think it is. I think I get my money's worth just from the smoother, more effective search experience; but I also think there's a significant value just from being the customer. A solid portion of Google's decline is straightforwardly attributed to the fact that Google Search users are Google's product, not its customers. Kagi's incentives aren't perfect, but being their customer aligns them far, far better than having your views sold to advertisers.
As for other options, I haven't really trialed any, because I'm pretty happy with Kagi; but I would definitely recommend avoiding Brave.
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Comment on Firefox's new Terms of Use grants Mozilla complete data "processing" rights of all user interactions in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentMozilla is not operating FIrefox. It's not a service! They do not require any rights for me to run it on my computer. This is the thing that makes no sense here. They've taken boilerplate "social...You give Mozilla the rights necessary to operate Firefox.
Mozilla is not operating FIrefox. It's not a service! They do not require any rights for me to run it on my computer.
This is the thing that makes no sense here. They've taken boilerplate "social media service" copyright license terms and applied them to something which is in no way, shape or form a service. The net result is incredibly overbroad and mostly nonsensical.
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Comment on Firefox's new Terms of Use grants Mozilla complete data "processing" rights of all user interactions in ~tech
whbboyd Link ParentIt is 100% novel to assert that things that I do on my computer with software that Mozilla merely authored have anything at all to do with Mozilla legally. Nobody else, even the usual suspects of...It is 100% novel to assert that things that I do on my computer with software that Mozilla merely authored have anything at all to do with Mozilla legally. Nobody else, even the usual suspects of the tech villains gallery, does or asserts this. I'd be very interested to hear the legal theory that leads to this ToU.
(It makes more sense with services; for example, Tildes needs a license to my comment in order to display it to you. If this comment were "all rights reserved", Tildes would be violating my copyright by serving it to the general public. But Firefox is, of course, not a service.)
I think Mozilla gets a lot of undeserved shit. They're the "can't win" butt monkey of online browser discourse; people complain that their revenue is homogeneous, and then complain when they try to diversify it. They complain about every change to Firefox intended to improve its market share, but also blame Mozilla for Firefox's small market share. Google has pulled a remarkable fast one in getting people to blame Mozilla for struggling to build Firefox when Google is 100% responsible for making "web browser" a category which requires a multi-hundred-million-dollar revenue stream to develop. It drives me nuts, to be honest. But this feels to me like a 100% unforced error. Asserting novel rights, and making nonsensical, novel claims about why they want those rights, comes absolutely out of nowhere, and I cannot see anything resembling a reasonable justification for it.
I mean, a consistent read on the ending of the HBO series (which will probably never be confirmed) is that GRRM has five and a half books and a plot outline, and the books don't match up with the outline anymore, but TV shows have production schedules, and so they just… produced the books and then the outline, continuity failures be damned. Not much the showrunners could do about that unless they were up to the task of doing Martin's job for him and tying up the book plots into the intended conclusion.
(I mean, I am strongly given to understand—having not watched and having no interest in watching any of the show past season 1—that they did a piss-poor job of even that. But I certainly don't think Martin is an incompetent writer, and if the amount of time he's put in to trying to wrap this thing up hasn't gotten there, it's definitely not going to happen cleanly in a TV show writing schedule.)