xethos's recent activity
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Comment on New AI data center in Utah will generate and consume more than twice the amount of power the entire state uses in ~tech
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Comment on Dutch YouTube creators behind Alberta (Canada) separatist videos getting millions of views in ~society
xethos Link ParentNo dude, you were okay with it when you thought you'd get paid. Now you know that's not gonna happen, and you're claiming a change of heart after seeing the light. Frankly, thinking the CBC is..."I'm in Indiana. I don't know anything about Canadian politics," said Nicholls. "I'm not going to do any more of these because I don't want to be a part of that."
No dude, you were okay with it when you thought you'd get paid. Now you know that's not gonna happen, and you're claiming a change of heart after seeing the light.
Frankly, thinking the CBC is dumb enough to believe it (instead of polite enough, and having the journalistic integrity to publish your response) is disgusting
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Comment on New AI data center in Utah will generate and consume more than twice the amount of power the entire state uses in ~tech
xethos Link ParentI am barely in, and not only is there no actual path laid out for how superintelligence will lead to world domination, but to call American leadership a safe path, and the only safe path, is...And only American leadership is a realistic path to developing a nonproliferation regime to avert the risks
I am barely in, and not only is there no actual path laid out for how superintelligence will lead to world domination, but to call American leadership a safe path, and the only safe path, is preposterous.
This is the country that decides to start another war in the Middle East because they have nothing better to do [to distract from the politically inconvenient]. The same country that has yet to apologize for threatening military action and economic annexation of allies - they've simply learned to shut up about it, in the hopes we'll all forget.
They are actively targeting sovereign citizens [0] for the exact values they themselves extoll; the same values they allegedly fight wars to export.
Best of all, they have made themselves intentionally accountable to no one with the American Srevice-Members' Protectoin Act
America holding an unassailable lead with world-ending super-weaponry makes the American elite safer. I'm not sold on it helping anyone outside of that.
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Comment on NHTSA tells US Congress: advanced impaired driving detection tech isn't ready in ~transport
xethos Link ParentSober people will still make stupid mistakes. They will get distracted, the weather or visibility will be bad, they'll drive when angry. At which point, you'll have to do the infrastructure...Sober people will still make stupid mistakes. They will get distracted, the weather or visibility will be bad, they'll drive when angry. At which point, you'll have to do the infrastructure upgrades anyways, and you'll have lost even more autonomy
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Comment on Millions of Americans may now also be considered Canadian under a new law in ~society
xethos Link ParentNot actually a hard requirement - living on the West Coast (lower mainland), and I think I've only ever seen bagged milk once over ~30 years or soenjoy bagged milk
Not actually a hard requirement - living on the West Coast (lower mainland), and I think I've only ever seen bagged milk once over ~30 years or so
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Comment on Almost half of EU’s busiest flight routes are ‘hard or impossible’ to book on trains in ~transport
xethos Link ParentThis argument feels like it's ignoring something important: trains can be, and frequently are, electrified. Doing so for air travel is almost entirely a novelty, doubly so for long-haul. As costs...planes are more economical for longer passenger routes
This argument feels like it's ignoring something important: trains can be, and frequently are, electrified. Doing so for air travel is almost entirely a novelty, doubly so for long-haul. As costs to generate electricity continue to fall, I would expect the math to change.
I'd also point out that, even with aviation maintenance being paid less than (IMO) they ought to be, safety margins are still tighter, and I'd expect that cost to add up as well. Neither can simply pull over, but an aircraft cannot simply stop
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Comment on Interresting Reddit/Discord alternative : surikata.app in ~tech
xethos Link ParentMatrix still has enough velocity (presumably due to funding from actual clients) that some of this is still out of date - which is surprising, but potentially a good problem to have? It does -...Matrix still has enough velocity (presumably due to funding from actual clients) that some of this is still out of date - which is surprising, but potentially a good problem to have?
no voice chat
It does - both "Start a call" type of voice chat, and "Wander in and out of a voice-only room" type voice chat. "New Conversation > New Video Room" will get you there
Per the wiki you mentioned, there's also been lots of work on their points. Synapse, presumably driven partly out of Matrix's self-interest (I.E., keeping their public server hosting cost lower) has gotten leaner. Their description of clients suggests it's been some time since the review was written (I'd guess ~early 2025), as ElementX is juuuust this side of complete. For example, support for Spaces just shipped. Their other "Sometimes things are slow and/or broken" also suggests they were using the older, much less performant Element client, and I'd assume at least partially on the (overloaded) Matrix.org homeserver.
Though between the old data, missing that the different choices made between XMPP and Matrix means different difficulties at different points, and obtusely deciding not to recognize the system design means each server is an authoritative server, I'm getting more annoyed by the paragraph - so I'm bailing at:
Lemme tell you a secret about global event ordering in chat rooms: nobody cares. These aren’t bank transactions. If two users get the same two messages in opposite order from each other then it’s fine, even in a formal setting like a university talk or a work chatroom, and it can be fixed by the client as soon as the authoritative server decides on what ordering is correct. [...] You don’t heckin’ need a single global consistency chain that can be reproduced exactly by every single system involved even if it’s on Mars, just so that lesbian catgirls can say “mreow uwu” to each other on the internet
There are reasons XMPP never took off, and some of those are the same reason Matrix is acceptable to organizations like NATO, while XMPP is not.
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Comment on Industry initiative launches Euro-Office as true sovereign office suite in ~tech
xethos Link ParentLate to the party, but I'd point out the different "levels" of self-hosting software. Running managed Windows and Microsoft Office, or Office 365, is at one end, and running a forked Libre Office...Late to the party, but I'd point out the different "levels" of self-hosting software. Running managed Windows and Microsoft Office, or Office 365, is at one end, and running a forked Libre Office style suite that you maintain with devs you pay, and build on hardware you own, is the other.
An intermediate example is using Microsoft for your email's back-end. The domain is yours, but Microsoft would have enough reach to shut you down and cause all kinds of headaches.
Similarly, running one's healthcare or armed forces communication (like France and Germany, respectively) through a self-hosted Matrix server has very different levels of reliance on America if one is using AWS vs, say, Hetzner, for the server.
Claiming digital sovereignty while still having a hard dependancy on Google, Microsoft, Apple, AWS, Whatsapp, Signal, or any other company the US government can apply unreasonable pressure to (and your country can't provide an equivalent level of pressure to) would be rather intentionally obtuse. It would not be genuine digital sovereignty.
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Comment on Air Canada CEO will retire this year after his English-only crash message was criticized in ~transport
xethos Link ParentEveryone has good and bad days - I must have caught everyone I met in Quebec (during a brief visit in and around Quebec City last Autumn) on a good day, as my atrocious french was met with an...Everyone has good and bad days - I must have caught everyone I met in Quebec (during a brief visit in and around Quebec City last Autumn) on a good day, as my atrocious french was met with an abundance of patience every time I tried.
Further, it's hard to blame them being defensive. Culture is hard to change, but good luck recovering it if it's lost. We have enough influence from the States that I fully support the Canadian content rules. There's a marked difference between Canadians and Americans, and I appreciate the re-enforcement from media regarding language, social norms, and culture in general. I'd imagine the Quebecois would feel similarly.
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Comment on Reducing Europe's nuclear energy sector was 'strategic mistake', EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says in ~society
xethos Link ParentDecidedly not a nuclear scientist here: Doesn't the refueling timeline (that is, how often reactors need new fuel) play a pretty significant role as well?Decidedly not a nuclear scientist here: Doesn't the refueling timeline (that is, how often reactors need new fuel) play a pretty significant role as well?
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Comment on The average US college student is illiterate in ~life
xethos Link ParentI'll generally do what great-great (?) grandparent does - visually "ignore" the motorist to force the issue of right-of-way while looking with my eyes instead of turning my whole head. My pushback...I'll generally do what great-great (?) grandparent does - visually "ignore" the motorist to force the issue of right-of-way while looking with my eyes instead of turning my whole head.
My pushback in the previous comment was more directly aimed at the phrase "...this doesn't work well if the driver is checking the other - left side for the incoming vehicles". Knowing a pedestrian is approaching the curb means motorists need to be aware that the might be crossing, and likely are. To pretend otherwise is willful ignorance
Motorists cannot say "I didn't expect the pedestrian moving at walking speed to be there". Anticipating pedestrians is the same skill as anticipating motorists, just easier, due to the slower speed
Nor will I brooke any arguments about motorists having turn signals or brake lights. The former are famously dis-, mis-, or abused, and the latter aren't visible to motorists attempting to enter traffic.
As an addendum: I know this isn't entirely on you. I apologize in advance for the cellphone-formatting, and I recognize that while you don't deserve the brunt of this (I assume), I'm also entirely out of patience for poorly behaved motorists that cower behind excuses like "I didn't see them" or "See and be seen"
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Comment on The average US college student is illiterate in ~life
xethos Link ParentPedestrians are, by definition, on foot. If any motorists are ignoring the area pedestrians are likely coming from, when the pedestrians have right-of-way, and cannot anticipate objects moving at...Pedestrians are, by definition, on foot. If any motorists are ignoring the area pedestrians are likely coming from, when the pedestrians have right-of-way, and cannot anticipate objects moving at pedestrian speed, how the hell are they to safely make the turn while anticipating objects moving at 30-60 kilometers per hour
Telling me "I didn't see them coming in time" is on-par with saying "I knew I wouldn't die, and figured might made right"
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
xethos Link ParentJust did a brief check, and yes, seems you can share your screen alongside a video call. "High quality" can be a difficult endorsement to make though, with some caveats being we were both...Just did a brief check, and yes, seems you can share your screen alongside a video call. "High quality" can be a difficult endorsement to make though, with some caveats being we were both (including the server) basically on LAN, we only played with it briefly, we weren't stressing any desktop or server, and my definition of high quality may not meet yours (though it certainly seemed crisp enough)
If you're leery of pushing people without being able to effectively try it yourself first, you can join one of the open servers and we can arrange a test call (Matrix handle in bio) at some point on the 17th/18th. If you're going to go through YouTube or similar for reviews, make sure they're not too stale - the platform's been maturing at a fair clip, and anything beyond about a year generally wouldn't make my list :)
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
xethos Link ParentSelf-hosting isn't a hard requirement, and there seem to be a reasonable number of public servers with fairly open registrations [0]. It's not the infinite choice one finds with Mastodon /...Self-hosting isn't a hard requirement, and there seem to be a reasonable number of public servers with fairly open registrations [0]. It's not the infinite choice one finds with Mastodon / Fediverse servers, but decision paralysis isn't always a selling point.
You could probably create a couple rooms in whichever server you join, mark them invite-only (and optionally "from this server"-only), then create what Matrix calls a space (IE, a collection of rooms grouped together) with all your invite-only rooms joined together. That way you can send a single invite code to your friends for the space, and it should allow your friends to join every room in the space, and have them grouped neatly together. You should be able to adjust power / permissions levels from there
And yes, Discord calling random groups a "server" has grated on me for years, and does not make jumping in to (or out of) Discord easier as people attempt to navigate the language used
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
xethos Link ParentYou might have to elaborate on streaming, but it has both Zoom-style (actively invite to, and join, a call) and Discord-style (the room is always there, you can drop in and out as you please)...You might have to elaborate on streaming, but it has both Zoom-style (actively invite to, and join, a call) and Discord-style (the room is always there, you can drop in and out as you please) voice and video calls / rooms.
I don't like some aspects of it, and it isn't at proper feature parity yet (for example, I don't see the list of active people in a voice-room, assuming that feature even exists), but the speed of improvement is better than some might have you believe
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Comment on Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month in ~tech
xethos Link ParentMatrix actually has everything on your list. An idle, always-on style voicechat room is available as well, though the UX isn't nearly as polished as Discords (who've spent years making theirs...Matrix actually has everything on your list. An idle, always-on style voicechat room is available as well, though the UX isn't nearly as polished as Discords (who've spent years making theirs better).
Many servers have open sign-ups as well, meaning you can try a non-overloaded server before you decide if you even want to try hosting your own:
https://servers.joinmatrix.org/
I've been hosting my own for years now, and found it fairly straightforward / set'n'forget on Debian. Feel free to send me a DM if you'd like a registration code (as I do not have open registration) to play around with it too.
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Comment on RCS — SMS via the internet — is good, but it doesn't matter in ~tech
xethos Link ParentNo, you haven't given it to them. Facebook, to have that information, and be in compliance with the GDPR, would have to have been given that information by another source. So now we guess: how...Whatapp accounts are phone numbers. They don't know my name (other than what I chose to enter) or address or even have an email for me
No, you haven't given it to them. Facebook, to have that information, and be in compliance with the GDPR, would have to have been given that information by another source.
So now we guess: how many of the people that will ever contact you via Whatsapp, will both fill in additional information about you in their contacts app (name, job, relation to them, etc), and allow the Facebook, Messenger, or Whatsapp apps access to their contacts? Because my guess is above zero, and that's all Facebook needs to match number to name to spouse to address, and so on
What Whatsapp uses may not be what everyone considers an "account", sure. But bet your ass feeds Facebook more information than just "This phone number is in use", even if that's all the information you submit
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Comment on Federal officers kill another citizen in Minneapolis, National Guard activated in ~society
xethos Link ParentIt's not an unfair reaction on your part, but I'd like to draw attention to the word "secure" at least. Secure for whom, and secure from what? Because making it a safer place to protest helps...It's not an unfair reaction on your part, but I'd like to draw attention to the word "secure" at least. Secure for whom, and secure from what? Because making it a safer place to protest helps protestors, not ICE. Having the better-trained, better-armed National Guard standing right there to secure the evidence and any suspects next time this happens, helps protests and actively harms ICE.
I don't (immediately) assume this is for ICE's benefit, especially coming from Walz
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Comment on Clicks Communicator: the ultimate communication companion in ~tech
xethos Link ParentIt's really just for the (modified?) Passport and the Q25 AFAIK. This [0] is the most recent release, but it's exclusively for the Q25. It fixes things like the currency key and minor layout...It's really just for the (modified?) Passport and the Q25 AFAIK. This [0] is the most recent release, but it's exclusively for the Q25. It fixes things like the currency key and minor layout quirks that are specific to the Q25.
The Titan 2 would probably be better served by downloading Cobalt app manager, then installing the BlackBerry keyboard from there. It's a more generic install, but no promises it would work perfectly with the Titan. Even worse, BlackBerry still holds (and held at launch) patents that make me lose interest in the Titan keyboard - meaning I never kept up with which IME would work best. Hope you find an IME you love, but I really don't have that much information unfortunately
[0] https://xwtk.cloud/delivery/HarpocratKeyboard-Q25-015.apk
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Comment on Clicks Communicator: the ultimate communication companion in ~tech
xethos Link ParentI'm actually spoiled with Harpocrat Keyboard - a modified BlackBerry Passport (or possibly KeyOne or 2?) apk that lets me use the keyboard exactly the same as my Key2 LE. Unfortunately, I'm too...I'm actually spoiled with Harpocrat Keyboard - a modified BlackBerry Passport (or possibly KeyOne or 2?) apk that lets me use the keyboard exactly the same as my Key2 LE. Unfortunately, I'm too spoiled to switch for now (though I do appreciate the suggestion, and will keep playing with it periodically)
The launcher's worth looking further into for me though, thank you
I was half-considering it, though I'm not sure I want to cede the term to those idiots.
Plugging it in to DDG and receiving almost exclusively that exhausting and childish stance has made your point though, and I'm open to better phrases.