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    1. Credit cards and privacy: Can I have both?

      To start: I was taught in the 90s when I first entered the "internet" that "everything online is public. The End." I still adhere to that. I am perhaps a bit overly cautious and whatnot, as I will...

      To start: I was taught in the 90s when I first entered the "internet" that "everything online is public. The End."
      I still adhere to that. I am perhaps a bit overly cautious and whatnot, as I will forego convenience to have the feeling of privacy (though in some cases I believe it's just a smokescreen).

      That being said, the main premise to my question is this: I have three cards with which I pay for things. I have a debit card which I use for most purchases, a credit card I use for large purchases I can't immediately cover with my bank account, and a credit card for two specific payments. Every December my company gifts all employees a $100 Visa gift card. I tend to splurge on things I'd rather not have show up in my bank account or credit card, because I feel my purchase habits are tracked (similar as to when I put in a local brewery into Waze... and yeah, I use Waze.)

      And now to my actual question: is there a credit company, or a method of credit/debit card I can utilize that will not track/share/etc my personal or purchase info? I had never thought of this idea, aside from the gift cards which usually come with some form of caveat (you lose money on fees for a prepaid card, or you can lose your balance if not spent in a certain time frame, etc) until just now I guess. I found privacy.com which looks kind of legit, but ... I'm always skeptical to start.

      All that being said, if you could offer any advice or thoughts on the matter, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

      (Edit: the original reason I ask this is because I was thinking that I use Discord a lot and would like to throw a few bucks their way and customize my profile or something "fun" like that, but I do not want them to have my info.)

      17 votes
    2. Is an ethical social media platform even possible?

      I've long been uncomfortable using platforms that have a bad reputation with respect to: Human rights / genocide Disinformation Privacy All three of those can be connected with advertising...

      I've long been uncomfortable using platforms that have a bad reputation with respect to:

      1. Human rights / genocide
      2. Disinformation
      3. Privacy

      All three of those can be connected with advertising revenue, among other things. When I use platforms that are shady in this regard, I know I'm colluding with them and contributing to the problems they create. So it's been a relief to see new platforms like Tildes emerge, as well as those based on ActivityPub.

      But even platforms that don't have overt advertising (Telegram?) do have a problem with hate groups that go unchallenged. And I know that if I was running an instance of an ActivityPub compatible platform such as KBin, I mightn't be able to keep on top of moderating things like disinformation.

      So I suppose my question is, where do you draw the line? I've deleted my Twitter and Meta accounts and I'm exploring alternatives, but I'm not sure if I'm going from the darkness to the light, or just into shades of grey.

      38 votes
    3. Notifications are ads

      This is a thought I've been having a lot lately. It seems like 90% of notifications I get these days both on my phone and computer are ads begging me to either: upgrade a service I already have...

      This is a thought I've been having a lot lately. It seems like 90% of notifications I get these days both on my phone and computer are ads begging me to either: upgrade a service I already have ("you're running out of space on [insert cloud service here] at 75% usage will you please UPGRADE?") or re-engage with an app that hasn't sucked enough of my attention ("we MISS you! PLEASE engage!"), with the remaining tiny minority being useful actionable information. I've noticed too that social media notifications NEVER give you enough detail about something that's going on to not have to open the app directly. It's kind of exhausting to the point where I've disabled most notifications on my devices altogether. I don't really know the point of this post other than to commiserate and to simply open it up for discussion. Thoughts?

      EDIT: WOW this blew up! Thanks everyone for your contributions!

      101 votes
    4. Is fandom.com actually getting worse?

      I have been a frequent visitor of the various websites that are now under the Fandom.com umbrella, going back to when it was called Wikia. And if there's one thing that's been a consistent...

      I have been a frequent visitor of the various websites that are now under the Fandom.com umbrella, going back to when it was called Wikia. And if there's one thing that's been a consistent irritation with the platform, it's just how intrusive and annoying the advertising is. (For a sense of how long this has been a problem, see here.)

      But worse than the intrusiveness of the sites' ads, their biggest problem is their performance. They can bring Firefox to a crawl.

      For a while, it seemed like Fandom had been making some improvements. I could visit, say, Memory Alpha without the CPU on my computer spiking like crazy. But I just tried to look something up on the Forgotten Realms Wiki and, good god, it was terrible.

      (And before anyone says anything, no, I have no intention of using an ad blocker to deal with it.)

      Am I imagining it or is the platform actually getting worse again?

      57 votes
    5. I'm thoroughly done with my choices being only "yes" or "not now"

      I've noticed this changing over the years from my options when interfacing with a website or app going from "yes" or "no", to "yes" or "maybe later". I've tipped over the point from being mildly...

      I've noticed this changing over the years from my options when interfacing with a website or app going from "yes" or "no", to "yes" or "maybe later". I've tipped over the point from being mildly annoyed by this trend to now being angry about it.

      Navigate to my bank's web portal to pay bills, "did you want to try and qualify for this new Visa card?"

      Launch and use an app, "leave a rating!"

      It's even a part of Windows now. When running through update prompts, setting up a Microsoft account is "yes" or "remind me in 3 days". The answer is no thank you!

      I want to be able say no! And don't ask me anymore, ever again! How often should a product be allowed to nag you into doing something you have absolutely no intention of doing? It feels like a situation where the dial on the nags could just keep getting turned up to try and force people into just submitting into whatever it is they're nagging us to do. They'll just keep prompting you over and over until you get fed up and just say yes.

      Is this mindset actively being pushed by large companies to take away our ability to say no, and stop asking? Are there rules in place for this kind of thing?

      178 votes
    6. The "X Factor" was never going to work

      Of all the changes Elon Musk brought to Twitter, the one I'm quite skeptical and cringed about is the renaming of the platform itself to "X". I don't know who advised him that this name could even...

      Of all the changes Elon Musk brought to Twitter, the one I'm quite skeptical and cringed about is the renaming of the platform itself to "X".

      I don't know who advised him that this name could even work at all. X is so generic a name that it doesn't really mean anything because it already stands for a lot of things, how can one even think that a whole new brand can be built out of it? For example, one of the first picture that comes to my mind is "X-Men" movie series and the famous Professor X. But from what I gather, Elon is more of an Iron Man fan boy than Prof X, right?

      The X-Men brand isn't some fluke, the Marvel folks have put some decent effort in creating that story line, plot, dialogs, sound and video effects, etc. to build the legend that it is. If me sitting here in India knows so much about X-Men series, I can only imagine the kind of cult it must have built in US, UK, etc.

      And who can forget the "X" variable in mathematics? It is often used for equations like (X2 + Y2). X is also very commonly used in discussions to denote an unknown quantity or factor. For example, "Let us assume that X is the demand factor for this new product.".

      I don't know about other parts of the world but at least here in India, almost every person I've talked to still calls the platform "Twitter" and not X! Indeed, as long as the domain twitter.com still works, one might be even correct or justified in calling it so. But who knows how long that domain is going to work.

      However, one of the noblest things for Musk to do in 2024 is to just revert or rollback this decision and restore back the "Twitter" brand. This is not just a popular demand but if I recall, Elon himself had often said that they will experiment with twitter and roll back what doesn't work? At least his top advisors or generals must strongly advice Elon to consider reverting this. Maybe they can come up with a slightly modified version of the Twitter logo with a different color and a bit of what Elon has in mind with respect to X? I'm sure there is no dearth of creativity in either Silicon Valley or Elon's team!

      30 votes
    7. Why do people make inflammatory posts and comments on LinkedIn?

      I go to LinkedIn to find work. My real name is there. My picture is there. My career history is there. There are many places on the Internet where I can anonymously post inflammatory opinions...

      I go to LinkedIn to find work.

      My real name is there. My picture is there. My career history is there.

      There are many places on the Internet where I can anonymously post inflammatory opinions without endangering my job, my career, or my reputation in my field.

      I kind of feel like that is the situation on for everyone else on LinkedIn too.

      So... why do some people post inflammatory opinions about politics and other non-career related subjects on that site?

      All risk and for zero gain.

      30 votes
    8. Fairphone Keep Club: Sustainable consumerism?

      As you may well know, Fairphone is a company that originally arose from a kickstarter campaign and makes phones that are as easily repairable, as sustainable and as fairly sourced as possible....

      As you may well know, Fairphone is a company that originally arose from a kickstarter campaign and makes phones that are as easily repairable, as sustainable and as fairly sourced as possible. They do have their issues, but compared to other big phone companies they've done a great job with this.

      Now it appears that Fairphone is due to announce the so called 'Fairphone Keep Club' on the 14th of September - a bonus program as we all know it. You buy stuff, you get points for what you buy, and when you've got enough points you can redeem them to buy more stuff.

      The keep club website claims that it's the only rewards program that gives back to those who keep their Fairphones as long as possible, but judging by the listed 'challenges' it appears that the most efficient way to gain points is to simply buy new stuff.

      Personally I'm a bit torn on this, due to the idealistic viewpoints I tend to judge Fairphone under in accordance with their stated sustainability goals. I do realize that is a much higher standard than the big-players in the phone industry achieve. I also get that Fairphone wants to build its brand identity and create incentives to keep customers and sell their products. But at the same time I can't help but think that in the end that program is an incentive to be less sustainable, as it ultimately provides you with those fancy points as a psychological incentive to buy the newest and latest Fairphone product.

      So I wanted to bring this topic into a wider community that may not currently be as deep in the Fairphone bubble: Do you think such bonus programs will rather help spread the idea of a more repairable, sustainable approach to phones, or will it rather serve as an incentive to artificially shorten a phone's lifecycle by prematurely buying a new one? And more generally speking: Do you think advertising strategies rooted in consumerism and classic capitalistic company goals are compatible with sustainable product lifecycles somehow, despite not exactly having aligned interests?

      Note that I also posted this on Lemmy. I'm interested to see how those discussions will compare.

      22 votes
    9. YouTube's privacy settings now block you from seeing suggested content

      I've always been a bit of a privacy enthousiast. Have had everything blocked that Google and by extension YouTube wants to scrape off you. This means I've also blocked my view history. Recently...

      I've always been a bit of a privacy enthousiast. Have had everything blocked that Google and by extension YouTube wants to scrape off you. This means I've also blocked my view history.

      Recently YouTube started giving out a warning on the homepage that you have blocked your view history, that you can change it in your privacy settings and that it helps them serve you better content. What it also means is that your homepage is just one big popup to guilt trip you into sharing your data. The homepage won't show any suggested content anymore.

      While it is in their interest to do so and since they are a company wanting to make money it is understandable. Nevertheless it seems harsh from going to see content that you might like to only seeing a big warning sign right now.

      What are you experiences with this?

      34 votes
    10. Are unwanted Reddit push notifications a new thing?

      I haven’t touched reddit since the APIcalyspe. I’m planning to delete my account but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I was a heavy Apollo user on iOS but never subscribed to it for its push...

      I haven’t touched reddit since the APIcalyspe. I’m planning to delete my account but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I was a heavy Apollo user on iOS but never subscribed to it for its push notification service, instead I kept the official reddit app installed and the only thing I used it for were its notifications. I still have both apps installed.

      Anyway, I was surprised to see one pop up yesterday, especially since it wasn’t connected to my user activity (a new private message or reply to an old comment of mine or something). The notification was just an ad. More specifically, it was promoting some trending post on the site that had “>12,000 upvotes.” In many many years of having the app installed I’ve never seen that before. Is it new?

      Reddit’s had a mildly antagonist relationship with its users for ages, but it feels like they are REALLY intensifying things now. I’m glad I got off the train when I did. And sorry for making yet another post about reddit, I think we’re all getting tired of harping on it here.

      53 votes
    11. Why is Elon Musk doing what he is to Twitter?

      From a non-MAGA’ers perspective; He took a perfectly fine (albeit starting to decline) social media platform with millions of users and derailed it completely from what it was before to a farce....

      From a non-MAGA’ers perspective;

      He took a perfectly fine (albeit starting to decline) social media platform with millions of users and derailed it completely from what it was before to a farce.

      Why even buy Twitter if you’re going to change the entire format, including the actual name of the brand? Why not build a competitor from the ground up and call it X?

      Unless you’re the melonhead billionaire your guess is better than mine, but I wonder if this bumbling incompetence is pre-orchestrated somehow or if he’s making it up as he goes.

      119 votes
    12. The problem with ChatGPT is that all of these websites like W3Schools and TutorialsPoint will go bankrupt

      ChatGPT got all of its information from these websites, but these websites still use advertising to gain revenue. When a user asks ChatGPT a question, instead of going to the site, it's using the...

      ChatGPT got all of its information from these websites, but these websites still use advertising to gain revenue. When a user asks ChatGPT a question, instead of going to the site, it's using the information stored on the site without giving the site any revenue.

      That's why they're being sued. (Also why Reddit is doing what it's doing with the API)

      What do we do? How can we keep these sites alive, and still make use of ChatGPT? I can write code and solve problems days faster than I used to now, but it seems kind of morally bankrupt of me to use this service which is so clearly putting the foundations it was built on out of business.

      41 votes
    13. What's the deal with copyright on Twitch?

      So, a friend of mine wants to become a Twitch streamer, commenting over movies. I never used Twitch. He showed me some channels over there that made me confused. There are dozens of channels...

      So, a friend of mine wants to become a Twitch streamer, commenting over movies. I never used Twitch. He showed me some channels over there that made me confused. There are dozens of channels entirely dedicated to people providing minimal commentary to entire movies, animes, and TV shows which are displayed in full, although not on full screen. And they seem to be monetized, otherwise why would anyone stream 5 to 10 hours a day? They have ads.

      I have a few questions.

      First, how is that legal? Why aren't copyright holders taking these channels down? Do people really care about a streamer that mumbles a single uninteresting word every few minutes, or it's all just an excuse to watch movies for free? Why the same content that will get your video taken down on YouTube is apparently okay on Twitch?

      18 votes
    14. User accountability and complicated technologies

      I've been thinking about the arguments that are increasingly common when dealing with tech: "it's too complicated" and "I just want something that works". My father gifted a used computer to me...

      I've been thinking about the arguments that are increasingly common when dealing with tech: "it's too complicated" and "I just want something that works".

      My father gifted a used computer to me and my brother when we were kids. Ours to use, ours to take care. He would pay for the eventual screw up, but we had to walk several blocks carrying the tower to get assistance.

      I messed up a lot over the years, mostly because I wanted to explore the little that I knew and learn more. I had some magazines that expected everything to go well if instructions were followed and no access to internet forums to ask for help. I was limited to just one language as well. I had to find a way out. Nowadays things are much more simple and really just work, until they don't and I can't really fix them.

      In this world, what people can do is complain. Or offer a report of how things went wrong and wait patiently. It's not even that common for people in general to just go back to the version that worked. There's no version, only the app we use or can't use and it's not our responsibility any kind of maintenance.

      I have to confess I was going in another direction when I started, but things are really limited from a consumer's point of view. In part, it's our fault for not wanting to deal with the burden of knowledge, it inevitably takes the control away from us, but big tech really approves and incentives this behavior.

      As with so many problems I see in the world, education is the solution. And educating ourselves might be the only dependable option.

      10 votes
    15. The small web and minimalist websites - what are your thoughts and experiences?

      I'm a supporter and believer in the small web and minimalist websites (i.e. NOT "minimal design" websites, which are not minimalist more often than not). Some examples: Tildes. Sourcehut....

      I'm a supporter and believer in the small web and minimalist websites (i.e. NOT "minimal design" websites, which are not minimalist more often than not).
      Some examples:

      What is your experience, if any, with the small web?
      Which steps have you taken (if at all) to ensure your website is not bloated?
      What do you think can be done better both individually as well as globally to make the web a nicer, faster place?

      Edit: So I don’t look like I don’t practice what I preach, this is my blog. I try and follow the minimalist principles.

      75 votes
    16. Are phones really listening to us at all times?

      Had an interesting conversation with my colleagues this morning. We were pretty split whether phones listen to us for advertising or not. On one hand, we anecdotally see Google news and ad...

      Had an interesting conversation with my colleagues this morning. We were pretty split whether phones listen to us for advertising or not.

      On one hand, we anecdotally see Google news and ad suggestions based on what we say. We know our mics are on at all times for voice assistant and music detection. But we also read online talking about how there is no evidence about the phones recording us. It's hard to trust anything nowadays.

      67 votes
    17. Dumb internet ideas

      Hello people, This is my first post, so if you have any tips, please tell them For a number of years I've thought about the idea that the experiment of the "free" internet has failed. Around...

      Hello people,
      This is my first post, so if you have any tips, please tell them

      For a number of years I've thought about the idea that the experiment of the "free" internet has failed.
      Around fifteen years ago the only goal of social media was to grow and how to make money was an afterthought. Now that investment money is drying up and websites like Reddit and Twitter are trying their best to find a way to become profitable, I'm thinking again of the idea that the "free" internet doesn't exist.
      Small niche websites are able to exist on donations, but they aren't reliable and people aren't willing to pay a random single access fee or subscription for a website they don't know. Streaming has found an audience, but that has become close to the tv model.

      So I thought:
      What if your ISP has to pay a website a fee everytime a user accesses the website?
      Of course you have to think about how that payment works and how this system can be abused.
      I expect the system to work like music streaming, where an artist gets a certain amount of money per stream.
      I am curious how the internet developes with this system. If smaller websites can exist without having to rely on adverstisements or if it might even get profitable. How these websites get paid and how IPS's will handle this (I expect monthly fees to become 10 euros/dollars etc. more expensive).

      What do you think of this idea or do you have your own (dumb) idea?

      13 votes
    18. Is Apple's "walled garden" as bad as it was when the first few iPhones came out?

      I've never owned macs for desktop use because of the expense and my general preference for windows pcs. I had a first or second gen iPhone and was incredibly frustrated by how limited it was - you...

      I've never owned macs for desktop use because of the expense and my general preference for windows pcs.

      I had a first or second gen iPhone and was incredibly frustrated by how limited it was - you couldn't set an alternate default browser, access your own file system, customize you home screen, etc, etc. So I've been an Android user since then.

      I'm not really looking to make a switch for either phone or PC, but my brother bought an Apple watch which spurred a conversation that made me realize I don't really know if the issues that bugged me about Apple are still relevant in 2023.

      Anyone want to weigh in?

      32 votes
    19. I, like many of you came from Reddit. But what brought you to Reddit?

      I've heard much about the great Digg migration but I found Reddit through different means. Any of you hear of mfisn? It was my Reddit before Reddit. A bare bones link sharing community where a...

      I've heard much about the great Digg migration but I found Reddit through different means.

      Any of you hear of mfisn? It was my Reddit before Reddit. A bare bones link sharing community where a number of registered users could share links. Unregistered users could suggest links that I guess a registered user could approve? I remember sharing links to movie trailers there. I found Reddit years later after googling it and finding a Reddit post asking about it. And that's how I fell into Reddit.

      I discovered mfisn through cookiethievery, a yourethemannowdog-esque page that had a rotation of repeating animations set to a short music loop. And I vaguely recall finding that through an AIM buddy's profile...? Either that or albinoblacksheep.

      Any of you have a traceable lineage of Internet communities you've passed through? What were your pre-Reddit internet go-to sites? Are they still around?

      142 votes
    20. Thoughts on link aggregators vs communities, and other musings

      I recently made a post here on Tildes in ~food about a pizza I made, and linked it to an Imgur album showing part of the process. This seemed interesting to me, and didn't think of it as an image...

      I recently made a post here on Tildes in ~food about a pizza I made, and linked it to an Imgur album showing part of the process. This seemed interesting to me, and didn't think of it as an image post per-se. While most of the responses were positive, and we talked about pizza-making, it clearly did upset some people who viewed it as an image-only post.

      Thinking through things, image only posts can be a bad thing - but there are plenty of good reasons to make image posts as well. Would images always be ok if they are original content? Certainly doesn't completely eliminate the possibility for people to shitpost, but does reduce it considerably.

      Would it be acceptable to allow image posts, but require a certain number of words/characters attached to each post? This seems like it would be pretty easy to implement, and forces the user to actually make some effort, as opposed to just "karma farming".

      AND ANOTHER THING!

      Subscriptions. I would really like to see more specialized groups/communities here, and the current implementation I see is encouraging. ~games now has sub-groups, ~games.tabletop and ~games.gamedesign. This same system could be extended to sports. ~sports.motorsport.formula1, ~sports.esports.leagueoflegends, etc.

      55 votes
    21. To those who started using Lemmy recently, what are your impressions so far on its content and discussions?

      I'll admit that I am a new user to Lemmy as a way to replace reddit in my free time, so a lot of my opinions will be relative to it. So far I've found it decent. I won't comment much on the UX or...

      I'll admit that I am a new user to Lemmy as a way to replace reddit in my free time, so a lot of my opinions will be relative to it. So far I've found it decent. I won't comment much on the UX or functionality, since I think it wouldn't be fair to criticize a fairly new platform in that way. I won't try to compare it to Tildes either, since I think they are very different in scope and purpose. I will say that the discussions in tildes are higher quality than both reddit and lemmy on average.

      Overall the experience for me has been hit or miss. Joining a smaller server relevant to my interests was a good move. I joined SDF's instance and the people there are very friendly, and I enjoy the tech-forward posts. Throughout the fediverse as a whole, the discussions felt shorter and not as good as even reddit.

      The posts and discussion on the larger instances to me felt a little immature. Generally I came across a lot of: (1) hyper-contrarians--it reminds me somewhat of linux/oss forums that skew younger. Lots of circlejerking the common themes/in-jokes/ideals of the free-software circles. (2) reddit-bad circlejerking (3) mediocre memes

      I also came across a few very thoughtful discussions related to the fediverse regarding its place in the world, the sort of content that would do well, and the culture of its members. I'm very excited to watch the more niche communities grow. I'll admit that I miss reddit somewhat for music discovery and the smaller genre subs (although not enough to spend my time there again).

      After a few months, I haven't felt compelled to visit reddit nor really Lemmy all that often, since I think both suffer from the same immaturity and hivemind thinking.

      What do you all feel about Lemmy so far? Any good community recommendations? (Especially for music :) )

      41 votes
    22. What are your thoughts on Meta's plans to federate through ActivityPub?

      Meta's new app, Instagram Threads, is planning to be compatible with the ActivityPub protocol. This means it will be possible to federate with services such as Mastodon. I became aware of this as...

      Meta's new app, Instagram Threads, is planning to be compatible with the ActivityPub protocol. This means it will be possible to federate with services such as Mastodon.

      I became aware of this as my Mastodon admin talked about being approached by Meta to discuss federation. Many other large instances have been approached too. There is a general apprehension about federating with Threads, with many instances (including mine) saying outright that they will not federate with any Meta product.

      Personally, I think this is an advantage of federation. I can continue to use Mastodon and choose whether I want an instance that interacts with Meta or not.

      I definitely understand the apprehension with providing all of your data/information to a company not exactly known for their good handling of data/information, but I'm also not as against it as some people seem to be. If they are going to create a service like this, I'd rather it was federated than a walled garden.

      How do you feel?

      44 votes
    23. As humans, can we make way more ethical and utilitarian use of technology and internet than is currently happening?

      Rewind yourself back by about two decades from now when the Berners Lee basic protocols like HTTP and HTML were just being formed and the internet as we know it was just being prepared (those who...

      Rewind yourself back by about two decades from now when the Berners Lee basic protocols like HTTP and HTML were just being formed and the internet as we know it was just being prepared (those who weren't born can also visualize it as enough documentation and information exists).

      What a world of opportunities it was and what a promising future. It felt you could do almost anything with the help of this new technology, irrespective of your race, gender, caste, creed, religion and even social status.

      The promise of the information superhighway was that an ordinary pleb will have as many opportunities as those at the top, isn't it? Do you think that promise has been fulfilled today? Do you think we have made at least decent use (if not the best possible use) of this technology?

      Now, I'm not saying everything is in doom and gloom, far from it as computing power has enabled the masses to do lot's of things they could only dream of in the 1990s! Opening your smartphone in the middle of a street and having a video call with a friend was like a fantasy dream in those days (at least for the ordinary pleb).

      There are many other great achievements too like cheap hardware which is light years ahead (relatively speaking), apps that let you control all aspects of your lives from finances to health to work in a matter of a few taps.

      But on the other hand, we have let a few large entities thrive and create massive monopolies on these very technologies we happen to use. Efforts at open source and digital rights and freedoms took on until about late 2000s but then started fading. Today, we have those very entities which are trying to curb user's freedoms heading and/or controlling organizations like OSI, Linux Foundation, Mozilla Corp., Red Hat, etc. which are supposed to act like stewards of our digital freedoms. The situation today is very gloomy in the sense that many of the digital freedoms that our predecessors fought for are on the verge of getting lost today at the hands of surveillance capitalism and we (as collective society of humans) are responsible for it.

      Can we take an oath today to make as much ethical use of technologies like internet as possible? To act in as much a manner as possible that preserves the digital rights and freedoms of the common individual or pleb in the society like you and me?

      I believe that's the only progressive and better path for humanity.

      36 votes
    24. What is a lesser known, yet interesting, internet rabbit hole you've stumbled upon?

      There was one which i found a long time ago via a post on r/nexpo or something similar about a subreddit which appeared to be some sort of cult, i dont really remember the details now though....

      There was one which i found a long time ago via a post on r/nexpo or something similar about a subreddit which appeared to be some sort of cult, i dont really remember the details now though. Also, apologies if this isn't the right board.

      73 votes
    25. Are we stuck on a innovation plateau - and did startups burn through fifteen years of venture capital with nothing to show for?

      The theses I would like to discuss goes as follows (and I'm paraphrasing): during the last 15 years, low interest rates made billions of dollars easily available to startups. Unfortunately, this...

      The theses I would like to discuss goes as follows (and I'm paraphrasing): during the last 15 years, low interest rates made billions of dollars easily available to startups. Unfortunately, this huge influx of venture capital has led to no perceivable innovation.

      Put cynically, the innovation startups have brought us across the last 15 years can be summarized as (paraphrasing again):

      • An illegal hotel chain destroying our cities
      • An illegal taxi company exploiting the poor
      • Fake money for criminals
      • A plagiarism machine/fancy auto-complete

      Everything else is either derivative or has failed.

      I personally think spaceX has made phenomenal progress and would have probably failed somewhere along the way without cheap loans. There's also some biotech startups (like the mRNA vaccines that won the race to market during covid) doing great things, but often that's just the fruits of 20 years of research coming to fruition.

      Every other recent innovation I can think of came from a big player that would have invested in the tech regardless, and almost all of it is "just" incremental improvements on several decades old ideas (I know, that's what progress looks like most of the time).

      What do you think? Do you have any counterexamples? Can you think of any big tech disruptions after quantitative easing made money almost free in 2008?

      And if you, like me, feel like we're stuck on a plateau - why do you think that is?

      83 votes
    26. Thoughts on the Proton app suite on Apple products?

      I am curious to see what other peoples experience has been with all of their apps? I made the decision to switch to proton for mail, drive, calendar and vpn 7 months ago. I wanted to get away from...

      I am curious to see what other peoples experience has been with all of their apps?

      I made the decision to switch to proton for mail, drive, calendar and vpn 7 months ago. I wanted to get away from having all my stuff tied to apple/google/microsoft. While it has been pretty solid for the most part, especially with android. The same cannot be said for their iOS/iPadOS apps at all. This will be my personal observation from my experience with iOS/iPadOS apps.

      Mail - Pretty solid all around experience, timely notifications on incoming mail. I have 4 email addresses setup based on the type of account I used for them. I only get bothered by the emails that I would need to see and the rest get checked around once a day. Recently the whole app on both iPad and iPhone has just slowed down so much. Opening the app is frustratingly slow, while everything loads in. I will get a new email and click on the notification and the app will sometimes load the last email I viewed and not the one from the notification. I have cleared the cache and signed out and then back in and it still has this behavior.

      Drive - This one is the biggest pain point for me. On iPhone the app crashes when you try to watch a video in landscape mode. This is a pretty basic feature in 2023 if you ask me. I did report the bug, to which they said they are aware and have no timeline for when it will be fixed. The next biggest issue with drive on iOS/iPadOS is that you can only upload 1 file at a time. If you do multiple files if not all, almost all of them will fail to upload. You have to do it 1 file at a time. Reported this and was told the same thing I was about the landscape mode. Seems odd to not want to fix a core function of a cloud storage app as soon as possible.

      VPN - I really enjoy this vpn and have paid for just the vpn in past. Now it constantly disconnects or gets stuck in connecting. I can’t use quick connect unless I manually pick a country connect then disconnect. After that I can use quick connect with out any issues. This happens without having secure core toggle on. This is happening on both my iPad and iPhone. Waiting on them to actually help trouble shoot this after sending them a bug report.

      Calendar - Is the most useless app they have every put out. I was so excited to finally dial this calendar app in when I got my iPad. Only to find out that they don’t have an iPad version of their calendar. Which makes no sense because that is an app that can really shine on an iPad when do well. This whole app just feels like an after thought and they only have it just to say we have a calendar app too.

      I feel that compared to when I started using all of their apps back in December. The quality and stability of the apps has really taken a hit. I understand that they probably have a focus on building their brand with an app suite based on privacy. I feel like the quality is really taking a hit especially with iOS/iPadOS versions of the apps. The obvious answer is to just switch back to android and save myself the headache of apple. The reason for apple is a whole post in its own and I want to keep this one on topic.

      For clarification, I have been using the iOS versions since December. I was switching between pixel 7 pro and 14 pro max every few weeks. Having an eco system of apps not based on either platform was also why I chose proton everything.

      11 votes
    27. Any Tasker users around?

      I just recently joined Tildes (absolutely loving it so far, by the way) and also recently left Reddit. r/Tasker will probably be the hardest for me to let go of since I'm an avid Tasker fan/user,...

      I just recently joined Tildes (absolutely loving it so far, by the way) and also recently left Reddit.

      r/Tasker will probably be the hardest for me to let go of since I'm an avid Tasker fan/user, so I'm just trying to gauge the audience for that type of discussion and topics here on Tildes.

      I'm not as big of a power user in phone automation as I would like to become but I'm fairly savvy and am learning more all the time.

      15 votes
    28. Are any AI virtual assistants actually useful?

      AI Virtual Assistants are on the rise, and logically it seems like I could use one to support productivity, small business, neurodivergent accomodations, etc., BUT, when reviewing what's out there...

      AI Virtual Assistants are on the rise, and logically it seems like I could use one to support productivity, small business, neurodivergent accomodations, etc., BUT, when reviewing what's out there they don't seem super useful.

      Otter seems the most useful because it can attend web meetings and record, contextualize screenshares, and sift the transcripts into action items, but it cant go to all webinar services and I'm not sure I can log into this in a corporate platform. Others seem to be able to check a calendar or make a reminder, but nothing I would pay for.

      Some use cases might be gathering basic info from clients, scheduling meetings (calendly can handle this), blocking time for my task lists, writing basic email drafts, adding up expenses each month, sending reminders for customers, etc.

      All of this could happen with various tools, but seem like good territory for an AI Virtual Assistant.

      So, have you found any AI VAs that would be worth paying for? Anything that saves time or makes life easier?

      23 votes
    29. Why are we often hesitant to spend money on digital services?

      This is sort of a "does anyone else?" type question, but I think it can create some interesting discussion. We have become accustomed to having many things for free online. Search, social media,...

      This is sort of a "does anyone else?" type question, but I think it can create some interesting discussion.

      We have become accustomed to having many things for free online. Search, social media, news, videos, games etc. The price of course is ads and our personal data. But spending money on these kinds of services that exists for free sometimes feels like a hurdle to overcome. I recently gave the paid search engine Kagi a try, and I spent way too much time pondering whether it was worth the $5. Yet I can spend ten times as much on random physical purchases or a round drinks with only a few seconds of decision making.

      Even though we have lived with digital products for decades now, having something tangible and physical between your fingers still feels better. With some exceptions, because most people are paying for streaming services but renting movies in the video store have always cost money, so we are used to that - unlike stuff like search and email which many of us have gotten used to being available for free.

      Can this ever change outside very tech-minded people? Because services that rely on subscriptions rather than dataharvesting and ads do exist, but with the exceptions of maybe the big streaming services, few get wider appeal and the masses flock to the so-called free services instead. I find it almost depressing that we have all these brilliant and innovative tech companies around the world doing amazing things, but a good deal of it all ends up with the goal of showing more ads. It is hard to compete with free, but is it possible to challenge the current most successful business model of "paying" with ads and data?

      36 votes
    30. The social web is in a transition period

      Have you been visiting just too many different social media platforms lately, checking them out to see what the deal is? Well, same here. It feels like I've been a guest every night in different...

      Have you been visiting just too many different social media platforms lately, checking them out to see what the deal is? Well, same here. It feels like I've been a guest every night in different houses for the past month and I must say: I am exhausted.

      But it's not over, far from it.

      And I'm here to give you a heads up: we've witnessed platforms dying in the past, I'm guessing most of us have been a part of some sort of digital exodus before but I have a feeling that this one is going to be more painful.

      Mainly because we've created so much data over the years and the majority of it got collected by centralised platforms. There are very few ways to take it with us and move elsewhere, it's all locked in.

      Backing up your data now would also be a good idea, before some CEO comes with up the plan that it should be a paid feature.

      I just want to say that this is all to be expected because the social web is in a transition period, and that golden bookmark doesn't exist yet. However, I think there are some contenders for it. What I want to ask is: where will you go next?

      I've got some ideas, feel free to add your preference if I'm missing anything.

      • Threads: Meta's Twitter clone that will be out some time this summer. It will be a federated (ActivityPub-enabled) platform.
      • Bluesky: Jack Dorsey-backed Twitter clone. This one is also federated but it uses AT Protocol.
      • Mastodon: The Twitter clone. It's got a fairly large userbase now, with lots of instances to choose from.
      • Blog: Maybe it's not a bad idea to set up shop on a platform like Micro.blog (which is ActivityPub-enabled and has got community features built-in) and lead a quiet digital life.
      • Threadiverse: Reddit-alikes.
      39 votes
    31. I kind of feel bad for spez.. what would you do if you were in that position?

      I have never been a leader at a big company (or anywhere...), and honestly I am pretty ignorant when it comes to money and business, so maybe that's why I feel this way but... isn't this what...

      I have never been a leader at a big company (or anywhere...), and honestly I am pretty ignorant when it comes to money and business, so maybe that's why I feel this way but... isn't this what for-profit companies ultimately are supposed to do? (make money?)

      Reddit is blowing up today over his internal memo, and that's when I kind of started to feel bad for him. Wouldn't an internal memo be expected at a time right now? Wouldn't it say that kind of stuff? I'm just curious but for others, if you were in his position, what would you do right now? Is there a better move to be made? What should he have said in that memo? I kind of feel bad for him. At the end of the day he helped create reddit, and it must kind of suck to watch your own project devolve and people come to hate you.

      The thing about this API decision that got to me is how abrupt it was - 30 days or thereabout. That doesn't seem like very long. But aren't these decisions usually made by multiple people? (not just a CEO?) I also think it sucks that reddit app hasn't been made accessible to vision impaired folks. So maybe he sucks as a leader, but is that a reason to hate him?

      I'd love to better understand.

      51 votes
    32. Among the three major operating systems, which one cares the most about their user's privacy?

      Here are my views on this: Windows: The Windows attitude towards privacy isn't good with their telemetry and other data collection increasing gradually from 8 to 10 to 11. In fact, most geeks...

      Here are my views on this:

      • Windows: The Windows attitude towards privacy isn't good with their telemetry and other data collection increasing gradually from 8 to 10 to 11. In fact, most geeks across the support forums think that 7 is probably the safest and most privacy friendly Windows version but MS is doing everything it can to ensure that newer software doesn't support 7 and it just goes into obsolescence.

        The "default" state in which a W10/11 laptop comes today is so privacy unfriendly that it sends all kinds of data like contacts, location, etc. to Microsoft and their "trusted partners". You can't turn off this data unless you've visited power user forums and know exactly where to find those settings, and basic telemetry still won't be disabled of course.

        As ironic and unintuitive as it sounds, Microsoft Windows was probably much better in privacy department during the bad old days of Gates and Ballmer compared to the good "open source and geek friendly" days of Satya Nadella!

      • Mac: Apple systems should ideally be privacy friendly considering the amount of premium they charge to their products and services. But how well does that work in practice? I've never used an Apple product but those who use them seem to have the impression that they're no good in this department compared to others.
        Logic tells me that a more capitalist devil should be no different than the less capitalist one, they're probably all the same when it comes to throwing user's privacy in the bin!

      • Linux: Linux used to be the holy grail of users who cared about privacy many years ago but does that still hold good today? Ubuntu was also in some data collection controversy or other many times in past, but how are the state of things today? And what about the derivative distros, are they good too?

      13 votes
    33. Exciting, unlikely, or weird applications for AR-in-VR

      I'm really excited for the release of the Apple Vision Pro since this seems like a major shift in how we might be interacting with computers in the future. On the mundane things, I'd like to be...

      I'm really excited for the release of the Apple Vision Pro since this seems like a major shift in how we might be interacting with computers in the future.

      On the mundane things, I'd like to be able to browse the web and read articles and books while walking my dog, without craning my neck down or being oblivious to my surroundings.

      However, I've had a couple ideas where the tech might go or unexpected use-cases.

      1. HUD and computer interface while driving with an emphasis on voice control and navigation. This would be far superior to touchscreen center consoles. If apple ever launches a car, I would expect the Vision to be the primary interface.
      2. Changing the "time of day" of the environment, like a sunrise alarm clock on steroids for helping those on night shift with nonstandard circadian rhythm.
      3. Altering your appearance perceived by others. Could be as subtle as wardrobe changes, presenting as a different gender, or a persona that's not human (like a fursona).

      What other cool use cases can you think of, in a world where you can seamlessly manipulate the visual and auditory world around you?

      16 votes
    34. Apple Vision Pro and Vision OS Review Megathread

      I figured it'll be easiest to consolidate discussion of all these in one place. As you find more good, thoughtful ones feel free to comment it and I'll edit them into this list. Overall...

      I figured it'll be easiest to consolidate discussion of all these in one place. As you find more good, thoughtful ones feel free to comment it and I'll edit them into this list.

      Overall impressions seem very positive. LTT, in particular, tends to be pretty comfortable being critical of Apple and even he seems impressed (though I think his is the only review that doesn't have a hands-on component.

      The Bloggers:

      Daring Fireball: https://daringfireball.net/2023/06/first_impressions_of_vision_pro_and_visionos
      Nilay Patel: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/5/23750003/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-the-best-headset-demo-ever

      The Vloggers:

      iJustine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtCEGztr8cw
      MKBHD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFvXuyITwBI&t=917s
      Linus Tech Tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqB0lUcqFbA
      Snazzy Labs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUblFIaZKIk
      Norman Chan (via Adam Savage Tested): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0HBzePUmZ0

      30 votes
    35. When was the golden age of the internet to you?

      I think most of us probably agree that browsing the net and taking part in online communities used to have more of an allure, and that in recent years the online experience has been really...

      I think most of us probably agree that browsing the net and taking part in online communities used to have more of an allure, and that in recent years the online experience has been really negatively affected by corporate and cultural trends. At the same time, I have a feeling that many of us probably disagree about when the "golden age" was, and probably disagree even more strongly on what made the golden age so great. So I am curious, what was the golden age of the internet to you? What time or era did you get the most enjoyment and fulfillment out of being online, and what about that era made it so?

      44 votes
    36. What's your p(doom)?

      Now that ChatGPT's been around for long enough to become a quotidian fixture, I think most of us have realized that we're closer than expected to generalized artificial intelligence (or at least a...

      Now that ChatGPT's been around for long enough to become a quotidian fixture, I think most of us have realized that we're closer than expected to generalized artificial intelligence (or at least a reasonable facsimile of it), even when comparing to just a couple years ago.

      OG AI doomers like Eliezer Yudkowsky seem a little less nutty nowadays. Even for those of us who still doubt the inevitably of the AI apocalypse, the idea has at least become conceivable.

      In fact, the concept of an AI apocalypse has become mainstream enough to gain a cute moniker: p(doom), i.e. the (prior) probability that AI will inflict an existential crisis on humanity.

      So for funsies, I ask my dear tilderinos: what is your p(doom)? How do you define an "existential crisis" (e.g., 90%+ population lost)? Why did you chose your prior? How would you change public policy to address your p(doom)?

      14 votes
    37. What will "classically trained" look like for computer science and digital literacy?

      This might be a weird framing but it's been bugging me for a few days. Many fields have a concept of classical training -- this is most common in music but applies in the humanities and many other...

      This might be a weird framing but it's been bugging me for a few days. Many fields have a concept of classical training -- this is most common in music but applies in the humanities and many other areas. For example I do a lot of CAD work for my job, but I received what I would consider a "classical education" in design...I learned to draft by hand and physically model before I was ever allowed to work digitally. I got a lot of value out of this approach and it still informs the way I work today.

      A lot of people view computers and technology as modern and almost anti-classical, but as the tech industry matures and the internet moves from something shiny and new to something foundational to our society, what will the new classicism look like?

      Thanks for reading my question.

      14 votes
    38. ChatGPT part 2: Let’s talk implications

      The previous thread is pretty crowded with running a variety of prompts. I would like to create a separate one dedicated to talking about the implications and applications of such AI systems in...

      The previous thread is pretty crowded with running a variety of prompts. I would like to create a separate one dedicated to talking about the implications and applications of such AI systems in the everyday world.

      19 votes
    39. Let's talk about ChatGPT

      Edit: Some interactions with the bot I posted in the comments, if you are curious about potential prompts: https://tildes.net/~tech/13lj/lets_talk_about_chatgpt#comment-7lw6 I have been...

      Edit: Some interactions with the bot I posted in the comments, if you are curious about potential prompts: https://tildes.net/~tech/13lj/lets_talk_about_chatgpt#comment-7lw6


      I have been obsessively reading about ChatGPT since it came out. I'm going to skip introducing it for those who don't know yet (please go ahead and click the link, and do some googling), because I just.. need to vent.

      I have experimented with it. A bunch. I'm also pretty familiar with GPT's capabilities from before. And ChatGPT still took me by surprise.

      Still, as of four days ago, I did not believe we were there yet. Hell, I didn't believe we would get there within my lifetime, and now, it's there.

      "But Adys, you don't understand the limitations!"

      Yeah, no, see, I understand the limitations. I understand this is the version that is still in its infancy, is crippled by stupid decisions from OpenAI, is not running on GPT-4 yet, and doesn't yet have things such as some layer of eg. checking correctness.

      But I also understand the potential. HN has been full of people crying out how we're not at AGI yet but DOES THIS MATTER? Planes are still decades away from displacing most bird jobs.

      I think anyone who isn't currently in utter shock at how good ChatGPT is, is either:

      • Somehow woefully misinformed (eg. the less tech literates I've shown it to have asked me "Can't Siri do this?")
      • In complete denial about the potential of the technology
      • Utterly thick

      I want to cry on every corner of every street that we are at the edge of the AI revolution.

      The "problems" that are left are not necessarily easy, but they're also not necessarily hard. For example, GPT's tendency to bullshit is problematic but there are ways to verify output, and those ways can themselves be automated and feed back into GPT.

      I have never, in my life, been so taken aback by a technological advancement. I'm flashing back to the scene in Westworld: "It's not possible. Technology isn't there yet."

      Like, no, this isn't skynet, person of interest, westworld, or anything like this. But it is something. Something very different, very unique. The world is about to completely change. And I want to stress this: EVERYONE I've seen argue against this has been in very obvious denial. I'll be happy to hear you out if you disagree, but if your only argument is that this isn't exactly the AI you expected / it can't solve the exact problem you throw at it, I'll refer you to better birds and faster horses.

      37 votes
    40. An idea how to monetize social software

      I wrote the following as a Twitter thread first but I think this idea could work for Reddit/Tildes/Mastadon and would love to know what you folks think of it. Here is how I would monetize a social...

      I wrote the following as a Twitter thread first but I think this idea could work for Reddit/Tildes/Mastadon and would love to know what you folks think of it.

      Here is how I would monetize a social network that could work for Twitter.

      First of all, don’t charge your most valuable users - the power users that create the content for you. Instead focus on the users that get more value from your system - the consumers of the content.

      The idea is simple - introduce a small time delay before content gets seen from the time it is published. For example, on Twitter it could be 1 minute. On Reddit it could be 10 minutes.

      Paid subscribers would have no delay. Importantly - lift the delay for the users that generate a lot of views.

      You can do revenue share with your content creators in proportion to how much time paid subscribers spent on their content.

      And you can also identify your most valuable audience - the paid subscribers. This will help prioritize content moderation decisions, identify abuse, and prioritize appeals.

      The delay would allow you to prioritize which content needs to be indexed instantly (ie from creators that paid subscribers are following) and which you can process on a best effort basis - saving on production costs.

      You can gift subscriptions to your friends and family.

      7 votes
    41. One month with Kagi search

      Toward the end of August, I signed up for a trial of Kagi -- a privacy-focused search engine. You get 50 free searches, and then, if you want to continue, you can convert to a paid account at $10...

      Toward the end of August, I signed up for a trial of Kagi -- a privacy-focused search engine.

      You get 50 free searches, and then, if you want to continue, you can convert to a paid account at $10 a month.

      I mentioned here that I wasn't planning on converting to paid, as $10/month felt very steep and I didn't think I could make it my default search on my iOS phone, but @pallas's comment here ultimately made me want to give it a try.

      Thus, I dropped the $10 bucks to turn the free trial into a paid one-month trial.

      I'm very glad that I did.

      The free trial itself was actually not very convincing to me. Knowing that I had limited searches and not wanting to run through them more than I needed, my searches were in the single digits each day. I was very judicious about what I searched and how I typed it. Furthermore, I kicked myself if I instinctively typed something like "imdb everything everywhere all at once" into Firefox's search bar instead of going to imdb.com and then typing in the movie title, as that meant I'd wasted 2% of my allotment on what wasn't technically a search but more of an internet navigation optimization.

      On the searches I did I felt like I got good results, but I wasn't sure if that was because of the quality of the service or if it was because I'd simply thought more about what I was actually typing in. Also, the trial made me way too aware that I was searching with limited queries to really make me feel at ease about actually using the service.

      Now that I've paid for a month, however, I've just used it as a stand-in for how I used to use DuckDuckGo -- "wikipedia steam deck"-style searches and all.

      Kagi doesn't track your search contents, but they do track your number of searches. I have completed roughly 400 searches this month, which Kagi says costs roughly $5.00 out of the $10.00 that I paid them. I don't know nearly enough about any of this to know whether this is an accurate accounting of actual costs or overstating things, but I will say that the $10 price that I initially felt was steep has looked a lot more worth spending after a month on the service.

      Kagi generally finds what I'm looking for within the first link. If it's not the top link, it's in the top 3. Furthermore, it seems to dredge up less junk. With DuckDuckGo, I loved that I wasn't being tracked for the purposes of advertising, but it felt like DDG had no problem serving me pages that were built specifically for that purpose. I'd often look up product reviews and get re-routed to sites that appeared to be nothing more than machine-generated lists of recommendations with Amazon affiliate links. I've had to deal with less of these while on Kagi. Some of them still come up, but they're either further down the rankings or they're put into their own "Listicles" section.

      Where Kagi really shines though, is local searches. Pretty much the only time I would bang through to Google from DDG was for local stuff. I don't know if it's my location in particular, but DDG is not great about giving me things that are specific to my area, often preferring to give me a smattering of things that are from similarly named locales from elsewhere around the world. Kagi, on the other hand, gives me the kind of local results I get from Google.

      Most local searches of that type tend to come from my phone, and this also helped me understand that better search on a phone matters WAY more than better search on desktop. The smaller screen and limited view means that it's significantly more important for the top result to be the one I want on my phone than it is on desktop. As such, Kagi is winning me over because it's made mobile searching frictionless -- something I couldn't say for DDG. That aspect alone is probably going to be what keeps me on the service. I'm planning on paying for at least another month, though after that I might go back to DDG for a month to see how I feel in comparison.

      I mentioned earlier that I didn't think I could make it a default search on iOS. I mistakenly thought Apple had that locked down? Turns out it's actually possible through an app. Also, Kagi apparently has an entire browser for macOS/iOS. I tried it out and it works quite nicely, though AdGuard+Safari seemed to do a bit better ad-blocking than the stuff they'd built into Orion, so I've stayed on Safari.

      There's actually a whole lot of cool looking power-user stuff on offer from Kagi (you can individually prioritize and de-prioritize specific domains across your searches, for example), but I'm not the kind of user that needs significant search depth, so I can't really speak to anything other than the standard search experience.

      What I can say is that I've been very happy with that experience so far.

      Also, it should hopefully go without saying, but this post isn't sponsored in any way nor was I requested to post it by Kagi. This is me choosing to give my own experiences with the service because I thought people here might be interested.

      26 votes
    42. Should the Steam Deck just be a gaming tablet?

      I struck me while using my Steam Deck the other day to watch Twitch that the device has almost everything it needs to provide users with a tablet-like experience alongside being a gaming device....

      I struck me while using my Steam Deck the other day to watch Twitch that the device has almost everything it needs to provide users with a tablet-like experience alongside being a gaming device. When you're not in desktop mode Steam provides you with a high quality UI optimized for many of the same constraints as a tablet. For "great on deck" games and the store/library UI you get an easily navigable touch screen-supporting experience. If Valve can bring in Android apps for Twitch, YouTube etc. we could get that kind of experience universally.

      Desktop mode can peacefully co-exist with a tablet experience as you will switch between the two distinct modes of operation. This seems like a great way to capture a market of users normally turned off by ideas of tablets replacing their normal computers. I haven't used a tablet in years but I would use one that was a full Linux gaming OS at the same time.

      8 votes
    43. My experience with Windows 10

      I'm a longtime Linux user, and I haven't used Windows in a while aside from just launching games from Steam on my living room computer, but my new work laptop is Microsoft's flagship Surface Pro 4...

      I'm a longtime Linux user, and I haven't used Windows in a while aside from just launching games from Steam on my living room computer, but my new work laptop is Microsoft's flagship Surface Pro 4 so I figured it'd be the best experience you can have on a Windows machine.

      I got the laptop in yesterday, and here's the summary of my experience:

      • I am required by IT to use Chrome. To install Chrome, I had to click through no fewer than three "Are you sure you don't want to use Microsoft's more secure, faster browser?" banners to do so.

      • When I plug in my external monitor, by default, the two monitors were mirrored; when I went into display settings, it didn't show the external monitor until I closed and reopened the settings menu.

      • I have an Apple Magic Touchpad 2, and I had some issues getting it set up on Ubuntu 20.04 when I initially got it. These problems are now solved on the latest version of Ubuntu, but I was expecting a nice contrast in a good plug-and-play experience on Windows. Instead, I had to install sketchy drivers from some random GitHub page to get it to work properly.

      • I've had some minor annoyances with my audio interface (a Zoom R-22) not being set as the default when I want it to be on Ubuntu, and I was really looking forward to getting a smooth video calling experience with my nice mic and interface on Windows. Lo and behold, the R-22 audio input - the whole reason I have it - doesn't work at all, at least in the Zoom video calling app.

      • On Ubuntu, I use QV4L2 to configure the framing, zoom, exposure, etc of my camera. It's a bit clunky, and I was looking forward to having a smooth experience with this on the premier business OS. Unfortunately, the camera on this laptop has extremely aggressive aperture priority mode enabled, and there is no first-party app to configure it! The documentation tells me to go to Settings -> Devices -> Camera but there is no such menu item. So, I just look either washed-out or ultra-dark in every video call.

      • After running Windows Update and rebooting, I was greeted with a full-screen and quite annoying to exit tutorial for Microsoft Teams - an app I did not install, because my company uses Slack.

      This in addition to some setup papercuts, but I think those were probably due to my corporate IT's process rather than Windows itself.

      Is this common? Do people who use Windows just... put up with this kind of thing? Or am I having an exceptionally bad experience for some reason?

      15 votes
    44. Am I stupid or is the entire StackOverflow network difficult to navigate?

      I made an account a few years ago but only started contributing recently. Outside of the barrage of awards, levels, limitations, I really just don't get how to find my way around the site. For...

      I made an account a few years ago but only started contributing recently. Outside of the barrage of awards, levels, limitations, I really just don't get how to find my way around the site.

      For instance, Google Sheets is listed in both Web Applications and Stack Overflow. Is there a way to get a consolidated view of all of the networks or do I have to check each one individually?

      6 votes
    45. If you could rebuild user authentication on the web from the ground up, what would you do?

      lou's post here resonated with me and my attempts to get my family to use better security practices (i.e. 2FA, password managers). They're very difficult to wrap your brain around to the average...

      lou's post here resonated with me and my attempts to get my family to use better security practices (i.e. 2FA, password managers). They're very difficult to wrap your brain around to the average user, and they have the ability to create catastrophic failstates if used incorrectly. Furthermore, even when they work well, they can still be kind of clunky (different sites use different methods; writing down/printing recovery codes feels like a dated solution alongside other tech-forward things).

      Also, outside of this, password requirements are their own bugbear, with nearly every site having different criteria. Even as someone who uses a password generator and manager on the regular, I still have to adjust the password creation criteria to do things like fit character limits or specific requirements (and don't get me started on forced resets!). I totally get why so many people reuse passwords, or have a default one that they sort of modify as needed to fit a given site's needs.

      From my (admittedly super limited) perspective of a lay user: usernames, passwords, 2FA and the whole stack seems like something that's suffering under the technical debt of decades' worth of web development and networking. It seems like things have inched forward and many new layers have been added to address emergent problems, but the whole system gives a sort of barely-held-together-by-tape feel.

      What if we could use what we know now and redesign things from the ground up? If we could start fresh, today, what might username authentication look like beyond the usual username/password combos that we're so used to?

      I'm interested in any ideas -- not necessarily just feasible ones.

      Also, despite me being the one prompting this thread, don't feel the need to simplify technical explanations or anything. I'm mostly interested in lurking and seeing what all you very smart techy people have to say about the topic. :)

      12 votes
    46. Does anyone else feel like Tildes gets less effective at surfacing new stuff the longer you're on it?

      I notice this primarily with the YouTube videos. I've started to notice that the videos I see posted in here I have already had recommended to me by YouTube. And I realize it must be because when...

      I notice this primarily with the YouTube videos. I've started to notice that the videos I see posted in here I have already had recommended to me by YouTube. And I realize it must be because when I watch a video here, the YouTube algorithm decides I'm interested in that kind of thing. So, functionally, by posting and interacting with content in Tildes we are tuning the various algorithmic recommendation feeds that we interact with to view us all similarly.

      It's just an interesting side effect I noticed and some food for thought about the effectiveness of a link aggregator or discussion forum at surfacing novel, interesting content we might not find otherwise. In part, this could just be an effect of Tildes being kind of small and having lots of self-selection biases for its user population. Perhaps if it was more diverse we'd be exposed to more things that break the mold and recommendation algorithms won't be able to pin it all down as easily. In fact, we may be able to use this effect as a way to test the breadth and diversity of content and types of people a site is attracting.

      11 votes
    47. I think Keyword Research doesn't work at all. Prove me otherwise!

      Keyword Research and SEO are entire industries today. There are tools like ahrefs and semrush that promise to give you "trending" topic keywords for a sum of monthly subscription money. However,...

      Keyword Research and SEO are entire industries today. There are tools like ahrefs and semrush that promise to give you "trending" topic keywords for a sum of monthly subscription money.

      However, you can discard all their claims using a similar logic that you use to discard the claims of Astrologers, Voodooists, Stock Experts who "recommend" stocks, etc:

      1. If an Astrologer knows the future of everyone, wouldn't they profit massively from it themselves using the information rather than telling the trick to everyone else (just for a pittance)?
      2. If a Stock Expert knew that a stock's price will go up (and how much), won't they invest thousands and make millions themselves instead of giving those "tips" to "subscribers" and again, earn only a pittance?
      3. If SEO and Search Marketing companies knew exactly which keywords can rank your blog or site in the Google Search Engine, won't they write articles on those topics/keywords themselves and profit massively with the page views instead of revealing that secret to you for merely a few cents!
      6 votes
    48. Is it me or are "news" articles on the web getting more and more irritating to read

      I've recently experienced something multiple times and wanted to see if others are seeing this. I'm seeing various news articles where the first few paragraphs basically say the exact some...

      I've recently experienced something multiple times and wanted to see if others are seeing this. I'm seeing various news articles where the first few paragraphs basically say the exact some information over and over again 3 or 4 times in slightly different ways. My most recent experience was this article about some hackers selling information on billions of Facebook users.

      The article starts off with the title "Personal Information of More Than 1.5 Billion Facebook Users Sold on Hacker Forum". Straightforward and to the point. Next we get this paragraph in bold:

      The private and personal information of over 1.5 billion Facebook users is being sold on a popular hacking-related forum, potentially enabling cybercriminals and unscrupulous advertisers to target Internet users globally.

      Next is a bullet list of the highlights of the incident:

      Highlights:

      • Data scrapers are selling sensitive personal data on 1.5 billion Facebook users.
      • Data contains users’: name, email, phone number, location, gender, and user ID.
      • Data appears to be authentic.
      • Personal data obtained through web scraping.
      • Data can be utilized for phishing and account takeover attacks.
      • Sold data claimed to be new from 2021.

      This rehashes the number (1.5 billion) and place (Facebook), but does contain new information like what was leaked, and some unsubstantiated claims about whether it's authentic and how it was obtained.

      The next paragraph repeats the 1.5 billion number a fourth time, and repeats that the data is available on a hacker forum. Two paragraphs later, we get another list of bullet points which are identical to the 2nd bullet point above; namely that the info contains:

      According to the forum poster, the data provided contains the following personal information of Facebook users:

      • Name
      • Email
      • Location
      • Gender
      • Phone number
      • User ID

      At this point I stop reading because I mistakenly think that I'm re-reading the same paragraph over and over again. It's an incredibly unpleasant experience.

      Is anyone else seeing this? I've been seeing this not just on smaller sites like the one linked here, but on major news sites like CNBC and CNN, too. I know that news sites are having their budgets slashed, etc., but I literally can't read articles like this. I mean my brain just won't let me complete them because it thinks it's caught in a loop or something. It's hard to describe.

      18 votes