fwygon

@fwygon@beehaw.org

Beehaw alt of @melody

@fwygon on discord

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fwygon,

Junk science article.

All discoveries use some element(s) of the scientific method.

The entire method in and of itself isn’t required to be 100% rigorously applied 100% of the time. However, the method is a starting point and does lead to discovery over time.

While it helps to apply the method to ensure clean and proper discoveries which can, hopefully, be reproduced and investigated, the fact that not all sciences or discoveries apply it rigorously is largely insignificant.

fwygon,

I like that he is being decisive about it. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the feature was only being delayed because of internal project politics or quirky policies that normally make sense, but don’t in this specific scenario.

fwygon,

I stopped using Termux in general because of this inanity where they moved off and stopped supporting the Play Store Version; now this happens where they’re unable to keep things from conflicting across the different APK sources?

Yikes. Seems like a good time to continue staying away from Termux and not recommending it.

It’s a shame since I really love the concept of the app; but each increment of Android has been rough on it and I can’t imagine it being useful with Google being stupid about their policies.

…Unfortunately they’re often quick to blame apps they dislike for problems in the ecosystem, and they often directly attack them through nerfing APIs and system calls that the apps tend to use; which I think is absolutely a dogshit thing to do.

Please, stop enshittifying our phones Google.

fwygon,

I’m not being harsh; they bungled that initial transition badly too; despite it being a Google action.

Unfortunately they left a lot of users in the lurch when they left the Play Store as well and that too left a bad taste. It’s not exactly easy to migrate across versions and packages and software differ wildly as they allowed both versions to do their own thing without relabeling them so you could run them side-by-side.

I don’t blame them for Google’s actions; but I do blame them for how they handled it.

You might be confusing my transition into a rant against Google as blaming Termux.

fwygon,

They could certainly “clearly pass the cost” of this on to the user by not offering Audiobooks to users who didn’t pay for the “+ # of Audiobooks” tier of Spotify Premium; instead of this horrible enshittified crap where it cuts you off midsentence like a greedy telecomm provider would. Or perhaps their limitation should be on how many titles you can listen to concurrently in a certain time period. (So if you open X books; that’s it; you have to shelve one or wait it out)

It certainly means that Spotify did a bad job at negotiating their rights to these audiobooks as well. That matters too; because that makes the product worse; and that should never have been allowed to happen. If they couldn’t have offered it nicely, they could’ve just not offered it at all or added it to a higher service tier so that the cost is diverted better.

fwygon,

13 billion Euro British Franc Moneys?

That’s pocket change to Google.

Note: the above message is satirical. Do not reply.

fwygon,

It isn’t AI itself, it’s AI as a vector for corporate recklessness.

This. 1000% this. Many of Issac Asimov novels warned about this sort of thing too; as did any number of novels inspired by Asimov.

It’s not that we didn’t provide the AI with rules. It’s not that the AI isn’t trying not to harm people. It’s that humans, being the clever little things we are, are far more adept at deceiving and tricking AI into saying things and using that to justify actions to gain benefit.

…Understandably this is how that is being done. By selling AI that isn’t as intelligent as it is being trumpeted as. As long as these corporate shysters can organize a team to crap out a “Minimally Viable Product” they’re hailed as miracle workers and get paid fucking millions.

Ideally all of this should violate the many, many laws of many, many civilized nations…but they’ve done some black magic with that too; by attacking and weakening laws and institutions that can hold them liable for this and even completely ripping out or neutering laws that could cause them to be held accountable by misusing their influence.

fwygon,

Gabe Newell knows that any potential buyer will run Valve into the ground. Thus he already promised too long ago that he would never sell or let Valve go public.

Considering how many game studios that Microsoft just killed off in the last 3 years alone; they’re never going to be worthy of buying Valve.

fwygon,

This is pretty clearly a company practiced at “riding the waves” of what’s popular to sell absolute bullshit.

They appear to raise millions, develop what looks like a minimally viable product for it’s development phase, then pull the rug out and exit with the bag of cash, quickly pivoting away from discovered scams and name changing to avoid too much consumer ire or regulator scrutiny.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the CEO or anyone else at the top levels of this company has an entire resume full of these sorts of ‘scam and run’ operations, the kinds that melt into the background and vanish the moment any real strong consumer or regulatory/legal scrutiny hits it.

Basically this is investment fraud 101; you find something you can trick people into investing into, then spend as little as possible to get a ‘minimally viable product’ that appears plausible enough to give you time to exit stage left with all the fat cash you can take. Because this sort of operation does produce something; oftentimes they get away cleanly; because they did do something and oftentimes they obscure or obfuscate and hide the evidence of any planned malfeasance; usually the only places with any record of it is in the mind of the CEO or other executive(s), if they’re in on the scam too.

Sometimes the CEO gets ‘caught’ intentionally and then fired…or they just run the company into the ground. That latter case can let them off the hook with a tidy golden parachute as well; depending on the circumstances and what they ‘negotiated’ when they were ‘hired’.

fwygon,

NOPE!

You cannot pay me to use Windows 11.

fwygon,

Censorship like this is one fast track to things like the French Revolution.

fwygon,

The shoe fits on the other foot as well. Both extreme communism and extreme capitalism have tendencies to turn into dystopian nightmares.

If ‘1984’ alarms you; so too should current works like ‘Ready, Player One’ or ‘Ender’s Game’ and it’s associated sequels.

Extremism in general tends to not work. I don’t pretend to know what the exact right balance is; but it does exist.

fwygon,

Even a progression from “Closed Source” to “Source Available” is nice progress I think.

If we assume that the License is not restrictive we may be able to fork Winamp into a codebase that might actually be Fully Open Source Software and track changes of the upstream as we need.

fwygon,

This kind of website sounds kind of problematic and useless. The ability to follow a specific person’s post is highly useful, and highly necessary oftentimes. If you want to reduce the friction that “Following” induces; you simply need to not disclose to the users how many people are following them, nor do you need to disclose how many followers a user has. Problems solved.

The same goes for Likes. Nobody but the sender of the like should know about that like. Instead of keeping counts for the recipients to obsess over; calculate a reasonable percentage of people who we can guess “like” the post algorithmically based on views of the post and clicked likes. I get that the feedback mechanism is necessary; but it should be a gentle one that simply encourages people to post what people like and will view. This percentage should not be used to rank a post above or below other posts, unless the user viewing the list asks for the list to be sorted or ranked as such.

fwygon,

Minimum SDK also does get bumped in Android in general at a snails pace. Given that we’re basically coming up on Android 15; it’s not unfair to assume that, eventually, we will simply see Android intentionally and permanently REFUSE to run the app because it’s Minimum SDK value is considered to be too low and thus Android must assume that the application is completely insecure.

fwygon,

The largest barrier for me in FLOSS and FOSS applications is simply a lack of GUI tools for what is considered to be “Advanced” functions.

Just because I can do it on linux doesn’t mean it’s easy or intuitive. Unfortunately a lot of FOSS and FLOSS applications are, of necessity, extremely limited in what tasks they are targeting. Frequently you cannot rely on the “alternative” to have a relied upon function or feature until deep in it’s lifecycle; when finally enough people have complained and the feature is implemented.

Sometimes a feature is never implemented due to an entirely shifted paradigm in the way the program is implemented and the feature is “impossible” or “inconsistent with xyz”.

One example of this is the number of GUIs and frontends written for ffmpeg; many of which simply are lazy GUI implementations of what the ffmpeg CLI binary itself will helpfully print out in the console when you ask it for help with the correct switch(es). Many are even less thought out than this and will often unhelpfully provide an obtuse box at the bottom for custom commands you wish to feed to the program…which is great if you know the command(s); but make using the GUI unhelpful when compared to just firing up a CLI and reading the output and figuring out the correct command for exactly what you want it to do.

Keep in mind; I am not at all uncomfortable with using CLI interfaces; I just expect that a GUI doesn’t force me to fallback, or become so unusable that I am forced to fall back on an original CLI tool because I cannot possibly discern why it failed to work

Frequently things that would be simply be an option buried deeply in the GUI menus only and are otherwise fairly simple are relegated as being only possible within a CLI interface; and I find that reality quite infuriating most often…as the limitations of a CLI oftentimes make the task I am trying to complete far less simple than it really should have been.

fwygon,

I can do everything Kagi does for free…using SearXNG.

fwygon,

I pay nothing for running SearXNG locally on my machine.

fwygon,

The nice thing is that I can customize it however I like too; change weights, choose which engines to pull from always, or even from search to search; so I’m not getting cruft.

SearXNG always rearranges the crap most engines serve to the bottom without fail.

fwygon,

I genuinely won’t even use Brave indexes on my SearXNG instance; I have the engines disabled. My search quality has not suffered; as most of my results end up being DDG or Yahoo anyways; and Brave was only ever duplicating results from other engines anyways.

fwygon,

To be honest the “Privacy” aspect can be taken care of in other ways; like using a VPN for query dilution, for example. You don’t have to recruit 100 mechanical turks to do junk searches for you; although there are browser addons that can in fact do this automated searching for you…I’ve run them before.

SearXNG is a front-end that protects your privacy still. Hosting it locally dilutes it some; but provides maximal control; as you can use VPNs and control things much more tightly than you could if you hosted it elsewhere.

fwygon,

Your argument clearly shows that you fail to see the benefits of doing it yourself. I get quality results from my local instance due to my persistence and work put in to adjust the settings necessary. I’ve balanced the privacy and functionality of the instance to fit my needs and it costs me nothing but a few minutes of my time each week to do so.

Kagi doing it for $10 a month sounds like they’re turning a neat profit off of you; and you’re refusing to accept that I have achieved levels of search competence that Kagi has without paying for Kagi or even using their free searches or service.

Whether or not it makes sense to you value-wise to pay or not pay for Kagi does not matter in this discussion. it only matters that none of the things Kagi can do that I find useful are things that cannot be done with SearXNG.

fwygon,

You do have to host it yourself or run your own personal instance to get the power of SearXNG; if you’ve not tried this, please do not write it off.

If hosting it yourself or even running it locally in a container on your machine at home is too technical for you; nobody is going to bane you for that. In fact there’s several guides and videos out there that might help you if you’re inclined to learn.

If not; you’re also free to continue consuming as you do.

fwygon,

SearXNG has fediverse search functionality too.

fwygon,

Why is this four year old story being reposted?

fwygon,

Google killing more features like this makes me absolutely certain that they have no fucking idea what they’re doing over there.

But this isn’t a shock; they’ve been dumbing down the “Assistant” by slowly removing useful features ever since Siri pulled down the Assistant’s Google colored skirts and panties and spanked it with her capabilities. Heck even Alexa joined in on the hazing, smiling smugly as she accumulates ability after ability, and being a literal voice powered “Buy it now!~” button.

I haven’t used Google Assistant since like Android 7; where they were STILL removing features and adding more useless ones. Genuinely I can’t understand why the layoffs had to cause these reductions in functionality unless they were also hiring 3rd world Mechanical Turks to transcribe and do all the work.

Even more frustrating is that the Assistant hasn’t changed much besides bleeding off features every year, when they could’ve been working to correctly integrate AI into the Assistant, which would’ve made her 1000x more intelligent and useful.

I still remember how unhelpful Assistant is if you don’t give her exactly the right command with exactly the right wording. Unlike Siri or Alexa, there’s absolutely minimal effort to ensure smooth Natural Language Processing happens when it benefits the user.

fwygon,

The bug is definitely known; and a fix is probably being worked on.

But I will say that it does in fact turn on the setting.

fwygon,

Unless there’s some kind of bug where Discord enables the in-app setting without actually having the permissions to access contacts

That’s the bug exactly. It’s kind of a UI glitch; but I found out through Samsung bungling my permissions preferences through a One UI (OTA System) update, that it actually does enable the in-app setting by accident and that this is going to access your contacts if the permission is presently GRANTED, but not throw up a prompt asking for permission if the permission is already DENIED.

fwygon,

Beehaw doesn’t ban you for having an opinion loudly.

What it does address typically is when users are horrifically disrespectful or rude…which usually the OP was not.

I guess they just reached their limit of patience.

fwygon,

As an on and off Recent Changes Patroller; I view my job simply:

  • Prevent Spam
  • Prevent Vandalism
  • Prevent Misinformation
  • Ensure that any reliable source is cited for edits, to keep editors honest and informational.

Per Wikipedia’s “Be Bold” guideline; I generally rollback things that I find to be not contributing…and I allow other editors to do the same…“Be Bold” back to me by challenging my decisions. 99% of people who aren’t pedaling obvious Spam, Vandalism or Misinformation I will simply let be.

Less than 1% of my actions are “Be Bold” style interpretations. I usually stick to what I can reasonably know is just junk or incorrectly contributed.

So it boggles my mind that any sysops with years of experience on EnWiki are being that pedantic about Notability, Sources and “Original Research”. Genuinely; I don’t consider pointing a fact out about a specific map to be such research…it’s a fact, and that fact can be backed by even more maps, going back in time. Roads and Highways may not be extremely exciting; but they definitely are important and DO in fact meet GN guidelines. Primary Sources themselves are fine too; genuinely you should need a damn good reason to challenge a source; be it primary or secondary.

At least a citation about how a primary source might not be found to be reliable.

It looks like as editors flee the ridiculous bureaucracy, they only make it worse to prevent more work from being created…which is counterproductive and makes people consider things like this or long-term wikibreaks. >_>

fwygon,

What’s true is that primary sources don’t count towards notability, so if an article mostly just uses primary sources it’s likely to get deleted.

Which is absolutely absurd. Counting secondary sources and deciding if something is “Notable” from that is completely arbitrary. Furthermore, there’s legitimate reason for secondary sources not to exist on the topic; and the Notability guidelines of the local WikiProject on Roads, which probably contained the people leaving, should have been taken under advisement as notable roads don’t always have secondary sourcing due to lack of local newspapers or publications.

Specifically a highway may be notable because it never appears in the news… often because it rarely if ever sees auto accidents. A source is a source, and I think attacking primary sources and excluding them is problematic if the source in question never was causing issues with NPOV.

Now if someone can prove that a website from the DOT is actually doing some weird POV pushing or is legitimately not behaving like a neutral source; then sure, challenge that citation for that article and get it struck.

But it’s otherwise a waste of time to pretend that roads and highways aren’t notable and not of encyclopedic interest for good reason.

fwygon,

Nope. You have to use Android to get a decent ad-blocker.

In all seriousness; iOS REQUIRES you to use DNS level or VPN level ad-blocking typically. I think the only notable exception is that some browser apps might allow extensions. iOS still requires you use Safari browser engine though AFAIK.

Valve needs to step up on Anti-Cheat

So yeah, I want to discuss or point out why I think Valve needs to fix Anti-Cheat issues. They have VAC but apparently its doing jackshit, be it Counter Strike 2 (any previous iterations) or something like Hunt: Showdown the prevalence of cheating players is non deniable. For me personally it has come to a point that I am not...

fwygon,

Most anti-cheat software can’t do much on the client side. Really all it can do is look around at it’s environment where it’s allowed to look and see what’s going on.

Most Cheat Software will run on a higher privilege level than the game; whether that’s as an “Administrative” user or as “root” or “SYSTEM” in a context where it’s running as an important driver.

In any case, the only thing the Anti-Cheat can reliably do on the client side is watch. If it’s cleverly designed enough, it will simply log snippets of events and ship them off for later analysis on a server side system. This will probably be a different server than the one you’re playing on, and it won’t be sending that data until after the match has ended properly.

Sometimes it might not even send data unless the AC server asks it to do so; which it might frequently do as a part of it’s authorization granting routine. Even when it has the data there may not be immediate processing.

Others have also mentioned that visible action may be delayed for random time periods as well; in order to prevent players from catching on to what behaviors they need to avoid to get caught, or to prevent cheats from getting more sophisticated before deeper analysis could reveal a way to patch the flaw or check to ensure cheating isn’t happening.

Since cheat software can often be privileged, it also has the luxury of lying to the server. So clever ways to ensure that a lying client will be caught will probably be implemented and responses checked to ensure they fit within some reasonable bounds of sanity.

fwygon,

Not only is the science underlying all these findings completely non-existent, they only “guesstimate” what the water usage of what every thing that uses water is; then blindly divide that by the transaction volume per time period.

Not only is that method highly flawed; it’s incorrect. Computers do more than mine crypto; and 1 transaction typically costs not even 1 tenth of a percent of most miners’ overall computer resources. This is due to the fact that many miners are utilizing either a GPU or FPGA style device to power optimize and optimize the mathematics necessary to secure a transaction.

fwygon,

I suspect some fresh faced PFY came across a dusty old router deep in a closet somewhere and made the cardinal sin of touching a piece of equipment that they do not know is the beating heart of their operations.

fwygon,

One can only hope that the relevant Bastard in charge of said PFY is either gone or dead.

fwygon,

No; it is a big deal.

They will bide their time and polish the feature out on Android WebViews then make another push for Desktop.

You must never agree to allow WEI exist in any form. It WILL BE MISUSED AND ABUSED!

fwygon,

Do you play Star Trek Fleet Command?

fwygon,

I’ve been using SearXNG locally to query many free engines at no cost to me.

fwygon,

I’ve been using SearXNG locally to query many free engines at no cost to me.

fwygon,

Beyond not using reddit, and only landing on reddit when a search engine leads me to it directly, I’ve been using SearXNG locally to query many free engines at no cost to me.

fwygon,

I see a lot of the Kagi shills crawling out of the woodwork here. I’ve been using SearXNG locally to query many free engines at no cost to me.

fwygon,

I don’t recommend Kagi because it lacks privacy and you have to pay for it.

It lacks privacy because you’re required to log in AND pay for it. Logins enhance the chance your queries are logged; and providing payment information is a good way for law enforcement to obtain your identity; even when you’ve done nothing illegal. If you don’t believe me just look up how Geofence Warrants work in America and how they’ve backfired in some cases.

If a company as big as Google complies with Geofence warrants; Kagi has no chance at all in resisting them, even when they’re issued in an illegal and unconstitutional manner.

fwygon,

Hmm. Is there something against linking external wikis on every article you create?

fwygon,

Thank you for banning AI trash.

LLMs do have purpose; but that purpose is not in journalism and news

fwygon,

yes please; we need a ublock filter

fwygon,

Why on earth would I pay $10 a month for search when I can get everything I need using SearXNG? For Free.

It costs me exactly $0.00 to run SearXNG locally using Podman and WSL to host the docker image. It Just Works; and I don’t have to worry about paying money every month to anyone; nor do I ever have to count my search queries as precious.

Unfortunately this “$10/month = Unlimited” is also likely to be available only for a limited time; and once Kagi feels it has enough users; then you’ll be stuck back on some arbitrary number of searches each month.

Worse is logging in. To search. Yuck.

There are so many “Public” SearXNG instances as well for the less-than-technical; searx.space

All of them provide the option(s) to use whatever engines you’d like.

fwygon,

No it doesn’t. SearXNG aggregates all engines anyways; and that gets far more helpful results.

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