This is the smartwatch I own. True netrunners know that the tech we wear on (or under) our skin is a prime entry vector for ever hungry megacorps to bleed the pulsing data from our digital veins, so having a wearable I have full control over is of paramount importance. I can flash it with new firmware whenever I want, the...
While I agree, Reddit really is learning “fuck around and find out” the hard way from all sorts of angles. They must be in perpetual crisis mode. Which sucks for the actual staffers, of course
Harder to recognise makes it easier to up-sell crappier models to those not close enough to the detail. I was mulling over going AMD with the next laptop (which admittedly won’t be any time soon), this makes me lean more towards that idea.
After the European Commission held a public consultation on whether they should adopt what they call a “fair share” proposal, they unfortunately voted to move forward with this dangerous plan. This proposal is nothing but a network usage fees regime, which would force certain companies to pay internet service providers...
It’s beyond stupid. ISPs are in the business of, ya know.. providing internet services. It’s like the government charging the cinema because I used the public roads to get there.
The EU once again showing their ineptitude to actually effectively regulate anything technical. They lack the knowledge or the desire to gain the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions.
I also think their USB-C ruling was stupid but not quite as stupid as this.
The USB C thing is daft because we already had a de facto standard. All smartphones connected to a USB-A charger. Requiring USB-C forevermore stifles innovation for whatever in time would supersede USB-C.
There’s also the small matter or ewaste. Mandating that the phone end must be USB-C but saying nothing of the charger end has ended up with most OEMs interpreting it as USB-C both ends. So people are either getting cables that don’t work with their chargers which get wasted or they go buy new chargers causing their old ones to be waste.
As an aside lightening is also a more physically robust design (setting aside transfer speeds etc.. which mean nothing to most users), so kinda sucks that all phones will be required to have the tongue-in-port design which is a weak point.
I also wonder when Apple will stick two fingers up at this and go portless and just have wireless, which Androids would then copy, then we’re in a far worse place heh.
Great intentions, execution that delivers little to benefit or, at worst, detriment.
Fair point on the cinema example - didn’t think that one through!
Just replies to another comment to won’t paste again as that’s a bit spammy. But in short USB-A was already a de facto standard for charging. The bit on the end of the phone wasn’t really an issue and I’ve seen little evidence that it was an ewaste issue.
So we’re stuck with USB-C and can’t have whatever will inevitably come along that’s better sooner or later until the EU shift their view.
Basically either has no impact on ewaste or actually generates more waste and discourages further developments in port design.
It was never about connecting between device though? I’m also not sure needing a cable for an Android with micro USB / USB-C and one for lightening is the dramatic issue some have made it out to be. Also I and many have loads of USB A chargers. Do they suddenly become waste? Or do I buy more cables and keep using them? Either way we have waste.
No. USB was on the Android side, split between Mini/Micro/C connectors on the phone side and USB-A on the brick side. There were a gazillion fast charging standards so that you still might have to replace your brick.
It’s the charger side I was talking about here. Androids and iPhones both charge from a USB-A charger. Fast charging has been a crapshoot but I can still charge a phone on about any charger it just might not do a fast charge (which is bad for battery health anyway but that’s another thing )
Depends on how we define “best”. USB-C has the same weakness of micro USB of having “tongue” in the port. This is poor design and leaves ports prone to failure of this tongue gets damaged. I’ve seen this happen more than once with either from folk aggressively jamming charger cables in slightly misaligned or just wear & tear. Lightening on the other hand is a much more robust port design. The “tongue” is the cable with a hollow port. 1st party lightening cables are pure trash, which is itself a ewaste matter, but we’re talking port design.
Now every other aspect of lightening is inferior to USB 3 (important to note USB-C ≠ USB 3) , but by my needs it’s the “better” connector.
I don’t see how USB-C is objectively better at the charger end, unless we’re meaning the reversible nature at both ends which is.. it’s good but it’s not “wow” (and neither is it “wow” with lightening).
I’m happy to be proven wrong, and I’m not going to get pissy if in 3-4 years my next phone is an iPhone with USB-C, it’s just the merits seem over-egged and I’d wager for the average, non-technical, user the benefits are minimal and potentially cause some minor confusions.
The energy company I’m with in the UK offers this type of dynamic pricing. I’m not on that tariff, but the setup is a great idea.
The pitch is that they give you notice , sometimes half hour sometimes more, of price shifts. Then you can chose to maybe do you laundry later or sooner depending what’s going to be better. One of their use cases is even to have a rig where an electric car battery can supply energy to the house. You charge your car when power is cheap / free, run your home from the car’s battery when it gets high.
They even have an API that some people use to automate tasks to take advantage of the price shifts.
Done well it’s excellent, but definitely needs an ethical mindset behind it. Fortunately in the UK, Octopus Energy is nothing if not ethical, but they are very much notable by this difference!
I disagree. You need dynamic pricing but it needs to be manageable. Let’s say you start a cycle on the washing machine then a few minutes in the price suddenly jumps to an extreme high - that’s not manageable.
Giving users some warning throughout the day of price shifts actually meets the point of dynamic pricing better, too. The point is to get more power used when there is excess and less when supply is struggling. That doesn’t happen if people don’t get the chance to plan, even if that planning is only 30 minutes notice.
Hello, this is a client-side theme focused on high readability and removing extraneous visual widgets and icons. It is based on the way I liked to read content on that "other site."...
Thing is.. the main alternatives are often missing key features. Signal does not let me backup or export my messages & media, that’s a problem for me personally. Telegram and fb messenger are not e2ee by default, and make being so difficult to use. Whatever Google is currently pushing will be demised next month and replaced with something inexplicably more convoluted. Matrix isn’t straightforward enough for mass adoption.
For its many.. many.. well documented issues WhatsApp provides a very good messaging service that is well polished. For most people that’s what they care about.
We’ll have more success getting people to try new things when they at least have feature parity and ideally offer something new / different to WhatsApp in the UX.
Reddit was small once. Then Digg has a seizure and Reddit grew quickly.
Now it’s Reddit having a fit and we’re seeing more people dabbling in the threadiverse. It won’t be the same pace though, it has the same challenges as Mastodon etc.. to encourage people to take a moment to understand federated decentralised Vs the monolithic services they’re used to.. but it’s going to grow. June 30th will be the next influx.
I’m still picking my way through the DS game, it feels like super chill Minesweeper 😁 Knowing there’s SO MANY MORE Picross games pleases me for when I eventually finish this one. Love that there’s translation patches for all the Japan-only entries now as well. Will end up throwing some of them on the trust Retroid Pocket 3!
PineTime - a $27 smartwatch that runs open source firmware and software that's easy to flash and easy to modify and tinker with (liliputing.com)
This is the smartwatch I own. True netrunners know that the tech we wear on (or under) our skin is a prime entry vector for ever hungry megacorps to bleed the pulsing data from our digital veins, so having a wearable I have full control over is of paramount importance. I can flash it with new firmware whenever I want, the...
BlackCat claims they hacked Reddit and will leak the data (www.databreaches.net)
Looks like that's not a good month for reddit.
One actor you wish would do Trek
I know it's been done to death all over the internet but not here yet!...
Intel's ditching the 'i' in 'Core i5/i7/i9' and will stop calling out chip generations (www.pcgamer.com)
UPS delivered a vynil record (feddit.de)
Reddit’s average daily traffic fell during blackout, according to third-party data (www.engadget.com)
There is Nothing Fair About the European Commission’s “Fair Share” Proposal, says the EFF (web.archive.org)
After the European Commission held a public consultation on whether they should adopt what they call a “fair share” proposal, they unfortunately voted to move forward with this dangerous plan. This proposal is nothing but a network usage fees regime, which would force certain companies to pay internet service providers...
Electricity is priced wrong.
cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/127188...
OC kbin-css: decluttered and parameterized theme (github.com)
Hello, this is a client-side theme focused on high readability and removing extraneous visual widgets and icons. It is based on the way I liked to read content on that "other site."...
WhatsApp and the domestication of users (seirdy.one)
As Seirdy notes:...
I miss Reddit's size
I know Kbin will grow in time but I miss how huge Reddit was.
A T-Rex with a beard, by me!
Picross is underrated (beehaw.org)