According to the developer of Wipr, from what I understand Youtube is using A/B testing for their "ad blocker blocker” and that the dev is working on adapting the app for Youtube latest efforts.
In the meantime, I just stopped going to Youtube. I find I now have a lot of time to read.
I wouldn’t mind if Youtube placed and ad. But when a video has 4-5 ads that awkwardly break up the flow of the video I just don’t have the patience.
I worked for a guy, many years ago, small scale version of Musk. Guys like that hate to be contradicted. He had gone into partnership with my old company - which was a digital election company (back in the 90s and early 00s). We prided ourselves on our security and anonymity measures. Under this new company, this guy because CEO, and the first thing he did was tell everyone we could make “millions” by selling user data. I pointed out that violated out privacy and anonymity standards, and not even the next day I was reprimanded for speaking out.
You don’t need to be a billionaire to be stupid. Affluent is enough of a threshold. These are all grifters, granted many being successful. The grifters in this company were big fish/little pond. But they ruined a lovely little company that could have been stable and steady, recession-proof income for decades. Instead, they grifted the angel investors, ran the company into the ground and ended up spawning dozens of competitors in the field whereas before there were only 2 or 3.
These guys go from start-up grift to start-up grift, maintaining their affluence on the investor’s dime. I would say they, and the vulture capitalists they dance with deserve each other, but unfortunately, regular folks are always the collateral damage.
Musk was likely always an idiot, but was propped up by money, and earlier on either knew his place (as the “faceman”) or was adroitly distracted from direct involvement with the actual running of the company he bought.
... the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED.
Normally, I would not be happy about this, but this is the exception. Even as a Mac gamer (and please don’t at me - I have had decades of sass coming from the PC community. Let me enjoy my platform. I get what I need) this is a win. Activision was always poison for Blizzard. At the bare minimum, Microsoft will enforce corporate HR standards - may not be awesome standards, but it’s a lot better than Activision turning a blind eye. And it’s in Microsoft’s best interest to support native Mac development where it exists (and while I don’t see Blizzard ramping up their Mac dev team to previous (if meager) levels, I expect that the games I enjoy will continue to work fine on my machine, which is a modest ask.
I mean, if Microsoft bent over backwards to prop up Apple in those dark days (and you could have concussed me with a feather when Gates announced MS was investing in Apple IIRC on stage during an Apple keynote) they’ll support other platforms.
Should all gaming fall under several big umbrellas? No. But getting the Activision Board and C-suite out of the “day to day” of studio development can’t hurt.
Very true, but Microsoft doesn’t need any of them. And none of them are going to take a “demotion” to be a working executive - to off they toddle to ruin different companies (which is the life of Board members, flitting from Board to Board like human STDs in a pre-penicillin orgy). And Microsoft is big enough to put layers between their own disease and Blizzard - more like Vivaldi. Blizzard will be a small fish in a big pond, and that’s fine. Their best expansions (per many) were made when Blizzard wasn’t in a Board’s crosshairs.
Yeah. I was fine with Blizzard, since they had always developed natively for the Mac. I have to say that I was surprised to find that SE at least tried with their Wine port of FFXIV, and pleasantly surprised when they actually updated to the M chip.
That said, it is huge that Apple licensed the source code of Crossover from Codeweavers. I believe that the end result is basically going to be a game-specific “Rosetta for Windows” in which PC games will run seamlessly on a Mac (like FFXIV does), probably needing only an installer. And last I heard, MS was in talks with Apple regarding whatever gaming platform MS has - and it would absolutely be in MS best interested to tout “our platform [whatever this platform is, I am not deeply versed in the gaming scene] runs on Macs, so we’re not a monopoly."
Meta’s new text-based social app Threads has quickly gained 100 million users since launching last week, which appears to be negatively impacting traffic on Twitter. According to web analytics, Twitter traffic declined 5-11% over the first two days Threads was available compared to the previous week. Threads was able to grow...
I am willing to be corrected, but from what I understand from my online friend (who is Indian (living in the region) and reports on tech with a focus on India, Asia and Southeast Asia), a lot of Threads’ early adoption is entrenchment. For instance, most of India’s IG users migrated to Threads, and that was part of the initial 10 million.
I just don’t think that we can look at Threads’ adoption rates in the same way as, say, we look at Mastodon or even early Twitter. Threads is built upon an existing base: Instagram. Meta even pre-made your Threads account if you have IG. I mean, technically I have a Threads account, sitting there, in the shadows. I also have an Excite account. And I dug up my MySpace account in a fit of pique (and then remembered why I left MySpace all those years ago). But having something and using something are different.
That not to say that Threads isn’t going to end up as Meta’s “revenge” just that the adoption is not necessarily because Threads is better, but that the entire social media monetization culture is pre-built through Instagram; and there not only is no barrier to entry, but you can stumble into the Threads “garden” with ease. It’s basically the same model Microsoft used to bootstrap Windows using the pre-installed DOS base. And it will succeed because the outreach mechanisms are already in place.
That doesn’t change my mind about choosing Mastodon. I have different online handles for different needs. I lost my original IG handle many years ago, so made one using my real name to lurk on IG; so my Threads handle will end up being my real name, and that’s a show stopper for using the platform. My real name social media are “honey pots” to keep nosey companies out of my hair and ways to keep an eye on my squirrelly remnants of a family. I have no desire to post anything on my real name Threads identity.
I love obscure and overlooked games and want to share a bunch with all of you. Most “hidden gem” threads end up listing titles with thousands of reviews or that got some level of marketing. I aim to mostly avoid that. While you may see a few familiar games here, everything in the list below has under 1500 reviews on Steam...
My go-tos. Granted, they’re largely city builders, but my main jam is WoW, so city builders “tickles” different part of my brain - my downtime when I need a break from the MMORPG space.
Planetbase - A survival/sim/city builder. Guide a group of space settlers trying to establish a base on a remote planet. Grow food, collect energy, mine resources, survive disasters and build a self-sufficient colony in a harsh and unforgiving environment.
Dawn of Man Command a settlement of ancient humans, guide them through the ages in their struggle for survival. Hunt, gather, craft tools, fight, research new techs and face the challenges the environment will throw at you.
The Pale Beyond You didn’t ask to lead this expedition, but here you are. Stuck in the ice, Captain missing, miles from civilisation. Someone has to take charge. Manage your meagre resources, balance safety and morale, make the hard calls, and head in the only direction you can - through The Pale Beyond.
Kingdoms and Castles Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated.
The Wandering Village The Wandering Village is a city-building simulation game on the back of a giant, wandering creature. Build your settlement and form a symbiotic relationship with the colossus. Will you survive together in this hostile, yet beautiful post-apocalyptic world, contaminated by poisonous plants?
Homewind Home Wind is a minimalist, relaxing and cozy city builder about creating large settlements based on proximity tactics. All for free!
I’m planning on switching platforms and I’m just curious of the opinions of people here. I think that Android can have advantages in areas of privacy and external app installation, but most of the benefits come with a lot of tinkering out of the box....
The bottom line is, as it has always been: you use the technology that works for you. iOS isn’t better or worse than Android, and vice versa. Both OSes are valid, and it’s the individual’s choice as to what works best for them. I would be miserable with an Android device. I happen to get great value from my Apple devices - especially when there is trade-in value and the devices get recycled.
I personally don’t think it’s productive to “tribalize" the two OSes. They are developed to completely different designs and strategies. Android is basically designed for a wide range of manufacturers, each having their own needs and wants, which includes frequent sales cycles. Apple has always, ALWAYS, been a hardware manufacturer first, and any software they develop is intended to enhance the user’s experience of the hardware in a very measured and structured way. Android (and PC) is aimed for mass market distribution. Apple has always been premium boutique. Hell, one big reason the iPhone was originally released by Apple because the existing cell phone market refused to support the Mac platform: essentially the iPhone was the “premium add-on” to the Mac experience. But Apple also has a slower sales cycle - releasing yearly, sure, but with the understanding that every year someone will want an upgrade, not every year everyone will want an upgrade. My last iPhone went 5 hardware versions before I upgraded, or about 3 years, and I average 3-5 years on small devices, and 5-7 years on desktop).
Every user’s experience is personal, and anecdotal, even mine. So I ask: what do YOU want in a phone? What you YOU want your phone’s OS to do? Make a decision matrix and list all the pros and cons of each phone. Which ends up with the most pros? How many of the cons are show stoppers? If Android matches best, by an Android phone. It’s fine.
All this pearl-clutching makes me want to punch a wall.
I initially rejected Mastodon, being overwhelmed by its decentralization. I even proclaimed it “too complicated.”
Not even 8 months later and I’m fine. It’s all fine. My hysteria was sound and fury, signifying nothing. This hysteria is also pointless.
Is the fediverse the exact same experience Twitter and Reddit were? No. Do they need to be? No.
No one pearl-clutched when Facebook wasn’t exactly like LiveJournal or MySpace. No one pitched a fit when texting replaced IM. Folks organically flowed from one platform to the next as need and want allowed.
Technology solutions change and evolve. No platform rules forever.
The conspiracy theorist in me leans towards this being manufactured “concern” because the monetization solution to decentralized architecture isn’t ready for prime time, and “Late Stage Capitalism” is trying to herd the sheep into a temporary enclosure of fear until their new “farm” is ready. This explains why all the financial and corporate entities are singing the praises for Bluesky, and casting doubt on Mastodon. Last I saw, there is no word on how Bluesky is going to be supported, but it has a Board of Directors, which tells me it will be ad and subscription based, which means it needs a lot of people.
Having a Board also means that Bluesky can go public and can be sold to yet another nitwit.
So if long term stability means I am going to have to wake up and do a bit more to shape a fediverse solution to my needs, it’s worth more to me to do that than to go all in on a platform that is going to force ads on me and wind up being sold to the next billionaire imbecile.
Bluesky was a no-start when they pushed their exclusivity marketing BS. And this after I was loath to use Mastodon because I thought “federation” was too complicated to understand (I’m old: 57 and should be at a point where all this “newfangled” technology is way beyond my wheelhouse).
Bluesky never responded to my request (nor did Tildes, which is why I am here). Mastodon.world was very easy to set up (as was signing up on Beehaw). Federation is not that complicated to understand or work with.
The bottom line is the federation architecture is what folks are looking for when they talk about wanting a user experience that works for them, but they, we, have to put in the effort. Top-down solutions will always follow what the top thinks is best, which as we have seen is not for the benefit of the user.
I get really frustrated by this paralysis through over-analysis (and I am INTP - the POSTER CHILD of over-analysis and it’s concomitant paralysis). Just do AB testing and see which platform gives you the experience you enjoy most. The perfect time to test new systems is to do so in parallel with the old system that is failing.
As an old-fart GenX, I can’t believe I’m the one to tell people to stop being afraid of change.
But really, I don’t have any trust in Bluesky with the ex-Twitter CEO in any way involved. And I am sure as hell not playing their exclusive club game.
I wholeheartedly agree with this blog post. I believe someone on here yesterday was asking about config file locations and setting them manually. This is in the same vein. I can't tell you how many times a command line method for discovering the location of a config file would have saved me 30 minutes of googling.
This is the big thing I miss from my “pre-Unix” Mac days. In OS9 and earlier, apps were self contained, and didn’t spread their garbage everywhere. You deleted an app, you deleted all the app. Granted, there was a tradeoff (the parade of conflicting control panels and extensions you had to manually diagnose when your machine went sideways) but I never understood why in the Windows and Linux worlds devs would code so sloppily. Who told that dev my Documents folder is where their nonsense needs to go? That Documents folder is for my use, not theirs.
I enjoy Beau of the Fifth Column on YouTube. He is soft-spoken and respectful, even if opinions don’t agree. His comments are measured, informed and he will take a mea culpa. He’s mostly US politics, but will cover other topic, including Russia.
Like many, when the recent defederation went down, I decided to create a couple other logins and see what the wider fediverse has had to say about it....
Personally, I think there is way too much overreaction to the defederations. I agree with admins’ reasons, and it is clear that the minute there are sufficient moderation tools available, that the impacted servers will be re-federated.
The pressure is now on the developers to start pushing more iterative moderation tools - something that wasn’t a priority before Reddit decided to implode, and now looks like it needs to be reprioritized. This is a project/project management issue.
The problem isn’t the decision to defederate, it’s that the only solution to handle bad actors is binary. It’s like shaving your head because you have over-dried out hair, when you’d rather just cut the split ends.
I am willing to be patient because I see Lemmy as a long-term engagement. I’ve been off Reddit since the AMA and haven’t had any desire to go back. I’d rather invest the time here and show the devs that prioritizing more iterative mod tools is a good ROI for them.
As some subreddits continue blackouts to protest Reddit's plans to charge high prices for its API, Reddit has informed the moderators of those subreddits that it has plans to replace resistant moderation teams to keep spaces "open and accessible to users."
Lemmy is a “ground floo” for the next random tidbits of knowledge aggregator. And I don’t mean that as Lemmy is new, but rather it’d the next port-of-call and mature enough to be engaging while not being entrenched in decades’ old procedures.
I’m excited. I logged off Reddit when Christian shuttered Apollo, signed up on Beehaw and never looked back.
You do what you need to do. I expect a level of volatility for the next few months, if not more. It will all work out.
As an aside, if we want to recommend someone, who do we ping? My husband signed up yesterday, and I wanted to just confirm he is who he says he is. He’s not a displaced Redditor, but rather his jam is typically Fark, but all the things I was telling him got him interested in Beehaw.
Ok, it does take some doing, and hopefully the fediverse devs might figure out a better hand-off, but this is SOP in the fediverse right now:
Search for the server you are interested in.
Go to the server page
Go to the upper right corner where the server is identified. In the blue field, you will see: "You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [identifier]"
Copy the identifier.
Go back to your home server and paste the identifier into the search field
The server in question should show as a search result.
Click on the link within the search result.
You should be redirected to the site you are looking for, and in the upper right corner you will see the ability to subscribe to that site.
It’s a few more steps but it is effectively the same process for both Lemmy and Mastodon. Mastodon just has a more compact interface so you can have the information on the same screen.
It becomes fairly easy after a few tries. What I suggest is having two tabs open - one with your server and one where you will be searching for new servers, that way you just need to flip between windows.
Unfortunately, Christian effectively vetoed Apollo for Lemmy, but there is an iOS app in active development: Mlem. The team seems passionate and last I heard there are about 8K testers hammering away at the app. You can get Mlem via TestFlight.
The icons are gorgeous, and I like the idea that Beehaw basically has “branding” on their communities. This proves a visual clue to folks new to a fediverse where a particular community is coming from. It would be nice if more servers did similar.
I wonder if at a future point, folks who signed up on Beehaw as their “home server” could get a yellow hexagon frame for their avatar. It would help visually unite and convey the idea of the user and their local environment while reinforcing the idea of what a fediverse does.
The title is misleading. McCarney used machine learning to isolate Lennon’s vocals from a badly recorded demo tape - one that the group (largely at Harrison’s request) abandoned during their “Anthology” recording sessions....
This was the mindset that drove Harrison out of The Beatles. I might have the anecdote wrong, but what I gather was Lennon was always the band’s leader, but when he started to “check out” (as someone put it, he basically “won the lottery” as far as fame and fortune and was distractedly in love), McCartney stepped up to “substitute lead” and was a bit overbearing. Harrison, being largely ignored and dismissed finally said “I’m done” which served as a slap Lennon and McCartney needed.
McCartney has a hubris which never changed. I am fairly certain he truly believes that he is doing the right thing and that George would have approved if he could have heard the recovered vocals.
I just don’t know if this could truly be a “Beatles” song, “Yesterday” notwithstanding, without some input from George as well, but I can’t see that happening - it would be a monumental coincidence if there was some track Harrison had that somehow dovetailed into an unfinished fragment of a track Lennon left behind. The only way I could possibly see it is if Dhani Harrison is somehow involved to speak on his father’s behalf.
I really want to like lemmy, but it's difficult. I'm new to all this fediverse thingy, and I might just have old habits and perceptions how things should work but... I keep seeing the same posts more than once, iOS experience is not that good really, sometimes I see dead posts from 2 years ago for some reason, despite having...
I would say to breathe deep and take your time. Lemmy is not a clone of Reddit, and it shouldn’t be viewed as, say you would compare functionality between 2 third-party Reddit apps.
Think of it as coming in to a new MMO after having played the old one for many years. Some things will be familiar, and some things will be different. Some mechanics may feel like a “step backwards” while others are cool additions.
Lemmy isn’t new, but it’s getting fresh eyes on its user experience and that is a good thing. And unlike Reddit, each community/server/whathaveyou can be far more responsive to their users feedback. That said, not every response will be a “yes” but you don’t have requests filtering through various levels of technological red tape, which I understand has been a challenge for the Reddit moderators, who still do not have the necessary tools to effectively moderate their subreddits.
When I first joined Beehaw, and saw, originally, a “lack” of diverse subreddits (including my mainstays) I was a bit disappointed, but then I thought to myself: “damn the torpedoes, I’m just gonna wing it” and subscribed to a bunch of communities that looked promising.
I’ve been on Lemmy since the disastrous AMA and have not looked back. I’ve even engaged more in these last 5 days on Lemmy/Beehaw than in the last year on Reddit. And while I still miss my 250+ subreddits (including r/superbowl and the subreddits I collected as part of a Reddit gestalt (r/inthesoulstone, the subreddit for Purple button pushers, r/buddhistasfuck (created as a lark, someone posted it wouldn’t last a day and I stayed to prove them wrong, and while it was a quiet subreddit, every once in a while someone would post something they thought was “extremely” buddhist)) the Lemmy communities have provided more meaningful interactions. Plus, Lemmy will create its own gestalts, and I’ll have new ways to experience the never-ending stream of random data tidbits I have grown to crave.
IIRC, Apple licensed Codeweaver’s source and is extending it privately. My take is that this code, along with Game Mode is basically “Rosetta” for Windows, optimized for games. That would mean that you would launch a windows game on an M-chip Mac and it would launch without having to kick off an emulation mode. Folks playing FFXIV on Mac would have the feel.
I do think that PC devs will need to do something, I don’t think executables will work. Rather Apple is subsidizing the investment that the consumer and the developer needs to invoke to have a more prolific gaming experience.
I’ve seen “communities,” and my personal conceit is that “like” communities (communities with the same, similar, or synergistic subject matter) are “cohorts” so you don’t have to type “multi-communities”
What song still emotionally "destroys" you today? And why? (lemmy.zip)
As the title says…which song still haunts you emotionally? And why? A (freely accessible) link might greatly bring your point across....
YouTube is now fully blocking ad blockers around the world (9to5google.com)
cross-posted from: lemdro.id/post/2787773 (!google)
Twitter Turning Into X Is Set to Kill Billions in Brand Value (www.bnnbloomberg.ca)
An estimated $4 to $20 billion in value, what is he thinking?
Twitter traffic is 'tanking' as Meta's Threads hits 100 million users (www.cnbc.com)
Meta’s new text-based social app Threads has quickly gained 100 million users since launching last week, which appears to be negatively impacting traffic on Twitter. According to web analytics, Twitter traffic declined 5-11% over the first two days Threads was available compared to the previous week. Threads was able to grow...
Actual Hidden Gems on Steam
I love obscure and overlooked games and want to share a bunch with all of you. Most “hidden gem” threads end up listing titles with thousands of reviews or that got some level of marketing. I aim to mostly avoid that. While you may see a few familiar games here, everything in the list below has under 1500 reviews on Steam...
Why shouldn't anyone switch to iOS?
I’m planning on switching platforms and I’m just curious of the opinions of people here. I think that Android can have advantages in areas of privacy and external app installation, but most of the benefits come with a lot of tinkering out of the box....
So where are we all supposed to go now? (www.theverge.com)
But fediverse isn’t ready to take over yet...
Bluesky’s growing pains strain its relationship with Black users (techcrunch.com)
All programs should tell you where they store config files (utcc.utoronto.ca)
I wholeheartedly agree with this blog post. I believe someone on here yesterday was asking about config file locations and setting them manually. This is in the same vein. I can't tell you how many times a command line method for discovering the location of a config file would have saved me 30 minutes of googling.
Reports of coup attempt in Russia. (vlemmy.net)
Dispelling the myth of a universal "Lemmy" community, and discussion of what the fediverse really is
Like many, when the recent defederation went down, I decided to create a couple other logins and see what the wider fediverse has had to say about it....
Reddit Threatens to Remove Moderators From Subreddits Continuing Apollo-Related Blackouts (www.macrumors.com)
As some subreddits continue blackouts to protest Reddit's plans to charge high prices for its API, Reddit has informed the moderators of those subreddits that it has plans to replace resistant moderation teams to keep spaces "open and accessible to users."
ANNOUNCEMENT: defederating effective immediately from lemmy.world and sh.itjust.works
hey folks, we'll be quick and to the point with this one:...
How to comment on a post on another Lemmy server.
I'm trying to comment on this but I'm not sure how to pull it up on lemmy.world and then comment on it: https://startrek.website/comment/38082
Full memo transcript of u/Spez to reddit employees
Hi Snoos,...
new Beehaw community icons!
hey folks, quick update to say you've probably noticed our new community icons....
Sir Paul McCartney says artificial intelligence has enabled a 'final' Beatles song (www.bbc.com)
The title is misleading. McCarney used machine learning to isolate Lennon’s vocals from a badly recorded demo tape - one that the group (largely at Harrison’s request) abandoned during their “Anthology” recording sessions....
I really want to like Lemmy
I really want to like lemmy, but it's difficult. I'm new to all this fediverse thingy, and I might just have old habits and perceptions how things should work but... I keep seeing the same posts more than once, iOS experience is not that good really, sometimes I see dead posts from 2 years ago for some reason, despite having...
Site to track Subreddit's as they go dark (reddark.untone.uk)
Hopefully I'm posting this in the right place, but I see Reddit developments as Tech news right now....
A Potential Game Changer (www.theverge.com)
(Pardon the pun)
uhhh... what do I call the "subreddits"?
Very difficult to discuss with the fiance without know the terminology yet lol