canis_majoris

canis_majoris, 1 day ago (edited 1 day ago)

There are easier ways to spy on your employees. This is not cost-effective.

I use Zoom for work now and each call can be several gigabytes large, depending on resolution of shared materials and a few other factors. If you want to save that kind of stuff long term, you have to pay to keep it somewhere. If you multiply several gigabytes over a few dozen calls a day, you’re going to end up with terabytes of garbage you need to store. Zoom also informs you of when a recording is starting and active, offering for you to leave the call or otherwise implicitly agree to being recorded. You have to pay for all these things because there’s a significant amount of processing power involved. It’s not like it’s free to run facial recognition and speech recognition.

When I did contract work for Apple support, the spying was way more efficient than just listening to my calls. My supervisor could literally always see my monitor through the chat program we had installed. There’s all kinds of remote software for things like this. If an admin wants to see you misuse your equipment, they have easier ways of finding out than sifting through calls to find wrongthink.

canis_majoris, 1 day ago (edited 1 day ago)

Again, there are easier ways to do this.

Biometric authentication can be required for some companies. You’d have to opt in to use the system or at least agree to the terms set forth by the employer. This kind of stuff doesn’t just get collected just because; it’s pretty sensitive data.

What you’re talking about is a cyberpunk nightmare; some corporate-assisted mass surveillance designed for like, union busting.

If you’re making vocal and facial profiles of employees you must have some reason to do so, and it can’t just be to burn cash. Like I said before, this stuff costs money, and it’s kind of pointless unless you’re using it in a way that makes money, selling the data somehow.

canis_majoris, 2 days ago

There’s a transaction limit on tap payments. Sometimes you need to chip or swipe when it’s over $250 or something.

canis_majoris, 3 days ago

Classic conservative playbook, accuse the opponents of what you’re doing.

canis_majoris, 3 days ago

Kids should not be allowed on the internet in my opinion, because we get posts like this.

canis_majoris, 5 days ago

Cool but is there a better source on this than “I fucking love science”?

canis_majoris, 5 days ago

Why does it look like Big Ben is leaning to the left to be in the photo?

canis_majoris, 5 days ago

It means you own nothing!

canis_majoris, 5 days ago

Going after the one person still interested in Marvel content? Bold move, Disney; we’ll see how it pans out.

canis_majoris, 5 days ago

I’ve heard great things, and I’ve been watching the original run of the X-Men animated series in preparation for watching '97.

Animation tends to get me more hyped than anything else. They always do crazy shit in cartoons that they never really try to do in live action. I’ve been a big fan of all the DC animated stuff since forever, and Marvel is getting back into the game with a really strong entry with '97.

canis_majoris, 5 days ago

PHEVs are kind of pointless because most consumers buying them tend to not actually flip to the electric mode during low-use periods, making the hybridized nature of the vehicle functionally useless.

canis_majoris, 5 days ago

It’s a lack of awareness and training. People buying PHEV’s have the right mindset, they want to be more efficient and helpful to the planet, but at the same time nobody is teaching them how to use the car effectively.

canis_majoris, 7 days ago

I really like The Drumhead from TNG. It establishes the nature of Star Trek at its most essential. It’s mostly a talking episode, although there’s some action with an explosion, which is perfectly average to me. It gives you a feel of the dynamics of some of the politics in the universe, which I think is a great way to get people involved. It’s got one one of those great Picard speeches that puts a badmiral in their place, solving the problem non-violently. It’s also a great parallel to any slippery slope security tightening after a major event happens, which is basically always a timeless message of avoiding overreaching authoritarianism at all costs.

Another TNG one I’d pick is probably The Ensigns of Command. It’s another example of an episode that’s mostly talking, a little bit of action, with a non-violent resolution. It’s fun watching Picard come up with inane legal bullshit to deal with the very strictly by the books alien species, satisfying their requirements in a way that meets his agenda while also being within the rules.

Honestly, I could rationalize different episodes all day, but since those were the first two that came to mind, I’ll just leave them at that.

canis_majoris, 7 days ago

I used to play against the computer as the particle weapons general, build up a massive defensive perimeter, build a bunch of particle cannons, and then draw dicks in the enemy base with the laser.

It’s one of my favorite games of all time.

canis_majoris, 9 days ago

WHERE DO I GET ONE

canis_majoris, 9 days ago

I was happy with them when they were actually baked in store and not at a factory.

canis_majoris, 9 days ago

Nah, it was way better back in the day. Everything was baked in-house, and your meals were served to you on proper dinnerware with porcelain cups. It was closer to a diner than a fast food place. They changed suppliers for their beans in the mid 2000s and it all went downhill from there.

canis_majoris, 9 days ago

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Tim’s but is McDonald’s not similarly priced?

canis_majoris, 9 days ago

Sour cream glazed blueberry was the last good donut I had from them. Existed for like two weeks a few months back.

canis_majoris, 10 days ago (edited 9 days ago)

Canada has the same problem, but our monopoly now is an everything company. Loblaws owns pharmacies, financial institutions, telcom infrastructure, and are vertically integrated throughout the logistics and production side of the grocery chain, while also operating the most stores. They got caught price fixing bread for almost 20 years, and they posted the highest quarterly revenue in decades after “adjusting for inflation”. The government is talking about trying to more heavily regulate the industry but when there’s only basically one guy doing it, he effectively tells you to go fuck yourself because you can’t turn to anyone else.

Right now, for the month of May at least, we’re actively boycotting their stores, which is quite difficult in a lot of remote regions. It’s a good thing that it’s springtime though, because farmers markets are opening up more frequently around town where I can get actual quality produce and goods from real people who produced it all themselves. I am with you 100% on wishing we were all market-based and not supermarket-based.

At the very least, we’re trying to hit the corps in the wallet and see what happens. The CEO has actually been on record calling the boycott “misguided”.

canis_majoris, 10 days ago (edited 10 days ago)

Raising fines doesn’t doesn’t deter criminals from doing crime. They don’t have the money to pay the fines, it’s not like rich people are going out and stealing cars - people stealing things are typically destitute.

When they generate income from fines what happens is that the police becomes a business instead of a public service. The reality of funding through fines is simply that police begin to find more pointless and small reasons to harass and ticket people, in order to boost their revenue. It becomes a game of maintaining the bottom line, and it’s not about doing the right thing or enforcing the rules. Instead of enforcing the rules they will throw the book at you just to generate a buck, and pull you over four blocks down from where you supposedly did a rolling stop.

You can’t give public services financial motives. They should always be permitted to operate at a loss because dollar value is not the same as social and societal value. When you create financial motives for a public service it ceases to provide public value at all costs (which is the literal point of social services) and becomes another business cutting corners to make line go up.

canis_majoris, 10 days ago

I’ve always loved the pun, it’s such a great URL.

canis_majoris, 11 days ago

Don’t forget about the new Snapdragon X series. I heard they were pretty good, on par and better than M3s.

canis_majoris, 11 days ago

I’m tired of all this news about Drake. The news should be that his career is over, not all this interest in his stupid rap beefs against superior artists.

He’s literally a pedophile and he jury rigged Tupac’s voice with AI to defend himself. It’s fuckling disgusting.

Guy was texting Millie Bobby Brown when she was like 14 and he was well into his 30s. He also made out with and groped a 17 year old on stage after confirming her age and doing it anyways. Drake is a massive fucking creep.

canis_majoris, 12 days ago

Between Chinese police stations, election interference, and Indian assassins, yeah we need to tighten up our security.