drahardja

drahardja, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

WebMD’s parent company, Internet Brands, released a cringey and abusive internal video threatening their employees to #returnToOffice. “We aren’t asking or negotiating at this point”, the CEO says. “Don’t mess with us”, the video reads at the end. The video features employees dancing and celebrating RTO (at gunpoint? or at least under threat of firing by HR?).

I know corporate videos are all kinda crappy, but this one is…spouse-beating levels of terrible.

#flexibleWork #remoteWork

https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kxqnx/dont-mess-with-us-webmd-parent-company-demands-return-to-office-in-bizarre-video

drahardja, 5 months ago to random

Never forget that the money behind AI is in large part to accelerate the replacement of employees with automation.

In this instance, Google is entertaining replacing ad-campaign sellers with automated, ML- and AI-driven services that automatically target and buy ads on advertisers’ behalf.

This is doubly bad, because not only are human workers losing their jobs, but ad targeting will likely get weirder and make less sense, as ML/AI attempt to maximize ad effectiveness by trying odd combinations of target audiences.

I believe that adtech has reached saturation, and that ads won’t get much more effective regardless of what people do—short of creating outstanding, viral ads. I don’t even think more gross invasions of privacy will make ads that much more effective. In any case, there is no real path to greater ad efficacy by more automation. That way lies enshittifaction, and not much else.

Gift article: “Google Plans Ad Sales Restructuring as Automation Booms”

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-plans-ad-sales-restructuring-as-automation-booms?rc=tvp819&shared=110b13c0b2bc7894

drahardja, 5 months ago to llm

Plagiarism for me, but not for thee

#llm #ai #openAI #chatGPT

“OpenAI suspends ByteDance’s account after it used GPT to train its own AI model”

https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/15/24003542/openai-suspends-bytedances-account-after-it-used-gpt-to-train-its-own-ai-model

drahardja, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago) to internet

You owe it to yourself to read @christianselig’s account on how #Reddit forced the #ApolloApp out of business. It’s a well-documented retelling of events (he has audio recordings), and the Reddit crew comes out of it looking like scummy lowlifes, which I believe is close to the truth.

It’s not a stretch to say that Reddit is powered by unpaid volunteers. As far as I can tell, the company pays none of the tens of thousands of subreddit moderators and millions of content creators who make the site worth visiting. To turn around and ruin the business model of one of the most loved volunteer-built clients is a slap in the face of the community that built the site.

I’ve been on Reddit for 13 years, but I’ve been using the site less and less over time, and this is probably the thing that will push me over the edge. I don’t think I’ll visit again after June 30. Hope that IPO goes well.

https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/

drahardja, 3 months ago to VintageAudio

So much of that old-timey sound we associate with 1920s music is thanks to the unique (and limited) audio response of the carbon microphone, which was the state of the art for the time.

Here’s a recording of a modern performer singing into a 1920s carbon microphone!

#vintageAudio #microphone #music #video

Source: https://www.tiktok.com/@samsonite1890/video/7228724243956272430

video/mp4

drahardja, 9 months ago to microsoft

#Microsoft is gaslighting their employees.

They reduced the bonus/stock award budget for the year, then turned around and told employees that the reduced budget wasn’t why they got less—it was because they weren’t making “impact”.

“Leaked Microsoft memo tells managers not to use budget cuts as an explainer for lack of pay rises: ‘Reinforce that every year offers unique opportunity for impact’”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/leaked-microsoft-memo-tells-managers-144817183.html

drahardja, 4 months ago to random

Is this bad? It’s bad, right? #COVID19 #wastewaterSurveillance

drahardja, 5 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to Cruise

#Cruise—the self-driving car taxi company whose car hit a pedestrian and dragged her 20 ft under the car, thus losing their right to operate their cars in California—is trying to offer CPUC $75k to make the issue go away. They’re not offering the money to the victim of the crash, mind you. They are offering the money to the California regulatory body, in an effort to once again be allowed to test their cars on California streets.

“Cruise Is Offering $75K to Settle CPUC Investigation Into Crash In Which Woman Was Dragged”

https://sfist.com/2024/01/08/cruise-is-offering-75k-to-settle-cpuc-investigation/

drahardja, 9 months ago to TodayILearned

#TodayILearned that the delicious Mexican fruit sauce #Chamoy probably derives its name and recipe from the #Philippines’ “kiamoy”, which is a fruit sauce made with the same recipe. That recipe was in turn derived from a #Hokkien #Chinese recipe brought by Chinese immigrants, who called it 鹹梅 “kiam-mui” (literally: salted plums).

As a Hokkien descendant who loves #Mexican #fruit salads, this makes me happy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamoy_(sauce)

drahardja, 11 months ago to reddit

The #reddit blackout is now nearing 3500 subreddits which will take themselves private on Monday. From what I can gather, some will shut down for a few days, while others will remain private until Reddit reverses its decision to kill off 3rd party clients with exorbitant API charges.

Of course Reddit won’t back off its decision—it’s quite likely that killing 3rd party clients is exactly what they want to do to prepare for IPO. If subreddit mods are true to their word, then those subreddits are basically dead.

drahardja, 1 year ago to random

I’ve written down most of what I’ve learned about xcframeworks into this blog post. I hope it can be a one-stop shop to answer all your practical questions, including:

• What is an xcframework?
• What’s in an xcframework?
• How do I make an xcframework?
• How do I consume an xcframework?

Enjoy and please share!

#xcode #ios #macos #apple #objectiveC #swift #framework #xcframework #development

https://www.humancode.us/2023/05/19/all-about-xcframeworks.html

drahardja, 8 months ago to iPhone

I’ve seen several samples of photos from #iPhone 15 Pro Max that are way overprocessed like this, with weird artifacts, with some areas oddly sharp while others nearby really muddy and blurry.

Whatever AI or ML #Apple is using to post-process photos seems to be turned up much too high. I felt that the iPhone 14 Pro camera was a downgrade from the iPhone 13 thanks to its over-eager post-processing that yielded weird and artificial-looking results. I was looking forward to getting a more natural camera with the iPhone 15, but I guess that is not to be.

It seems Apple has doubled down on new tech rather than admit it’s going down the wrong path yet again (TouchBar cough cough), but I hope they realize that overcooked photos with meddling AI enhancements isn’t what pros want. https://mastodon.social/@ChrisPirillo/111117893994289205

drahardja, 8 months ago (edited 8 months ago) to photography

So I went to a couple of car meets today and did an A/B/C #shootout on an #iPhone14Pro and #GooglePixel7. All images appear in this sequence:

1. #Halide app on #iPhone 14 Pro, RAW with as many post-processing options turned off as possible
   2 iPhone 14 Pro camera app, #ProRAW
2. #Google #Pixel 7, RAW

The photos are mostly images of cars, not people.

All images are shot with the default 1x lens.

All images are imported as .dng into Lightroom and left as-is except for Halide shots which are all inexplicably overexposed by around 1.5 stops. For those shots, I manually lowered exposure, but left all other sliders where they were.

Halide produces 12 MP images even when I choose 48 MP. iPhone camera produces 48 MP images. Pixel 7 produces 12 MP images. It’s pretty obvious that the “48 MP” and “50 MP” images are synthesized out of binned-pixel 12 MP sensors. The images uploaded here are downscaled to 1080p jpgs using the same Lightroom settings (sRGB, 95% quality).

OK, on with the show!

#photography

drahardja, 7 months ago to random

https://xoxo.zone/@annika/111331008151633306

drahardja, 4 months ago to random

I find it especially aggravating when non-US posters scold US voters for planning to vote for Biden.

Look, I get it. Biden sucks. I hate him too. But the alternative this year is Literally Hitler, But Worse. I can assure everyone that allowing Trump to win will be far worse for the USA and the world than anything Biden might do. We do not want a Fascist USA Global Superpower, and that is what we will very likely get with Trump.

Maybe these posters have a voting system and coalition-based Parliament where they live, where they’d be justified in writing off a candidate like Biden. But here in the USA, our voting system is rigged and unforgiving, and we must vote accordingly.

I might also note that telling Biden voters to vote 3rd Party is also a well-known technique used by Republicans and foreign disinformation sources to secure a win for Trump. These posters are inadvertently playing into their hands. https://progressivecafe.social/@TonyStark/111755995729739680

drahardja, 4 months ago to random

Riot Games just laid off 530 employees today, but to their credit, their severance pay is incredibly generous: 6 months pay for everyone, including health benefits, plus an extra 100% of their last bonus, and workers can still vest some RSUs for the next 12 months. They let employees keep a laptop for good, and let them retain access to email until they have to leave. They will provide immigration support for workers on visa.

#Layoffs suck, and there seems to have been a ton of them in the tech industry this past year or two, but this is as good a way to do it as I’ve ever seen. This must cost Riot a fortune to execute. Good on them for actually caring about what happens to their workers after their last workday.

https://www.riotgames.com/en/news/2024-rioter-update

drahardja, 1 month ago to TeslaMotors

I think Toyota was right all along.

It’s an unpopular opinion among EV purists, but I think hybrids will reduce a lot more carbon emissions than BEVs, for the simple reason that way more people can switch. Even without access to charging outlets, hybrids are far more efficient thanks to their regenerative braking. With access to outlets, they are as good as EVs within their electric range, which will account for most of the daily commutes of their owners, and all with far smaller batteries and better costs of ownership than BEVs.

The way to eliminate emissions due to personal transportation is not to put people in BEVs. It’s to eliminate commutes and massively invest in (electrified) public transportation.

#ev #bev #hybrids #phev #cars #transportation

“Hybrid vs. Electric Cars: Why Hybrids Make More Sense”

https://www.kbb.com/car-advice/hybrid-vs-electric-why-hybrids-make-more-sense/

drahardja, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

3D Touch was one of those times when (very expensive) hardware was put into production, and software was forced to produce something—anything—to showcase it.

The 3D Touch strain gauge was impressive. It measured grams-force so accurately that you could use it as a scale. Problem was, humans aren’t that good at applying precise amounts of force, especially when operating a bar of soap single-handed.

In fact, having force sensitivity turned out to be detrimental to the UX because people would accidentally press too hard and trigger something unintended. It made operating a touch screen device harder for many people, especially those with less-than-excellent fine motor control.

#apple #iphone #ios

https://www.threads.net/@ridsdalek/post/C1S9KwsPpcV/

drahardja, 9 months ago to random

The Dominionism religious movement is deeply intertwined with the antidemocratic power-grab that is now integral to the Republican party. It’s an offshoot of the Word of Faith movement, something I’m unfortunately intimately familiar with, having grown up neck-deep in that culture. It’s run by charlatans and hucksters, milking dollars from rubes by promising them divine wealth. Their corruption and greed now extend to national politics, and they are inseparable from the GOP. https://texasobserver.social/@TexasObserver/110929111156491050

drahardja, 1 month ago to random

In case you still need a reason to unfollow John Gruber: https://union.place/@angry_drunk/112296366587517186

drahardja, 10 months ago to random

Another great post from @pluralistic.

“Laws that block us seizing the means of computation and moving away from Big Tech are like the heroic measures that governments undertake to keep people safe in the smouldering wildland-urban interface.

These measures prop up the lie that we can perfect the tech companies, so they will be suited to eternal rule.

Rather than building more fire debt, we should be making it easy for people to relocate away from the danger so we can have that long-overdue, “good fire” to burn away the rotten giants that have blotted out the sun.”

https://doctorow.medium.com/let-the-platforms-burn-6fb3e6c0d980

drahardja, 2 months ago to accessibility

Yet another reminder that any #accessibility feature that helps people with disabilities will eventually help ALL of us.

Accessibility is for everyone.

“The popularity of turning captions "on"”—Seven reasons why people watch TV with Closed Captions enabled, by David Pogue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6u-f69-J-U

drahardja, 3 months ago (edited 3 months ago) to random

Techbros will keep attempting to invent ways for people to exchange information without relying on a network of human trust, and again and again, human trust will prove to be an essential part of a functioning system.

Systems that mainly attempt to replace human trust always work great until they don’t, then you fall off a lonely cliff from which no one can help you out.

Never bet against a network built on human trust and a shared sense of personal reputation, because that’s where all human collaboration eventually gets done, and because that’s where every hare-brained “don’t trust humans” network will eventually end up, lest they perish.

#FridayDevAdvice

drahardja, 5 months ago to random

I was reminded of a post I read recently about how “AI” is going to cause so much spam and disinformation (intentional or otherwise) and so much erosion in credibility, that the only reliable sources of news will be trusted networks of friends, not popular news media outlets, whose reporting will be either credulously fake, or manipulated.

And it dawned on me: for a small group of US citizens, this is already the reality of today. People in cults, conspiracy theory groups, and MAGA circles already believe that news media is credulous or manipulated (“fake”), and that the only reliable sources of news is their trusted circle of like-minded friends, who only confirm their biases and keep them tied to their dogmas.

(cont’d)