liampomfret

liampomfret, 18 days ago to random

Interested in getting a proper NAS set up. Without having used one before, am I better off just buying one off the shelf, or is it reasonable/cheaper to build one using open source software? I've still got an old Fractal Design Define R4 that would fit plenty of drives, though I expect I'd need to buy everything else — wouldn't want to run it on an old i5-4690.

liampomfret, 7 months ago to auspol

As much as I would like a breakdown between "people who voted no because they're racist idiots" and "people who voted no because they were misled by the people claiming a progressive cause for voting no", there's no such nuance in a straight yes/no vote for a referendum. And just like the republican referendum, any nuance that may have theoretically existed will never be acknowledged in future political discussions about today's result.
Shame on us Australia.
#VoiceToParliament #auspol

liampomfret, 1 day ago to random

Either retailers are way more desperate than I thought, or this company has made a hell of a typo in sending out this email!
(The amount also appears in the email subject, so that's 3 separate places with this figure.)

liampomfret, 1 month ago to random

Having finally settled on my new laptop purchase, I’m now fully expecting that I’ll spot a much better deal on something within days.

liampomfret, 13 days ago to random

We're only on the third song, and we've already had two sung in languages other than English. A good omen for the rest of the night, hopefully. #SBSEurovision

liampomfret, 7 months ago to random

Looking at options for a new router, and having a hard time making the final decision. At the moment, the decision is basically boiling down to:

1. Higher spec and cheaper, but also older. Just hit EOL, so no official firmware updates anymore, but there is an active open source one that should keep being updated for now.
2. Lower spec, 20% more expensive than the other option (at current discounted prices for both), but just released in May this year so should get updates for years to come.

liampomfret, 1 month ago to random

Just had an idea of how to explain to people the cost/benefit trade off of privacy and convenience, in a way that might make sense to the average person. Stop me if this isn't as original as I think.

I call it the "take-out coffee test".

It's fairly common for a lot of working people to buy a take-out coffee at some point in their work day. Basically, they're paying for the convenience of not having to do it themselves, and the confidence that it'll be done to a certain minimum standard. (1/n)

liampomfret, 10 months ago to ai

I'm not a lawyer, but surely an #AI copy of an individual's voice without permission is a violation of one's personality rights?

Not to mention, it's a massive #privacy and identity theft risk. A hell of a lot easier to pull an "it's me" scam if you're using the individual's voice too.

liampomfret, 2 months ago to random

Ugh. That's twice now that I've attempted to purchase a bunch of gift cards for prize winners from our holiday contests, and each time the company selling them has said they were "unable to authenticate and complete" the order. Given the hold on the funds from my card, the problem clearly isn't with my payment, so I've got no idea what's going on. Some sort of misplaced fraud protection flagging it solely because it's a large order of gift cards?

liampomfret, 2 days ago to random

Really not impressed with the current EOFY sale offers for tech products. Was hoping I'd be able to get myself a few decent discounts on the NAS I want to set up, plus a new SSD for the laptop, but nothing so far is catching my eye.

liampomfret, 7 months ago to random

Lots of little niggling things in making this cold turkey shift over to Linux. The biggest issues so far are that sound works through my headphones but not my speakers; and that there seems to be some subtle differences in the display fonts in various programs such as Firefox and Discord that is just incredibly off-putting.

I'm sure this is just a matter of getting the right configuration work done, but that's clearly going to take some time that I don't have right now.

liampomfret, 17 days ago to random

The argument that "solar can't provide baseload power" always struck me as a bit silly, even before I got our solar panels, simply because solar was never intended to be the sole provider of power, but rather part of a mix of a variety of renewable sources that combined were still cheaper than polluting fossil fuels.

Since getting the solar panels, the argument seems even more silly to me, since even on cloudy, rainy days my modest system is fully providing for our daytime electricity usage.

liampomfret, 8 months ago to auspol

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a bit more comfortable about the result of the upcoming referendum after this ad. Particularly for the generations who grew up with this music and who lived through these events, the combination of them is quite powerful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br8dB_0z3Fk
#Yes23 #Auspol #VoiceToParliament

liampomfret, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

At this point, I can’t help but feel like blaming the Yes campaign for the referendum result is akin to victim blaming.

To my mind, any blame should rest in the lies and misinformation peddling from the No campaign, in the media who generally superbly ineffective in their journalistic duty of combating the lies, and in particular with those in the media who were complicit in facilitating the spread of lies and misinformation.
#auspol #voicetoparliament

liampomfret, 8 months ago to auspol

So if this referendum goes well, we can start organising a referendum to become a republic, right?
#auspol

liampomfret, 6 months ago to random

Been noticing a group of kids riding their bikes around the suburb lately during what should be school hours. Not sure if homeschooled or just truant. At least one parent seems aware, so I'd like to assume the first, but they really seem to be letting the kids out way more than you'd expect if they were doing any real study...

liampomfret, 9 months ago to random

Damnit. Stocked up on generic paracetamol and ibuprofen at the local chemist a couple of weeks ago. They didn’t ask me about allergies when selling them, and I didn’t even think to ask, since I would’ve assumed they had to mention it. Only just noticed after opening the packets that both contain sulphites, so I can’t touch either of them. They’ll still get used, just by @alexandrasketch rather than me, but it’s still a pain. Quite literally, since I have no pain pills I can take in the house. =/

liampomfret, 7 months ago to random

A bit annoyed that many of the features I wanted from this new ASUS router are basically locked behind an extremely invasive privacy policy with Trend Micro. No way in hell am I agreeing to letting Trend basically snoop on all my browsing.

liampomfret, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

gets package sent to him via Express Post
Tuesday night: Package is in NSW, estimated delivery is Wednesday
Wednesday morning: Package is now only only two suburbs away, estimated delivery is now Thursday

liampomfret, 2 months ago to random

So I see the usual suspects in gaming spaces are at it again. 2016's manufactured outrage was bad enough. Now they're going after a narrative development company that they falsely believe is somehow forcing diversity into games. All because these groups seem to be fundamentally unable to accept the idea of any games company wanting to improve representation of marginalized groups in their stories. https://kotaku.com/sweet-baby-inc-consulting-games-alan-wake-2-dei-1851312428

liampomfret, 3 months ago to random

So multiple US mobile phone networks seem to have gone down simultaneously, nationwide. If this isn’t a cyberattack of some kind, what would cause this? Some kind of common flaw or bug in the software/hardware used across each provider? Yet there’s other providers that are still up, so what would they have been doing differently?

liampomfret, 4 months ago to random

I'm well and truly sick of people trying to re-frame boycotts as " cancelling", in an attempt to stigmatize boycott behaviour and remove one of the limited ways in which average people can express their power under capitalism.

Today, boycotts aren't just about voting with your wallet, they're about voting with your attention, depriving an organization or individual of views, and limiting their ability to derive revenue from their online activities. There is nothing wrong with boycotting.

liampomfret, 12 days ago to random

San Marino not getting through is a bloody shame. They deserved it. #SBSEurovision

liampomfret, 4 months ago to random

When you think about it, online advertising is remarkably primitive. The algorithms focus on showing ads to consumers the data shows may be interested, but typically fail to consider the best time to show that ad to the consumer, and the best context in which to show that ad. As a result, it ends up being more about just assaulting the consumer with a mass volume of ads in the hopes they’ll click on something, which just alienates consumers even more from the already intrusive advertising.

liampomfret, 3 months ago to random

Stuck in bed due to issues with my hip and glutes. Thought I’d try to resurrect the old laptop so I could at least get some work done, but no dice. Literally won’t turn on, even while plugged in. Guess I’ll be spending the rest of the week fruitlessly shopping laptop deals online while unable to justify the expense to myself when there should be bigger discounts once the laptops announced at CES actually hit the market.