Spyke

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Does anyone else feel like tech peaked around 10+ years ago?

To quote one of my favorite authors:


“I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”


― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time

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Pokémon Go players are altering public map data to catch rare Pokémon

It's worth pointing out that once Pokémon Go players found out about OSM, we saw a massive increase in new users as well as those contributing to OSM so that the maps would better reflect the areas they played in.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334378297_How_an_augmented_reality_game_Pokemon_GO_affected_volunteer_contributions_to_OpenStreetMap

Unfortunately there are always a few that will try to game any system. In this case they're essentially vandalizing OSM for their own selfish reasons.

gaming

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Helldivers 2 Community Manager Seemingly Gone After PlayStation Login Meltdown

Better/additional info here: https://www.gamesradar.com/games/third-person-shooter/helldivers-2-community-manager-seemingly-fired-after-encouraging-negative-reviews-over-now-canceled-psn-mandate-i-knew-i-was-taking-a-risk-with-what-i-said/

Spitz:

"Generally it's not a good idea to tell people to refund and leave negative reviews when you're a community manager. TIL," Spitz said. "I appreciate all the support and I appreciate even more that everyone can play the game again without restrictions. I knew I was taking a risk with what I said about refunding and changing reviews. I stand by it. It was my job to represent the community, that's what I did."

They added: "I wanted to work for Arrowhead because they're my all-time favorite studio. I got that chance. I'm thankful for that opportunity. I'd happily continue working for them if I had the choice, but that isn't up to me or anyone else in here. I can walk away happy and I don't want anyone causing trouble on my behalf, especially not to people I still have a lot of care and respect for."

This definitely sounds like Sony wanted them out and Arrowhead wanted them to stay.

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What's a technology that was cooler in its older iterations?

Disney lost their old camera tech used to make a "yellow screen" with sodium vapor lights.

It's actually better than a green screen because the yellow light is so specific that even if you remove that particular frequency of light, everything else still looks fine. You can do all sorts of things that would normally be very difficult to pull off with any of our green screen tech (like drinking water in a clear bottle or wearing a rainbow dress).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQuIVsNzqDk

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FTC bans X-Mode from selling phone location data, and orders firm to delete collected data

For those curious, the apps that sold your specific geolocation data were "Drunk Mode" and "Walk Against Humanity".

Edit: Although Wikipedia notes that X-Mode's SDK is in use in more than 400 apps. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Mode_social#cite_note-13

This is a big win for privacy advocates as well:

"By securing a first-ever ban on the use and sale of sensitive location data, the FTC is continuing its critical work to protect Americans from intrusive data brokers and unchecked corporate surveillance,” said Khan.

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Judge backs AI firm over use of copyrighted books

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To anyone who is reading this comment without reading through the article. This ruling doesn't mean that it's okay to pirate for building a model. Anthropic will still need to go through trial for that:

But he rejected Anthropic's request to dismiss the case, ruling the firm would have to stand trial over its use of pirated copies to build its library of material.

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They do have a free tier, and while it doesn't auto request your data removal they can at least notify you which data brokers have your info so you can make the requests manually yourself. https://monitor.mozilla.org/

Edit: The data removal features are currently available only in the US according to their FAQ:

Why is data removal only available in the US? When will it be available in my country?

Data removal is only available in the US because of legislation that allows data brokers to operate there. In many other countries and in regions like the EU, laws like GDPR prevent these websites from collecting and selling people’s personal information without their consent. We’re exploring ways to expand protection and personal data removal outside of the US where needed.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/mozilla-monitor-faq

android

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Here's an open letter to the Organic Maps Shareholders with the most info:
https://www.comaps.app/news/2025-04-16/1/

Which is referenced in the article here:
https://news.itsfoss.com/organic-maps-fork-comaps/

And discussed on the OpenSource community here:
https://lemmy.world/post/30461779

Basically some drama went down between the devs.

Edit: 'to' the shareholders, not from

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'I have no money': Thousands of Americans see their savings vanish in Synapse fintech crisis

The mystery of where those funds are hasn't been solved, despite six months of court-mediated efforts between the four banks involved. That's mostly because the estate of Andreessen Horowitz-backed Synapse doesn't have the money to hire an outside firm to perform a full reconciliation of its ledgers, according to Jelena McWilliams, the bankruptcy trustee.

So you're telling me that a company which manages $42 billion worth of assets doesn't have the money to hire a firm to track down where all of the money was transferred to? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreessen_Horowitz