Spyke

Replies

Comment on

Mozilla 2023 Annual Report: CEO pay skyrockets, while Firefox Marketshare nosedives

A significant portion of this blog post is complaining about Mozilla's repeated attempts to find new revenue streams that aren't Firefox (i.e Google or Microsoft paying them to be the default search provider). It's a sentiment I see a lot and I just don't get it.

They say Google paying to be the default search provider being a bad thing and it makes Mozilla too reliant on an evil company, and yet when Mozilla says "yeah, we hear ya, that's why we're trying to find stuff to diversify into so we can become less reliant on Google" people cry and shout "you should be sticking to Firefox, why aren't you focussing on Firefox??"

Like, which is it? Do you want Mozilla to diversify and have a more sustainable revenue stream, or do you want them to focus on Firefox and commit to reliance on Google? Because maintaining a project as big as Firefox without any funding simply isn't possible, and people aren't going back to paying for web browsers.

What these people want is not at all realistic. Devs want to be paid for their work. They can't have that if Mozilla follows idiots like Lunduke's "don't take money from Google, but also don't do anything that will make money. Only do Firefox."

I've yet to see a single one of these people offer any alternative that comes even remotely close to being feasible.

Comment on

The value of x

What a deviously misleading diagram.

The triangle on the left isn't actually a right angle triangle, as the other angles add to 100°, meaning the final one is actually 80°, not 90°.

Therefore the triangle on the right also isn't a right angle triangle. That corner is 100°.

100+35=135°. 180-135=45°. So that's 45° for the top angle.

X = the straight line of the joined triangles (180°) - the top angle of the right triangle (45°). 180-45=135°

X is 135°, not the 125° it initially appears to be.

Comment on

When can we expect 500TB drives to be available?

I am so tired of people, especially people who pretend to be computer experts online, completely failing to understand what Moore's Law is.

Moore's Law != "Technology improves over time"

It's an observation that semiconductor transistor density roughly doubles every ~2 years. That's it. It doesn't apply to anything else.

And also for the record, Moore's Law has been dead for a long time now. Getting large transistor density improvements is hard.

Comment on

Microsoft formally deprecates the 39-year-old Windows Control Panel

If Microsoft had actually moved all the settings over to the "new" settings app (it's 12 years old, btw), I'd be supportive of this.

It's a joke that windows has 2 settings apps, and searching for specific settings in the start menu will take you to either, or to both.

But as we all know, Microsoft won't do this properly. They'll likely just continue with their 75% finished settings app while hiding the control panel, and if you need something not in the settings app you'll have to open some old menu using a run command or some other terrible convoluted step that makes you feel like you're running a half-baked Linux distro from 2003.

MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux distros don't have this issue. Fucking TempleOS doesn't have this issue. Microsoft is a $3.2 trillion company!

The absolute lack of effort they put into Windows is pathetic. They're a shining example of why monopolies should not be allowed to happen.

Comment on

Why I regret using 23andMe: I gave up my DNA just to find out I’m British | Technology | The Guardian

Americans seem get really weird with the whole ancestry thing. There appears to be a desire to look into your family history and find something "exotic", which basically seems to mean non-English - I imagine because that's perceived as the 'default' ancestry, so-to-speak.

Honestly, who the fuck cares? What difference does it make? Nationalities aren't Skyrim races. You don't get special abilities. It makes no difference whether your ancestors were British/Irish/Spanish/French/whatever.

E: This is obviously not intended as a hateful statement, people. You have to understand that the rest of the world doesn't care about this, so we're confused when we look to the US and see them take it so seriously. We're especially puzzled when Americans say "I'm Irish" because their great great great uncle bought a pint of Guiness in the 1870s. It's an alien concept to the rest of the planet.

Comment on

Tesla driver who killed 2 people while using autopilot must pay $23,000 in restitution without having to serve any jail time

Reply in thread

Oh no, it's even worse than that.

It's the CEO and other staff repeatedly speaking of the system as if it's basically fully capable and it's only for legal reasons why a driver is even required. Even saying that the car could drive from one side of the US to the other without driver interaction (only to not actually do that, of course).

It's the company never correcting people when they call it a self driving system.

It's the company saying they're ready for autonomous taxis and saying owner's cars will make money for them while they aren't driving it.

It's calling their software subscription Full Self Driving

It's honestly staggering to me that they're able to get away with this shit.

Comment on

Russia tests cutting itself off from the rest of the internet

To the people thinking this means Russia will no longer be able to interfere with other countries over the internet: you are probably mistaken. Disinformation teams will still be connected to the internet. All this will mean is Russians having even less exposure to the world outside of what little Vladolf wants them to see.

It will probably make the European CS2 servers less toxic though.

Comment on

Mastodon announces transition to non-profit structure | TechCrunch

I'd encourage people to read the article, because it's pretty no-nonsense and has some other interesting details and background information. It's not very long, either!

But here's the important part that the headline speaks of:

Decentralized social network organization Mastodon said Monday that it is planning to create a new non-profit organization in Europe and hand over ownership of entities responsible for key Mastodon ecosystem and platform components. This means one person won’t have control over the entire project. The organization is trying to differentiate itself from social networks controlled by CEOs like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

While exact details are yet to be finalized, this means that Mastodon’s current CEO and creator, Eugen Rochko, will hand over management bits of the organization to the new entity and focus on the product strategy.

Comment on

Hard work

Look, if I were in a privileged position in life, you can bet I'd also do whatever I could to make the same true for my daughters. 100%. I care for them and want them to be prosperous, and if they have kids I'd like them to be in a good position too.

But what really fucks me off is when these people who've benefitted from that then go on to act like they're self-made and didn't get the help.

Just own it. Say "yeah, my family runs a businesses, and because of that I'm in this good position. I'm really thankful of my parents for doing that for me, I've been really fortunate, and I work hard every day in order to show my appreciation for the opportunities that have been made available to me."

I'd respect the hell out of that, even though there's still the degree of nepotism there.

Comment on

Microsoft sneaks ads into the new Outlook for Windows

Of course they have. MS are putting ads everywhere in Windows. The revenue potential is huge and they have more than enough private information on everyone to do targeted ads.

Microsoft would be insane not to go down this route. It's inevitable.

We need more devices for sale that don't use Windows, because this won't stop. Microsoft is a publicly traded company and their stakeholders demand infinite growth.

The only way to get away from this is to use some kind of FOSS operating system

Comment on

TSMC cannot make 2nm chips abroad now: MOEA - Taipei Times

Honestly, this is a no-brainer from Taiwan's POV. The second our economies can get by without Taiwan is the second various governments start questioning whether it's worth it to ally with them, especially with China trying to undermine Taiwan and anybody who supports them all they can.

In a bizarre way, semiconductor manufacturing for Taiwan has become like nuclear weapons are for other countries.

They've made themselves effectively uninvadable because doing so would be an absolute catastrophe for everyone else, including the aggressor.

It's shocking how much it lines up with MAD doctrine, yet in a completely non-lethal way.

I want advanced semiconductor manufacturing to be less centralised, but Taiwan would be foolish to give up this leverage and security.