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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 28th, 2023

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  • Okay, Apple’s defence from the article is hilarious:

    The EU says that antitrust regulation is intended to promote competition and give consumers more choices. Apple argues that it is having the opposite effect.

    Fewer choices: When features are delayed or unavailable, EU users don’t get the same options as users in the rest of the world. They lose the choice to use Apple’s latest technologies, and their devices fall further behind.

    You. You are doing that.

    Less differentiation: By forcing Apple to build features and technologies for non-Apple products, the DMA is making the options available to European consumers more similar. For instance, the changes to app marketplaces are making iOS look more like Android — and that reduces choice.

    More different options means less differentation!

    Unfair competition: The DMA’s rules only apply to Apple, even though Samsung is the smartphone market leader in Europe, and Chinese companies are growing fast. Apple has led the way in building a unique, innovative ecosystem that others have copied — to the benefit of users everywhere. But instead of rewarding that innovation, the DMA singles Apple out while leaving our competitors free to continue as they always have.

    Because Android devices I guess comply with DMA for now, let’s see again after Google starts cracking down on non-playstore apps harder.




  • Notice that even the source has to admit that the hypothetical territory losses would be for “security guarantees and peace”. And since no ironclad security guarantees are in sight, the question is moot.

    IMHO they “should” take a deal like that too. Even after WW2 for Poland itself, and definitely Finland IMHO, that lost territory but weren’t directly absorbed into the SU, I’d imagine the SU meddling in the decades after was the even more painful part.

    It also isn’t necessarily the kind of “should” that implies loss of support otherwise, just that if I/they were in that situation, I/they’d take such a deal. I certainly think it should be up to the ukrainians themselves, and would continue to support them whichever choice they made, when it may come available.





  • Device-wise, have you considered separating your project and personal computer? You could coreboot a small light Chromebook as a personal, ultraportable device, and get a hefty laptop or even a desktop for the hard stuff.

    Chatwise, there’s Matrix, XMPP and SimpleX at least. And Briar and Session. But Signal with its phone number registration is the easiest for others to jump to.

    And yes, it’s a constant balancing act between privacy and convenience… and the IA of the security triad, and open source principles. Just like with most things, there’s no perfect solution, you just learn to live with the least bad ones.




  • To me the value has come mostly from “ok, so it sounds to me you are saying that…” and the ability to confirm that I haven’t misunderstood something (of course with current LLMs both the original answer and the verification have to be taken with a heaping of salt). And the ability to adapt it on the go to a concrete example. So, kind of like a having a teacher or an expert friend, and not just search engine.

    Like the last time I relied heavily on a LLM to help/teach me with something it was to explain the PC boot process and BIOS/UEFI to me, and how it applied step by step on how successfully deal with USB and bootloader issues on an “eccentric” HP laptop when installing Linux. The combination of explaining and doing and answering questions was way better than an encyclopedia. No doubt it could have been done with blog posts and textbooks, and I did have to make “educated guesses” on occasion, but all in all it was a great experience.