• 2 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 22nd, 2023

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  • A couple years ago I signed up for an email provider so I could use my own domain and avoid Google being able to kill my email account. They’ve got a spam filter, but it’s ridiculously bad. I’ve been looking for better ways, but still haven’t found them.

    Ironically, I’m hoping a free locally-run LLM will soon be able to filter emails appropriately. I haven’t seen anyone trying yet, but I’m sure they’re out there.




  • When I was a kid, Tomb Raider was a pretty easy game, except this one part that required absolutely perfect timing for a some running and jumping between platforms for a bonus item.

    At the start, I could make it to the next platform. After a while, I could do 2. Eventually, I got 3. After a long, long time, I finally managed to string all of them together… And screwed up the very last one.

    Here’s the thing, though. I got it on the very next attempt. I had learned that sequence so well that it actually wasn’t hard any more, even though it was nearly impossible for me at the start.

    Afterwards, my parents (who watched the whole thing) told me they had never seen me focus on something so intently for so long and they couldn’t believe I managed it.

    That’s what souls games are, from start to finish. Every single encounter is basically impossible at first, until you die and learn enough to get through it. But you start from the beginning of the game every freaking time.


  • They’ve been quietly preventing Firefox from becoming a threat for a long time. There are constant little things that just mysteriously don’t work as well on Firefox, for no reason. People have changed the user agent and found that it works just like on Chrome with Chrome’s agent. Youtube was doing it for a while, and reviews on the search are another instance. I was at the Dentist’s and they were asking for a Google review, but I couldn’t find the spot to leave it. I switched to Chrome and it was magically right where it was supposed to be.

    So they already think Firefox could be a threat, and preventing ad-block is going to make it a bigger threat.


  • Because this is likely to drive a lot of people to try switching. And they’re the type of people who try to convince other people to switch, too. Techies, etc.

    When forced with trying to keep family safe from abusive and/or manipulative ads, this is a pretty hot topic. Plenty of people tell their family what browser to use and even set it up for them with ad blockers, etc.

    I’ve recently had some experiences that tell me my parents are at a vulnerable age and can’t fully protect themselves, so it’s pretty important to have control of this.


  • There’s a few things going on. At first blush, I agree with you. The vast majority of that stuff doesn’t need to be captured.

    But if you don’t capture everything, how do you know you got the stuff that will be important or wanted in the future?

    Also, historians are going to find that data to be an absolute gold mine. Unfortunately, a lot of it is in the form of video now and takes a ton of storage space.

    I think, in the end, most people are not willing to pay the price to archive everything. But some are, and they’re doing it.





  • FTA: YouTube’s global head of health, Dr Garth Graham, said: “As a teen is developing thoughts about who they are and their own standards for themselves, repeated consumption of content featuring idealised standards that starts to shape an unrealistic internal standard could lead some to form negative beliefs about themselves.”

    And while I’m sure this is true, this is a minority of people, and they should seek help for their problem. There are far more who benefit from hearing about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and how to achieve it.

    They should already be hearing that stuff from their parents and teachers, but I have my doubts. And they’re much more likely to listen to influencers than authority figures at certain ages.

    But the whole thing is even more pointless. They’re mostly influenced by seeing these beautiful people constantly on TV, movies, and Youtube, and thinking that they don’t measure up to them. Simply stopping some health care videos is going to do nothing for the problem and only prevent videos with the information they need.





  • First off, I think you’re absolutely right about your right to disable “this nonsense”. I support you in that.

    But “this nonsense” is what makes games fun for me.

    I’m not about struggling and finally overcoming.

    I’m about having an adventure. It’s the interactive version of a book, where I engage my brain a bit more and explore or solve puzzles, instead of the book just telling me the answers immediately. I enjoy gun fights in games, but I don’t want to play them even twice. I want to win them and move on to more content. Losing a scenario doesn’t make me feel even better when I win. It just drags me down.

    I have enough things in my life that I’ve accomplished by struggle that I don’t need it from games, too.

    But again, if that’s what does it for you, I think you should have it, too. There’s no good reason you can’t disable it, IMO. (Other than the devs just not providing the option.)