[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I hate the camera bumps. Just make the entire phone the same thickness and - hey! This is crazy, but maybe then you could then add a bit more structural integrity and put a bigger battery and a SD card slot and a headphone jack in there as well.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Do we need a dataismanipulated community? I think we need a dataismanipulated community. 🤔

Edit: we could have challenges like, presenting a mundane dataset and saying, "display this data in a way that gives a clear advantage to this particular group even though they have no particular advantage in any obvious metric". The most obscure way to elevate that group with provided and/or inferred data wins.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 3 months ago

You're never going to live in a world where you're allowed to fly without photo id amigo

Move to a different country.

Eg in Australia I can book a domestic ticket and have two interactions after that:

  • x-ray/security where they scan my carry on
  • boarding at the gate where they scan my pass.

No photo ID - or any ID really - needed. Now there's enough dribs and drabs of information when I book the ticket and etc etc that they can identify me, but there's nothing stopping someone from booking a ticket for someone else under their name.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 3 months ago

I end up having to play twenty questions with chatgpt. For example, I've been asking it for code examples for ffmpeg mpeg4 encoding with C++.

It will happily spit out completely non-working code, where the core part - feeding image frames to the encoder - works, but it doesn't initialise or tidy up the encoding afterwards.

Until I say, "hey this code doesn't seem to work and creates corrupted files", and then it's like, "oh yeah you also need to do a bunch of other stuff, just like this". Repeat as it slowly adds more and more pieces until finally you end up with something that actually works.

Or it will happily dream up function names or mix python and C functions, or will refer to older APIs even when I've specifically said "use API version x.y" and so on and so forth.

If I didn't know enough about the subject already, I'd never be able to tease out the answer. So in a sense it's a mostly useful reference, but it can't be relied on to actually and consistently provide a result because it's all statistics and fuzzy text generation behind the scenes, not actual knowledge.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 3 months ago

It did have a pretty catchy chorus.

Turns out it's about an actual school shooting and not just disliking Mondays.

Back when a school shooting was actually something to write a song about.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

The bug is the lack of documentation and that a simple unguarded command can erase all user's data on the system.

Also, the principle of least surprise would like a word.

If I look at the command line arguments of a program called "systemd-tmpfiles" and one of them is called "purge" I will generally assume that option will purge temporary files.

Now it turns out that someone decided that this program would be a simple way to do something with /home directories(*) so they included /home in the config file for the program, the file that the program reads by default when it is invoked.

Who decided it would be a good idea for it to deal with /home?

Wellllll...

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/main/tmpfiles.d/home.conf

(*)I have no idea what this program is doing with /home in its config file. I will presume that there is a useful and mostly logical reason for it, and that this command line option was just an unfortunate footgun for those users who were not intimately familiar with systemd.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Turns out it seems the Australians have public health insurance for everyone - Medicare.

To follow from your comment , because Australia has a publicly funded health system, the government actively works to reduce preventable diseases because it reduces the load on the system.

So they have had:

A sunscreen campaign and skin cancer check initiatives since the '80s.

Anti-smoking campaigns (and high tobacco taxes) where resources are available to help quit.

Every citizen gets a free bowel cancer test mailed to them when they turn 50 to help find and treat cancer earlier.

Road safety laws are tight and helmet / seatbelt regulations are strict as it reduces hospital loads.

Vaccinations for a multitude of easily preventable diseases are given for free in childhood, particularly now for the virus that causes cervical cancer.

Those and a myriad of other public health initiatives all help Australians to live longer.

Coupled with the fact that the cost for the whole population is borne by an income tax of approximately 2% , it means that if you are poor or unemployed, you still have access to health services. That also means that small health issues among low income earners don't snowball until they are life threatening.

It has the knock on effect that people don't end up trapped in a job because it offers "good benefits and a low deductible" and concerns about pre existing conditions interfering with insurance and etc when changing jobs is generally moot.

Then throw in mandatory government regulated retirement funds that require all employers to put in 12+ percent of an employee's gross earnings into an employee's fund of their choosing for their retirement. That coupled with public health generally means the whole US style worker=slave arrangement can't exist.

Which means the US will get nothing like this as all that screams of nanny state overlords and death panels and moar taxes killing freedom and so on and so forth. Sorry guys.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Make laws that give consumers mandatory, irrevocable warranties that include fit-for-purpose clauses, and has phrasing such as "reasonable expected lifetime" for the goods. Make those laws apply to whoever sells you the goods, not the manufacturer.

Laws like that weed out a lot of crap. Shops won't buy crap in because they have to deal with the warranty on said crap. Manufacturers won't make (as much) crap because they have to deal with returns.

You won't be able to buy a $4 air fryer any more, but the one you do buy will last a lot longer.

Edit: I'm Australian, and we have consumer rights over and above warranties offered by manufacturers. Those rights would be a good start.

They start about half way down this page:

https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-services/consumer-rights-and-guarantees

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 7 months ago

It's really when you get into the thousands though that SI prefixes generally start to be used, you don't see deca or hecto used that often. It's mainly because we're usually happy keeping three digits of precision in general conversation (185 degrees C, 250 metres, etc). After that we get a bit sloppy and start rounding, and that's where kilo comes in and we start talking about "1.25 kilometres" and such.

Add in the fact that people rarely need to describe temperatures higher than 1000 degrees C with any precision, (they'll just round to hundreds/thousands/millions usually) and that's why SI units feel weird with temperature.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 7 months ago

I have an Oki laser printer that I bought for $129. I've had it so long I gave it to my kids for university. Duplex, wifi, and I've bought two toner cartridges for it in the 8 years we've had it.

(Side note: If you go to an airport, you'll find that the dot matrix printer spewing out the passenger manifest at the gate is often a Okidata Microline-series printer, an updated version of the printer I had in 1992)

Basically, don't buy an inkjet printer, and don't buy HP.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 7 months ago

That may be true but if the language is tough to develop with, then those users won't get a product made with that language, they'll get a product made with whatever language is easier / more expedient for the developer. Developer time is money, after all.

[-] dgriffith@aussie.zone 11 points 1 year ago

I'd bet it actually is more sustainable to not include it tbh, plus it is likely more affordable.

Mmm now you're dealing with powered devices that have another two batteries that wear out, plus the battery in the charging case, all the electronics involved, etc etc

Vs a simple plastic connector and an associated amplifier IC that costs about $3 in quantity.

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dgriffith

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