#tech rant

[moonsworndandelion]

"Younger generations do not know how to make a pdf / format a thumb drive / other tech stuff and we failed them"

Yes. Yes it's not their fault, and yes I think basic computer skills should be taught at school (no idea what the current curricular are here and now so no judgment), but that's not all. That wont be solved even if everyone magically knew how to save an image or how to convert a song to mp3.

I just spent 20 minutes trying to get Windows to stop downloading and installing stuff on my computer without asking me and I've been through at least five forum just to know in which setting I could possibly disable it, only to discover that that control panel isn't available on my version of Windows.

(And I wouldn't even have noticed it if I hadn't tried to uninstall a software I installed a few weeks prior, and found a bunch of stuff I definitely did not install !!!)

My current two best options seemed to be downloading the control panel from somewhere I deem safe enough in the hope that it works, or trying my hand at modifying the registry or something that sounds like it could cause lots of problems if I mess it up.

And I majored in computer science so I figure I'm a little less helpless about this than the average windows user.

I don't want to automatise something or make some advanced obscure tech- savy things on my computer.

I just want Windows to fucking ask me for consent before doing stuff.

[adrekiy0]

lukewarm take: if microsoft hates third-party emulation and piracy so much, they should push for disc drives to come back and make their own emulator that works with xbox discs (totally not just me being salty about games i physically own being impossible to find anywhere)

[maeve-99]

ngl finding a phone that still has a regular headphone jack as well as an additional SD card slot (for storing images, music + video) is like finding a needle in a haystack. When did they stop including those? micro-sd card slots have always been standard in android phones. They remove stuff in the name of innovation, why is this so-called innovation always tied to an alternative that costs more and is increasingly consumer-unfriendly, taking away control from the customer?

So they take away the sd card slot so they can sell their overpriced phones with tiny storage and try to sell you a cloud storage/backup option for yet another monthly fee. They build computers in a way so you can't upgrade or repair them anymore, just so you need to buy a new one.

I don't feel like I'm living in the future. In the 2000/2010s we were restricted by technology, now we are restricted by capitalism.

[that-one-lotr-orc]

So I was on a holiday in Sweden, and on the ride back, in a bathroom stall on a camping in Danmark, something occurred to me. Danish internet is incredibly shit.

I was sitting on the edge of a lake in a nature reservation in Sweden, with maybe 20 people permanently living within 100km, and I got (a bit shotty) 4g. I could send pictures through whatsapp (it took a minute to send, but hey, middle of nowhere, what you expect?).

At the same time, I am taking a shit on a camping in Danmark, trying to read up on my Discord convos, and it just. wont. load. I’m within 20 kilometers of the center of Kopenhagen, AND I CANT GET ENOUGH INTERNET TO LOAD FUCKING DISCORD MESSAGES

Danmark, the fuck?!?

[regsagc]

The technical term is Digital Rights Management (DRM) and it is a whole family of software whose only purpose is to restrict the owner of the computer from doing useful things that would otherwise be simple.

The stated purpose is to prevent screen-recording of videos for pirating a show, and I don't know if the additional restriction of screenshots is a side-effect of the DRM method used. Maybe it's just the developer of the software wanting to earn their keep by going above and beyond.

In either case, it goes against the fundamental principle that if you own a computer, you are the one who decides what it does and what software runs on it. The video clip is right there, and actively fucking with how it is played to prevent the user from saving and screenshotting it is anti-user and anti-freedom.

hbo max blocks screenshots even when I use the snipping tool AND firefox AND ublock which is a fucking first. i will never understand streaming services blocking the ability to take screenshots thats literally free advertising for your show right there. HOW THE HELL IS SOMEBODY GONNA PIRATE YOUR SHOW THROUGH SCREENSHOTS. JACKASS

[elb0wn00dle]

iim trying to upload a custom ringtone to my phone why does windows 11 have to make everything so fucking hard ToT just LET ME RENAME THE FILE EXTENSION!!!! I used my work computer at my job which runs like windows 10 and it was SO EASY ToT why do these tech giants think that "simplifying" their UI and making a bunch of weird drop down menus that you have to navigate is a good idea? its so stupid

[alan-p-49]

I just hate it when I need an app to do a Bluetooth connection on a device like why??? You're not communicating via WiFi you're doing it through Bluetooth wh-what? Is the app has the fuckin os for the speaker? Why the hell didn't you just put the embedded os in the actual speaker??? So that it knows what to do itself??? You don't need mommy to help you connect to the Bluetooth

Tho fr tho the only good reason I can see for a Bluetooth device to need an app is to update the embedded os in it bc the security on those embedded devices are much more ass than an actual computer especially when it comes to bluetooth BUT THATS IT

[sinsinewave]

having used Linux for... most of my life actually, all the way from a young child when i didn't even have my own computer, i agree as a first thing, i think one of the primary problem with the Linux evangelists is assuming everyone wants to know how their computer works take someone like, idk, my mother for example, she's an artist and users her laptop to post art on social media, and to use photoshop, she doesn't give a single shit about what goes on in the kernel or whatever also, like, Linux.. kinda sucks still, that's why the year of the linux desktop is such a meme, it's a really good OS but only if you're an enthusiast, this thing is in no way intuitive as said. i'd explain it to a lot of Linux users as kind of like Vim, it's really damn good if you know how to use it, but, don't recommend it to people who don't care about learning this weird esoteric system, with some nuance (will get to that later) a thing most people miss though is that this same thing applies to Windows too, and in my experience the fans of that are equally, if not more obnoxious, especially towards macOS users going from Linux to Windows, it's just absurdly unintuitive, especially when approaching it without the interest of a tech enthusiasts, hell, it's sometimes worse than modern Linux desktops, which is somewhat impressive for a corporate OS which in large part basically defined graphical OS interfaces really, a certain generation of people just claim it's fine due to growing up with it and getting used to it, just like i did with Linux, both Linux and Windows are esoteric and cursed and unintuitive and suck if you're not an enthusiast or used to them the only OS i can recommend to people not interested or skilled in tech in good faith is macOS, really, i recently made a Hackintosh for art use, and it's the only thing my parents and grandparents haven't lost their mind with, because as it turns out, the UX may be a bit limited, but that's actually part of why it is so damn intuitive with no prior computer skills this is not an Apple advert though, so i'm not going to claim macOS is without its issues; while it's good for someone who just wants a device that Works, it's terrible for power users who don't have experience with BSD-likes, the UX is basically unmodifiable, and you need an Apple computer to run it unless you're a weird nerd with enough time and skills to make a Hackintosh; and of course it's proprietary af but so is Windows as for the nuance i mentioned? there is a situation, or few actually, where Linux makes sense. i know a few people who made fully custom tailor-made distros for their grandparents and such, the OS is designed to only need minimal maintenance while running a web browser and word processor, etc. you get the point, in situations like that Linux works great but you need someone skilled to set it up in the first place, and arguably macOS fulfills the exact same niche the other usecase is in schools, ironically enough considering what sparked this thread; but it needs to specifically be a common, well-supported desktop distro like idk, Fedora or Ubuntu, those are about as annoying as Windows for a complete beginner with no experience the thing there is, it needs to be early in education; because for Linux to be a reasonable alternative to Windows it has to take Windows' place as the first OS someone uses, because desktop Linux tends to fulfill the same niche with different but similar problems TL;DR Linux evangelists are a pain in the arse, so are Windows ones, both OSes suck ass in similar ways and are only useful if they're the first OS someone uses; macOS has much better UX ironically for its reputation, and people don't actually care how their computers work

We need to lay more blame for "Kids don't know how computers work" at the feet of the people responsible: Google.

Google set out about a decade ago to push their (relatively unpopular) chromebooks by supplying them below-cost to schools for students, explicitly marketing them as being easy to restrict to certain activities, and in the offing, kids have now grown up in walled gardens, on glorified tablets that are designed to monetize and restrict every movement to maximize profit for one of the biggest companies in the world.

Tech literacy didn't mysteriously vanish, it was fucking murdered for profit.

[mtjapblogger]

Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE: First impressions of Samsung's more affordable, premium tablet.

When it comes to premium tablets, the iPad and the Surface are by far the most popular. Samsung tablets are a complicated mix of good and bad. The Galaxy Tab A tablets are okay for basics like checking email, social media, and reading ebooks. The Galaxy Tab S tablets, like the Galaxy S phones, are high-end and are good for gaming, photo and video editing, and are actually able to replace a laptop…

[moonsworndandelion]

also fuck you Spotify for adding ads at the beginning of pocasts even though I use premium

I'm pretty sure TMA didn't choose to make me hear an add for picard or carrefour ad in french

[adrekiy0]

mint machine's refusing to connect to wifi and the hardware clock's lost about four months of time. might pick the nuclear option and try installing arch on it if i can't get shit to work

[radhew]

As some rando with an heavy interest in AI, I really really like this take.

As amazing and cool as this technology is and regardless of how much I adore it, having generative tools of this caliber is a brand new thing with no rules or regulations on it. And the first thing that'll happen with something like that is exploitation for a quick buck. Everyone knows this, and in small cases this can be properly mitigated without too much hassle.

However, AI is going to change how we do so many things. This is NOT a small case and these conversations NEED to be had. This is really frustrating because, understandably, nobody WANTS to have this conversation as a public figure. It's a fucking dumpster fire right now, with early adopters clearly having no interest in respecting the wishes or wellbeing of the very artists that made it possible. Personally, I wouldn't like to have a calm and rational conversation with someone making a copy of my face and parading it around over theirs, either. Plus, if you're too easy on them, your followers are gonna feel like you don't have their back.

As a creator, the simplest and most effective way to deal with this is to come out and be like "Fuck AI, it's awful." Gets rid of the weird tech bros and proves your solidarity with artists. Hell, that may be even the best way to deal with it right now, I dunno. But people who are already interested in AI aren't going to be the ones listening.

That's why I have so much respect for content creators who can prove there are good uses for AI, (even if it is just silly little prompts, I think that's just as valid and frankly hilarious) while still being able to note just how dangerous it is for people's careers, livelihood, and...well, this may or may not be a little dramatic, but the growth and evolution of art itself. Not only do we need to talk about what ethical AI use is, but we also need to show people what it looks like. There's never gonna be a definitive answer, and AI in general is always gonna be a grey area every person will have a unique stance on. But creators have the opportunity to help formulate guidelines and, more importantly, hard lines that you do not cross.

For example, DougDoug recently made a super funny video where he had ChatGPT essentially try to beat the entirety of Pajama Sam 1 while speaking in-character as Sam himself, just by describing what was going on in the game to it. What stands out to me in this video is the fact that he used ElevenLabs to give this fake Sam his own voice, but he specifically went out of his way not to use voice files from the game to train the voice. Instead, he used horrific combinations of the voices of his friends, (after getting permission, of course) and then put a filter on it to give it that Humongous Entertainment audio stank. Not only did it lead to a very funny bit in the video itself, but it also showed a line: He wasn't gonna make a voice actor say lines that they didn't give nor were paid for, and considering we're just now leaving the trend of presidents playing Minecraft, I think that's such an important boundary to set.

All this to say: I hope Penny does actually do episode 3 of Sonic Destruction sometime soon. I think it would be really nice to have a big voice when it comes to derivative work outright say where she draws the line. Maybe I'm a little biased because of how much I love technology, though, and because it feels really shitty to be the bad guys here. (Which, for the record, we definitely are right now.) I definitely don't blame her if she doesn't, to be clear. Nobody wants to address the elephant in the room, especially when said elephant has a fucking turret mounted to it and is starting to look a little sickly.

But, man...we need to talk.

As you've said more Sonic Destruction is coming, do you have a line or two from ep 3 you could share that doesn't have a huge spoiler or anything tied to it?

It has not been written haha. I wanted to write it a lot sooner but truth be told I've been kinda intentionally not interacting with my usual AI channels as a small show of solidarity with the writer's strike going on, since though AI is not the biggest concern of the strike necessarily it is a talking point that is brought up and part of the fight is for regulation of AI tools in artistic industry, which is something I agree with. I do think that there is an ethical place for AI tools in creative work, Sonic Destruction is not the first example of something like that (plus it helps that kinda the whole point of SD is to giggle at how silly the idea of writing an entire script with little to no human input is anyway), but right now the technology is being pushed in a direction that is designed to replace humanity in art with efficiency, and maximize return on investment. Which is just... not the point of why we create, imo. So it's a subject I care enough about to shoot myself in the foot a little lmao.

I HAVE actually considered moving forward on the video anyway and maybe using its reach to communicate some of my stance on these ideas, but I'm not sure how tasteful it would be to do so. I defer to public opinion on that, so if you have any opinions feel free to let me know.

[1stunseeliefaelass]

I dunno what is going on, but I'm fuming now. TUMBLR KEEPS BREAKING MY HEADER IMAGE. It is NOTHING nsfw, or weird in the slightest. I dunno what their problem apparently is, but a silhouette of Death's HEAD AND FACE is NOT nsfw, at all. Who the hell, keeps messing it up? Is this some stupid glitch that keeps screwing it up? Whatever it is, I would like some answers right about now. Cus I'm done getting screwed over by nonsense and disobedient technology. Pardon the rant, but technology breaking or being stupid is one of my most anger inducing peeves.

Update: It has been fixed now. Feel free to ignore the rant now. Admittedly I feel pretty stupid over it. Trust me.

[peanuttoffee]

The Bad Batch finale missing scene

Yeah I needed that…

May the 4th be with you!🙌

[turtleblogatlast]

One of the earliest examples of Leo’s “I’ll do my own thing to accomplish our goal without discussing it with my team first” is in episode one. It’s super, super quick, and ultimately inconsequential, but it subtly sets up a great precedent that I think is very interesting.

When the boys need to grab the medallion from Splinter without Splinter noticing, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie huddle together with Raph taking the lead in trying to devise a plan to get the mystic device. Meanwhile, Leo slinks away and grabs the device by clocking the situation (by knowing his father well enough to predict his actions - something he does with each family member multiple times in the series) and making a move on his own.

It works out perfectly fine, and is ultimately the best move, and it’s honestly okay that he didn’t consult everyone for something so small when it’s such a non issue to get it, but it nicely sets up how this tends to go in the series, including how it goes in the movie.

To be honest episode one is actually really good at setting up a lot of things for each character in the long run, this is just one example that caught my attention, as small and unassuming as it is.

[sandwhich-lady]

I am begging to know how the projections work in the dome in dimension 20. Like specifically in never stop blowing up, who controls which projections come on and when? Is it brennan? The projections crew? A combo of both? Are the panels an led wall or are they using actually projectors? How many?? How small are those projectors? How big? How are those placed for the image to flawlessly cover the whole dome? Was mapping that a nightmare? Do they use qlab?? How goddamn powerful are those projectors to have such high quality and brightness? Is it a bunch of really powerful short throw projectors? Do they project from the back or the front? How do they do that? I want that job how does one get that job. Anyway shout out to all the tech/art elements of never stop blowing up and dimension 20 in general yall rule