deweydecibel

@deweydecibel@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Despite Microsoft's push, Windows 11 and Edge see decreases in user share⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Unfortunately I’m gone be subjected to 11 at work on my company laptop.

  And this is why they get away with so much bullshit. Think about how much of Windows 11 and Edge’s usage is coming from people that don’t have a choice because their workplace forces it (because Microsoft tells them they must).

  To avoid another failure like Windows 8, they learned a decade ago to stop trying to attract people to your new OS with quality design and desirable features, because then you’d actually have to listen to feedback and give a shit what users want instead of what executives want to push on them.

  So instead they further tied features together with security, and pulled the plug on support for old versions much sooner.

  Because when your corner cutting and trend chasing fails to attract users, you can still hold a gun to their head and tell them “update now or be ‘unsecure’.” And business customers really don’t have a choice, there.

  it’s a tend that had been an enormous boon for disrespectful design and dark patterns in the last 20 years.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where’d my results go? Google Search’s chatbot is no longer opt-in⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The report says “Google told us they want to get feedback from searchers who have not opted into SGE specifically. This way they can get feedback and learn how a more general population will find this technology helpful.”

  Here’s your feedback:

  Fix the damn search, and stop making it worse by making me scroll past your garbage bot.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"The problem with TikTok is not whether it is based in China or the US. The problem with TikTok is TikTok." - (Tuta blog)⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The vast majority of people using TiKTok have no idea what the CCP even is.

  And hey, maybe they could be educated about that!

  But that education isn’t going to happen on TikTok under the control of the CCP.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Hasbro exec says Baldur's Gate 3 "proved for us that people really wanted great D&D games," supports Larian's plan to "take the time we need"⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  because they accidentally got a pre release version of magic the gathering?

  It was a streamer that got the pre-release boxes early by mistake, and live-streamed opening them to drive traffic to his channel. Most cards aren’t revealed ahead of time so these leaks let potential pre-buyers see what was in the set and decide if they wanted it.

  What he did was stupid, but he did nothing wrong, and nothing especially harmful.

  Calling the Pinkertons on him was obscene on principle, but it was especially egregious when the damage was so minimal. They hurt themselves more with that stunt than the leaks hurt them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Valves iFixit partnership is a game changer⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It doesn’t even just have to be about money, Valve is one of the only major tech companies I can think of that seems to actually care about customer feedback. They don’t acquiesce to every request and complaint, it’s unrealistic to expect any company to do that, but just in general, Valve genuinely seems to listen more on the whole.

  Too many tech companies have convinced themselves that the silent majority’s silence equals approval, and therefore the “vocal minority” of complaints need never be taken seriously. But what they don’t appreciate is the most vocal criticisms tend to come from enthusiasts, and when you cater to the average users only, you are slowly making your product less remarkable.

  Steamdeck feels like a product made for that “vocal minority”. It addresses so many concerns that other tech companies would hand wave away because “most people are complaining”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nintendo DS emulator DraStic became free of charge after Yuzu case⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Being removed from the Play Store and likely to be open sourced too. This particular dev doesn’t strike me as someone who will work on this project if he isn’t getting paid anymore.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nick Offerman Slams ‘Homophobic Hate’ Against His ‘The Last of Us’ Episode: ‘It’s Not a Gay Story. It’s a Love Story, You A–hole!’⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ll tell you why:

  Because it, kind of like Brokeback Mountain all those years earlier, appreciates that homosexuality and the gay community are not one in the same. While the gay community is extremely important and should never be downplayed, media always tends depict gay people as connected to it or at the very least evoking many of the same aspects and tropes.

  This isn’t an unfair thing to depict, far from it, but it has the unfortunate result of making many gay characters feels rather same-y, occasionally even one note.

  Offerman’s character depicts a very accurate thing that doesn’t get as much attention in media: the straight acting man discovering his sexuality late in life. With the exception of his piano playing and his penchant for wine and setting the table for elaborate dinners, his character has none of the telltale “gay” aspects you typically find in media, nor does he develop them.

  That’s not at all to suggest other depictions of gay men are wrong or bad, Bartlett’s character is very well done too. The characters of Bill just feels more notable and fresher in our current media landscape because we see it far less often.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨RANT : The thing i miss from reddit is that when a series or movie came out or ended there would be a big discussion threads.⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah but we’re not talking about niche interests subs, we’re talking about discussions of movies and stuff. They’re really basic, really standard, and really popular things for an internet forum to have. They were a norm long before Digg and Reddit, and they were routinely some of the most trafficked and active posts on Reddit.

  You would think that the first communities and the first norms to really take root and grow here would be the most basic. It’s kind of weird how after 7 months there just hasn’t been any real establishment of them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What a random person on the internet thought of Grant, Lee, Sherman: Civil War Generals 2⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You just unlocked some memories. My dad used to play this all the time when we got our first PC. I wasn’t interested in it then but damn if you haven’t piqued my interest in digging it up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft spending $1B annually on third-party Xbox Game Pass titles⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Netflix at least didn’t plan to be what it became from the start, they even experimented with releasing some of its originals on Blu-ray for a bit. But when every shitty heavy hitter in the entertainment industry comes after you, you’re gonna learn to be shitty real fast.

  Microsoft is a whole different brand of monster. They have a long, long history of terrible anti-competitve practices, fucking over their own consumers, flagrantly ignoring complaints, and making deeply underhanded moves. In many different markets, for decades. The Xbox One release was almost literally a thesis statement. They could not possibly have broadcast any clearer who the fuck they are and what the goal is.

  And still, still, people defend them. They downplay everything and fall head over heels for their marketing bullshit.

  That’s why we’re truly fucked without regulations. It’s not just because corporations are terrible and will do incredibly underhanded shit at the drop of a hat to raise profits, it’s also because the vast majority of the consumer base is fucking stupid. Incapable of pattern recognition and imagination, and unwilling to change their patterns even slightly. It’s really, really, really easy to see the negative effects of a Microsoft dominated gaming market. And the consumers can’t see it.