lvxferre

@lvxferre@mander.xyz

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump excludes smartphones, computers, chips from tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Be careful with this sort of comment. You don’t want to piss off Musk by mocking his property, do you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Adobe Deletes Bluesky Posts After Furious Backlash⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Delicious.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Asian tech reacts to US tariffs with delays, doubts, deals⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I feel like those tech companies will do this “let’s set up a façade in Vietnam, until Vietnam gets tariffed and we do it elsewhere” silly dance for now. But eventually they’ll stop caring - as USA’s customer market becomes increasingly impoverished, it becomes less of an issue to appease its kinglet Musk and its dog Trump.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Teachers warn AI is impacting students' critical thinking⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Kinda - it was about people being unable to do maths if they rely too much on calculators. And it’s actually a valid argument, if you care about mental maths*.

  There are two differences here, though:

  1. Calculators are rather good at simple calculations. Large language models suck at outputting anything resembling critical thinking. They’re always bullshitting, and unless you have good critical thinking you’ll swallow bullshit after bullshit, because your tool requires a skill that you don’t have due to your unrestricted usage of that tool.
  2. Critical thinking is a considerably bigger deal than being able to do simple maths by head or by hand.

  *you should - it’s often faster and less laborious to do coarse maths by head than by calculator, and it allows you to spot errors you wouldn’t otherwise. Same deal with any other tool, tools are great but you should be able to do the basics without them too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Teachers warn AI is impacting students' critical thinking⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Dunno if it’s by design, “bug turned into feature”, or simply neglect. In any case, the result is the same, though - masses that are easy to manipulate, composed of dysfunctional individuals.

  The lack of critical thinking is why the far right has room to breathe

  100% this. People often say “you’re not immune to propaganda”, and that’s true - complete immunity is impossible. However, critical thinking does raise your resistance, as it makes you less eager to swallow bullshit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Teachers warn AI is impacting students' critical thinking⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The root of the problem is way, way older than AI. It’s a mix of

  • humans being naturally lazy, typically not developing skills or knowledge unless we’re clearly getting something out of it
  • we have a thoooousand tools enabling us to do stuff without skill/knowledge
  • our education systems do not value self-improvement enough to promote the development of those skills and knowledge

  So it’s a lot like you not remembering phone numbers by heart because you can check them in your contact list, you know?

  And, yes, text generators do play a role on that. But when it comes to critical thinking, it’s a death of a thousand cuts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Here’s how I’d answer it: “No. And do not contact me further.”

  Odds are that they will insist. If they do, the answer is longer:

  *“You seem to have a really hard time understanding simple words, such as «no». So let me rephrase what I said, in a way that hopefully even you will understand:

  I DO NOT WANT TO TOUCH YOUR BLOODY COMPANY, LED BY A LITERAL NAZI, WITH A THREE METERS POLE. NO MEANS NO. SOD OFF YOU BLOODY MUPPET, THIS IS NOT UP TO DEBATE, STOP BUGGING ME WITH THIS SHITE.”*

  then block it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Beyond RGB: A new image file format efficiently stores invisible light data⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  For further info, check this. Two things to keep in mind:

  • your unaided sight doesn’t distinguish between a pure wavelength and a mix of wavelengths
  • your sight only works for a rather narrow range of wavelengths, 380nm~750nm (violet~red)

  And most of our tech and art are based on both limitations. For example, your screen outputs red (620nm), green (520nm) and blue (460nm) lights; it won’t output a pure yellow light (580nm), but who cares - you won’t notice the difference between that 580nm yellow and a mix of 620nm and 520nm anyway*. And image file formats were also made with that into account.

  So far, so good. But this shit breaks once you need to take into account the actual wavelengths, instead of just replicating what you’d perceive as the same thing; the article mentions a few situations where this is relevant, but it’s mostly

  • different substances and chemical elements emit specific wavelengths. This is useful to know the composition of something, or the presence/absence of a certain substance (like grease from merchant fingers messing with that precious Voynich manuscript)
  • in specific light conditions, wavelength differences do make you notice things in a different way. [Black flames are cool example of that)[www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o8ktldjcog].

  So far this has been handled by a format called OpenEXR, that allows an arbitrarily large number of colour channels. So instead of having red/green/blue channels you’d have, let’s say: one channel for 900nm infrared, another for 899nm infrared, another for 898nm infrared […] 650nm red, 649nm red… […] 380nm violet, 379nm ultraviolet… yup. No wonder file sizes were so bloody big.

  Doing some simple maths, if you were to use one channel per 1nm range, and stick only to the visible range, you’d have 370 colour channels. Yup - and it gets worse if you include IR and UV. No wonder image sizes were so big.

  *NOTE: at least, not with unaided vision. If you wear thick glasses, and look at the source of light sideways, the red+green light mix forms two partially overlapping coloured “ghosts”, and the pure wavelength doesn’t. But it’s your glasses doing it, not your body.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In the latest Windows 11 preview build, Microsoft removed the “bypassnro” command, which let users skip signing into a Microsoft Account when installing Windows.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t even use Windows, but this “it’s for security lol” pseudo-explanation is so blatantly false that it’s pissing me off.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Musk's xAI buys social media platform X for $45 billion⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The boat is sinking, so tie it to another boat. Now they can sink together.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Musk 'Pressured' Reddit CEO to Silence DOGE Critics, Leaving Moderators Outraged: Report.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Is this a surprise for anyone? It’s Steve “greedy pigboy” Huffman that we’re talking about, one of the saddest pieces of shit out there. He openly praised Elon “1488” Musk’s handling of Twitter, and has been doing the same with Reddit for ages.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Paradox date Stellaris 4.0, a "phoenix update" to attract new players and improve performance⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m pretty sure they mean The Company Formerly Known As Electronic Arts.

  Exactly. (I should’ve used its full name, now I get where Madbrad200 got that “early access” thing.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Paradox date Stellaris 4.0, a "phoenix update" to attract new players and improve performance⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I know Stellaris isn’t an early access title. And it shows the same problems as EU4: Paradox is so invested on milking players through a predatory DLC policy that the game becomes a sloppy mess of feature creep, without any sort of consistent design behind the new features. Just like EA loves doing, except with a niche genre.

  it’s also probably their best managed game.

  Given how poorly managed the other games are, might as well say “so far the poor management is a bit more bearable”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Paradox date Stellaris 4.0, a "phoenix update" to attract new players and improve performance⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Hipsters’ EA is hyping a game update. “Wohoo”.

  …seriously, I’m not touching anything Paradox does with a 3m pole.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A court has rejected Elon Musk's request for a temporary injunction against OpenAI, OpenAI says Elon Musk "is finding out, facts matter - especially in court".⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I hope that it haunts OpenAI.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A Reddit moderation tool is flagging ‘Luigi’ as potentially violent content⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Luixi Manxone. Lvigi. The CEO buster. Green Mario (thanks expatriado!). Crappy Yoshi.

  Done!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A Reddit moderation tool is flagging ‘Luigi’ as potentially violent content⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  feddit.it, prepare yourself for the influx of new members.

  Also, can we “appreciate” how dumb this sort of word filter is? You don’t even need to choose between false positives (e.g. “Luigi’s Mansion” gets flagged) and false positives (e.g. people say “LM” and it doesn’t get flagged), you got both at the same time.

  (BTW if you want to avoid this sort of dumb word filter, just mix some Cyrillic letters into your word. “Luigi” would get flagged, but I bet that “Luіgі” wouldn’t.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨DuckDuckGo says AI answers are out of beta and now get info from across the web, not just Wikipedia; setting AI answers to “often” shows them ~20% of the time.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I use duck.ai a fair bit, but I’ve turned the Assist to “Never”. I’m fine with AI tools, as long as I explicitly requested their usage, so for me this is the best.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Video] Mozilla lost touch with reality; how becoming rich through failure stunts mental & emotional growth⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Ladybird is IMO a step in the right direction; specially if they’re able to release the alpha in 2026, otherwise they might be stuck chasing the Sun indefinitely*. However it is not enough - we should be seeing a situation where anyone reasonably motivated and knowledgeable should be able to pull out their own browser, it shouldn’t be restricted to big projects with big sponsors.

  *I feel like web standards change so much not due to the underlying tech actually requiring them to do so, but to raise the entry of barrier of new competitors.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Video] Mozilla lost touch with reality; how becoming rich through failure stunts mental & emotional growth⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a feeling that the “ancient convoluted code base” that exists for backwards compatibility isn’t convoluted or hard to maintain at all; rather the new features are, because they include everything and the kitchen sink, as necessary for the big new websites.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Video] Mozilla lost touch with reality; how becoming rich through failure stunts mental & emotional growth⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Around 1:00, he hits the jackpot: Mozilla sucks at communication, they always send mixed signals to the userbase. I also like what he said near the end, about getting money even if you do stupid shit.

  I’ve seen people proposing to fork Firefox, to “fork” Mozilla, but what I feel like we need is to fork the very concept of a web browser.

  Web browsers became such convoluted beasts that it is not feasible, in 2025, to create a new web engine; unless you have lots of money and no desire for more (both things are incompatible). And yet due to Pareto principle I expect that only a fraction of that complexity is truly necessary - with the rest being imposed by Google-fuelled standards.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft's ad-supported version of Office only saves to OneDrive⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I feel like most news about Microsoft nowadays can be TL;DR as “this would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.” Including this one - it sounds like Microsoft is trying its hardest to raise the walls of its own walled garden, and failing hard at it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Evolution sim Thrive adds radioactive chunks, environmental tolerances and thermosynthesis⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s even a new full thermosynthesis implementation meaning you can use temperature to generate energy

  Does this mean they reworked the thermoplasts? Because thermosynthesis was already in the game.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  righteous crusade […] moral outrage… [diabolical] …

  Now you’re just putting words in my mouth.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Google is dictating “This is how it’s referred to by one of the two countries encompassing the gulf”.

  It’s also dictating that one name should be seen as as valid as the other. When it’s simply not the case.

  it’s not like they’re some malevolent actor trying to get one over on the righteous hero either.

  They’re doing this because money. And it’s still the wrong thing, regardless of “malevolence” or not.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Elsewhere it’s referred to either Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) or Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico).

  Except that people don’t call it “Gulf of America” in those other places, even if Google is going out of its way to list it as if they did. Google is dictating “you should consider this a valid alternate name for the gulf”, and Sheinbaum is fighting against it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Nah, Sheinbaum is in the right here.

  It is not about controlling a language, but barring the attempts of someone else (Google Inc.) to control how multiple languages refer to international waters.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google is on the Wrong Side of History.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  To be more specific, Google is destroying value to generate profit.

  Google’s value comes from people using it, relying on it, and not opposing it too much when Google wants to do something. For that you need trust; and while well-informed people already didn’t trust Google to die properly, now even the general public is catching up.

  And, sure, making weapons is damn profitable! Except that Google’s participation relies on its "A"I models. And you’re going to have a hard time training those models once everyone and their dog runs tools like Nepenthes and Nightshade, designed to screw up with your bot training.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump says new US sovereign wealth fund could purchase TikTok⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not. I don’t pay taxes to USA. I’m mostly watching this roll out while eating popcorn.

  Locally [Brazil] speaking, if the United-Statian government bought TikTok, I wonder what the judiciary would do, given that it blocked Twitter for a month.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump says new US sovereign wealth fund could purchase TikTok⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund and suggested that it could be used to purchase TikTok. […] Trump has said previously it could be funded by “tariffs and other intelligent things,” per Reuters.

  So. Taxpayers pay taxes → taxes go to fund → taxes are used to buy TikTok, probably at inflated prices (like Musk buying Twitter). And likely with the same type of censorship coming from the alleged “free speech warriors”.

  …aren’t those same guys who babble all the time about “free market”?