sylver_dragon
@sylver_dragon@lemmy.world
- Comment on Guide: How to give Valve feedback when Proton games have issues on Linux / SteamOS 1 week ago:
It’s good to have this sort of thing, but it’s been long enough since I’ve had a problem that I barely even look at ProtonDB anymore, before buying a game. I recently bought Windrose, fired it up, started playing and then thought, “huh, I should have probably checked it on ProtonDB before I bought it.” One of these days, I might go check it’s status; but, I’d much rather just spend the time playing it. It just worked, after all.
- Comment on New York's case that Steam lootboxes are "gambling" is a free speech violation that "will have an impermissible chilling effect on protected videogame design", argue Valve 1 week ago:
In general, they hold that criminalising loot boxes as a form of gambling “will have an impermissible chilling effect on protected videogame design”, creating a risk of liability for people who stream about lootboxes together with people who sell analogous products, like the aforesaid packets of baseball cards.
I’m failing to see the problem here. Baseball cards, randomized “blind boxes” and packs are all gambling aimed at kids. If we “chill” that sort of speech (and commercial speech has long received less protection) that’s a good thing.
- Comment on What is the aim of all the AI investment? 1 week ago:
AI is the shiny new tech and investors are more worried about missing out on “the next big thing” than they areabout pissing away a few billion dollars. For investors at that level, it’s all a game of numbers. If they invest a billion dollars in 20 different things, and 19 of those things fail, but one has a return of 100 billion dollars, that’s a win.
Sure, there is no guarantee that AI will pan out. But, that’s a very hard thing to determine ahead of time. Everyone thought e-commerce would pay off big in the 90’s/00’s. And it did, for a few companies (Google, Amazon). The rest got slaughtered and we got the dot-com bubble. Then folks expected Crypto currencies, EFTs and NFTs to pay off big. Mostly, that didn’t happen, though they do thrive in a few places. Again, investors just wanted to ride that profit wave.
In short, investments are all about making money. And at a sufficient scale, it’s not about picking winners or losers, it’s about picking everything and making sure the wins from the winners cover the losses from the losers.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
On Feb. 1, 2025, Muneeb Akhter asked Sohaib Akhter for the plaintext password of an individual who submitted a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Public Portal, which was maintained by the Akhters’ employer. Sohaib Akhter conducted a database query on the EEOC database and then provided the password to Muneeb Akhter.
What type of shit password storage policies where they using, if this is even remotely accurate? Sure, these guys should face consequences for their actions. But if this is a US FedGov system, whatever management signed off on this system needs to be in the next jail cell over. Their security seems to be criminally negligent.
- Comment on 'Ted Lasso' star turned football pro: Cristo Fernández signs for USL team 2 weeks ago:
I guess Football really is his life.
- Comment on Dune: Awakening to get self-hosted servers, plus they're splitting PvE and PvP 1 month ago:
Please be advised that the initial setup for this first iteration of the feature is more technical than most other games and requires a computer running Microsoft Windows Pro with Hyper-V in order to run the servers in a Linux Virtual Machine (VM).
Kinda wonder if they are just distributing a Hyper-V machine image; or, if the actual requirement is that it runs on Linux and they assumed their entire userbase is Windows only and won’t be able to spin up a Linux VM on their own?
- Comment on Microsoft's next console will play PC games too, and it's currently codenamed Project Helix 2 months ago:
So, MS is exiting the console market to sell HTPCs with an XBox logo?
- Comment on Fable's evil landlords won't grow devil horns, as reboot ditches classic character morphing due to a lack of belief in objective arseholery 4 months ago:
I’d just be happy to see “evil” choices which weren’t cartoonishly silly. So many of these game end up offering you choices like:
- Kiss the baby, donate all your money to an orphanage.
- Kill the baby, cook and eat it. in front of the mother.
There’s never anything like:
- Kiss the baby, take over the orphanage, run an outward front which looks like a fantastic charitable organization while training the orphans to commit crimes for you.
Really well done “evil” should be loved by the people, seem outwardly good while using that as cover to do selfish things. But that is much harder than “Press X to murder an innocent for no reason”.
- Comment on The Elder Scrolls Online's smaller expansions are "not in any way" a result of last year's layoffs 4 months ago:
So, the layoffs didn’t cause the change to smaller expansions. The change to smaller expansions made the layoffs easier.
- Comment on Cloudflare CEO explains exactly what caused global outage 6 months ago:
- Comment on Give your mouse the finger with this wild cursor control ring — Prolo Ring hits Kickstarter, hoping to transform your finger into the ultimate macro and gesture device 7 months ago:
Oh look, it’s an air mouse. But, you can’t change the battery, the licensing is all kinds of “fuck you”, and with all those gestures, I’m expecting a frustrating experience with the device constantly interpreting unrelated motions into inputs.
- Comment on Intel warns shareholders that the US government's 10% stake could hurt company's international sales 8 months ago:
One of the reasons the US Government banned the use of Huawei devices in US critical infrastructure was the Chinese government ownership stake in Huawei. And that makes complete sense, you don’t run your critical infrastructure on devices which a major adversary might be able to compromise at the hardware level. By the same argument, I can see many countries being uncomfortable using chips made by Intel, because of the large ownership stake the US Government holds in Intel. It wouldn’t be the first time the US Government has been implicated in hardware hacking for SIGINT. The NSA TAO was outed hacking Cisco routers en route to target organizations.
So ya, gotta expect that some countries will be hesitant to use Intel chips in some places. At the same time, if the US Government has a high level of visibility and control over Intel’s manufacturing and processes, there is a good argument that US critical infrastructure and defense assets will favor Intel chips. So, it may be that Intel ends up trading non-US customers for a greater share of the US Government’s business.
- Comment on User says access to ’30 years of photos and work’ in OneDrive denied by Microsoft, can't get a response after filing form 18 times — 'Microsoft suspended my account without warning, reason, or any leg 11 months ago:
A good reminder that “the cloud” is a fancy way of saying, “someone else’s computer”. If you don’t own the hardware, you don’t own the data on it. This works for large businesses because they have actual contracts and lawyers to get their data back. For everyone else, the EULA amounts to one big “fuck you”.
- Comment on Microsoft accidentally swapped Windows 11’s startup sound with Vista’s 11 months ago:
This is just Microsoft engineers acknowledging that Windows 11 is about as welcome as Windows Vista was.
- Comment on Xreal debuts first glasses to run Google's Android XR operating system to take on Meta and Apple 1 year ago:
Oh goodie, I missed my chance to be a glasshole last decade. Now I can miss that chance all over again.
- Comment on Microsoft starts testing ‘Hey, Copilot!’ in Windows 1 year ago:
Azure Linux. Because you still want to be beholden to Microsoft, right?
- Comment on Can't believe we have to say this but, don't use your work email for adult content 1 year ago:
I feel like I should show up to more meetings with a t-shirt saying “I read your emails”. Granted, this type of thing isn’t at the top of the list of things we’re looking for; but, if we run across it, it’s gonna get reported. Too many people don’t seem to understand that their work computer is not a personal computer.
- Comment on [Opinion] Windows isn't an OS, it's a bad habit that wants to become an addiction 1 year ago:
It’s interesting to see something as mainstream as The Register seriously suggest folks start ditching Windows and their preferred alternative seems to be Linux. Perhaps the year of the Linux Desktop won’t forever be “next year”.
- Comment on I hope Valve are watching closely with Microsoft working towards an Xbox Handheld 1 year ago:
Hopefully, this will be another rousing mobile success for Microsoft. Right up there with the Windows Phone.
- Comment on What If Free Speech Means Banning TikTok? 1 year ago:
A fair enough sentiment, but let’s get more precise. What defines “arbitrarily”? And are there topics a site isn’t allowed to, or must always, censor? And who gets to make up that list? Is it just a matter of the site having a clear Terms of Service delineating what is allowed on the site?
This is always the problem with these discussions is the devil is really in the details. And the more we dig at those details, the more commonly the answers end up being, “the government gets to make a list”. And there are dangers in both prevented and compelled speech, when directed by a government. This isn’t to say that this can’t be the answer, or that it’s always the wrong answer. But, I think it’s an answer we should always treat with a healthy amount of skepticism. Government control of speech can seem like a great idea, when we agree with the government. It often becomes less so when we don’t.
- Comment on What If Free Speech Means Banning TikTok? 1 year ago:
I would step back and ask if we would be considering such regulation, were this a newspaper? Should the government be allowed to regulate the speech of a newspaper, if it’s readership becomes large enough? That is essentially what is being argued for. That, once a form of media reaches some critical mass of influence, the government now gets to control what that media source publishes. That seems awful dangerous to me. The whole point of Free Speech as a concept is that people should be free to engage in speech which the government does not like.
Just because speech is online, doesn’t mean it should receive less protection from government control.
- Comment on What If Free Speech Means Banning TikTok? 1 year ago:
What a privately owned site does isn’t really a matter of free speech, online whining about it be damned. This is about government restrictions on speech. The whole point of the First Amendment was that the government should not get to the be arbiter of what speech is allowed and what is not. This has it’s limits (all rights do), and people can be held to account for the repercussions their speech has (libel, calls to violence, etc.). But, the government should not be in the position of deciding what speech is acceptable and what isn’t unless there is a very compelling reason. Stop and ask yourself, do you really want the incoming administration to get to decide what speech is OK and what isn’t?
- Comment on What If Free Speech Means Banning TikTok? 1 year ago:
So, Free Speech, so long as it’s speech the government is OK with. Yup, that seems to square perfectly with the First Amendment, no contradictions there. /s
Honestly, I see the whole line of reasoning “we make speech free by restricting speech” as complete bullshit. Claiming that a prior restraint on speech increases freedom requires some amazing mental gymnastics. This doesn’t mean that ByteDance shouldn’t be forced to divest from TikTok. It seems completely reasonable to look at TikTok and realize that it is being used as an arm of the PRC for propaganda, influence and data collection. Based on that realization the Federal Government has a valid, compelling interest in limiting the reach of ByteDance. And a law forcing the divestiture of TikTok by ByteDance is limited in scope and works to resolve the issue, without overly burdening Free Speech.
But, claiming that setting the Government makes speech freer by restricting speech is just Orwellian Double Speak.
- Comment on Avowed from Obsidian gets a release date, and pre-orders with earlier access if you pay £80 1 year ago:
And for those of us who are willing to wait a touch longer, it’ll go on sale eventually and we can pick it up for half the price.
- Comment on D-Link refuses to patch a security flaw on over 60,000 NAS devices — the company instead recommends replacing legacy NAS with newer models 1 year ago:
Any vendor is going to reach a point where they no longer are willing to support older devices. So you have three choices:
- Run with the vulnerability. This is incredibly stupid and I’d hope no one did this.
- Replace the OS on any such device with something open source. Probably the best option for those who already own such a device.
- Never buy a proprietary device in the first place. Unless you really, really need something the propriety device offers, a beige box running some flavor of 'nix is probably a better long term solution.
Ok, I guess there is a fourth option. Learn to enjoy that vendor bending you over every few years. This is what many businesses do and it can make sense. You just need to have lots of money.
- Comment on Square Enix invests in Playtron for their Linux-based PlaytronOS - first Alpha out now 1 year ago:
Playtron’s CEO, Kirt McMaster, added, “We are thrilled to join forces with such a legendary games publisher as Square Enix. The PC we know is morphing into new forms that require a purpose built OS for gaming that meets the demands of powerful new gaming hardware such as handhelds and new players who have grown up in a mobile 1st world with much more sophisticated UX sensibilities. This investment will accelerate the development and deployment of GameOS and create new experiences for players around the globe.”
Huh, so Playton’s CEO is an early example of an AI being used to replace people.
- Comment on Twitch lifts its ban on Donald Trump 1 year ago:
Ya, the guy is a walking case study in how to be a horrible member of society; but, he is now the official GOP nominee for President. Blocking him, but not Biden, might get into sticky territory around campaign finance. Not that Trump’s team or the GOP give a shit about that. But, other folks do, probably the Twitch legal team among them.
- Comment on The Chinese women turning to ChatGPT for AI boyfriends 1 year ago:
- Comment on T-Mobile hopes you’ll buy $30 “Home Internet Backup” for when cable goes out 1 year ago:
Yup, I actually live in one of those areas. I used the local cable internet provider, as they were the only option. They were actually really good, when they were locally owned. Then they got bought out by an large provider and went to shit. We ended up moving to T-Mobile’s Home Internet to escape that trap. While cellular based internet does have it’s own issues, it is breaking the stranglehold incumbent ISPs have on a lot of markets.
- Comment on Google acquires Cameyo to bring Windows apps to ChromeOS 1 year ago:
From what I’m reading on their website, it looks like Cameyo is really just virtualizating software and hosting it in a browser on the client. Which would mean it should work on an OS and not just ChromeOS. I wonder if Google plans to lock it down to try and push their failure of an OS?
