Relevant XKCD, as per usual: https://what-if.xkcd.com/96/

I've been tired of "modern" security doing nothing but annoy people. Recently, a Portuguese bank "innovated" by exclusively allowing login only on a mobile device. Yes, a clean web browser with 3FA is not "secure" enough, has to be done on a mobile device. Clearly, desktop PCs are too insecure to conduct transactions.

Therefore, because one does not trust their mobile device. One simply spun up a clean Pixel VM, shared my data with Google and just did their work there. Peak security.

Not sure, but the blast radius is tremendous, even games from the Atari 2600, a console released nearly fifty fucking years ago have been taken down.

Long story short:

• They pledge to keep the status quo. (IE perpetual licenses in new versions)
• Development is going to speed up.
• Subscriptions are 99% coming. (Albeit optional at least at the start)
• Free in schools. (IE training new artists in the Canva ecosystem. So they can be milked later. Here's a personal anecdote: Maya, the paid 3D alternative to Blender is free in schools. Come out of school and it's 235$ a month)

&

• Now throw all those pledges out because words mean nothing. This is not a partnership, this is an acquisition, and unless the contract is provided for us, in writing of the agreed upon terms. Nothing else matters but the actions that we'll see in the near future.

Without any ratings for customer satisfaction. I might as well sack the entire support staff, don't bother with AI and I'll get a answered query to F off in 0 minutes and 100% savings.

Sigh... Why...? Why is it too hard? Why is it that in this day and age, we can't simply have something we pay for and keep with no worries. Once I started owning software, Affinity was my choice. They had a long track record of not selling out, retaining high standards and a fairly priced transaction.

You pay for good software, the company works hard to make the software better, and then sells you a better version that you can upgrade at your own choice. Plain, simple and honest.

Nothing lasts in this day and age.

You used to be something Serif, but now you're in the big leagues along with Adobe, and against them you're nothing.

Undramatic PS: Affinity Designer is damn solid, like it more than big A's Illustrator, shame I'm now afraid of pressing the update button >:(

EDIT: ::: spoiler Speculative decision thoughts Apparently in 2022 when V2 came out, they made triple of what they expected and that number was something like 10-20 million pounds. Even though it sounds like a lot, it might have not been enough.

After blowing off some steam to think clearly, there is the chance that Affinity might've been sinking and hoping for a payday. They have always been a couple steps behind Adobe and . Whenever Adobe makes a new feature they brag about it from the mountains as they got the R&D cash to power those, while Affinity is churning along just polishing their software. This makes it hard to sell at a glance, also FOSS alternatives are getting stronger. So their new user aquisition probably hasn't been great.

They might have been stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they're not free and competing against free software which is just as good if not better. On the other hand while they require payment, Businesses do not mind paying through the nose so long as its "THE BEST" and using alternative NON BEST software introduces unwanted friction.

That 1 billion might've really been the offer they couldn't have refused. :::

Been a Windows user for a really long time. A few times I tried to switch over to Linux, but it just wasn't doable for a myriad of reasons. Windows 11, I have words with it. Many bad ones, but thankfully there are many users like me that for one reason or another did not switch and put time in to beat the badness out of it via mods.

Windows 12... I'm not so sure if I'll even "upgrade" to it. It really depends on how much Microsoft decides to wire up the OS to their servers. Look, I wouldn't mind at all if I could have "smart" tools with AI assistance, but the problem for me is the lack of choice. Currently, if you don't use their crap software, what mostly travels over the wire is telemetry, and if you go offline no harm done. But make no mistake, useful AI models are too fat to run on most computers. Heck I built mine with AI in mind, but will Microsoft even give me the choice of using my own AIs? (Here's a hint, it starts with N, has a V and ends with an R)

But what if the OS starts requiring it to be online only because of their AI features? Maybe we'll have to start paying for Windows again in subscriptions to pay for the obligatory AI? Or what about scrubbing options away from the settings so you can't "misuse" your own device and have to ask nicely to their AI to do it for you?

There is a road here, and I do not like it. Thank goodness Linux is better than it has ever been.

PS: As for the notepad thing, I'm completely in agreement that it should remain without AI. Such a simple tool for scribbling down notes should be kept lean, simple and fast. Things that Microsoft and their engineers have long forgotten how to do.

This is actually an interesting proposal. In fact, many utilities went the way of nationalization like water and electricity. Searching the internet, socializing and ensuring a fair market are all also things which could in theory be nationalized given they fulfill a basic need.

Of course, as they are, they would grant whichever government they were given untold power over the entire internet and our lives. Which seems rather... unbalanced. Moreover, no government should retain that right given the internet transcends borders. No one owns all of it.

Letting the free market run its course with no breaks clearly didn't work particularly well either.

Perhaps a third option? Instead of one government ruling all of it. Perhaps they were to be owned by a supranational body where several governments can propose and discuss changes/regulation and keep balances on each other? UN style? Worthy of discussion.

If anyone has other ideas I'd love to hear them.

PS: (Also, when one suggests nationalizations such as this, one does not intend for a nationalized framework to be the ONLY one. Alternatives brought upon by the free market would still certainly compete with any such services.)

Not strange at all. Even though it was a success, it wasn't a cash cow and only had limited ability to be milked though micro transactions and other revenue opportunities.

When the axe comes, all that matters is the numbers in the balance sheet. Creativity, enjoyment and artistic value be damned.

Hey folks, just sharing the message. I believe it's related to piracy as it frequently comes into contact with the preservation of media. As whatever is DRM Free and capable of working offline, is effectively able to last indefinitely.

If you're European and eligible, please consider.

Cheers

I initially thought about installing UBlacklist on Firefox and block the spam, but then I had a thought? Let us do the HouseFresh.com test on Duck Duck Go and see how far up it is?

Apparently, Housefresh.com stands behind world famous Air Purifier reviewers like:

• Best Buy

• popular mechanics

• CBSnews

• NationalGeographic

• PCMagazine

• Rollingstone

• Yahoo

• UsNews

• Forbes

• Choice

• MrGadget.com.au

• CNET

• Amazon

• TopConsumerReviews

• Bustle

• ConsumerReports

• Parents

• Health

• bhg

• thekitchn

• rd

• learnmetrics

• homedepot

• iheartdogs

• telegraph

• msn

• livestrong

• sethlui

• nytimes

• reviewed.usatoday

• popsci

• oransi

• healthline

• seattleweekly

• bestreviews

• thesprucepets

• tomsguide

• gearhungry

• consumertestedreviews

• bobvila

• prevention

• nbcnews

• nypost

• foodandwine

• consumeradvice.in

• news.com.au

• esquire

• gq

• wsj

• verywellhealth

• consumerreports

• moderncastle

• consumeranalysis

• independent.co.uk

• hollywoodreporter

• hgtv

• consumersadvocate

• thehindu

• toptenreviews

• people.com

• popsci

• money

• endadget

• businessinsider

• gearpatrol

• trustedreviews

• digitaltrends

• menshealth

• howtogeek

• techyearlab

• nymag

• livescience

• portugal(what?)

• nj

• iqair

• mashable

• billboard

• prevention

• techhive

• architecturaldigest

• huffpost

• reviewed.usatoday

• realsimple

• techradar

• wired

Well, nevermind guess. I can have either HouseFresh and literally nothing else. Or an ocean of spam, intermixed with the rare human written article that was produced by the main branch of the publisher, rather than its SEO garbage chute.

The web search is a lost cause. No wonder Kagi keeps growing in popularity.

(Also keep in mind, in that giant list? Some of those websites are so GOOD at their Air Purifying review job that they get to be featured more than once, thrice even at times)

I wonder~ I wonder~ I wonder whyyyy...

Cheers for the punctual maintenance. Just logged in, but no issues so far.

It's the third god damned time I find newly installed MS software doing "something" in the background that I never authorized. I don't even have Onedrive. I purged that sin from the metal as soon as I had the chance.

I already intend to change OSes. The real question is now if I do it when I decide to upgrade, or in the fast lane. Which is it Microsoft?

Absolutely peeved that according to laws: Libraries in a digital format literally cannot exist without being illegal. Archive.org only managed to exist as a Library because they enforced DRM which limited available rentals to the books they "bought" and had copies of.

This is because physical Libraries allow you to borrow their own copies, thus you can even read copyrighted material without asking for permission from the rights holder. So they could argue in court that the DRM only emulated the real thing.

Come COVID and they decide to be nice to people by temporarily stripping the rental bullocks. Their reward for a good deed is a sledgehammer to the stomach.

It matters not, books shall be, and remain forever free (For those that need them). One way or another. All I know is that I'll never buy a book if I'm treated as a criminal.

Tip for anyone over here who wants to ask GPT-4 questions on the cheap. Applying for access to their API will give you access to both chat GPT 3.5 as well as GPT-4 with a different interface. There you pay what you use, which is insanely cheaper with GPT-3.5, and... mildly affordable with GPT-4 so long as you keep contexts short and conversations brief.

Been making use of their playground for months now, probably paid 20 bucks tops for months of use. Worked for my case.

If I need creativity without intelligence, I'll just use WIzardLM on my 3090.

Do note "Pirating AIs" is not really practical due to the extreme hardware requirements, you'll hardly find someone willing to foot the bill for free.

I love it when marketing manages to spin Armageddon levels worth of copyright infringement into "spirit of the law" just because a program is magically called "AI". Machine Learning is just pattern recognition software.

Software that runs on data assembled from petabytes of copyrighted information... And then promptly resold to us.

We may decide later on if it's okay to do this. But I'm pretty sure that if it wasn't for the labels we'd have legal WW3 happening right about now.

There is actually something I'd like to chat about, but the time is too soon.

Here's to another six months of db0!

Peertube as you said is the closest equivalent as a video distributor. Technically a similar approach to Peertube would work by using both Torrents and Instance data storage. Now what makes Tik Tok so popular is its algorithm, which mind you, is a tiny wee bit manipulative. In future, Peer Tube might implement something like dedicated sections for vertical videos. But without a significant cultural shift, I'm not seeing an effective Tik Tok clone appear without a lot of noses being turned up.

Oh ho... No, you're not the only one I'm afraid. It was fine until a couple hours ago, the newest comments confirm it so. Not sure what's going on.

Hopefully Ross figures it out and it goes back up soon. Thanks for the interest!

EDIT: It's back up.

What a straightforward and clear way to put it, thank you kindly!

While I'm not experienced enough to explain the full development stack of an OS. Let me throw my two cents.

It typically goes by writing changes. If its superficial ones, like modern UI in Windows 11, then all they need to do is relaunch explorer/the app etc. Every time they make a change in the code, they then build and try it out.

If its a more internal change, deep into the OS. Typically written in C or another low level language. Then its easier to test the changes in a virtual machine, you write your code, compile, build. And then load it up in the virtual machine to see if the OS doesn't crash and burn.

Later, after it gets past quality control in the company, (but most often these versions sit in beta for a while to catch problems). It then gets put into the Update servers and rolled out in bulk for mass destribution.

Do note, updates don't need to include the entire OS. Just packages including the file changes as well as general update busywork.

PS: If anyone replies, feel free to correct me. Details may be sketchy but this is the short of it.

I use a couple .bat files that I pre-wrote. Good enough for 95% of my needs.

I'm not thoroughly aware of their dealings, but these amounts of private investment aren't going to pay for themselves. If you raise 100 million, investors typically want a billion back, or more.

From the looks of it, Bitwarden might've tried to go with the Open Source model to get free development resources, trust (because it's an open source PASSWORD manager), and general goodwill. But now that they've deemed that got enough of a market share (or investors are starting to breathe down their necks), it's time to start raising the walled garden.

Even if they claim after the fact that it was a "Bug" that the client couldn't be built without their proprietary sdk. The very fact one exists is a bad enough sign, specially when its influence is spreading.

VC is a devil's bargain. Raising VC money is NEVER a good sign.

One very much agrees, the ideals of socialism are certainly interesting. The current model is a bit of a joke, but it is the world we live in, and we have to shift from the status quo if strive towards other ways of doing things.

But moreover, if the system isn't owned by an organized body whose members chosen by the people. Then who owns it? Who operates it? Who makes the calls on what decisions ought to be made? The people can demand change, but someone needs to heed that change and delegate workers to do the change.

Modern governments (mainly democracies), in THEORY are supposed be a representative of the people. The people vote for politicians that supposedly want the same they do. Law is written, bodies are created and demolished and so the wheels of society spin.

Problem is that accumulation of wealth opens the door by buying the mouths of democracy. If you have friends in mass media, half the work is already done. Humans are lazy and unlikely to act upon politics unless they are directly threatened (and even then, not that frequently)

Again, I agree. It's just hard to picture a different world. Power generally works best when it's distributed, but how exactly it's destributed is critically important, as well as the mechanisms that ensure that it its purpose is not so easily perverted.

I know you mean this is as joke, but oddly enough, Pitfall, by Activision is still available!

Been using it as well. It requires practice, but it does feel like a better typing experience for a mobile device.

Correction, AI in the LLM/Diffusion sense is a decent tutor for cheap. Can cobble together rough temp art, and if used by an actually capable artist, make cool stuff.

Anything else and it's a garbage firehose, it's the undisputed king of mediocrity. Which, given the standards of SPAM and the modern web, is exactly what it's being used for.

What a shame.

Pardon me if I may inquire, but how exactly does Xiaomi's gallery fail, at being a gallery application? Morbid curiosity if you will.

Sometimes all you need to do is to simply send a message.

I've already tried Linux several times over the years. My problems were mainly poor program compatibility and RTX card related driver issues for the latest attempt. At the time I couldn't afford to change since critical work related programs did not run at all properly on Linux. Albeit that has changed in time. Also, because of the AI craze, NVIDIA has finally shipped decent drivers to linux land.

What prevents me most nowadays is mainly having to setup everything, which I'd rather do once when upgrading the whole system. The Power User moat has been filling over time and the confy guys upstairs are non the wiser.

If the assignments are in Maya, you'll have a hard time passing the class in Blender.

I personally find it mildly amusing that picture 1 includes a post of Lemmyverse's largest Instance announcing it was hacked. (I know it's true and it's a good thing that the announcement happened. But still...)

Anyways, with that out of the way. It could be an interesting browser flow, hope people like it!

Displaying images, truly a technological breakthrough for the modern era!

Torrents have been around for over 20 years and most of the time infamous for its abundance of "linux distros". Citation needed.

Solid response.

What the heck does that have to do with watching viral videos on cell phones? We’re talking about a competitor to TikTok. With respect, Linux is like 3% of the desktop market, anything happening on Linux endpoints is noise to the big players.

The bitTorrent protocol is infamous for piracy, in fact you'll hardly find a common man who doesn't equate the two together (hearing torrents = pirated media) Even with the full copyright cartel doing their damnest, it's still available world wide. Also, video streaming on mobile data is everywhere and ISPs responded by fattening up their networks with newer, better, faster tech, like 4g/5g.

Your concerns are reasonable, though there is no precedent. Might be, might not be. Hard to say when one lacks the rulebook.

The one owned by the state.

Still saves a ton of time from learning from either somewhat related tutorials. Garbage courses. Or digging through the modern spam infested web.

It's a decent tutor, never said that it's perfect. I will not hesitate that using it as an assistant has bumped up my productivity and learning by roughly 50% when it comes to programming.

Of course, it has it's myriad problems, specially in bleeding edge fields like AI development with libraries iterating sometimes nightly. As well as it's trend to not exactly teach, but instead answer your specific question. So you still need to have some initiative and still rely on a few human resources.

HOWEVER, I do agree that blindly copy pasting code from an AI is a TERRIBLE idea. And all the buzz about AI developers seems like a disaster waiting to happen (and it certainly will!).