Skip Navigation

InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)T

Telorand

@ Telorand @reddthat.com

Posts
11
Comments
1087
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse

    Jump

  • My company actually wrote their flagship software in COBOL starting in the 80s, and we're only now six years into rewriting everything in a more modern language with probably four years to go.

    I can't imagine trying to start such a project like rewriting all of Social Security and thinking it will take months. You have to be a special kind of fatuous to unironically think that.

  • DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse

    Jump

  • How this will go:

    DOGE: "Okay Grok. Convert this COBOL code into Python."

    Dumb AI: "Certainly! Here you go."

    System crashes and exposes all Americans' SSNs

    DOGE: "Fuckin' DEI hires...!"

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • Except he didn't live long enough to rat anyone out. That's the only downside to that story.

  • Something Bizarre Is Happening to People Who Use ChatGPT a Lot

    Jump

  • In some ways, it's like Wikipedia but with a gigantic database of the internet in general (stupidity included). Because it can string together confident-sounding sentences, people think it's this magical machine that understands broad contexts and can provide facts and summaries of concepts that take humans lifetimes to study.

    It's the conspiracy theorists' and reactionaries' dream: you too can be as smart and special as the educated experts, and all you have to do is ask a machine a few questions.

  • Tesla is banned from Canada EV rebate program, gov freezes suspicous $43 million in rebates

    Jump

  • I'm open to being wrong, but this certainly doesn't pass a smell test. We'll see what happens.

  • Tesla is banned from Canada EV rebate program, gov freezes suspicous $43 million in rebates

    Jump

  • I appreciate your skepticism, but the sales numbers reported by some of the dealerships in question are nothing short of miraculous. I know, because car dealers are my company's clients.

    So even if they had a backlog of rebates, the sales numbers would still be normal, and they're not.

    This looks and smells strongly of fraud.

  • Tesla is banned from Canada EV rebate program, gov freezes suspicous $43 million in rebates

    Jump

  • That's not even what happened. I work in the auto industry, and they very blatantly abused the rebate program with what are almost certainly fake vouchers.

    Some individual dealerships reported thousands of sales in a single day, and that would be a miracle even at the best of times for a well established dealer. There's no way Tesla is declining around the world and still selling miraculous numbers of vehicles.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • That's gonna happen when a riot occurs or a protest gets violent. Presidents can do it for any length of time, and only Congress has the power to reign them in. And of course, none of them would do that, so it's "Marshall" Law until they crown Trump or Vance emperor.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • Prove it.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • I like the way you think

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • When I was a teenager it was ~$12 to get a normal (non-VIP ticket) at the big multiplex and minimum wage was $9.50 / hr.

    You young'n. 😉 I'm talking about when minimum wage was, like, $5 and movie prices were $2.50 or less.

    But let's take your example. I'm willing to accept the premise that movie prices have kept pace with wages (they haven't, due to the varying pay standards you pointed out, but I'll assume for the sake of argument). What stays relatively consistent are costs like food. Excepting the turmoil of the current US economy, those $20 would go further towards food and other necessities.

    So theaters are no longer vying for discretionary income at a few dollars here or there, they're directly competing against necessary expenses. They've priced themselves into a different market, and the idea that they've kept pace with wages is too simplified, the way I see it.

    As a side note, I would love to see an economist study this. It seems really interesting.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • Let's not forget cost, either. Most movies back then, even in a theater, were dirt cheap. A summer job or allowance would be enough to pay for a movie, popcorn, drink, and you'd still have plenty leftover for arcades or the mall. Some tiny theaters in small towns would be a dollar or less for admission.

    Now? You're talking $20+ per person for the same experience. Why would anyone spend that kind of money, when that's three or more hours of work at minimum wage?

  • Napster to become a music-marketing metaverse firm after $207M acquisition

    Jump

  • FFS, stop trying to make the Metaverse happen. Nobody wants it.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • I see no technical reason why a VPN would need to store outgoing connections. I would be surprised if they didn't store incoming connections, but I don't actually know.

    I do. Which is why I used that example. If you want to get really technical, they do store that information, but only for a very short time and only in RAM. That means that when the server power cycles or the system does garbage collection, those temporary logs are gone. Your personal incredulity or ignorance is not my problem.

    Anyway, just don't make stuff up. You're not making the world a better place. You ever heard of these Qanon guys? They made up a lot of shit and they didn't make the world a better place.

    How dare you accuse me of being of the same caliber as Qanon. You don't know me. Fuck off with your Reddit apologetics.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • I think you're putting the cart before the horse. I'm not suggesting they destroy information after a court order.

    They do have to comply with various laws, but they are not required to store user information at times when there's not pending legal filings, and they are not required to store that information for every single user even if there were filings. Courts have to make very concise requests for information. They can't just say, "Give me your entire database," unless there was a prescient reason why the entire database was required to make the case (and a judge would have to weigh whether collecting the information of unrelated parties was too invasive).

    Any Lemmy instance stores identifying information for technical reasons

    Yes, but they do not have to. They do, in order to service their instances, but unless there is a law that compels storing identifying information, they do not have to do it.

    If identifying-information-storage was so vital, logless VPNs wouldn't exist.

    Anyway, all of that is beside the point. No business will break the law for you. They're "refusing" to comply, because they don't have to (jurisdiction), they have had a torrent of bad press lately, and they're trying to put on an air of being user-centric to entice people to stay.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • No guarantees you wouldn't get deported anyway, citizen or not. But always good to have a backup plan!

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • Reddit is an American company, and while the first amendment allows a lot of horrible kinds of speech, there's a few exceptions. Unfortunately, defamation laws are weak, so generally, you can defame just about anyone in practice.

    What's interesting is this:

    Reddit argues handing over the information will create a chill among other users, explaining in its court filings that "anonymity is not just a user preference but a defining feature of Reddit's business model and identity."

    If Reddit actually cared about anonymity, they wouldn't even have that information to begin with. It would be wiped. They likely share user information with advertisers and other third parties for profit, so they're more than happy to keep it.

    This is just Reddit refusing to comply, because they like the PR of making a show of "protecting users."

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • This is so, so stupid, for a myriad of reasons.

    What’s more, certain groups of adults are more likely to bear the brunt when these supposedly “convenient” estimation methods fail. Nonbinary and trans people are likely to be misclassified by facial age estimation technologies and often do not have access to IDs reflecting their gender and name.

    People with disabilities that affect their physical appearance often face misclassification, as facial estimation technologies struggle with variations outside their training parameters, and they may be limited from attaining IDs like driver’s licenses as well.

    People of color are routinely misidentified by facial recognition and estimation technology—something that Yoti’s white paper acknowledges in reporting higher error rates for people with darker skin tones—and consequently may distrust facial scanning systems and prompts to upload more invasive documentation.

    Finally, people from different socioeconomic contexts, particularly low-income people, and some immigrant communities may lack the documentation and IDs even if they want to supply them—in fact, millions of Americans lack government ID.

    This creates a troubling pattern: those who don’t fit algorithmic “norms” must surrender more personal data to access the same services or eschew the use of online services that help people access information, seek employment opportunities, and speak freely altogether.

    Not only is it a massive invasion of privacy, it doesn't fucking work correctly anyway.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump

  • Yep. They absolutely can do this with "reasonable suspicion" as legally valid justification.