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Zak

@ Zak @lemmy.world

Posts
7
Comments
866
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • What is the best laptop you can get for under 650€?

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  • "Best overall" is nonsensical in this context. Here are some things people care about:

    • Size class - a 17" laptop isn't better or worse than a 12" laptop. They're for different use cases.
    • Thickness class - thicker tends to make it better at computer stuff and battery life, thinner is thinner
    • Screen color quality and accuracy - important to some, not to others
    • Touchscreen - yes, no, indifferent?
    • Screen aspect ratio - most are 16:9, some are taller
    • Screen resolution - most are at least FHD, but you can probably find something worse. Do you want better?
    • Upgradeability - can you get to the SSD? Can you put a DIMM in it after you win the lottery?
    • Keyboard feel and layout - some of us are more picky than others
    • Power supply - does it need to run from USB-PD?
    • "OS is not important", but you probably have one in mind and may need to consider compatibility
    • Does GPU performance matter? It's 2026 and GPUs aren't just for gaming anymore
    • Does CPU performance matter?
    • How much RAM and storage is required?

    I like my Thinkpad P14s III 6850u, but being a good fit for my needs doesn't mean it's the "best" or that it would be suitable for your sister.

  • PSA: The Tesseract frontend includes a hardcoded hidden instance blacklist with all leftist and trans-friendly instances.

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  • Opt-in denylists with pre-populated categories would be a reasonable feature. A frontend author trying to trick users into thinking there's a technical issue with servers the author doesn't like is presumptuous and disrespectful of the user.

    People did similar stuff with Mastodon clients when the far-right microblog service Gab migrated its backend to a Mastodon fork and I didn't like that either.

  • How did browsers make money before they sold user's data?

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  • They didn't, mostly. There have always been traffic deals, but otherwise:

    • Netscape: initially charged money for the browser, but free later.
    • Internet Explorer: initially charged money, bundled with Windows later. Not intended to be profitable directly, but to prevent the web from making the desktop OS where Microsoft had a near-monopoly irrelevant.
    • Opera: built-in banner ad, pay for ad-free.
    • Mozilla Suite, later pivoting to Firefox: initially nonprofit.
    • Safari: bundled with Apple operating systems, but also offered for Windows for a few years. Safari was never meant to make money directly, but to give Apple more control over the web experience, and probably to keep the web from competing with native apps too effectively on iOS.
    • Chrome: never intended to make money directly. I'm not sure the initial plan was to spy on users either; Google was a different company in 2008. Instead, I think Google really wanted a browser to make the web the application platform Microsoft feared, and found the existing options lacking.

  • US House to vote on bill to make daylight saving time permanent

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  • Let businesses change their hours instead of making people change clocks.

    Most businesses in the USA can change their hours , but the hours that make sense for them depend on schedules they don't control.

  • Why can't comments be fully deleted on Lemmy?

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  • I think it's best we just maintain some recency bias when it comes to how harshly we judge people for their past internet behavior. If you were an asshole ten years ago and haven't acted that way recently, I'll just assume you were 12. We were all 12 once.

  • Automated Moderation Is Here to Stay

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  • I tried pointing a text classifier at a subreddit's comments 15+ years ago. It would be surprising if we weren't seeing widespread use of automated moderation by now.

    Interestingly, a sentence starting with "you are" ended up being one of the most damning features a comment could have with regard to civility.

  • Removed

    Student Pilot Forced To Land Plane Alone

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  • Flight instructors jump out of planes to their deaths all the time? I hope you'll forgive my request for some citations.

  • Framework proved repairable laptops can work, but almost nobody is willing to buy one

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  • Even the headphone jack is an option you need to buy, it’s silly.

    This is only true of the 16; the 12 and 13 have it built in. That makes me think there was a technical reason.

  • Technocarcinization, Apple and Google becoming more like Facebook with both surveillance and control.

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  • That kind of thing is true of purely standalone products. Your local Starbucks franchise is making more money than your cool indie coffee shop because on average, people like Starbucks better.

    People use smartphones to run third-party apps. They want to have the kinds of smartphones that run the apps they use. The same effect made Windows dominant even though most people didn't really like it.

  • Some say tech peaked in 2013 in terms of pre-enshitification. What year do you think it peaked and why?

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  • We do have an equivalent to Ada. It's Ada. The open source GNAT compiler is actively maintained. Eiffel, too has a maintained open source implementation, but with a weird one-year release delay (probably not a big deal with a 40 year old language).

    If you're not choosing them for your own projects, then you are part of what you perceive to be the problem. You probably have a good reason, like lack of libraries or general inconvenience compared to popular modern languages. That's fine; maximizing safety over velocity is the right call for avionics and safety-critical public infrastructure control systems, not the average software project.

  • People's Reaction to Birth Rates be like:

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  • Volunteering to have fewer than two children is consistent with a belief that a reduction in the human population is desirable. It does not require suicide.

  • Valve says it isn't subsidizing the Steam Machine's $1050 price because of its "religious" refusal to "build a more closed system"

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  • the customer see’s the PS5 for 600, and the steam machine for 1000+, and assume steam is the one doing something unethical

    Do they? I don't automatically assume there's anything unethical about the more expensive option in any other product category. The PS5 itself costs more than an XBox Series S, probably not because Microsoft is morally superior to Sony.

  • Valve says it isn't subsidizing the Steam Machine's $1050 price because of its "religious" refusal to "build a more closed system"

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  • I think you said that people who do things like build a cluster of PS3s because they're a lot of compute for the money are shitty, and that they're abusing the fact that Sony priced them low in the hope that people who bought them would also buy games. I disagree with that position.

    If you meant something else, perhaps we don't disagree.

  • Valve says it isn't subsidizing the Steam Machine's $1050 price because of its "religious" refusal to "build a more closed system"

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  • Buying things at their retail price and using them in a way the manufacturer didn't intend is not shitty, nor abuse.

    Most of the business models that enable subsidized pricing for consumer products, on the other hand rely on artificially restricting how people can use those products, which is shitty and abusive.

  • Why?

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  • Because big players (other than StackExchange) never adopted OpenID where you could paste in an arbitrary URL for your identity provider.

    Also, OpenID probably shot itself in the foot by using a URL instead of something shaped like an email address, which would have allowed a zero-effort upgrade for the user if an email provider also wanted to offer OpenID.

  • Alaska rules Dan Sullivan cannot run against Dan Sullivan in key Senate race

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  • Candidates typically use a distinct version of the name in that case, such as "Daniel" instead of "Dan", or with a distinct middle initial included. A serious candidate does not usually want to be confused with their opponent.

  • Peter Thiel’s Secret Society “Dialog” Has Had Its Members List Leak

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  • The list: https://github.com/nzaki-dev/dialog

    • Immad Akhund - Founder & CEO, Mercury.
    • Turki Al Faisal Al Saud - Founder, King Faisal Foundation. Fmr. Minister of Intelligence, Saudi Arabia.
    • Reema Al-Saud - Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the U.S.
    • John Arnold - Co-Chair, Arnold Ventures. Fmr. Founder, Centaurus Advisors.
    • Susan Athey - Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business. Fmr. Chief Economist, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice.
    • Peter Attia - Physician, Attia Medical. Author, Outlive.
    • Scott Belsky - Partner, A24 Films. Fmr. Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Product Officer, Adobe. Founder, Behance.
    • Nicolas Berggruen - Founder & President, Berggruen Holdings.
    • Scott Bessent - Secretary, U.S. Treasury.
    • Preet Bharara - Fmr. U.S. Attorney, New York Southern District.
    • Elizabeth Blackburn - Fmr. President, Salk Institute for Biomedical Studies. Nobel Prize winner.
    • Sarah Bond - President of Xbox, Microsoft.
    • Cory Booker - Senator (New Jersey), U.S. Senate.
    • Rachel Brand - Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary, Walmart. Fmr. Associate Attorney General, U.S Department of Justice.
    • Scooter Braun - CEO, Hybe America. Founder, Ithaca Holdings.
    • Pete Briger - Principal & Chairman of the Board, Fortress Investment Group.
    • Greg Brockman - Co-Founder & President, OpenAI. Fmr. CTO, Stripe.
    • Manuel Bronstein - Chief Product Officer, Roblox.
    • Peter Brown - CEO, Renaissance Technologies.
    • Thasunda Brown Duckett - President & CEO, TIAA.
    • Sophia Bush - Actress, One Tree Hill.
    • Mike Cannon-Brookes - Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Atlassian.
    • Cesar Carvalho - Co-Founder & CEO, Wellhub.
    • Wences Casares - Founder & Fmr. CEO, Xapo Bank. Founder: Wanako Games, Banco Lemon, Lemon Wallet.
    • Julian Castro - Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
    • Bob Cialdini - Author, Influence.
    • Matt Clifford - Prime Minister's Advisor on AI Opportunities, U.K. Government. Co-Founder, Entrepreneur First.
    • Caroline Cochran - Co-Founder & COO, Oklo.
    • Matt Cohler - Fmr. General Partner, Benchmark.
    • Scott Cook - Co-Founder & Chairman, Intuit.
    • Tyler Cowen - Professor of Economics & Director, Mercatus Center, George Mason University.
    • Ted Cruz - Senator (Texas), U.S. Senate.
    • Adam D'Angelo - Co-Founder & CEO, Quora. Fmr. CTO, Facebook.
    • Mitch Daniels - Fmr. Governor, State of Indiana. Fmr. President, Purdue University.
    • Dan Driscoll - Secretary, U.S. Army.
    • Charles Duhigg - Author: The Power of Habit, Supercommunicators.
    • Steve Ells - Founder & Fmr. CEO, Chipotle.
    • Tim Ferriss - Author: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef. Host, The Tim Ferriss Show.
    • Marcos Galperin - Co-Founder & CEO, MercadoLibre.
    • Atul Gawande - Author: Being Mortal, The Checklist Manifesto. Fmr. Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID.
    • Tom Goldstein - Partner, Goldstein & Russell. Founder & Fmr. Publisher, SCOTUSblog.com.
    • Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Actor, 500 Days of Summer, Inception, Looper, Snowden.
    • Adam Grant - Organizational Psychologist, Wharton School of Management. Author: Think Again, Originals, Give and Take.
    • Severin Hacker - Co-Founder & CTO, Duolingo.
    • Jonathan Haidt - Professor, Stern School of Business, NYU. Author: The Anxious Generation, The Righteous Mind, The Coddling of the American Mind.
    • Peggy Hamburg - Fmr. Commissioner, U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
    • Sam Harris - Podcast Host, Making Sense. Author: Free Will, Lying, Waking Up.
    • Jim Himes - Congressman (Connecticut), U.S. House of Representatives.
    • Auren Hoffman - CEO, NQB8. Chairman & Fmr. CEO, SafeGraph. Founder & Fmr. CEO, LiveRamp. Chairman, Dialog.
    • Reid Hoffman - Partner, Greylock Partners. Co-Founder & Fmr. Executive Chairman, LinkedIn.
    • Rob Hur - Fmr. Special Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice.
    • Bob Jain - CIO, Millennium Management. Founder, Jain Family Institute.
    • Bryan Johnson - Founder & CEO: Kernel, Blueprint.
    • Kaja Kallas - Vice President, European Commission. Fmr. Prime Minister, Estonia.
    • Gaurva Kapadia - Founder & CEO, XN.
    • Karen Karniol-Tambour - Co-CIO, Bridgewater Associates.
    • Garry Kasparov - Fmr. Member, Russian Opposition Movement's Coordinating Council. Fmr. World Chess champion.
    • Neal Katyal - Partner, Milbank. Fmr. Partner & Supreme Court Practice Leader, Hogan Lovells.
    • Shahid Khaqan Abbasi - Fmr. Prime Minister, Pakistan. Founder, Airblue.
    • Ezra Klein - Opinion Columnist, The New York Times. Founder & Fmr. Editor-in-chief, Vox. Host, The Ezra Klein Show.
    • Tarō Kōno - Digital Minister, Japan. Fmr. Minister of Defense, Japan.
    • Henry Kravis - Co-Founder, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
    • Jared Kushner - Founder, Affinity Partners.
    • Jason Kwon - Chief Strategy Officer, OpenAI.
    • Leonard Leo - Co-Chairman & Fmr. Executive Vice President, Federalist Society.
    • Jon Levin - President, Stanford University.
    • Howie Liu - Founder & CEO, Airtable.
    • Joe Lonsdale - Founding Partner, 8VC. Co-Founder: Palantir, Addepar.
    • Micky Malka - Founder & Managing Partner, Ribbit Capital.
    • Stan McChrystal - Founder & CEO, McChrystal Group. Fmr. General, U.S. Army.
    • Neal Mohan - CEO, YouTube.
    • Lisa Monaco - Fmr. Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice.
    • Wes Moore - Governor, State of Maryland.
    • Elon Musk - Founder & CEO, SpaceX. Co-Founder & CEO, Tesla Motors.
    • Demet Mutlu - Founder & CEO, Trendyol Group.
    • Vas Narasimhan - CEO, Novartis.
    • Grover Norquist - President, Americans for Tax Reform.
    • Mike Novogratz - CEO, Galaxy Digital. Fmr. CIO, Fortress Investment Group.
    • Jim O'Neill - Nominee for Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Co-Founder, Thiel Fellowship.
    • Chamath Palihapitiya - Founder & CEO, Social Capital LP. Co-Owner, Golden State Warriors.
    • Benj Pasek - Songwriter & Producer: La La Land, The Greatest Showman, Dear Evan Hansen. Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony winner.
    • Daniel Pink - Author: Drive, To Sell is Human, The Power of Regret. Fmr. Chief Speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore.
    • Steven Pinker - Professor, Harvard University. Author: Enlightenment Now, The Better Angels of Our Nature.
    • Jared Polis - Governor, State of Colorado.
    • Jonathan Ross - Founder & CEO, Groq.
    • Robert Rubin - Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Treasury. Fmr. Co-Chairman, Goldman Sachs.
    • Gretchen Rubin - Host, Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Author: The Happiness Project, Better Than Before, The Four Tendencies.
    • Sheikh Nawaf Saud Nasir Al-Sabah - CEO, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.
    • Will Scharf - Co-Founder & CTO, Oscar Health.
    • Mario Schlosser - Staff Secretary and Assistant to the President, U.S. White House.
    • Eric Schmidt - Founder, Schmidt Futures. Fmr. CEO: Google, Alphabet.
    • Dan Schulman - Fmr. President & CEO, PayPal.
    • Drew Scott - Co-Founder, Scott Brothers Global. Co-Host, Property Brothers.
    • Kim Scott - Author, Radical Candor.
    • Pete Shadbolt - Founder & Chief Science Officer, PsiQuantum.
    • Ali Siddiqui - Board Chair, OnZero. Fmr. Ambassador of Pakistan to the U.S.
    • Barry Silbert - Founder & CEO, Digital Currency Group.
    • Anne-Marie Slaughter - CEO, New America. Professor, Princeton. Fmr. Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State.
    • Charlie Songhurst - Board Director, Meta. Fmr. Head of Corporate Strategy, Microsoft.
    • Jens Spahn - Member of Parliament, German Bundestag. Fmr. Federal Minister of Health, Germany.
    • Scott Stephenson - Chairman, President & CEO, Verisk Analytics.
    • Barry Sternlicht - Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO, Starwood Capital Group.
    • Bret Stephens - Opinion Columnist & Associate Editor, The New York Times. Pulitzer Prize winner.
    • Lawrence Summers - Fmr. President, Harvard University. Fmr. Secretary, U.S. Treasury.
    • Astro Teller - Captain of Moonshots, X.
    • Peter Thiel - Co-Founder: Founders Fund, Palantir, PayPal, Dialog.
    • Nick Thompson - CEO, The Atlantic. Fmr. Editor-in-chief, Wired Magazine.
    • John Townsend - Author, Boundaries.
    • Tom Tugendhat - Member of Parliament, United Kingdom.
    • Tim Urban - Writer & Illustrator, Wait But Why. Author, What's Our Problem?
    • Rick Warren - Author, The Purpose Driven Life. Podcast Host, Pastor Rick's Daily Hope.
    • Strauss Zelnick - Chairman & CEO, Take-Two Interactive Software.
    • Shivon Zilis - Director, Neuralink.

  • Why Your New Car Is Nearly Impossible to Fix (And It’s Getting Worse)

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  • Improved reliability is, ironically a major cause of this problem.

    Buyers of brand new cars in the USA keep them for fewer than ten years on average. If most cars can go ten years without needing major repairs, the car manufacturer's actual customer is not strongly motivated to consider repairability in buying decisions. The second or third owner likely cares a lot, but their preferences don't matter very much to manufacturers.

  • Anthropic disables top-tier AI models after US order limiting foreign access

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  • You're absolutely right!

    Sorry, couldn't help myself. Good metrics are hard, but token leaderboards are obviously terrible metrics that will lead to bad business outcomes unless propped up by investor hype. Of course investor hype is a real factor, and it's often driven by guesses about what other investors will do rather than real business outcomes.