Posts by eldaking@weirder.earth
(DIR) Post #AL41EyaowvisMU15Q8 by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-07-01T23:06:05Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Before touching a powerful talisman, you must purify yourself, by touching a large piece of metal, so that any evil spirits present in your body do not destroy the talisman.Many wizards possess special armbands that establish a direct connection to Mother Earth, to protect their bodies from such evil spirits.
(DIR) Post #ALh2b2DoWWwZmMkKGW by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-07-20T19:55:39Z
2 likes, 1 repeats
Shower thought: P2P protocols in fact involve both a technical protocol and a social protocol, involving etiquette such as "seed until a ratio of 2.0x", formal and informal rules of what can or can't be shared, and so on.The social protocols, by their very nature, can't be enforced entirely in a programmatic way, but are necessary for the health of the system.
(DIR) Post #ALh2bXYo0X9eyRo1my by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-07-20T19:56:48Z
2 likes, 0 repeats
The same is true of social media, of course, but that is beyond obvious to all but the worst techbros.
(DIR) Post #AM2S2BfaSoUy7nvRbs by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-07-31T02:16:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
No amount of sandboxing, cryptography, or software robustness will do the job of a 5-minute tutorial video that teaches people the bare minimum about safe passwords.
(DIR) Post #AM2S2CsjxOc7st5Ska by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-07-31T02:22:03Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Also, maybe a blacklist for every site or service that sets a maximum password length of less than 20 characters, that doesn't allow special characters, or that sends you a plain-text password for any reason (including on initial account generation).
(DIR) Post #AMBvFGWlAmvZdXtGT2 by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-04T17:03:48Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
The FOSS community is divided between idealist activists that want collective means of software production to be free from capitalist megacorps, and far right neonazi feudalist wackos that think software freedom means the evil guberment can't stop them from burning coal, beating down on immigrants and gay people, or running scams.And in the middle, a few corporate carpets that just like the buzzwords they see on linkedin.
(DIR) Post #AMZGPkRuGpYr7Req1Y by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-15T23:17:20Z
5 likes, 2 repeats
Is your software complete? Stop adding features - only bugfixes, and don't break compatibility. It should keep working forever.Is it still incomplete? Then you must have a plan to make it feature-complete in the near future. Reduce the scope if necessary - make a sequel later! But get a finished, stable version out first.Either you are responsible for maintaining every version you release, or you are responsible for perfect backwards compatibility.
(DIR) Post #AMZGPkxoMD58iOaJkm by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-15T23:19:42Z
1 likes, 3 repeats
I'm sick of updating software to meet the demands of other software updates.I'm sick of constantly changing software to keep compatibility with other ever changing software.I'm sick of updating _hardware_ to keep compatibility with the same software that used to work.
(DIR) Post #AMeGEcczyq5DT2L9cG by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-18T00:03:15Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@xerz Nuclear power looks amazing, but only if you ignore the political costs involved.I wonder why not every country develops nuclear technology and acquires a supply of enriched uranium. :blobgalaxythink:
(DIR) Post #AMeGMHFhL4gJUK5kkC by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-18T00:30:36Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@divVerent @xerz Yep - the risks are huge for everyone. From a badly maintained plant, or bad security, or bad actors, or all of those at once. And once you commit to it, there is no backing out, the problem is yours forever. Well, unless it becomes everyone's problem.
(DIR) Post #AMix3oarvAlyhnuk7c by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-20T15:56:43Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@Azure An overt, extreme one... and thus a pretty much politically impossible one, I am afraid.I think it would need to 1) make phones easy to repair and durable, in a way that really made a dent in new device sales 2) enforce continued compatibility of _everything_ with older devices 3) manufacturer responsibility for discard of old phones 4) all of that for existing devices, including already "EOL" ones, and not just the next generation
(DIR) Post #AMixnpSL2y9UhWriQC by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-20T16:02:03Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Azure So in more concrete terms:1) Force companies to release all information necessary to repair phone and make repair parts easily available and cheap. This includes opening all software, all APIs, blueprints for the parts, documentation. Manufacturing tools and parts at a loss if necessary2) Mandated maximum requirements, to make sure all "basic" software works even on very underpowered devices (say, <1GB RAM). And backwards compatibility for protocols and web standards.
(DIR) Post #AMiy905MiowBkVDPP6 by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-20T16:07:27Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@Azure 2) (cont) this might require fall-backs for some technologies already deployed that can't work, and funding development of a really good "basic suite" for many things.3) Phones discarded _for any reason_ should be repaired, scraped for parts, or recycled. Any phones not accounted for should incur a fee.And when the phone companies inevitably go bankrupt, assets should be seized and someone should pick it up and finish the job.
(DIR) Post #AMj0LpmaXSxhT5gD0i by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-20T16:11:47Z
1 likes, 0 repeats
@Azure I don't know, my Moto G2 (from 2014!) was barely working. Didn't have the space to keep the same apps installed and updated, and was incredibly slow for even basic tasks.I have seen "smart boxes" for TVs that no longer can play videos on Netflix, because the older app is unsupported, and it can't update to a newer version because android is too old.Software rot is certainly a thing.
(DIR) Post #AMnasajDuAiLJgrfdI by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-22T17:34:04Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Imagine if you could press a button to give everyone on Earth a copy of every book they could ever possibly want, at effectively no cost to them or to yourself. Make the accumulated knowledge and culture if humanity accessible instantly, for free, for everyone.Not pressing this button would be immoral. Holding back in order to sell more books at a profit would be downright vile. But making the button illegal to press? That is inexcusable.
(DIR) Post #AMnasbzDED69DZLxC4 by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-22T17:39:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Before someone comes with "but authors need to be paid"... are authors being paid now, with draconian copyright and everything? Is it easy to get published and make money out of selling books? Is it easy to live off just of writing books? Isn't there a huge number of aspiring authors working their asses off with no compensation? Aren't authors being exploited and scammed by the big corps?
(DIR) Post #AMtl4rvRxO0McMptyK by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-08-25T21:05:25Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@adamasnemesis They also built a MtG board state that was turing complete, which I think is even cooler.But I have to point that I find the title a bit misleading; they proved it was non-computable, which no other real game was _known_ to be... but they didn't prove that there is no game more complex (i.e., that it is _the most_ complex).
(DIR) Post #AO1tOQ5tdcxvCv4hVY by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-09-28T16:53:39Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
No application should connect to the internet on the background. Not to install or update anything - installing software without user intervention is malicious. Yes, getting the user to update manually is hard, so release less software and more static pages.You also don't get to collect telemetry or user data without explicit and informed user consent. And the user can't consent to providing any data he does not understand. Want data, pay more testers.
(DIR) Post #AO1tOQnV1VqNO9TWTI by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-09-28T16:56:25Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
Web apps and "cloud-based" services are *inherently* less secure than local software.Google and Microsoft can talk all day long about their security solutions - secure boot, process isolation, sandboxes. But their business model compromises everything, and in the end they are malware companies - they deal in spyware and adware and "walled gardens" aka ransomware.
(DIR) Post #AP04k9DadF5H8TGIyW by eldaking@weirder.earth
2022-10-27T17:41:23Z
1 likes, 1 repeats
Every once in a while I see people explaining why games (AAA, obviously) should increase in price, how development costs have increased astronomically and keeping the same price as a decade ago is unrealistic, but people "don't understand" so they refuse to pay more than $60.But... if players aren't willing to pay more, why the heck are people spending more to create games. Is your CEO economically illiterate? Did you give a monkey a button that fires workers and let it manage your company?