• 7 Posts
  • 101 Comments
Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: January 7th, 2026

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  • Als ik m’n profiel niet kan pimpen, vol kan flikkeren met “katkets” (gadgets), en een irritante video kan laten auto-playen wanneer mensen mijn pagina bezoeken, dan hoeft het voor mij niet. Misschien alleen als Microsoft MSN Messenger weer nieuw leven inblaast, zodat ik de ander eindeloos op het scherm kan kloppen, dat ik misschien een nostalgische uitvlucht overweeg.

    Nee, maar serieus. Een platform gerunned door een mediabedrijf en zijn advertentiepartners, kan alleen maar een advertentie-cesspool worden. Het is slechts inspelen op nostalgie en schijnsouvereiniteit, terwijl het meer weg heeft van het steriele Facebook (waar Hyves-gebruikers juist een afkeer tegen hadden). De relatieve onschuld van toen is ervan af, en kun je simpelweg niet maskeren door middel van referenties eraan.

    Laat het verleden lekker rusten, en creëer iets nieuws, dat zich op een betekenisvollere wijze onderscheidt van de rest.


  • If you leave them to choose between WhatsApp and Signal, they’ll pick what they already have and what they’re familiar with. I deleted WhatsApp after they introduced MetaAI, and told people close to me, that they could only message me using Signal going forward. Just make sure you support people that have difficulty installing and using the app. When removing malware from my grandma’s smartphone, I also made sure to install Signal, and she now comfortably contacts me through it for minor things. It’s not like you’re inconveniencing them much: it’s just an app installation and basic setup, while the workflow is nearly identical; especially if you allow them to find you through your phone number (which I have disabled).


  • Ja, die zorg deel ik ook. Maar zo lang uitingen worden getoetst op overeenkomst met de oorspronkelijke intentie, verschillen hierin worden gecorrigeerd, en transparant wordt aangegeven dat AI is gebruikt, valt dit naar mijn mening onder verantwoordelijk gebruik; tenmiste voor uitingen namens een politieke partij.

    Voor uitingen die worden gedaan namens iemand in een functie als Jetten, past zowel het gebruik van AI, als het gebruik van media management teams niet. Deze moeten strict genomen door de persoon zelf worden geformuleerd, zonder dat er dubbelzinnigheid bestaat over wie verantwoordelijkheid draagt voor een uiting.

    En dat een minister geen tijd zou hebben om een persoonlijke uiting te formuleren, dat kun je mij niet wijsmaken. Deze hoeft geen full-time content creator te worden, maar de nodige persoonlijke toelichting, moet toch zeker kunnen worden verzorgd door de betreffende persoon zelf; zeker door iemand zo goed gebekt als een leidend politicus.







  • Dat je je “rebelsheid” en “vibe” moet halen uit het roken van een sigaretje. Gaan de “rebellen” straks ook nog een biertje drinken, in plaats van een latte macchiato, uit een moeilijk koffietentje waar voorheen een bruine kroeg zat? Ik vraag me tevens af hoe het zit met monetisatie op sociale platforms, gezien dit bij alcohol- of tabaksgerelateerde content soms wordt onthouden. En als dit dan zogenaamd “useful idiots van de tabaksindustrie” zijn, is het anderzijds dan die van de zorgverzekeraars?

    Ik ben jaren geleden al gestopt, maar ik ga niet met mijn vingertjes wijzen wanneer anderen het wel willen blijven doen. Dat zou een ieders vrij keuze moeten zijn, die alsmaar verder wordt weggevreten door financiele en sociale ontmoediging. Hetzelfde geldt voor hetgeen mensen eten (vlees en suiker), hoe mensen zich verplaatsen (moeten fietsen, in plaats van met de auto), of zelfs hoe lang je doucht (“word geen douchebag”).

    Het wijzende vingertje is leidend in de afkeer die mensen ontwikkelen tegen een beweging, en zie hier het resultaat.


  • All the time. There’s occasionally even websites that outright block me without challenge, run many iterations on my machine, or present a tiresome amount of CAPTCHAs (Waymo machine vision must be trained pretty well, from me labeling goddamn traffic lights, motorcycles and stairs throughout the day). Especially CAPTCHAs that load new pictures with an infuriatingly slow fade animation drive me up the wall; one of which possibly not even sufficient.

    But I take it as a compliment, as it might mean my browser profile is minimal enough to trip these systems into thinking it’s a headless browser (typically used for bot traffic).


  • Authentication of users seems to be outsourced to ‘identity providers (IdPs)’ (primarily: Google, Facebook, Apple, etc.: “login with…”); that manage access to a service’s resources, which are increasingly distributed throughout various cloud-based services. A service’s chat application might be hosted at provider X, whereas its website at provider Y; so managing access to these resources from a centralized identity pool is convenient. Well, unless you value you privacy, but that’s the end-user’s problem…

    At least that is the impression I’ve gotten from my limited research on Amazon Cognito: required for contacting my doctor’s office through their forced chat application (automatic account creation, no longer a phone line for uses outside of emergencies). And yes, to anyone wondering: I am going to look for alternatives, because this should not be acceptable, at least for a doctor’s office of all places.



  • “Consent” from just the wearer, that is likely to have their iPhone’s photos/videos synched to their iCloud account: which by default don’t appear to be end-to-end encrypted (and is therefore accessible by Apple). So although the user is technically expected to read Apple’s entire privacy policy to everyone they interact with, and they technically can enable E2EE on iCloud for this category of data, they know full and well the ordinary iSheep isn’t going to.

    Given Apple’s obsession with brand-perception, risking being associated with perverts (like rightfully happened with Meta’s “pervert glasses”), I think it’s completely inexcusable to release a product of the same category; at least for the time being. But perhaps Apple’s marketed propaganda has really given the ignorant populace a false sense of privacy, in which they blindly trust a Trillion dollar corporation with their most privacy-sensitive information.


  • An application that would make donating to FOSS projects, especially GPL-licensed works (or at least: those not trying to cater to corporations) in desperate need of support, effortless. In that: a periodic budget can be determined, time spent actively using applications is tracked, an application’s userbase is taken into consideration (as their cumulative income may eat too much into budgets: possibly better spent supporting smaller projects), and personal preference can be given (including an option to filter license types); as to rank the applications based on perceived value, and fraction the budget accordingly.

    I would be happy to support projects that I actively, or to a lesser degree, rely on. But the process of taking all steps required to support a project is simply too manual, and outright unmanageable, when trying to take into account all system components. I really want the incentives to shift from MIT to GPL, so that maintainers don’t effectively end up being controlled by corporate paychecks; and are rather supported by individual end users. This should in theory make FOSS more resilient to any future restrictions to source access, which could hamper the long-term parity of forks, seeking to strip anti-features.



  • If a local ‘date of birth’ field defaults to ‘18 and up’ if unset; the bracket is communicated using an open, standardized format; specification is on a trust-basis, without external verification required; and the field automatically unsets upon turning 18; I might not be that opposed to an implementation like this.

    But without a requirement for legal presence within the state of Illinois, any application developers without it, cannot really be held liable for any infringements on it. Bad actors might also learn which internet users are of which age bracket, and this all might be the beginning of another very slippery slope, where requirements keep building as a result of misuse and/or ineffectiveness.


  • DuckDuckGo Search simply guesses your location using a GEO::IP lookup with the IP address that’s automatically sent to us via your device; then we throw away the IP address. […] The next time you perform a local search, selecting “Use Location” will send us a random location nearby, while hiding your actual location from DuckDuckGo. […] If you’d rather choose a custom location instead, you can pick “Set Location on Map” instead of “Use Location.” This bypasses the browser location permission, but still keeps your precise location anonymous to us.

    I’ve just switched back to Brave, because (No AI) DDG keeps localizing results, despite region filter set to “All regions”; which really bugs me. If you want to disable Brave’s annoying AI “feature” (the reason I switched to DDG), without having to store a cookie: install the Redirector addon and ‘Create new redirect’ with:

    Example URL: https://search.brave.com/search?q=test

    Include pattern: https://search.brave.com/search?q=*

    Redirect to: https://search.brave.com/search?q=$1&summary=0

    Edit: Lemmy reformatting contents of the code block


  • Sounds noble, but I have a gut-feeling it will simply result in more expensive electronics; which simply aren’t expensive enough as is… If an OEM is required to provide parts for 10 years for each device it sells, you better expect them to pass that additional cost onto the consumer. Besides that, there are already manufacturers providing parts for devices, but the high relative cost of parts make repairs unattractive, compared to simply “upgrading”. And the cheap segment of devices might disappear altogether, even more adware comes preinstalled onto them, or this line of devices is being subsidized by higher segments. Or perhaps more OEMs will lean into consumers leasing devices on a subscription basis, which would also compensate for the loss in sales for new devices (if actually effective); and seems in line with the anti-ownership trajectory. :)