Zworf

@Zworf@beehaw.org

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

Zworf ,

It's a double-edged sword.

Oculus' vision was to bring VR to the mainstream. They really didn't have the cash to make that happen on their own. They were using leftover parts from the mobile and tablet industry to hack together some headsets. It was a good proof of concept, but that was it.

With Meta's backing they put VR on the map. Others jumped in on it. Without them the Vive probably wouldn't have happened, nor would WMR. Then the transition to self-contained VR, the Quest but also others like the Pico, the Pimax Crystal and now the Vision pro. I know PCVR is pretty dead now but to me it was more of a transitory phase (and I still use it a lot but wirelessly now). VR was never going to be mainstream if you needed a powerful PC to do it and with all the cable mess.

I don't think these would have happened without the meta investment. I think it was good for the industry as a whole. However yeah, for consumer privacy it's not great that it was Meta that did the investment and not someone else (except Google or Amazon which would have been just as bad)

I don't really view it as a sellout and I was one of the earliest kickstarter backers. Serious money was needed to make it fly.

Zworf ,

You can even have some of the spatial features now on the quest. Not yet very useful but they are working towards the same kind of AR, just at an obviously lower quality which comes with the price point.

For me here in Spain even the Quest 3 is a significant expense, the Apple Vision Pro is just a complete non-starter, and I'm a total VR enthusiast working in the IT sector (even doing some VR development as part of my work). But the vision pro costs multiple monthly salaries for me :) Or more than 4 months rent! No way would I spend that kind of money on an unproven tech gadget.

Zworf ,

Can you view that ad somewhere online? I'd love to see it (to understand better how Apple is marketing this thing)

Zworf ,

Absolutely. I'm not American but very left-wing and I would not support any fake news spin campaigns.

We have to be better than the right-wingers. If we use the same tactics a win is meaningless. We still have principles and ideals. "Kicking the other guy down" is not a win.

Zworf ,

As someone up the thread pointed out, there’s no such thing as a liberal billionaire

I don't know about that. Bill Gates is pretty decent these days. In fact he probably always was a decent human being, but his poor business practices overshadowed that in the past. Tim Cook seems a pretty decent person too and just him coming out did a lot for the LGBT community. I think most Silicon Valley CEOs are pretty progressive in fact (Musk excluded obviously)

They're pretty right-wing economically due to being CEOs (and billionaires) but fairly left-wing socially.

Zworf ,

Ah good point. Tankies are indeed a bit like this on the left-wing side. I forgot about them.

Zworf ,

Clearly not buying HP was a very good investment for me :)

Zworf ,

And the only reason code is even in there is because of their DRM :P

Zworf ,

They keep hiring CEOs like this. Fiorina was no better. The board clearly wants the company to function this way.

Zworf ,

The voice isn't quite right :( I wish they'd have Harrison ford for the voice at least.

Amazon is working on a new paid subscription plan for its Alexa voice assistant ( www.businessinsider.com )

Amazon is revamping its Alexa voice assistant as it prepares to launch a new paid subscription plan this year, according to internal documents and people familiar with the matter. But the change is causing internal conflict and may lead to further delay.

Zworf ,

It should be a LOT better if they want to charge for it. I had an echo dot but gave it to a friend because it was really not worth the espionage.

I use HomePod Minis now. Same crappy performance but at least it doesn't spy on me quite as much.

Zworf ,

I would actually. It's not even good at turning off the lights. Half the time it turns off the wrong light, starts playing music I don't want or other crap.

Having better recognition and the ability to actually answer a question I ask it, or to tell it to do things proactively would be amazing.

Zworf ,

Unfortunately echo dots are very hard to repurpose. I have tried.

Zworf ,

That would be great. It's pretty amazing hardware. It was very heavily subsidized, I paid 20 bucks for them IIRC. I'm sure the BOM (bill of materials) alone would have been higher than that.

Florida approved rules that prohibit diversity, equity and inclusion spending and remove sociology from general education at community and state colleges ( eu.gainesville.com )

The established rules follow Gov. Ron DeSantis’s conservative target on education in the state, where he signed a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) law last year that dismantles such programs in public colleges and universities while making changes to the post-tenure review process for faculty....

Zworf ,

I don't really understand why LGBTQ+ are always the target of extreme conservatives. Why the extreme preocupation with what people do in the bedroom. It's really nobody else's business.

Zworf , (edited )

It's kinda good for humanity to shrink a bit though. We can't keep expanding as we will eventually run out of space and natural resources. Most western countries aren't really growing in population anymore either and I think that's a good thing. We're already suffering the consequences of too high growth in the past. Not enough housing, resource constraints, pollution.

Also, why spend your life raising babies if you can enjoy yourself. Yes, for some people that constitutes enjoyment, but not for everyone. Certainly not for me. Let them have at it. Humanity absolutely isn't going to become extinct, plenty of people will want to have them. Not families of 6-10 anymore but that's all good. It would actually be amazing if the world population declined a bit and stabilised at say 2 billion. Sustainability is not infinite growth but stability.

The problem is the inverse demography pyramid, less young people to take care of the old. The boomers have this issue and China will now too. But at least this problem is temporary and the world will be much more sustainable with a lower birth rate. Reducing economic issues, less risk of conflict as resources aren't quite as scarce per person, less CO2 emitted etc.

Zworf ,

Satanic now. Wow. That escalated quickly. They will run out of superlatives soon.

I don't really see the connection with the Ukraine war though. But apparently this makes sense to Putin.

‘It’s difficult to survive’: China’s LGBTQ+ advocates​ face jail and forced confession ( www.theguardian.com )

In recent years, China’s LGBTQ+ community has been swept up in the Chinese Communist party’s broader crackdown on civil society and freedom of expression. In May 2023, a well known LGBTQ+ advocacy group in Beijing announced it was closing due to “unavoidable” circumstances. Last February, two university students filed a...

Zworf , (edited )

Yeah Naomi Wu was also arrested and "silcenced" last year (she's no longer allowed to publish anything even stuff not critical of the CCP). https://skepchick.org/2023/08/maker-naomi-wu-is-silenced-by-chinese-authorities-and-why-i-blame-elon-musk/

She is also feminist and lesbian and has an Uyghur girlfriend, which was blatantly published by Vice after promises not to do so, which suddenly put her on the radar 😭 It's a shame because I have big respect for her and her content.

I don't really understand why China is so against LGBTQ+, I don't think they have any religious basis for this. But I assume it has a lot to do with their demography crisis (rapidly falling birth numbers). Even though it seems counterproductive to me, them being against LGBTQ+ does not really make it disappear, I think facilitating IVF for happy LGBT couples to raise loved children would be more productive. But anyway...

Zworf ,

The same applies to Russia.

Not really. Russia has a strong orthodox influence. They suppressed it during the soviet times but it is back in full force.

You can say something similar about ultra conservative Catholics, since the Pope has called for tolerance. Yet, they would rather denounce the Pope than tolerate LGBTQ+.

That's a small splinter group though. Most catholics are pretty open. Even Ireland allowed gay marriage now by popular vote.

The key idea is that bigotry is not driven by religious affiliation, but rather by authoritarian attitudes. That’s what’s common between China, Russia and the ultra conservatives in the US. Tolerance of LGBTQ indicates freedom and liberalism in some sense. And both are challenges to the stakeholders of authoritarianism. They want a world where people live within the framework they dictate - and thus the bigotry.

Aha that does make sense. The LGBTQ movement is indeed very progressive and liberal. I do think there is often a religous component as well (though that seems to be missing in China) but this sounds like a good explanation.

Zworf ,

Yes and she was not overly critical at all. Instead she focused mainly on her tech.

I really miss her great content 😢 And her personality.

Zworf , (edited )

Well she is in freedom, she was released. She's just not free to publish. So she is well but not able to do what she loved.

Zworf ,

I started playing No Man's Sky lately, in VR. I played it closer to it release in the past and it couldn't captivate me, but now I'm kinda in a tumultuous period in my life and the simple gathering mechanics make for a calm passtime.

Zworf ,

Oh yeah with Rutger Hauer. I've been meaning to play that, I have it in my steam library. Thanks for the reminder.

Zworf ,

What do you mean by an edible? Something to munch on?

Zworf ,

Ahh lol.. I didn't think of that. I can imagine that helps :)

Zworf ,

Perhaps China will offer them "One Country, Two Systems". Because they respected this so amazingly well with Hong Kong.

Zworf ,

Note: The following is what I heard from a friend who lived there for decades. I have visited Taiwan but I don't have roots there, as such this is all I have to go on.

But as far as I'm told the drive for Status Quo is mainly because the Taiwanese people don't want to pull out the red flag. They'd love to have independence and be recognised as a state but the status quo is good enough (because it de facto offers them independence in all but name) and less likely to lead to a major war. So basically right now they already have what they want and trying to formalise it will only put more pressure on the situation.

Zworf ,

Yes I get it totally. I was there myself and it is indeed a wonderful place to visit. My friend lived there at the time and showed me around. I particularly loved the markets with all the wonderful electronic components. Though I believe most of that has moved to Shenzen these days, I was there two decades ago when Taiwan was a huge manufacturing hub. As far as I know it's now more of a high-end semiconductor specialist.

What also suprised me is how Western Taipei felt. If everything weren't in Chinese it could have been a western city (albeit with a lot more motorscooters :P ). And the whole situation with China doesn't really seem to be a big 'thing' there. They are already deciding their own future and that's not really up for discussion. This issue seems to be playing more in the global media than on the ground.

I don't think a war will happen either. China is way too calculated for that. The CCP thinks in decade-long plans with subtle entanglement and exploitative loans, that's also their MO in Africa. Not a shooting war.

Zworf , (edited )

Thanks for your insights, it's very interesting hearing the perspective from someone who is actually living there. I can imagine you feel used in this conflict.

Well, Chinese cities will seem western and modern to you as well.

True, I know, but I don't think they did as much when I was in Taiwan 20+ years ago.

Zworf ,

Nice! I hope this will create a similarly great FOSS privacy-first ecosystem as F-Droid has done for Android. Some of the apps on there are really high quality. And amazingly small and efficient. It's really cool how much you can do if you don't waste 90% of your time spying on the user. Which goes for Android and iOS store apps almost equally.

Zworf ,

I have to say I thought that was kinda a pipe dream, but Samsung DeX is surprisingly useful and I use it a lot when I don't have my personal laptop around but I do have a docking station (which happens a LOT in today's hotdesking environment).

Just plug it in and access to all my personal computing stuff is there <3

Zworf ,

Well Google sucks but at least they opened the door to sideloading and open-sourced Android so things like Graphene and LineageOS exist. You don't have to put up with the spying. Apple spies less, but whatever is there is unavoidable right now. Same with controlling what you're allowed to put on your phone.

Zworf ,

I doubt it. Apple will make the process scary enough that users won't get tricked into this.

Zworf ,

You could but you also had to reload them every 2 weeks which is a real PITA, or pony up the $100. And keep Xcode up to date which uses a ton of space.

Zworf ,

Sure, Apple has a point about protecting the users. But it's their choice to make and I'm sure they will make it a really unattractive option with many warnings. Considering some of my friends who work in IT are now afraid to do things as simple as making changes in the registry now, I don't think an unknowing user will be tricked into this.

And really let's be honest Apple's strong objections have absolutely nothing to do with user protection and absolutely everything with that 30% take they're making.

And the thing is, for all Android's lack of privacy, I can open the box of an Android phone and install whatever I want without having to even create an account with Google or Samsung or whoever. You can use an iPhone without an Apple ID but you can do absolutely nothing apart from the built-in apps.

Zworf ,

He's already walked it back again anyway. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/israel-gaza-war-live-white-house-walks-back-biden-remarks-that-israel-was-losing-international-support-over-gaza-bombing/ar-AA1lqsz4

It was probably just a gesture to appease his moderate backers consdering he's doing pretty badly in the polls.

Zworf ,

I wish, I have not found a way yet and I work in cybersecurity. Though I have to admit I didn't give it my best at all.

One thing I would like to try soon is running FLauncher. Though I kinda doubt they will allow another launcher to be set as default. Their site offers some workarounds but "Fire OS" is a lot more locked down. For example using the normal ADB command to turn the screen upside down (needed for my projector) is not working either.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • test
  • worldmews
  • mews
  • All magazines
    •