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cosmic_slate

@cosmic_slate@dmv.social

This is my primary account. All content contributions should only be coming from this account.

Other accounts owned by me are strictly for moderation purposes, and they are:

!cosmic_slate

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

Senior doctors in South Korea submit resignations, deepening dispute over medical school plan ( apnews.com )

Senior doctors at major hospitals in South Korea began submitting their resignations en masse Monday in support of medical interns and residents who have been on a strike for five weeks over the government’s push to sharply increase medical school admissions....

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

Or there’s your take.

Life after high school is going to open your mind up.

Ford rethinks EV strategy, is working on a smaller, cheaper EV platform ( arstechnica.com )

For the last two years, a small "skunkworks" at the Ford Motor Company has been working on a low-cost electric vehicle platform, according to Ford CEO Jim Farley. Farley revealed the existence of this new platform during the automaker's quarterly financial results call with investors on Tuesday evening. The company is rethinking...

cosmic_slate ,
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We are never going to see a brand new $10k EV.

It’s time to be realistic.

  1. We haven’t had new vehicles for $10k in almost (over?) 20 years

  2. I can guarantee there will be even more tariffs on low cost imports because the auto manufacturers and auto unions aren’t going to let that segment of American manufacturing vanish.

cosmic_slate ,
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It doesn’t matter what they’re priced at overseas.

There is zero political incentive to vaporize the auto industry by allowing it.

The Democrats likely can’t because they’d lose UAW support in multiple swing states.

The Republicans can’t because they can either try to use this to gain support from auto union members and/or vocally use this for increased tariffs.

And I'd wager that neither wants to be in charge if the auto industry goes on a decline.

cosmic_slate ,
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I'm not disputing anyone buying something off Alibaba, but not everyone is rushing to Alibaba to buy a vehicle and have it freight'd over.

Increased tariffs are already on the radar of the Biden administration:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-administration-explores-raising-tariffs-chinese-evs-wsj-2023-12-21/

This is also why BYD is looking at manufacturing in Mexico, to reduce export costs:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Automobiles/Tesla-rival-BYD-weighs-EV-plant-in-Mexico

And even if BYD were to manufacture in Mexico, costs may be significantly higher than China because they'd have to be compliant with the USMCA when procuring materials.

cosmic_slate , (edited )
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

IMO by default everyone should put up a barrier to registration, be it manual approvals or email verification.

Both have their own set of flaws and can establish a sense of false security, but it’s the bare minimum to slow down spam registrations.

I’m working on an instance-level spam filter that acts on all federated content to take this into consideration for the instance I run…

cosmic_slate ,
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Not all of the ones involved in the spam attack….

cosmic_slate , (edited )
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People need to understand there are risks if they’re going to host an open server and are ultimately responsible for how it interacts in the network.

Keeping defederation minimal requires a high degree of trust with all instances, regardless of size.

If the instance has open reg, hosted spam for multiple days, has no activity from the admins for ever, and might be several versions behind, that’s entering “I simply don’t trust your ability to host” territory.

I run a small instance. I turn on registration applications, spot-check new accounts to make sure there isn’t spam, keep an alert active so I get notified when updates are available, and occasionally post from an admin account to indicate it’s an active instance. I even check reports at least once a day. This all takes very little effort to do. If you’re a small instance, the burden of proof is on you to show that it’s being maintained.

Some of the spam instances have had spam up for several days now. Sure, maybe one or two people may be on vacation and aren’t aware, but I doubt that’s the case for every host.

We’re fortunate the spam (at least what I’ve seen) didn’t blatantly display malicious content.

cosmic_slate , (edited )
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Completely disagree on the scalability argument and I find it silly.

Most instances are small. Not everyone is going to run a 20,000 person instance where all 20,000 show up on the same day.

If you’re a big instance like lemmy.world, then sure, I can buy the scalability argument, but once you’re at that point you’ve likely established that there is an active and engaged admin team.

As a bonus, it even serves as a great asshole filter. If someone gets upset they had to wait a day for an approval, imagine how they’d act once they’re in.

cosmic_slate ,
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Obligatory I think X is a shithole etc etc etc

That out of the way, Yulia’s account seems to be back now.

https://twitter.com/yulia_navalnaya

cosmic_slate ,
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Discover has a checking account w/ debit card that gives cash back.

It’s what I use to get cashback on rent.

These States Are Basically Begging You to Get a Heat Pump ( www.wired.com )

Nine states have signed a memorandum of understanding that says that heat pumps should make up at least 65 percent of residential heating, air conditioning, and water-heating shipments by 2030. (“Shipments” here means systems manufactured, a proxy for how many are actually sold.) By 2040, these states—California, Colorado,...

cosmic_slate OP ,
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The significance of this is that it should make seeing updates to OSM data a lot quicker, and I'd assume making the "look" a better too.

cosmic_slate OP , (edited )
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

I think the issue with Organic Maps is the lack of real-time traffic data (unless that's changed).

That said, Organic Maps routing seems good enough without it. I occasionally compare routes from Apple Maps, Google Maps, my car's nav, and Organic Maps. Organic Maps hasn't given a route that I'd say is unreasonable.

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

This really isn't a big deal. IMO the approved fix is worse.

Before: https://twitter.com/greentheonly/status/1753249463311691839/photo/1

After: https://twitter.com/greentheonly/status/1753249463311691839/photo/2

The "ABS", "PARK", and "BRAKE" indicators are common pictographs. The approved fix removes the icon and replaces it with them as pure text, which is... unusual.

edit: i've been a/b headline'd

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

It’s seriously as easy as an Android or iOS update. It couldn’t be any less pain. Removing the FUD, Tesla’s update system is the gold standard for OTA updates by far (the CEO of Ford even agrees)

When your car is on WiFi it’ll send your phone a notification saying an update is available. Tap the notification, confirm you want to do it, wait 15-20 mins (up to 40 for some of the big ones), and get a phone notification when you’re done.

If you don’t set your phone up for it, the car’s screen can prompt you to do it.

Keep in mind, a LOT (maybe even all) of components in a Tesla have firmware that can be OTA updatable. This is just not the case with anyone else. Hyundai and Ford have some updates that require you to drag your car in and have a tech push an update button.

Example: That window recall involving the potential to injure fingers last year? OTA firmware fix.

I do think we need a better term for this. An issue involving a critical safety component like an airbag deserves a LOT more attention than a font change.

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

How it’s getting tied into the broader ecosystem feels very forced, too.

Advertising the ability to take spatial video from an iPhone months before the Vision Pro launched definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/record-spatial-videos-for-apple-vision-pro-iph6e3a6d4fe/ios

Usually Apple’s tie-ins feel additive — I’m not given a product that feels like it’s missing a feature if I don’t own another Apple device. When I buy additional product types, I feel like I gain the missing features. Seems like that changed with Spatial Video. You get to stare at a reminder that you don’t own the headset every time you take video.

I don’t like that.

cosmic_slate ,
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She hasn’t been on both ends. She’s always been on the minority side.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberts_Court

cosmic_slate ,
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If you want to hear something grim, in the US legally (at the federal level) your employer doesn’t even have to cover health insurance if it’s under 50 full-time employees.

cosmic_slate , (edited )
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

I switched to a Mac a couple years ago but I'll always at least keep a Linux VM and a separate Linux laptop just in case.

As for why, generally speaking, Apple puts a lot of really, really good work into making a machine that feels immediately productive with little fiddling around, they're ahead of the pack in some ways, and for advanced stuff it's "good enough".

My reasons:

  1. Cross-device integration (at least with Apple) - I already use an iPhone, iPad, and AppleTV. The integration between iOS and macOS is just really, really good. Android+Linux just doesn't come anywhere close. And that's even if you put in the hours it'd take to set a bunch of disparate apps up to try to replicate it. Anyone telling you otherwise is completely full of bullshit or is showing that they actually haven't used Apple devices.
  • Using my iPad as a secondary display takes literally 2 clicks.
  • Setting my Apple Watch to unlock my laptop takes literally 4 clicks.
  • Casting my screen or even just sound takes 2 clicks.
  • Handoff is just magic. If you recently used something on your phone and have the matching app on your Mac, you get a shortcut in your Dock to load whatever you had on your phone on your computer to pick up where you left off. If I am in a Signal chat, I can instantly open the chat I was viewing on my phone. Same for browsing websites, text messages, and a bunch of things.
  • Airdrop between devices "just works".
  • If I connect to a wifi access point from my phone, my laptop will prompt me to automagically copy the password over (i think) bluetooth. Or if I'm at a friend's house and they use an iPhone, they'll get a prompt to share their wifi network password with me.

  1. Device restoration - Restoring a Mac is just impressive for how little effort it requires. If someone stole my laptop, I can drive 15 mins to an Apple Store, buy a new laptop, point it at my NAS, and be back running in an hour or less to exactly where I left off. Similarly, If I buy a brand new laptop, copying data from the old one to the new one is incredibly boring -- in all of the right ways. All apps/info/config/etc gets moved over. No weird quirks or workarounds or anything needed.

  2. M-series laptops - At the time, there were no other good options for ARM CPU laptops, especially ones that can be spec'd to 64GB of RAM. The M CPU laptops are crazy fast and efficient. I can literally use my laptop for 9-10 hours in a day going full-hardcore, and still have juice to spare. Yeah I know Asahi Linux works for the most part now, but I don't have time anymore to beta-test my main box.

  3. Adequate Unixy bits - The terminal does everything I need, the utilities are fine. I use Nix (and some Homebrew) to maintain various CLI tools.

  4. Software - I wanted to save this for last since everyone quotes this first. I wanted to meddle with music and Ardour doesn't really scratch the itch the same way Logic Pro does. Another example: as bad as the Mac version of Microsoft Office is, it's still far more nicer feeling than LibreOffice and requires much less work to get a good looking presentation/etc. out the door on a time crunch.

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

Yeah :/

I almost wonder how far (as an example) System76 or someone could get by mirroring Apple’s approach: build a range of devices and focus aggressively on gluing them together without a care in the world for anything else.

I know Samsung tries for their devices with Windows, but their software always felt like there’s an internal competition for who can add the most number of controls to each UI and it comes across as very clunky.

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

The Steam Deck is a great example of consumer Linux done right. You don’t even know it’s Linux. The team who developed it did a fantastic job at focusing on the full end-to-end experience.

cosmic_slate ,
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Because in yanks number out of ass 87.74% of threads of “why use X? Linux has Y, it’ll do everything you want”

Ardour/LO/etc are great for what they are and have their uses, but there are some apps that just aren’t available on Linux and the claimed alternatives really don’t work.

cosmic_slate ,
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I’m using a EnGenius EWS377AP and don’t have any complaints.

I had Ubiquiti gear but had some quirks and still wanted something a bit advanced. I don’t know how well meshing works though.

cosmic_slate ,
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It doesn’t have to be a walled garden, it could just be a system where they only do first-party development of products they product and leave it to the community to expand to others.

cosmic_slate ,
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Reminder: not everyone living in homes that grew in value can afford to sell their house and move. If you’ve owned your house, had the area around redeveloped, have fun with getting priced out.

If property values bias towards the house itself and most of your neighbors renovate, have fun potentially paying more just for the privilege of looking at your neighbor's pretty house.

cosmic_slate ,
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…who hurt you?

This was exactly one example with no indication of this being a common issue.

cosmic_slate , (edited )
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Value only matters if you sell.

Nobody is going to be able to sell for a long while without taking a financial hit somewhere. Any homeowner now is more or less stuck.

I get it, you’re upset over rent increases. It’s understandable. Not every homeowner is some asshole wanting to oppress renters.

If you’re anywhere in the middle class, you’re in a very unfortunate spot right now. Rent, own, whatever.

cosmic_slate ,
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No, I do get it. I rent in an expensive market — my location isn’t even hidden. I just choose to familiarize myself with the financial issues of owning right now.

My area had the hype of Amazon HQ2 pushing up values for no good reason.

There's a number of reasons to be against this that hold a lot more weight. I'm skeptical that this is going to be wise with the future of the state's budget and it'll be a political nightmare to remove. But hey, pros and cons.

cosmic_slate ,
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Gluetun is great for when you want a container that should only use the network on the other side of a VPN.

cosmic_slate , (edited )
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I’ve been using it for months and maybe popped back over to Google only a handful of times.

DDG is okay but it’s miserable in comparison. I haven’t tried Ecosia long enough to form a proper opinion but my first impressions weren’t great.

The only people who actively rail against it seem to be the standard group of Fediverse who are… a bit too online 😉

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

I think it's only reasonable to maintain a separate computer for gaming at this point. Yeah, I get it, it's expensive to maintain two computers, my point stands.

These kinds of blobs aren't going away. A lot of game studios put their developers under an insane amount of pressure so I'm skeptical that security is given the attention it deserves...

cosmic_slate , (edited )
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

End of the day, if friends want to play something, I'll happily join them. We only have ~80 years on this planet and I'm not spending them being forever upset at things I cannot change about the world that have no real significance.

Valorant already has 25 million active gamers who don't care enough to ditch the game for the anti-cheat. All 500 players who decide to uninstall LoL over this simply won't matter to Riot.

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

Ironically this comment is upvoted and my original one is downvoted lol.

I just don’t trust games targeting Windows and it’s far easier to throw stuff on a second PC, put that on my guest VLAN, and not worry about what happens anymore. If it’s not a root kit, it’s installing some persistent game loader or other crap that doesn’t need to run 24/7 on the same machine I do my taxes.

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

There’s only one LoL and a lot of its players like it specifically for its gameplay. If I’m going to be preachy to my friends, I’ll save it for something that matters.

If you’re convinced you’re saving the world, by all means do as you desire.

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

Wow that article pointed out a lot I didn’t know about Oregon. Thanks history classes that skip this!

Thanks for sharing it.

Supermarket responds after Reddit user’s warning about self-checkout overcharge — ‘Was annoyed that the total amount due on my supermarket purchase did not equate to the individual items I purchased.’ ( 7news.com.au )

Supermarket responds after Reddit user’s warning about self-checkout overcharge — ‘Was annoyed that the total amount due on my supermarket purchase did not equate to the individual items I purchased.’::‘Was annoyed that the amount due on my Woolies purchase did not equate to the individual items I purchased.’

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

So you're a fan of continuing to support an occupation that has a high incidence rate of RSI because you want to stick it to the man and make someone swipe your bag of chips.

You do you. That’s.. really hurting the corporation there.

cosmic_slate ,
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I stand by my original observation about the anti-self-checkout arguments since my point is being proven lol

cosmic_slate ,
@cosmic_slate@dmv.social avatar

The protests came several months later, I doubt they had any effect. The end of the line was last January.

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