Amju Wolf

  • 2 Posts
  • 407 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • Wouldn’t be surprised if it also did automatic scans for CSAM or some other BS like that. The article’s conclusion is really funny, too:

    In any case, it’s nice to see Google delivering some new safety features in its Messages app. Hopefully the company publishes documentation on how Android System SafetyCore works so other messaging apps can implement their own version of Sensitive Content Warnings. Google Messages is popular, but there are certainly other messaging platforms that could benefit from this tool.

    They are quite the optimitsts. Oh and yes please, put the spyware in more apps! We aren’t tracked enough!









  • I mean, kinda? Sure, there are fixed costs per customer, and it ultimately doesn’t matter if one guy has access to (and uses) a 1Gbps versus 1Mbps service… But when you have millions of customers that you want to serve those speeds to reliably, there’s an insane difference as you need way more expensive equipment and stuff.

    And yeah, more bandwidth has gotten cheaper. But again - for such a critical service, it should be very cheap and minimum speed isn’t really a factor. So if they could make it 1/3 cheaper by cutting the speed to 1/5, that’d be a win for a lot of people.



  • My point is, don’t get causation and correlation mixed up. Sure, in this case, it also happens to be somewhat better for the environment. But it would never happen if it also wasn’t more profitable, which it undoubtedly is.

    It’s partly not even about the price of the chargers themselves; it saves even more in “hidden costs” like just the fact that now you can have a single SKU for the whole world (or large parts of it at least) instead of keeping 10 different ones (per phone variant). Stuff like having to keep way less stock variants for RMAs, much simplified shipping, etc.





  • Since arbitrations are charged a fee per customer someone figured out that you can do an effective “class action” against valve by having many people submit the same arbitration claim against valve and costing them so much through the arbitration fees that it it was almost impossible for them to cone out on top regardless of the outcome of the arbitration (iirc).

    It’s not even that they’d have to pay for it; usually the filing party has to pay. Valve tried to be the good guys and while they did push for arbitration they said that they’d pay your arbitration fee for you, basically allowing you to file a legal complaint against them at their expense.

    And then some fucking legal company figured out it’s a neat loophole on how to bleed them through arbitration where the point isn’t really the result but the costly process. Guess that’ll teach Valve to try to be better than others. :|






  • That’s just the reality of doing business on the Internet.

    That’s just not true. You can absolutely get by on the internet remaining pretty much anonymous, as it is. Very few services need (and verify) your personal data; when they do it’s basically always when it’s government-mandated, and it’s for things that have a “physical” equivalent.

    i.e. creating a bank account online requires your actual ID, but so it would if you tried to do it “offline” in a physical bank (and you largely have a choice on whether or not you do it online).

    Then you have stuff like online shopping and such where most people probably use their actual personal information but you don’t have to and it’s generally not checked.

    This is an unprecedented change, where suddenly for access to a free service someone needs to ask for and validate some very private details. And it fucking sucks.

    While Australia’s new legislation is ham-fisted and poorly thought out, the intent isn’t wrong and there’s broad consensus for it (77% approval in Australia). We need to do something about the uncontrolled exploitation, manipulation and endangerment of minors by social media services.

    That’s the issue though; I agree that something needs to be done, but you need to do it more or less correctly on the first try or you’ll probably make it even worse.