This is actually why I’d be in favor of AI generators creating a hash database of their generated images. If legalized, they should be required to maintain records of the images they have produced. So that if those images appear elsewhere, they can be verified as AI generated.

It would be a monumental effort to actually get the AI companies to agree to it willingly. But that’s why legislation exists.

The fact that you don’t need to actually supply any real CSAM to the training material is the reasoning being offered for supporting AI CSAM. It’s gross, but it’s also hard to argue with.

Yeah, this is basically the crux of the issue. When you get into the weeds and start looking at more than just surface-level “but it needs CSAM to make CSAM” misconception, arguments against it basically boil down to “but it’s icky.” Which… Yeah. It is. But should something being icky automatically make it illegal, even if there are no victims?

I hate to make the comparison (for a variety of reasons) but until fairly recently homosexuality was psychologically classed as a form of destructive/dangerous kink. Largely because straight people had the same “but it’s icky” response whenever it got brought up. And we have tried to move away from that as time has passed, because we have recognized that being gay is not just a kink, it’s not just a choice, and it’s not inherently dangerous or harmful.

To contrast that, pedophilia has remained stigmatized. Because even if it passed the first two “it’s not just a kink/choice” tests, it still failed the “it’s not harmful” test. Consuming CSAM was inherently harmful, and always had a victim. There was no ethical way to view CSAM. But now with AI, it can actually begin passing that third test as well.

I don’t know how I feel about it, myself. The idea of “ethically-sourced” CSAM doesn’t exactly sit right with me, but if it’s possible to make it in a truly victimless manner, then I find it hard to argue outright banning something just because I don’t like it.

This is really the biggest hurdle. To be clear, I’m not arguing that being an active pedo should be decriminalized. But it is worth examining whether we’re basing criminality purely off of the instinctual “but it’s icky” response that the public has when it gets discussed. And is that response enough of a justification for making/keeping it illegal? And if your answer to that was “yes”, what if it could help pedos avoid consuming real CSAM, and therefore reduce the number of future victims? If it could legitimately help reduce the number of victims but you still want to criminalize it, then you are not actually focused on reducing harm; You’re focused on feeling righteous instead. The biggest issue right now is that harm reduction is very hard to study, because it is such a taboo topic. Even finding subjects to self-report is difficult or impossible. So we’ll have no idea what kinds of impacts on CSAM consumption (positive or negative) AI will realistically have until after it is widely available.

Designing foot-operated things tends to fly in the face of modern accessibility standards. Wheelchair users already have enough problems using public toilets.

That’s largely because the companies want to grab all of your telemetry data, which they can’t do in a browser. Putting it in an app allows them to gather whatever info they want, instead of being siloed inside of a browser.

I can’t believe this is relevant…

Quite the opposite. I read best in the corner of a busy bar, or with music in the background. I guess that’s just the AuDHD talking though.

Similarly with audiobooks, I prefer them when doing menial tasks like driving. Something that I don’t need to actively think about, but which keeps my hands busy. If I’m just listening to the audiobook without doing anything else, I’ll find myself understimulated, and I’ll inevitably reach for my phone. And then at that point I’ll stop paying attention to the audiobook entirely, which defeats the purpose. I need tasks which hit that “Minecraft parkour brain rot” sweet spot to keep me busy but not distracted.

From what I understood, it’s an unintended consequence of accessibility rules coming into place.

It’s a fully intended consequence of DRM refusing to adapt to said accessibility rules. Closed ecosystems make DRM easier, which was always the goal for publishers.

Welcome to Readarr and Calibre, my friend.

They likely only block some of the more popular ports that VPNs use for the encryption handshake. You may want to consider fiddling with the VPN connection settings to see if you can bypass the block. My work WiFi blocks WireGuard connections, but IPSec/IKEv2 protocol is unblocked.

Http: Your employer can see every webpage you visit on the work WiFi. If you visit PornHub, they can see which specific videos you watched. If you were logged into your account, they can (depending on how the site is set up) likely even see account details if you visited your account page.

Https: Your employer can see the base URLs you visited, but not specific content. They can see you visited PornHub, but can’t see which specific videos.

VPN: You create an encrypted connection with a VPN server, so all of your traffic passes through that. Now your employer only sees the encrypted traffic to and from the VPN. If you visited PornHub, all the employer would see is the encrypted VPN traffic. The same rules about http and https still apply to the VPN server, (for instance, on https the VPN provider can see you visited PornHub, but can’t see which specific videos,) but your employer basically only sees encrypted white noise.

Tor: VPN servers connected together in a chain, with an entry node, secondary node, and exit node. Since the VPN server can still follow the same rules about http and https, Tor takes it a step farther by obfuscating which user is connecting to which site. You connect to the entry node and establish an encrypted connection. It sees your traffic to/from an encrypted connection, and passes it to the secondary node. The secondary node only sees the encrypted traffic, which it passes to the exit node. The exit node establishes an encrypted connection with the site, which it uses to pass the site data to/from you. So no single node sees you, the unencrypted traffic, and the site. So (without owning at least the entry and exit nodes and performing a rather technically complicated timing attack) nobody has any way of figuring out which site you’re visiting. If you visited PornHub, the entry node would only see you, the secondary node would only see encrypted traffic, and the exit node would only see PornHub.

MS Word when you try to move an in-document image three pixels to the left.

The idea was that I do not need an extra light because, well, there are plenty all around

The biggest counterpoint I have is simply that I enjoy camping. Good luck finding a desk lamp when you’re 5 miles into the woods. And I’m not wasting my flashlight’s precious battery life on reading.

RetroArch is the go-to for most people, because it can emulate just about anything. But first time setup can be kind of a pain if you’ve never done it before; The UI for settings can be unintuitive, you need to dig for what you want, and it’s easy to forget to save your settings because the save option is in an entirely separate page. It also suffers from some software bloat, because it has so many features that it can get bogged down when emulating more intensive systems.

For Nintendo I tend to use Delta. It’s simple, has cloud saves via Google Drive, and runs everything flawlessly. For PSX, I tend to use Gamma. Again, it has a simple interface and syncs via Google Drive.

RetroArch is a good one, and is the go-to for most people. It covers just about every console you could want. But it also suffers from some bloat due to having so many features, and config can be kind of a pain if you’ve never done it before. If you’re just looking for a more basic “just fucking boot it up and play” emulator, maybe an app like Delta (Nintendo consoles) or Gamma (PSX) would be less bloated (and potentially run smoother.)

Be careful with Xbox controllers if you’re using Bluetooth. Microsoft only started including Bluetooth in their controllers in the last few years. The Xbox consoles all the way from the 360 actually use 2.4GHz (same band as WiFi) instead.

That’s part of why Xbox controllers are so much bigger and heavier than things like the PlayStation controllers; The 2.4GHz circuitry and antenna takes a lot more space than Bluetooth does.

If you’re going to get an Xbox controller for Bluetooth, at least look up how to identify which models have Bluetooth built in.

plus theres those sd card cartdridges for it

If you’re willing to get a flashcart for your NDS, you might as well just get a 3DS and load up some custom firmware instead. It’s stupid easy to hack with the SD card slot, and you can play whatever games you want for free. No need to fiddle with flashcarts when you can just use the 3DS’ built in SD card slot instead.

I just emulate things nowadays. I have pretty much the entire NES, SNES, GBC, GBA, N64, NDS, and PSX libraries on my phone ready to go. And it works perfectly fine with any Bluetooth controller, because touchscreen controls are… Well… Complete fucking garbage.

I’m currently playing through the NDS version of Chrono Trigger in my free time. And since all of the games are stored locally, it doesn’t use any data at all. I recently went camping for a week, and my iPad lasted like 7 or 8 hours of playtime (on low brightness because I was in a tent at night) off of a single charge.

Soft bristles are pretty much the only thing anyone should use, regardless of whether or not it’s electric. Hard bristles are too harsh on your gums.

Yeah, the issue with multi tools is the same issue with phones; They’re mediocre at a lot of different things. A dedicated multi-bit screwdriver will almost always be better than a multitool. A solid pair of pliers will almost always be better than a multitool. Et cetera, et cetera…

But in a pinch, a multitool is better than nothing. And a multitool is a hell of a lot easier to carry as a “just in case” thing than an entire toolbox of individual tools. As a freelancer I habitually keep a lot of tools in my trunk, but I don’t want to walk all the way out to my car just to tighten one screw. So I also keep a multitool around as a “good enough” solution.

To be clear: Hospitals use pagers because they use a longer (and much lower bandwidth) wavelength, which is affected less by things like thick fire-resistant walls. Hospitals are built like bunkers so that things like fires don’t require the entire building to be evacuated. Pagers can still reliably get signal even in the basement of a hospital, when behind multiple fire-resistant walls and solid concrete floors. Texting has effectively replaced pagers for 99% of the population. But hospitals still use them because reliability is prioritized in the medical world; No hospital wants to lose a patient because a doctor was in the basement and didn’t get a text.