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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • TheRealKuni@midwest.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mlWaaaaagh.
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    16 hours ago

    And honestly not great at anything if we don’t have tools.

    Just goes to show what an amazing evolutionary advantage we get from the combo of intelligence and dexterity. The ability to make and use tools to fit any situation makes us capable of anything other animals can do and more.




  • I have an LG TV. Absolutely love it.

    However, it’s not connected to the internet so it doesn’t do any of this shit. It’s just a really nice dumb TV that has the potential to spy on me if I ever gave it a chance to be smart, and I still get to take advantage of the various picture improvements that come from having the processing power of a smart TV.

    Just need something else to do streaming if that’s what you want. Like an Apple TV, nVidia Shield, Roku, or game console. Some of those will also advertise to you, but I’ve had good experience with my Apple TV.


  • I worked for my district’s IT department when I was in high school. I think my sophomore or junior year.

    It was pretty cool really. Mostly it was transcoding VHS tapes into MPEGs, but occasionally I got to do odd jobs around the school district.

    Once I got yelled at by a grade school secretary, and treated with suspicion even after she had called my boss at the district IT office to confirm I was indeed there to replace a graphics card on a computer.

    While she was walking me to the library or classroom or whatever she took the box from me, pointed to the 3D orc on the box, and said in the bitchiest possible tone, “So what is this? Is this supposed to be part of the curriculum?”

    I calmly said, “No ma’am, that’s just the advertising the manufacturer puts on the packaging. It’s a graphics card, it can be used to play games so they advertise that.”

    “Well kids shouldn’t be playing these kinds of games in school!”

    “It’s a graphics card. It’s how the computer displays any kind of graphics on the screen. The computer needs a new one. I don’t know why, I’m just doing what I was told.”

    Man that woman was so much of a bitch I remember that interaction better than most of high school.







  • TheRealKuni@midwest.socialtoMemes@lemmy.mlOuch, that's cold
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    23 days ago

    Having a sensor means you can also trust your popcorn button. Technology Connections did a great video about this, if your microwave uses the sensor properly, the popcorn button starts by clearing the chamber of moisture by running the fan and the sensor. Then it turns on the microwave element, and when the bag inflates enough to open there’s a sudden puff of moisture into the chamber. The oven detects this, and uses a lookup to determine how much longer to run the microwave element based on how long it ran the element before sensing moisture, which accounts for different sizes and weights. You’ll hear a beep and see a few seconds left on the display.

    This is nearly perfect in my experience. Every now and then the popcorn is very slightly burnt, but being able to just press a button and walk away is awesome.

    Definitely watch the video, I didn’t realize mine had this feature until an earlier video of his about popcorn buttons (this one, specifically).


  • Inventing your own “standard” and forcing everyone to use it (lightning and webkit)

    It’s like people don’t remember history anymore. WebKit was a joint venture between many groups. It wasn’t “inventing your own standard” any more than any web browser engine. The restriction to WebKit on iOS devices can be frustrating, but this practice is anti-competitive.

    And Lightning replaced another proprietary port, the iPod 30-pin connector. That 30-pin connector was born in a time when standards for device-side connections were not very often utilized. Many devices used proprietary connectors. When Apple transitioned away from the 30-pin, the industry at large was operating with both Mini-USB and Micro-USB, which were both straight-up inferior to Lightning.

    The problem with Apple and Lightning is that they didn’t drop it when they should’ve. When USB-C became the clear de facto standard, and they began transitioning all of their other devices to it, they should’ve moved the iPhone over and bit the bullet then. Not doing so, and continuing to charge for MFi certification was, again, anti-competitive. But the existence of Lightning wasn’t anti-consumer.

    preventing consumers from having their device repaired from anyone else than a “certified technician” at 4x the markup

    Right-to-repair is an important issue and Apple are really shitty about it. I agree. They are not unique, and this also needs to be addressed.

    Google pixels are not OEM-locked and I can easiely install graphene or any other operating system on them. In the smartphone category, google is the only good vendor, ironically.

    Like I said, “in many respects.” For your use-case, one that you must admit is infrequently utilized, statistically speaking, Google makes a better product that fits your needs. The vast, vast majority of smartphone users are not flashing alternate ROMs to their devices. Most people aren’t power-users, and even most power-users don’t bother. That’s not to say your use-case isn’t meaningful; I’m glad there are still solid options available for a world I used to be a part of!

    People can damn well choose to not buy an apple device.

    Sure, but does that mean Apple should be allowed to get away with anti-competitive behavior? With practices that seek to force others to use their systems, or to keep users they have from exploring other options? I don’t think so. Bad business practices need to be addressed regardless of whether users have an option to look elsewhere. Especially when the company has a sufficiently large percentage of the smartphone market to force developers to work within their walled garden to hit target audiences.


  • a device that is known to be anti-consumer.

    Anti-competitive and monopolistic, sure. Anti-consumer? Eh.

    Don’t get me wrong, Apple is just as evil as the next guy. Their practices reinforce their market position in an insidious way. But in many respects Apple performs better on the consumer front than, say, their primary competitor Google. Not in every way, but I wouldn’t call their devices “anti-consumer.”

    If one of your primary concerns as a consumer is an open platform then yeah, I can see you rejecting outright Apple devices. This could in turn lead to being dismissive of the concerns of those whose priorities differ from yours, though I would strongly advise against such a lack of empathy over something as insignificant as a platform choice. Regardless, curtailing their practices is still important.

    If we don’t stop bad behavior because it doesn’t affect us directly, we set bad precedents. Regulatory actions are an important tool.

    If we talk about restricting stuff like rent, food prices etc, so essentials, I’m on board. But Apple? Nah.

    Fallacy of relative privation. “X is worse than Y, so Y doesn’t matter.” Rent and food prices are important, too, but regulatory bodies don’t operate on a zero sum system. Multiple things can be addressed with multiple efforts. It’s not like the EU is saying “we can ignore starvation and homelessness because at least we cracked down on Apple.”