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jdfedgon

13 karma · joined March 1, 2022

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jdfedgon··on East Germany invented 'unbreakable' drinking glasses
There's this anecdote, somehow connected to this topic.

Some decades ago, a manufacturer from East Germany, former GDR, was participating at a fair for lights and light bulbs. This manufacturer invented a light bulb that never burns its glow wire.

At some point during the fair the companies from West Germany had a big laugh on that manufacturer, mocking him and his invention. Their argument: If you build a bulb like this, how are you going to make money?

Now, I cannot say why we don't have glasses like this already but my assumption is that the monetary incentive is seen as being contradictory to such an invention.

jdfedgon··on Bluetooth keystroke-injection in Android, Linux, macOS and iOS
This seems correct, however 'ClassicBondedOnly=true' is commented out in '/etc/bluetooth/input.conf' in Fedora 39 with bluez v5.70-4 anyways.
jdfedgon··on GPU-Accelerated LLM on an Orange Pi
Nice achievement.

How many users would realistically be able to use it at the same time when running on such a device? I am interested in its scalability.

jdfedgon··on Play the game Taboo against AI
Hm, not convinced.

Category I chose: Whales

Whale AI chose: Humpback

Question: Does it have eyes?

AI: No it does not have eyes.

So, that's that.

jdfedgon··on OsmAnd 4.3 for Android devices
Nice, that they keep improving the app. However, Osmand gives mixed feelings.

Examples:

1) Going from Munich main train station south (Hauptbahnhof Süd) to Berlin main train station (Berlin, S+U Hauptbahnhof). Osmand tells me to download Czechia Northwest map. Doesn't make sense, the route doesn't even go through Czechia. Ok, I think. I download the missing map, app crashes. Restart the app, do the same search again. From one major German city to another. Pretty straight, it would be just one highway (A9) basically. Takes 4-5 minutes to calculate with a Samsung S22. That's just meh.

2) Do the same search again but this time set avoid highways. After 15 minutes still no result, I gave up.

3) The search function is contra-intuitive.

4) Even with a Samsung S22 the map is kind of slow if you just move the map around. For driving it seems ok though. The new engine might have speed up things but it still a far way to being smooth.

I don't complain, but I wish they would address especially the route planning and search.

jdfedgon··on Big meat can’t quit antibiotics
Another excellent overview of the wider problem that's behind the usage of antibiotics in that scale can be found in the Meat Atlas, published by Heinrich Böll Foundation.

https://eu.boell.org/sites/default/files/2021-09/MeatAtlas20...

It delivers an excellent compilation of the issues at play that will keep the problem going. As long as there's no change in policies, consumer behavior and/or some mad disease that brings down the meat industry, it's going to keep continued.

jdfedgon··on Save web pages as PDF in Firefox for Android
Well, took them ages. Not impressed because the feature is not complete. As of yet, save as PDF cannot save from within the reader view.

I know this is whataboutism but I wish they would have delivered on anti-(canvas-)fingerprinting instead of PDF print.

jdfedgon··on The 6.1 kernel is out
Great. For Ubuntu it technically already landed on https://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ However, I say technically because the latest kernel build failed. As do many other versions there. I wonder why ...
jdfedgon··on Why to care about privacy after years of sharing data
I like the blog post and the thought experiment. However, I wish the author wouldn't have stopped with the reasoning and would have stressed his arguments further.

Example where his reasoning in the article is coming short, one might answer: Yes, I wanted to go to store a, and yes, after my 'highway hypnosis' I went or was brought to store b instead. So what? It doesn't really matter if I go shopping in store a or b. The important thing is - I am at a store now and can start my shopping.

If we evaluate that from an ethical point of view then we would have to ask about emancipation and sovereignty in regard to the choices we make, and where that fine line is, where it really starts to matter, if we go for store a or b.

jdfedgon··on GNU Taler: An anonymous, taxable payment system using modern cryptography
Even though I read the GNU Taler FAQ please excuse any lack of deeper knowledge about it.

When dealing with those commercial banks what is currently the biggest challenge? Is it more the political arguments or the technical arguments of such a payment system that you need to stress? And, I couldn't find no definite answer to that: Could GNU Taler ultimately replace Bitcoin?