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zimmen

66 karma · joined November 27, 2010

[ my public key: https://keybase.io/zimmen; my proof: https://keybase.io/zimmen/sigs/-eWqODXDILGXHmNWIDVM2BrW2GdXwFaj0bVcJ22cD5Y ]
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zimmen··on Christopher Columbus may have been Spanish and Jewish, documentary says
This certainly smells like a History Channel "documentary" to me! Right up there with Ancient Aliens and the like.

- Analysis that is not shared to review

- Data that is not shared for review

- Broad assumptions that are quickly narrowed down to "facts"

- There is "more evidence but we can't show you because.... reasons"

zimmen··on Dutch gov't wants to ban officials from using AI software
To be fair, the Dutch government basically banned the use of any kind of intelligence a long time ago.
zimmen··on Positron v3: an upside-down portable 3D printer
This printer looks quite ingenious! And the creator, Kralyn 3D, is releasing the plans for free under a Creative Commons licence.

The video on how he got there is a nice watch too.

zimmen··on Google’s FLoC Is a Terrible Idea
So after years of profiting from the dark practices cookies allowed they decided to replace them with something new, better, more powerful, and potentially harder to block (when they decide to make it mandatory or burry it so deep that the average person can’t find the off switch).

Are we supposed to be grateful now? Are we expected to celebrate this as a “huge win for the end user”?

This looks like a typical case of “fighting symptoms, not the cause”.

zimmen··on Facebook’s ad campaign shows how worried it is about Apple's privacy changes
We don’t know whether Apple’s apps will ask yet do we? Not until the next iOS update.

And when an app doesn’t ask, does that just mean there is no tracking going on or is it some nefarious scheme to achieve who knows what?

The nefarious option will probably become most popular on the interwebs, obviously. I can already see the HN posts: “Pages caught loading an asset from apple.com, violating their own tracking policy! Is Apple doomed?”

zimmen··on YouTube will now show ads on all videos even if creators don’t want them
The norm is already getting to be 2 unskippable pre-roll ads, the creator’s sponsor read (not uncommonly > 3 minutes long), several badly timed mid-roll ads, and a post roll ad. The ads themselves are mostly repeats to the point that I’m getting an aversion to the companies and products they try to sell. Goolgle is clearly hoping to get more consumers on YT premium but that’s just priced too high IMHO.
zimmen··on Asteroid Bennu may be hollow, according to a new study
Oh well, it’s 2020 so we’ve probably just pissed off some huge space monster by landing on one of its eggs and scratching it.
zimmen··on Facebook says breaking off WhatsApp and Instagram would cost billions of dollars
Well, that doesn’t sound like a well thought out software architecture does it. What did they do to get 2 completely separate applications mashed up together so badly that it “costs billions” to untangle?
zimmen··on Is it time to take the Hyperloop seriously? No
If we would always think about “what could go wrong” and decide whether to go forward based on that we still wouldn’t use fire today.... in order to make something safe we need to make it work first. No guts, no glory.
zimmen··on Netherlands makes net neutrality a law
This might look nice but sadly this kind of reasoning by Dutch parlament isn't consistent at all!

- For some reason Google is allowed to act like "a postal worker who delivers a letter, looks to see what's in it, and then claims he hasn't read it."

- Judges can rule blocking of websites (like they did with the pirate bay).

- Mobile operator fees are unregulated an artificially kept way too high.

- We pay a regulatory fee for every empty CD, DVD or Tape we buy because we just might use it to put copyrighted stuff onto it.

There is no straight line of thinking when it comes to this kind of law.