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HardlyCurious commented on Wired has removed "How Google alters search queries" story   wired.com/story/google-an... · Posted by u/r721
brookst · 2 years ago
If you’re accusing them of lying, it would be nice if you brought evidence.
HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
Seems really strange to me to reject the notion of 'reading between the lines' when we know the motives of the company's leadership. We know they work with Google, we know they are interested in driving views and profits. Any interpretation that is consistent with their known motivations is worth considering.

Some things just aren't feasible to collect evidence for. You would need access to their private communications to find evidence. So your basically giving a pass to any maleficence done in the dark.

HardlyCurious commented on Pixel 8 Pro   store.google.com/product/... · Posted by u/alphabetting
Alacart · 2 years ago
My experience with my own pixel 7 pro and a pixel 5 has been that these devices are an order of magnitude lower in build quality than Samsung or iPhones. I really, really wanted to be happy with them but they've been a never ending source of frustration.

My pixel 5 just stopped turning on one day about 2 years in, and my pixel 7 pro had the volume and power buttons fall out about 3 weeks in (not due to a drop, after googling it's apparently a very widely seen issue).

The service with iFixit was unhelpful, they told me "We keep seeing this and Google says this is wear and tear. We can't submit it for a warranty repair, and if we try we end up eating the cost". After finally complaining on twitter I was contacted by some support person who said to give iFixit this email and they would fix it. They still refused, and after a few more rounds of interactions like that I eventually bought some replacement buttons on Amazon, popped them in, and put a case that covers them on it. I'm fully expecting this to randomly die some time before 2 years is up.

Combine that with Google's extremely strong tendency to abandon everything, promises like these seem well, worthless.

Meanwhile my daughter is using my wife's old iPhone from 8 years ago. My Samsung note 3 and my s8 still boot up and work just fine (though I cracked the screen on one about 5 years ago). It's just so obvious that these phones are very low priority to Google, while other companies base their business around their phones.

HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
I must be lucky. I'm still rocking a pixel 3. It's got multiple breaks in the screen, the back of the phone is pretty cracked, the camera cover is completed smashed out. Hey somehow this thing still works and takes ok pictures.
HardlyCurious commented on Pixel 8 Pro   store.google.com/product/... · Posted by u/alphabetting
grepLeigh · 2 years ago
This is a meta comment, but I think it's extraordinary that we're only 15ish years from the first smartphone release and we've already reached the "boring" incremental improvement phase for these tiny pocket supercomputers.

Consider how long it took PCs to reach the same stage (with a fraction of the adoption). It was like 20 years from Kenbak-1 to the 90s PC era.

HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
Maybe I'm an idiot, but I think the expanded AI capabilities are the biggest step forward for phones in like 5+ years or more.

But I'm someone who is still using a pixel 3, so maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better about purchase I need to make because my phone's battery is pretty close to useless.

HardlyCurious commented on Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor   twitter.com/matthew_d_gre... · Posted by u/moyix
lmm · 2 years ago
Sure - but all that is equally true of the US.
HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
True of the US yes. Equally? I probably wouldn't say that. The US govt doesn't have the same control over media the the Chinese govt has. So they have to work harder to keep things out of public view. The US also has to massage the way they work to be somewhat within the bounds of the constitution.
HardlyCurious commented on Snowden leak: Cavium networking hardware may contain NSA backdoor   twitter.com/matthew_d_gre... · Posted by u/moyix
NorwegianDude · 2 years ago
Isn't that just the US speaking in order to get more control? How is it proven? I've never seen any evidence of that, but there has been much evidence that the US does what they blames others of doing, like this and Cisco.

At this point it seems the US is accusing others for doing bad things because that's what they themselves do.

Huawei was growing really fast, threatening both Apple and Google. Then the US said it was not safe while trying to sabotage both smart phone sales and mobile networks sales. The US pressured allied countries to not choose Huawei for 5G, and didn't let companies work with them.

Huawei was also willing to compromise by giving network operators acces to source code.

Is Huawei bad? I don't know, and I've yet to see any evidence. Does the US do exactly what they are accusing other for? Yes, that has been proven multiple times.

We live in a day where we talk about privacy and security, while giving large corporations full control over our iOS and Android devices. How useful is e.g. E2E encryption really when the os itself has a direct connection to the mothership?

HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
There is ample evidence of China's intentions and capability to install backdoors. Everything made in China or a heavily influenced Chinese country should be assumed to be compromised, even if 'proven' otherwise. Chances are we just haven't found the backdoor yet.
HardlyCurious commented on Lodash just declared issue bankruptcy and closed every issue and open PR   twitter.com/danielcroe/st... · Posted by u/omnibrain
sneak · 2 years ago
What percentage of the now closed bugs still extant in the current version will be reimplemented in the rewrite?
HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
Requirements are hard, but ... you don't need bug reports to implement bug free requirements. So the only value the bugs would have is if they are for behaviors that should be documented as requirements.
HardlyCurious commented on Solar and batteries are going to win, and our thinking needs to adjust   noahpinion.blog/p/our-cli... · Posted by u/jseliger
curriculum · 2 years ago
Not quite. Right now, (most) California residential electric bills are entirely volumetric, meaning that you pay for what you use — if you use zero, you pay (close to) zero. Under the new system, everyone’s bill will instead have a sizable fixed component (determined by household income) for being connected to the grid, and a volumetric component (determined by the amount that you use). The new price per kilowatt hour will be smaller than the existing rates.
HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
Energy cost has long been viewed as a means to constrain consumption. This new approach seems to undermine that approach given the reduced cost per volume.

If I'm paying entirely based on volume, then making my home twice as efficient makes my bill half as much. But under this new system, I wouldn't realize the same savings.

Seems like a policy set with priorities other then environmental protections.

HardlyCurious commented on Solar and batteries are going to win, and our thinking needs to adjust   noahpinion.blog/p/our-cli... · Posted by u/jseliger
phh · 2 years ago
My biggest gripe against the title of the poll "Climate or economic growth?" is the underlying assumption that economic growth comes with comfort growth. Going from oil heating to heat pumps will decrease GDP while improving comfort. Making durable fridge will decrease GDP while improving comfort, etc. Not fixing the climate will increase the GDP because of all the mitigations we'll have to implement (iirc French government estimated 15% of GDP will go to climate mitigations in 2050)

Now about the thesis of OP, even if we assume a full solar + battery world, and manage to keep that +2C, electricity pricing will swing a lot (it'll probably often go negative or at least to 0) which will lead to discomforts (people not able to pay for electricity in the winter) without state protections, even if economic growth is here. And then electricity is not enough. Simply keeping the production of autos has a considerable CO2 cost.

HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
Why do you think an electric heat pump will increase comfort over oil heating? It's not that I think heat pumps are bad, I just didn't know there was a claim of any improvements beyond efficiency / environmental benefits.
HardlyCurious commented on Why Socialism? (1949)   monthlyreview.org/2009/05... · Posted by u/celtoid
soperj · 2 years ago
Modern capitalism has a lot of socialism in it. Socialized fire dept, sewage, roads, police, in most cases socialized healthcare, in the US they socialize bank & auto corporation losses whenever there's a recession, etc etc.
HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
Socialism, despite what republicans want you think isn't any govt service. If that is true then the only socialism free model would be anarchy.
HardlyCurious commented on Why Socialism? (1949)   monthlyreview.org/2009/05... · Posted by u/celtoid
celtoid · 2 years ago
This observation seems to hold true no matter the time or place:

"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."

HardlyCurious · 2 years ago
That last bit about the media is both true and perhaps uncomfortable for Democrats today whose political will aligns with the media narratives.

u/HardlyCurious

KarmaCake day396May 23, 2022View Original