I have no idea what apps are sharing with what. On Android network access is so ambiguous. There's such fuzzy wording. Like when you are asked for location permission to use bluetooth. Even perms like file system access. I don't know what this extends to. Have no idea what it is doing. I recently set up a new ipad. I failed to even work out where Photos ended up. Couldn't work out what was backed up, and what wasn't. How to opt out of everything and opt in piecemeal. Whether the OS/gadget had AI enhancements, what they were or are, whether the apps would have cloud access or not. In fact for an apple device it bugged me with dialogs from the get go. And bluetooth kept turning itself back on. I would say I am technically savvy, but I was pretty clueless. I was quite keen to try out some of the AI photo tools. Like find pictures of such and such, but I didn't get that far as confusion abound.
Readit Newschickenfeed commented on Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15 lapcatsoftware.com/articl... · Posted by u/latexr
chickenfeed commented on Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15 lapcatsoftware.com/articl... · Posted by u/latexr
Right now I don't think there's anything like this in the United States, at the very least. That said, virtually every bank here only seems to support SMS 2FA, which is also very frustrating.
It's actually a real drag. I live in a rural area and the mobile signal is up and down. Sometimes I don't get SMSs for hours to a day late.
chickenfeed commented on Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15 lapcatsoftware.com/articl... · Posted by u/latexr
Are Calyx or Lineage worth a look? It’s a tough choice between the 3.
Don't forget Anom. (A cautionary tale.) https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/146/
chickenfeed commented on Apple Photos phones home on iOS 18 and macOS 15 lapcatsoftware.com/articl... · Posted by u/latexr
Nope, collective indifference to subpar user experiences has gotten us those lousy cookie banners.
Web sites could legally use cookies for non-tracking purposes without cookie banners but considering people have not stopped visiting sites despite the fugly click-through cookie banners makes them a failure.
All it takes is for 50% of the internet users to stop visiting web sites with them, and web site authors will stop tracking users with external cookies.
I read an article that said something along the lines of people aren't prepared to pay for apps, so instead we get app store silo advert supported crap-ware. And if it's not the apps its click bait making fractional gains by being supported by ad networks. That some of, but not all of us recoil from.
chickenfeed commented on The average American spent 2.5 months on their phone in 2024 pcmag.com/articles/yikes-... · Posted by u/elorant
good bye books
good bye deep thoughts
good bye creativity
good bye critical thinking
turns out soma isn't a pill, but a screen
I wouldn't say it's all trash, but I find TV like this. I loathe most of it finding it pretty vacuous. I am still drawn to it.
We had a defining realisation last year when we found a Youtube channel where a guy cleans carpets. I found it more nutritionally satisfying than 99% of programming on the TV. It was and is totally eye-opening. I have a similar draw to nature. I can watch wild animals doing their thing. And get some entertainment with curtain twitching. I think it's just that inherent human thing - watching.
I do like reading. The minutes I do this are ever dwindling through competition for my idle brain.
chickenfeed commented on The average American spent 2.5 months on their phone in 2024 pcmag.com/articles/yikes-... · Posted by u/elorant
I was very late to the party getting a smartphone. Didn't stop me picking up my laptop repeatedly. Visiting the same old haunts.
I have yet to install Facebook or Whatsapp or similar. I think it would be the death of me. I spend way too much time on my phone/computer.
I was in a care giving role and felt it couldn't leave my side. Since losing that person, I now rejoice in being able to leave my phone. Heck I didn't turn it on yesterday. And it has been sitting in the kitchen all day today.
The telephone does fill me with existential dread as most communication with me is asking me for something or alerting me to something negative. Perhaps that's an age thing. Whereas the Internet is still pleasurable but a complete and utter time suck.
chickenfeed commented on Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again chrisholdgraf.com/blog/20... · Posted by u/ianrahman
I use none of these, and generally agree that the world would be a better place if we could magically get rid of all social media.
But Twitter is filled with much, much more hate and disinformation than its alternatives. I'd say it is definitely worse than the others.
If we could cut people's tongues out the world would be a better place.
I don't know, I think communication can provide a fertile ground for good exchanges as well as bad. It's just somewhat stifled in the current forms.
chickenfeed commented on Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again chrisholdgraf.com/blog/20... · Posted by u/ianrahman
I'm not trying to be rude but are you serious or being sarcastic? Because on here it could go either way. There are definitely people who would build everything themselves just because they can. And there are people who would mock someone for doing so.
If you're being serious, how much time does it take and how much custom software do you actually have?
Self-hosting sounds good but the security concerns are just a bind. Plus you need stability. Like having a home. Our electric grid falls over at least once a week where we live. Yes I could use batteries, but no, I can't be bothered.
chickenfeed commented on Trying to use Bluesky without getting burned again chrisholdgraf.com/blog/20... · Posted by u/ianrahman
Bluesky has potential with the AT protocol.
I think I had a flagged post on Bluesky, early on that just referenced something elsewhere - it was pretty harmless. And I remember a few X users trying the platform saying something vaguely controversial and getting a suspension. Or some such. I don't want to get into the ins and outs of censorship and free speech but you can get booted out the pub for saying something disagreeable in front of the bar hands or patrons. And I would be quite livid if I had invested in a platform and then got shut down.
The AT protocol gives you the ability to produce feeds. But it's actually the consumption aggregation and discover-ability that seems to the difficult bit. I feel we need a lightweight RSS style reader in browser to really get past this. There are weird hacks on Bluesky to subscribe to feeds. But it is messy. The feeds are where the magic potentially happens.
Twitter had become unpalatable before Musk bought it. And there were various crisis of confidence and herd threatening migrations, but people just couldn't be bothered. In its latest ungodly form people are still sticking around, or moving to silos and bubbles on other platforms, it's just a complete and utter mess at this point.
Platforms inevitably win out with convenience. Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp succeeded as people just couldn't share or publish photos or files easily. Combined with some magic discover-ability.
Twitter's collapse has been painful. But weirdly it was incredibly influential though low in membership.
My personal consumption of social feeds has been obliterated to nearly zero. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. I published for myself rather than an audience and had used Twitter just because it was easy. I have a broken computer at the moment and my entire dev stack / environment is in chaos. And although I think the barriers to publishing and self hosting are low there are still inherent obstacles.
Do YOU want to move off of Facebook for some reason, or do people want to move off of Facebook for some reason. MOST people in the US, especially in a rural are are not going to quit an app because say the CEO of a company is friendly to the President. You have an uphill battle, and at best you are going to shed a majority of users. Facebook is a popular platform, especially for those 30+ people in a small town that use local groups.