1) Social media driven by algorithms, destroying the fabric of society.
2) Being the product, not the customer.
3) Endless, gratuitous, unstoppable changes to the tools we use.
4) The raging battle for our attention.
Readit Newsgxx commented on Ask HN: What things has tech made worse in your life? · Posted by u/avgDev
gxx commented on In 2020, two thirds of Google searches ended without a click sparktoro.com/blog/in-202... · Posted by u/randfish
Google results have gotten dramatically worse over this last decade. Google now seems to fixate on the most common terms in my query and returns the most generic results for my geographic area. And, it seems like quotes and the old google-fu techniques are just ignored or are no longer functional.
There are a whole host of factors behind this, but I'm certain that the switch to Natural Language Processing / Semantic Search drove this decline.
For me Google "verbatim" is the best way to get focussed results although it's too bad it doesn't allow date ranges. Bing search with appropriate use of guotes, + and - operators and date ranges usually beats non-verbatim Google search, and it can sometimes be better than Google verbatim.
gxx commented on Half Doses of Moderna Vaccine Produce Neutralizing Antibodies marginalrevolution.com/ma... · Posted by u/elsewhen
Yes; however, prioritization lets us speed up the effects of population-scale vaccination by either...
1. Vaccinating people who are the most likely to get sick
2. Vaccinating people who are the most likely to spread the virus
Option 1 makes the death and hospitalization rates fall quicker, so that anyone we miss is more likely to still have a hospital bed to get treated in. Option 2 reduces the total number of people exposed to the virus.
The whole point of vaccination is to keep people from having to go to the hospital or dying - protecting the weakest first achieves that better than random vaccinations. Someone like me who basically lives in his room and works remotely can afford to wait for shots - someone who works in retail and has 1000s of exposures per day needs their shots yesterday.
Vaccine trials have shown that approved vaccines reduce moderate to severe illness and death. There is no trial-based evidence that they prevent people from catching the virus and spreading it [1]. It's even possible that people who are vaccinated are more likely to be asymptomatic and more likely to unknowingly pass it on.
So "vaccinating people who are the most likely to get sick" is the only option supported by the evidence. Or preferably vaccinate people most likely to become moderately to severey ill, or die.
At this time we should not be "vaccinating people who are the most likely to spread the virus". We don't know if approved vaccines will help with this.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210203-why-vaccinated-p...
Google and YouTube video search are terrible. I find the result poorly matches the query I typed, the results are hard to browse, and of course favor videos on YouTube ignoring better videos that may be on other sites.
Bing video search is by far better. Assuming you use DuckDuckGo type your search and follow it with !bv. The result is an excellent browsable display of videos that match your search well, that can be previewed by hovering over them, and the results aren't biased to just YouTube. You can also add emphasis to words in your search with the +/- operators and quotes.
Also the "up next" YouTube video is rarely as good as going back to the Bing search and choosing another video.
gxx commented on The original "Spacewar!" running on a virtual DEC PDP-1 masswerk.at/spacewar/... · Posted by u/CharlesW
Brings back great memories. Based on the article in Byte Magazine 1977 (1) I got Spacewar running (in assembly language) on my kit-built Processor Technolory Sol 8088 microcomputer. Also built the 8 bit DAC and two hand controllers. The display was my kit-built Heathkit oscilloscope. It was magical to see those satellites orbiting for the first time!
(1) https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1977-10/1977_10_BYT...
I have both platforms at the office for years, still haven't discovered what is so magic about the trackpad.
The biggest difference between Macbook trackpads vs the best for Windows is the super low hysteresis of pointer motion vs finger motion. I recently bought and returned a Microsoft Surface Book with "precision touchpad". The main reason for returing it was that pointer control feels sluggish compared to the Macbook and its pointer speed was too slow even at its fastest. The best Dell touchpads are no better and Lenovo trackpads are even worse.
I understand that this may be because PC touchpad hardware reports jitter, sometimes higher than it really is, and this causes the Precision Touchpad software to increase the hysteresis. Macbook touchpads have low jitter and the driver is tuned to benefit from it.
If anyone Microsoft with input into the Precision Touchpad reads this, why don't you fix it or work with your licensees to fix it?
gxx commented on Google Chrome is preparing a widget with shopping ads on the new tab page? techdows.com/2020/10/shop... · Posted by u/rbinv
I’m an avid safari user on iOS and Mac, and I suspect I’ll be an avid Edge user on Microsoft now that it’s basically a better chrome.
I can see why people would want to switch it up. Especially if you use different operating systems, and want to synchronise your browser experience between them. Not having things synced has actually been a major advantage for me, as I use my phone and Mac very differently than I use my windows devices, but I can see why you wouldn’t want to run safari on Windows/Linux.
Hell, these days I gotta say that I can see why you wouldn’t want to run Safari at all. It’s terrible at Disney plus, and others, and while that may be a Disney plus and others problem, that’s still technology that doesn’t work right out the box like it’s supposed to.
I do think the fact that the new Edge is so good is going to eat into Google’s market. Exactly because of people like you and me who aren’t going to bother unless we have to.
I'd like to switch to Edge but there is apparently no way to have it default to opening links in a new tab:
https://www.tenforums.com/browsers-email/67169-can-i-make-op...
I know about Command-Click to open in a new tab (Mac) but I want thie to be the default. It's crazy that Edge does not support this because every other browser does. (If someone from Micthe Edge team happens to read this post, please fix it.)