samspot (u/samspot) - Readit News

samspot commented on Please, FOSS world, we need something like ChromeOS theregister.com/2025/07/2... · Posted by u/beardyw

esperent · a month ago

I recently (two weeks ago) decided to finally switch from Windows to plain Ubuntu as a daily desktop. I'm well experienced with it from managing servers and have used it occasionally at a desktop in the past.

I've had - and continue to have, a ton of minor and a few large problems.

First, wifi. Apparently there's often problems with Intel killer 6e laptop cards, which required me to enter loads of console commands that I didn't understand to fix. I did finally fix it, but I'm not sure exactly what did it. A couple of hours work over a few days to fix this.

I work from an external monitor plugged into my laptops HDMI port with the lid closed, and it seems Ubuntu is massively confused by this. I'm constantly having to open the laptop to get a login screen to show, then logging in and closing it, then opening it again because now the desktop doesn't show.

My laptop screen resets to minimum brightness every restart.

I did a driver update and suddenly my external monitor wasn't recognized at all so I had to roll back.

And at least several hours more on other issues. Oh yes, if I suspend then try to wake, I get a black screen or occasionally the Ubuntu startup screen but can never get back to the login screen until I do a hard reset.

The Bluetooth audio was set to headset quality (mono) and the only way to fix this, following 20 minutes research, was to install a different audio settings app.

All of these things, I can fix. I don't want to, but as a technically savvy user I can do it, with enough hours put in. But there's no way I'd suggest anyone else in my family or friends to use it unless they clearly tell me that they would enjoy tinkering with their operating system.

samspot · a month ago

It's good to know that "Linux is only free if your time is worthless" still holds true after all these years. From the way many talk, I honestly thought it might have changed.

samspot commented on On loyalty to your employer (2018) medium.com/hackernoon/on-... · Posted by u/Peroni

samspot · 4 months ago

Article points are mostly all valid, don't give your loyalty in return for abuse, etc. etc.

But I've been at my employer 11 years now and I have greatly prospered. They took care of me in many ways that aren't required by law, and gave great benefits. They didn't abuse me or take undue time from my family. They constantly invest in my career -- for their ultimate benefit, yes, but I benefit too. If and when I get transactioned out, I'll have no regrets.

It's ok to reward an employer with some loyalty for treating you well.

But also, this quote needs to be here :)

Would I ever leave this company? Look, I’m all about loyalty, In fact, I feel like part of what I’m being paid for here is my loyalty, But if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly… I’m going wherever they value loyalty the most. — Dwight Schrute

samspot commented on I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022) code.mendhak.com/gpl-v2-a... · Posted by u/ekiauhce

samspot · 4 months ago

If you never pick up a pen to sign a birthday card, thank you note, or wedding album, that's a symptom you are too isolated!

samspot commented on I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022) code.mendhak.com/gpl-v2-a... · Posted by u/ekiauhce

ethbr1 · 4 months ago

Slightly alternate take: this post (and the fact that FSF still replies to paper mail) is about accessibility

Which changes as times change.

In the 90s, requiring access to the internet and an email address would have been exclusionary and decreased access.

Now, 30 years later, it's reversed and physical mail is difficult.

But from another perspective... the goal should be to ensure that anyone who wants to do a thing can, with as few third party requirements as possible.

In the sense that the FSF wants to be the exact opposite of {install this vendor's parking app to pay for parking} + {get an email account with this particular provider to ensure your email goes through} + {install TicketMaster for access to venue} + {this site requires IE^H^HChrome} all the other mandatory third-party choices we're forced into.

Postal mail, for all its faults, is universally accessible by design. And continuing to support the most accessible method of communication is laudable!

Accessibility and convenience >> convenience

samspot · 4 months ago

A common mistake in accessibility is to assume accessibility is mostly for users who are blind. I've rarely seen the opposite approach, calling something accessible that is very much not accessible to a person who is blind. A url is much more accessible for many people with disabilities than the postal mail.

Even if you mean access instead of accessibility, presumably a person who can find a way to acquire stamps can just as easily make it to a library with public computers.

samspot commented on You wouldn't steal a font fedi.rib.gay/notes/a6xqit... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

tossandthrow · 4 months ago

The moral background for copyright is in free fall these days.

It is quickly turning into one of these things that there are laws for, and everyone thinks it is rediculous, it is never enforced and DE facto not a law.

And what a shame that is.

samspot · 4 months ago

Copyright, and patents, are not based on moral principles. It's a temporary government license meant to encourage innovation and hustle. Whether it works or not, I don't know. But the only question of morality is if it's immoral to break an arbitrary law, or not.

samspot commented on Reworking 30 lines of Linux code could cut power use by up to 30 percent spectrum.ieee.org/data-ce... · Posted by u/gslin

rvz · 4 months ago

Absolutely.

It is unfortunate that many software engineers continue to dismiss this as "premature optimization".

But as soon as I see resources or server costs gradually rising every month (even on idle usage) costing into the tens of thousands which is a common occurrence as the system scale, then it becomes unacceptable to ignore.

samspot · 4 months ago

When you achieve expertise you know when to break the rules. Until then it is wise to avoid premature optimization. In many cases understandable code is far more important.

I was working with a peer on a click handler for a web button. The code ran in 5-10ms. You have nearly 200ms budget before a user notices sluggishness. My peer "optimized" the 10ms click handler to the point of absolute illegibility. It was doubtful the new implementation was faster.

samspot commented on Owning my own data, part 1: Integrating a self-hosted calendar solution emilygorcenski.com/post/o... · Posted by u/ColinWright

VyseofArcadia · 5 months ago

I have a self hosted calendar solution. It was $15 at Staples, and it hangs in my kitchen. It wasn't a complete out of the box solution, though, I had to do a little work to customize it. I placed a pen cup with a few pens in it on the counter near the calendar to ensure it is always easy to modify.

samspot · 5 months ago

My wife uses this solution. When I am at work and someone wants to know if I can do a team dinner, I have to call her if she's at home, or tell them I'll get back to them. I never know if I'm free and finding out is inefficient at best.

samspot commented on AI 2027 ai-2027.com/... · Posted by u/Tenoke

api · 5 months ago

You don’t just beat around the bush here. You actually beat the bush a few times.

Large corporations, governments, institutionalized churches, political parties, and other “corporate” institutions are very much like a hypothetical AGI in many ways: they are immortal, sleepless, distributed, omnipresent, and possess beyond human levels of combined intelligence, wealth, and power. They are mechanical Turk AGIs more or less. Look at how humans cycle in, out, and through them, often without changing them much, because they have an existence and a weird kind of will independent of their members.

A whole lot, perhaps all, of what we need to do to prepare for a hypothetical AGI that may or may not be aligned consists of things we should be doing to restrain and ensure alignment of the mechanical Turk variety. If we can’t do that we have no chance against something faster and smarter.

What we have done over the past 50 years is the opposite: not just unchain them but drop any notion that they should be aligned.

Are we sure the AI alignment discourse isn’t just “occulted” progressive political discourse? Back when they burned witches philosophers would encrypt possibly heretical ideas in the form of impenetrable nonsense, which is where what we call occultism comes from. You don’t get burned for suggesting steps to align corporate power, but a huge effort has been made to marginalize such discourse.

Consider a potential future AGI. Imagine it has a cult of followers around it, which it probably would, and champions that act like present day politicians or CEOs for it, which it probably would. If it did not get humans to do these things for it, it would have analogous functions or parts of itself.

Now consider a corporation or other corporate entity that has all those things but replace the AGI digital brain with a committee or shareholders.

What, really, is the difference? Both can be dangerously unaligned.

Other than perhaps in magnitude? The real digital AGI might be smarter and faster but that’s the only difference I see.

samspot · 5 months ago

Great comment, and I love the thought process. My answer to the question: What is the difference? Humans and corporations are exceedingly predictable. We know what they both want, generally. We also rely on human issues as a limiting factor.

For an AI controlled corporation, I don't know what it wants or what to expect. And if decision making happens at the speed of light, by the time we have any warning it may be too late to react. Usually with human concerns, we get lots of warnings but wait longer than we should to respond.

samspot commented on What if we made advertising illegal? simone.org/advertising/... · Posted by u/smnrg

samspot · 5 months ago

A lot of niche things I want cease to exist in this advertising-free world. If the interest isn't mainstream enough to get a word-of-mouth recommendation then it can't survive. The services we use to find these things, Google, Etsy, Fan sites, none of them exist without advertising. I'm sure you can think of something that was never explicitly advertised to you, that you wanted, that you wouldn't be able to find anymore if this came to pass.

samspot commented on An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip theaiunderwriter.substack... · Posted by u/participant3

samspot · 5 months ago

This makes AI image generation very boring. I don't want to generate pictures I can find on google, I want to make new pictures.

I found apple's tool frustrating. I have a buzzed haircut, but no matter what I did, apple was unable to give me that hairstyle. It wants so bad for my avatar to have some longer hair to flourish, and refuses to do anything else.