staplers (u/staplers)

staplers commented on PeerTube is recognized as a digital public good by Digital Public Goods Alliance digitalpublicgoods.net/r/... · Posted by u/fsflover

Dusseldorf · 7 days ago

I'm on the same boat as you. Trying to find word about where the good local popup restaurants are, and apparently the only way to do it is to follow a bunch of random Instagram accounts. I finally tried to relent and make an account just to be able to read that stuff, but they wanted me to take a video of myself holding my government ID in order to prove my... identity, I guess? Not sure why that's necessary for an account I never even plan to post with, but it was enough of a barrier for me that I said nevermind. Now I just mention it whenever I'm chatting with organizers/proprietors, but I'm never exactly sure what to suggest as an alternative.

staplers · 7 days ago

  but I'm never exactly sure what to suggest as an alternative.

Email newsletters are pretty easy and universal.

staplers commented on Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros cnbc.com/2025/12/08/param... · Posted by u/gniting

observationist · 9 days ago

They tilt like everyone else - maybe the chaos and mayhem behind the last few years of this industry mean the old guard is finally failing, and we'll see meaningful copyright reform and sanity in our lifetime.

staplers · 9 days ago

  we'll see meaningful copyright reform and sanity in our lifetime.

That seems wildly naive... gestures broadly at world

staplers commented on UniFi 5G blog.ui.com/article/intro... · Posted by u/janandonly

xp84 · 12 days ago

This seems like a stretch. If your position is that the REAL experts are using Cisco gear instead, I guess fine. But the "HN Crowd" loves using Ubiquiti at home because it is light years better than any consumer brand, (1) in terms of giving people who know what they're doing sufficient control to do so, (2) in terms of performance, and (3) in terms of not being a buggy piece of crap.

Contrast with:

(1) eero has no web UI (ONLY mobile phone!) and almost zero network configurability. You can't set a hostname for instance for DHCP. You can have exactly one main and one guest network. You don't get to configure anything about it though. Etc.

(3) I bought a Linksys replacement for my Eeros to get 6E -- I returned it to the store due to how horrifyingly bad the Web UI was and how bad the "app" was too. AND it also had flaws like inability to have reservation IPs outside the DHCP pool range.

Apple is actually the opposite of Ubiquiti -- they don't want you to be able to configure anything or have any visibility into anything. It either 'just works' or just silently fails or fails with "An error occurred."

staplers · 12 days ago

  Ubiquiti at home because it is light years better than any consumer brand

As someone who simply wanted to isolate different devices on my home network, I was looking at nearly thousands of dollars of hardware, installing abstract OpenWRT software, and arduous VLAN rules to do this. It was shocking how immature this space is. I finally caved to the ubiquiti setup and am glad I did.

staplers commented on Most technical problems are people problems blog.joeschrag.com/2023/1... · Posted by u/mooreds

jeffheard · 12 days ago

And most people problems are communication problems. Engineers aren't engaged with the product vision or the customer base, and are allowed to silo themselves. Product doesn't see the point of engineers being engaged and feed the engineering team like an in-house outsourcing shop. Sales and CS fail to understand the cost of their promises to individual customers to the timelines of features they're hungry for from the product plan. Goals and metrics for success fail to align. And thus everyone rows in their own direction.

The solution usually isn't "better people." It's engaging people on the same goals and making sure each of them knows how their part fits with the others. It's also recognizing when hard stuff is worth doing. Yeah you've got a module with 15 years of tech debt that you didn't create, and no-one on the team is confident in touching anymore. Unlike acne, it won't get better if you don't pick at it. Build out what that tech debt is costing the company and the risk it creates. Balance that against other goals, and find a plan that pays it down at the right time and the right speed.

staplers · 12 days ago

  Build out what that tech debt is costing the company and the risk it creates. Balance that against other goals, and find a plan that pays it down at the right time and the right speed.

Ironically many of the first to be laid-off in a company are those that do this. That's why many companies flail during economic downturns and the problem exacerbates until better economic conditions prevail.

staplers commented on Advertising as a major source of human dissatisfaction (2019) [pdf] andrewoswald.com/docs/Adv... · Posted by u/anigbrowl

popalchemist · 12 days ago

The conclusion that every government came to after Bernays' "Crystallizing Public Opinion" is that the society who can be arbitrarily manipulated by propaganda is better because it's something like adding a rudder to a rudderless ship.

staplers · 12 days ago

If democracy is predicated on independent thought and decision (free speech, free vote), then the "rudder" in this analogy becomes authoritarianism with an additional step.

staplers commented on Instagram chief orders staff back to the office five days a week in 2026 businessinsider.com/insta... · Posted by u/mfiguiere

roadside_picnic · 16 days ago

> What's the benefit of working remote from your team but next to random, noisy people?

The illusion of control? I mean we can pretend we don't know what this is about (well it's probably also about encouraging a reduction in force), but we do know right?

By far the people who bemoaned working from home the most were people whose job doesn't typically involve any actual "work". Not saying that there weren't exceptions, but the vast majority of working engineers I knew rejoiced in finally getting heads down time, while everyone whose job is primarily "performance for leadership" hated how difficult it was to perform visible theatrics on a camera.

Especially in large orgs "leadership" and "team success" are largely about optics. Being seen working in the office late is so much more important than getting any actual work done. It's only in small companies where actually shipping something has any value at all.

What I don't understand is why we still pretend like this is a mystery. Recognizing this I've completely avoided working for large orgs, and continue to enjoy remote work we're I can be valued for the results of what I build (well there's always a little theater) over office productivity performativity.

staplers · 15 days ago

  What I don't understand is why we still pretend like this is a mystery.

The theatrical ego has a chokehold on the world currently. No surprise it's seeping into corporate structures as well.

Large grandiose parades and such.

staplers commented on India orders smartphone makers to preload state-owned cyber safety app reuters.com/sustainabilit... · Posted by u/jmsflknr

rishabhaiover · 16 days ago

I'm shocked by people and state using the crutch of cyber crime or scams to push a totalitarian solution to a problem that is better solved by improved education and targeted campaigns against common security pitfalls.

I abhor any decision that robs even a grain of my individual freedom.

staplers · 16 days ago

You're assuming the problem the govt is referencing is their actual goal.

staplers commented on Brazil charges 31 people in major carbon credit fraud investigation news.mongabay.com/short-a... · Posted by u/PaulHoule

staplers · a month ago

Will they line these people up in the street and kill them like they did to 100+ people for a low-level drug dealer "sweep"?

Something tells me not. The global push toward hyper-violent policing feels one sided class wise.

staplers commented on Apple is crossing a Steve Jobs red line kensegall.com/2025/11/07/... · Posted by u/zdw

czl · a month ago

> Our entire societal system is based on increasing revenue (due to inflation).

Yes that is capitalism however if inflation cuts value of money in half and in the same time your revenue doubles, did you actually double your revenue? Do you even need to change your service or product to justify raising prices when the currency is being devalued? For both these questions there is a strong case that the answer is no.

staplers · a month ago

Thus begs the question why monetary inflation exists. Govts and banks are given god-like power over who gets access to the new money. From there it simply devalues all else.

staplers commented on Nano Banana Pro blog.google/technology/ai... · Posted by u/meetpateltech

theoldgreybeard · a month ago

The interesting tidbit here is SynthID. While a good first step, it doesn't solve the problem of AI generated content NOT having any kind of watermark. So we can prove that something WITH the ID is AI generated but we can't prove that something without one ISN'T AI generated.

Like it would be nice if all photo and video generated by the big players would have some kind of standardized identifier on them - but now you're left with the bajillion other "grey market" models that won't give a damn about that.

staplers · a month ago

  have some kind of standardized identifier on them

Take this a step further and it'll be a personal identifying watermark (only the company can decode). Home printers already do this to some degree.