Zak

28 ms·

511.
by Zak 1y ago
Algorithmic choices are likely a major contributor to the phenomenon. If posting vacation photos on Facebook gets interactions from friends and family, more people will do it. If it doesn't, fewer people will.
512.
by Zak 1y ago
I'm not sure the experiment can be done other than to try interventions on real users of a public social media service as Facebook did in the article I linked. Of course people running those services usually don't have the incenti
513.
by Zak 1y ago
The study is based on having LLMs decide to amplify one of the top ten posts on their timeline or share a news headline. LLMs aren’t people, and the authors have not convinced me that they will behave like people in this context. The behavi
514.
by Zak 1y ago
Given their target audience, they could probably just request a hardware donation. Some sysadmin out there is probably getting rid of exactly what they need.
515.
by Zak 1y ago
You are proposing replacing a ~20Wh battery with a 2.8Wh battery. The maximum current draw from button cells is also likely inadequate for the application.
516.
by Zak 1y ago
The battery would be less likely to enter thermal runaway and explode with LiFePO4, but this level of short circuit risk is still a significant fire hazard. 3.6V / 0.04 Ohms[0] = 90A. [0] https://lygte-info.dk/review&#x
517.
by Zak 1y ago
The nomenclature, as commonly used isn't precise enough. 18650 means 18x65mm, but "protected 18650" usually means that cell with electronics stuck on the end, which ends up at 68-70mm long. Nobody calls the result "186
518.
by Zak 1y ago
People can buy the second option from someone else, like RePebble. Of course if they want to use it with an Apple phone, it will have artificial limitations[0]. That , rather than adding a product line that doesn't align with most of
519.
by Zak 1y ago
I will try very hard not to buy any product that requires a companion app for major functionality unless it's based on an open protocol (e.g. Matter), the app is open source (e.g. Pebble), or it's well-supported by a third-party o
520.
by Zak 1y ago
Maybe, but there's no good excuse for this making it past the prototyping phase. If nobody plugged it into a USB-C power supply and noticed it doesn't work, that's negligent. By 2019 or so, when USB-C was five years old, some
521.
by Zak 1y ago
A problem is that once a thing like that exists, it ends up on security audit checklists and then people do it without knowing whether they have any reason to.
522.
by Zak 1y ago
People have similar misconceptions about Google search. The reality is that both had significant advantages over their competition when launched, but the company also used anticompetitive tactics to ensure dominance once those gaps closed.
523.
by Zak 1y ago
That seems like a bit of a stretch. Whatsapp is probably the hardest to avoid for most people in parts of the world where it's dominant. The number of people who need to use Facebook or Twitter is likely much smaller, and very few of
524.
by Zak 1y ago
If you're in the unenviable position of being unable to edit your phone's hosts file, you can block most ads using a DNS-over-HTTPS provider. Mullvad has a free service. https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-ov
525.
by Zak 1y ago
I learned recently that most of them have a way to turn off the sound. It's usually hidden and requires the manual or a web search to figure out.
526.
by Zak 1y ago
The worst one of these I encountered was in a USB-PD power supply meant to replace a 12V outlet in a car. It was extremely distracting driving at night. The illuminated area covered most of the face of the device, so I covered it with RTV s
527.
by Zak 1y ago
I disagree about AI agents, at least those that work by automating a web browser that a human could also use. I suppose Google's proposal to add remote attestation to Chrome might make it a little harder, but that seems to be dead for
528.
by Zak 1y ago
There's a lot of bad code around, and I think the protections of a (good) static type system are likely of particular use in that scenario. I'd be interested in reading a test of that prediction if anyone has done it (but not inte
529.
by Zak 1y ago
The author makes a fair point that the language is no longer the fractal of bad design it was in 2009, but doesn't make the case for starting a green field project with it in 2025. What does it do better than other languages? The artic
530.
by Zak 1y ago
If you have an app for a small restricted audience, it shouldn't need to meet Play Store requirements, just basic Android ones.
531.
by Zak 1y ago
> a statement like “we should stop young kids watching porn” is so agreeable that only the nuttiest amongst us could even begin to disagree with it I mostly disagree with it. I don't want prepubescent children watching porn of cou
532.
by Zak 1y ago
I'm for more personal liability, but corporate higher-ups are pretty good at communicating their illegal desires to subordinates without saying the illegal part out loud. I think the corporate death penalty is underused. Being in leade
533.
by Zak 1y ago
If there are more mosquitoes than egg-laying spots, then yes. If there are more egg-laying spots than mosquitoes, then no.
534.
by Zak 1y ago
No. Sony and Olympus both made interchangeable-lens cameras with no screen or viewfinder meant to pair with phones. Realme made a prototype phone that can take an attachment to mount Leica M-mount lenses: https://petapixel.com&#x
535.
by Zak 1y ago
It appears the long lens on that phone is 120mm-equivalent ("5x") and any intermediate zoom is just cropping. A 2x "zoom" (crop) would get pretty close to the field of view of the author's dedicated camera lens, but
536.
by Zak 1y ago
I want this. I don't like making phone calls. I especially don't like calling multiple businesses to check prices or availability, or navigating a phone tree, or waiting on hold. Ideally, businesses would let me do what needs doin
537.
by Zak 1y ago
I like this solution, integrated with whatever existing parental controls are in the OS. That would empower parents to keep their kids from accidentally or casually accessing porn. Of course, an intelligent and determined teenager will prob
538.
by Zak 1y ago
My point isn't that it will cost them sales in an amount they care about. My point is that someone at Samsung made an active choice to remove unlocking, presumably thinking that choice would bring some benefit to Samsung's busines
539.
by Zak 1y ago
Few, and far fewer than in the early days of Android. It's odd that a company Samsung's size would care about this.
540.
by Zak 1y ago
Google's own Pixel devices have easy unlocking, so this would surprise me. Google's strategy to keep devices users actually control from being too mainstream is remote attestation.

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