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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • Over a million people joined Bluesky after the election and seem to be using it. Also a lot of news & media companies have moved over too. So I would assume that at least that many users have disappeared from X or their activity has diminished. On top of that all the bots have gone home now the election is over so the amount of activity must have suffered. And Bluesky is basically old Twitter so people are settling into it and liking it.

    I would advise anyone who still using X to give it a try. And if they want to use X for whatever reason - uninstall the app, install Control Panel for Twitter into their mobile browser and browse that for a relatively bullshit free experience - no ads, no algorithmic lists, just what you subscribe to.





  • There are other considerations here though. Google suffers reputational harm if users become victims through their platform. It becomes news, it creates distrust in users, it generates friction with regulators and law enforcement. Users may be trained to be ad averse or install ad blockers. In addition, these ads generate reports which costs time to process even if the complaints are rejected.

    At the end of the day these scammers are not high profile advertisers and they’re not valuable. They’re burner accounts that pay cents to deliver their ads. They’re ephemeral, get zapped, reappear and constantly waste time and resources. Given that YouTube can easily transcribe content and watermark it, it makes no sense to me that they wouldn’t put some triggers in, e.g. a new advertiser places an ad that says “Elon Musk”, or “Quantum AI” or other such markers, flag it for review.


  • I’ve disabled personalised ads on YouTube and I see this sort of shit all the time. I’ve given up reporting them because 90% of the time the report is rejected. I don’t even understand the rationale for rejecting it because it’s an obvious a scam as a scam can be - ai impersonation, fake endorsement, illegal advertising category. It’s a scam YouTube.

    I don’t even get why these ads even appear. YouTube has transcription & voice / music recognition capabilities. How hard would it be to flag a suspicious ad and require a human to review it? Or search for duplicates under other burner accounts and zap them at the same time? Or having some kind of randomized audit based on trust where new accounts get reviewed more frequently by experienced reviewers.







  • arc@lemm.eetoTechnology@lemmy.worldRabbit R1 is Just an Android App
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    8 months ago

    I saw the Marquess Brownlee review of this thing last night and I wonder why companies make this crap and who is fool enough to fund it. It’s obviously doomed to fail, as are most “smart” gadgets & devices. The best that can be said for it, is at least there is no subscription to use it and it’s not outrageously expensive but that’s damning it with faint praise.


  • Because they are. Groups like PETA, or Just Stop Oil are clowns who hurt their own cause. Performative protesting might win people a participation prize but to everyone else it’s just “look at meeeeee!”. At a certain point it actually becomes toxic to the cause. I know if I wanted to harm environmental campaigning then I’d invent Just Stop Oil.

    Meanwhile big business are sending lobbiests in to change politician’s minds, to make arguments that appeal to their rationality, or self-interest. THAT is what environmental campaigners should be doing - lobbying, extoling the benefits of environmental action, changing minds. Getting arrested in front of cameras over and over just becomes pathetic and performative.



  • I think climate activists would just be better off doing what everyone else does - lobbying. Identify politicians who represent areas who would benefit from pollution controls, or green investment or whatever and push the message. Performative acts in front of cameras might feel good but it’s a blunt tool to change policy. Some protestors such as “just stop oil” campaigners are so stupid that they actually help the causes they supposedly oppose.


  • I think they need to be super explicit to stop the likes of Tesla weaseling out or doing the bare minimum:

    • Wipers, speed settings, auto on/off should be on a stalk for front and rear wipers
    • Indicators should be on a stalk with
    • Hazard lights must be a physical button
    • Horn may be on the wheel or a button
    • Lights on/off/full beam/dip/auto must be a dial or a stalk
    • Demister / heated window must be physical buttons
    • Gears must be a physical rocker, lever or dial

    And button / dial etc here means an actual push up/down button not some haptic / touch sensitive shit.

    Because at the moment Tesla are basically cheaping out of providing physical controls to save money. It doesn’t matter if someone crashes their car fiddling to set the wiper speed because Tesla saved $20 on a stalk and that’s all that matters.


  • arc@lemm.eetoMemes@lemmy.mlEven paper glows
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    9 months ago

    The EFF has some info about the practice - https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots.

    I imagine there are ways and means of obfuscating / anonymizing the dots such as blocking the printer from emitting them (e.g. an empty yellow cartridge that the printer perceives as full), modifying the firmware, using a burner printer, or using a mono laser jet.

    As a side issue, most modern bank notes have a bunch of yellow circles integrated into the design on each side. They look random but they’re in a recognisable pattern called a constellation that enables devices like copiers / scanners to recognize when people are trying to copy money or other financial instruments like checks.