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Arkanum

One of the hosts of https://atp.fm
Re:Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law on Wednesday April 23, 2025 @08:50AM (#43771533)
AIUI Apple has deliberately kneecapped PWAs on iOS to stop them competing with their App Store.
Re:Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law on Wednesday April 23, 2025 @08:47AM (#43771488)
I agree, except the DMA specifically only applies to companies over a specific size. I think if the German newspapers were at FB/Apple scale, in terms of number of users, then the DMA would apply (i.e. they would be designated gatekeepers or similar) and they could also be fined. Although I think pay for no ads is also a violation of GDPR maybe?
Re:Tim, don't kill my vibe on Tuesday March 25, 2025 @09:53AM (#43471345)
Surely there is a middle ground where its at least possible to install apps that apple haven't approved[1]? I also like the idea of the _higher_ bar that the app store is supposed to have (not that this bar is always met), but the lack of any alternative is really crappy.

[1]: https://atp.fm/628 & https://mastodon.social/@rileytestut/114043540322770608

Re:Brazilian Suicide Electric Shower Heads [video] on Monday September 30, 2024 @05:00AM (#41694995)
I don't think any current flow in the water is deliberate. The heating comes from the resistive heating of the coil. The issue (i think) is the coil being uninsulated, allowing some current to leak out through the water, hence the tingling sensation others have mentioned.
I think the novelty is that they don't have to optimise the splats at all, they're directly predicted in a single forward pass.
Probably not much harder, but you wouldn't get the same massive jump in quality that you get going from 1 image to 2. NeRF/Gaussian Splatting in general is what you're describing, but from the looks of it, this just does it in a single forward pass rather than optimising the gaussian/network weights.
Re:Apple vs. the "Free Market" on Thursday August 15, 2024 @10:10AM (#41256284)
I thought, (although the rules might have changed), that Apple explicitly forbids having different prices between your website and the app, and will kick you out of the store if it finds you doing this?
Oh 100% I agree. My question/point is about how the US system treats monopolistic practices, and I worry that actually that example works in Apple's favour as they would likely argue that consumers are free to switch to android if they want cheaper apps.
I don't think that's enough though is it? To my mind the strong counter argument is that consumers are choosing to pay higher prices for "higher quality" (i know that often not the case with the scams on the app store) apps and if they want cheaper apps they are free to switch to android.
Isn't part of the problem how US anti-monopoly law is worded requiring proof of "consumer harm" which is normally measured in increased costs? In the case of Apple's monopoly, its not clear how you would measure that let alone prove it to a court.
Re:Why There’s a Severe Shortage of Cancer Drugs on Wednesday June 28, 2023 @03:29AM (#36503465)
I think the word you might be looking for is "Monopsony"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopsony

As I'm not an expert on American Employment and Labour Union laws, does anyone with more experience know: is this not very likely to cause significant problems for Tesla with the NLRB?
Re:Apple signs union agreement for Glasgow Apple Store staff on Wednesday February 08, 2023 @12:15PM (#34711234)
I might argue that the issue is not "having ways for the employees in the stores to communicate their needs to corporate.". But rather having corporate act on those needs, and in the face of larger investors like Buffet and Vanguard, who would probably like more to see dividends and share price increases, unions are a good way to balance the scales a bit.
Re:Audiobooks on Spotify: Here's the full story on Thursday October 27, 2022 @12:21PM (#33359908)
I wonder if the decision in the US around Epic and external links[0] will benefit spotify in Europe or not (when it is eventually resolved).

[0]:https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/8/22814147/epic-apple-app-s...

Re:I've said it all before but here we go again on Wednesday September 28, 2022 @06:29AM (#33006423)
It feels like you're doing exactly what the article was complaining about: ad hominem attacks, rather than refuting the argument she's making.

I also think this comment is not in keeping with the HN guidelines.

Not wanting to sound too snarky, but TSMC is entirely dependent on the Dutch ASML for the machines used in their fabs.
My limited understanding is that rust provides significant advantages in terms of memory safety[1], that should reduce the chance of errors and bugs, whilst c++11 does not provide these same advantages.

[1] Comparison of memory safety of c vs Zig vs Rust (from elsewhere in the comments): https://www.scattered-thoughts.net/writing/how-safe-is-zig/

I think the author was not the one performing the reductio ad hitlerum, but was referencing a tweet[1] citing a doctoral thesis on AI ambiguity (which made the "fallacy") and (i'm guessing here as I haven't read it) concerns biases present in modern vision systems.

[1] - https://twitter.com/clancynewyork/status/1535686305438478339

*she

Although i can't find any clear statement of pronouns [1] https://webdevlaw.uk/about/ [2] https://twitter.com/WebDevLaw

Re:Formula for a Shortage on Friday May 20, 2022 @12:04PM (#31449289)
I think this is an unpleasantly complicated topic because: 1) The FDA does have glacially slow processes, that limit competition in markets, often keeping prices artificially high (see the US Insulin market), but 2) The FDA has a pretty good track record of stopping companies killing or seriously harming people [1], and baby formula companies don't have a great record...[0][2]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Nestl%C3%A9_boycott [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalidomide - Its initial entry into the US market was prevented by Frances Kelsey, a reviewer at the FDA.[7] The birth defects caused by thalidomide led to the development of greater drug regulation and monitoring in many countries [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal

Re:World's only An-225 destroyed by Russian airstrikes on Friday March 04, 2022 @05:50AM (#30553035)
This is true, but according to the Flexport CEO [1][2], the An-225 and An-124 were vital parts of the global air freight network/system. And only 5 of them were outside Ukraine when the invasion started.

[1] https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1498406751749611521 [2] https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1497656877731094528

Re:The NSA's Backdoor in Dual EC on Friday September 03, 2021 @10:39AM (#28404801)
Computerphile[1] did a video about the specifics of the backdoor in Dual EC DRBG.

As i understand it, the hackers replaced a magic number Q with a different value than the standards compliant one, where they had pre-computed P.

[1]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nybVFJVXbww

Re:NYC Emergency Executive Order 225 on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @03:26PM (#28225974)
> Looking forward to the vaccinated only water fountains next.

This feels a touch melodramatic. I understand the point you want to make, but maybe a 1984 reference would work better. Vaccination is (barring some relatively uncommon exceptions) a choice, and not something that you have no control over.

Re:NYC Emergency Executive Order 225 on Wednesday August 18, 2021 @03:21PM (#28225919)
This should probably be flagged as well.
Re:Why I'm Not a React Native Developer on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @11:25AM (#12598383)
Yeah, that makes sense mostly. But why is NaN === NaN false? What am I missing here?
Re:Why I'm Not a React Native Developer on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @09:09AM (#12597313)
I'm not sure that's right. 1/0 is undefined NOT infinity, hence -1/0 is also undefined. So actually line 3 should evaluate as true.

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