News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

alewi481

Re:Beyond Meat Fights for Survival on Sunday July 20, 2025 @06:02PM (#44629748)
I’m a vegan. I don’t longer eat meat because I find industrial farming repugnant and environmentally problematic, not because I suddenly dislike the flavor. I grew up with meat on my plate and liked it. Now I use plant-based products to recreate the tastes and textures I remember while leaving behind the cruelty and waste. I also doubt many meat eaters are pausing to “celebrate the animal”. They’re just grabbing shrink-wrapped, shelf-stable convenience foods without much thought to how they got there.
Re:Google lays off its Python team on Sunday April 28, 2024 @11:31AM (#40189334)
Even better, why don’t we just get rid of the unwieldy acronyms altogether and simply refer to them as “major tech companies”? It’s clearer and avoids the constant reshuffling every time the market shifts.
Re:Giving up the iPad-only travel dream on Saturday August 26, 2023 @10:51AM (#37273424)
I have one that I use for my grad school studies almost exclusively as an e-reader for textbooks and a notepad.

I could similarly just invest in a cheap e-reader device and a physical notepad and it wouldn’t disrupt my studies but I shelled out a little more for a used iPad for the longer than typical device support and because I’m already in the Apple ecosystem.

The last Android phone I owned was the Samsung Galaxy S8. After barely two years of owning it, Samsung announced that they were no longer providing major Android version updates to the phone. That’s what pushed me into getting an iPhone for my next phone purchase after 10 years of being an Android user.
Re:Custom Instructions for ChatGPT on Thursday July 20, 2023 @06:26PM (#36807594)
So prompt engineers could be promptsmiths?
Depending on the extent to which surveillance and state control become embedded, it may require the advent of the Second American Republic to achieve their dissolution.
I could see how the legacy of the Stasi in East Germany could contribute to an anti-surveillance sentiment.
This reminds me of those trashy articles like the ones Microsoft peddles on their Windows 11 widgets tab. They basically take a few tweets with just a handful of likes and create an entire article around them. The buzz that they are drumming up feels artificial and contrived. And if the author was really lacking in integrity, they could just set up anonymous Twitter accounts and conjure up the posts themselves.
Re:T-Mobile Breached, Again on Tuesday May 02, 2023 @11:09AM (#35788695)
I just replaced the credit card on my up my account with a Privacy.com virtual debit card with a monthly spending limit for that card equal to my bill. It seems to still be giving me the AutoPay discount but I’ll wait and see when my May bill comes in a few days.
Custom ROMs? GrapheneOS or LineageOS come to mind.
I see this link on the Blizzard support site that provides downloads to classic D2 and LoD but I haven't tested them out to see if they ask for a CD key or not.

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/13867

The story is that they’re no longer allowing you to get the AutoPay discount with a credit card so you’ll have to set up AutoPay with a debit card or bank account by May to continue to receive the discount.
This follows on the unpopular news story that T-Mobile will be requiring you to give them your debit card or bank account information to continue to qualify for their Autopay discount.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/t-mobile-is-dropping-its-au...

Re:Canada bans TikTok on government devices over security risks on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @10:19AM (#34970237)
Good point. I believe Opera Ltd., the company that develops the Opera web browser, was bought out by a Chinese company a few years ago. I would figure that the amount of browser data that could potentially be exfiltrated would be a major concern as well.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is fairly popular at the company I work for and they've been an IBM acquisition since 2019.
Re:Apple Introduces Apple Music Sing on Tuesday December 06, 2022 @10:54AM (#33882049)
It seems that limiting new headline software features to the latest hardware release is the direction that Apple is going lately. The most recent examples that comes to mind are the always-on display in the new iPhone 14 and the hover mode in the new iPad Pro.
Re:Bethesda issues statement to Mick Gordon on Thursday November 17, 2022 @09:50AM (#33639600)
I hadn't been paying much attention but I believe this occurred after Marty made his statement on Reddit but before Mick released his own.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died on Thursday September 08, 2022 @10:11PM (#32774492)
Out of curiosity, how visible is the President of Germany in the media and everyday life? Are the doings of the President talked about and reported on? As an outsider from the United States, I'm aware that you have one, but they get almost no exposure here in the media. People here with a passing familiarity with international current events could probably tell you who the Chancellor of Germany is, but far fewer could name the President.
Re:Keep Your Identity Small (2009) on Monday June 07, 2021 @12:19PM (#27424329)
Reminds me of an SMBC comic on "Quantum Hypocrisy": https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/gedankendouche
Re:About the security content of iOS 12.4.9 on Thursday November 05, 2020 @03:07PM (#25001475)
I'd like to give kudos to Apple for including the iPhone 5S in this security update, which was released on September 20, 2013, over 7 years ago! Supporting a product for even 3 years is rare in the smartphone world.
On that note, Bing doesn’t serve AMP links on its mobile search results, which was a driver for me to switch over.
A positive aspect of Apple’s model is that it’s impossible for a malicious ad to trick an unsuspecting user into sideloading malware on their device.
I wonder if Google Play Books pulls down works with that phrase included within.
There's an app on the Google Play Store called "Stay Focused" that allows you to set time limits for individual apps and block the app for the remainder of the day once the time limit is reached.

While I could go through the effort of subverting it, I've found that it has been effective in limiting my usage of distracting apps like Facebook or Reddit. A lot of times, I will instinctively click the app icon when I get on my phone, and the "Access Denied" splash screen it displays after the time limit is up helps me stay aware of my aimless browsing habits and encourages me to do something more productive.

If you can maintain discipline and not disable the app after a time limit has been reached, it can help to deter compulsive news feed consumption and other distracting activities.

I've found that Lingvist is pretty good at spaced repetition. It focuses on hammering in the words I don't pick up quickly, but it still reviews all of the vocabulary it offers pretty regularly.
Re:How to fend off a jerk on Friday January 08, 2016 @01:27PM (#10867000)
This can be a good thing too. I worked at a gas station for a few years, and I had a share of regulars who seemed to have no regard for me as a person by the way they interacted with me. Some things that I would encounter from them included ignoring formalities, getting impatient over mild inconveniences, and generally acting haughty in conversation. I wasn't really in a position to act offended, so I would just follow my routine of acting friendly and saying hello and good-bye to them.

Almost every time, after enough repeated interactions like this, it's as though these regulars forgot that they didn't like me. They would see me and light up, or they would eventually thaw out and start putting more consideration into the way they interacted with me.

Whatever their inclinations for acting unpleasant may have been, I rarely, if ever, had anyone not come around and act more personable after enough friendly encounters with me.