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Khalos

46 karma · joined March 31, 2016

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Khalos··on GitHub Copilot code review will start consuming GitHub Actions minutes
I'm not familiar with that analysis, its accuracy, or its evidence. I would be surprised by this given it seems like providers are still in the growth phase.

Typically the burden of proof is on the one making the claim.

Khalos··on Palworld's success is partially born from Pokémon fans' discontent
Nintendo is the publisher and co-owner of the franchise. They have outsourced development (e.g. Bandai Namco) or licensed to other developers (e.g. Niantic) in the past, and seemingly could have done so more often.
Khalos··on Palworld's success is partially born from Pokémon fans' discontent
Is that not sort of exactly the point?

People love the concept of pokemon and monster collection, and it hasn't really evolved beyond the same RPG formula in 20 years.

Nintendo has utterly failed to deliver different experiences in the franchise. There's clearly an appetite for it.

I don't think different genres mean a completely different target audience. Most gamers play multiple genres, and there's a massive overlap of fans of Pokemon and fans of Palworld in particular.

Khalos··on Law firm that handles data breaches was hit by data breach
Perhaps they were so successful at getting their clients minimal punishments that they didn't see a need to meaningfully invest in proper IT security compared to the inevitable slap on the wrist.
Khalos··on Why does it feel like Amazon is making itself worse?
I just tried the experiment myself and I get very similar results to what the article describes.

It's mostly sponsored (4 of the top 10 are sponsored). There is only 1 on the entire first page where I recognize the brand. It's the 2nd last on the page (Cuisinart). I see no KitchenAid or OXO.

Khalos··on Valve Employee Handbook (2012) [pdf]
Thank you I missed that part, I thought the "Latest News" section was the end of the article.
Khalos··on Valve Employee Handbook (2012) [pdf]
That link shows Gabe Newell's estimated net worth, but does he have have 100% ownership of Valve? The Valve Wikipedia page shows his ownership as ">50%" [0], but isn't more specific.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valve_Corporation

Khalos··on An ‘everything app’ would be bad for liberal democracies and free markets
I can't speak to all of them, but the Pixel line absolutely does, and so do some other vendors.

At one point Samsung came with both Samsung Browser (chromium based) and Chrome preinstalled, but I'm not sure if that's changed in recent years.

Khalos··on An ‘everything app’ would be bad for liberal democracies and free markets
If anything the mobile browser situation is much worse.

On one major platform, there is Chrome by default (so even bigger market share issues). People can install other browsers, but far fewer do than even on desktop. For those that do, most use the Play Store which has some conflict of interest concerns.

On the other platform it's even worse. The only option is Safari and the conflict of interest is fully realized because other browsers aren't even allowed on the App Store

Khalos··on Musk's trial hasn't stopped, no matter what he told Twitter, says judge
I believe his factories are still currently running, so it doesn't appear he changed his mind on the matter.
Khalos··on Magic Leap 2 will go on sale in the US on September 30th
Fooled me once, and now it's going to take a lot to make me look at anything from this company again.

I hope they can actually build what they promised someday.

Khalos··on Apology
I agree, this doesn't feel like much of an apology.

In addition to the reasons you mentioned, it also only acknowledges a single event, when the original post describes multiple incidents spanning multiple years.

Furthermore, there's no statement that suggests he intends to change his behavior in the future.

Khalos··on ClearURLs – automatically remove tracking elements from URLs
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_ETag#Tracking_using_ETags

> ETags can be used to track unique users, as HTTP cookies are increasingly being deleted by privacy-aware users. In July 2011, Ashkan Soltani and a team of researchers at UC Berkeley reported that a number of websites, including Hulu, were using ETags for tracking purposes. Hulu and KISSmetrics have both ceased "respawning" as of 29 July 2011, as KISSmetrics and over 20 of its clients are facing a class-action lawsuit over the use of "undeletable" tracking cookies partially involving the use of ETags.

It appears that there have been at least a few cases of this in the wild.

The main distinction (at least to me) between ETag and the other tracking methods you mention is that ETag doesn't appear to be easily clearable by a user (although that sounds like something browsers should fix if they haven't already).

It's unfortunate that features like this end up getting co-opted by trackers, which leads to breaking legitimate use cases like your app in the process.

Khalos··on ClearURLs – automatically remove tracking elements from URLs
Have you considered using something other than ETag for your use case? It seems like ETag been compromised by trackers, and unfortunately this is why we can't have nice things.
Khalos··on ClearURLs – automatically remove tracking elements from URLs
It looks like the add-on has an option to "Allow referral marketing" which is off by default. If you install this add-on and feel like enabling this, it looks like you can.

That said, it still results in some level of tracking and given the add-on's purpose, having to opt in to affiliate links seems like the right choice.

Khalos··on Mozilla WebThings
Looking at the source, it looks like they're just using WordPress.
Khalos··on Security alerts on GitHub
Perhaps GitHub is taking a cut from the purchase when purchased through their marketplace (20% is reasonably close to other marketplaces). Some services may be building that into the price.
Khalos··on CSS Reminification: A crazy idea that worked
This would be great, but would probably significantly hurt performance.

Especially if media queries come into play and we'd have to try different resolutions and ensure they're all the same.

Khalos··on Amazon Go
Even that fluctuates frequently. When I worked at a grocery store, when you ordered something it would show you what the item would "cost" the store.

This could change from day to day (e.g. fruits, veggies), vary based on quantity ordered, etc.

Then you get into private label (store brand) products, where the "cost" was usually either $0 or some ridiculously low number.

This was a national chain. At the store level at least, we wouldn't have been able to find the value of an item "at cost" with any confidence.

Khalos··on The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't be audited
Ah, fair enough. That is a good question.
Khalos··on The Intel ME subsystem can take over your machine, can't be audited
From the article:

"On some chipsets, the firmware running on the ME implements a system called Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT). This is entirely transparent to the operating system, which means that this extra computer can do its job regardless of which operating system is installed and running on the main CPU."

So it sounds like yes, this would effect any OS.

Khalos··on Visual Studio Code 1.1 released
Totally agree. This has been one of the biggest reasons I've been having trouble transitioning to VS Code.

I know it's silly, but the design pattern is near ubiquitous in other editors (and other applications) it's really hard to go back to not having them.

I think it was a strange choice to not include tabs up to this point, but I'm glad they're finally coming around. Kudos to the VS Code team for listening to feedback.