First off, I know, Reddit-tier meme title.

But I must CONFOOS

1TB is enough for me and I've only needed to use 2TB storage twice in my life.

I just upgraded all my devices around the house to USB-C, this means everything from vapes to flash drives too.

I literally cannot see past 60FPS, and 30 to 60 has never been a huge deal to me. All that fuss over slightly smoother animation? Really?

Microsoft wants to move Windows fully to the cloud

Microsoft has been increasingly moving Windows to the cloud on the commercial side with Windows 365, but the software giant also wants to do the same for consumers. In an internal “state of the business” Microsoft presentation from June 2022, Microsoft discuses building on “Windows 365 to enable a full Windows operating system streamed from the cloud to any device.”

The presentation has been revealed as part of the ongoing FTC v. Microsoft hearing, as it includes Microsoft’s overall gaming strategy and how that relates to other parts of the company’s businesses. Moving “Windows 11 increasingly to the cloud” is identified as a long-term opportunity in Microsoft’s “Modern Life” consumer space, including using “the power of the cloud and client to enable improved AI-powered services and full roaming of people’s digital experience.”

We're all going to die.

Ahead of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's four days in exile, several staff researchers sent the board of directors a letter warning of a powerful artificial intelligence discovery that they said could threaten humanity, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

[...]

The maker of ChatGPT had made progress on Q* (pronounced Q-Star), which some internally believe could be a breakthrough in the startup's search for superintelligence, also known as artificial general intelligence (AGI), one of the people told Reuters. OpenAI defines AGI as AI systems that are smarter than humans.

Edit: The linked /pol/ thread is kinda insane

Edit 2:

They're now trying to cover it up

a person familiar with the matter told The Verge that the board never received a letter about such a breakthrough and that the company's research progress didn't play a role in Altman's sudden firing

Second #lk99 replication from China pic.twitter.com/jcI3C35hxF

— LERE (@lere0_0) August 1, 2023

Re-uploaded for my rate-limited bros

Notice how the rock does the same thing irrespective of which way the magnet is oriented? Notice the absolute lack of refrigeration equipment? This is the real deal. I feel like we can finally relax. Everything's going to be just fine.

Do we really live in a free country? pic.twitter.com/OeaD1FBGap

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) June 29, 2023

Remember this guy?

This is the guy who was photoed with Trump and mostly responsible for Brexit, much to the dismay of some europhiles:

Anyway, Nigel reeing here:

https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1674507257248116746

Some key quotes include

'This is serious political persecution at the very highest level of our system. If they can do it to me, they can do it to you too.'

Speaking of the importance of having a bank account, he added: 'You effectively become a non-person, you don't actually exist.

'It's like the worse regimes of the mid-20th century, be they in Russia or Germany, you literally become a non-person.

'I won't be able to have a debit card linked directly to my account. I won't really be able to exist or function in a modern 21st century Britain.'

Story here

He suspects he was cancelled as revenge for spearheading Brexit and has tried to open up 7 other bank accounts in the UK, but they all refuse. Being cancelled online is one thing. Not being able to open a bank account to exchange money is quite the next level. He's saying how stressful it's been and that he might have to move from the UK. He even claims his closest family members have had their bank accounts closed too.

Maybe commie China has come sooner than I anticipated.

There is a tiny ray of hope. No. 10 (the government) are looking into the matter and have given a warning to the banks over being too trigger happy when shutting accounts down.

BeepingComputer

PoorphonePolice

IGN

Asked for comment, a Google spokesperson told IGN that it was a "small experiment."

"We're running a small experiment globally that urges viewers with ad blockers enabled to allow ads on YouTube or try YouTube Premium," they said via email. "Ad blocker detection is not new, and other publishers regularly ask viewers to disable ad blockers."

reddit discus

https://old.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/13e2cay/youtube_has_started_blocking_ad_blockers/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/13e30b6/youtube_tests_blocking_videos_unless_you_disable/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/13cfdbi/apparently_ad_blockers_are_not_allowed_on_youtube/?sort=controversial <- This is where it was originally first posted (1k Updoots and 1k cumments)

poster note: I tried adding all the 'its over' to capture the diversity that this decision will affect and was met with this

i do not feel bad at all

YouTube is removing the ability for creators to choose where ads show up or whether viewers can skip them pic.twitter.com/HXJgZw2ANO

— Dexerto (@Dexerto) September 6, 2023

Introducing Sora, our text-to-video model.

Sora can create videos of up to 60 seconds featuring highly detailed scenes, complex camera motion, and multiple characters with vibrant emotions. https://t.co/7j2JN27M3W

Prompt: “Beautiful, snowy… pic.twitter.com/ruTEWn87vf

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) February 15, 2024

Lots of seethe on Twitter. Discuss the societal implications, and what degenerate thing you're going to make when stable diffusion released their copy in a year!

Also, what will it take for Yann LeCum to admit he is wrong? We'll have AIs that simulate the future and he will still be arguing they aren't intelligent and his model (which is essentially the same thing) is better

There's clearly an attitude of "we know what you want better than you" at google right now that can be seen by the ridiculous shit coming out of Gemini. This is why their search has been getting so bad. They make a lot of assumptions of what you want, where it used to just give you what you were asking for

Prepare for the enshittification and bedbathandbeyonding of Magic the gathering.

If I had to make a guess as to why, given the fact that the people they laid off were all senior leaders and the numbers are good, it would be preparing for a pump and dump.

if you want to be able to pump and dump a really strong brand then you need to be able to have leaders who don't mind burning the brands equity in order to make money. My guess is that specifically what intending to do here.

Change the leadership, make new “sticky” products, pump revenue numbers, then spin out a public offering of the magic brand that looks like a great new reboot and refresh.

However the brand is only there to smuggle in the subscription model around new products that have strong margin. Everyone* gets rich cause they slaughtered their fattest pig and yet another cultural staple is killed.

>However the brand is only there to smuggle in the subscription model around new products that have strong margin

you know like selling pieces of paper for over a $100 a box for the last few decades?

I've seen people say that it would be nice to regulate loot boxes in video games, but they can't figure out how to do it without banning Magic's business model. I never understood why that would be a problem.

The genius thing about Magic is that it doesn't place individual value on a card... Video games don't have such safeguards. It's all on the studios servers and they can adjust value on the fly... I feel that's an intrinsic difference that places a video game closer to a casino ("the house always wins") than a TCG (throw out what you think is worth and let the community sort it out).

>online loot boxes

>physical loot boxes

RCS (Rich Communication Services) will bring a number of iMessage-style features to texts between Android and iPhone users. This includes things such as read receipts, typing indicators, and higher-quality images and videos.

The one thing that won't be changing, however, is the color of the messaging bubbles.

SEETHE

https://old.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/17x3bo1/apple_confirms_rcs_messages_will_have_green?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/17wzc06/google_will_work_with_apple_on_implementing_rcs?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/17x3d2d/what_color_bubbles_will_rcs_messages_be_apple?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/17wtc6l/apple_announces_that_rcs_support_is_coming_to?sort=controversial

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38293082

Short primer.

RCS is something that Apple initial help fund the development of. As is usual, when a bunch of companies get to gather to create a protocol it gets bogged down my too many cooks in the kitchen. This was the case with USB 3 or USB C or whatever and why Apple developed lightning cables. It is shittier than iMessage and currently encryption only works by sending everything through Google servers lmao. It basically does everything iMessage does that normies need but came out much later and is bulkier and the roll out sucks because it is based on carrier and Google support and there's a laundry list that I don't care to type up and if you're still reading this what the frick is wrong with you.

Q & A

Why is bubble color important?

It helps us in the dating world know who is capable of making smart purchases as well as an idea on how much they will be able to contribute in the relationship. I don't mind paying for dinner but if she expects for me to provide her gum after she blows me sorry girl

Blind thread: https://www.teamblind.com/post/Reddit-Layoffs-TiryTRSE

God I hate Reddit, but if we have any jannies on that powerjanny call tomorrow, maybe bring this up!

No severance lmao

They had layoffs in January. Wish I had known so I could gloat about that one too.

Left Twitter bcuz of mean ol' Musk just to get the wingcuck layoff with no severance.

Booohooo muh third-party app devs have to pay now booohooo

My feelings exactly.

Apparently this lawsuit was the breaking point.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64618791

Foid decided 10 years later to sue the site that allowed her and her abuser to meet. Not sure how omegle is responsible for the actions of the abuser. However, it doesn't matter because it seems omegle doesn't have the means to fight the battle and decided to close shop. RIP.

Here's an excerpt from the founder's final thoughts. This hit me pretty hard and kinda sums up the noticeable decline of the internet.

I worry that, unless the tide turns soon, the Internet I fell in love with may cease to exist, and in its place, we will have something closer to a souped-up version of TV – focused largely on passive consumption, with much less opportunity for active participation and genuine human connection.

omegle.com

When I connected with the executive, they asked if I knew why my account had been locked. When I answered I was unsure, their tone turned somewhat accusatory. I was told that the driver who had delivered my package reported receiving racist remarks from my “Ring doorbell” (it’s actually a Eufy, but I’ll let it slide).

I reviewed the footage and confirmed that no such comments had been made. Instead, the Eufy doorbell had issued an automated response: “Excuse me, can I help you?” The driver, who was walking away and wearing headphones, must have misinterpreted the message. Nevertheless, by the following day, my Amazon account was locked, and all my Echo devices were logged out.

!incels

Little more detail

https://www.brainstimjrnl.com/article/S1935-861X%2823%2901760-6/fulltext

So fresh orange site is just addressing it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38309611