ironsoap

joined 1 year ago
[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 11 points 1 week ago (7 children)

While I agree, I have a hard time seeing how people will stop using it until the field changes. Maybe in 10 years it will the the MySpace of the sitcom era, but right now it's still growing. That growth is giving it carte blanche to manipulate the users as it sees fit. Regulation might impact it, but it's still a bit of a Goliath.

  • Compared to 2023, YouTube’s user base has grown by 20 million this year, representing a 0.74% increase. From Global media insights

Also the active user base is 2.7 billion people in 2024 from the same source above.

The alternatives are out there, but just not in the same league.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 26 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Yt-DLP and it's variation (Seal, YTDLnis, etc.), newpipe and it's variation (Tubular, Newpipe Sponsorblock, etc) already allow you to do this without having to get manual.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Economists at JP Morgan, the largest US bank by assets, published a research paper on de-dollarization in 2023.

In reference to the global economy as a whole, they concluded that, "while marginal de-dollarization is expected, rapid de-dollarization is not on the cards".

However, they argued that, "Instead, partial de-dollarization — in which the renminbi assumes some of the current functions of the dollar among non-aligned countries and China’s trading partners — is more plausible, especially against a backdrop of strategic competition".

The JP Morgan economists added, "This could over time give rise to regionalism, creating distinct economic and financial spheres of influence in which different currencies and markets assume central roles".

This seems inline with the Chinese leadership game of influence, as well as the clown show that the US has become. Even with the interest still there from the US standpoint two decades of GWT, the lack of prioritize spending on following our so called values, the very high debt to GDP ratio we are running, the lack of real legislative ability, plus other challenges, all make the fundamentals seem less fundamental. Although China very much has it's own issues such as an excess of manufacturing, a housing bubble, and a very steep demographic bubble. So their fundamentals are seemingly similar in question, but they have a marked ability to pivot quickly and do seem to be using their status as the 2nd largest economic to garner the same level of influence.

Whether either has staying power of economics and global influence for the next 50 years is a very interesting question.

I certainly don't count the US out yet, but even if the election settles things down, there is some real work to do which has little to do with the current hotly discussed policy topics. I'd be curious about your opinions?

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

True, but worth reading their about page and privacy page. Not saying it'll stay this way, but the way they are running is something that makes more sense then being sold as a product to Google. And you aren't getting much of an incognito these days with all the fingerprinting they are doing.

I will admit kagi search isn't the highest performer, but it's viable. DDG, Start page, etc. Might give you more privacy, or not (hard to tell with DDG these days), but it might be worth trying a different model for a while.

I miss the days when the internet was truly free, but in lieu of that we have to have something better. Kagi is a start.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 9 points 2 weeks ago

Want countries to re-dollarize, you have to incentivize the, which probably means making the US the dynamic yet stable economic it was. Punishing countries, how laughable.

I think that ship has sailed though, as globalization has caught up yet again.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That's an interesting example, I'll have to look it out and see if the context bears it out. I say that as although yes he might have only gotten 43%, the question is how many registered voters didn't vote and how many eligible but unregistered voters there were.

Vermont has a fairly high voter turnout, but looking at Vermont's Secretary of State 2016 had a voter turnout of 63% of Voting Age Population from census population. So that 185k of 505k thousands people who didn't vote.

Also if I have the right numbers from Vermont' SOS, that's 43% of the state total 63% who voted.

I've read other demographic breakdowns on those who don't vote which is worth looking into, but it's hard for me to see someone say that there isn't a mass when we have this huge population of American citizen who don't vote. Something between 35-45% of the US just doesn't. That's a huge swath of disenfranchised people.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 6 points 1 month ago

Good write up!

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What's the privacy criteria you are thinking about?

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 18 points 1 month ago

[# Systematic Destruction (Hacking the Scammers pt. 2)

Taking on the "Smishing Triad"](https://blog.smithsecurity.biz/systematic-destruction-hacking-the-scammers-pt.-2) g

His blog on the topic if you don't want the wired summary.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 31 points 1 month ago

A brief technical summary from iMAP reveals what happens when users attempt to access sites using Cloudflare and Google DNS.

• On Maxis, DNS queries to Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) servers are being automatically redirected to Maxis ISP DNS Servers;

**

• On Time, DNS queries to both Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) and Cloudflare Public DNS (1.1.1.1) are being automatically redirected to Time ISP DNS servers.

“Instead of the intended Google and Cloudflare servers, users are being served results from ISP DNS servers. In addition to MCMC blocked websites, other addresses returned from ISP DNS servers can also differ from those returned by Google and Cloudflare,” iMAP warns.

...

"Users that are affected, can configure their browser settings to enable DNS over HTTPS to secure their DNS lookups by using direct encrypted connection to private or public trusted DNS servers. This will also bypass transparent DNS proxy interference and provide warning of interference,” iMAP concludes.

Essentially Malaysia law required ISP to drop DNS entries for some sites, local users started using public DNS. ISP started redirecting public DNS requests, and local users started using DNS over HTTPS.

The pirate wars continue in their arms races.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Should have remembered they do an English version. Thanks!

It was noted that more than half of the KN-23 missiles lost their programmed flight trajectory during flight and likely exploded in the air, as the launches of these missiles were recorded, but their debris was not found.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Translated sources beyond Google?

 
  • Russia is launching "unusual" numbers of carrier killer missiles, among others, at urban areas in southern Ukraine.
  • The Kh-22 missile is inaccurate when used this way and exceptionally dangerous.
  • Its reported use in recent attacks on Odesa indicates Russia is continuing to engage in indiscriminate destruction.
 

I have to admire a company following through on the e-waste reduction by doing it's own updates of the Android OS for an EOL chip. I just wish the fairphone 3 was actually more usable.

No one in the Android ecosystem can hold a candle to Apple's software support timeline for the iPhone, but there is one company that comes the closest: Fairphone. Following in the footsteps of the Fairphone 2, the Fairphone 3 is also getting an Android-industry-best seven years of OS support. Fairphone continues to run circles around giant tech companies that have a lot more resources than it does, and it's doing this even in the face of component vendors like Qualcomm dropping support for the phone's core components.

The company announced today that the Fairphone 3, which was released in 2019, has had its support extended to 2026, making for seven years of updates. The company also just released Android 13 for the Fairphone 3. Google's own 2019 phone, the Pixel 4, shut down support in October 2022.

Fairphone strives to make sustainable smartphones, designing its products to be repairable and also offering replacement parts for sale online. Part of that sustainability mission is an absolutely herculean effort to keep the Android updates flowing, even when Qualcomm drops critical software support for the SoC. Fairphone says the Snapdragon 632 SoC in the Fairphone 3 was only supported up to Android 11, so continuing to support the Fairphone 3 meant doing the upgrades all by itself.

For the normal update process, Google releases a new build to the Android open source repository, then SoC vendors like Qualcomm take those builds to create a "Board Support Package (BSP)" for each SoC, which includes updated drivers, proprietary blobs, and all the other bits of code that make the hardware work. Android phone manufacturers usually start their work from these SoC-supported builds of Android, so they only need to add support for their additional hardware. With Qualcomm dropping support for the Fairphone 3 SoC, Fairphone had to do the BSP update work on its own. Fairphone is the only Android phone manufacturer that does this. Everyone else shuts down support along with the SoC vendor.

While seven years of updates is incredible, the one thing you could ding Fairphone for is that the updates don't arrive at a regular cadence. The company actually skipped Android 12 to deliver Android 13 due to all that "build the BSP yourself" work. Monthly security updates probably don't arrive that regularly either. Still, Fairphone doing this with a fraction of the budget of larger companies shows that the usual excuses Android manufacturers make aren't valid. Any company could offer longer support if it wanted to; they're all just content forcing people to upgrade and creating e-waste.

 

... On Saturday, the r/IAmA moderators announced that they will no longer perform these duties:

Active solicitation of celebrities or high-profile figures to do AMAs. Email and modmail coordination with celebrities and high-profile figures and their PR teams to facilitate, educate, and operate AMAs. (We will still be available to answer questions about posting, though response time may vary).

Running and maintaining a website for scheduling of AMAs with pre-verification and proof, as well as social media promotion.

Maintaining a current up-to-date sidebar calendar of scheduled AMAs, with schedule reminders for users.

Sister subreddits with categorized cross-posts for easy following.

Moderator confidential verification for AMAs.

Running various bots, including automatic flairing of live posts The subreddit, which has 22.5 million subscribers as of this writing, will still exist, but its moderators contend that most of what makes it special will be undermined.

"Moving forward, we'll be allowing most AMA topics, leaving proof and requests for verification up to the community, and limiting ourselves to removing rule-breaking material alone. This doesn't mean we're allowing fake AMAs explicitly, but it does mean you'll need to pay more attention," the moderators said.

The mods will also continue to do bare minimum tasks like keeping spam out and rule enforcement, they said. Like many other Reddit moderators Ars has spoken to, some will step away from their duties, and they'll reportedly be replaced "as needed." ...

 

The bad, although expected news is that according to Similarweb via Gizmodo Reddit traffic is back to pre-protest levels. The caveat is that some of the traffic might still indicate protests, (i.e. John Oliver pics). Most interesting:

However, Similarweb told Gizmodo traffic to the ads.reddit.com portal, where advertisers can buy ads and measure their impact, has dipped. Before the first blackout began, the ads site averaged about 14,900 visits per day. Beginning on June 13, though, the ads site averaged about 11,800 visits per day, a 20% decrease.

For June 20 and 21, the most recent days for which Similarweb has estimates, the ads site got in the range of 7,500 to 9,000 visits, Carr explained, meaning that ad-buying traffic has continued to drop.>>>

 

Article from a few weeks ago, but now that G. Elliott Morris is taking over without Nate's models, I'm curious what lemmy's think about political polling analysis from FiveThirtyEight?

 

Verge interviewed the maker of Relay for Reddit and says he might survive on a subscription only model of $2-3 USD per month. Lots of limitations inherent in that, but maybe.

How do lemmies feel about this?

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