@TheTechnician27@lemmy.world

TheTechnician27

“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: […] like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.” —Jonathan Swift

member since 25 Jul 2024 19:29

comments

For $5 a month – just pennies a day…

on you can make a difference in c/transmemes@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 15 Sep 2026
In a series of social media posts on Monday, the US president compared warnings about AI to the “Global Warming Scam”, that he said was “being perpetrated by the Radical Left Dumocrats”.

I don’t drink, but I’m buying a bottle of vodka to celebrate when the aneurysm comes.

on Trump says AI safety fears a 'hoax' as he rejects calls for greater safeguards in c/technology@lemmy.world · 15 Sep 2026
Well the problem is that pesto, much like edible lube

on Pesto is love, pesto is life (I may be addicted) in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 Sep 2026
It’s good to see Kimbra found love after her breakup with Gotye.

on Childless rule in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 Sep 2026
Self-Host Weekly is sponsored by Coder. AI coding agents run on your laptop with your credentials, your network access, and no record of what they touched. Coder is open source and gives every agent a self-hosted workspace you define in Terraform, so your code never leaves the machines you own.

Nasty. I thought this was satire at first and had to read it back.

on Self-Host Weekly (11 September 2026) in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world · 11 Sep 2026
So you’ve moved the goalposts from “that’s not just participation, it’s [things that participation entails]” to “well this doesn’t apply unless you need it to exist”*. GN needs a major platform like YouTube to actually reach an audience.

* By the way, the comic is illustrating a man with a car that’s seemingly from the 1920s or 30s, so there goes that tenuous argument.

on We Could Get Sued for This - Gamers Nexus in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
contributing to, and directly benefitting from the very thing they’re complaining about.

You do understand what “participation” means, right? You understand that the original comic is specifically talking about contributing to and benefitting from the very thing they’re complaining about, right?

I agree with your other point that GN should offer more alternatives to watch their videos, but this one is creating a distinction without a difference.

on We Could Get Sued for This - Gamers Nexus in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
on We Could Get Sued for This - Gamers Nexus in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 5 Sep 2026
codeberg.org/tenacityteam/tenacity

on Audacity 4.0 is finally out! in c/technology@lemmy.world · 3 Sep 2026
Personally, I think it’s for the better they remain separate projects for logistical reasons. I also understand why OHM went with CC0 for their license, and it was their (I think correct) choice to make it incompatible with the OSM one.

I know that’s vague, but mainly, I think OHM is better off not having to worry about OSM shenanigans, while OSM is better off being able not to have to worry about historic preservation.

on Apple Maps follows Google, changes name of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' in c/technology@lemmy.world · 3 Sep 2026
It’s a separate project with a separate license.

on Apple Maps follows Google, changes name of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026
Mm, yeah, you’re right. I think tomorrow sounds like a good time to start.

on Ruleated in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 Sep 2026
We’d ask that you didn’t try. Directing your energy toward improving OSM in your area and moving people away from the corporations kowtowing to Trump and other fascists is what makes an actual difference.

on Apple Maps follows Google, changes name of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026
OpenHistoricalMap tracks that sort of thing. OpenStreetMap is strictly for what’s currently (and at least semi-permanently) there. For businesses that just closed, it’s a good idea to put a note saying something like “Formerly Dairy Emporium” (along with potentially, say, when it closed if known). This not only potentially helps confused users, but it also helps other contributors who might try to “correct” what seems like a mistake.

Editing and changing the info is ideal, because it preserves the edit history. A deleted object is a lot harder to find the edit history of.

on Apple Maps follows Google, changes name of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026
something something ask me literally anything about using or contributing to OpenStreetMap or about what it is/the state of it. get hyperspecific; see if I give a fuck.

Source: reasonably long-time user and contributor

on Apple Maps follows Google, changes name of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026
When you wake up and realize you’ve ruined your life not in a way that’s acute, bombastic, and irreversible but in a way that’s chronic, corrosive, and less reversible by the day.

on Ruleated in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 Sep 2026
Wadephul said he had summoned the Russia’s ambassador to Germany, Sergei Nechayev.

Damn, we’ve gone full-circle from “Russia” and “the Ukraine” to “Ukraine” and “the Russia”.

on Germany says Russia behind Leipzig airport drone attack in c/europe@feddit.org · 1 Sep 2026
It reminds me of this conspiracy that was circulating a few months back that Apple Maps had “deleted” cities and places in Lebanon to culturally erase it for Israel’s invasion.

In reality (which you could see by e.g. looking at Reddit posts from a few years ago), Apple Maps’ coverage of Lebanon was absolute unusable dogshit the entire time. There were complaints about how it wasn’t even usable for basic navigation in Beirut. The city of Tyre (which was misspelled “Tyr”) was still there despite being one of the hardest-hit cities by Israel’s invasion.

Which was, to be fair, staggeringly incompetent, but it was provably true. Apple Maps’ coverage sucked so badly that, at a surface level, it looked like somebody took an erase tool to a competent map.

I think a lot of people don’t realize how automated corporate maps applications are. Which can be a weakness for crowd-sourced data like OpenStreetMap when there aren’t enough contributors, but that democratization is also a huge benefit that anyone can see and fix issues. The main parts of Google Maps that aren’t automated are points of interest, and those are kept up-to-date thanks to the network effect where e.g. business owners see value in maintaining their information or users feel like they’re helping out (read: doing free labor for a trillion-dollar corporation).

on Google Maps renames “Lake Ontario” to “Lake America” even faster than US government in c/technology@lemmy.world · 1 Sep 2026
So fwiw, the change was made official and updated in GNIS the day it changed on Google Maps, which uses GNIS behind the scenes. That same day, USGS said the name had taken effect in GNIS but that it was waiting for its maps to visually update.

I think this is a product of Google’s infrastructure being faster to automatically update with GNIS changes. The fact they didn’t step in to override it already shows that they’re willing to go along with this; I don’t think the fact it changed before USGS adds any significance to that bootlicking.

That is, I don’t assume Google manually intervened to make this happen faster.

Still, fuck Google Maps. I’m glad people are waking up to how this level of hegemony over maps gives corporations too much power.

on Google Maps renames “Lake Ontario” to “Lake America” even faster than US government in c/technology@lemmy.world · 1 Sep 2026
Well in that case, it’s cool to see Fairphone using /e/OS!

on Android Central: Fairphone (Gen. 6+) with /e/OS in c/technology@lemmy.world · 1 Sep 2026
Sorry, I realize that question could be interpreted in two ways: I meant for Fairphone not to try to get Graphene working on their phone. I know Motorola is trying to do that right now, for example.

on Android Central: Fairphone (Gen. 6+) with /e/OS in c/technology@lemmy.world · 1 Sep 2026
Love me jews

Ahoy, SpongeBoaz!

on Nazis aren't invited to the anti-Zionist rule in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 1 Sep 2026
ELI5: Why use /e/OS over Graphene? This isn’t a rhetorical rant; I’m genuinely curious.

Edit: See below. I misphrased this question.

on Android Central: Fairphone (Gen. 6+) with /e/OS in c/technology@lemmy.world · 1 Sep 2026
If you’re using Organic, it’s worth considering Organic’s fork CoMaps, which was created by major contributors in response to these grievances.

on MapQuest’s app surges to No. 1 in Navigation in the Apple App Store, after refusing to rename Lake Ontario in c/technology@lemmy.world · 31 Aug 2026
Mr. Sandman, sam me a handwich.

on mispeling vyrus rule in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 31 Aug 2026
Yeah, and?
1. If you actually edit OSM, you know there’s zero compelling reason to make an application that prefers official_name:en-us. Want to know how I know? Because instead of wasting my time making something up to be outraged at, I went and looked up how often this key shows up. It’s six (it shows five, but it hasn’t updated for Lake Ontario yet). In the entire world among billions of key uses, this one is used on six objects. This will not ever happen; it’s complete nonsense.
Even if it were made (it will not be),
1. Nobody would use it. Literally what on Earth usefulness could it possibly have within the already niche ecosystem that is OpenStreetMap? My dude, my guy, if they were targeting bullshit names Trump made up with an EO, they could just soft fork an existing OSM application and then hardcode in “Gulf of America” and “Lake America”.
And most importantly,
1. It doesn’t matter. That’s what the official_name key exists for – to distinguish it from the name people actually use. That’s why it’s a separate key to begin with.
You’re complaining about OpenStreetMap being accurate, and in order to do that, you have to invent some fever dream application that nobody would ever create and nobody would ever use – and that even were they to create it, they could’ve accomplished it more easily by just hardcoding six values.

“When available”. lol, lmao even
on The 'OG' online map platform, MapQuest, says it won't change the name of Lake Ontario in c/technology@lemmy.world · 31 Aug 2026
it’s in the data

Correct, because that’s what official_name means. The US government, one of two countries encircling it, officially calls it “Lake America”. That’s why it’s official_name:en-US specifically, not official_name=. The name= key, the “primary name of the feature in the real world”, remains and will remain “Lake Ontario”.

It’s not the name that is likely to show when viewing the map

I’ll correct you and say that there’s no “likely” about it: it’s not the name that will be shown when viewing the map. That’s the name= key, which is “Lake Ontario”.

on The 'OG' online map platform, MapQuest, says it won't change the name of Lake Ontario in c/technology@lemmy.world · 31 Aug 2026
The remaining 0.4 stars are from those who failed assimilation.

on ...what? [rule] in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 30 Aug 2026
Did YOU read it?

Yeah, I read that the multibillion-dollar company didn’t vet the artist they approached.

on Rockstar Games Collaborated With Pro-Trump Artist for GTA VI, Artist Says in c/gaming@lemmy.world · 30 Aug 2026
They personally approached him about it. Did you read the article?

on Rockstar Games Collaborated With Pro-Trump Artist for GTA VI, Artist Says in c/gaming@lemmy.world · 30 Aug 2026
I love how “brokethe terms of our contract” still works. Rouxls Kaard out here.

on OpenAI ends contract: Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX. After Musk acquired Twitter, now part of SpaceX, the company broke⁠the terms of our contract (alongside many others). in c/technology@lemmy.world · 29 Aug 2026
I can say off the bat that Etymonline has a narrower focus of words than Wiktionary (there are fewer English words, and there aren’t etymologies for non-English words except incidentally). And that’s more than fine. Something I like about Etymonline is that, because of its narrower scope, it can potentially be more readable to link somebody to an etymology that isn’t crowded out by e.g. synonyms, related words, rhymes, etc.

Something Wiktionary recently got that I see as lacking in Etymonline is an etymology tree (see: Wiktionary’s ‘apraxia’ and Etymonline’s ‘apraxia’). The Etymonline entry for ‘milk’ (see below) seems to have one, but Wiktionary’s seems more consistent and traversible.

Something small that I actively dislike about Etymonline is that there’s no ‘References’ section at the bottom. They do inline citations (for example, in ‘milk’, they reference ‘Watkins’), but then you often have to actively take an aside to the principal sources page. I also don’t like that the content is under a proprietary license given it’s primarily regurgitating a handful of other authors’ work.

TL;DR: Etymonline is fine, but given it’s the work of non-academics as well, I think it largely can be/has been overtaken by Wiktionary. I’ll bring up ‘milk’ again as a counterexample, though, where I think Etymonline does it better. They (correctly) note that the “plant milk” meaning goes back to the 1200s, whereas this isn’t discussed whatsoever on Wiktionary – where a reasonable user might wonder when people started using “milk” for plant milk. I think overall, you’re likely to have a fine experience using either.

on ana*ram rule in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 28 Aug 2026
For what it’s worth, “dickgirl” is lacking quotations/references on Wiktionary, so we’re failing to live up to attestation standards.

Without that, I don’t know if I’d be comfortable using “dickgirl” in an essay or a game of Boggle or putting it in a spelling bee for fear it isn’t a verifiable word.

on ana*ram rule in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 28 Aug 2026
I wonder if it could be used as a translator?

It’s usually my first stop if I have a word in another language that I want to translate. It pairs well with creating a custom Firefox search engine for Wiktionary and then using a shortcut like !wt.

So for example, if I want to know what “rassurant” means, I can type !wt rassurant, and it’ll take me to en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rassurant.

on ana*ram rule in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 28 Aug 2026
Wiktionary is a sister project of Wikipedia and is to something like the Oxford English Dictionary or Merriam-Webster what Wikipedia is to Britannica.

Re: Urban Dictionary: sort of, but the slang is more curated. The inclusion criteria on Wiktionary are pretty lax, and it’s way more descriptivist than prescriptivist. For example, we have the word “hitstun”, which is fighting game jargon you won’t find in a major dictionary.

A major aspect Wiktionary has that other major dictionaries don’t is that it’s an everything-to-English dictionary (or everything-to-whatever-language, e.g. fr.wiktionary.org is an everything-to-French dictionary). So as a very, very extreme example, this is the English Wiktionary entry for ‘no’, which we have entries for in 91 languages. We even keep track of languages like Akkadian, Klingon, Proto-Indo-European, American Sign Language (ASL), and so on. (In total, we have definitions from over 5100 languages.)

It’s also way more flexible than a standard dictionary. For example, the French entry for Sagittarius (“Sagittaire”) has an image of Sagittarius and a ‘See also’ table of every other Zodiac sign in French. We also, of course, often have links back to Wikipedia. Likewise, (like the Oxford English Dictionary) we keep track of etymology, so for example, you can learn that the word “slogan” comes from Scottish Gaelic for “battle cry”. We keep track of rhymes, anagrams, derived terms, etc. too. And definitions will (ideally) also have real quotations so you can see how they’re used in a sentence.

Probably the main lacking aspect right now is the thesaurus, which exists but is undercooked.

TL;DR: Yes, it can replace a normal dictionary and then some. I don’t think it can replace a normal thesaurus yet for most people.

on ana*ram rule in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 28 Aug 2026
Just want to confirm that Wiktionary is amazing.

Edit: AMA if you’re interested in exploring or contributing to it.

on ana*ram rule in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 28 Aug 2026
You know, I never really considered automatic anti-vandalism mechanisms we have in place on OpenStreetMap, but they surely exist.

All that to say I think we’re good on OSM too. lol

on The 'OG' online map platform, MapQuest, says it won't change the name of Lake Ontario in c/technology@lemmy.world · 28 Aug 2026
I was referring to how stupid he was for changing the name of an insanely popular household term.

Okay. I un-downvoted, but I think you should consider rewriting, because right now, it reads like you’re calling the new Twitter a Musk grift. That’s not just me; the second-top comment seems to be referring to your comment but politely not mentioning it by name.

As for the grift part, it’s complicated, because on the one hand, it was a bald-faced grift going in where he meant to manipulate the stock market (his repeated attempts to back out prove that). But on the other, having to complete that deal meant he gained control of one of the largest social media networks in the world. And he’s clearly been using that to political ends that are hard to qualify but probably – given the extreme worldwide rise in right-wing authoritarianism – fairly successful.

(Assuming it made a difference getting Trump into office, that $44 billion is probably well paid off through political corruption alone.)

For context for future readers, current comment is just:

“Genius businessman” mmhm. Total grift. Idiot. In any other world he’d be living in a trailer park with trump flags all over his truck, working at Walmart yelling at brown people.

on New Twitter launches, says Musk's X gave up the name in c/technology@lemmy.world · 26 Aug 2026
Edit: See comments below

You know, I 100% agree with your assessment of Musk. It’s just that you’re saying this about something that Musk has nothing to do with except actively opposing it. The subheader:

Judge hasn’t ruled on X Corp’s preliminary injunction, but Operation Bluebird plows ahead

It’s such trivial, basic etiquette to read beyond the headline before commenting on the article you’re supposed to be discussing. I’m really sick of wading through comments by lazy assholes who’ve spent more time vomiting out their gut reaction to the headline than just sitting down and reading for 30 seconds.

Reddit was bad about this, but Lemmy is somehow fucking next-level.
- The headline itself is already clear this isn’t Musk’s. Why would the new Twitter be saying Musk gave up the name if it were run by Musk?
- Even if it wasn’t (it is), the subheader is abundantly clear.
- Ars is a solid, well-written source with a good reputation for not wasting waste your time with churnalism or clickbait.
Just running through some common excuses people who refuse to read use to shift their profound, utter laziness onto anyone but themselves.
on New Twitter launches, says Musk's X gave up the name in c/technology@lemmy.world · 26 Aug 2026
How big is their team?

If a few paragraphs of reading into the article we’re supposed to be discussing is too much, I’m not sure why you’re here trying to discuss it.

on A touch of AI is all it takes to trigger backlash, as a promising new indie falls afoul of slop skeptics in c/technology@lemmy.world · 26 Aug 2026
I’m 100% with you. Bad art with genuine effort put into it has a charm of its own. I understand the team’s mistake, but it’s still a mistake.

on A touch of AI is all it takes to trigger backlash, as a promising new indie falls afoul of slop skeptics in c/technology@lemmy.world · 25 Aug 2026
Please open this article, Ctrl+F down to “% who say the increased use of artificial intelligence in daily life makes them feel …”, and tell me which country is at the very bottom, with 16% “more concerned than excited”, 66% “equally concerned and excited”, and 22% “more excited than concerned”.

It’s like you’re refusing to understand the concept of a cultural barrier.

on A touch of AI is all it takes to trigger backlash, as a promising new indie falls afoul of slop skeptics in c/technology@lemmy.world · 25 Aug 2026
it’s the AIs fault for not being good enough to hide it.

“if that choice hurt your experience, the fault is not in the tool. It is in our own shortcomings.”

The director literally outright says it’s their fault for using the tool.

And what do you mean “got caught”? It’s very obvious. They mistakenly thought most audiences would enjoy it, not that audiences wouldn’t notice. Which makes sense given the overwhelming difference in the perception of AI between SK and the West. He even outright says he expected people to notice: “I expected some of you would be disappointed by our use of AI. I did not expect it to become this big.”

on A touch of AI is all it takes to trigger backlash, as a promising new indie falls afoul of slop skeptics in c/technology@lemmy.world · 25 Aug 2026
“The truth is, we spent a long time trying to tell this game’s story with cutscenes made entirely by our own hands,” the statement goes on. “The results were devastating every time. We came to believe we could not properly deliver this game’s complex, difficult narrative that way, and that is why we turned to AI. But if that choice hurt your experience, the fault is not in the tool. It is in our own shortcomings.”

Man, if this is true – that they agonized over the cutscenes but decided they couldn’t and that AI would be better* – then I feel legitimately bad for them.

I went in assuming it was strictly a lazy “ah, fuck it” kind of thing, but even though this still wouldn’t be acceptable, it seems like this team really is hard-working, cared about the final product, and actually did think AI could deliver a good experience. Deluded, but that seems like part of a larger culture of delusion in SK.*

* Notably, the article remarks on how sentiment around AI in South Korea is vastly more positive than e.g. the US.

on A touch of AI is all it takes to trigger backlash, as a promising new indie falls afoul of slop skeptics in c/technology@lemmy.world · 25 Aug 2026
So anyway, Stanford Online and MIT OpenCourseware.

on Harvard Is Selling a $699 Course Taught by A.I. Clones of Its Faculty in c/technology@lemmy.world · 24 Aug 2026
the license Lutris had is invalid.

That part isn’t true whatsoever. Public domain doesn’t work like a poison pill. If I put the collected works of Arthur Conan Doyle on my website, that doesn’t mean the site can’t be CC BY-SA 4.0; it means someone is free to take that specific part without worrying about CC BY-SA 4.0.

Even for the slop code where it’s more mixed in, it’s on the person trying to take it to affirmatively show the part they’re taking was generated by an LLM, i.e. you can’t just say “this is slop, I’m taking this” and expect a project to have to affirmatively defend that it’s human-written.

And lastly, AI assistance doesn’t automatically even poison the code being created/changed with it. This one is murky, but so far, the general consensus is that so long as you, the human, worked on it – i.e. that you didn’t just let the slop machine run wild and take whatever it outputted without your own changes – it’s still your copyright.

—someone who doesn’t do slop

on Cool... I guess. in c/linuxmemes@lemmy.world · 24 Aug 2026
You’re thinking of a phylogenetic tree, and whereas I can’t think of “jumping” between various points in a way that’s pragmatic, there is something like OneZoom. (Edit: Be careful if you have motion sickness.)

Ideally you’re just looking at a tree of the taxon at the lowest level you can, in this case class Mammalia. (Technically infraclass Placentalia, but it’s cooler if you look at mammals as a whole.)

on She looks so happy in c/lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world · 23 Aug 2026
Fun facts:
- Seals are far more closely related to raccoons and cheetahs than they are to elephants.
- Elephants are far more closely related to sea cows and hyraxes than they are to seals, raccoons, and cheetahs.
Hope that makes your day nicer.
on She looks so happy in c/lemmybewholesome@lemmy.world · 23 Aug 2026
Hey, fuck you. Sometimes just commuting is a nice change of pace from my favorite game, Desert Bus.

on Flrulep in c/onehundredninetysix@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 21 Aug 2026
McAfee, the producer of anti-virus software, used two freely available AI models to test more than 21,000 travel images. One of the models identified 91% of images accurately while the other got 87%. Staff were then asked to replicate the experiment with their own pictures and became uncomfortable with how easy their travels were pinpointed.

There’s no reason a GPT can’t be just as accurate as an expert GeoGuessr player if not moreso, so it checks out.

on ‘We detected unusual activity’: the scam that uses AI to exploit your holiday photos in c/technology@lemmy.world · 16 Aug 2026