Zedstrian

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF
[–] Zedstrian 27 points 5 months ago

Versus Russian missiles 'accidentally' causing death and destruction in Poland near its border with Ukraine?

[–] Zedstrian 12 points 5 months ago (12 children)

There's many reasons not to get an iPhone, but privacy worries, in contrast to Android, is not one of them.

Rather than take an all or nothing attitude on the matter, I certainly think your friend would be better off trying make smart choices with his data whenever possible. Ultimately though, it's something that he has to be motivated to do himself. Perhaps informing him of potential privacy risks would be helpful in that regard.

[–] Zedstrian 37 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

DC gets three electoral votes for presidential elections; it's Congress in which they're not represented.

[–] Zedstrian 0 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The problem is that Apple's extensive marketing of Apple Intelligence has led to expectations that far surpass what the final product is likely to be.

Most people think generative AI is magic coming out of a hat, so even if Apple delivers at the same level as other companies, people will feel like they've been misled.

[–] Zedstrian 7 points 5 months ago (2 children)

That's a symptom of Google holding a monopoly over search results.

Real reporting will always cost more to produce than AI-generated propaganda, and if the former has a paywall and the latter doesn't, people will inevitably end up reading the news that takes the least effort to produce, to the detriment of actual news reporting.

Requiring Google to both carry such content and pay for it at least ensures that it has an even footing with websites seeking to push propaganda instead.

[–] Zedstrian 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

The problem is that society has transitioned to a point where most people essentially go to Google and Facebook for all their information. Given the monopolistic power of such platforms on public opinion, there is a very strong societal interest to ensure that actual news, not merely the propaganda of the highest bidder, is what people have access to.

The responsibility of Google to pay for it can be argued, but as real reporting will always cost more to produce than AI slop pushed by propagandists, there is arguably a public interest in that as well. The alternative is legitimate news more often than not ending up with more ads and paywalls than propaganda, which will just result in more people reading sources based on less reliable reporting.

[–] Zedstrian 1 points 5 months ago (7 children)

If that's what the French want, then it's Google's obligation to comply and simply adjust advertising rates as needed.

[–] Zedstrian 8 points 5 months ago (9 children)

Even so, there is a societal interest in objective news being available to the public, which means that search engines should be required to carry such content, profitable or not. All the more so due to Google's monopolistic grip on the search engine market.

[–] Zedstrian 2 points 5 months ago

That won't keep them from harvesting user data.

[–] Zedstrian 26 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Not the corporate one, with 680 employees in Washington, D.C.

To keep Radio Free Europe from degrading to the level of Russian propaganda, any and all fascist influence must be removed and kept out of its administration.

[–] Zedstrian 54 points 5 months ago (4 children)

If Radio Free Europe gets EU funding, it should be reincorporated in Europe and the remainder of its US operations relocated to Prague to avoid any American influence on its reporting and continued defense of democracy.

[–] Zedstrian 9 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Most should offer alternative support options, even if they can't promote them directly in their apps (a monopolistic practice on the part of app stores), given that forking over 30% of a subscription's cost to Apple or Google isn't something I'd want to do just to support an app's development.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/37717114

A while ago I got a Retroid Pocket 3+, but as I didn't end up using it much, I recently reconfigured it to give to someone who could make better use of it.

As the joysticks aren't ideal for games that make substantial use of them, I also gave them a 8BitDo controller to use as an alternative control option, oddly listed as being a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller in the Bluetooth menu. After they told me that the controller didn't work with the games I had installed on the device—twelve native Android games with controller support and several emulated games accessed via Daijisho—I realized that I'd have to dual map the Player 1 controller port in emulators to both the Retroid and the 8BitDo controllers.

Unless I'm mistaken, RetroArch doesn't appear to support dual-mapping controllers to the same player slot, so I only have the dual-mapping set up so far for standalone emulators that support that functionality. Testing indicated that such emulators include AetherSX2 for PS2, DuckStation for PS1, and Drastic for DS, so I'll have to conduct more testing to find other standalone emulators for the remaining systems.

What I've yet to figure out is how to do the same for native Android games, as Stardew Valley did not recognize inputs from the 8BitDo controller, despite inputs from the Retroid's own buttons working fine. Is that something that relies on multi-controller support on a game-by-game basis, or is there a way I could make Android switch which controller it considers to be the main one?

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/37717114

A while ago I got a Retroid Pocket 3+, but as I didn't end up using it much, I recently reconfigured it to give to someone who could make better use of it.

As the joysticks aren't ideal for games that make substantial use of them, I also gave them a 8BitDo controller to use as an alternative control option, oddly listed as being a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller in the Bluetooth menu. After they told me that the controller didn't work with the games I had installed on the device—twelve native Android games with controller support and several emulated games accessed via Daijisho—I realized that I'd have to dual map the Player 1 controller port in emulators to both the Retroid and the 8BitDo controllers.

Unless I'm mistaken, RetroArch doesn't appear to support dual-mapping controllers to the same player slot, so I only have the dual-mapping set up so far for standalone emulators that support that functionality. Testing indicated that such emulators include AetherSX2 for PS2, DuckStation for PS1, and Drastic for DS, so I'll have to conduct more testing to find other standalone emulators for the remaining systems.

What I've yet to figure out is how to do the same for native Android games, as Stardew Valley did not recognize inputs from the 8BitDo controller, despite inputs from the Retroid's own buttons working fine. Is that something that relies on multi-controller support on a game-by-game basis, or is there a way I could make Android switch which controller it considers to be the main one?

 

A while ago I got a Retroid Pocket 3+, but as I didn't end up using it much, I recently reconfigured it to give to someone who could make better use of it.

As the joysticks aren't ideal for games that make substantial use of them, I also gave them a 8BitDo controller to use as an alternative control option, oddly listed as being a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller in the Bluetooth menu. After they told me that the controller didn't work with the games I had installed on the device—twelve native Android games with controller support and several emulated games accessed via Daijisho—I realized that I'd have to dual map the Player 1 controller port in emulators to both the Retroid and the 8BitDo controllers.

Unless I'm mistaken, RetroArch doesn't appear to support dual-mapping controllers to the same player slot, so I only have the dual-mapping set up so far for standalone emulators that support that functionality. Testing indicated that such emulators include AetherSX2 for PS2, DuckStation for PS1, and Drastic for DS, so I'll have to conduct more testing to find other standalone emulators for the remaining systems.

What I've yet to figure out is how to do the same for native Android games, as Stardew Valley did not recognize inputs from the 8BitDo controller, despite inputs from the Retroid's own buttons working fine. Is that something that relies on multi-controller support on a game-by-game basis, or is there a way I could make Android switch which controller it considers to be the main one?

 

The request for this post isn't specific to a difference found in the TestFlight version, but rather an adjustment that I think may be useful.

Being an avid user of the block list system to keep my All feed manageable, I'm glad that the functionality is well integrated into Arctic. Although most users' block lists are likely short enough to make a search bar for them unnecessary, lists beyond several hundred entries become more difficult to search. Although at present I accomplish this by going to my user settings page in Safari and using the keyword search tool, an in-app solution would be helpful.

As I sometimes want to review a community's posts before deciding whether or not to remove it from my blocklist, the ability to tap on an entry (user or community) to view its page would also be helpful. The end user could then choose to disable the block from there via the existing UI should they wish to review the content of recent posts, before deciding whether or not to reinstate the block.

 

Switched to the TestFlight version of Arctic, and was pleased to see the block list filter for Lemmy Explorer in effect, working great! Still have to dig through the settings and use the app a bit more to see any other differences that are in the TestFlight version versus the App Store version, but two things quickly came to mind. Decided to split it into two posts to avoid having an exceedingly long title.

Upon checking my user page in the updated version, I noticed stars next to posts I had made in communities that I'm subscribed to. Although I'm glad the option to mark such posts is there for users wanting to distinguish them, an option to disable the stars and make all posts appear in a uniform manner would allow the end user to choose their preferred display style.

Edit: The feature requested above was already implemented, per the comment below.

 

As communities are only federated with this instance when at least one of its users subscribes, new and small communities are at an inherent disadvantage in terms of discoverability. While not a problem unique to this instance, Lemmy Federate is used by several other instances to have a bot temporarily subscribe to communities from federated instances until at least one actual user from the instance subscribes.

Although the federation of additional communities means that users who curate their All feed via extensive community filter lists will have to filter more communities, I think the benefits to the discoverability of communities across Lemmy, promoting their growth in the process, would make it worthwhile.

4
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Zedstrian to c/[email protected]
 

Apologies for a second feature request so soon after my prior one, though I think this would make Lemmy Explorer far more useful.

As I have a substantial filter list of two dozen instances and hundreds of other communities on the remaining instances, it'd be helpful if there were an option to filter out communities from Lemmy explorer on the basis of one's predefined filter lists.

As many small communities only start appearing in my regular feed after I load their information in Lemmy Explorer first, I sometimes search for such communities, scrolling past communities from instances on my filter list.

It would also be helpful if there were a toggleable sub-option of the "Hide NSFW Content" setting to automatically set the NSFW option in Lemmy Explorer to "Exclude NSFW".

 

Twice now I've had Arctic get stuck in a mode where only a few posts appear in any given feed, such as All not loading properly, only working properly again after uninstalling and reinstalling the app. To avoid having to reconfigure everything—including multi-communities and custom filters—each time, or if someone wants to share their custom filters or multi-communities with someone else, an option to back up and restore settings configurations, or reset them to their defaults, would be helpful.

16
submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by Zedstrian to c/[email protected]
 

As I was made a moderator of [email protected] without being asked first, and can't seem to find a button to demote myself, could a lemm.ee admin remove my moderator role for that community?

Edit: Issue resolved via solution suggested in comment below.

Edit 2: For now at least, there seems to be a problem with self de-moderation across instances, as my moderator status returned after I tried removing it. I thus subsequently contacted the person who promoted me to have the moderator status removed.

 

Sometimes I post a comment that replies to a different post than I had intended—subsequently deleting it and pasting the message into a new comment—or start a thread in which I ask a question that I then answer myself, so then delete the thread.

In both cases, it'd be helpful to have a toggle the visibility of deleted posts and comments.

As viewing comments of other users that were deleted, but still have replies, is sometimes informative, my suggestion just refers to one's own deleted posts and comments on their profile page tab.

 

Although personally in favor of Palestinian independence and critical of war crimes committed by Israel in its siege of Gaza, I attempted to explain in a back-and-forth discussion with a user (only afterwards learning was one of the community's two moderators) why protest voting in the 2024 election to "punish" the democrats in favor of the republicans harmed the ultimate interest of reigning in Israeli violence in Palestine.

To further emphasize the damage caused by such a protest vote, I argued that not only is Palestine worse off with Trump elected instead of Harris, but as are a myriad of other social issues. The other user disagreed, arguing that Trump's return to office facilitated the ceasefire, rather than my argument that Netanyahu deliberately delayed it to help Trump get elected.

After my fourth reply post in a reply chain that stemmed from my initial reply to the moderator's comment, I was banned from [email protected]. Having at no point advocated in favor of the violence perpetuated by Israel in Gaza, I think the ban was unjustified, and demonstrates a bad precedent for maintaining echo chambers of moderator opinions, rather than communities that foster discussion.

52
submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by Zedstrian to c/[email protected]
view more: ‹ prev next ›