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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: June 22nd, 2024

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  • The funny thing is that said .flv files could be played with VLC without any issue at the time I acquired them. I downloaded a bunch of cartoon episodes in this file format back in 2010 (?) when once-click-hosters like Megavideo were a big thing then. I was able to play them with the then current version of VLC without any problems.

    Since then there were several updates with VLC and some time along the way it suddenly didn’t work that good anymore. I might add that this file format is not very common today (it was, when Adobe Flash was still around), so today there might be no incentive to maintain any old codecs for these type of files any longer.

    When it gets worse with dwindling playback compatibility I probably have to acquire these files with a more recent file format (e.g. .mp4) in the future.




  • Cutting the ring on a designated place would allow to remove the ring from a finger in case of an emergency. But you can’t cut the ring in a random place, because of the battery. It would be helpful when there is a marking where to cut the ring safely. The ring would be destroyed anyway. But a functioning finger is probably worth more than this gadget.

    Imagine your ring needs to be cut off while you are in the hospital: without knowing where the battery is placed it is a guessing game for the doctors where to cut the ring. This is a risk, because when the battery gets cut it will react with the ambient oxygen in the air, causing a fire which is hard to put out, since it can’t be extinguished easily.


  • This is a very good question from the comments of the ifixit article. It would have been smart, if that “cut here” feature would have been included into the concept. It would have underlined that this indeed is a smart device.

    Another thing about rings in general: some injuries can cause your finger to inflame. Then the ring acts as a tourniquet, cutting off blood flow. If the EMT or doctor can’t cut off the ring, they have to amputate the finger. This came up a lot when people were making rings out of titanium or carbon fiber or other high-strength materials. Here you have a ring with a lithium battery and no “cut here” marks. Does anyone really want to risk an un-extinguishable fire in an ambulance with oxygen cylinder nearby? mikedesimone - 22 hours ago

    Agreed. At least have lines on the ring, where one can cut without causing further issue. A Smart ring is going too far, in the tech world, because of it’s repairabillity status. Jri-creator - 12 hours ago


  • This is really bad. It shows that LLMs cannot be trusted, since there is no corrective instance above them. According to this video (German), Microsoft, who has been questioned about this incident, claims that the Copilot feature is to be seen as entertainment rather than a search engine or anything what is considered as a serious source. Although search results regarding the victim have been deleted after they had reached out to Microsoft, the same wrong search results re-appeared a few days later.

    With the raise of fake news over the last decade, combined with a growing lack of media literacy, such feature can destroy lives, especially when people tend to ignore the sources. A victim barely has any possibility to proof that these facts are wrong and a result of a hallucinating LLM. And even if - the internet doesn’t forget. Fake news will be circleing around as well as legit news.

    Edit: According to Copilot, among the crimes he supposedly has committed there is an allegation that he is a child molester. That makes it even worse!


  • All of this applies to many niche communities. In Germany, especially the older forums that are around since the internet became widly popular show such behavior. Take HiFi- forums for example: If your plugs are not made with gold, you are doing it wrong. Also, if you want to spend money for a hobby, don’t bother to start if you are not willing to spend at least an unreasonable ridiculous ammount of Euros.

    These enthusiast also complain about a lack of new members. It’s the nobody wants to work anymore sentiment, but with niche hobby communities.


  • German dubs are actually top notch compared to other countries

    This is true for movie productions. They are dubbed well, even to a point where jokes and plays on words are translated as well. On the other hand, cartoons are not. They lack of something that makes them unwatchable when dubbed - I think it’s because some of the play on words and jokes are missing, also the dubbed voices differ extremely from the original. Such thing can make a character appear and be percieved very different, compared to the original. If cartoonn are availiable in original language (English), I’ll prefer that.

    Yesterday I watched an interesting video about this topic: Why Germany dubbs movies, but other countries don’t
    Warum Deutschland Filme synchronisiert und andere Länder nicht The video comes with insights from a voice actor, who dubbs the voice of Leonardo di Caprio.






  • Social- and greenwashing proposals.

    “By buying [unnecessary product] you will help [marginalized group] to gain a livable income and also send their kids to school instead of sending them to [work place with - even for adults - horrible work conditions]. Also, when buying [product] we will save [arbirtary area] of [rainforest/ coral reef/ mangrove swamp] that would otherwise have been destroyed [but not by us]. Additional to that, your purchase helped us to save [arbitrary ammount of CO2 - at least in a completely hypothetical scenario]. While using [product] you will make the world a better place.”

    As a customer there is barely any way you can ensure or check that these things are true. It cannot be possible to save the enviroment while buying stupid products like, for example, internet-of-shit-devices which will be phased out in no time or single use products made from plastic or other harmful materials that are not recycleable.

    All these claims are just an indulgance trade - like it is done for centuries in a religious context. It is just that you have an excuse to consume more, because they to something to help people/ enviroment. If there was a product that would have been advertised as: “Well, we irretrieveably destroyed 100 km2 of nature, and for each single product in average two workers died and at end-of-life this product will fuck up the environment once more - also it will impair your health just by existing”, it would be horrible - but at least it would be honest.


  • I think it is important to have cash as a backup.

    A couple of years ago there were some issues with card reading terminals in Germany. Due to a faulty security certificate these card reading terminals were not operational for about a whole month. Many stores were affected, because they almost all use ones from the same manufacturer. The only reason why it wasn’t such a big deal was that people were carrying cash around anyway and were able to switch the method of payment easily. Having cash worked as a backup.


  • along with your personal apple account username and password.

    I would never ever share my personal Apple account with work related things. I prefer to have my private stuff seperated from work related things.

    I once worked for a small company that had such a setup: All devices were Apple, and everything was connected with the company owners private Apple accounts. That means that I was able to see personal calendars and to an extend some email-related things - Things that reveald more about a person than you wanted to know.