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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • Yeah I was surprised they took it down. I think it’s a foolish knee jerk reaction and is patronising towards readers.

    Ironically there is know nothing to put the current spike of interest in context as you can’t read the letter on the guardian website.

    I’m actually really unimpressed with the guardians action - they don’t respect their readers and clearly no longer believe in freedom of speech. They could have modified the article to put the letter in context themselves rather than link to a 20 year old article criticising it. It also makes it hard for those who want to push back against the letter and answer those who are pushing it.


  • If you implement it from fresh then it is a new program. What matters is what your contract says about what you produce - some contracts pay claim to anything you make even outside of working hours.

    Also if you rewrite it, while technically it is a fresh project if there are substantial similarities in how you implement it there could be an argument made that you have reused code that belongs to the company. Even if that is technical false it could be something you’d have to defend sometime in the future. As others have said, implementing the program in a different language and using a different methodology wherever possible should help protect against that.

    I think the advice others have given that you should review your contract with a lawyer is sound even if this will be FOSS. It’s mainly about ensuring you don’t inadvertently open yourself to potential legal repercussions down the line, even if your employers at the moment seem benign. If you do work for a company that lays claim to everything you produce even in your off hours then I would strongly recommend you consider leaving or an exit plan, particularly if you are the sort of person who would be working on your own projects for fun or even your own business ventures.


  • Almost the whole of black Friday is a nonsense. The only things worth buying are things you would have bought anyway but know are on discount.

    Many items prices go up for a period before black Friday so they can then be discounted, and manufacturers even have cheaper versions of models of their products that they supply to discount chains and companies like Amazon for black Friday.

    The only things I’d buy on sale are items I’m watching via camelcamelcamel which have hit discount, or software on discount. There are a few specific items I need to buy that I might buy if they’re genuinely on discount but most of the stuff thrust in your face during the sales is cheap tat or lies.



  • Yes - because the future of gaming is probably VR spaces so games on a 2D screen will become nostalgic to an extent.

    The nostalgia may be loading up a space with a virtual pc and playing an old game on a mouse and keyboard or controller.

    VR headsets aren’t yet there but but when they’re light weight and high definition enough, it may make more sense to play a game on a virtual screen which can be 40 inches or room scale, than your desktop. If I could see my hands and the mouse and keyboard I’d probably already be doing it. It already works with virtual desktop and controller based games.



  • So, alternative take. If you have a home PC would you be better upgrading it and getting a cheaper laptop for more basic use?

    Basically do you really need a mobile work horse? If you’re doing video work then you may be better with a graphics card or CPU upgrade £ for £. Do you really want to be editing videos on your sofa or in bed? It doesn’t seem like the easiest or most productive way to work in that particular use.

    You can also stream any game from your PC to a low power laptop (or other devices) using Steam or other streaming tech. The pc can be on but with the sound and screen off, while you’re elsewhere streaming a game.

    So maybe a PC upgrade and a shared basic laptop for video and internet would be enough? The only downside is if you genuinely think you would want to do full on video work on the go - out of the home or abroad for example. Then it makes more sense. But a powerful laptop around the house when you have a PC that does the same seems a bit pointless. It also means work drifts away into the rest of your home, whereas now when you’re not at your PC you’re not working.

    But if this is more talking yourself into buying an expensive toy, there may be better toys to be had for far less. Like a steam deck - under £400 for a decent machine, play games anywhere in the home (on the device or streaming to the device), get a dock and plug it in to your telly.

    Edit: other way to think of it: do you really need the laptop? What could you spend that money on instead? There is an opportunity cost if you spend that money or take on debt for something you don’t really need. You could save that £42 a month and treat yourself to something else in 6 months or a year.



  • I think your second half is bang on the nail for the missing part of this story. It is not just to drive search directly, it is also to control the browser market long term.

    That’s what Microsoft did very successfully with Internet Explorer too. They have it away for free and bundled it with Windows, killing all competition and then used that to leverage MSN. They also didn’t follow standards and through market dominance shaped the internet.

    Google sort of follows standards but they have also forced through proprietary standards or have broken code which is why some websites don’t work well in Firefox or Safari even now.

    Chromium may be open source but it is a tool used by Google to control and dominate the internet.

    Apple is exactly the same with WebKit - they talk about privacy and security but the real motivation is surpressong alternate routes to the internet from their devices whic then keeps iron control over payment methods particularly in iOS. Yet people in the apple eco system buy into the narrative that the one piece of software you’re not allowed in iOS is a non apple web browser, as if that is an acceptable approach. It’s just another manifestation of anti competitive behaviour and the power and money you can get by “free” software.



  • Totally agree.

    I do find the self censorship that goes on now extremely worrying though. There seems to be a zeitgeist around what you are and are not allowed to say, and the media and politicians go a long with it without challenging it.

    It’s like a blank cheque is being handed to Israel to do what they want in Gaza and the entire world is doing worse than just ignoring it - powerful people are actively endorsing it as if it’s a reasonable approach.

    Good on the Onion for at least trying to call out the stupidity of it all. But it won’t make any difference.