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180386973
comment
bymz721
25 @12:36AM
(#65858723)
Attached to: Like Australia, Denmark Plans to Severely Restrict Social Media Use for Teenagers
Whether it works or not, or partially works, or blows up, these moves are interesting because part of a very belated attempt by governments to regulate the unregulatable. Groomers, cyberbullying, all kinds of stuff is known to be harmful, especially to kids but to others as well. So is too-early exposure to pr0n, violence and so on. (In fact, the 'this is how democracy dies' flamebait at the top of this screen is interesting in itself; would the poster speak like that to a room full of parents who are struggling to get by and are trying to protect their kids from online crap while they both work all day? or would codebase7 only say it in the safety and distance of a forum like this? Is that comment a very mild example of one of the main problems with so much online communication -- a basic lack of respect?)
The very fact that governments are finally having a go at this is the interesting thing.
If toy companies were as unregulated as the 'net, kids would be finding MDMA tabs packaged with their Hot Wheels cars, to encourage them to go back for more.
It needed to happen 30 years ago, at the beginning of the internet, to set different expectations. The big techs have been created in an environment when they can essentially be parasites on society, and they don't like having to contribute, and they don't like anything that clamps down on their freedoms. And, given that their business is making money, you cannot blame them for being pricks. It works.
180353281
comment
bymz721
2025 @05:26AM
(#65848085)
Attached to: Millions of Australian Teens Lose Access To Social Media As Ban Takes Effect
Government is a lot more like a friend than the bastards out there using chat to groom kids. There are some lessons we don't want our kids to learn through personal experience.
180353227
comment
bymz721
2025 @05:21AM
(#65848077)
Attached to: Millions of Australian Teens Lose Access To Social Media As Ban Takes Effect
Predatory adults don't in general use phone calls to groom their child victims.
180349759
comment
bymz721
025 @06:57PM
(#65847223)
Attached to: Microsoft Excel Turns 40, Remains Stubbornly Unkillable
I like Excel. It pretty much works. Sure, a lot of people use it for things it wasn't designed for, but you cannot blame Excel for that. Personally, the Solver is a favourite of mine. I'm sure I use it in all kinds of statistically indefensible ways.
Pound for pound, the best component of MS office, and has been for decades.
180349553
comment
bymz721
025 @06:25PM
(#65847137)
Attached to: Millions of Australian Teens Lose Access To Social Media As Ban Takes Effect
I bet the EU is watching closely.
This is tackling a complex problem with a hammer. There are workarounds, there will be collateral damage. Sure. But businesses are there to make money, not look after people and societies. We know they'll happily do any amount of social, environmental and personal harm in the interests of profit. So governments have to protect their citizens, however imperfectly that turns out to be. If a government / regulatory system is any good, you don't allow a pesticide factory to be built beside a school, but you do allow the factory to be built somewhere.
So, I think it's also completely reasonable. Governments have got to do something, and this is a starting point. The idea that you can come up with a perfect solution to a complex problem is childish. So is the idea that because of this you don't even try. You have a go and refine and keep chasing a moving target, and it's never all that good but it's better than doing nothing.
It all has to start with recognising that something needs to be done, and with not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. (Or is not good, better.)
180183339
comment
bymz721
25 @02:29AM
(#65813085)
Attached to: 780,000 Windows Users Downloaded Linux Distro Zorin OS in the Last 5 Weeks
Or is it that Microsoft is notorious for not following published standards, even when they say they have, and that heaps of people have devoted a lot of time to try to get Win stuff to run on Linux despite Microsoft's unhelpful attitude? I think a lot of Linux users and devs would be more than happy to piss of MS, but the pissing off is usually running the other way. If MS was ready to collaborate on making its stuff runnable on wine (Linux), the problem would be solved. The problem is Microsoft, not Linux.
I use Windows as much as I use Linux. WSL lets Linux run well in Windows because Linux is openly documented. Windows apps do not run well in Linux because they are a closed shop.
180183287
comment
bymz721
25 @02:15AM
(#65813075)
Attached to: 780,000 Windows Users Downloaded Linux Distro Zorin OS in the Last 5 Weeks
I've been using Linux, just as a desktop user, I make no pretence to having a lot of expertise, for quite a while. Sound on Linux continues to suck, even though my hardware has never been exotic. It has sucked since PulseAudio was invented and then inexplicably became popular. I get it working, then it randomly decides I do not have any audio hardware, though the system configuration has not changed. Thus, I think the described experience is completely plausible.
180183189
comment
bymz721
25 @01:57AM
(#65813061)
Attached to: 'The Strange and Totally Real Plan to Blot Out the Sun and Reverse Global Warming'
This should be upvoted. It's a real thing. Excess CO2 is not just a heat issue. I'm not saying things won't be sufficiently desperate for this to become a good idea, but a concern with these schemes is that we (as a species) then go 'oh great, problem solved' and continue with damaging behaviours.
179046422
comment
bymz721
2025 @05:10AM
(#65642962)
Attached to: Microsoft 365 Personal is Now Free For US College Students For a Year
I'm off the clock, hence the lousy editing of my post!
179046400
comment
bymz721
2025 @05:08AM
(#65642958)
Attached to: Microsoft 365 Personal is Now Free For US College Students For a Year
Well, at least they might get hooked on a reasonably capable product. I've worked as a professional editor, and it's clear that Google docs is lacking a lot of important functionality, so while I am no MS fan, but at least they'll get a more capable tool from the tech oligarchy.
In Australia google is completely embedded in the education system, which I think is irresponsible of the various education departments, but that's a separate topic. I can see why MS would want to combat that.
178756236
comment
bymz721
5 @12:01AM
(#65598954)
Attached to: Why Did Hollywood Stop Making Comedies? A Statistical Analysis
A lot of (I would argue most) really good comedy is dialogue-driven and small in scale. Hell, a lot of it works on radio, let alone TV let alone cinema.
Comedy in the cinema is fantastic when it works. Communal laughter can be an amazing experience. But it's unpredictable magic, it relies on individual quirks and is hard to bottle. And we don't even agree on what's funny half the time. I can see why it's no considered a safe bet.
------------------
Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life. -- Terry Pratchett
177718325
comment
bymz721
@02:20AM
(#65400881)
Attached to: Google's AI Mode Is 'the Definition of Theft,' Publishers Say
Soon all they will have left to steal will be their own excrement.
177648571
comment
bymz721
6:05PM
(#65388869)
Attached to: Microsoft's Edit on Windows is a New Command-Line Text Editor
I was certainly annoyed when first moving to 64-bit Windows that 'edit filename.txt' didn't work. I guess this fixes that. Having said that, a small batch file called 'edit.bat' that calls notepad (or notepad++ or one of about 1000 other options) also works -- or you can just get used to typing 'notepad' at the prompt.
Launching a GUI editor from the command line doesn't work if you text ssh into a Windows box instead of connecting via VNC or RDP or similar. I have done that, but I cannot pretend I do it regularly, and when I did it was only to work out where some files were stored so I could use scp to pull them down.
Alternatives -- there must be heaps. I mostly use Vim and TDE (http://adoxa.altervista.org/tde/index.html). A few people have mentioned edlin. I would just mention that edlin from FreeDOS is still maintained and compiles effortlessly on modern Windows (https://sourceforge.net/projects/freedos-edlin/files/freedos-edlin/). (It also compiles on other platforms, including Linux!)
177034405
comment
bymz721
25 @04:45AM
(#65309563)
Attached to: Apple Says All Mac Minis With Intel Are Now Vintage
Environmentally, what a bunch of pricks.
177004803
comment
bymz721
@06:46PM
(#65299033)
Attached to: China Raises Tariffs on US Imports To 125%
Both countries are bullies for a long time. Ask any countries in the Pacific or in South East Asia about bullying by China.
Trump's tactics are nuts, but the Chinese market and currency manipulation and IP theft are real. The CCP is, indeed, far more subtle and measured in their bullying, but it is just as real.
Like all bullies, China punches down, so it does not bully the US, but just ask Australian wine, crayfish and other producers about trade bullying.
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