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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • Yeah Autism rates are going up in all groups because people are getting diagnoses. This is partly about better awareness but also partly about money - there is an incentive to expand the diagnosis, diagnose more people and treat more people, which somewhat muddies the water. Autistic Spectrum Disorder first appeared in the American DSM in 2012, unifying 5 existing conditions into one, and then it moved into the international ICD in 2018 (going live in 2022). It is no wonder awareness has gone up, and infrastructure for diagnosis has rolled out.

    We’re not seeing an increase in Autism, we’re seeing an increase in the diagnosis of autism. This graph just shows how stupid and dumbed down the CDC and the White House is under this cretinous president.



  • BananaTrifleViolintoLibreWolf @lemmy.mlwhy would my privacy settings mess with this?
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    6 days ago

    This sent me down a rabbit hole; interesting stuff.

    The way I’m understanding this: the way an image is rendered depends on lots of different factors like browser, OS, graphics card etc, plus other bits like fonts and anti-aliasing settings. Each persons set up is unique so an image rendering on that browser on that device will be unique. So to fingerprint and track someone, they get your browser to generate a reference image then extract the details of the created pixels from the memory and generate an MD5 hash which is then unique to your browser. That’s your fingerprint and every time a site generates the reference image it produces the same MD5 hash. That is then used to track you.

    So an anti-fingerprinting technique is to throw in a very subtle randomness to the colours generated in the image, which results in a unique MD5 each time the test is run making it useless for people tracking you (you are essentially a “new” browser every time a site tries to fingerprint you). So if you have #000000 for black, instead it may randomise to #000003 one time, and #002000 next. It’s a very subtle variance on the colours so won’t be readily perceptible but on images rendered and shown to you this would create very subtle noise. Hence the warning for a graphics tool; the makers are aware this effects how their tool works and are warning you incase you notice the results.





  • I dunno, it’s good it wasn’t in the headline? It’d have been clickbait - the article makes it clear this is suspected suicide but that the police / FBI are keeping open minds because of the obvious connotations.

    Suicide by hanging is unfortunately a common method taken by young men. The lack of any other signs makes foul play unlikely - without going into too much detail, unless he was drugged there would be signs of a struggle or injuries related to being restrained if it had been foul play. It sounds like there weren’t obvious signs of either and the toxicology results are awaited.


  • Great to see another person moving to Linux and OpenSuSE. My only caution if this is your first time with Linux is that a point release like OpenSuSE Leap is probably a better place to start than Tumbleweed. I’m on Tumbleweed and it’s generally good but I have had a few things break over the last couple of years, often fixed at next update in fairness but it is frustrating even as an experienced user. I have also had to reinstall Tumbleweed on one occasion; it wasn’t a big deal as I’d set up a separate Home and System partition. Tumbleweed is great but it is a rolling release and even though it’s a well tested one rolling releases are always riskier in terms of things breaking.


  • Agree, a USB stick live install is a good way to test - users should just bear in mind it is slower than a real install as USB drives are not as fast as internal hard drives. Once the OS is loaded fully it will feel reasonably snappy but still every piece of software you launch will take longer to load than a real install, and the bigger the software the longer it will take to load.

    I also tended to recommend Linux Mint for beginners although I think I’m moving more towards recommending OpenSuSE Leap. The reason being it ships with KDE which is a slick interface with a Windows like set up by default (although very customisable - users can create MacOS or Gnome like interfaces with relative ease if they prefer) and gives a better idea of what modern Linux is capable of than Cinnamon in my opinion. Also KDE’s Discover app makes it easy to install software, comparable to Mint’s software store. Mint still has many more guides online but they’re often around terminal use and APT based solutions, and I’m beginning to think that is actually a bad thing. Most stuff for mainstream users can be done via the GUI, and KDE offer’s a great GUI. Plus Flatpak is a far better way of installing custom software than the APT recommendations I still see widely shared, so I think it’s actually better to move people away from Mint. Personally I think OpenSuSE Leap is the better option (and possible Fedora KDE Plasma edition although I am less familiar with it).


  • BananaTrifleViolintomemesStuff...
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    7 days ago

    We didn’t “realise” we could watch stuff; we got touch screen technology, wifi and mobile data became cheaper as we got 3G, 4G and 5G. The we *could *watch stuff, and browse the internet - this was always the obvious course of phones even in the 90s when bricks were still around. Meanwhile battery tech hasn’t moved forwards much, so these big screen, wifi, Bluetooth & 5G connected,video playing devices need bigger batteries to keep going all day. Ironically a bigger device - even with a bigger screen - will have a longer battery life because you can physically fit a bigger battery in.

    Also this chart stops at 2015 - and thats still accurate. Mobile phone tech has plateaued. Time was, iPhone launches each year were a big deal because Apple was good at bringing previously out a of reach tech into the mass market. Now all the changes are minor and phone launches are dull. iPhones are now just popular because they’re iPhones. Chips are getting a bit more energy efficient pushing the capabilities a bit; but cameras, screens, storage and connectivity are probably as good as they’re going to get for now beyone incremental changes.

    We’re now probably in the enshittification phase where companies try to justify ever increasing prices but can’t - iPhone prices have been largely static for 5 years because Apple can’t find a compelling reason to increase them. Whether there are stupid notches in the phone display, or expensive accessories like wireless headphones or now trying to up-sell people on software / services - ultimately a phone is just a phone now. The manufacturers latest hope is that somehow AI will allow them to charge more but it’s looking like AI in it’s current form has little value to consumers. Apple has delayed it’s changes to Siri because it’s struggling to make something that isn’t basically just another unreliable overhyped LLM.

    Realistically the next real leap in phones will probably only come if and when battery tech improves; if smaller high energy density batteries come then that really will unlock a new revolution. The AI bubble doesn’t look like it’s going to deliver.




  • BananaTrifleViolintoAsk Lemmy*Permanently Deleted*
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    10 days ago

    I do get the discomfort but what are you “moral” objections? Is it that she too immature to make a decision? Or is it that you think your dad is taking advantage of her?

    It’s worth working through why this is a moral issue for you, you’re a bit vague about it. In Europe the age of consent is variable but 16 is common, and it can be a bit jarring when you see the reactions of Americans to anyone under 18.

    But in Europe adulthood has generally begun at 16, including being able to leave school and work in many places. The voting age is even being extended down to 16 from 18 in some places. So it’s not as clear cut that someone at 16 is not able to make independent decisions as American users sometimes make it seem.

    Having said that, I personally don’t like the idea but more pragmatically for the age difference and the maturity difference. She can consent but there is a very significant change in maturity from 17 to 25, and I’m not sure how viable a relationship someone who is 48 can have with someone who is 17.

    I think they are both adults and of the age of consent. You can express your concerns to your dad but ultimately it is both of their decisions and you should stay out of it beyond that (unless there are other issues that arise). I wouldn’t go too far judging him beyond that - he will be your dad for the rest of your life. If you had a best friend who was 17 and in a relationship with a 48 year old, you might express your opinion but would you interfere beyond that? Probably not - this should probably be the same.



  • I wonder why they’re making a Linux native version? It is one of the ironies of Proton that windows native games are so easy to install it seems a bit pointless? But also making games for Linux is ironically difficult as it’s difficult to support long term as they can break as libraries change over time.

    It feels like we need a Flatpak style set up for Linux native games which may help games launch stable long term versions that won’t “break” if newer libraries don’t work with them. Flatpaks “bring your own dependencies” approach is more similar to how windows games often work with their own dlls (even to the point of installing old versions of directx when needed) except without windows annoying set up of spraying dlls all over your hard drive making them difficult to clean up when you uninstall a game.

    Although arguably Steam already deals with that on both Linux and Windows currently. But it is proprietary. And maybe Flatpak is already that solution? Maybe Appimage too although not sure how well a 30gb would run from a single file virtual file system? Is it native speeds or have some overhead?


  • BananaTrifleViolintoLinux@lemmy.mlUsing USB Headphones on Linux
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    13 days ago

    It will depend on the drivers that Audeze Maxwell supply? I can’t see any USB drivers for Linux beyond the dongle but they may exist.

    However if they have a 3.5mm port then I’d use that. I have a Sony headset and while I don’t have any issues with Bluetooth, I do like to use 3.5mm analogue conenctions to save battery (even with noise cancelling on the battery lasts way longer off Bluetooth). I bought a long 3.5mm cable online and plug it into the front of my PC. No USB or Bluetooth faff, it just works, and at high quality.

    However note that if you want the mic to work too it will depend on whether the headset’s 3.5mm jack is set up for both audio and mic (if it’s good quality it should be), plus you will need a 4pin 3.5mm plug and cable to pick up the mic from the headset and cable instead of the common 3pin audio only plug. At the other end if your pc has separate 3.5mm audio and mic jacks you will need an adaptor that splits the audio/mic into two cables to plug in to both jacks. If it’s a desktop there will be separate jacks around the back although sometimes the front jack may be a combined mic/audio jack, or you may also have one joint jack if it’s a laptop. If you do need to split the audio and mic then you can find these adaptors and also 4pin 3.5mm cables on ebay or amazon.

    Edit: Just in case you’re not aware - an audio only 3.5mm cable has 2 coloured bands on the plug (splitting it into 3 metal rings or pins). An audio + mic 3.5mm cable has 3 coloured bands on the plug (splitting it into 4 metal rings or pins).

    Edit 2: sorry look for 4 pole 3.5mm rather than 4 pin; you’ll see the better quality stuff when searching as pole is the correct term!