Rentlar

Rentlar, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

Edit note: The recent Twitter thread from the former employee eclipses either of the situations in this comment in terms of needing response/corroboration. I think it largely stems from the same problem: overwork and mismanagement.

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The Billet situation appears to be a genuine fuckup that LMG has to make right with them, but outside of that I don’t care tbh.

The data integrity situation is the one that needs to be properly addressed for the sake of their channel.

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Sorry Linus, I’m not buying the “you should have told us” line. The fact that you and your staff were well aware of the problems of rushing to release content (to the point of releasing public video on it), means it’s not that people weren’t telling you.

You have two basic options to fix it.

Option A: You need more staff to vet the accuracy and more hosts to have time to cut/re-shoot parts that were incorrect. Clearly you and your staff each have too much on your plate.

Option B: You need to slow the rate of your content releasing right down, to ensure you can double and triple check benchmarks, staff that bring up concerns aren’t brushed off or put in a footnote/comment.

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GN or anyone could tell LMG this, but especially option B isn’t something a company with a “growth-mindset” would want to hear.

Rentlar, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

Edit note: The Twitter thread from the former employee eclipses either issue from here. I still think a big root cause for all of this is the pressure and exhaustion coming from their pacing/content schedule. It will take a bit more than that to resolve this.

I watched the occasional LTT video, they are entertaining and helpful at a general understanding but I’ve often taken their data with a grain of salt.

Emily

spoiler tw(formerly Anthony)

Young was the one writer at LTT who stood out as really knowing their stuff. She also was their in-house expert with Linux! (*Note: nothing happened to her at LMG, I’m using past tense because I’m not up to date with the latest roles she might be in)

Linus has been way more focused on running the business than the tech, especially compared to his days at NCIX and some years after.

The Billet situation sounds like a fuckup. So long as they make it right with them I don’t care tbh.

The data integrity issues and way too frequent post-edit corrections is imperative for LMG to fix, if they want their media to be trustworthy (like if they’re hyping up their labs)

Luckily, they’ve said what the fix is themselves and it’s relatively simple. All it really takes is them to either slow down with the rate of content to be able to carefully review it, or bring on more hosts and editors so that mistakes and errors can be caught and re-shot before publishing, and that due diligence is applied when preparing a product review.

Linus’ response is just meh, not good nor bad. The one thing is I don’t buy is Linus’ line of “just talk to us”. The community told them plenty of times, the writers and Linus themselves were very well aware of the problems of rushing and releasing half-baked content. Even if GN told them, the direction they were going with Linus Media Group and the new CEO and the buyout offer and all of that suggests where LMG’s wouldn’t be concerned with it as much as making sure the timing of their content maximizes revenue. Data issues brought to them by GN and the community would be cast to the wayside with just a footnote and silent correction, maybe with a couple empty words sprinkled on top.

So I’ll say it again to Linus from a fellow Canadian, whether he’ll listen or not: “Slow down, bud!”

Rentlar, 10 months ago

I use her current preferred pronouns, there are multiple Emilys at the LMG team and for people that might not recognize who I’m talking about if they haven’t watched LTT for a while (since 3 months ago). I figured by adding “formerly”, I was clear that it’s a name she no longer goes by and doesn’t feel represented herself well.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

You found a real-life mimic in the form of a trash can!

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Sorry to hear that happened to you. Glad to have you back, and remember to keep going at a pace that’s comfortable for you!

Rentlar, 10 months ago

I swung a hammer at a wall! Damn it, there’s a hole in the wall. Why doesn’t the hammer have any safeguards against ruining my walls?

Eric Andre shoots his show sidekick Hannibal and looking confused

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Just have them be overridden with a key like Elevators. Let policemen and other responders be able to drive, stop or direct them by inserting the fireman’s key.

Or alternatively, just take full liberty and bash the autonomous vehicle out of the way. No key required.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

It doesn’t necessarily have to be a get-free-car feature. It could be limited to 20km/h or something if operated in control mode.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

It doesn’t have a crazy amount of features, but I use Odessey music player app.

It’s free, open source GPLv3. Does what I need, looks fine.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Been having good fun with Baldur’s gate 3. Combat is taking me a bit of getting used to but it’s overall pretty nice. The plenty of character cutscenes really are nice. One suggestion for improvement is that I need all of the characters to have the Scottish accent, not just some.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

I’ve done both and I do like ultrawide for gaming. Spreadsheet/Email/Research work I like dual monitor better because I can write something while looking at source material without as much rearranging.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Like another user said, take as much as you can comfortable handle at one time, as FOSS cold-turkey can be exhausting.

It’s a bit like trying to stop using Nestle or another multinational’s shit, once you realize how many brands and sub-brands are owned by the big bad, it can make one feel pointless doing it (like just switching from one to another big bad). Replace one thing at a time to make it easier on yourself.

Think of it this way. If FOSS is a rebel movement in the eyes of a world oligopolized by Big Tech, you can’t just expect to overturn the core in a day. You take it slow and let the open-source movement and your desire to try out promising FOSS software one at a time drive you to become a knowledgeable power user, rather than trying to force upon yourself a lifestyle you might not necessarily want at this moment.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Isn’t that what all that “business” is about? Innovating to keep up with other available alternatives?

Managers and company executives hoping to get people back into the office by whining and saying that’s how it used to be ain’t gonna work. They will have to offer something to stay competitive. Be it higher pay (compensation for commuting), better flexibility, better office resources (not just donuts and smiley stickers).

Rentlar, 10 months ago

For prepaid phones or international roaming phones, you’d be charged for a 1 minute call and hit with a roaming charge.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

For my use case this is a positive change (for once). The less data I need to waste loading a Mr. Beast face thumbnail I don’t need the better.

I wonder if it is intended to cause NewPipe to crash, lol. Or to instead fill the page with ads later.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Maybe they are using the Nvidia school of data visualization…

Rentlar, 10 months ago

They are halfway to iPhone XXX

Rentlar, 10 months ago

No it’s totally normal. I like to put my own answer in a parent comment rather than in the post body. The People ^™^ will decide whether it should be at the top.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

I don’t. I find I’m enjoying the age I’m at and it would be excellent if I could stay like this forever! I can go on 5 hour hikes and kayak rides if I get too old my back or legs or arms will get sore just like they do now, but then won’t stop being sore. Sounds like you haven’t reached 20 yet, you’ll learn a lot yet!

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Aww that’s so sweet! My favourite Legendary!

Rentlar, 10 months ago

I use my GMail app and IMAP on desktop anyway so I don’t come across these silly things. Their labels thing still doesn’t make any sense at all.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

(This is a long ramble. It might not help you but whatever.)

TL:DR; life sucks, it might not suck later, find the good in your situation, make human connection, and ultimately things are only a small part in your control

The promise of a “they lived happily ever after”/perfectly good world is a lie and a fairy tale, simple as that. People are liars, nature and society are cruel, NOTHING you do will change that. Life sucks and your life in particular has really sucked to this point. BUT, that doesn’t mean your life must suck forever. You appear smart and intelligent enough to even be able to write out something like this. Even if you had an appearance (or smell) that petrifies people on sight like Medusa 😅, your wits are worth something.

The people who often say “it will get better” either have a lot of things going for them that you don’t, or have just learned to live with their awful situation and making the most of it. My situation (which hardly compares to yours at all) got better from previously, but it’s in no small part thanks to people who stepped up and gave me advice and support when I needed it.

You sound like you are somewhere in the USA. In Canada we have a real affordability crisis as it is, but the States somehow has an extra ingrained disdain for people just looking to scrape by, as if they somehow deserve suffering. I’m glad you at least have internet access, I’ve recently helped a homeless person who had no working electronics and it was surprisingly challenging, since virtually everything is online or a phone call away.

You need someone to talk to, someone you can trust or something to look forward to. You need help, and you need someone in your corner who can vouch for you. Too much suffering will break you permanently, through PTSD (which compounds traumatic experiences you’ve been through alresdy), just not eating or sleeping enough, or through an addiction to drugs.

Now, you can’t force someone else to love you, but what can you do on your own part? Nature walks, visits to the library for inexpensive solo activities. Does disability/welfare give you ANY mental health support at all? Cause dude that is something you will need to address to even start to solve half these issues. You play DnD, start by at least appreciating you have a healthy distraction (if this is how you want to refer to it) to a painful life. Don’t unload on people that don’t want to be your therapist, but make use of a real human connection to talk about things you like and listen to their experiences too.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Threads is on track to earn the title of “most actively dropped social network”.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Hey I appreciate you putting US-specific in the post title.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

There are worse ways to earn a week’s worth of food for one person.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Here’s something: I’d like to see more posted in !betterment

It’s a good place for people to post the big and the small things people have done or changes they have made to improve themselves or the world around them.

No news, no doom and gloom, just good vibes, encouragement and seeing the little nice things people do for each other.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

I mean it’s a good thing he’s found you as a helpful mentor.

One online personality who I know is fairly good at explaining things in terms even people caught in right-wing pipelines can understand: Beau of the Fifth Column on YouTube.

Take this video for example on the topic of masculinity. Here Beau talks about the current trend of projecting masculinity and “being manly” through things like posture, limiting yourself to specific hobbies, talking certain ways and making yourself appear stoic to attract girls. He says it’s not unlike how women were trained to behave in the 19th century in order to court a man.

His style is patient, and he speaks in a way that can resonate with a lot of people, including those who are confused about certain progressive people movements, and even those that are settled deep in the conservative tar pit.

You’ll want to avoid sounding too preachy all the time, and be sure you recognize and empathize with anything he might be struggling with.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Yeah that’s the kind of thing Beau is good at. I didn’t want to spoil too much of the video and kept the summary to two sentences, but that’s one of the points where Beau challenges the viewer with something unexpected, that gets them to open their mind up and think a little, even if for just a moment.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

My advice: reply to 7-21 day old posts! Go to !chat, !askbeehaw and speak your mind! !chat needs more posts too! OPs there still tend to respond to those posts.

Lemmy is first and foremost a link aggregator you know. So it’s not surprising there are a lot of news links. I think each community is different in terms of the percentage breakdown between news, discussion and meta-discussion.

I don’t have a clear idea of what you’d want out of Lemmy, but I’m open to hearing it for ideas to make an effort to make Beehaw a livelier place that I could try contributing to myself.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Is it piracy to do that? I’d argue no.

Is it illegal? Possibly, but it’s a grey area and it all depends on your country whether it breaks the law.

(I am not a lawyer so take this as an armchair opinion at most) In Canada, you are allowed to do “format conversion” of media for personal and archival use. So even if on the label it says “Copying this tape is a crime”, making a copy to replace an older tape nearing the end of its life (implying you don’t intend to use it), converting it to CD or digital file format is allowed in order to play the media in respective devices built for the formats. So it’s arguable that conversions/changes to be compatible with Linux or a low-disk space computer could fall under this, for a game which you have a license/genuine copy.

The caveat is that in Canada breaking or circumventing “digital locks” is strictly against the law. The overall definition of what constitutes a digital lock is (to me) very broad and vague. So DRM-removal would arguably fall under digital lock circumvention, but other cases would be less clear.

Legislation is in the House of Commons right now (Bill C-244) to better define in what cases circumvention of locks would be permitted for fair and reasonable use of a product.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

(Again I’m not an expert) With the Steam Subscriber Agreement it’s effectively a purchase of a perpetual/indefinite license to non-commercial use of a game. But purchasing a DVD is, arguably, the same thing, you are given indefinite license to view the video non-commercially in a home setting. What difference does it make between a game on your hard drive and a movie on a disc?

By my moral standard, games with Steamworks bypassed by something like Goldberg is functionally equivalent to DVD decryption. It’s my opinion that the continued access to social and internet connected features like Friends list, Workshop, Matchmaking, Redownloading games, Cloud Save Backups is contingent on accepting and adhering to your agreement with Valve and/or the server hosting the matchmacking service. That’s why I’m very much against always online type of DRMs for single player games.

Imagine having a pool in your backyard, but the pool installers have to permit and supervise you while you use it. For a public pool it would make sense to be supervised for everyone’s safety to ensure no one’s messing around, but for your own pool it doesn’t.

Rentlar, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

TL:DR; Been there. Ask yourself what it is you really want out of this struggle. If obtaining it would make it worth it and $ isn’t a pressing issue, go for it.

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How have you felt so far? How close do you feel, any closer in any way than when you first finished school (or whatever marked the start of your journey) looking for the next opportunity? How are your finances?

Do you still in your heart believe that this is the direction you would want to go? If you manage to obtain it before the end of the year or next year, would you look back and say to yourself, the struggle and the wait was worth it for this?

If you feel like you’re going through what you’re doing just because of sunk-cost, probably be a good idea to change your course. If your desire to take this path, even if it wavers a little, and the passion you had going into this journey remains, then keep going and keep trying.

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I’d consider myself fortunate in the circumstances of my life, but I’ve been there a couple times, where as I finish the program I’ve been doing, the railroad track I’ve been following in my life seems to disappear in a dense fog of unknown, quickly approaching and it sometimes appearing like a cliff.

You never know what the future will hold, trying to predict every single possibility before deciding will only make your head spin (it did mine). What will happen will happen, but what you have control over is what you yourself would do about it. No matter what path you take, acknowledge ‘possibility’ but focus less on the unknown and focus more on how you can best prepare to reach your goal.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Comment bots are mostly fine so long as they are clearly labelled, don’t take up unnecessary amounts of space, have clear purpose and add value to an article or discussion. So stuff like TLDR, Piped, Wiki bots are fine. Stuff like GROND, GPT (even though it’s cool we have a Masto feature that does that), Anakin, Musk bots aren’t useful here imo.

Post bots, I’m kind of on the side of I’d rather not see them, I like talking about articles with the user who posted it. I won’t be too upset if they end up allowed, though. A whitelist, or a strictly enforced guideline would be acceptable for me.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

@RemindMe is a bot you can use to remind you.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Thanks, but “I’m fine with it” doesn’t necessarily mean I would miss it if it’s gone.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Have an excellent time! You are right that taking breaks on occasion is a healthy way to engage with a social site like Beehaw!

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Totally agree with you, both admins and users have made this such a great little space to have friendly conversation.

It’s an excellent proof of concept that with the right moderation and community mindset, it is possible to have an online space to discuss conflicting opinions without being dickheads. With how a lot of big social media feeds on toxicity and antagonism for the sake of engagement, it seemed like this kind of place couldn’t exist online. Beehaw sure proves this wrong, thanks to the tireless work of mods to banish trolls and the generally compassionate and empathetic attitude of users.

Weeks ago there seemed to be an issue with posts not loading for the first minute of every hour, but it appears to be resolved by now. That’s just to say that in general it’s been solid but there have been patches of instability, like most any Lemmy server.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

I just started a new job not too long ago after a year of being unemployed…

It’s hard and the whole recruitment process is soooo bullshit 90% of the time.

You can’t force someone to give you a job and most of the time that you don’t land a job it’s not because of you. I know I blamed myself for not having a job many days, but in reality the circumstances are not in your control.

Some HR take months to move their arse on a requisition, stringing you along with boilerplate responses to followups for months. Some months I got no bites, other months I got 3 interviews.

Get references, study (whether in a school, books at the library in areas of interest), figure out what kind of jobs you want, apply to whatever jobs you think you want, get people you know to refer you to their work, take certifications, go to industry conferences of your interest, join professional groups. Get a recruiting agency to help you. Go to employment counseling.

It took me a year despite doing every single one of these things. Some days it was easy for me, other days it was hard even without any specific disability. Do your best, be the best yourself you can be, don’t let being without a job define yourself. Look more towards the person you want to be, and start with changing the things you can change rather than what you can’t.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

I’m not a lawyer, this is my personal opinion which has no basis in legal fact. Use my words at your own peril.

Tom’s video goes very nicely in-depth, and makes a good argument for why a lot of media, memeing and things in content do not fall under fair use and are considered copyright infringement in US/UK law.

A judge could just as well make a ruling that widens the understanding of fair use in copyright law as they could restrict it in favour of copyright owners. Big firms like Sony do court shop so they will try to find somewhere that would more likely rule in their favour. Just saying it might not be entirely beneficial even for companies with huge coffers to try to define where the line is for fair use through a suit.

Especially for copyrights owned by businesses that have gone under or just completely orphaned copyrighted works, I think the law should be changed such that those rights return to the original creator or the work enters the public domain. I agree with Tom in general that copyright ought to last less than 50 years, ideally 20, but big entertainment ain’t gonna let that happen anytime soon.

Courts and lawyers and the whole system being so trigger-happy with lawsuits in the US just makes my head spin. It is the “land of the fee” after all, the team with big bucks often wins out nowadays.

In any case, I can’t wait for next year for it to be legal to draw a “fanart” Steamboat Willie sporting a very large willy.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Stallman would disapprove:

rms Absolutely Proprietary

Rentlar, 10 months ago

Elon is the master of baiting.

Rentlar, 11 months ago

From the article:

If you want a certain feature, or are waiting for the release of a new version of the software you use, or have a bug: I urge you to please be patient with the developers. There’s an enormous amount of work to do, and every project is understaffed and strained for finances at the moment.

Please please please be nice to people that are taking their own time and mental energy from their own lives without material compensation to give you something cool to enjoy.

I get things can be frustrating when something needs fixing, but people that contribute here are mostly overworked and underfunded.

And those that are helping out but feeling overworked, do take breaks regularly before you get permanently burnt out on it. That should be normalized, it goes for Beehaw admins and other Fediverse admins mods and contributors as well.

Rentlar, 11 months ago

I agree with your assessment that the Fediverse would be healthier encouraging small to mid-sized servers to populate with each having active groups of members contributing a fair share of money or time.

I’m just confused by the other parts of your comment. Donation-based financing appear to work for some instances like Beehaw at least for hosting and backup costs, but how do you determine what is a fair contribution and who is freeloading? Should the admins be taking a minimum wage salary from the fund as fair compensation of their work? Are the free-loaders the prolific posters or commenters, the chronic lurker who only votes, or the people that only visit the website once in a while?

A slush fund non-profit to help get small and mid-sized servers up, running and maintained as suggested in the article is a good idea.

Also I’ve long been telling the admins since 2 months ago to take breaks as needed and forgive themselves for mistakes they might make. It’s a lot of work, and burnout shouldn’t be normalized. Instead, taking breaks for the purpose of mental health before it reaches a breaking point should be normalized.

About the first part of your comment, some of the ideas around “professionalization” imo would make Beehaw lose a part of it that I love. How in my experience it’s a little rough around the edges but friendlier in a deeper way than most social media, relying on common sense and mutual understanding to keep arguments from getting too heated, and a strict but well-defined and equitable approach to moderation. I get why it might work better in many aspects, but the raw conversation I was able to have even with people I vehemently disagreed with on Beehaw has been an amazing experience.

Rentlar, 10 months ago

It certainly helped me during my first Slay the Spire runs, when I’d often mess up the order of the cards (the most common being applying vulnerable AFTER doing all of my attacks).

Rentlar, 11 months ago

lemmystatus.org

Rentlar, 11 months ago

I’m still using a Samsung S7 (but only for a few months more now, it needs upgrading), and it surprised me that most flagships have removed good features!

I knew about no physical nav buttons and the headphone jack, but why the SD card slot? Come on!