If I had a nickel for every FOSS project creator named Andreas who rejects the neutral they…

As a reminder, you can always just uninstall OneDrive and call it a day.

Until Microsoft takes that option away as well…

On the one hand, having an AI generated alt-text on the client side would be much better than not having any alt-text at all. On the other hand, the pessemist in me thinks that if it becomes widely available, website makers will feel less of a need to add proper alt-text to their content.

The original research was regarding supercapacitors, not Lithium-ion. Based on the PNAS preview it seems it has to do with changing the design of a supercapacitor to increase charge rate.

Increasing capacitance (how much charge is stored to reach a certain voltage) or the voltage it is charged to would indeed increase the capacity. Putting several in parallel would work, as would making a bigger capacitor. The main problem as far as I can tell is that the energy density of even supercapacitors is low, so you’d need a much larger volume to have the same capacity (and thus a much thicker phone).

Alexandria and Stract use their own open source crawlers. Brave is also independent, if I recall correctly.

Although it is possible that some messaging apps send completely unencrypted messages, most (reputable) non-E2E apps are probably still using HTTPS. It just means that when the message arrives at the messaging app’s servers, they can decrypt the message and store it in plaintext.

DDG’s AI chat isn’t a search engine. It’s just a chat interface for GPT-3.5 Turbo and Claude, without any search access. It’s also not very up to date.

GPT-3.5 Turbo:

Who is the PM of the UK?

As of my last update, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is Boris Johnson. Please note that political positions can change, so I recommend checking the latest news sources for the most up-to-date information.

Is Queen Elizabeth still alive?

Yes, as of my last update, Queen Elizabeth II is still alive.

The Claude version doesn’t fare any better:

Is Queen Elizabeth still alive?

Yes, Queen Elizabeth II is still alive. She is the current and longest-reigning monarch of the United Kingdom, having ascended to the throne in 1952. As of 2023, she is 96 years old.

Are there any search engines other than perplexity that tie the sources to sections rather than just popping them all at the bottom? That always felt like the most practical layout for being able to easily cross-check information against their supposed sources.

The example implemented in Mithril.js, for comparison.

It’s more the other way around. Both distribution on the App Store and through third parties will incur the fee. However, if you don’t distribute on third parties, you can stay under Apple’s old terms, avoiding the fee. It’s a way of monetarily punishing third party app distribution.

Email subscriptions also sometimes have that, with bonus points for several vague and similar sounding categories, and emails not mentioning what category they’re in.

The problem is that Apple doesn’t accept the responsibility. it’s the DMA that’s doing this to their customers, not Apple. By vilifying the DMA as harmful to privacy and security, Apple gets to make themselves out to be the good guy. When things get worse, Apple can just blame the DMA again.

Yeah, that’s the more thorough version. My interpretation of the quote was to first search for stupidity, if only to confirm it is not in fact stupidity (but malice).

Is there a picture of what this actually looks / would look like? Honestly, although it is going down a bad path, it isn’t actually all that surprising. Firefox already has sponsored address bar suggestions by default.

I guess it kind of depends. Not really sure what most people actually use, but for those who use MS’s services, Office web isn’t great, and Skype for Linux is rather temperamental. A lot of games work under Proton, but not all.

My perception of “average user” is probably skewed towards being not technical enough to troubleshoot on their own, but skilled enough to run through a tutorial of what keys to press. For someone used to Windows, patching things up is simpler than learning all the ins and outs of a new OS.

I don’t disagree that most people would be fine using Linux, but there needs to be a compelling reason why Linux would be significantly better, or else the switching cost makes it not worthwhile.

When going from Windows to Linux, all of the tradeoffs are involved. For me what I don’t like about Windows outweighs the pain points of my choice of Linux distro, but for some they’d weigh the sides and Windows still comes out on top.

Anyway my take is that Linux is better ideologically, but for the average consumer who justs want to use their favorite apps, Windows works fine and they’re not really going to care until Windows piles on enough garbage to make switching worthwhile.

(Not the person you replied to)

Windows has issues, but so does Linux. My personal experience with Fedora (Silverblue) has been fairly good with minimal hassle (Gnome Software breaks sometimes with auto updates, but is leaps and bounds ahead of the Synaptic days). However, someone using other hardware, another distro, or using other software might have a lot more problems to contend with.

There’s a lot of case-by-case nuance that in my opinion makes broad switch from A to B recommendations less meaningful than discussing the pros and cons and letting people decide on their own whether Linux could be useful for them.

Another thing that they do that should make the process less vulnerable is they try to get developers involved in packaging their own applications (and have a verified badge, though I’m not sure how rigorous their verification is).

The main downside is that there is a lot less customization of filters short of using a different DNS. There is also the potential for logging DNS (present with normal DNS servers as well). LibreOps claims they don’t log requests, and personally I don’t think they have much reason to lie, but there is still that element of trust. Many of the more well known DNS servers don’t offer ad blocking DNS, so you’ll most likely be switching to a different provider.