I just watched the Rerez video essay about the Ouya debacle earlier today. I followed Ouya news for a bit when the hype was strong, and I knew it fell off hard. But man, I didn’t realize just how bad it was.
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vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Technology@beehaw.org•The inarguable case for banning social media for teens
7·8 months agoMan, I still really struggle to understand how we can reliably age-gate anything on the Internet without sacrificing privacy for everyone.
IRL you can just show your govt issued ID, but there’s virtually zero privacy risk doing so. Bouncers don’t register ID scans, typically, and they’re just one person. The govt doesn’t know you went to that club or drank at that one bar, unless they’re actively surveilling you.
But if I needed to identify myself as an adult online, simply by virtue of how digital systems work, that probably requires checking against a govt database, and that database will keep logs, and now Trump knows I went to Pornhub, and likely also exactly what I watched or searched for.
Maybe I’m dumb, but I really don’t know any way around this sort of thing.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Technology@beehaw.org•The inarguable case for banning social media for teens
6·8 months agoI remember reading a Haidt article for an ethics class in grad school. The analysis felt… underwhelming? It’s been too long to remember the article, but I think it was something about the “morality” of conservatives being not worse but different than liberals (limited to the US, iirc). I just remember reading it and going… yeah conservative morality functions differently. It’s also just demonstrably worse, though, even based on what the article was focusing on?
That class was weird though. Mostly just a bunch of folks going,“yeah well this is what I care about” and disagreeing with each other with seemingly no intention whatsoever to try and evaluate or engage with one another.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Games@lemmy.world•Nintendo confirms $90 price for full Breath of the Wild experience on Switch 2English
312·9 months agoExisting owners can upgrade to the Switch 2 version for $10, gaining better framerates, higher resolutions, and HDR support.
I didn’t realize they had this option. As far as legal routes go, that’s not terrible (assuming there’s no weird downside, like no longer being able to play the original on the switch 1). Free would be better, of course, but $10 certainly beats paying $90 just to play the improved version on switch 2.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Gaming@lemmy.zip•Nintendo is Bringing Us Kicking and Screaming Into the $80 Game Era with the Switch 2English
2·9 months agoBeats me! But I’m unbothered, so no worries.
High skill ceiling?
More like a high skill floor! Good Lord, I don’t think I’d ever be able to beat that level without cheats, lol.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Gaming@lemmy.zip•Nintendo is Bringing Us Kicking and Screaming Into the $80 Game Era with the Switch 2English
510·9 months agoI’m weirdly okay with this?
I get most of my gaming on the cheap on PC, so I feel fine splurging for the occasional Nintendo title.
But as with all things, no reason to buy something you don’t want to pay for. If enough people can’t or won’t pay $80, then so be it.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Games@lemmy.world•Why We Love to Get Lost in Games: The Enduring Appeal of MetroidvaniasEnglish
2·10 months agoI think I’d put it this way - I like adventuring, exploring, and finding my way through an immersive world. I don’t like when I can’t seem to stumble into the exact right clue or secret passage or interactable and waste up to possibly hours scouring the same locations over and over.
That said, metroidvanias are my favorite videogame genre. I just had to accept that it’s okay to look up a guide or wiki before I get fully tilted.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Gaming@beehaw.org•Elder Scrolls creator Ted Peterson is “glad that people are wanting to break away from” watered-down RPGs as he works on an epic Daggerfall successor
2·11 months agoI think JRPGs do focus on choice, but usually more in terms of the gameplay and deep combat systems with weird synergies to discover. Story-wise… yeah definitely more linear.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Technology@beehaw.org•Knowing less about AI makes people more open to having it in their lives – new research
10·11 months agoHere’s an important bit from the actual journal article abstract
This lower literacy-greater receptivity link is not explained by differences in perceptions of AI’s capability, ethicality, or feared impact on humanity. Instead, this link occurs because people with lower AI literacy are more likely to perceive AI as magical and experience feelings of awe in the face of AI’s execution of tasks that seem to require uniquely human attributes.
It then goes on to say you should target ads for AI to people who don’t know anytime about AI, since they’ll see it as magical and buy in. Kinda gross, if you ask me.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Technology@beehaw.org•TikTok users particularly susceptible to Russian and Chinese misinformation, study finds
1·11 months agoComparisons to users on other social media networks would be useful, yeah.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Technology@beehaw.org•TikTok users particularly susceptible to Russian and Chinese misinformation, study finds
2·11 months agoI don’t think I ever learned how to properly source information from primary works until college. I didn’t really get it until grad school.
Kinda the same for the scientific method. In high school it was just a thing you learn and memorize, but barely ever applied, if at all, in the actual curriculum. I wish it had been impressed upon me at a much earlier stage of my life why the scientific method is so useful and how it led to the sheer boom in our knowledge as a species. Like, they do tell us… but we didn’t really get it. I’ve heard others had better teachers… But it really would be better if the system didn’t have to rely on winning the teacher lottery.
For anyone else who was unfamiliar:
Linear economy is a system in which people buy a product, use it, and then throw it away. The term linear refers to the straight progression that a product can follow, with a beginning, a middle and an end. There is no thought along the line regarding recycling or reuse. (per https://www.eib.org/en/stories/linear-economy-recycling#%3A~%3Atext=Linear+economy+is+a+system%2Cline+regarding+recycling+or+reuse.)
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Android@lemmy.world•Anyone just hates how some apps can disable screenshots?English
15·1 year agoThe same functionality that you use to take screenshots can be hijacked by bad actors to get access to your stuff. It’s especially bad if they can see your MFA apps or other sensitive info.
Not saying the functionality is always used for the best of intentions, but there are many situations where I see it as necessary.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Games@lemmy.world•Steam is 'an unsafe place for teens and young adults': US senator warns Gabe Newell of 'more intense scrutiny' from the government if Valve doesn't take action against extremist contentEnglish
6·1 year agoIirc, when the ADL put out their guidance on Pepe, it was during the 2016 election when Pepe was being actively coopted by alt-rightera and neo Nazis. One of those "take something innocuous and poison it by using it as a pseudo secret signal to other bigots.
I vaguely recall them saying that Pepe was a hate symbol only insofar as it was being used for that purpose. I wonder if that changed, or if this investigation is ignoring that nuance to hamfist a “hate speech” argument.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Selfhosted@lemmy.world•Why self host a password manager?English
6·1 year agoBitwarden’s free version is enough for my purposes, but I didn’t realize they had a $10/yr plan. That seems worth paying for, I’ll have to look into it.
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Gaming@beehaw.org•Nintendo has reportedly shut down Ryujinx, the Switch emulator that was supposedly immune
2·1 year agoOr giving yourself ulcers
vonbaronhans@midwest.socialto
Selfhosted@lemmy.world•What self hosting feels like (It's painful, please help 🥲)English
6·1 year agoJesus, technical people are some of the worst communicators I’ve ever worked with.
It’s not necessarily their fault though. Y’know who goes into technical jobs? People who often prefer to work with machines, physical stuff, laws of nature, that’s who. And often because it’s MUCH easier than working with people, at least for them.
On top of that, soft skills are HARD. Communication is HARD. It comes easier for some, but it’s a skill like any other. It’s the technical socialites, the diplomatic devs who become the best managers and leaders, due to the rarity of their hybrid skillsets.
I’m in the middle. Just technical enough to mostly understand the devs and understand the implications of plans, and just enough soft skills to turn that into decent documentation, emails, and working with clients.
SUCKS that I’ve gotten a taste of project management and hated the absolute fuck out of it. I probably would’ve been decent at it otherwise.

If I’m not mistaken (and I might be) the immutability can actually be toggled off for power users.