arc

joined 2 years ago
[–] arc@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

Of course Chinese automakers threaten the US industry. Much like Japanese automakers did in the 70s and 80s. And there is a simple reason for that - Chinese cars makers are selling decent quality vehicles for less money than US (& European) automakers. And they're spearheading electric vehicles while the likes of Ford is actually cutting back on EV commitments.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 29 points 1 month ago (1 children)

French supermarkets all have very large and wide selection of "free from" style products for allergies and intolerances - gluten free, milk free. Plus vegan and vegetarian. In fact it would put most supermarkets in the US to shame. I also expect that many cafes in Paris cater for people with allergies.

So it's not that. More likely it's a surly waiter, or a tourist asking for something which is not on the menu and being upset by the answer.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

Fairphone don't sell replacement mainboards, presumably to stop people building phones from parts but they look very serviceable in other respects.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

They have them in all the McDonald's around here and I've never noticed any difference in smell. There is a sticker near the urinal saying they save tens of thousands of litres of drinking water per year which I can believe. I think the system has some kind of valve and siphon to prevent smells.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Men aren't dumping half a teaspoon of piss on the floor. Adults are capable of aiming and pissing and the only waste might be where piss strikes a surface and droplets escape the bowl - assuming the bowl was terrible and everyone in the nation pissed at the exact angle to cause droplets to achieve escape velocity. It's an absurd generalisation and also an absurd problem in search of a solution.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Seems like a complete lie. Men might lose a few drops due to the shape of the bowl tops. It's certainly not worth anyone tearing out urinals in the hope some hypothetical piss splashage goes down.

And personally a better goal for urinal design is water reduction. i.e. urinals that use no water, or the bare minimum to flush the piss through.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

AI is certainly a very handy tool and has helped me out a lot but anybody who thinks "vibe programming" (i.e. programming from ignorance) is a good idea or will save money is woefully misinformed. Hire good programmers, let them use AI if they like, but trust the programmer's judgement over some AI.

That's because you NEED that experience to notice the AI is outputting garbage. Otherwise it looks superficially okay but the code is terrible, or fragile, or not even doing what you asked it properly. e.g. if I asked Gemini to generate a web server with Jetty it might output something correct or an unholy mess of Jetty 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 with annotations and/or programmatic styles, or the correct / incorrect pom dependencies.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 5 points 2 months ago

I used to visit once or twice a year. I don't have any plans any time soon to go back.

[–] arc@lemm.ee -2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

When you "buy" software, you're buying a license that grants you permission to use it subject to the terms & conditions. The stealing as the law would see it is from using software without purchasing a license or using it in violation of the license.

It even extends to digital content people "buy" on Steam, or Google Play, or Amazon including books, music, and videos. You didn't buy that content, even if you think you did. You bought a license to it which is why occasionally Amazon or whoever will just scrub the content from your account without your consent. That's also why in some countries you pay VAT on e-books even though you don't pay VAT on real books - because you actually bought a software license which is liable to VAT.

So the best advice is don't buy digital media from online services. For games and software it is unavoidable but recognize you don't legally own squat although most console games on disc or cartridge can still be sold second hand. But even that is being eroded. Nintendo apparently are planning to sell "physical" games in stores but you open it up and there is a redemption code inside. Sony and Microsoft have both tried to get away from physical media too.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 17 points 2 months ago

I think there is an implication that if you buy a game which is online by nature (e.g. an MMO) that the servers can and will shut down eventually. My cupboard is filled with defunct MMOs. And people do not "own" any commercial software per se, they run it under licence.

So I don't see that Ubisoft has any legal obligation here. But as a good will gesture they really should put the server code in escrow, or open source chunks of it so that games can continue to enjoy life after the company itself has no economic incentive to continue running it.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

In any sane country assholes like this would instantly lose their medical licence. And if they weren't doctors to begin with, only pretending to be, they'd end up in prison.

[–] arc@lemm.ee 19 points 2 months ago

I have an EV and I still agree with this. An EV is better than an ICE vehicle but it is no substitute for designing cities around people - footpaths, cycle lanes, recreation, public transport etc.

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