121–130 of 496 posts
Such a complicated solution. Here's a much simpler one: Stop using Facebook. Problem solved.
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Another peak self-absorbed Hacker News comment, in which we learn that curiosity only means tinkering with devices, learning how they work to the bits, plus some random Linux thrown in. This comment is ignoring that a device that does all that without you having to worry about how it works is a tool way more powerful than one in which you need to at least know how to build everything from scratch with an enormous lea…
I think you are mixing up "not having to worry about how it works" with "having the freedom to tinker". We should demand both. One reason is for our curiosity. The other is to have checks and balances on the big companies.
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I don’t know. Why can’t we have both? Why can’t we have devices that permit “mucking about” but also when configured appropriately allow us to ignore the low level details and muck about with higher level stuff? They don’t have to be mutually exclusive despite “bt whole home wifi app has detected this is a jailbroken device and for your safety will not run”. It’s my wifi, it’s my phone!
You literally have both, and more. Right now, I have a nearly uncrackable walled-garden iphone on my desk. And a mac laptop running XCode (learning about Metal programming), and at the same time running an Amiga emulator (tinkering with 68k assembly), and a windows gaming laptop next to it, and a breadboard on the floor with a pile of resistors and capacitors and transistors. So what's the problem again?
Even though this article is sarcastic(?) I can't help but get genuinely angry at these trillion dollar companies thinking they know what is better for us and trying to control and police everything. This is even worse than govt censoring porn and cuss-words back in the day thinking they know what is moral for the society. I was just talking to a friend the other day on how badly Apple and Google are trying their best…
Things like infinite scroll and autoplay should come with an option to turn them off and I think that’s well presented. Those are kind of dark patterns after All. Though, Apple probably isn’t in the position to enforce that; we unfortunately need to live with Jailbreak tweaks for them. But the rest of the post feels so off. Constantly nagging yourself to close social media? Reminding yourself that social media is a w…
I had never even considered it as a self-care system - but now that I do think about it, I agree with you.
I have my Mac announce the time every hour, which is very useful to make sure I don’t lose track of time - no matter what it is I’m doing
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Infinite scroll is not a dark pattern. Dark patterns are explicitly designed to conflate or deceive. Infinite scroll just gives people more of what they want. Turns out, most people, most of the time, want the gorbage.
Alcoholics want booze, but many of them wake up every day thinking today they won't drink anything, but they still do. Infinite scroll is a dark pattern in the way it gives you something your addicted brain wants, and therefore you think you might want, but it's actually just a way for them to get more money. Personal anecdote: I hardly read more than the front page on HN, even though I consider HN one of the least '…
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You literally have both, and more. Right now, I have a nearly uncrackable walled-garden iphone on my desk. And a mac laptop running XCode (learning about Metal programming), and at the same time running an Amiga emulator (tinkering with 68k assembly), and a windows gaming laptop next to it, and a breadboard on the floor with a pile of resistors and capacitors and transistors. So what's the problem again?
The problem is the kid will be given the iPhone and not the breadboard.
Such a complicated solution. Here's a much simpler one: Stop using Facebook. Problem solved.
In the same way that an alcoholic can just stop drinking and then they're no longer an alcoholic, right? That's not how addiction works.
I've used my phone's parental features to limit usage of social apps to one hour. It's protected by a somewhat randomly chosen PIN that I don't memorize but store in my password manager. If I want to override the time limit, I have to go and look up the PIN. Most of the time... too hard, move on to something more productive.
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Apple’s approach is pragmatic. If they offered anyone the ability to jailbreak, you would see major app makers manipulating naive users into jailbreaking in order to bypass security, payment restrictions or similar. Even the limited options Apple provides are already abused, such as Facebook convincing users to install VPN profiles with their Ovano product and abusing it to spy on users. Having the option defeats the…
At what point do we need to start worrying about Apple holding too much power over their closed ecosystem and can potentially abuse it?
Such a complicated solution. Here's a much simpler one: Stop using Facebook. Problem solved.
I think I should just get rid of my smart phone, but that's easier said than done.