Showing 1 - 10 of 21
Can you trust search engines?
Life, James Hein, Published on 14/08/2024
» So how do conspiracy theories start and how does the internet and major search engine players contribute to them? As I type this, depending on where you are in the world, if you type "assassination attempt" in your search engine, and in particular one associated with Alphabet, the autofill options will have everything except "Trump" in the result set. You can get Kennedy, Hitler, Putin and George Wallace, but not the most prominent one so far this year that was one of those "where were you when you heard" events that some people saw in real time on their TV. The reason Alphabet offered for not giving the result was something along the lines that their policy is not to show political violence. You can of course find a plethora of political violence videos and examples from their search results, just not for this particular instance. Another example if you type "President Donald", the autofill adds Duck and Reagan but not Trump. Or if you Google Donald Trump you get a bunch of Kamala Harris results.
Tears of joy
Life, Komsan John Jandamit, Published on 24/05/2023
» An initial glance at the graphics and game world of Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, on the Nintendo Switch, would make anyone think it's just an expensive DLC (downloadable content).
YouTube ramps up ads, moderation
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/03/2023
» If this was a YouTube video you would have to sit through up to 30 seconds of ads before you could even start. YouTube seems to be stepping up its advertising while at the same time providing less service. I still use it because it has things I'm interested in, like Chinese martial arts series and info on music products I like. If I'd written this using ChatGPT you would not see some of the material because the trust and safety filters on the AI product have repeatedly been found to be biased towards the US political left in the content it will return. Some people associated with ChatGPT have acknowledged this but it remains to be seen if anything will change.
Is the new Twitter just like the old?
Life, James Hein, Published on 01/02/2023
» The Twitter situation is complex and somewhat confusing. On the one hand, all kinds of people from The Babylon Bee satirical website to former US president Donald Trump have been allowed back on the platform. The stated aim is to allow freedom of speech to be supported by Twitter once again. On the other hand, you can be banned by linking to a public photo of a public person on a public platform. The rule for the latter appears to only be for friends of Elon Musk. A YouTube channel I enjoy watching, The Quartering, did this after someone else had been banned and was also almost instantly banned himself. This is of course wrong in every respect especially given the individual in question, apparently now hypocritically, is always banging on about freedom of speech. Update, the ban is permanent.
EU demands Apple play fair
Life, James Hein, Published on 22/06/2022
» It looks like the Apple-specific charging cable may be a thing of the past with the European Union demanding that all smartphone makers use a universal USB-C port for wired charging by 2024. The same rule will be applied to many other electronic devices like tablets, cameras, headphones, handheld video game consoles and e-readers. In the future, laptops will need to follow the same rule.
Alternative social platforms can be expensive
Life, James Hein, Published on 10/11/2021
» The alternative social media platform Rumble recently bought out another platform for creators called Locals. Rumble is a YouTube-like platform and Locals is aimed more at the alternative blogging community, including names like Scott Adams and Dan Bongino. I don't think this will be a long-term successful merger for a simple reason, and that is money. To be fair Locals is an alternative to Patreon, a platform that will nuke your account if it doesn't like your politics as evidenced by a long list of conservative commentators being axed without warning.
Phone for pro-gamers
Life, Komsan John Jandamit, Published on 19/05/2021
» As a long-time on-the-go gamer who started with the original Nintendo Gameboy (now a full-time Nintendo Switch user), mobile gaming was always something that I enjoyed. But would a "gaming phone" such as this Lenovo Legion Phone Duel be able to quench my thirst to game and use it as a communication device at the same time?
Connecting in Covid times
Business, Published on 06/05/2020
» In 2003 when Linden Lab launched the virtual world Second Life, it was a novelty and a huge success, with a community of over a million at its peak. A quaint convergence of unfettered imagination and dollar-powered real life -- through avatars, business, product sales, music, movies, and even news reporting and politics -- its ever-changing and expanding virtual world took off.
All-round tablet for work and play
Life, Komsan John Jandamit, Published on 24/10/2018
» It's not often that a 4G-ready tablet comes equipped with high quality surround sound. So if you like to immerse yourself in your favourite apps on-the-go, this is the tablet for you.
Media consumption on-the-go, to the max
Life, Komsan John Jandamit, Published on 04/04/2018
» Let's focus on the screen first. With the world's best smartphone screen, verified by renowned DisplayMate, Samsung's latest S9+ makes other screens pale in comparison. Colour accuracy, crisp sharpness and deep black make the S9+ very pleasing to the eye, especially if you're crazy for YouTube and gaming.