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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 8th, 2023

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  • 1.5x speed is your friend, but (from memory) essentially it’s a video where he:

    • Criticises Linus/LTT/LMG for their handling of the initial review/problem and what happened with the female employee. Also points out their incompetence, fuck ups, and Linus not reacting as he should.

    • Criticises Gamers Nexus/Steve for the way he presents opinions as facts, nitpicking, how youtube channels should managed/updated, and his “gatekeeping”. Also mentions the comments about LMG hiring people from the industry and how they leave out important information about the people being hired as it doesn’t fit the narrative.

    • Criticises the community for being fanbois, sending threats, asking for Linus “head”, lack of understanding how content creation works and the difference between small and larger operations, the reaction to some of the official replies. Also, the difference between one person (eg: Linus) and the organisation (eg: LMG/LTT) and how Linus (or any “main” dude) probably doesn’t read or reply to most of emails.

    • Goes into content production from a point of view of a content producer (written and now video), the logistics of that and how it can be hard to fix mistakes, especially when different teams and people (with different areas of knowledge) are involved.

    Etc. I’m probably forgetting a few things, so watching the video and reading comments there is probably a good idea.




  • I don’t know what reddit is saying about Russia, but the “poor Russia, couldn’t help themselves and had to invade” doesn’t convince me. They made a calculated move which didn’t go as well as they expected. It happens sometimes.

    NATO had an “open-door” policy from the start. Russia knows this, so unless we really think everyone over there is really dumb, they knew that NATO’s “sure, maybe we’ll let you in sometime in the future” meant little. Ukraine was trying to join since the early 2000’s and the reply was always the same… Ukraine wasn’t going to join NATO in 2014, like zero chance. I recommend reading about the state of their forces, corruption, etc, at the time. What changed was that Yanukovych was going to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, something that most of Ukraine supported (if we’re to trust polls and look at the reaction when he unexpectedly changed his mind) while Russia wanted Ukraine to do the same agreement with them instead.

    The existential threat… I don’t know. Do you really think that their “existential threat” is now higher that Finland joined NATO (because of Russia’s actions)? Estonia is fine, but Ukraine is makes that “existential threat” much, much worse? And who the hell is going to start a war in Russia when they have capacity to reply to normal attacks and will, without a doubt, use their nukes if invaded? Does NATO now have a death wish or something like that?

    I keep reading about that non expansion promise… again, I guess you all think Russians are dumb and got verbal assurances thinking that it’s the same as having them in writing. In any case, Russia doesn’t own eastern Europe, many countries have made clear they don’t want to be under their thumb or be part of their country. If Russia doesn’t like this, well, though luck. A reality check would also help here… they’re not the USSR.

    The Vietnam example wasn’t a good one, but my point is that if we start finding excuses to justify wars, well, we can, but it never ends and it’s never our fault.

    The US has some history with Cuba… but the only time when there was a really serious reaction wasn’t when Castro became friends with the Soviet Union… it was when nukes were deployed in Cuba (partially their fault, after deploying theirs in Turkey). Russia invaded Ukraine because they were winking at the EU and NATO… like, they didn’t even kiss!

    I know why they invaded, but I also believe in taking responsibility for one’s actions. We can talk about moral responsibility, but at the end of the day Russia invaded Ukraine and therefore they are responsible for the war they started.


  • Oh, I’m liberal now. Weird as I was a fascist just before I left reddit. In a few hours someone will call me a communist.

    You should be honest with yourself and at least become familiar with the context of the demands before forming an opinion. I’ll give you a hint: UA does have a very real Nazi problem that is directly connected to RF’s invasion.

    I’m very honest with myself. I also try to not bullshit myself into believing it’s only an Ukraine problem.

    Russia didn’t invade Crimea and then the Donbas region in 2014 because of Nazis. After Yanukovych weirdly reverted his position on Europe (European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement) and got kicked out, Russia decided to invade to support all those “Russian speakers”. Of course, there was even a referendum, but as Igor Girkin said, they had the guns and politicians did as they were told.

    People like to forget that far-right groups like the Azov Battalion and some of far-left/anarchist groups that joined the fight were only created after the invasion, after the Ukrainian army completely failed to do their job. It’s as if the ultra-nationalist and people with more extreme views in general are the first to react to an aggression against their country! /s

    But yes, Ukraine had “nazis”, but so did Russia. I recommend reading about people like Aleksandr Dugin (and his views), which seems to be liked even by Putin himself. As a space fan and a fan of some of the Soviet accomplishments, I couldn’t help but notice that when the war started, the boss of Roscosmos was Dmitry Rogozin… an old member of the Russian National Unity party, which had some “interesting” views. In fact, here’s a picture of young Rogozin with the flag of the party in the background. I’ll also give you a hint: they’re nazi as fuck.

    I guess we need to invade Russia, right? And make some demands where Russia gives away part of their territory… at least that’s what the very well informed and smart people such as yourself think should happen? Or this only applies to when Russia has a problem with someone else?

    Also, in 2019 the far-right party (Svoboda) received 2.16% of the votes in the whole country. Not even 3%. And then Russia comes in, invades Ukraine again and transforms Azov into national heroes. Well, good fucking job Russia! I’m sure that helps reducing support for nazis. /s

    These are open-ended questions and a proper explanation would take a long time. And let’s just say I’m dubious that you’re actually curious. The (over)simple answer is that they’re taking a deal to be subservient to the United States, which usually requires their political class, and therefore economic ruling class, to see an interest in doing do. Not that they’re correct - the US is slowly deindustrializing its European allies as we speak. The reason why those interests won out? Those are specific historical stories. Try answering your own question but for Ukraine’s toying with NAT membership. What led to the change in their political class?

    If that’s the case, then Putin must be part of the conspiracy? The guy managed to give a new life to the alliance and even recruited 2 new countries where popular support to joining used to be really low. There’s no way he’s helping NATO so much without being part of all that. Surely you can see the guy is a plant?

    Or maybe there’s a simpler explanation (Occam’s razor, for the cool kids).

    Maybe people read what Russian politicians say, look at the size of their country, remember what happened during the days of the Soviet Union (and now at what happened to Ukraine) and say: “maybe we should be friends with that big guy over there, just in case the local bully decides to invade us”.

    Of course my lIbErAl mind is too dumb to understand high level politics like you do, but if one reads Putin’s On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians and Address concerning the events in Ukraine, it’s not that hard to imagine that there’s a much simpler reason.

    What lead to the change in Ukraine’s political class? Other than Yanukovych’s reversal and people getting pissed? I don’t know. If you’re suggesting any foul play, I’d like to remind you that Russia intervened directly in Belarus and Kazakhstan, so apparently that’s all good.

    Case in point that you’re not curious in any real answers.

    I’m curious, that’s why I sometimes actually read what Mr Putin says, am aware of his obsession with Peter the Great and his conquest of the Azov sea, etc. I also watch a bit of Russian television as they have interesting views on countries around them. I’m not even talking about weekly threats of nuking European cities or higher ups at Russia Today suggesting that Ukrainian kids should be killed in a river… Did you know that Kazakhstan now has a lot of “ethnic Russians” in need of protection? A bit weird since everything was fine until they stopped playing ball with Russia…

    To know the real answers you can’t filter out everything that doesn’t fit your view. You have people like Putin making up excuses for his view that Ukraine is not really a proper country… yet you decide not to read it and to outright ignore it. And I’m the dumb guy who doesn’t want real answers?

    Liberals often use cartoonish examples to understand a world for which their knowledge and ideology are inadequate.

    My apologies, let me make it easier for you:

    • Russia, which is not governed by morons, decided to invade Ukraine to accomplish certain objectives. They knew what they were doing, you don’t need to make excuses up to defend their actions.

    • Like any major power, they don’t give a fuck about Ukraine or the people that live in Ukraine. It’s not a nice thing, but hey, it is what it is.

    • No, Russia didn’t have to invade. No, Ukraine wasn’t going to invade Russia (nuclear obviously, plus they struggle to take control of their own territory…). And no, there’s no way in hell 2014 Ukraine was going to join NATO (they’ve been trying since the early 2000’s…).

    Anyway, if you want to support them, then fine. Just don’t try to come up with bs excuses for what they’re doing. You like Russia and you like what they’re doing. I on the other hand don’t agree with they’re doing and also have a similar position when other countries do the same, so you can see why I don’t support their invasion of Ukraine.



  • You made 4 points about things that may or may not happen. For some of them you made the worst assumption possible (eg: batteries may not be available to buy. As if China won’t go brrrrrr making them :P ). And that’s why I said that “I guess” that for you the glass is half empty (aka you’re focusing mainly on possible issues).

    You might be right of course, but keep in mind that the main players (eg: Samsung, Apple) already sell some components to 3rd parties or are starting to do so. Even Apple, with all their control, don’t disable 3rd party batteries on their phones, they just show you a warning inside the settings menu. So, from a slightly different point of view, the glass is actually half full and you may not need additional rules. I guess we’ll have to wait and see if someone wants to piss off the EU and have more rules imposed on them.

    Anyway, it was a quick reply to the top comment on this thread (when I opened it at least). I didn’t spend much time trying interpret your comment :P




  • According to Russia, they started it all in 2014 by invading Crimea. They initially denied it, but then even Putin himself said that the Little Green Men were their special forces. People like Igor Girkin said he was commanding militias in Crimea and later in the Dombas and that they were composed of Russians and some Ukrainians. That’s what Russia says, so there’s no point in even trying to deny it.

    There was no Azov before the invasion. There was no war crimes. There was no famine. There was no shelling. No ceasefire violations. It started when Russia made the decision to invade Ukraine.

    Maybe you want to go further back? How far back? How about 1994 and the Budapest Memorandum where Russia agreed to respect Ukraine’s borders?

    Wait, I know, you’ll blame NATO. Care to explain why countries want to give some of their military freedom away just to join NATO? What is nice Russia doing or saying that makes them want to join? Could it be something to do with the regular comments about invading their countries or nuking their cities? And do you really think that a weak, bloated, and corrupt military (a fair description of pre-2014 Ukraine military) was going to be allowed into NATO (and we’re the ones falling for propaganda)? I’d also like to know your opinion about CSTO.

    Russia decided to invade Ukraine to expand their territory. That’s why Putin gave that long history lesson days before the invasion (the one that was not going to happen and was an American lie!). It’s was all there, for those who actually listened to it.

    If you want to support them, then do it, but at least grow up a pair and stop using bullshit excuses to support your position.


  • Every generation needs to adopt new technologies if they want to live in society. For some it was cars, for others it was phones, faxes or the internet. We also stop using older technology… for example, I’ve never sent a fax in my life. It probably sucks for people who still want to send faxes, but now you scan and email or take a picture and send it via your favourite app. Today you need internet and a phone. It is what it is… like every generation you either keep up or get left behind.

    Yes, smartphones can be used to manipulate and spy. You can also use them to learn, to be entertained, to drive to places you had no idea how to reach, keep in touch with people, and so on. I’m not being “controlled” by anyone when I pick my phone and make a video call to a friend or watch a tutorial about something I want to do. You’re only focusing on the bad aspects, so it’s not a surprise that phones are so evil for you. Plus, some people prefer to have all their tickets, cards, etc, inside an app instead of carrying coins and cards around… it’s not bad for everyone.

    Regarding China, yes, some countries will be like them. Some won’t. There’s a lot of stuff that have nothing to do with phones that could have be done by other countries, but haven’t because things are different. Governments want to control people, but you probably don’t need a permit to travel from one side of your country to the other like they do in China or used to to in the Soviet Union. Maybe I’m being naive, but I don’t see why every country must become very controlling surveillance states. It’s possible, but there are other possible outcomes too.

    I think it’s good to be aware about the negative aspects of technology, but to “hate the future” just because it may (or not) be worse than today doesn’t make sense to me. I’ll deal with the problem when and if it appears.



  • I bought a replacement in 2015 (months after the problem started), so no, I wasn’t trying to use the latest iOS on a 5 years old phone. Even if I was, it’s up to them to make sure it runs at least well enough and/or to provide a way to downgrade (something that Apple didn’t [still doesn’t?] allow you to do) as customers have no idea if the update has a problem before they install it and use it for a while.

    Only Apple can prove this as all we have is rumours, but I believe they started playing with the idea of slowing down devices way before that wider release years later. I remember finding similar reports when I tried to find out what was happening to my phone. There were complaints even on Apple’s own community forums: some owners had laggy iPhones while other owners, with the same device/model, were fine. Unfortunately, other than the usual user blaming from people that didn’t have the problem and the “buy a new phone” comments, no one suggested an actual fix.

    The slow down in 2017 was huge for some people. Here’s a 3 year old iPhone 6 that had its frequencies go from 1400 MHz to 600 MHz: https://twitter.com/Sam_RMSI/status/943400254451335168

    I’m far from being an Apple hater - I’m typing this on a M1 MBP after all - but it’s not okay to slow down phones like that without any warning, information or a way to disable the “feature”. The person above had their clock speeds drop to less than half of the original speeds! Like, what the heck?

    I’m sure they had good intentions, but in practice they slowed down some devices too much without any warning or a way to reverse the change. Their only fixes for the problem they created all involved giving them money: you either had to buy a new phone or pay for a battery replacement which was not that cheap. They had to be sued first and only then they added a setting to disable the throttling and started offering affordable battery replacements…

    This type of behaviour from companies shouldn’t be defended or praised.



  • The intention was probably good, but at the end of the day my phone still lagged, I couldn’t disable or was aware of the “feature”, the guy at the store still told me to get a new phone, Apple still denied it at the time, etc. Willingly or not, they created a bad experience for some iPhone owners and made money selling new devices.

    I’m not getting any of this money and that was my first and last iPhone (I’m still pissed all these years later…), but it’s good that they’re receiving bad PR and have to pay something. Not only customers got cheap battery replacements and a setting to disable this (on newer iPhones) after the lawsuits, but next time they’re more likely to remember to create a help page on their site and to inform their store staff about features like this one.




  • We should bear in mind that the level of slow downs were worse on some devices than on others.

    I don’t know if it was the different SoCs or just different levels of throttling for different levels of battery wear, but my phone got really slow. There was no information about what was going on, no way to disable the slow down, and Apple support back then would tell you to just get a new phone (which they did to me).

    While the idea behind the slow downs is solid and I’ve done it myself on old laptops with bad batteries, doing it behind the scenes without informing anyone and then making money by selling new devices is not something that should be praised. Apple probably made more money than what they’ll have to pay with this settlement, but still… better something than nothing.


  • I had an iPhone 5 and it was slowed down after a year and a half or so. Formatted it, then disabled animations, etc, but by the end it was really slow to use. The nearest official store suggested a new phone since the model was almost 3 years ago, even though I had used it for less than 2 years.

    I had no idea what the problem was. No way to disable it or a cheap way to replace the battery. All that only came after they were sued.

    They fucked up by not telling anyone they were doing it and not providing a way to reverse the slow downs. Having their employees suggesting getting a new phone instead of fixing the damn problem was also what I consider to be scummy behaviour.

    A few years after getting a new phone (an Android one though, I don’t like to reward bad behaviour), I went back to the iPhone and it was still lagging. There was a new major update available though… which made it a bit faster. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes, but only enforced my view that I was being pushed to buy a new phone.


  • The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

    I was affected by this way before they were sued, started offering cheap battery replacements, and added a setting to disable the throttling. Today you might turn on battery saving and not notice any slow down, but older iPhones were not like that. Depending on the throttling, everything would lag.

    Mine was lagging left and right after 1 year. I managed to make it better by disabling animations, etc, but after a while even that wasn’t enough to keep me happy. I went to my local official Apple store and the suggestion was to buy a new phone because mine (then owned for ~1 and a half years) was a 3 year old model.

    I had no idea what the problem was and there was no way to disable this. Apple’s fix was to buy a new phone. When I managed to get the money, I did buy a new phone… that was my first and last iPhone though. The phone I got next (from a then new brand called OnePlus) lasted 3 years on my hands without hidden throttling or random shutdowns.

    I understand why they did it and why it’s useful. The problem is that they did it behind people’s back without providing any information or a way to disable it, and then had their stores suggesting a new phone as a fix. For me this is scummy behaviour and shouldn’t be praised.



  • Firefox? I use it, but it’s a big org, one that Brave’s CEO even helped to create. If we dig enough and we’ll find dirt on people. And just one or two months ago, they displayed full window ads on Firefox.

    My point is that if we do this with everyone or every project, then we’ll run out of software that is acceptable to use. If I’m using anything related with GNU, then I have to stop because of Richard Stallman’s controversies. Linux? Are they all nice people? I doubt it.

    I’m not saying that people should use Brave - I certainly don’t use it - it’s just that if we have high bars for every piece of software we use, we’d run out of software to use (at least I would).