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Joined 5 months ago
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Cake day: January 23rd, 2024

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  • mke@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldgoddamnit
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    37 seconds ago

    Sorry, is this comment meant in jest? If not, could you explain what exactly you mean by “no need for a converter?”

    I’m quite certain that’s not how it works. No actual file data conversion is happening when you do that unless you’re using additional tools e.g. extensions.



  • mke@lemmy.worldtomemes@lemmy.worldgoddamnit
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    3 minutes ago

    Semi-related, I’m still salty about Google’s rejection of JPEG XL. I can’t help but remember this when webp discussion crops up, since Google were the ones who created it.

    Why care about JPEG XL?

    Because it seems very promising. source

    Rejection?

    Google started working on JPEG XL support for chrome, then dropped it despite significant industry support. Apple is also in, by the way.

    Why did they do that?

    Don’t know, many possible reasons. In fairness, even Mozilla hasn’t decided to fully invest in it, and libjxl hasn’t defined a stable public API yet.

    That said, I don’t believe that’s the kind of issue that’d stop Google if they wanted to push something forward. They’d find a way, help development, something.

    And unfortunately for all of us, Google Chrome sort of… Immensely influences what the web is and will be. They can’t excuse themselves saying “they’ll work on it, if it gains traction” when them supporting anything is fundamental to it gaining traction in the first place.

    You’d have to believe Google is acting in good faith for the sake of the internet and its users. I don’t think I need to explain why that’s far from guaranteed and in many issues incredibly unlikely.

    Useless rant

    I really need a single page with all this information I can link every time image standards in the web are mentioned. There’s stuff I’m leaving out because writing these comments takes some work, especially on a phone, and I’m kinda tired of doing it.

    I still hold hope for JPEG XL and that Google will cave at some point.







  • We need to get our politicians to do a lot more, a lot faster.

    So we’re still doomed, then? I’m sorry, I’m sure lots of this is meant to be incredibly uplifting, but it reads an awful lot like “green is cheaper, trust the market! Numbers go up, up, up!” when you consider that:

    • Climate change is impacting countless people in horrible ways
    • Climate change is still getting worse

    The important thing to note here being that, even if a brighter future awaits beyond, the worst is yet to come. I’ll get back to this in a moment.

    Yes, that the science to save the human race exists is nice. Really nice. There was a period in which I genuinely wondered if there was any chance humans wouldn’t extinct themselves. But that was years ago. I’ve since learned that “saving the human species” is a terrible, disgusting metric. The future of what I consider humanity remains grim.

    Now, if the worst is yet to come, and we can’t yet even accurately predict how much worse the worst really will be, take a moment to reflect on this: which part of humanity is better prepared to weather the incoming changes, and which part is more likely to be labeled “climate change refugees?”

    Humanity isn’t only the richest. It’s not merely the wealthiest and most developed nations. Humanity is also a lot of people who will suffer, people who I’m unconvinced will receive the aid and support they need and deserve.

    Because the root cause of these issues, the systems that govern our society, have led us here and are unlikely to go away anytime soon. Because these systems have shown incredible prowess at protecting select groups of people from certain issues, while failing at completely fixing them, despite not struggling due to a lack of resources and continuous technological advances. If the pattern holds…

    Then humans will survive. Many will live well.

    Humanity is still pretty screwed.

    TL;DR:

    “The tools are here, we’ll be alright, just need political will!”

    Who’s we? And if getting politicians to do what’s right was that simple, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

    P.S. I’m not advocating for doom here, I just wish more people understood that Americans buying cheap Chinese electric cars won’t save the people living nearby the mine in Africa where the cobalt for those batteries was extracted.



  • “The elephant in the room – and the opportunity – is how to solve for the industry-created problem that people don’t like and don’t trust advertising,” said Garcia. “Privacy-enhancing tech doesn’t make creepy and disruptive ads less creepy or disruptive in the eyes of the average user.

    Emphasis mine.

    Betting on your reputation that users will trust you to adequately handle an issue that really seems like it’d end up with a conflict of interest seems like a fancier manner of saying you’re risking taking a dump on your reputation.

    No way through but forwards now, eh. Not feeling particularly optimistic, but I’m cheering for them all the same. Their concerns and observations about the direction the industry is headed in are valid.



  • I wouldn’t even call it competition proper.

    I’m sorry, but OBS is the gold standard, at least to me. I’ve no expectations that Valve will take its position… But they don’t need to. Thing is, for a lot of people, a simple GUI to clip and share gaming moments, especially without having to install and learn how to use new software, sounds great.

    Plus, I think it’s safe to assume Linux support is a target. I like it.





  • Responsibilities keep piling up, but I currently lack the necessary tools to do anything about most of them, which has me in a state of constant minor anxiety.

    On the other hand, I just ate a tasty sandwich, so that was nice. Also, my doggo is snoring right around the corner and the sound is so funny, I love it.

    You?



  • I’m withholding judgment until we get more details. I remember reading good things about Teixeira from people who worked with him, so putting aside this doozy of a case, hopefully his health and family will be alright.

    Nothing of worth to comment on the case, but something in the article caught me off guard:

    Firefox, […] is the company’s only profitable product.

    Is Pocket seriously not profitable? I keep seeing contradicting claims about it. Thinking I’ll need to learn how to read financial reports to get an actual answer.

    Edit: the audited financial statements 2020–2023 show continuous growth in subscription and advertising revenue, which is where Pocket is bundled alongside VPN, Monitor, etc.

    That doesn’t tell me anything about their individual operational expenses and whether any are profitable, though. Understandably, the organization might not have such a clear distinction between their expenses, or even if they do, they might not need to publish that… So how does one know if Pocket (in this instance) is profitable or not?

    If anyone out there who has made claims regarding the profitability of products such as Pocket can point me the way to finding this kind of information, I’d be immensely grateful.


  • Didn’t think I had to say it explicitly. As far as influencing Mozilla’s course, I don’t believe those to be very helpful methods. A fork may be helpful, but it highly depends on the developer(s). I argue against the second one all the time. Third is laughably counterproductive.

    Mozilla is capable of responding to (esp. proper) feedback. For example, regardless of what you think about the subject, the community sent a pretty clear message when they started accepting cryptocurrency donations, which I’m sure they’re still keeping in mind to this day.

    Point being, engaging with them is one thing that helps and I can do just fine. No need for “endless doom screeching.”

    Re: positive news. Yes, on paper it can. We’ll see how it turns out in reality. I’ve explained why I’m not immediately into it, though your comment seems to ignore that part of mine. I do want it to work out though, if for no other reason than because what’s done is done and ultimately, I just want Firefox to thrive.


  • Oh, we’re fully in agreement. I’m not arguing in favor of abandoning Firefox or Mozilla at all. I’m just saying frustration and anxiety are to be expected sometimes. Note that I’m not excusing rudeness or the like.

    Re: the burden of developing a modern browser, I wonder what librewolf evangelists think would happen to the project, if Firefox development by Mozilla were to fall due to any reason. To my view, the forks only exist because Firefox still does. After all, if managing an entire browser was possible with their resources, they wouldn’t need to fork one.