it’s as simple as editing a single config file
It isn’t. Mastodon has a character limit hardcoded in two places. Critically, that’s not a limit on what it can receive and display, just on what local users can post. With Bluesky, it’s part of a schema that would be enforced on posts from elsewhere, if anybody was actually running a Bluesky-compatible appview in the wild.
There is a chance that I just don’t get microblogging. I’ve always felt that short character limits encourage people to make bad points that resonate emotionally but fall apart when thought through, and to yell at people they disagree with rather than being thoughtful.
I think the idea that forced brevity is an important component of microblogging is mistaken. Low friction to post, minimal formatting, and (optionally) collapsed long posts in feeds all encourage short posts without requiring them.
It might have served more of a purpose when Twitter launched because people weren’t in the habit of short text posts at the time, and because Twitter supported posting via SMS.
I don’t see value in a character limit other than whatever might be needed for technical reasons. Bluesky allows alt text for images to be 2000 characters, so clearly any technical limitations allow at least that much.
For those who prefer short text posts, hiding posts longer than a user-configurable setting behind a “see more” link would do.
Yet they still think it’s a good idea to limit text posts to 300 characters for reasons I cannot fathom.
And people wonder why I have no interest in getting a newer phone with an AI thing on it.
That’s good in theory, but a site behind Cloudflare won’t necessarily notice that a legitimate user got blocked. If you want them to care, you’ll have to find a way to contact them. For more impact, tell them which competitor you spent money with instead.
Total Webhosting Solutions
I’ve been with Porkbun since Gandi got acquired. No complaints.
That phone isn’t actually small. It has a small screen, but it’s 25mm thick and weighs 300g.
Great, but a web browser still does not need terms of service. There’s no ongoing relationship between the user and the creator of the browser, at least, there shouldn’t be unless the user signs up for additional optional services.
It’s great if Mozilla wants to offer some optional services users can opt in to, and those services probably need terms. I use Firefox Sync, though I’ve started to reconsider that given the recent fuss. The browser itself? I’ll move to a fork first, and stop recommending Firefox to others.
It already does, though not in the individualized manner he’s describing.
I don’t think that’s entirely a bad thing. Its current form, where priority one is keeping advertisers happy is a bad thing, but I’m going to guess everyone reading this has a machine learning algorithm of some sort keeping most of the spam out of their email.
BlueSky’s labelers are a step toward the individualized approach. I like them; one of the first things I did there is filter out what one labeler flags as AI-generated images.
Depending on how the requirement to accept the ToS is implemented, a config file might be able to disable it and any features that depend on it.
The product is a vaginal dilator, which has evidence supporting its use in treatment of several medical conditions. The distinction from a dildo has more to do with intended use than form.
The magnets are just woo.
I don’t think the current proposal in France sanctions individuals for using E2EE; it sanctions service providers for providing it.
But then what’s stopping someone in France from sideloading the app and using a VPN?
The need for a phone number and SMS verification to create an account. Signal should do something about that.
There are ways around that, but the goal isn’t to stop everyone from using E2EE; it’s to make E2EE non-mainstream.
The multitouch-only UI was the big thing that made the iPhone stand out from Blackberry and Windows Mobile. Palm was already on the decline. Android was intended to lean heavily on physical controls at the time, but was well on the way to release.
Several companies were already working on multitouch UIs, including Microsoft, Samsung, Mitsubishi, and startups like JazzMutant and Fingerworks; Apple bought Fingerworks. If Apple hadn’t, Microsoft probably would have been the first to add it to a phone OS, perhaps with Samsung as a hardware partner.
Other factors that contributed to the smartphone as we know it today include good enough cameras, 3G (enough bandwidth for the web), 4G (enough bandwidth for video), and falling prices on all of it.
A multitouch phone with native third-party apps, a decent browser, good camera, and fast networking was absolutely on the horizon by 2007. The iPhone certainly accelerated things, but there’s a reason Apple rushed to demo barely functional prototypes and released it without 3G.
Windows Mobile was already commercially available in phones when the iPhone came out. Android was well on its way.
Both changed in response to the iPhone, but I think evolution would have led to a similar place without it. Trends like the loss of physical keyboards were driven by improvements to capacitive touchscreens.
Facebook was a mostly-harmless multimedia blog site before smartphones. Both its addiction algorithm and being in everyone’s pocket contribute to its current harms, but both would have happened even if Apple hadn’t made a phone.
Smartphones resembling what we have now would have come out of a likely Windows/Android rivalry. They might even still have headphone jacks.
The AI thing I’d really like is an on-device classifier that decides with reasonably high reliability whether I would want my phone to interrupt me with a given notification or not. I already don’t allow useless notifications, but a message from a friend might be a question about something urgent, or a cat picture.
What I don’t want is:
It seems like those are the main AI features bundled on phones now, and I have no use for any of them.