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Latest Comments by kneekoo
TUXEDO announce the Ryzen 7 4700U powered Aura 15
5 Oct 2020 at 2:45 am UTC

I literally don't care (much) about anything other than the FlexiCharger feature. :grin: :heart: That's what all mobile devices should have. Finally!

Open source graphics drivers get a boost with Mesa 20.2.0 out now
29 Sep 2020 at 9:40 pm UTC Likes: 1

Yeah, I already use that PPA, but I was hoping we'd get it officially. You're right, this does look more like a 20.10 release. Will it make it to the HWE stack for 20.04 users? Hopefully. I'm fine with trustworthy PPAs, but I'm happier with having as few as possible. :)

Open source graphics drivers get a boost with Mesa 20.2.0 out now
29 Sep 2020 at 2:15 pm UTC

Are there any chances for this release to get in Ubuntu 20.04.x at some point?

The Slimbook Essential is a new affordable Linux laptop line with two models
17 Sep 2020 at 3:45 am UTC Likes: 1

That's a pretty decent offer. My two big issues:
- They only have Intel CPUs;
- They don't offer Samsung 970 Pro or a "no storage" option, so I can add my own. Clearly, I don't want to pay for something I don't want to use. And I noticed this issue with other PCs on their website, so that's a no go for me. (not exclusive to them, System76 does the same :dizzy:)

Also, on their "Buy" pages the 15" model doesn't list the Intel AX200 WiFi, but only the AC model, and the 14" model doesn't list any WiFi adapter. Weird. These, plus the 404 link I got when I wanted to see their cookies policy made me think their website is a messy hack-job that wastes everyone's time with getting properly informed, decide if you really want to buy, ask questions, get answers, and then support, should you decide to buy anything. And then they have various usability issues and lacking translations here and there.

I know they're not very new to the market, which is why I expect better. I hope someone from them will read my message and set the necessary wheels in motion to fix and improve stuff. We're IT people, we're supposed to set an example for other industries.

Spiritfarer for Linux is now live on itch.io, dev apologises for ableist writing
13 Sep 2020 at 7:18 pm UTC

Quoting: tuubiPeople have always been shamed to compliance
That's true. The correct way to put it is that we're going through a new wave of shaming and virtue signaling, and it's still wrong. I guess the best thing to do is always call it out and to keep hoping that we will move past such social behavior.

Quoting: tuubiThe phenomena you bemoan are not exclusive to social media
The anonymity or the mere physical distance between those who post online make some people post seriously vile things that they likely don't do in person. Even I got threats of physical beating, through electronic means, for refusing to volunteer my time to further assist someone with his problem with a free software, but when I actually met the guy, in real life, by pure chance, he acted like nothing happened. Social media can actually be worse than real life in various circumstances. It's a serious thing, so there's no need to downplay it to people bemoaning it. So when it happens, it has to be called out.

Quoting: tuubiI don't see the point in blaming social media in general for the behavior of people using it.
I specifically blamed the people who do this. The social media is simply their avenue.

Quoting: tuubiIn the end, I'm sure you'll agree that we have no right to tell the developer what they should or should not do. It's presumptuous to assume you know what went through the developer's head.
True. I didn't claim to know the truth, but "I don't believe the developer really thinks..." and that there was no need to fix what wasn't broken in the first place.

Quoting: tuubiThe whole negative publicity thing would have been sufficiently well handled with a message in the vein of "we acknowledge the issue and will try to do better in the future", sincere or not, so I'd like to think they actually did agree and weren't just doing damage control.
See, this is where the flip side of the coin really stands. Some people overreact online, others fake a reply, and some by standers are happy as long as there's a message, sincere or not. Why do fake damage control?

If we really want to evolve as a society, we're supposed to have an honest and civilized talk, and learn from it. It's fine if we don't agree on everything, and it's not an offense to think differently. But talking is essential, and so is to learn to empathize so we can offend less, and also learn how to not be offended to the point we react like that. Because what applies to us doesn't apply to others.

Games, movies, art, they can strike chords in people who really look into those creations. It can be both good and bad, but I'd venture to say that the majority are not designed to offend people in general or in particular. The role of artistic expression is to offer people a distinct environment where they can place themselves to discover new things about the world, about people, and even themselves. That kind of a discovery is supposed to make us wiser and more considerate to all kinds of people.

The Imitation Game [External Link] and Hidden Figures [External Link] are two great examples of more recent movies that some people can use to "grow up" and understand how important it is to act like human beings. And it's completely reasonable to say that it's not just a category of people who need to better themselves. We're broken in different ways, and instead of becoming angry and loud with each other, it would be more effective and a lot more peaceful to help each other improve. It's not an easy thing to do, but it's well worth the effort.

Spiritfarer for Linux is now live on itch.io, dev apologises for ableist writing
13 Sep 2020 at 9:07 am UTC

Quoting: tuubiIs it just the macho notion that compromises and apologies are somehow shameful? That they're signs of weakness? As if honestly engaging and compromising with someone is always somehow letting down everyone else.
It can certainly interpreted this way as well, but it's not the case here. Go down a few pages of tweets in this thread [External Link] to see the negative reactions.

If you've been active on Twitter for at least of few months, you're probably aware of how people gang up on others for some reason, and it usually gets seriously ugly, no matter how polite you to talk to them. No wonder an indie developer who can't afford bad publicity wanted to fix this complaint as quickly as possible without even trying to bring up valid points. I don't believe the developer really thinks there aren't disabled people who hate their wheelchairs, who had no problem at all with the game characters.

Had the complaint come from an enabled person simply ranting about something in the game, as it happens with every game, the situation could've been addressed reasonably. But not immediately addressing the negative reactions of a disabled person, who happens to be a girl, who describes herself as "aggressively disabled and queer", easily brings a lot worse reactions than the existing ones in the thread I mentioned.

We, as a society, are going through a phase of shaming and virtue signaling. There's almost zero chance to get away from an angry mob who shows up to "dismantle" the accused person(s) if the accuser is part of a minority or not in an apparent position of power.

In that Twitter thread someone said:
I played this game and I'm trying to understand the problem. I came away thinking the problem wasn't the chair, but that due to his paralysis and wheelchair people were treating him differently and belittling him. The character even says the issue isn't the chair in game.
Then in this very forum thread we learned that someone's mother hates her wheelchair. So while the Twitter complaint is legitimate, the character in the game is just as legitimate (and it's fiction anyway). There was no need to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place.

We can all cherry pick character traits and dialogs that offend us in some game, movie or other works of artistic expression - if we take it personally. But should we feel offended? Is that more important than realizing that plenty of people like us are also different from us? If we go down the path of getting easily offended, there's no hope for people to ever get along. Getting along requires us to acknowledge and respect differences, as well as the fact that maybe except for breathing, nothing is for everyone. What I like/love, others can easily dislike/hate. No game can make everyone happy [External Link] - not even the top rated games, they still have negative ratings.

"Learn how not to offend, but work even harder to not be offended." - spaceXcentric [External Link]

Spiritfarer for Linux is now live on itch.io, dev apologises for ableist writing
11 Sep 2020 at 5:25 am UTC

The need of some people to have fictional characters reflect real-life people is rather weird. Most art, movies, games, etc are work of fiction and the depth of each work goes way beyond the creator's knowledge of each particular character. It's not the point of most works to replicate some real-life people, situations, etc, but to create something that triggers certain responses in the audience.

The problem is some people seem to be focused on finding thing that trigger them in a negative way, so they can complain. I don't see how a real disabled person wouldn't hate their disability, chair, or whatever else, just like an enabled person would hate their weight, height, mental/social/etc abilities, and so on. Sure, not everyone hates stuff. But then why can't people acknowledge the differences between them, despite their similarities?

The game is about a spirit farer. As far as we know, there are no spirits and there are no people who guide dead people to another place. There's nothing wrong with a fictional character who wants something that a real person doesn't want. It's a story. Stop slamming creators for "isms" over fictional works.

As a real person I can't have all the positive and negative attributes of fictional characters, and it makes no sense for me to object to fiction or to get offended over something like that. How about we focus on the great parts of what people do, and if we think it's so important to point something out, why not do it in such a manner that others don't have to apologize?

Valve announce new Chat Filtering and a big change to Steam Wallet Codes
28 Aug 2020 at 9:26 pm UTC

Sure, filters, while the chat is so unstable. At least it is for me and a friend of mine. Every now and then we have to refresh because it stops sending/receiving messages. Their streaming service is also terrible (low res and fps), but I can understand that, considering it's not really economically viable to allow everyone to stream in high quality when they don't have subscriptions to offset the required infrastructure cost.