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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • Not really. HTML has a formal standard and definition that covers how to properly handle most corner cases that can arise when displaying it. Markdown has no overarching formal standard and exists in multiple dialects which are not always compatible with each other.

    On the gripping hand, HTML involves more keystrokes (and technically speaking you need to include a bit of boilerplate in the file for it to be proper HTML). So it depends on whether you’re willing to do a bit more typing to make sure that no one can possibly confuse your italics with boldface.




  • There are two different types of ownership here, and you’re conflating them.

    One is the ownership of a digital copy on the same terms as a physical copy. That allows you to resell your copy, lend it to a friend, move it to a different device, retain the use of it even if the seller no longer exists . . . stuff that falls under the first-sale doctrine and other actions that are generally accepted as “okay” and reasonable. That’s what’s being called out here as not existing for most digital copies.

    The other is the ownership of the copyright and permissions to reproduce additional copies. However, that isn’t what most people expect to get when they’re purchasing a copy of a media work, regardless of whether it’s digital or physical. How IP in general and copyright in particular is handled does really need an overhaul, but that isn’t a problem specific to the digital world—it’s equally applicable to print books, oil paintings, and vinyl records.

    And to be honest, I’d prefer to see “lease” lose its meaning than “buy” go the same way, because apparently we can’t have both.





  • I would say that all issues can be traced back to letting people sell stuff on what was designed as a government/educational communications system. We keep on adding patches trying to smother commercially-motivated bad actors who were not an expected part of the original design, but it’s not really much different from playing whack-a-mole.

    (I didn’t read the article, but I imagine it’s Yet Another Idea for some kind of patch, and probably not a very good one, because most of them aren’t.)



  • The problem is not the hypothesis, the problem is that it isn’t really presented as a hypothesis. Reporting on the results before doing the experiment isn’t the way to go.

    Our theories of how the world works are necessarily incomplete, and experiments turn up things that overturn scientific understanding often enough. The way this is set up matches a common pattern of vilifying tech without seeing whether it’s deserved or not. Maybe not wearing a noise cancellation headset would, in fact, help this patient, but until that’s tested and found out to be true, reporting on it is just spreading FUD.



  • The cause of Sophie’s APD diagnosis is unknown, but her audiologist believes the overuse of noise-cancelling headphones, which Sophie wears for up to five hours a day, could have a part to play.

    Other audiologists agree, saying more research is needed into the potential effects of their prolonged use.

    That looks to me like, “audiologists have no bloody clue where this issue is coming from, and are therefore throwing shit at the wall in the hope that something will stick.”