this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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[–] Grimy@lemmy.world 133 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

The video is 15 minutes long and at the four-second mark flashes a screenshot from Zoolander, in which the protagonist unveils the "Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good."

It also features a punchy techno backing track while wasting the reviewer's time with approximately 14 minutes of inactivity.

[–] ogeist@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago

Should have been an AI generated voice narrating the issue showing the words on the screen with Minecraft gameplay as background.

Idiocracy is now

[–] Newsteinleo@infosec.pub 153 points 3 days ago (4 children)

I have heard from friend that teach in higher end that students are struggling more and more with getting information from text. It seems those students have now found there way into the work force.

[–] chrash0@lemmy.world 130 points 3 days ago (4 children)

bruh i know people in their 40s making 6 figures that couldn’t read an error message if it would save ten generations of their family.

[–] Mic_Check_One_Two@reddthat.com 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Yeah, one of my most often stated phrases at work is “you can’t make people read.”

Error pops up, explaining exactly what the issue is and how to fix it? Oh god, let me call IT to see what I need to do. Yeah, you can’t make people read.

Some piece of equipment or machinery has changed in some meaningful way? Management is quick to go “just hang a sign on it, letting people know the new process.” Nope, you can’t make people read. People will physically move the sign to the side, try to use the machine like they previously did, and get surprised when it doesn’t work as expected.

Some area is unsafe due to work happening overhead? “Oh just hang signs on the doors, telling people not to come in.” No, you can’t make people read; I have seen people push their way past physical barriers with big “do not enter” signs, just to ask if we’re open. How about we lock the doors, and disable the keyways on all the doors (except one, where we have physical barriers to entry) until the work is completed?

The floor is freshly painted? People will walk past six different “do not enter - wet paint” signs and physically push past stanchions or barriers, and then act surprised when their shoes stick to the floor.

[–] 21Cabbage@lemmynsfw.com 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Was going to say, very much seems like the opposite of a generational problem. Seems more like everything we'd vaguely define as 'the tech industry' has become big enough that it's workforce now includes the individuals who wouldn't have been considered competent 10 years ago.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 days ago
>>> students are struggling more and more with getting information from text

>>> found there way
>> people [...] that
> it's workforce

The question is whether this running gag is intentional.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 9 points 2 days ago

One of my old coworkers from a place I no longer work would come to me for every exception his code threw. Being generous, I understand his intentions, he was curious if they were known problems or things to avoid. That said, every time I asked him what line of code it happened on or if he'd searched online about it the answer was no. I was probably ~25 at the time and had a bachelor's degree. He was definitely at least 50 and had a PhD.

[–] TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org 61 points 3 days ago (3 children)

But video is so damn annoying. If you wanna copy-paste something from the video, you're fucked unless you pause and type each character by hand. I don't get it.

But then again I'm not a zoomer.

[–] lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The number of times I've seen screencaptures of text on a coding job that makes me think/say "you're a coder, I'm a coder, you know we'll need this as text, so what the fuck is wrong with you?" is too many.

Images of text happen way too often everywhere including lemmy. And they grace us without alt text like they're going out of their way to fuck us & people with accessibility needs especially hard.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

But video is so damn annoying.

The number of times I've all but rage-quit a 'tutorial' which is simply an open mic with 'room' noises and breathing over a video of someone typing things into a screen which is then captured on iPhone, is far too high.

It could be a series of documented steps with reasoning, interspersed with screenshots (themselves in a 'spoiler'-style show/hide setup), and it would then take up 1/1000th the space, require 1/100th the time, and demonstrate the technique in a way I could go over a few times. The typing is interminably slow, watching for someone who says nothing but mouse-overs (and selects) text as a way of communication is frustrating, and the entire thing is a barrier to comprehension. Is it ADHD that makes it far, far preferable to just get a page I can review and pore over and repeat a few times, or is it just a learning style that isn't passive?

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Is it ADHD that makes it far, far preferable to just get a page I can review and pore over and repeat a few times, or is it just a learning style that isn’t passive?

Probably the learning style. I don't have ADHD, but I can't tolerate someone slowly explaining something over a 10 mins video. I know specifically what I need information about, so I need to be in control of the experience. A text tutorial I can skim until I get to the relevant part, but videos usually feel like they're wasting my time. The only time I prefer videos over text is for DIY instructions where the physical actions are better conveyed in motion.

(Feels related to that I very rarely watch TV or films, and even when I do, I get antsy after half hour of just sitting around staring out of my face. So I tend to watch movies in half-hour sessions, which I often can't be bothered to pick up again lol, and leave them unfinished for years 🙈 In a nutshell I much prefer video games as a hobby :D)

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I have a handy little app on macOS called TextSniper that takes a screenshot of a selected area, then runs OCR on that screenshot and puts the text on the clipboard. It’s perhaps the most useful $10 I’ve ever spent and I’m frankly surprised this doesn’t exist on other systems. A year or two after this was released Apple started letting people copy text directly out of images, so they might do the usual Apple thing of killing it by directly adding it to the OS. There might be something like this on Linux by now but I haven’t heard of it on Windows.

[–] shortrounddev@lemmy.world 19 points 3 days ago (4 children)

It’s perhaps the most useful $10 I’ve ever spent and I’m frankly surprised this doesn’t exist on other systems

Microsoft powertoys has this feature for free

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/text-extractor

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

The Power Toys link says it’s based on Joe Finney’s Text Grab, and at the bottom of its GitHub page it links to the TextSniper app as the Mac version, with an affiliate link. I’m guessing that means the Mac app was inspired by the Windows program.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I can also do it on my android phone

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[–] boomzilla@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

A dev named funinkina has made an application working alongside the KDE screenshot application spectacle. It's surprisingly code which utilizes tesseract and works fantastically. Just compile, ln -s the app to your bin directory and give it a global shortcut like "CTRL+Shift+Print".

https://github.com/funinkina/spectacle-ocr-screenshot

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[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 44 points 3 days ago

got to submit those bugreports as tiktok dances

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 21 points 2 days ago

Problem starts earlier in life. I know someone who is a teacher in lower school. Ask the kids to make a presentation and literally in 90 seconds you will have a PowerPoint with 15 slides full of pictures and embedded video. Ask them to write one slide of text and they'll struggle to put three sentences together.

Reason is pretty simple, a lot of the parents never read to their kids. They grew up on iPads. Video is the medium they are accustomed to. And so they struggle with written information.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 70 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Honestly, I would encourage any researcher who gets a brush-off response like this as a response to a real and meaningful security report to lean even harder into malicious compliance. Simply post it to TikTok or Instagram or whatever - and I am intentionally picking the pervasive platforms that I despise and find problematic, simply because they have the largest user bases. If it’s “not a problem”, they shouldn’t mind if how-to videos explaining how to elicit the “not problematic” behavior start going viral.

[–] lambda@programming.dev 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That wouldn't get you paid though.

They’re not going to pay you if they classify it as “not a problem”. And you get what you pay for.

[–] DarkDarkHouse@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 3 days ago

A definite opportunity for a Loops video

[–] gofsckyourself@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago

Is there a video version of this article?

[–] Lemmist@lemm.ee 24 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Using stupid programs, doing stupid bugreporting.

Leave Microsoft alone. Let it rot with Tesla, Nintendo, 3dfx, NSDAP and other shitty organizations.

[–] Magister@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

3dfx, haven't heard of them for a long time, good old voodoo card

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[–] Matty_r@programming.dev 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Probably so they can have an AI Agent watch the video and do the thing or some bullshit

[–] daddy32@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

AI agent would process text much easier...

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago

But they need to look busy! Chug along the video!

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 days ago (2 children)

The most likely explanation for requesting a video is to weed out low quality AI-generated "vulnerability" submissions that hallucinate code that doesn't compile or APIs that don't exist. In that context a 1 minute video showing that the report is viable is not much to ask for.

[–] aramis87@fedia.io 57 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I can understand if the reporter is new, or unknown, maybe submitting a lot of videos at once. The guy from the article is a vulnerability expert that's been working in that role at Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute's CERT Coordination Center since 2004. I think he gets a pass on the "submitting fake reports for internet clout" front.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 days ago

The bullshit managers that automate all systems are to blame

[–] patatahooligan@lemmy.world 32 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Maybe in some cases. But I've been requested by Google support to provide a video for a very simple and clear issue we were having. We have a contract with them and we personally brought up the issue to a Google employee during a call. There was no concern of AI generated bullshit, but they still wouldn't respond without a video. So maybe there's more to this trend than what you're theorizing.

[–] NoSpotOfGround@lemmy.world 21 points 3 days ago

Have you considered that you may be a hallucinating AI yourself?... Quick, try drawing a full glass of wine!

[–] thann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I cant beleive google would be so shitty to its paying customers! Can you provide video of this interaction?

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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

You need to include videos of Subway surfers and Family Guy funny moments on the sides of the report, and a compilation of satisfying videos in the background

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