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blind3rdeye

@blind3rdeye@lemm.ee

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blind3rdeye ,

I've got a mastodon account. The people I follow don't mark snarky quips. Instead, they post updates of things they are making (music, games, and comics mostly); and they share photos that they've taken, and links and comments to news that they find interesting. Compared to Lemmy, it's more personal, because when you respond you are talking directly to a person that you are likely to talk to again.

Mastodon doesn't use a personalised algorithm. So your home feed will only show hashtags and people that you follow. (There is an 'explore' feed for seeing other stuff that might be 'trending' or whatever.) So if you are seeing too many snarky quips - just unfollow the person making them.

blind3rdeye ,

We could study what various apes do, and try to use that to guess at possible human behaviour - or we could literally just look at human behaviour directly. Surely the direct observations of what humans do is going to give us a more accurate and useful model of human behaviour compared to observations of other species.

blind3rdeye ,

Their relationship seems healthy enough, doesn't it? They enjoy each others company, and they treat each other well. So is this unhealthy fear of commitment? Or is it explicit acceptance of uncertainty?

blind3rdeye ,

No matter what kind of relationship you are in, both parties always have the option of leaving. Wearing a ring doesn't change it. Getting married doesn't change it. Signing a document doesn't change it.

Ceremonies and legal documents can make leaving more difficult - because it creates a risk of social or financial punishment; but whether that's a good thing is subjective. The people in this comic are of the view that they should only stay together if they both continue to be happy with their relationship. And I think that's a fair enough perspective. No one wants to be stuck in an unhappy relationship, right?

blind3rdeye ,

I’m mostly imagining what my reaction would be if one of my friends described a relationship by saying that if it isn’t fun anymore they’re done, but they’re also thinking of moving in together. Major red flags.

I think that mischaracterises what is going on here. The characters in the comic aren't describing a relationship to a third party. They are talking openly and honestly about their feelings to each other.

You're talking about relationships not lasting, and being unhealthy, etc. - but there are multiple people in this thread who have publicly said that this comic reflects their own long-term ongoing relationship. I think it's important to understand that different people communicate their feelings differently. To you maybe telling to your partner that you can't promise to love them forever a red flag; - whereas to me, telling someone that you will love them forever unconditionally is a red-flag, because life isn't really like that. I don't want platitudes or empty promises.

I agree that it's bit sketchy to say to your partner "if it isn't fun, them I'm off"; ('fun', I think, is a bad word to use.) But on the other hand, the two characters in the comic agreed at the start that they weren't even looking for a long term relationship. So they are on common ground. They aren't just pulling out a bombshell from nowhere; but rather they are acknowledging their current and changing feelings. So in their relationship it can make sense to say something like that.

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

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    blind3rdeye ,

    Nar nar. You've misunderstood. It's every other car is a person with life goals. It's nothing to do with drivers.

    ajsadauskas , to Fuck Cars
    @ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

    What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?

    A recent YouGov survey asked Americans what they think they should be able to get to within a 15-minute walk of their house.

    Of these choices, I can currently walk to all of them from my apartment, aside from a university (no biggie, I'm not currently studying, although there is a Tafe within walking distance), a hospital, and a sports arena.

    How many can you get to with a 15 minute walk from your house?

    @fuck_cars

    blind3rdeye ,

    Sure, but "grocery store" is already on the list - so I feel that's covered.

    blind3rdeye ,

    I set up Linux dual-boot as well, around half a year ago now. But I made (Mint) Linux the default boot option; so that when I turn on my computer, I get 3 seconds to interrupt it and choose Windows - otherwise it just starts Linux. And just like that, I've never used Windows again. There just hasn't been any need or desire.

    If someone is setting up dual-boot with the hope of maybe switching to Linux, I'd say it's import to make the Linux boot option the default. Otherwise they'll still just be booting Windows most of the time out of habit, and never make the switch.

    blind3rdeye ,

    That's basically what it was for me. For many years I've had a folder saved on my computer called "registry tweaks", in which I've maintained a growing list of notes about all the settings and registry edits and other cruft I have to change to make Window less-shit. (Most of it is about the registry, but not all.)

    That list of tweaks just kept getting longer; but there was also a growing set of things that were bad and unfixable; (various nags, and surveillance / telemetry etc.) . No one thing was intolerable, but as a whole - it just isn't worth it any more. It's easier to learn to use an entirely new OS than to continue to wrestle with the enshitification of Windows.

    blind3rdeye ,

    So then set up dual boot, with default going to Linux, and if you ever find that a game you want to play won't work for whatever reason just boot into Windows to play it. No big deal.

    blind3rdeye ,

    To be fair, ungoverned mind control gas sounds irresponsible...

    Microsoft stole my Chrome tabs, and it wants yours, too (www.theverge.com)

    Last week, I turned on my PC, installed a Windows update, and rebooted to find Microsoft Edge automatically open with the Chrome tabs I was working on before the update. I don’t use Microsoft Edge regularly, and I have Google Chrome set as my default browser. Bleary-eyed at 9AM, it took me a moment to realize that Microsoft...

    blind3rdeye ,

    I first tried Linux around two decades ago, and it felt clunky to me - so I didn't stick with it. I tried again around one decade ago; and it was a lot better, but I still didn't quite have enough reason to keep using it yet. ... But now, finally, I tried again several months ago - and I'm definitely sticking with it. I'm currently using Mint.

    There are still some thing that I think are worse in Mint compared to Windows. But there is a lot of stuff that's much better. It's more than enough that I don't expect to ever switch back to Windows again. The main thing is avoiding all the anti-features of Windows, such as the constant nagging to switch to Edge or activate their search bar; and the ads & other cruft in the start menu; and the constant little popups and 'reminders' about new stuff; and the lack of control in when updates are installed; and the ubiquitous harvesting of personal information, including 'telemetry' of which apps you run and when.

    For me, one of the last straws was when I clicked on a help link from Windows settings, and it automatically opened in Edge, and Edge then automatically imported my browsing history and bookmarks from Firefox and automatically uploaded it to my Microsoft account. I was horrified that it would do something like that without any interaction whatsoever. I didn't even think Edge had access to my Microsoft account until then, because I deliberately avoid using one to sign in, or for any other reason - the only reason it exists is because I used OneNote. I wanted the account to be isolated to just the app I used it for; not to automatically be grabbed by the whole OS and then used to collect my browsing history.

    So yeah. I'd spent years of maintaining an ever-growing list of little system tweaks that I used to keep as junk off Windows as possible. But I've had enough. It's too much. It's not even close to being worth it. Linux has some minor problems, and some things take a bit of getting use to. But at least it isn't systematically hostile.

    blind3rdeye ,

    My Surface 2 and Surface 3 both developed a hardware problems. :(

    blind3rdeye ,

    What in particular do you feel like is missing?
    I mean, there's a lot of stuff on Linux already. There's no shortage of apps or games. But there might be some specific thing that you want that linux doesn't have.

    blind3rdeye ,

    Yesterday I bought something on Steam for the first time in many years. (I have a large Steam library, but in recent years I've been getting games from gog and itch instead.)

    Since I hadn't bought from Steam in a long time I figured I should read the "Steam Subscriber agreement" that you have to click to accept when you buy something. Let me just say now, the agreement is a very very bad deal for customers.

    It goes to great lengths to make it very clear that you don't own anything. You aren't buying anything, you have no essentially rights. You are simply paying for a license subscription to use software with various conditions. Valve is able to end your subscription with no refund if you break the agreement. And the best bit:

    Furthermore, Valve may amend this Agreement (including any Subscription Terms or Rules of Use) unilaterally at any time in its sole discretion.

    So by using Steam we're putting a lot of trust in Valve; because the 'agreement' basically says they can do whatever they want, any time they want, for any reason they want.

    Steam is quite good. I particularly appreciate their Linux support. But they are clearly using their position of dominance to make people agree to unfavourable terms. At the moment, things are fine. But make no mistake - when you use Steam, Valve has all the power. They can screw people over whenever they choose to.

    With all that in mind, buying DRM free is better if you want to still have access to the software when a company decides to change direction for whatever reason.

    blind3rdeye ,

    Yeah. That's the difference. GOG can withdraw their services, but not the software that you've downloaded. Whereas Steam explicitly states that using the software may require their services (and it usually does).

    blind3rdeye ,

    Terms like that matters more for some services than for others. For something like Spotify or Netflix, if they terminate the agreement it doesn't matter much. You lose access, but there was no accumulated value. So you can just go somewhere with only minor inconvenience. Whereas on Steam, if they terminate the agreement then you could lose decades worth of accumulated games from your library - which could be very valuable. So that's a big difference.

    Now, it's unlikely that Steam will just press delete on everyone's account. But we can imagine a very profit-hungry leader taking over Steam and deciding to put the squeeze on their vast user-base. There are many things they could do; such as adding ads, requiring 'consent' to include spyware on your computer, or charging additional fees. Long term users would not be in a position to refuse these things, because their Steam library is being held as collateral.

    If you trust that Steam is never going to give you up, and never going to let you down, etc. Then there is no problem. Things are currently going fine, and they may continue to be fine for a very long time. It's just a matter of trust, and power, and hedging.

    blind3rdeye ,

    To me it is super weird that GrapheneOS positions itself as a way to degoogle - but it is only supported on google's Pixel hardware.

    blind3rdeye ,

    I remember in the early days of the internet Alta Vista search worked quite well. It was easy to find what you wanted, and find new things relevant to your interests - and so it became very popular. Unfortunately, Alta Vista only worked well if people made their websites in good faith. It was searching meta-tags and text on the page; and so when greedy people wanted to get more traffic on their website, they found it easy to exploit Alta Vista's search. As more and more people started exploiting the system, the search got worse and worse.

    I remember the day I switched to using Google. I was searching for some C programming stuff on Alta Vista with technical words - and the results had more porn sites than programming sites. Like, wtf. Obviously that search doesn't work anymore. It stopped working because arseholes were exploiting it.

    And now, pretty much the same thing is happening to Google. Their algorithm worked better for longer than what Alta Vista was doing, but it seems that self-interested people have kind of cracked the system, and now the results are mostly just junk instead of useful stuff. (Note, I stopped using Google several years ago. I've been using Duck Duck Go. But you're right that the problem is more widespread than just Google.)

    blind3rdeye ,

    Ah, but if you use the rules BODMSA (or PEDMSA) then you can follow the letter order strictly, ignoring the equal precedence left-to-right rule, and you still get the correct answer. Therefore clearly we should start teaching BODMSA in primary schools. Or perhaps BFEDMSA. (Brackets, named Functions, Exponentiation, Division, Multiplication, Subtraction, Addition). I'm sure that would remove all confusion and stop all arguments. ... Or perhaps we need another letter to clarify whether implicit multiplication with a coefficient and no symbol is different to explicit multiplication... BFEIDMSA or BFEDIMSA. Shall we vote on it?

    blind3rdeye ,

    Obviously more letters would make the mnemonic worse, not better. I was making a joke.

    As for the brackets 'the rules around expanding brackets' are only meaningful in the assumed context of our order of operations. For example, if we instead all agreed that addition should be before multiplication, then a×(b+c) would "expand" to a×b+c, because the addition is before multiplication anyway and the brackets do nothing.

    blind3rdeye ,

    I believe you're conflating the rules of maths with the notation we use to represent mathematical concepts. We can choose whatever notation we like to mean anything we like. There is absolutely nothing stopping us from choosing to interpret a+b×c as (a+b)×c rather than a+(b×c). We don't even have to write it like that at all. We could write a,b,c×+. (And sometimes people do write it like that.) Notation is just a way to communicate. It represents the maths, but it is not itself the maths. Some notation is more convenient or more intuitive than others. × before + is a very convenient choice, because it easier to express mathematical truths clearly and concisely - but nevertheless, it is still just a choice.

    blind3rdeye ,

    Hey man, if you want to resort to some weird appeal to authority argument despite having clear examples against what you are saying - go for it. You can choose to die on that hill if you want to.

    blind3rdeye ,

    The examples I gave were that the expansion of brackets would be done differently if the order of operations was "PESADM"; and I also drew your attention to the fact that reverse polish notation exists, in which there are no brackets at all and the order of operation is entirely determined by the order that operators appear, with no hierarchy of operations. As for your appeal to authority, let me just say that your level of qualification on this topic is not above mine. It adds no weight whatsoever to your argument.

    I just glanced at your post history to get a sense of why you were so engaged in this. I was a bit startled to see that you've been on a bit of a posting spree in this thread, which I point out to you is a 3 month old post on a 'memes' channel. I see you've taken issue with a lot of what people have said here. My suggestion to you now is that there probably won't be a lot of engagement in this thread from this point on. So perhaps you should just ponder what is said, and prepare yourself again for next time this comes up. Perhaps you can start by seeing if you can get a consensus amongst fellow experts in a maths channel or something, because at the moment it seems like you're on your own.

    blind3rdeye ,

    So apparently having consumer-friendly laws does in fact lead to better products. Cool.

    Perhaps the USA and other countries should follow the EU's good example on this.

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