NaraVara's recent activity
-
Comment on Solar storm knocks out farmers' tractor GPS systems during peak planting season in ~tech
-
Comment on My not so nice thoughts on Battlestar Galactica in ~tv
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentYeah but I’m not really sure how much of the “big budget” stuff is him specifically. Like I’ve heard that basically anything with Hans Zimmer’s name on it now is more like Hans Zimmer’s team of...Yeah but I’m not really sure how much of the “big budget” stuff is him specifically. Like I’ve heard that basically anything with Hans Zimmer’s name on it now is more like Hans Zimmer’s team of juniors to develop broad themes he’s workshopping with them.
That doesn’t really take away from his own input since that is it’s own sort of creativity, but I think it ends up being a bit less distinctive and not bear as much of a “signature style” as a result.
-
Comment on My not so nice thoughts on Battlestar Galactica in ~tv
-
Comment on My not so nice thoughts on Battlestar Galactica in ~tv
NaraVara LinkWhat you’re describing is really just episodic television. These episodes were released weekly, with the expectation that the viewers would have a lot of speculative water cooler discussion about...It's a shame because the lore and overarching plot is interesting, but when every episode has so much pointless conflict in them that always gets resolved 10 minutes later, it starts to really drag.
What you’re describing is really just episodic television. These episodes were released weekly, with the expectation that the viewers would have a lot of speculative water cooler discussion about them. If you binge it in one go it’s going to drag because so much of the writing is meant to catch you up and introduce things slowly so people can keep up.
The special effects stuff is just like, it’s a mid 2000s show on a barely profitable sci-fi channel series man. I don’t know what you want from it.
-
Comment on Nathan Berman has helped rescue Manhattan’s financial district from a “doom loop” by carving attractive living spaces from hulking buildings that once housed fields of cubicles in ~design
NaraVara Link ParentThe cheap residential apartments in New York aren’t much better than what you’re describing. Loud plumbing and creaky radiators are normal. Unmaintained, dingy bathrooms and cramped, unnavigable...Speaks volumes. I’m sure there’s better methods than what I experienced and I’m not against repurposing buildings, though from what I’ve seen I wouldn’t want to live there unless I really had no other options.
The cheap residential apartments in New York aren’t much better than what you’re describing. Loud plumbing and creaky radiators are normal. Unmaintained, dingy bathrooms and cramped, unnavigable spaces as well.
-
Comment on Jack Dorsey quits Bluesky board and urges users to stay on Elon Musk's X in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentYeah the app is okay it’s the internet that’s bad. I wouldn’t even mind clicking through to a site if modern website design wasn’t a user-hostile mess even with adblockers on. If you don’t like...Yeah the app is okay it’s the internet that’s bad. I wouldn’t even mind clicking through to a site if modern website design wasn’t a user-hostile mess even with adblockers on.
If you don’t like Feedly and are in the Apple ecosystem though @DefinitelyNotAFae I would recommend NetNewsWire.
-
Comment on Jack Dorsey quits Bluesky board and urges users to stay on Elon Musk's X in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThey could though! They own the pipe they could put a whole authentication system on top of it to enable feeds to charge subscriptions for access.They could though! They own the pipe they could put a whole authentication system on top of it to enable feeds to charge subscriptions for access.
-
Comment on Jack Dorsey quits Bluesky board and urges users to stay on Elon Musk's X in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThe Apple News app is basically an RSS reader. It’s pretty intuitive and if Apple would have just allowed it to arbitrarily pull in any formatted feed it would have been amazing.The Apple News app is basically an RSS reader. It’s pretty intuitive and if Apple would have just allowed it to arbitrarily pull in any formatted feed it would have been amazing.
-
Comment on Jack Dorsey quits Bluesky board and urges users to stay on Elon Musk's X in ~tech
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentEven if you were still on Twitter it wouldn’t be much better. The site is a cesspool of spammers and pornbots now. Everything has a bunch of outrage bait under it, above it, all around it. That...Even if you were still on Twitter it wouldn’t be much better. The site is a cesspool of spammers and pornbots now. Everything has a bunch of outrage bait under it, above it, all around it.
That callout culture BS seems to have infiltrated parts of BlueSky as well, but since it doesn’t have the same kind of algorithm it doesn’t push itself on you. I only see it because I follow Jamelle Bouie and he’s often dunking on the various types of shitheads who follow him around.
-
Comment on Kendrick Lamar - Meet the Grahams (2024) in ~music
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentI think winning the public largely comes about due to Drake’s well documented weirdness with Millie Bobbie Brown. That happened when Stranger Things was very hot in the press and particularly...I think winning the public largely comes about due to Drake’s well documented weirdness with Millie Bobbie Brown. That happened when Stranger Things was very hot in the press and particularly among people who aren’t really tuned into the hip hop scene. But I remember Jezebel ran a story around then that was like “Hey, isn’t it kind of weird that Drake seems to be trying to sidle up to this barely-teenaged girl?”
Not a lot came of it then but since then we’ve had Bill Cosby taken down by Hannibal, the Kevin Spacey revelation, the whole Jeffrey Epstein thing, and recently this documentary about Nickelodeon. And then Sean Combs just got busted. People are way more primed to take this seriously now, so when Kendrick brings up the accusation again and says it’s for real and that Drake is a sick man it’s happening in a context where we now all now know that this sort of stuff goes beyond just being “a little weird and kinda creepy.”
-
Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentYeah that’s pretty evident, but I also see some social groups forming and alliances forming around “holding the line” that leads to groupthink and overzealousness. I don’t really care how it got...Yeah that’s pretty evident, but I also see some social groups forming and alliances forming around “holding the line” that leads to groupthink and overzealousness. I don’t really care how it got there, but it really makes me not trust Wiki as a useful source to get a sense for the actual consensus positions on contentious topics, it seems to tilt in favor of whichever cohort in an argument is more proficient at successfully edit warring and rules lawyering.
For a good example compare the NHS page explaining the Alexander Technique against the Wikipedia page. The Wiki page actually looks much better than the first time I came across it, but it still dedicates almost half of its character count to this “Health Effects” section that reads very much like a skeptic of the technique trying to advance the agenda that it’s pseudoscience rather than giving an overview of the literature on it. It also barely even covers what the technique entails or how it’s practiced. If you look at the talk page it becomes pretty clear that the people squatting on the page are absolutely not engaging their critics in good faith.
Now if someone said to you “Hey you should try the Alexander Technique” and you decide to look it up. Would you walk away from that Wikipedia article with anything more than the foggiest notion of what you’d be in for if you called up a teacher or coach or whatever? I suspect not! The article just reads like pedantic arguing about the persuasiveness of various studies rather than an overview of the subject.
Way way back in my college days I ended up in an extremely tedious edit war over Ancient Indian history topics because the entire subject area was being squatted on by, like, three guys who had a weird fixation on maximizing the accomplishments of Greek civilization and Alexander the Great’s successors. It was basically impossible to dislodge them because the bureaucratic processes around arbitration were so vague and esoteric, and they were all pretty obviously coordinating with each other outside of Wikipedia, to push their agenda. Me and my roommate finally did manage to get the ringleader of that group banned because a different person they were edit warring with on a different topic reached out to us and she was proficient enough in the Wiki bureaucracy to guide us towards how to hand him the rope to hang himself with.
I gave up after that small victory, but did develop the ability to smell agenda-posting in Wiki entries thereafter.
-
Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentJust read any of the alternative medicine articles. They aren’t written in the style of an encyclopedia article, they’re written to emphasize that they’re pseudoscience and often have almost no...Just read any of the alternative medicine articles. They aren’t written in the style of an encyclopedia article, they’re written to emphasize that they’re pseudoscience and often have almost no information about what the people who believe in that stuff actually believe about it. It’s utterly uninformative.
Whether it’s organized or not is immaterial. An emergent tendency that arises through to systemic factors, like Wikipedia being disproportionately dominated by rationalist Melvins, still amounts to the same thing.
-
Comment on Kendrick Lamar - Meet the Grahams (2024) in ~music
NaraVara Link ParentDidn’t he more or less admit to it in “We Cry Together?”The assault claim killed the respect I developed for Kendrick and I hope it's addressed.
Didn’t he more or less admit to it in “We Cry Together?”
-
Comment on Kendrick Lamar - Meet the Grahams (2024) in ~music
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentThe most serious allegation about Kendrick is that he beat his wife, but like, Kendrick has more or less admitted to this in one of his songs and it was presumably rocky time in their relationship...The most serious allegation about Kendrick is that he beat his wife, but like, Kendrick has more or less admitted to this in one of his songs and it was presumably rocky time in their relationship and they’ve since reconciled. So that’s obviously not good that happened but it’s also just water off a turtle’s back at this point. The rest is just sort of generic like, “you’re short” or “you’re a cuck” type stuff.
Meanwhile Kendrick is accusing Drake of being part of a seedy underground grooming ring within the music industry and also hiding at least one (and maybe many more) illegitimate children that he may or may not have sired on underaged or barely legal girls. THAT’S A BIG DEAL! And a week after PDiddy got busted by the FBI for doing the same no less!
If the conspiracy is as big and as deep as Kendrick seems to hint this is the sort of thing that can end with him meeting the fate of a Boeing whistleblower if he’s not careful.
All that aside, musically this track is really good considering he probably threw it together pretty hastily. Especially that last “You liied” stanza his anger really comes out in his voice. It’s like the aural equivalent of watching Goku go super But it’s all composed and structured so well.
-
Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThe part about the JavaScript tag would be an explosive revelation if it became public. Even the FTC’s anemic anti-trust enforcement powers could go nuclear if they caught wind of that. (Though...The part about the JavaScript tag would be an explosive revelation if it became public. Even the FTC’s anemic anti-trust enforcement powers could go nuclear if they caught wind of that. (Though they can probably approximate the same end through less obvious means I’m sure).
Other than that you’re right. Everything shitty about Google makes ads more lucrative, but even DDG can’t seem to surface useful content anymore. I think the Google dominance has just choked it out.
-
Comment on Heat death of the internet in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentI fail to see Apple’s role in any of the content dilution the article is talking about. Almost all of this is a result of Google’s terrible page rank algorithm and inability to rein in malicious...I believe many of today's online issues stem from users locking themselves into digital ecosystems, becoming fiercely loyal to either Google or Apple.
I fail to see Apple’s role in any of the content dilution the article is talking about. Almost all of this is a result of Google’s terrible page rank algorithm and inability to rein in malicious SEO, and that includes the services like DoorDash and AirBnB making the reservations for hotels and restaurants worse. They’re able to outcompete mom-and-pops because they have better SEO to the point where they outrank the shops/restaurants themselves in searches for their own names.
Social Media’s role has largely been at eliminating the habit of visiting websites directly, thereby depriving the companies that actually produces the articles or media of access to their own audience. This has destroyed people’s ability to independently research and fact check things online.
The author does mention Wikipedia at the end as a good example, but that’s being steadily taken over by activist squatters on many topics who explicitly set out to structure the articles with an agenda. The page on any topic that’s even adjacent to topics like astrology or alternative medicine, for example, read more like /r/Atheism screeds about how it’s all fake than they do like encyclopedia articles.
-
Comment on Data show that the amount of sexual content in top films has sharply declined since 2000 in ~movies
NaraVara Link ParentWe will be able to biohack away the need for sex long before violence.We will be able to biohack away the need for sex long before violence.
-
Comment on Turns out the Rabbit R1 was just an Android app all along in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThe iPad and the iPhone are different product categories even though they run slightly forked versions of the same OS. The form factor changes how people are expected to use it and what they use...The iPad and the iPhone are different product categories even though they run slightly forked versions of the same OS. The form factor changes how people are expected to use it and what they use it for.
-
Comment on Turns out the Rabbit R1 was just an Android app all along in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentAnd a fundamentally different interaction paradigm.And a fundamentally different interaction paradigm.
-
Comment on At least thirty protesters arrested during pro-Palestinian protest at UT Austin in ~news
NaraVara Link ParentProtest tactics are incompatible with “conversation” or “education.” That’s sort of their point is they’re a form of engaging in aggression without explicit violence. The objective is to create a...Protest tactics are incompatible with “conversation” or “education.” That’s sort of their point is they’re a form of engaging in aggression without explicit violence. The objective is to create a framework to force a conversation in a situation on more equal footing than the power dynamics would otherwise allow.
But I don’t think the culture of student activism we’re seeing is really equipped to do that second part, they’re too maximalist and doctrinaire in their demands. When you do that you’re not operating from a place of being open to dialogue.
I think it’s more like the lines you planted your crops in might not be perfectly straight, so when you’re harvesting the equipment won’t follow the planting lines.