Tiraon's recent activity

  1. Recommendations for less mass-produced and more artistic tv

    ~tv Ask (recommendations)
    I'm looking for tv shows, films, animation that feel unique, smaller and less like it was made to order and taken through incessant A/B testing and market research and more like a creative type...

    I'm looking for tv shows, films, animation that feel unique, smaller and less like it was made to order and taken through incessant A/B testing and market research and more like a creative type was given a bit of freedom and went with it, and least to a point.

    A few that I think would qualify though obviously filtered through my own preferences.

    Films
    Children of Men
    A post-apocalyptic journey.

    The Man From Earth
    Just a few people talking in a room about a fantastical scenario. Strangely I tried to imagine a bigger more cinematic version going through the events and actually came to the conclusion the I'd probably like it less.

    Stardust
    A fantasy romance with a truly whimsical, wondrous feeling. And a bit of humor.

    TV shows
    Alphas
    A superhero show, however they are flawed and the powers are limited. I particularly liked that the problems depicted were small, personal and only started to ramp up later.

    Station 11
    A post-apocalytic show following a traveling troupe with a repertoire of Shakespeare's plays.

    Severance
    What if the work and personal lives were separated taken to the logical extreme.

    Firefly
    A sci-fi western. Small family feel with the crew.

    Animation
    Mushishi
    Episodic series about dealing with varied and fantastical creatures.

    Webseries
    Anyone but me
    A lesbian slice of life romance.

    LARPS
    A life of a guild of role players. I particularly like how the sessions manage to still get a bit of an epic feel with people simply talking and a bit of props.

    Watch blue movies
    NSFW theme, though I don't recall much of actual NSFW material. Just hilarious.

    21 votes

  3. Comment on Denmark has recalled several spicy ramen noodle products by South Korean company Samyang, claiming that the capsaicin levels in them could poison consumers in ~food

    Tiraon
    Link Parent
    It completely depends on the person, maybe I am off but most people are not really into spicy food.

    It completely depends on the person, maybe I am off but most people are not really into spicy food.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Denmark has recalled several spicy ramen noodle products by South Korean company Samyang, claiming that the capsaicin levels in them could poison consumers in ~food

    Tiraon
    Link Parent
    At least my impression here was that the ~10k is for the whole meal while the ~260k is for the packet sauce. For reference 10k is really hot, in a way that an average person will likely go for...

    At least my impression here was that the ~10k is for the whole meal while the ~260k is for the packet sauce.

    For reference 10k is really hot, in a way that an average person will likely go for water right away and refuse to eat anymore of the food while I can definitely imagine 260k causing medical problems in some people. Though apparently there are some that could and would eat the packet by itself, but for a random person it would be at minimum an 11/10 pain.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on What slow-burn game is worth the time? in ~games

    Tiraon
    Link Parent
    I guess I will put here a counter opinion in that for me this was a game that gripped me immediately and then it didn't. It is possible than it was at least partly because I was using kb+m but in...

    I guess I will put here a counter opinion in that for me this was a game that gripped me immediately and then it didn't.

    It is possible than it was at least partly because I was using kb+m but in that case I still count it against the game since if it supports a control scheme it should be usable.

    Mainly i truly disliked the platforming sequences, especially since the cost of failure has a very high chance to be the same 10+ minute sequence. Why they felt they needed them I have no idea since this is supposed to be an exploration puzzle game.

    I also genuinely hated the unskippable cinematic sequence.

    Is it truly that hard to respect the players time?

    6 votes

  6. Comment on Introducing the Light Phone III in ~tech

    Tiraon
    Link
    On one hand this seems like a decent evolution of the "dumb" phone(I also did not research them that much and so I don't know what is their privacy impact which seems it would have been either a...

    On one hand this seems like a decent evolution of the "dumb" phone(I also did not research them that much and so I don't know what is their privacy impact which seems it would have been either a major pro or a massive con here).

    On the other it is not really for me personally. Despite my hate for "smartphones" I don't think the massive downsides(some of this device wants to address) are inherent in a pocket size computer capable of connecting to a cellular network. They were simply added.

    Personally I would love well supported, decent hw, e-ink, small form factor pocket computer capable of running mainline Linux kernel just like that.

    8 votes

  7. Comment on DeGoogling 2024: Replacing Photos, Gmail, and Search in ~tech

    Tiraon
    Link
    Consciously moving away from services with obscured price required is worth doing but sadly still relevant is the satirical onion video from 2009.

    Consciously moving away from services with obscured price required is worth doing but sadly still relevant is the satirical onion video from 2009.

  8. Comment on New York passes legislation that would ban 'addictive' social media algorithms for kids in ~tech

    Tiraon
    Link
    Engagement maximization measures(which I take is the intended target) taken by effectively any sufficiently large corporation are ultimately several orders larger than the scope of this...

    Engagement maximization measures(which I take is the intended target) taken by effectively any sufficiently large corporation are ultimately several orders larger than the scope of this legislation and so are unlikely to be measurably affected by it. And there are very smart people who will surely find any loopholes there are.

    Instead effective measures would be any of denormalizing smartphone use, school reform emphasizing development of critical thinking, denormalizing tech illiteracy, denormalizing user hostile sw, robust social safety nets and likely more.

    6 votes

  9. Comment on GoG - Cloud Saves files that exceed the default allocation limit (200 MB per game) will be deleted after August 31st, 2024 in ~games

    Tiraon
    Link Parent
    A different contexts approaching very similar effect. A cloud is under control of someone else which needs to be always kept in mind but these decisions are not necessarily hostile to the users...

    A different contexts approaching very similar effect. A cloud is under control of someone else which needs to be always kept in mind but these decisions are not necessarily hostile to the users since it is under control(and is property) of someone else.

    The other paragraph was simply an observation that in my opinion the mainstream sw approaches this lack of control in local setting.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on GoG - Cloud Saves files that exceed the default allocation limit (200 MB per game) will be deleted after August 31st, 2024 in ~games

    Tiraon
    Link Parent
    I didn't say it was? Though it probably can be read that way. It was simply meant as what was said - the user simply does not control what is on the cloud.

    I didn't say it was? Though it probably can be read that way. It was simply meant as what was said - the user simply does not control what is on the cloud.

    8 votes

  11. Comment on GoG - Cloud Saves files that exceed the default allocation limit (200 MB per game) will be deleted after August 31st, 2024 in ~games

    Tiraon
    Link
    This is simply another reminder that cloud means under control of someone else and should be treated as such. Especially without equitable contract in place. Though with majority of users...

    This is simply another reminder that cloud means under control of someone else and should be treated as such. Especially without equitable contract in place.

    Though with majority of users willingly running user hostile sw that they let send whatever it wants wherever it wants and modify itself however it wants whenever, this distinction between cloud and local keeps shrinking.

    14 votes

  12. Comment on Retailers hate that you buy big things on your laptop in ~finance

    Tiraon
    Link
    The push for mobile here is not really surprising. By their very nature and by the mindset of the software built around the two mainstream mobile os's the smartphones are optimized for...

    The push for mobile here is not really surprising.

    By their very nature and by the mindset of the software built around the two mainstream mobile os's the smartphones are optimized for distraction, hasty and and low-information decisions.

    In contrast desktop systems or laptops are more likely to be used in comfortable setting. Even the Windows is not yet truly on the level of a mobile os though it really tries to get there. The form factor and the way information is presented means it encourages deliberate decisions more.

    Online shopping seems like one of the things where more friction is actually beneficial for the end user which is why I personally also dislike all of the one click purchase options and such.

    6 votes

  13. Comment on Will Microsoft want to introduce a subscription fee to their Windows OS in the future? in ~tech

    Tiraon
    Link Parent
    To be honest part from the ai(and this is likely coming) this could also be already seen as the state of the os on the home version. I don't think it is actually possible to disable this with...

    Then they'll remove the ability to disable ads, tracking, and any document or picture you create will be AI fodder for them

    To be honest part from the ai(and this is likely coming) this could also be already seen as the state of the os on the home version. I don't think it is actually possible to disable this with standard user controls(and fully disable this at all).

    I can completely imagine it being way more blatant and getting truly locked down in a version going even further than Windows S though.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on Swiss scientists invent a new type of chocolate using more of the cocoa plant, reducing need for additional sugars in ~food

    Tiraon
    Link
    While this seems like actually positive development in current context, I'd heavily dispute the "need for additional sugars" part of the article. There are unnecessarily immense amounts of sugar...

    While this seems like actually positive development in current context, I'd heavily dispute the "need for additional sugars" part of the article.

    There are unnecessarily immense amounts of sugar in basically any processed food these days, most chocolate available specifically included. The funny part is that the dark chocolate with less of these additives is significantly more expensive, a least where I am at.

    5 votes

  15. Comment on Mozilla is adding vertical tabs, profile management, and local AI to Firefox in ~tech

    Tiraon
    Link
    If the "ai" stays offline and can be disabled then fine. Except the reported performance improvements this seems like nothing that would bring fundamental improvements instead of nice-to-have but...

    If the "ai" stays offline and can be disabled then fine. Except the reported performance improvements this seems like nothing that would bring fundamental improvements instead of nice-to-have but could have been worked around.

    I use Firefox and I advocate for using Firefox but that is only because of things such as arkenfox and because the alternatives are orders of magnitude worse. It would be nice if instead of nice to haves they instead tried to be the browser that actually goes against the flow and respects the user and the agency of the user without requiring a high amount of effort but fine.

  16. Thoughts on the current state of discoverability and search

    ~tech Ask (recommendations)
    I guess I'll post another thoughtful analysis rant on tech trends. It has been mentioned here in a few threads already but I simply wanted to try to start a focused discussion. Personally I first...

    I guess I'll post another thoughtful analysis rant on tech trends. It has been mentioned here in a few threads already but I simply wanted to try to start a focused discussion.

    Personally I first noticed significant degradation of search functionality around 2018 or so, while specifically Google was mentioned at least as far back as 2016. But it is not simply Google or even just general search engines. Any random site specific search functionality or discoverability algorithms on various sites share these trends too.

    It really seems that the focus is simply on delivering as many results as possible with actual quality or even relevance being somewhere on the tail end of priorities. It is not even just lack of(useful, consistent) search operators, lack of transparency, lack of structured search possibilities, lack of sorting options, lack of granularity - it is the simple disregard for the basic intent of the query with some implementations sometimes being actually more accurate with fewer keywords with no option to modify this behavior.

    It is especially damaging for(at least my) ability to research a topic. A decade and half ago I could go in with a topic I had no idea about and emerge two hours later with a very basic but likely mostly accurate and slightly in-depth overview by refining my searches. Now I'm lucky to get one single thoughtful blog post or discussion among dozens or tutorials, 10-bests and ads with the query being almost completely disregarded and keywords being straight up ignored to deliver this deluge of both low quality and mostly completely irrelevant results.

    Are there any projects, search engines or anything other that aim to deliver actually useful, steerable, user directed results?

    34 votes

  17. Comment on I gave up meat and gained so much more | A tale of one person's life, culture, and growing up in ~life

    Tiraon
    Link
    On one hand I agree with large parts of the essay but on the other I think that(among guilt-tripping) it advocates for a thing that is far harder to achieve than most people can achieve for any...

    On one hand I agree with large parts of the essay but on the other I think that(among guilt-tripping) it advocates for a thing that is far harder to achieve than most people can achieve for any single one thing that is not their sole focus and that makes it easier to just dismiss and move on.

    I find that a lot of things in that that would be net positive to do(or avoid) in a life of a person are order(s) of magnitude harder to eliminate entirely than just minimize as much as possible(and that much as possible can be once a month I ...) due to pressure of society and practical concerns. There are so many things that one should care about that it is simply too much.

    A better world would steer our decisions the other direction, but in the meantime only asking people to do as much as they can and elaborating on the reasons why it is important is likely to be more widely accepted and consequently have bigger impact.

    3 votes

  18. Comment on Is Nebula worth it? in ~tech

    Tiraon
    Link Parent
    Maybe it didn't sound that way but if it is both, and the automatic recommendation can be disabled then that is basically ideal. I can also guess a lot better and explore the site at my own pace...

    Maybe it didn't sound that way but if it is both, and the automatic recommendation can be disabled then that is basically ideal.

    I can also guess a lot better and explore the site at my own pace if it gives me tools to do so instead of the mainstream standard atrocious forced fuzzy search hiding any sort of helpful structured data. But I did not really use Nebula so this mainly in general sort of statement.

  19. Comment on Is Nebula worth it? in ~tech

    Tiraon
    Link Parent
    I agree but I would also additionally add that why does it need to be a site initiated recommendation? I have yet to see a mainstream site with solid granular search based on the data that would...

    I agree but I would also additionally add that why does it need to be a site initiated recommendation? I have yet to see a mainstream site with solid granular search based on the data that would be used for the recommendations but that is not a question of technical possibility.

    3 votes

  20. Comment on A skeptic’s take on beaming power to Earth from space - Why we shouldn’t try to stick solar plants where the sun always shines in ~enviro

    Tiraon
    Link
    Of course trying to do this with Earth based launches is insane. That is why space exploration is vital. If we instead had even a rudimentary manufacturing base in space it would suddenly look a...

    Of course trying to do this with Earth based launches is insane. That is why space exploration is vital. If we instead had even a rudimentary manufacturing base in space it would suddenly look a lot different.

    The article also talks a lot about how space based beamed solar power is not economical. Yes that is the reality we live in but the reality we live in also has potentially catastrophic alteration of Earth climate on timescale measured in decades.

    A science fiction that explores this idea and which I recommend is Delta-v and Critical Mass. It comes with detailed sources at the end and while I cannot tell how actually feasible it would be in practice and what problems would appear in reality it is at least a look at the possibility.

    3 votes