V17's recent activity
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Comment on Artists built a site to escape AI. Scrapers are coming for it anyway. in ~tech
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Comment on Artists built a site to escape AI. Scrapers are coming for it anyway. in ~tech
V17 Link ParentIt's crazy how weird and specific this AI defense gets as well, especially in the open-source segment. It's not just defending prompting, it's defending only specific types of prompting. I use...It's crazy how weird and specific this AI defense gets as well, especially in the open-source segment. It's not just defending prompting, it's defending only specific types of prompting.
I use generative AI either for things that are basically worthless and throw-away but need to be done anyway, like recently for unified icons in a corporate presentation template, or for inspiration - basically instead of building a reference/inspiration/moodboard folder in the first stages of working on something, I use generative models for some of it. It has some limits of course, but it's immensely useful, whether for commercial or hobby projects, and it can often come up with genuinely cool and weird ideas when wielded well.
Unfortunately one thing that often happens is that as you train models for more fidelity, prompt adherence, coherence or photorealism, their creativity drops, they lose the weirdness that makes generative AI interesting for me. Midjourney seems to be the only company that explicitly tries to prevent this and succeeds. But I haven't used any new open models in years, so I asked a question about current "creative" models in /r/StableDiffusion, as it seems to be an open model hub.
What I found was that there is a group of people who are very proud of being able to use the models and workflows to create very specific, very literally described images, no matter their artistic quality, and viewed the usage of more creative models as so low effort that they equated it to using a slot machine and being unable to be creative on your own. Their own creations were, without exception, worthless derivative crap in some kitchy anime/"hand-drawn"/"painted" style, but it was specifically the crap that they wanted to create, which gave them a feeling of higher status. They didn't care that those professional graphic artists who do not avoid AI generally use these creative "slot machine" models because they're simply better for the job, and they don't care about ultimate prompt adherence because they would never think of shipping an AI image, which is only used somewhere in the early part of their workflow anyway.
It's hard to describe the feeling of absurdity it evoked.
Why is it a thing in these communities to always antagonize artists?
To be fair many artists argue against AI in the exact same ways. Their motivation is much more understandable and rational for sure, but what doesn't help is that the way they speak against AI is often clearly done without having basic understanding of how the technology works (but not realizing this and talking about the technology anyway), and that the loudest opponents are often the artists that create the most low-value art like commissions done in style of a specific show etc. Those who create things of value generally just say a few words against AI when asked, but spend their time creating, not arguing on the internet. So they are fighting for an understandable cause, but often in a really stupid way and without having the useful defense of "I'm an actually good and successful artist".
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Comment on Artists built a site to escape AI. Scrapers are coming for it anyway. in ~tech
V17 Link ParentThat's not comparable either, music sampling may include using snippets transformed enough to be unrecognizable, but it also includes using bits of the original with only very mild transformation...That's not comparable either, music sampling may include using snippets transformed enough to be unrecognizable, but it also includes using bits of the original with only very mild transformation or no transformation at all. Training generally doesn't do that, and if it does, it's more like a side effect of being fed so many copies of Mona Lisa that it's remembered almost as is, the goal of training is to avoid this.
Not to mention that until AI arrived some of these laws about permission to use in music specifically were rightfully considered overzealous, but now that they can be used against AI they are suddenly good. That's a separate issue, and I could accept new laws that apply to machine learning specifically, but I'd hate to see tightened or cemented laws regarding various types of reuse in music for everyone as a side effect of anti-AI pushback. For context I am a musician.
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Comment on Artists built a site to escape AI. Scrapers are coming for it anyway. in ~tech
V17 Link ParentIs this common? Never heard of it, which for the latter is because I don't work in a gallery, but I attend galleries often and I rarely see photography being banned with the exception of flash...Photography of the art is banned, as is anyone who works for competing galleries.
Is this common? Never heard of it, which for the latter is because I don't work in a gallery, but I attend galleries often and I rarely see photography being banned with the exception of flash photography for reasons of potentially damaging the pieces and blinding other people. I myself usually snap a few photos of my favorites.
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Comment on Why Germany's favorite soda comes in a beer bottle in ~food
V17 Link ParentCzechia has Kofola, which is quite successful and imo pretty good, do try it if you get the chance. Around some parts of the country Zon lemonades are kind of popular - they are less special, but...Czechia has Kofola, which is quite successful and imo pretty good, do try it if you get the chance. Around some parts of the country Zon lemonades are kind of popular - they are less special, but they basically represent what soft drinks used to be like here before Coca Cola and Pepsi, and they're cheap. Especially the raspberry one, a generic version of that synthetic flavor raspberry soda used to be ubiquitous in restaurants, these days it's less common and you mostly get Kofola or flavored non-alcoholic beer instead.
Austrian Almdudler is pretty good, though it has been more than a decade since I last tried it.
And perhaps italian San Pellegrino, if it counts. It's basically sparkling mineral water flavored with real citrus juice. I don't like the most famous tangerine one, but the orange one is truly excellent - I'm not really a fan of sweet stuff either, but this I could drink all the time if it wasn't kind of expensive here.
Oh, and maybe Mate flavored soft drinks? They tend to have a lot of caffeine, so it's not really soda for kids, but I like them specifically because they taste kind of bitter. I think the most popular ones are made in Germany, and there's more than just Club Mate.
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Comment on Is there any interest in building a Tildes successor? in ~tildes
V17 Link ParentI will explain. Being from an ex-communist country, I don't like spaces that are strongly US-style progressive because they tend to be quite dogmatic, which is only made worse by first past the...I honestly have no clue what you mean with this
I will explain. Being from an ex-communist country, I don't like spaces that are strongly US-style progressive because they tend to be quite dogmatic, which is only made worse by first past the post system in the US - something that is not present in other western countries, but the online polarization of the political debate that it creates tends to spill to them anyway.
The political system and debates that take place where I live are quite different, so many opinions and debates that I see in such spaces just seem stupid in a "been there, done that, clearly doesn't work" kind of way, and it's also annoying as hell being regularly called a member of "the other side" when in reality I just have no reason to call myself a member of either and I'm almost always closer to their side than to "the enemy" in my opinions.
This approach tends to require overmoderation, whether it's on reddit or elsewhere. And yes, due to the nature of Lemmy and Reddit it also creates constant vigilance and ideological checks, judging whether some dissenting people are worthy of being members or just trolls. The problem is it's really easy to be labelled a troll if you're just outside of their political worldviews.
Tildes also has a western progressive bias, but it's less extreme on average and outside a small minority of topics that create strong emotions dissent is not a problem in terms of moderation or in terms of the community turning against you, so while I'm not entirely happy here, it doesn't overshadow the other qualities.
Moderation is one of these topics where many people who have not been involved with moderating communities simply don't realize how much of it is needed if signup is open.
No, I do understand this. I just don't care - if the community or moderation sucks as a result, then they chose the wrong place to run it and I'm not going to use it.
I do believe that some sort of gatekeeping is a crucial part of any healthy online community and is the reason why Tildes is what it is.
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Comment on Is there any interest in building a Tildes successor? in ~tildes
V17 Link ParentI can't double check for now because it's down, but if it's what I think it is, the community and the team behind it were exactly the problem for me personally - it seemed like an overmoderated...But I don't think it was the team behind it or the community itself that was the issue.
I can't double check for now because it's down, but if it's what I think it is, the community and the team behind it were exactly the problem for me personally - it seemed like an overmoderated (western) leftist safe space with the same issues that similar subreddits have. I am on Tildes specifically because, despite obvious western left bias, it is not overmoderated, most people don't have extreme opinions, and even with controversial issues people don't generally assume you're a troll if you go against the grain.
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Comment on ‘Barbie 2’ in crisis: sequel could be shelved amid pay battle and crumbling deal talks in ~movies
V17 Link ParentWhy? Isn't that a relatively common thing to happen? It doesn't always happen, maybe not even in the majority of cases, but in the case of a movie based on a hyper-commercial toy franchise, where...Why? Isn't that a relatively common thing to happen? It doesn't always happen, maybe not even in the majority of cases, but in the case of a movie based on a hyper-commercial toy franchise, where the fact that the first one was not just a blatant cash grab seems like a bit of a miracle, this seems like a fair expectation.
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Comment on Perfect Time - Bloudění v rytmu (OC, vintage Czechoslovak jazz) (2026) in ~music
V17 LinkI have been mildly secretive due to potentially revealing my real identity in the past, but lately I thought whatever. Here's the band that I play in. Every year in summer we try to get together...I have been mildly secretive due to potentially revealing my real identity in the past, but lately I thought whatever. Here's the band that I play in.
Every year in summer we try to get together somewhere for at least a weekend and aside from practicing and trying new stuff we always make a simple music video, spontaneously with no preparation.
This year it's Bloudění v rytmu (wandering in rhythm), a Czech song from 1941. The thing about local jazz from that era is that during the culture transport over the ocean some things fell off the boat. In the beginnings of jazz in the late 20s you couldn't just get your hands on a record, hear it in pristine quality and try to imitate that. Often all you got was sheet music and some ideas.
Naturally then what happened was that attempts at jazz were heavily influenced by music played locally at the time. So instead of jazz we got a sort of a fusion of foxtrot and polka, which surely has some jazz elements, but also often emphasis on the first beat instead of second, "wrong" phrasing and happy melodies instead of bluesy.
Although we're using somewhat different instruments (our "jazz" was still played by big bands), this song is a pretty good example of the style.
Oh, and it was recorded similarly to Wynnona's Big Brown Beaver by Primus, first we recorded the audio in the garden (close to neighbor's hens, as you'll notice) and then we recorded the video at half the tempo and sped it up in post production, so we get correct rhythm but with weird looking movement.
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Perfect Time - Bloudění v rytmu (OC, vintage Czechoslovak jazz) (2026)
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Comment on JAECOO 7 becomes the UK’s best-selling car in 2026 after hitting number one spot in March in ~transport
V17 Link ParentThis is not the first wake up call, at least for European automotive, and I don't think anything has significantly changed, so I doubt that. Our companies seem to be in this weird state of taking...Hopefully this is a wake up call to western automakers to actually compete.
This is not the first wake up call, at least for European automotive, and I don't think anything has significantly changed, so I doubt that. Our companies seem to be in this weird state of taking the worst from both worlds.
They could be focusing on making the best, most reliable ICE cars, which is a very difficult thing for a new company to do and our companies have decades and decades of experience, but strict and ever changing standards have strangled the industry and led to the production of cars that are efficient but expensive to maintain and highly unlikely to be as long lasting as the previous generation.
Or they could be focusing on EVs, but they're years behind, inflexible (including the R&D chain), and are dependent on China both in manufacturing and in supplying resources (like battery meterials), so they're always just lagging behind and as far as I know nobody has a good plan to change that. It's not that R&D is not happening at all, there have been investments in manufacturing whole battery units, BMS and other related stuff, but both the semiconductors, rare earths etc., all the basic stuff, is produced in China and it doesn't make economical sense to try to move it here, so we would have to innovate in other ways to compete, which at this moment is not happening.
As a bonus of this situation we focus on manufacturing expensive EVs with higher added value because that offsets the emission costs for ICE cars, but this only makes the whole situation worse.
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Comment on Ukraine ‘cuts off’ Crimea from Russia, plunging it into an energy crisis in ~society
V17 LinkThe title is badly worded, because it could be read as Crimea being cut off entirely, which could lead to a humanitarian crisis if it lasted long enough. So far Ukraine is intentionally leaving...The title is badly worded, because it could be read as Crimea being cut off entirely, which could lead to a humanitarian crisis if it lasted long enough. So far Ukraine is intentionally leaving the bridge open so that anybody who wants can leave.
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Comment on MapTap: Daily challenges to test your geographical knowledge in ~games
V17 Linkwww.maptap.gg July 16 86🎓 98🔥 80✨ 91👑 82🌟 Final score: 863 Nice. I like geography related games. Nothing is really as good as geoguessr, but it's nice to have something shorter and less sweaty.www.maptap.gg July 16
86🎓 98🔥 80✨ 91👑 82🌟
Final score: 863Nice. I like geography related games. Nothing is really as good as geoguessr, but it's nice to have something shorter and less sweaty.
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Comment on What did banning Airbnbs in New York City accomplish? in ~finance
V17 Link ParentI don't think any significant number of people actually thinks that, if anything educated rational types often complain about how irrational and stupid people are. I think the disconnect is...Educated rational types love to think that people are dispassionate robots that dissect the position of every party on every issue but it's just not how it works.
I don't think any significant number of people actually thinks that, if anything educated rational types often complain about how irrational and stupid people are. I think the disconnect is further on, not understanding how the actual political work works - compromises, deals with the enemy to push something high value through, the need to care about popularity and support all the time and not just before elections etc.
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Comment on My free open source sky atlas app is now available on Google Play in ~space
V17 LinkI feel like the obvious question here is: how does it differ from Stellarium? I'm an amateur who only uses Stellarium a few times per year, so I may not appreciate or understand the differences,...I feel like the obvious question here is: how does it differ from Stellarium?
I'm an amateur who only uses Stellarium a few times per year, so I may not appreciate or understand the differences, but perhaps I'll learn something.
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Comment on Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after ‘brief and sudden illness’ in ~society
V17 LinkAs a central European one thing I appreciated about him was his pro-Ukraine stance, which is unfortunately far from a given in a republican these days. This is a big topic for us, so I'm worried...As a central European one thing I appreciated about him was his pro-Ukraine stance, which is unfortunately far from a given in a republican these days. This is a big topic for us, so I'm worried about who's going to take his place.
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Comment on Pew Research polling on NATO, 2026 in ~society
V17 Link ParentIIRC Spain has never really appreciated the importance of NATO (in terms of public opinion), probably due to feeling mostly geographically separated from any threats, even before first Trump. So I...IIRC Spain has never really appreciated the importance of NATO (in terms of public opinion), probably due to feeling mostly geographically separated from any threats, even before first Trump. So I don't think this is due to US necessarily, but I also don't think this is a significant change.
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Comment on Obsidian Entertainment reportedly lays off a quarter of staff, cancels multiple projects, and begins work on new Fallout game in ~games
V17 Link ParentIn case anybody recommends Metro Exodus as an open-world sequel - it's not actually open-world either and there's a ton of those railroaded segments, forced (and imo unnecessary) cutscenes etc....I felt that Metro 2033 was a railroaded slog and a chore.
In case anybody recommends Metro Exodus as an open-world sequel - it's not actually open-world either and there's a ton of those railroaded segments, forced (and imo unnecessary) cutscenes etc. You probably won't like it either.
You may enjoy Stalker (the first three), but I'm sure you know those, just a thought.
So I am a wee bit excited about the Obsidian news...
Have you checked how many people who worked on FNV are still at Obsidian? I haven't, I just know Avellone isn't, but it might be a good idea to check and adjust that excitement accordingly. Obsidian's output hasn't been that strong recently.
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Comment on I tried to help a goldfinch - but there wasn't enough help in ~enviro
V17 LinkI don't know what the weather is like in Romania currently, but about 10 days ago during the brutal heat wave when it was 37° - 42° C around here, which is extremely rare, there was a lot of this...I don't know what the weather is like in Romania currently, but about 10 days ago during the brutal heat wave when it was 37° - 42° C around here, which is extremely rare, there was a lot of this happening around the country and the cause was the heat itself. Birds commonly set up nests at the edges of roofs, in metal gutters etc., which are normally relatively safe, but during the heatwave many became dangerously hot, especially for the young ones, so they would end up jumping off, often even blind, featherless ones, and many would die.
We have a relatively dense network of small private rescue stations, and they were flooded. I know this because it happened at my parents' house and my father drove the two sparrow babies that survived to the nearest one, where he had to wait for an hour because the dude was just picking up a box with like 12 young overheated birds from a different spot. No idea if they survived or not, but they looked viable, so fingers crossed.
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Comment on Modern, abstract art makes me angry in ~arts
V17 LinkI like abstract art, always have, but all of this happens, and on top of that I can confirm that art students these days often (not nearly always, I'm not even sure if it's a majority, but it is...- Exemplary
I like abstract art, always have, but
a bunch of material that has no depth or meaning beyond the BS the artist (scammer?) came up with
Or the ridiculous “explanations” about the piece that pretend to be way deeper and smarter than it really is. Chill, it’s just some paint splatters on a surface, it doesn’t mean anything and there is no depth or layers to it.
just plain lazy and disrespectful to even call this art and put it on the same level as the masters’ classical paintings.all of this happens, and on top of that I can confirm that art students these days often (not nearly always, I'm not even sure if it's a majority, but it is common) do this broad category of art because they want to skip the part where they gain skills in traditional techniques, so they do abstract art not entirely by choice but also due to their own limitations. Regarding the made-up meaning, I remember my friend telling me, shortly after she got her masters of arts degree in painting, that she feels the art professors' insistence on being able to explain and defend all her works made her art worse. But sadly this is a trend, people demand it, and on top of that there's a ton of shallow trendy political activism in it.
That said, none of those things are a rule, and the fundamental nonsense is saying that abstract art cannot have meaning or depth. Most music is abstract, it's not trying to imitate anything specific, it's just making sounds for the sake of making sounds because it sounds interesting. Surely you can accept that the same thing exists in visual arts - something can evoke feelings or images while still being abstract. After all human feelings and experiences are often too chaotic and complex to be properly described by words or realistic descriptive images.
Yeah, there is a line to draw, some art truly is just low quality nonsense, and each of us has the line located somewhere else, but certainly good abstract art exists before the line. I think it's also a good idea to try to accept that there are genuine attempts that just failed to produce something good, but maybe helped the author to learn from that and move on to something better - not everything is cynical or lazy, though some certainly is.
I was also standing in front of a broken glass pane that was called art just yesterday: in a room full to the brim with historical and current glass objects, everyday use and purely decorative, showing about 100 years of history of various sides of this art & craft, one of the glass boxes that were otherwise full of stuff was empty, glass smashed and titled "Riot is beautiful", signed by a well known local artist/activist.
Such a thing exhibited on its own would be surface level pseudo-deep crap, but it was made specifically for this exhibition, to be viewed in this context. I know the dude's other work, so I know he has a sense of humor, and also he does genuinely interesting and ballsy things that are political and provocative without being trendy or stupid. So I believe this small bullshit art serves as a something of a reminder that although we're in a museum where every piece is protected, labelled and later archived and the air is climate controlled to conserve the (other, non-glass) objects, there's a real world out there where specifically these kinds of items get used and abused and everything is temporary, and it also aims to give you the thought of what it would feel like to smash all those dumb kitchy golden-rimmed cognac glasses on shelf 37.
It doesn't give you the same feelings as watching a painting from an old master, but it certainly gives you some thoughts despite being a piece of smashed glass with a title and nothing more. I admit that knowing the author is not an idiot, and therefore it makes sense to expect some thoughts to exist behind it, does help.
Sure, I was just reacting to the general "photography of the art is banned", because in my opinion it generally is not. I agree that "for commercial purposes" is a different thing and would be related here, maybe it was just stated in a weird way.