balooga's recent activity
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Comment on /r/Seattle mods find Archive.today injected malware links into archived page in ~tech
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Comment on Patrick Stewart dead: 'Star Trek' captain, 'X-Men' superhero was 86 in ~movies
balooga Link ParentJust watched The Inner Light again in his memory. I’ve always known losing him would hit me harder than anybody else but I still never expected it to come this early. In my mind he’d live to at...Just watched The Inner Light again in his memory. I’ve always known losing him would hit me harder than anybody else but I still never expected it to come this early. In my mind he’d live to at least 120, and never look a day over 70. If only he could’ve made it so.
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Comment on Why is this fingerprinting script creating bioweapons? in ~comp
balooga Link ParentAt least for the time being, abliterated open weights are a dime a dozen. It’s fairly trivial to remove most safeguards from today’s LLMs, because they’re implemented via reversible post-training....At least for the time being, abliterated open weights are a dime a dozen. It’s fairly trivial to remove most safeguards from today’s LLMs, because they’re implemented via reversible post-training. This may not always be the case but there are plenty of models available now that won’t bat an eye at stuff like this.
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Comment on Manifestos, fear, and ‘loser thinking’: inside Proton’s AI reckoning in ~tech
balooga LinkWell congratulations Andy, now everyone perceives you as a stupid loser and it’s entirely of your own doing. I’ve never been a customer of Proton but I’ve always had a high opinion of them as a...“Perception is more important than truth, the truth doesn’t matter if you don’t win on perception.”
One employee told 404 Media, “Whatever persona Andy [Yen] has out of Proton, he’s a straight up bully inside. He routinely breaks his little facade in Slack and calls people losers and stupid, often for stuff he’s paying them for.”
Well congratulations Andy, now everyone perceives you as a stupid loser and it’s entirely of your own doing.
I’ve never been a customer of Proton but I’ve always had a high opinion of them as a company. Not anymore. There’s nothing to respect about a reckless, hurried company driven by a cocksure exec who creates a hostile work environment by belittling his employees and mocking their commitment to quality and care.
What a hot mess.
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Comment on Proton to ‘re-interview’ staff about AI to see who gets to keep their job in ~tech
balooga Link ParentThis is why I’m so conflicted about the CEO. I’ve used Mullvad for years and it’s legitimately great. The service is fast, reliable, and feature-rich; the client software is well-designed; and of...This is why I’m so conflicted about the CEO. I’ve used Mullvad for years and it’s legitimately great. The service is fast, reliable, and feature-rich; the client software is well-designed; and of course they have an unimpeachable audit track record. I obviously don’t love my money going to fascist politics, but it’s a pittance, personally speaking, because the service is so inexpensive.
It’s just not feasible to subject every company we engage with to a purity test. I spend more money on coffee than I do on my VPN, arguably I should be prioritizing the ethics of that supply chain first, but there are only so many hours in the day. I pay my ISP bill every month which is more expensive than either of those, and I’m pretty sure all ISPs are basically the devil. It’s exhausting. Anyway, maybe I’ll switch from Mullvad if a technically comparable alternative presents itself, but until then I'm not losing any sleep over it.
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Comment on Eric Bauza, voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and many other characters dead at 46 in ~movies
balooga LinkI missed this post yesterday! RIP to a great talent who died way too young. I just watched Coyote vs. Acme for the first time last week and really enjoyed it a ton!I missed this post yesterday! RIP to a great talent who died way too young. I just watched Coyote vs. Acme for the first time last week and really enjoyed it a ton!
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Comment on ‘Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers’ brings artistry to a Halloween tradition in ~life
balooga Link ParentPumpkin isn’t commonly eaten apart from pumpkin pie, which is delicious. Of course “pumpkin spice” is popular this time of year for flavoring various things (famously lattes) but that doesn’t...Pumpkin isn’t commonly eaten apart from pumpkin pie, which is delicious. Of course “pumpkin spice” is popular this time of year for flavoring various things (famously lattes) but that doesn’t actually contain pumpkin — it’s just a blend of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice which are used to make the pie so tasty. Without them pumpkin pie would probably not be very appetizing.
I like to clean and dry pumpkin seeds, and roast them with a bit of salt. Makes for a rather popcorn-like snack. My spouse uses pumpkin purée with chocolate chips in a loaf, it’s a bit like a sweet banana bread. That’s pretty yummy too.
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Comment on Let’s talk about something different. UAP’s, UFO’s, etc. in ~books
balooga LinkWhere to start? I think extraterrestrial life probably exists. Even advanced, intelligent life… but I doubt that sort is common, or situated anywhere near our cosmic neighborhood because we’d have...Where to start?
I think extraterrestrial life probably exists. Even advanced, intelligent life… but I doubt that sort is common, or situated anywhere near our cosmic neighborhood because we’d have proof of it by now. In my opinion, to understand the massive scale of a universe that contains (at least) hundreds of billions of GALAXIES and still claim that there’s nothing anywhere out there approaching human sophistication, reaches new farcical heights of hubris.
But flying saucers in Earth’s skies? Close encounters? Alien abductions? Not likely. This is the Fermi paradox, right? The same appeal I made to the size of the universe applies here, in reverse: Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.
I think everything we know about physics sadly rules out interstellar travel as an actual possibility, at least for any species recognizable to us as an intelligent life form. We’re certainly not transporting ourselves to even Mars any time soon, let alone Proxima Centauri. Let alone the far side of our own galaxy. Let alone Andromeda, or beyond. As a lifelong sci-fi fan it breaks my heart, but that’s reality. If the aliens are out there, we can’t get to them, and they can’t get to us.
So my view is that UFOs and UAPs and the like are all different flavors of unsexy terrestrial phenomena. Some are real sightings of classified military or intelligence hardware tests, covered up for reasons of national security or to scrub away evidence of secret programs operating with shadow budgets and questionable legality. Okay I guess that’s kinda sexy. The rest are things like schizophrenia, hallucinations, pareidolia, wishful thinking / power of suggestion / confirmation bias. And of course, hoaxes and scams.
(Miss you, DA. So long, and thanks for all the books.)
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
balooga Link ParentThat makes sense, thanks for the response. Good question, I was sort of generally reacting to this whole branch of the thread. Just ended up attaching my reply to your comment because it was most...That makes sense, thanks for the response.
but why are you asking me and not phoenixrises ?
Good question, I was sort of generally reacting to this whole branch of the thread. Just ended up attaching my reply to your comment because it was most recent and I thought most clearly spelled out the particular framing of “being kind has been tried and hasn't worked so we should stop”.
On rereading, I think I took the opposite of your intended meaning from your comment, and that’s my own bad reading comprehension. Serves me right for trying to keep up with a long and nuanced hot-button conversation, on my phone, while doing other things IRL, haha.
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
balooga Link ParentThis idea of utilitarian kindness, used only as a means to achieve some outcome, and then ceased when said outcome is reached, is so bizarre to me. Isn’t being a kind person reason enough? Just...This idea of utilitarian kindness, used only as a means to achieve some outcome, and then ceased when said outcome is reached, is so bizarre to me. Isn’t being a kind person reason enough? Just feels cynical to me to start from a default place of unkindness, which is then reverted to when the strategy of kindness doesn’t seem to be producing the desired effects.
Apologies if I’m misreading you, and I’m not even sure if you’re saying that’s how you personally view things or are just speaking generally. I’m speaking generally myself, not meaning to criticize you or anyone else.
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
balooga Link ParentIt might be worth considering whether this is a change in the Tildes user base in particular, or a symptom of the broader antisocial cultural swing happening around the world right now. It seems...It might be worth considering whether this is a change in the Tildes user base in particular, or a symptom of the broader antisocial cultural swing happening around the world right now. It seems to me that we’re collectively in a moment of “woke backlash” and the Overton window is rapidly receding. Exclusionary and unempathetic voices are presently emboldened by political figures, influencers, religious leaders— we’re experiencing a frontal assault on human dignity, now greenlit explicitly or implicitly by the societal figureheads whose predecessors would’ve pushed back.
Personally I’m not surprised the effects from that are being felt here too. Nowhere is immune, it seems.
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
balooga Link ParentNot so different from DOGE et al. coming in suddenly and axing much of the administrative apparatus that has been quietly keeping Americans safe, healthy, educated, and innovative. In their...Not so different from DOGE et al. coming in suddenly and axing much of the administrative apparatus that has been quietly keeping Americans safe, healthy, educated, and innovative. In their ignorance, all they could perceive was “waste, fraud, and abuse.” (Sadly, this is my generous read that presumes the benefit of the doubt, that they were well-intentioned people acting in good faith… though I don’t believe that to be the case for these particular actors.)
Sure, in any org there are going to be inefficiencies. That’s just the human condition. Fraud and abuse too, but those should be excised with a scalpel, not a chainsaw. There’s a particular tunnel vision some people develop that just absolutely suppresses their ability to learn from others who have more experience or knowledge than them in certain areas. The Dunning-Kruger effect. From that stems ego, indignation, self-righteousness, and an unwillingness—not mere inability—to empathize. Most frustrating is that tendency to double down or get angry when someone suggests they might be wrong. They won’t hear it. Such a possibility is completely alien to them.
How do we make the world a more equitable place for all, when it is populated with so many such people?
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
balooga Link ParentSpot on. I’ll just take this opportunity, since it’s more appropriate here than there, to say that I watched the #YesAllMen video and thought it was great. I upvoted it. However as a man (and it...non-participation is invisible
Spot on. I’ll just take this opportunity, since it’s more appropriate here than there, to say that I watched the #YesAllMen video and thought it was great. I upvoted it. However as a man (and it feels gauche to even use that phrase) I considered that no comment I could write would be useful there…
A simple message of agreement doesn’t really contribute anything to the conversation; typically if I’m going to comment on a post I want to engage critically with the material. And I realized that in a post about how men’s mistreatments of women are routinely downplayed, disbelieved, and laughed off it would be a very bad idea for me to pop in with that sort of “critical engagement.” I love sharing my perspective with people on Tildes and IRL. But when my perspective is that of the victimizer group (even if I myself am blameless and pure) I have the situational awareness to read the room and recognize that any well-intentioned counterpoint I might bring to the table would make me guilty of the same problem the video is about in the first place.
There were a couple nuanced things I considered commenting about. Not disagreements, just deeper-than-surface-level matters I would’ve intellectually enjoyed chatting about. But I have sense enough to see that what I perceive as an enjoyable harmless chat can easily be read as a callous attack on someone else’s agency or personhood. Because I don’t have any skin in the game. I’m not the one fighting to be heard and believed and valued. That’s what privilege and implicit bias are all about.
So I kept my mouth shut in that thread. I’ve been wrestling with how to be a male feminist and ally for decades and still screw it up all the time, but at least I can claim some level of, well maybe not wisdom but certainly maturity just by virtue of age. Twenty years ago I would’ve handled this situation differently — eh, it’s not a counterfactual, I did handle situations like this differently on message boards of that time when topics like this came up and I was more than eager to step in and mansplain about how things aren’t actually so bad. I regret that now.
I was sorry to see it happening here. I understand how it happened and I wouldn’t condemn the male participants in the thread too harshly, because I do believe their intentions were good, if misguided. I’m saddened to see community members made to feel unwelcome or driven away. I hope this was a learning experience for everyone. Especially my fellow men — take to heart the message of that video. If your kneejerk response to it is “the speaker telling us about her victimization is wrong, and I know better than her” then please do some introspection about that.
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Comment on What are your 'most-wanted' cover songs? in ~music
balooga LinkI’ve got a “soft” spot for ‘70s soft rock hits that don’t get much airplay these days. Understated songs with real earworm value, like Ventura Highway by America, Summer Breeze by Seals and...I’ve got a “soft” spot for ‘70s soft rock hits that don’t get much airplay these days. Understated songs with real earworm value, like Ventura Highway by America, Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts, What a Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers, or Still the One by Orleans. Pretty much the eternal soundtrack of (white) boomer dads like mine.
I’d love to hear these reinterpreted in a melancholy bedroom pop / hyperpop style by some current artists like Oklou or BENEE or OVSKY. I think a little youth and diversity could breathe new life into these old songs, playing to their strengths while taking them in some unexpected directions too.
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Comment on What can be done about Linux being slopified? in ~tech
balooga Link ParentI can see that becoming true in the future. Maybe the near future. But right now I think the coding agents just have too limited context windows and too weak prompt adherence. They can’t keep a...So we never really care about the actual machine code anymore, maybe it is time we stopped caring about the source code too?
I can see that becoming true in the future. Maybe the near future. But right now I think the coding agents just have too limited context windows and too weak prompt adherence. They can’t keep a whole project vision and architecture in “mind” without slowly drifting away from it over time. They'll start introducing “alternative” implementations that are odds with how the project was intended to function. They'll undo optimizations that were lovingly crafted by people who did it that way for a reason. They'll deliver what they were prompted for, but at the cost of subtle regressions in other features they weren't prompted about.
If they were able to consistently avoid those pitfalls, I'd agree that the source code doesn't matter anymore. Until then, software that’s worked fine for years is going to start getting… flaky. Buggy. Not just functionally, but visually too. All that nice pixel-perfect UI that frontend guys like me (until I left the field last year) pored over to get the colors and margins and hover states and transition timings juuuust right and slick and professionally branded… the AI doesn't care about that. It'll produce something good enough at first glance. Missing polish in subtle ways, but close, and that'll ship. Then the next PR that touches the same components will drift a bit further. Just gradually getting crappier over time, until the user base jumps ship because the system is just unpleasant to use now and feels like nobody at the company cares about quality anymore.
It’s early yet. I don’t think those limitations are going to be with us forever. But in the meantime I think they’re going to be a landline for a lot of software projects. I’m watching intently to see how many well-regarded companies’ products just start devolving like this. My guess is once things get to a certain point it’s too late to reverse course because the whole codebase is poisoned, and that’s just the death sentence for that project.
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Comment on McDonalds and Star Trek's "Red Alert" sound in ~talk
balooga Link ParentIs this a recent (post-pandemic) change? I used to find McDonald’s dining rooms to be comfortable enough places to enjoy a meal, but I won’t go near them now. They have become consumer-hostile to...Is this a recent (post-pandemic) change? I used to find McDonald’s dining rooms to be comfortable enough places to enjoy a meal, but I won’t go near them now. They have become consumer-hostile to an almost satirical degree.
All ordering must now be done in the app or on a kiosk. The kiosks are slow, frustrating systems that multiply my ordering time compared to the efficiency of just telling an employee what I want. There is never anyone working up front, so if you need anything you have to wait awkwardly at the counter and hope to catch someone’s attention back in the kitchen — and they will usually ignore you or give you the gen-alpha stare. That the whole situation even needs to happen now is absurd but for some reason all of the napkins and ketchup packets and other things you might need, which used to be within easy reach near the drink station, are now locked away from customers behind the front counter. Also somehow the kitchen seems louder and more chaotic than ever, I guess with everyone rushing around to fulfill drive-thru and DoorDash orders, and anyone unfortunate enough to be dining in is just an afterthought to them.
I realize that’s not going to be the experience everywhere but in the areas I've been, the rapidness and unpleasantness of the transformation really stands out to me. The thought of klaxons blaring in the background doesn’t honestly seem out step with any of the rest of the changes McDonald’s has been rolling out, if you ask me.
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Comment on iPhone Duo sells out immediately, now backordered until next year in ~tech
balooga Link ParentI think VR’s ship has sailed. I’ve got a PSVR2. Its games look and feel pretty great, it’s comfortable to use… I really do like it. But it’s been months since I touched it! Why? Hard to say. I...I think VR’s ship has sailed. I’ve got a PSVR2. Its games look and feel pretty great, it’s comfortable to use… I really do like it. But it’s been months since I touched it! Why? Hard to say. I always enjoy my experience with it, but there’s a mental barrier that’s enough to prevent me from turning it on. Specifically: it feels like a hassle. I don’t want to move my coffee table out of the way to create a playable space in the room. I don’t want to fiddle with the headset fit or the lens focus. I don’t want to get the controllers and headphones set up. I don’t want to play standing up, extending my arms, moving around the room. I’m lazy.
In hindsight, it’s not really that much effort and I’m always glad to have done it… but when it’s my wind-down time at the end of the day and the choice is between that, and just plopping down on the couch to play a game on the TV, the latter wins every time. Apple’s clearly lost a ton on the Vision Pro, and don’t get me started on the embarrassing all-in pivot Zuckerberg made with the metaverse.
There could still be an exciting future for AR/VR someday but I’d guess we’ll need to wait another 25 years for a hardware leap that will get us to the other side of the inconvenience valley.
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Comment on Grand Theft Auto VI | Launch trailer in ~games
balooga Link ParentCan’t say I expected a thread about GTA VI to spark a debate about the labor theory of value vs. the subjective theory of value, but this is Tildes. As far as mainstream economics is concerned the...Can’t say I expected a thread about GTA VI to spark a debate about the labor theory of value vs. the subjective theory of value, but this is Tildes. As far as mainstream economics is concerned the matter has been settled for 150 years. Noah Smith has a pretty good article about it if anyone’s interested.
Long story short, stuff is worth whatever people are willing to spend on it, and the reasons behind their decisions are a beautiful tapestry of rational and irrational judgments.
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Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news
balooga Link ParentMath derail: How many possible combinations of digits are there in a three-digit number? If the low end of the range is 000 and the high end is 999, you’ve already got the answer. Well— add one...Math derail: How many possible combinations of digits are there in a three-digit number? If the low end of the range is 000 and the high end is 999, you’ve already got the answer. Well— add one because you’re counting that zero as a possible value too, so… 1,000. Just struck me as funny that you asked AI to calculate the odds here, and I get it because probabilities can be surprisingly tricky to work out. But in this case it’s literally just counting!
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of October 12 in ~society
balooga Link ParentI didn’t realize Leavitt was out. Was there a story behind that one?I didn’t realize Leavitt was out. Was there a story behind that one?
Ugh. Another nice thing, ruined. Good on those mods for uncovering, feels like we’re early to the party here but I bet 404 or someone will pick up the story and blow it up.
There’s some good discussion in the thread about alternatives. Someone said GhostArchive looks to be run by the same operator of Archive.today. Another poster recommended Wallhop which I hadn’t heard of before. I can’t vouch for it or corroborate the other claim, but I’m glad these discussions are happening.
Another comment recommended Bypass Paywalls Clean which I can vouch for and highly recommend, but my recommendation always has to come with a ton of disclaimers because the only way to get it is via a sketchy Russian GitHub clone (due to DMCA takedowns back when it was distributed on reputable western sites IIRC).