papasquat's recent activity
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Comment on Why everyone is suddenly in a ‘very Chinese time’ in their lives in ~tech
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
papasquat Link ParentNah. Just an absurd amount of c clamps. I eventually figured it out, but it took an absurd about of trial and error, and I think I eventually just recut everything. I learned that there are dozens...Nah. Just an absurd amount of c clamps. I eventually figured it out, but it took an absurd about of trial and error, and I think I eventually just recut everything.
I learned that there are dozens of ways for double rabbet joints to sit on a box, and if you don't plan out exactly how yours will sit, and write them down, you're almost guaranteed to have something that doesn't fit. If I ever have to do it again, single rabbets only. Or if I'm in the mood to feel like a complete idiot on an even higher scale again, maybe I'll try dovetails.
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
papasquat (edited )Link ParentThank you for that. I think you're right. Maybe a better way to put it instead of "we're all smart in our own way" would be "we're all idiots in our own way". I can personally attest with 100%...Thank you for that. I think you're right. Maybe a better way to put it instead of "we're all smart in our own way" would be "we're all idiots in our own way".
I can personally attest with 100% certainly that the latter is true.
Edit: I just thought of a story I was telling my dad the other day about me trying to build a wooden box that illustrates this well. I had to build a small wooden box for some electronics I wanted to put outside. Easy. Six sides, rabbet joints on the table saw, glue, join, and clamp.
It ended up taking me all day.
I could NOT get this thing to line up. I measured. I put one side on top of the rabbet, that didn't work, I had the rabbet join a different way. Nope, still had a gap on one side, or it was too big. I swear to god I spent three hours on the floor of my garage trying to put this six pieced thing together like a five year old playing with his first lego set.
It was a huge blow to my ego, because as I mentioned earlier, I like to think of myself as a smart guy. I was sitting on the floor in my mid 30s, unable to assemble a box, and I felt like the stupidest motherfucker in the entire world.
If someone with any sort of experience with woodworking, or really anyone with basic spatial intelligence saw my attempts, they'd probably think I had a legitimate mental deficiency and feel bad for me. Maybe I actually do have a legitimate mental deficiency in that arena.
It's those kinds of experiences that I think certain types of people (one of whom name may vaguely rhyme with... sealion tusk) should really introspect on and hammer home the point that no one is good at everything. We're all absolute mouth breathing morons sometimes.
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
papasquat Link ParentYeah. I grew up in those counter culture days, and I miss that feeling. I used to idolize hackers in movies and news stories. Kevin Mitnick was a hero to me who was sticking it to the man and...Yeah. I grew up in those counter culture days, and I miss that feeling. I used to idolize hackers in movies and news stories. Kevin Mitnick was a hero to me who was sticking it to the man and forcing the system to confront it's own hypocrisy. I thought that the proliferation of information technology would usher in a new golden age free from ignorance. "Information wants to be free" and all that.
Looking back, it was naive from the outset, yes, but also, there was some innocence lost when everyone involved saw that information technology ended up just being one out of many tools that could be used to liberate people, or to oppress people, or to control people, or to profit off of people, just like any human invention before it. It wasn't inheritely good, and it didn't want anything.
I think many of us sort of realized that maybe our parents and teachers were on to something when they said that the world is complicated, and few things are truly so black and white. Many didn't, and it seems like most of those people have doubled down to the two places where large swathes of people do believe that the world is simple, black and white, with clear good and evil; religion and reactionary politics.
A lot of people have a hard time with how left/libertarian leaning tech nerds who were militantly atheist morphed into the conservative Christian Thielites we have today. When viewed through that lens, it makes perfect sense.
There needed to be good guys and bad guys. The bad guys were the old out of touch rich people who controlled the world. Once the nerds got old enough and rich enough to be the people who controlled the world, a new answer had to emerge for why the world sucked still.
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
papasquat Link ParentYeah. I have a soft side for RFK Jr. in general compared to the rest of the administration. Yes, he's overconfident in his knowledge and abilities. Yes, he probably has some severe undiagnosed...Yeah. I have a soft side for RFK Jr. in general compared to the rest of the administration. Yes, he's overconfident in his knowledge and abilities. Yes, he probably has some severe undiagnosed mental issues. Yes, he is, and will continue to be responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of kids because of irresponsible rhetoric about vaccines.
All that said, he's the only prominent member of the Trump administration that doesn't seem to be intentionally destroying the country. I believe that he's legitimately trying to help people in his own unhinged totally unqualified way, and MAGA was the bitter pill he had to swallow to do that in his mind. I don't get the same level of pure hatred from him, even towards his critics that I do from the rest of the Trump administration, and I think if he got out of his own ass and were more open to listening to actual scientists and taking their advice instead of stuff he saw on YouTube and shady websites, he could actually be a somewhat effective HHS director. Maybe I'm just not paying attention enough though.
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Comment on Scott A. on Scott A. on Scott A. in ~comics
papasquat LinkI posted recently in another thread about the entire through line of Dilbert really souring with me as I've grown and matured. Namely that everyone in charge of everything is a moron, and if only...- Exemplary
I posted recently in another thread about the entire through line of Dilbert really souring with me as I've grown and matured.
Namely that everyone in charge of everything is a moron, and if only the super smart engineers were in charge, we'd be living in a utopia.
When I was young and thought of myself as a super smart engineer, that worldview was pretty compelling. I'm sure a lot of Dilbert's hardcore audience falls into that category as well.
As I grew older, met different types of people, got exposed to different kinds of organizations and societies, and most importantly, kept an open mind, I learned that that wasn't quite right.
Firstly, I wasn't nearly as smart as I thought I was. I knew a lot about a few small areas of expertise, but there is so much more of the world than computer programming, or networking, or electronics. Many of those things are at least as useful and important to human well being as the "nerdy" disciplines that the people who love Dilbert are good at.
Secondly, I learned that there are many different types of intelligence. Being able to relate to people and empathize with them requires intelligence. Being persuasive and having the ability to rally many different types of people to one cause requires intelligence. Being able to juggle a lot of competing and antithical priorities so that everyone is at least somewhat happy requires intelligence.
Those aspects aren't inheritely more or less valuable than computer programming, but they are indisputably valuable.Third, I learned over many painful and introspective experiences to humble myself. Even in my area of expertise, there are many people more talented and intelligent than I am, and there always will be. Even though I do have talent and intelligence, people with less experience and exposure to my field can and do provide suggestions I haven't thought about before, and it's worth at least giving them a cursory think.
There are many people who never learned these lessons, because they never wandered from their comfortable bubble, and spend all their time hanging out with other nerdy white guys around their same age. Or they have, but never did so with an open mind, and instead went through the world assured of their own superiority.
I'd rather deal with a team full of pointy haired bosses than a team full of those guys, because neither would get anything done, but the bosses would at least be able to hold a conversation about something other than video games.
I think the brand of Adams' intellectual nerdy "rational" elitism is an artifact of an earlier time that you'd don't see as much anymore. Unfortunately it seems to have been replaced by a flavor of what he became in his latter years; bigoted self assuredness based on absolutely nothing except the Bible and vibes.
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Comment on Guitar Center institutes 72-hour waiting period [Satire] in ~life
papasquat Link ParentThose laws were written when lutes were state of the art technology that armies used to rock out with though! Now, the government has access to massive line array amps and high powered real time...Those laws were written when lutes were state of the art technology that armies used to rock out with though! Now, the government has access to massive line array amps and high powered real time audio processors. We need access to fat amps and nasty distortion pedals to prevent government tyranny.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump isn't building a ballroom in ~society
papasquat Link ParentPhysical proximity to a data center is basically irrelevant. The whole point of data centers is that they're places that information is processed. Information is very easy to move long distances....Physical proximity to a data center is basically irrelevant. The whole point of data centers is that they're places that information is processed. Information is very easy to move long distances. There's no reason why a data center in VA or Maryland wouldnt be able to be every bit as connected to the president as one 150 feet underneath him.
It's a really nonsensical place to build one.
Upgrading and enhancing a command bunker? Sure. Building a massive data center? Pretty silly.
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Comment on Star Wars shake-up: Kathleen Kennedy steps down as George Lucas protégé Dave Filoni, exec Lynwen Brennan take over Lucasfilm in ~movies
papasquat Link ParentI meannnnn... Technically they already did that. It was called Deep Space Nine and it was incredible. The main issue is that Alex Kurtzman doesn't have a shred of the talent that Ronald D Moore does.I meannnnn... Technically they already did that. It was called Deep Space Nine and it was incredible.
The main issue is that Alex Kurtzman doesn't have a shred of the talent that Ronald D Moore does.
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Comment on Star Wars shake-up: Kathleen Kennedy steps down as George Lucas protégé Dave Filoni, exec Lynwen Brennan take over Lucasfilm in ~movies
papasquat Link ParentOn the one hand, sure, Star Wars takes place in a big galaxy with lots of other things going on. On the other hand though, so does literally every other piece of fiction. You could make a Star...On the one hand, sure, Star Wars takes place in a big galaxy with lots of other things going on. On the other hand though, so does literally every other piece of fiction.
You could make a Star Wars movie that takes place on some planet that doesn't know about space travel or light sabers, and they just drive cars to work and it's about some guy's struggling with his marriage or something, but why would you? What would be the point of that being a Star Wars movie?
You could make a Jurassic Park movie that's just a spy thriller about genetic research that Biosyn is doing, and it takes place in the Jurassic Park universe. What would be the point though? Everyone would just say "why is this a Jurassic Park movie if there aren't any dinosaurs".
Jurassic Park is about dinosaurs in a similar way that star wars is about light sabers and space battles. It's in the title.The whole reason the IP is valuable and identifiable is because of light sabers, Darth Vader, x-wings, Jedi, and so on. If you're not including those things, is it really a star wars movie? Or is it just some random sci fi movie with Star wars slapped on the title?
From an artistic perspective, if you're going to make a movie that doesn't have to do with any of the things above, why even call that movie star wars, and not just make a different movie? The setting isn't interesting or unique because it takes place in space and people have laser guns. There are literally tens of thousands of settings like that.
It's interesting, at least in theory, because of the Star Wars stuff.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentI would say compared to the northeast, yes. Compared to a lot of places I've been internationally? Probably not. Living in southern Italy would make me lose my mind, because based on what I saw...Is tardiness generally very well tolerated in southern culture?
I would say compared to the northeast, yes. Compared to a lot of places I've been internationally? Probably not. Living in southern Italy would make me lose my mind, because based on what I saw when I was there, everyone apparently uses clocks as subtle suggestions.
If you're late to a meeting in the south for most places, no one is really going to mind, they'll just shoot the shit for a few minutes. If you do it every single meeting, they might start getting annoyed.
I was a business partner with a guy I knew down here for a few years, and I had to bow out because I couldn't deal with the way he handled customers. He'd miss a call or a meeting or forget to get back to people, and it would be like "oh that's Jim though, he's cool. We go way back, not a big deal".
Even if it was true in some cases it drove me up the wall.
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Comment on Why we are excited about confessions in ~tech
papasquat LinkIt's interesting to me that this research is so high level (from an abstraction standpoint) that it feels more like psychology than information science. Like, the "research" here doesnt consist of...It's interesting to me that this research is so high level (from an abstraction standpoint) that it feels more like psychology than information science.
Like, the "research" here doesnt consist of mathematical proofs or fundemental information theory conjectures, but of trying different techniques that wouldn't be too unfamiliar to a psychotherapist to elicit a machine to not lie.
I wonder if psychology proper eventually has a bleed over into AI research one day. The types of "minds" you're dealing with are very fundementaly different, but the techniques being used are more or less cognitive behavior therapy for machines.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentTerms of service are rarely going to let a company sue a user for damages. They're usually more like just policy acknowledgement to shield the company from being sued for deleting someone's...Terms of service are rarely going to let a company sue a user for damages. They're usually more like just policy acknowledgement to shield the company from being sued for deleting someone's account.
I don't know of any current legal mechanism that would prevent a company from deleting your account on your platform though.
Suppose GrapheneOS manages to create a perfect iOS sandbox to run iOS apps alongside Android apps. Would Apple be able to shift the entirety of their ecosystem quickly enough and frequently enough to keep ahead of it without fracturing their app store advantage
I think they would, yeah. They have the advantage of the fact that they control both the service and the endpoints. They can rapidly push changes to obfuscate the communication between both, and it becomes more or less seamless to the users. They just get an OS update pushed to them.
I think it's pretty telling that no third parties have been able to create a perfect ios sandbox as of yet, despite there being a strong financial incentive to do so.
The third parties are stuck reverse engineering the new protocol changes which takes a while, and in the mean time, all of the users of the third party apps are dead in the water.
It was a lot more feasible in the 90s and early 2000s when strong encryption and mature obfuscation techniques were less proliferated.
Making a third party app used to be as simple as sniffing the traffic from a client and then building a piece of software to emulate that traffic.
Big tech companies have a lot more tools in their toolbox to lock their services down now though.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentEh, yeah it would be a little strange if a friend gave me money for something like that. I've taken friends out to dinner as a thank you for stuff, but generally they just know that I'd do the...Eh, yeah it would be a little strange if a friend gave me money for something like that. I've taken friends out to dinner as a thank you for stuff, but generally they just know that I'd do the same for them if they ask, so we don't worry about balancing anything out.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentIf it was your friend you were doing a favor for, yeah, it would be weird in the US to leave you money. You weren't this lady's friend though. You were her customer, and she asked you to do work...If it was your friend you were doing a favor for, yeah, it would be weird in the US to leave you money.
You weren't this lady's friend though. You were her customer, and she asked you to do work for her. It was already transactional, since you're already paying her to stay at her house.
I understand completely why she did it. She felt that because of her own poor planning, she had to impose herself to ask a paying customer to do something for her. She would have felt guilty if she didn't compensate you, because in her mind she thought you might have felt a little put on by her asking you to do free work for her. The money is a way for her to acknowledge that she imposed a little by asking you, and to make up for it.
Totally within the realm of normalcy, at least in the US.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentI cannot STAND this fact about southern culture in the US. I don't mind striking up conversations. I like talking to strangers, it makes my day more interesting. I always say hi to people on the...It was considered perfectly normal to chatter the whole way to the front and then hold up a whole restaurant of people to chat with the clerk and then decide what you want.
I cannot STAND this fact about southern culture in the US. I don't mind striking up conversations. I like talking to strangers, it makes my day more interesting. I always say hi to people on the street, wave at people in my neighborhood, and exchange pleasantries in elevators. But good God when I want to just get some food on my lunch break and the person at the front of the line is just talking about the weather, or the football game or whatever, I want to just gouge my eyes out.
It's one of the things that my wife says came from growing up in NY. It wouldn't be uncommon at all up there for someone to shout "hey, you got people waiting here, let's go". It would be absolutely unheard of anywhere in the south though. No one would dare, and I definitely wouldn't either. It's a daily frustration for me though.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentI don't know that southern hospitality is necessarily passive aggressive asshole. I think a lot of people in the south genuinely are very nice and interested in their neighbors. They can also be...I don't know that southern hospitality is necessarily passive aggressive asshole. I think a lot of people in the south genuinely are very nice and interested in their neighbors.
They can also be very judgemental, but that's true anywhere.
I grew up in New York and moved to the south as a teenager, and I haven't seen a major difference in how judgemental, mean, racist, or close minded the sort of stereotypical salt of the earth types with thick accents from both areas are.
The major difference to me is that the typical guy like that from New York is a lot louder about it. Most of the good ol boys from the south I've been around will be polite to strangers, call them ma'am/sir, and not instigate conflict. The guys like that from New York... Not so much.
Even a lot of my friends that still live in NY will say stuff in public to random strangers where I'm like "what the fuck is wrong with you? Someone is going to actually pull out a gun and kill you one day".
Both groups can and do strike up conversations with strangers all the time though, and constantly make little "five minute friends" from waiting in line or whatever.
I haven't spent much time on the west coast so maybe it's not quite like that there.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentWell... not really. It's not enough to legalize interoperability (afiak, it's not currently illegal in most places, if you could figure out how, there's no real legal mechanism for WhatsApp to...Well... not really. It's not enough to legalize interoperability (afiak, it's not currently illegal in most places, if you could figure out how, there's no real legal mechanism for WhatsApp to stop you from interacting with their API).
You'd have to mandate interoperability. There are technical barriers to interacting with an API that a company doesn't want you to interact with.
There are authentication mechanisms built into all of these apps that make it very difficult or impossible to use them outside of that app. Once a particular method is found, it's also not too difficult for the company to change the API and their clients simultaneously to stop it. So it's and endless game of wack a mole that becomes a horrible experience for the third party app users.
Using a third party app also violates their terms of service, so even if you do figure out how to reverse engineer it, you're risking your account being banned by doing so. That's not a legal mechanism, that's the company actively tamping down on uncontrolled usage.
The only way you prevent that is by forcing companies to interoperate, and punishing the ones that seek to make it difficult.
Easier said than done and there's a lot of political lobbying that you'd have to overcome from big tech companies to make it happen.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentI originally was jealous that other countries used third party messengers for everything while the defacto standard in the US was still SMS. The more I think about it, the more I actually would...I originally was jealous that other countries used third party messengers for everything while the defacto standard in the US was still SMS. The more I think about it, the more I actually would rather just use SMS (or RCS, where supported) than be forced by social pressure to put a meta app on my phone.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentIt's really annoying to me whenever some sort of institution forces the usage of a proprietary product on my personal devices. SMS or email doesn't bother me since it's a standard that any vendor...It's really annoying to me whenever some sort of institution forces the usage of a proprietary product on my personal devices.
SMS or email doesn't bother me since it's a standard that any vendor can interact with, and I can use the SMS or email client of my choice, but forcing me to use whatsapp to do business with you feels cheap and unprofessional on top of being annoying.
Probably because it's the last piece remaining that prevents the CCP from claiming a total victory in the chinese communist revolution. The ROC and the PRC are still technically at war. A peace has never been negotiated or signed. As long as Taiwan remains a separate country, it's a blemish on the Chinese communist party.
Taking Taiwan would cement Xi in history as the Chinese leader that finally unified the country under communism.
There are massive economic reasons as well of course, but I don't think those are the main drivers.