dysthymia's recent activity
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Comment on UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pitches mandatory national service at eighteen in ~news
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Comment on Will Microsoft want to introduce a subscription fee to their Windows OS in the future? in ~tech
dysthymia (edited )Link ParentTo be fair, you only have to actually learn Linux if you're a power user etc. If you only use a browser, an office suite, Steam, Teams/Zoom, Spotify, Paint, et cetera, there's really almost...To be fair, you only have to actually learn Linux if you're a power user etc. If you only use a browser, an office suite, Steam, Teams/Zoom, Spotify, Paint, et cetera, there's really almost nothing for you to learn.
Some time ago, for a while, I gave my dad my old thinkpad with Linux Mint installed on it. I had changed the skin to look more similar to Windows XP. My dad is fairly technologically illiterate, and he didn't notice at all that the laptop was not actually running Windows, because everything he needed was just there, and in some cases, already preinstalled by Mint.
Unless you really need to use the terminal to do something more "custom" or whatever, I wouldn't really say the average user will notice the difference that much, especially with a stable and user-friendly distribution, like Mint. All our hardware and peripherals so far have been plug-and-play; most software they'd already been using for years is basically the same; VLC, Libreoffice, Chrome, etc. With Steam's Proton being released, even (Steam) gaming has been more or less "click and play" in the last years. Installing new software can be done via a GUI "app store" handed to you by your distribution, so even then, you still don't need to use the terminal
Of course, granted, the parity is still not 1:1, and you will sometimes run into issues if your configuration is fairly unusual or if you need to use proprietary software that's explicitly not supported on Linux-based distros. But, if my technologically (mostly-)illiterate parents can get shit done without "pain" or confusion, I believe anyone else can
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Comment on Confused about headphone impedance in ~tech
dysthymia LinkI believe you're most likely thinking of the maximum power transfer theorem, where the concept of impedance matching is a real "strategy".but another text I read somewhere explained that they should match closely
I believe you're most likely thinking of the maximum power transfer theorem, where the concept of impedance matching is a real "strategy".
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Comment on How do you accidentally run for President of Iceland? in ~design
dysthymia LinkRelevant older post: https://tildes.net/~misc/1fm5/icelands_digital_election_website_made_it_so_easy_to_run_for_president_that_scores_of_people_ended -
Comment on Instagram's Nudify [non-consensual fake nude photo generator] ads in ~tech
dysthymia Link ParentI honestly never thought about this this way, but it does make sense that, at some point, we'd have some kind of cultural shift regarding this kind of thing.I honestly never thought about this this way, but it does make sense that, at some point, we'd have some kind of cultural shift regarding this kind of thing.
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
dysthymia Link ParentThanks for asking! A little bit of context is that I recently "re-discovered" Taylor after listening to a cover of an older song of hers in Lindsey Stirling's discography. Safe to say, I've...Thanks for asking! A little bit of context is that I recently "re-discovered" Taylor after listening to a cover of an older song of hers in Lindsey Stirling's discography. Safe to say, I've listened to her discography 4+ times since then, partly due to the way I "consume" music. That is, when I want to listen to an artist, I always listen to a playlist of their entire discography, minus "live" editions and remixes.
Though I like all of her albums a lot, with the exception of the first one (the self-titled one), I'd say that "Midnights" and "Lover" are my "S-tier" albums, with "1989", "Folklore", and "Reputation" following. Seeing the different "styles" and "vibes" of each album is definitely quite interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing what her new album coming this week has to offer.
My main takeaway is that I can enjoy her music even though I don't necessarily relate to the majority of her lyrics — and when I do relate to them, it's quite often a "paraphrased meaning" that was not inherently her original intention, but is instead taken out of context based on my personal experiences et cetera.
Interestingly, I've been more of a metalhead for most of my life, but I appreciate good artists in most other genres whenever I'm into their personal style(s).
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Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music
dysthymia LinkTaylor Swift's entire discography... Twice.Taylor Swift's entire discography... Twice.
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Comment on Are we watching the internet die? in ~tech
dysthymia Link ParentAs I said, you're not limited to GitHub, although it a fairly popular choice. This includes non-profit options. Furthermore, not hosting your website on something corporate-owned will not prevent...and other such platforms
As I said, you're not limited to GitHub, although it a fairly popular choice. This includes non-profit options.
Furthermore, not hosting your website on something corporate-owned will not prevent your website's contents being used to train the plagiarism machine; simple web crawling is not atypical. It doesn't even need to necessarily be a "known" web-crawler either. If you're putting a website (or any form of content) online publicly, IMO you should assume that you are indeed indirectly training the plagiarism machine.
Regarding Microsoft using FOSS software to train copilot, indeed, they had done that. That being said, though I'm not one to typically defend microsoft, people are now allowed to "opt-out" from having their code used in copilot's training data.
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Comment on Are we watching the internet die? in ~tech
dysthymia Link ParentYou don't even need to go that far. Github Pages, and other such platforms, are effectively free if they fit your requirements. And there are even more free options available as well.if you are blogger (or other text-heavy user), you can do fine with hosting your web on Raspberry Pi running in your drawer on your home connection.
You don't even need to go that far. Github Pages, and other such platforms, are effectively free if they fit your requirements. And there are even more free options available as well.
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Comment on I got paid $0.33 for confirming with Google that I got a haircut where I did and paid with a card in ~tech
dysthymia Link ParentI mean, if you divide that by the number by the number of Google product(s) users (e.g. 5 billion) and then by the number of months in a quarter, it's not that much money per person Of course, I'm...I mean, if you divide that by the number by the number of Google product(s) users (e.g. 5 billion) and then by the number of months in a quarter, it's not that much money per person Of course, I'm cutting a lot of corners in the above calculation. That profit is relatively indirect.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
dysthymia LinkHyperrogue (Non-Euclidean, open-source indie roguelike, set in hyperbolic space and/or other curved geometries) has been my time-waster for the last several weeks. At this point, I feel like I've...Hyperrogue (Non-Euclidean, open-source indie roguelike, set in hyperbolic space and/or other curved geometries) has been my time-waster for the last several weeks.
At this point, I feel like I've been playing it for so long that sometimes I catch myself expecting hyperbolic geometry in every other game I play (e.g. Minecraft, RPGs...)
It's a really fun, interesting, and challenging time-waster. The geometric projections might give some people motion sickness though.
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Comment on Has anyone gotten a degree online? in ~life
dysthymia Link ParentI was part of the "generation" of engineering students who had to spend ~2 years studying remotely due to the covid pandemic. Therefore, I might be able to give my 2·10⁻² € on this subject. If we...I was part of the "generation" of engineering students who had to spend ~2 years studying remotely due to the covid pandemic. Therefore, I might be able to give my 2·10⁻² € on this subject.
If we exclude subjective issues (e.g. some of my fellow students just couldn't properly concentrate on a remote lesson), there are some objective issues regarding an online engineering degree.
The main, objective issue is that you're essentially getting (near-)zero hands-on experience on anything related to your degree. Excluding programming, you're almost certainly not going to have any proper labs where you learn anything useful, unless your course either forces you to purchase your own equipment, or lends you equipment that was purchased by your university. This was unanimously the biggest problem we faced.
The second main problem is the structure of the actual content of the degree. EE, at least for the most part, isn't a course where you memorise things for exams. In order to pass most of your exams, you'll have to solve hundreds of exercises by hand; just looking at notes/presentations is not enough. The main reason I consider that a problem is that, as a course, EE doesn't really benefit from the format(s) remote lessons tend to have. In our case, this even went as far as affecting our remote exams, where many of our exams were quite simplified compared to their "normal" counterparts.
Of course, this is just my anecdotal experience in an unprepared university during the pandemic, and should be taken with a grain of salt (or any salt substitute of your choice)
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Comment on Grammys: Taylor Swift wins Album Of The Year for ‘Midnights,’ setting all-time record in ~music
dysthymia Link ParentYou're not alone in that! The same happened to me after recently listening to her music for the first time in ~11 years, for no specific reason. Her voice and music might be really good, but what...You're not alone in that! The same happened to me after recently listening to her music for the first time in ~11 years, for no specific reason.
Her voice and music might be really good, but what really kept me listening is her lyrics, just like the other commenter also mentioned. :)
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~health.mental
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Comment on Europe's single currency, used daily by about 350 million people, has become a hot topic in an unlikely place – Sweden in ~finance
dysthymia Link ParentWell, to be fair, we also shouldn't have faked our economic data just so that we can enter the eurozone without actually fulfilling all the criteria. We entered the eurozone for several reasons...- Exemplary
We can see that this ends tragically as in the case of Greece [...]
Well, to be fair, we also shouldn't have faked our economic data just so that we can enter the eurozone without actually fulfilling all the criteria. We entered the eurozone for several reasons [2], including for sociopolitical and (socio)economic reasons. Of course, some things ended up affecting us negatively, as you already stated, but I can't say that life before the euro – or life without the euro – would be great either. Pretty much the entirety of Greece's 19th and 20th century economic history can be summed up as "poverty", "bankruptcy", "economic mismanagement", "unstable politics", "high inflation", "overspending" or other such words, depending on the time period.
I find it really interesting that countries such as Italy and Greece like the Euro so much [...]
Depends how you define that, tbh. On the older ages, there are many "drachma nostalgics" in the generations that were old enough to remember the drachma (e.g. –1990) but, indeed, a majority of people still support the euro. Not as many as before the 2008 crisis, of course. The truth is that, if we abandon the euro now, we're royally fucked, as it's speculated that it would cause an entirely new economic crisis for several years, as well as cause other sociopolitical effects.
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Comment on I've been looking into self-hosting, what's the best cost-efficient option? in ~tech
dysthymia Link ParentIt definitely is. E.g. check here for a price comparison of .eu domains. The process is just picking a registrar, initiating a zone transfer with a transfer code from your old registrar, and...It definitely is. E.g. check here for a price comparison of
.eudomains. The process is just picking a registrar, initiating a zone transfer with a transfer code from your old registrar, and grabbing a backup of your dns records (if any) to import them to your new registrar. It will take 1-2 working days but you shouldn't have any downtime at all, because until your new registrar starts working, you'll be using your previous one. -
Comment on TSMC blames struggle to build Phoenix plant on skilled labor shortage but workers cite disorganization and safety concerns in ~tech
dysthymia Link ParentI don't know if it's just my perception as an Eastern European, but I don't think this would come across as xenophobic in any possible interpretation. Our [i.e. my] current government has invited...I don't know if it's just my perception as an Eastern European, but I don't think this would come across as xenophobic in any possible interpretation. Our [i.e. my] current government has invited foreign multinationals to open their offices here specifically/primarily so that they create more jobs and make the economy at least a little better. Otherwise our only economic benefit would be from the company's taxes, if they even pay their full taxes rather than negotiating part of them away due to being in a position of power.
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Comment on Climate change is changing the ocean’s color in ~enviro
dysthymia Link ParentSeeing how badly the world responded to the pandemic, I can't say I have very high hopes for this one. I'm pessimistic enough for it that we'll keep hiding the problem under a carpet until it's...Seeing how badly the world responded to the pandemic, I can't say I have very high hopes for this one. I'm pessimistic enough for it that we'll keep hiding the problem under a carpet until it's way too late to do anything meaningful.
Even if, say, the EU and the US actually did go completely carbon-neutral (or better), that would still leave Russia, China, India, and smaller countries that are transitioning from developing to developed economies. Some of which (like Russia) allegedly directly benefiting from climate change.
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Comment on It looks like Facebook will be forcing me to switch to Messenger. What are my options? in ~tech
dysthymia LinkI used to use Disa in the past (while I was still using meta's products), but I haven't used it in at least 5 years, so take this suggestion with a grain of sodium chloride.I used to use Disa in the past (while I was still using meta's products), but I haven't used it in at least 5 years, so take this suggestion with a grain of sodium chloride.
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Comment on What are your thoughts on the European Union centralizing into something more akin to an early United States in ~talk
dysthymia (edited )LinkEven as someone who self-identifies as a European Federalist politically, I sadly do not see the EU centralising like that anytime soon/in the "foreseeable" future. Our governments (and part of...Even as someone who self-identifies as a European Federalist politically, I sadly do not see the EU centralising like that anytime soon/in the "foreseeable" future. Our governments (and part of our population, to be fair) are too proud and stubborn to leave their sovereignty behind in that way, currently.
In Greece as well, but it's still considered a massive waste of time that almost nobody wants to do anymore. Not to say that you actually do anything useful; the government just wastes public funds to artificially inflate its number of "active and reserve soldiers". Even though you'll only receive actual training only a few times, whereas the entire military service lasts one year. The rest of the time, you just do chores.
They're planning to adopt the "Finnish model" right now, but, honestly, I don't think that much will actually change...