Spoiler discussion for Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey

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Talking about software code, already a lot of it is written by ai and has a particular style.

Reminds me of when circuit boards used to be manufactured by human hands, they all had a unique style thats really fun to look at.

I wonder if in a few years my old software code will be like that, someone will look at it and go “oh, wow, this was written by hand”

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like flooding.flash, sam neill and lindsey graham. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was clued in.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

It looks like we’re finally getting some real options in the space, so I’m interested in people’s thoughts and experiences!

I’ve been running a pair of LG 27MD5KL monitors forever, and they’ve been largely great - but they’re really showing their age at this point, and I’m being forced to upgrade either way because my new job requires using a Windows laptop (likely a Dell Pro 14, but TBC), and those old LGs use an esoteric dual link DP variant that only Apple supports. I’ll also be keeping my personal MacBook Pro, so smooth compatibility with both is a must. Use will largely be software work: lots of documentation, lots of terminal windows, lots of dark mode, but some design review work as well where decent colour accuracy helps.

Options I’m seeing at the moment are:

• Asus ProArt PA27JCV
• Asus ROG Strix XG27JCG
• LG 27GM950B
• BenQ MA270S
• Apple Studio Display
• Apple Studio Display XDR

I get the impression that Apple’s the better option where possible, but I’m concerned about compatibility, especially when I don’t directly control the choice of laptop. If anyone has real world experience on that one I’d be interested, especially the difference between “technically works on non-Apple laptops” vs “is an equivalently good experience on non-Apple laptops”.

I’m guessing just using separate inputs for each laptop will be fine on whatever I go for, but I’m open to getting a KVM if needed (L1Techs? I haven’t actually checked how hard it is to find one that supports 2x 5K yet…). Couldn’t immediately see anything that’ll take Thunderbolt input from the Mac and HDMI input from the Windows laptop and push both to Thunderbolt output, which might otherwise have been a way to bridge the Apple display question.

Probably going for 27” 5K rather than 32” 6K, unless there’s a compelling argument for the latter. I briefly tried a Dell 32” 6K a few years back and other than horrible backlight bleed, sitting that close to a 32” display ended up feeling like I was craning my neck rather than moving my eyes to see edge to edge.

So, what do people think would be best here?

Sending up a bat signal for @gary and @ButteredToast - you guys both know your stuff on this one!

The survey has been closed and the results are in!

Thank you to all the 324 people that responded! It was honestly a bigger number than I was expecting so I'm really happy with how it turned out. :D Here are some stats that I can put in Markdown:

• 34 years old is the median age
• We have lived a combined 11615 years
• And the generational breakdown with:
  • Millennials at 59.0%
  • Gen Z at 26.9%
  • Gen X at 12.3%
  • Baby Boomer at 1.5%
  • Greatest Generation at 0.3% not sure if this one is legit ;)

View the full results here

• Tip: You can set a custom age range using the "Set age range" filter to get a better view of results! All the graphs update along with that filter.
• Or get a ZIP download here of the data

Let me know your thoughts about the survey, what you liked, what you didn't like, if you'd like something different about them, you name it!

Thank you all again for participating! I hope to see you in the next survey. :)

So I know that house inspectors only look at surface things. In the UK it seems like structural stuff are checked by professionals before a house sale. In Canada what are they called?

In buying older houses, I would want to evaluate how much I will expect to spend on things like well, septic, roof. But I also want evaluation on if this is a money pit with foundation, structural, or water issues that can't be fixed.

Like @Captcha_Code, I've tried calling structural engineering firms that seemed confused or give $5000 just to take a look estimates. What are they called in Canada and if possible can you provide examples of a firm in any Canadian area so I know what to look for in Atlantic Canada? Searching for geotechnical professionals bring up major infrastructure type of firms.

What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

Right now, I have a Samsung Galaxy A12 phone, which has done everything I need for quite some time. It was bottom of the barrel in the Samsung lineup, and it quit receiving updates of any kind back in November of 2024. For a cheap phone, I've been pleased with it.

My use case is unusual. I rarely use my phone to go online, but on occasion, I am forced to do so. Most of the time I use it to make calls, or send and receive texts. SMS is fine for me. I don't play games on it, though I do use the camera now and again.

One slightly unusual task is tethering. When my internet goes down on my computers at home, the mobile network is often still available, so I tether my desktop to the phone connection. Visible will slow the connection speed tremendously, so I use an app that disguises the tether connection, and I get full speeds. So I need this app to work when the main internet connection goes wonky.

One year and eight months without security updates makes me a little more cautious about using the phone for anything online. I don't use it for bank accounts or credit cards, no instant payments of any kind, and there are no passwords saved within it. Even if I still got updates, I wouldn't use it for any type of financial transactions. I don't even check email with it.

In reality, a dumb phone would probably work for me, but Visible is notoriously picky about Android phones they will accept. And I don't use Apple for anything. No plans to change that.

I have been more and more interested in ditching Google software. I was recently forced to switch to Google Messages, since Samsung is turning their messaging app out to pasture. A Pixel 10a with GrapheneOS is something I'm considering. Visible will accept any modern Pixel phone, so they aren't a problem.

The question is, is any change necessary with how little I use the phone online? Perhaps I should just wait till the battery dies, but that doesn't help me in my efforts to de-Googlize.

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

We've all heard about solar PV panels, but that's not the be-all and end-all of technologies which could make buildings more efficient and less harmful to their environments. May I ask what else have folks got up their sleeves?

Dimensions of environmental friendliness

All good technical discussions start with a host of term definitions and context statements, so I'll attempt to start this one off on strong footing! I figure that anything which checks one or more of these checkboxes (reasoning included) works, but please feel free to colour outside of the lines -- this is just a kicking off point. Note that anti-ticking a checkbox is fine; everything has trade-offs, and sometimes paired solutions can negate each others' downsides. Magnitude is always a factor, too, since this field is rarely black and white.

(no need to bring receipts, mind; I'm sure we can keep this light hearted so as to avoid digging into comparative EPD critiques :3)

• Low embodied carbon (the kgCO2e emitted per a cradle-to-grave analysis (EPD, often) of a product),
• Low operational resource consumption (anything which works as well as an inefficient equivalent, but uses less energy/consumables -- LED vs. incandescent bulbs, heat pumps vs. nat gas furnaces, insulation vs. no insulation, etc.),
  • Includes water conservation, too!
• Durability over design life (per the Canadian Wood Council (they're ... a little biased), the median service life of buildings is <90 years, so adjust amortization periods accordingly),
  • Includes things like wildlife-urban interface-safe materials, as well as clay bricks and whatnot.
• Sustainability (if we can't do it for more than a century, let alone a few decades, it's probably not worth the sunk costs),
• Low environmental toxicity (no point trying to save the environment if it's all a toxic swamp afterwards),
• Supportive of local ecology (built environments tend to be biodiversity deserts -- cobblestone boulevards, brick walk ups, and tin roofs are hostile everything but pigeons and rats. Think native planting, green retaining walls, planted pavers, etc.).

(full disclosure: I'm probably going to borrow several of these at some point, so this is a half-discussion, half-I'm-outsourcing-my-research post 😅 hopefully that's acceptable ...)

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This was something I was surprised to learn on a recent trip to the zoo. While the palm oil industry is absolutely wrecking a lot of our rainforests, and, most notedly, orangutans, boycotting all palm oil is actually worse for the environment because palm oil is the most land-efficient vegetable oil crop. It supplies 40% of global vegetable oil but only uses 6% of the land dedicated to oil production.

It's also extremely versatile because "it is semi-solid at room temperature so can keep spreads spreadable; it is resistant to oxidation so can give products a longer shelf-life; it’s stable at high temperatures so helps to give fried products a crispy and crunchy texture; and it’s also odourless and colourless so doesn’t alter the look or smell of food products."

The issue is who produces it and how, so it's only certain products that should be boycotted.

I'm sure the solution isn't as simple as "download this app," but the zoo I went to recommended using the PalmOil Scan app (produced under the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and led by Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Chester Zoo, Auckland Zoo, Zoos SA and Mandai Wildlife Group). It's essentially only available in the Anglosphere (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, United Kingdom, United States), but it tells you if the entire company meets their standards (but not individual products so users don't just boycott all palm oil).

We acknowledge that all companies that receive a rating are in different places on their journey to use 100% certified sustainable palm oil. We want to recognise those companies that are doing well and encourage those companies that need improvement. We hope that by creating this rating system we will accomplish this task and assist consumers with making the most educated shopping choices in regards to sustainable palm oil.

Companies are scored on a point structure and can earn a rating of Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, or No Commitment.

I'm sure a lot of Tilderianeses are conscious of this, so I wanted to share the information (and presumably get more info from someone who knows more).