ButteredToast's recent activity
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Comment on Hot take: movies suck because there is no rental market in ~movies
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Comment on Hot take: movies suck because there is no rental market in ~movies
ButteredToast Link ParentThe thing that has made me reticent to go to theaters these days was learning that some are infested with bed bugs and put little effort into fixing that. I can deal with the odd rude moviegoer...The thing that has made me reticent to go to theaters these days was learning that some are infested with bed bugs and put little effort into fixing that. I can deal with the odd rude moviegoer but the possibility of bringing those tiny devils back home is much more difficult to grapple.
Sounds crazy but I would be more willing to get to a theater that advertised regular treatments.
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Comment on Elon Musk says SpaceX will prioritize a city on the moon instead of a colony on Mars in ~space
ButteredToast Link ParentLikelihoods are anybody’s guess, but it’s noted I think some manmade disaster that kicks off a chain of crises is the most probable if anything happens. I don’t think the moon specially is very...Likelihoods are anybody’s guess, but it’s noted I think some manmade disaster that kicks off a chain of crises is the most probable if anything happens.
I don’t think the moon specially is very well suited for the purpose. Mars would be better, and is more likely to actually achieve self-sustainability due to how long it takes relief missions to arrive.
The proposed bunker would be easier to set up but keeping it secret is going to be just about impossible given how many people would be involved in the project.
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Comment on Ladybird un-chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
ButteredToast Link ParentI wonder how much of my smart casting issues boil down to Android APIs being wrapped Java rather than being "pure" Kotlin. I've never worked with Kotlin in backend projects.I wonder how much of my smart casting issues boil down to Android APIs being wrapped Java rather than being "pure" Kotlin. I've never worked with Kotlin in backend projects.
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Comment on Elon Musk says SpaceX will prioritize a city on the moon instead of a colony on Mars in ~space
ButteredToast Link ParentRealistically, humanity will almost certainly survive whatever disaster (probably something of our own making). The real risk is things getting so bad that the population gets knocked down to a...Realistically, humanity will almost certainly survive whatever disaster (probably something of our own making). The real risk is things getting so bad that the population gets knocked down to a small percentage of what it currently is, grinding all industry to a halt and forcing what remains of society to revert to an agrarian lifestyle. It’d take probably more than a century to bounce back from that, maybe longer, if that’s even possible with how much fossil fuel stores have been depleted. The longer recovery drags on the more likely it is that vast amounts of scientific and technological progress is permanently lost.
To me, this idea is terrifying and if there’s anything to hedge against, it’d be that. An off-world self-sustaining settlement of a few thousand scientists, physicians, engineers, etc with the capability to get back to Earth after the dust had settled would probably be the best you could do in this scenario.
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Comment on Elon Musk says SpaceX will prioritize a city on the moon instead of a colony on Mars in ~space
ButteredToast Link ParentAnother big one is the moon’s month long day-night cycle and much more extreme temperatures, which basically necessitate a nuclear reactor for energy since battery tech isn’t yet capable of...Another big one is the moon’s month long day-night cycle and much more extreme temperatures, which basically necessitate a nuclear reactor for energy since battery tech isn’t yet capable of keeping a station’s lights on that long in such conditions.
By contrast Mars’ day-night cycle is only an hour longer than Earth’s and its thin atmosphere makes for a comparatively mild average temperature with much less extreme peaks and valleys.
The moon’s lack of an atmosphere makes it hellish relative to Mars in other ways too, like increased radiation exposure and ultra-sharp, statically-charged lunar regolith.
Furthermore, the Martian atmosphere can be used to synthesize hydrocarbons, which enables a wide variety of essentials to be manufactured in situ which never will be on the moon.
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Comment on Ladybird un-chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
ButteredToast (edited )Link ParentI write it regularly and while it’s not bad, I prefer Swift. I’m probably biased though, because by the time I picked up Kotlin I’d already been writing Swift for 3-4 years. The two share a lot...I write it regularly and while it’s not bad, I prefer Swift. I’m probably biased though, because by the time I picked up Kotlin I’d already been writing Swift for 3-4 years.
The two share a lot syntactically, but Swift leans more in an ergonomics/dev happiness/choice direction while Kotlin feels more concerned with theoretical correctness. Given my self-taught background and experience with Ruby (which leans heavily in the dev happiness direction), I’m naturally more inclined towards Swift.
There are also some things about Kotlin which annoy me, at least in the context of Android development. Smart casting of optionals doesn’t work half the time without breaking out a local variable for example, which makes me wish Kotlin had Swift’s
if letandguard letunwrapping syntax.Perhaps controversial, but I also think that Kotlin is somewhat held back by its Java heritage. Its Java interop isn’t quite as clean as Swift’s corresponding Obj-C/C interop, and I find JVM tooling frequently arcane and frustrating.
Compose is decent and a far sight better than Android Framework (which is a bloody mess), but it still suffers from things like widgets described in the Material spec being absent or only partially functional, leaving me to roll my own. It’s also still awkward in some ways, and I’m not sure I’m sold on declarative UI frameworks as an end-all-be-all solution.
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Comment on Hot take: movies suck because there is no rental market in ~movies
ButteredToast Link ParentI'll concur. I like to pay for my media now that I have the means to and do so whenever it's practical. I subscribe to several different streaming services, some that aren't even used that often,...I'll concur.
I like to pay for my media now that I have the means to and do so whenever it's practical. I subscribe to several different streaming services, some that aren't even used that often, just to have access.
A month or two ago I wanted to watch the Chainsaw Man Reze Arc movie since it'd finally become digitally available. First I checked the streaming services, but none had it (not even specialty services like Crunchyroll). Ok, I'll rent it then… except across all services, the price they were asking for a rental was US$19.99.
Yeah, no. That's just absurd. Buying it only cost $5 more, but digital "ownership" is tenuous at best and I wasn't sure if I was going to ever rewatch it, so off to the high seas it was, which turned out to be the best option anyway since there were notable differences in picture quality between the services and pirate sites had figured out which was best.
Had that rental cost $5 instead, I wouldn't have even hesitated.
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Comment on Hot take: movies suck because there is no rental market in ~movies
ButteredToast LinkTo add to your point, during Blockbuster's heyday there existed numerous independent video rental shops creating downpressure on the prices of Blockbuster and other large chains simply because...To add to your point, during Blockbuster's heyday there existed numerous independent video rental shops creating downpressure on the prices of Blockbuster and other large chains simply because they didn't have nearly as much overhead. They ran out of the little grungy 60 year old building on the edge of town instead of in a big fancy new strip mall, didn't have as many employees to keep paid (some were run exclusively by the owner), and could drive business by carrying off-beat titles that the corpos wouldn't touch.
There is sadly no modern counterpart to the independent video rental shop, which contributes to the problem.
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Comment on Ladybird un-chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
ButteredToast (edited )Link ParentThe saving grace is the scope and depth of Apple platform APIs, as well as their opinionated “happy path” nature. That’s what makes it possible to build impressive things despite poor...The saving grace is the scope and depth of Apple platform APIs, as well as their opinionated “happy path” nature. That’s what makes it possible to build impressive things despite poor documentation.
Many, maybe even most other platforms suffer from a trifecta of poor documentation, little or no opinionation, and spotty API coverage or poor APIs which makes it a struggle to build anything of decent quality.
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Comment on The mega-rich are turning their mansions into impenetrable fortresses in ~finance
ButteredToast Link ParentSimilar situation here. Went from literally broke and quasi-homeless → making decent money with retirement and rainy day funds in under a decade. Not wealthy yet, but paths to that are now open...Similar situation here. Went from literally broke and quasi-homeless → making decent money with retirement and rainy day funds in under a decade. Not wealthy yet, but paths to that are now open (starting my own business, etc) all thanks to a set of skills I built goofing around on a computer as a teenager coincidentally becoming valuable with the advent of smartphones.
So yeah, a lot of luck. Some discipline and money sense is required for it to work out long term, though. I didn’t have those early on and was spending most of my paycheck but thankfully I wisened up and took action to change that.
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Comment on Ladybird un-chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
ButteredToast Link ParentAs with anything else, opinions run the gamut, but based on personal experience and community observation, Swift itself isn't the primary driver of frustration in the Apple dev sphere. That would...As with anything else, opinions run the gamut, but based on personal experience and community observation, Swift itself isn't the primary driver of frustration in the Apple dev sphere. That would be SwiftUI, bad documentation, and Apple dragging their feet on adoption of things like modern Swift concurrency in its SDKs and in turn making adoption more difficult for third parties.
I won't pretend that it doesn't have warts. Whenever I open an old Obj-C project for example I'm always a little flabbergasted by how much faster it compiles and how much more responsive the IDE is editing it, but then I remember having to maintain header files, import a laundry list of libraries to make up for the language's shortcomings, and wrestle with the poor type hygiene that it enables and suddenly my nostalgia vanishes.
Perhaps the real issue is how few candidates there are for a modern systems and native app language. Rust is probably the frontrunner but it's… an acquired taste and not really built to be accessible for people coming from languages with syntax more in line with that of C/JS/Swift/etc.
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Comment on Ladybird un-chooses Swift as its successor language to C++ in ~comp
ButteredToast LinkWell that's a bummer. Swift is one of the nicest of the modern safe languages to write and it would benefit greatly from increased cross-platform adoption.Well that's a bummer. Swift is one of the nicest of the modern safe languages to write and it would benefit greatly from increased cross-platform adoption.
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Comment on The mega-rich are turning their mansions into impenetrable fortresses in ~finance
ButteredToast Link ParentMakes me wonder how many "incognito wealthy" sitting on the extreme opposite end of the scale are out there, living in comparably only-marginally-nicer houses in unremarkable suburbs and not...Makes me wonder how many "incognito wealthy" sitting on the extreme opposite end of the scale are out there, living in comparably only-marginally-nicer houses in unremarkable suburbs and not standing out at all.
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Comment on In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud in ~tech
ButteredToast Link ParentI don't remember what it was I ABX tested, but it was either decent bit rate lossy (probably MP3 V0 or AAC 256) vs FLAC and had a pretty good hit rate too. No idea about cognitive hearing or any...I don't remember what it was I ABX tested, but it was either decent bit rate lossy (probably MP3 V0 or AAC 256) vs FLAC and had a pretty good hit rate too. No idea about cognitive hearing or any of that.
Source material makes a big difference. Super compressed pop or EDM is going to suffer a lot less than deftly recorded and mastered orchestral prog rock or something like that for example.
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Comment on Update on developer access and platform security | Spotify for Developers in ~tech
ButteredToast Link ParentIf that's the goal, it's ill-advised in my opinion. Their strategy with APIs and libraries has been that way for a long time, though. It started the better part of a decade ago when they...If that's the goal, it's ill-advised in my opinion. Their strategy with APIs and libraries has been that way for a long time, though.
It started the better part of a decade ago when they deprecated libspotify, which was essentially the core of the Spotify desktop/mobile native clients spun out into a C library and did everything, including streaming and playback. Upon deprecation they promised to follow up with new functionally equivalent APIs and SDKs, but that never happened.
Hostility towards third party clients is stupid strategically, in my eyes. By deprecating libspotify and paring their APIs down to uselessness, they destroyed an entire ecosystem of "bonus" functionality that Spotify subscribers gained, since the library/SDKs/APIs only functioned fully with an authentication of paying subscribers. It totally kills a whole range of legitimate uses and force feeds whatever harebrained UI ideas, incessant A/B testing, and irrelevant content the official client pushes, increasing the likelihood that the user will jump ship for some other service.
It also completely yields any control they had of third party clients. These days the things that used to be built on the official libspotify are now instead built on the reverse-engineered librespot, which as far as Spotify's servers are concerned are indistinguishable from a legitimate official client and cannot be stopped.
Somewhat comically, even Apple is less controlling in this regard. Multiple third-party Apple Music clients built on Apple's official libraries have existed for multiple years at this point and Apple has done nothing to inhibit their function or development.
/rant
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Comment on Why Jony Ive put buttons in the electric Ferrari in ~transport
ButteredToast Link ParentSlight tangent, but the 500e is a great, cute little town car that isn't really even all that cramped for the front seat passengers. I was considering one myself. Its pricing was a total...Slight tangent, but the 500e is a great, cute little town car that isn't really even all that cramped for the front seat passengers.
I was considering one myself. Its pricing was a total non-starter, though. $32000US MSRP was way too much when competitors around the same price point (used or after incentives) got you way more range, power, room, faster charging, etc.
For what it is, $22000 would've been a much more palatable price.
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Comment on What are your food aversions? in ~food
ButteredToast Link ParentI discovered these only a few years ago and even as someone who likes regular green and black olives, was amazed. They might blend in on the shelf with the salad olives but they're a whole...Castelvetrano olives are really buttery, don't age long, and they're not bitter at all - super tasty if you can get them.
I discovered these only a few years ago and even as someone who likes regular green and black olives, was amazed. They might blend in on the shelf with the salad olives but they're a whole different deal, especially the fancy jumbo ones.
A lot of grocery stores don't sell them, unfortunately. The Kroger's out in the sticks in my hometown doesn't have them, and only some stores in the major metro I currently live in stock them.
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Comment on What are your food aversions? in ~food
ButteredToast Link ParentThis me, kinda-ish. I don't mind fish-type seafood, for the most part, as long as it's cooked. I struggle with raw seafood not because of the flavor, but because the texture causes a strong...This me, kinda-ish.
I don't mind fish-type seafood, for the most part, as long as it's cooked. I struggle with raw seafood not because of the flavor, but because the texture causes a strong involuntary gag reflex that can be very difficult to surpress. I think that in my mind, raw fish is hard-coded to be in the same category as raw chicken, or maybe it just comes down to having been raised in mid-atlantic US ~300mi inland, where everything save for some raw fruits/veggies is possibly battered and fried, baked, boiled, or grilled.
I have a hard time with shellfish, too. My family never ate it so there's some mental barriers to eating the weird alien sea bug things. With shrimp, the texture and squeaky noise/sensation that occurs when teeth make contact with them weirds me out, almost like nails on a chalkboard. If it were served to me in a more processed and unrecognizable form (like crab cakes) that could probably work, but I've never tested that theory.
Out of shellfish, oysters are probably the biggest struggle. Once again, texture issue; it reminds me of snot and is thoroughly unappetizing.
I've forced myself to eat some of these when I found myself in settings where refusal would look impolite or crude (e.g. highish end formal restaurants), but it's a real battle.
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Comment on Japan cherry blossom festival cancelled because of unruly tourist ‘crisis’ in ~society
ButteredToast Link ParentFor Japan specifically, from what I've gathered (and seen to some degree during recent visits) the overcrowding issue could be diminished greatly if tourists just spread out a bit. For some reason...For Japan specifically, from what I've gathered (and seen to some degree during recent visits) the overcrowding issue could be diminished greatly if tourists just spread out a bit. For some reason or another (social media maybe?) the overwhelming majority of tourists all hit the same handful of hotspots like Kyoto, Nara, Akihabara, Shinjuku, Harajuku, etc while barely touching the rest of the country.
While walking around in Tokyo I personally observed that in the areas between the big stations, it becomes rare to see foreigners at all. I can only imagine that the effect is magnified further out from the hotspots.
Going back a little further, as annoying as they were sometimes the movie ads at the beginning of VHS tapes would make me aware of stuff I had no idea existed. In retrospect, they probably weren’t as bad as modern unskippable interstitial streaming ads which I make a concerted effort to ignore.