ClearlyAlive's recent activity

  1. Comment on What's your unpopular opinion or idiosyncrasy about video games or games in general? in ~games

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    Oh yeah I completely agree, this is also a big issue with game pricing.

    Oh yeah I completely agree, this is also a big issue with game pricing.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Rishi Sunak to become first British Asian PM as Penny Mordaunt bows out in ~news

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    It’s bizarre this has to be mentioned because why would it?

    It's worth noting that his ethnic background doesn't remotely redeem him. He's still a planet-destroying, corporate-worshipping, poor-stomping money grabbing bastard (not to mention being the richest person in Parliament)

    It’s bizarre this has to be mentioned because why would it?

    6 votes

  3. Comment on What's your unpopular opinion or idiosyncrasy about video games or games in general? in ~games

    ClearlyAlive
    Link
    The view that older games should cost less is irrational. I’m not saying that NES-era games should cost the same as AAAs today, but a game simply being rereleased does not mean its price be lower....

    The view that older games should cost less is irrational. I’m not saying that NES-era games should cost the same as AAAs today, but a game simply being rereleased does not mean its price be lower. Instead, the comparison should be made with the quality price ratios of games being made now. NES games under such a comparison. Similarly, when Nintendo rereleases WiiU games with a similar quality level to new switch games, it’s not unfair for them to charge the same price.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on iPad recommendations in ~tech

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    Should point out for base model, under no circumstances should you get the 32 GB version.

    Should point out for base model, under no circumstances should you get the 32 GB version.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~humanities.history

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    Honestly the main article is pretty misleading about it.

    The facades, staging and display cases of the exhibits need to be modernized. When the galleries on the third floor were built over 50 years ago, materials were used that do not meet today’s standards. They contain hazardous materials such as asbestos and lead. In normal operations these materials do no provide any risk to visitors or staff, but with the modernizing and changing of the spaces, these materials could be disturbed which requires us to take proper precautions and ensure everything is modernized and up to current standards.

    Honestly the main article is pretty misleading about it.

    9 votes

  6. Comment on Does the Internet feel American centric to you? in ~tech

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    I think there is one thing that isn’t being considered here. English orthography is a lot harder than Portuguese orthography. A study which asked children to write words after their first year of...

    I think there is one thing that isn’t being considered here. English orthography is a lot harder than Portuguese orthography. A study which asked children to write words after their first year of school showed an average error rate of 25 % for Portuguese, but more than 70 % for English. With this type of difficulty, it’s no wonder English speakers don’t manage to learn the language at the same level as other languages. I think culturally, anglophones address the issue by simply not caring as much for spelling, unlike Portuguese or in my case, French. Getting corrected here and there is one thing, but I think a significant minority in English would otherwise suffer constant corrections, and all of this to no real benefit.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on What's something that you feel is unfairly criticized? in ~talk

    ClearlyAlive
    Link
    French spelling. It's not as phonetic as other languages, but it's a godsend compared to English. It's true that in French we don't always pronounce every letter, but unlike English, French has...

    French spelling. It's not as phonetic as other languages, but it's a godsend compared to English. It's true that in French we don't always pronounce every letter, but unlike English, French has some generally clear rules and conventions on how we pronounce words. French dictionaries tend not to feature IPA guides for words, unlike in English because of this.

    5 votes

  8. Comment on A friendly reminder: If you own a bicycle, you must own a helmet in ~hobbies

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    I’m generally against any strong advocacy of helmets because it discourages cycling. According to the federal office for territorial development bicyclists save 3,7 centimes for every kilomètre...

    I’m generally against any strong advocacy of helmets because it discourages cycling. According to the federal office for territorial development bicyclists save 3,7 centimes for every kilomètre they cycle, this is a very high societal benefit and every fewer cyclist means society is losing out on at least 10 centimes per kilometre (assuming the take the bus instead; more for a car). With such great benefits on the line, we really should not make cycling appear less safe or accessible by mandating helmets.

    4 votes

  9. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    So you use quite, quite too much?

    So you use quite, quite too much?

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Denmark is a liberal paradise for many people, but the reality is very different for immigrants in ~life

    ClearlyAlive
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I agree that ghettos are undesirable but I think the current classification system is simply unacceptable and unnecessary. I don’t see why they couldn’t just base it on if you’re an immigrant or a...

    I agree that ghettos are undesirable but I think the current classification system is simply unacceptable and unnecessary. I don’t see why they couldn’t just base it on if you’re an immigrant or a second generation native as other countries do.

    In terms of the UK, while I don’t really have any first-hand experience, I learnt in school that there were also Polish/EE enclaves as well; I don’t see why these are any better than the Asian ghettos and I think mixing the populations would be better in both cases.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Denmark is a liberal paradise for many people, but the reality is very different for immigrants in ~life

    ClearlyAlive
    Link
    This descendants of immigrants classification is completely crazy and goes counter to the naturalisation process. If I, as an immigrant who naturalises, is still treated differently than...

    This descendants of immigrants classification is completely crazy and goes counter to the naturalisation process. If I, as an immigrant who naturalises, is still treated differently than "first-class citizens", what even is the point? No matter the amount of assimilation, it treats me differently. I agree with the example in the article, it goes against the recognition of "equality of people".

    12 votes

  12. Comment on Google Play Music will shut down later this year - features are now available for transferring history/library to YouTube Music in ~music

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    Can't you do that on Amazon?

    Would anyone be able to suggest a service where I can buy albums from artists that isn't iTunes?

    Can't you do that on Amazon?

    1 vote

  13. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    ClearlyAlive
    Link
    On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins. I’m really enjoying it, and it’s doing a good job of rebutting a lot of the GOFAI beliefs. I also like the model of intelligence it proposes.

    On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins. I’m really enjoying it, and it’s doing a good job of rebutting a lot of the GOFAI beliefs. I also like the model of intelligence it proposes.

    1 vote

  14. Comment on Bernie Sanders says another US presidential run is 'very, very unlikely' in ~society

    ClearlyAlive
    Link
    I’m sad, but I kinda already knew this 😭.

    I’m sad, but I kinda already knew this 😭.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on May 13th, 1985: The day Philadelphia police bombed a city street, leaving 250 homeless and eleven dead, including five children in ~humanities.history

    ClearlyAlive
    Link
    As far as I’m concerned, the catchphrase should be “No forgiveness before prosecution”. There is no way I would be willing to offer any party forgiveness without them being investigated and...

    As far as I’m concerned, the catchphrase should be “No forgiveness before prosecution”. There is no way I would be willing to offer any party forgiveness without them being investigated and prosecuted.

    6 votes

  16. Comment on I’m a developer. I won’t teach my kids to code, and neither should you in ~comp

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    Definitely, I just think that will become easier because you'll already understand what the program is doing so when learning the new language you can focus on syntax more since you already...

    The only problem I see with with learning lisp, even if it's "easier" syntactically, is that you will eventually have to learn the Fortran-C (imperative?) family of language syntax anyways.

    Definitely, I just think that will become easier because you'll already understand what the program is doing so when learning the new language you can focus on syntax more since you already understand the basic programming concepts.

    In the status quo, people are forced to learn both programming concepts (conditions, loops etc) at the same time as the syntax which can really frustrate people. I agree with the author that the syntax is not really that important to learn as the underlying skills are.

    FYI While Scheme is focused on being functional, Common Lisp and other dialects are multi-paradigm and indeed CL is very imperative.

    So you are just delaying the necessary struggle with syntax for another point down the road. Does learning lisp really ease that?

    My experience has been that my second programming language was much easier than my first because I understood all the concepts and I was mostly just learning a new syntax (and some extra features/difficulties in the case of JS). In terms of helping my friend with learning Java, she doesn't exactly get what each part does as well as the syntax.

    A data scientist needs to know how to manipulate their data with modern tools, which will inevitably use a modern and widespread language.

    The issue I have with this is that it's difficult to predict which language will actually be modern and in use in the future. I'm sure Fortran isn't and so focusing on a specific language won't be that useful as paradigms change very rapidly; indeed, today we're seeing a move to the functional paradigm of programming. That's why I'm very focused on the teaching of programming concepts such as looping, conditions, variables.

    They don't necessarily need a low level understanding of what the machine is doing

    I'm not promoting an assembly or C level understanding of the what the machine is doing, but I think there are some skills you need to program computers that are independent of programming language that we can teach them.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on Should x < $foo < y read from $foo once or twice? Perl debates in ~comp

    ClearlyAlive
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I’ve had a look yes. My view is primarily based on what the user knows and expects. In the user’s conception of the language tied variables have the following axiom: Everytime a tied variable is...

    Have you read through the issue?

    I’ve had a look yes.

    So it probably isn't something a beginner would touch.

    My view is primarily based on what the user knows and expects. In the user’s conception of the language tied variables have the following axiom:

    1. Everytime a tied variable is used it may mutate.

    The problem with the fetching twice is that it seems violates that axiom in the user's conception.

    Also note that since it ends up as something like $x < $y && $y < $z (if everything is a scalar, that is), I'm guessing that $z won't be fetched if the left side is false. So with that in mind, it makes sense that $y should possibly be fetched twice, right?

    Of course, technically it doesn't as you rightly point out. But this misses the UX issue in terms of how people read code. People will translate the above axiom into the following:

    1. Everytime a tied variable appears it may mutate.

    in their brains. That way whenever reading code they can see easily see how tied variables are changing. The current behaviour clearly violates that axiom and makes reading code harder. It's true, as developers we can expect them to be more aware of implementation details as compared to end-users, but still I think that because of how trivial the solution is: { temp = $y; $x < temp && temp < $z} we should change it to better suit these axioms.

    In general I believe that developers and users shouldn't need to worry about the underlying representation unless they really need to (e.g. speed optimisations), this doesn't strike me as one of those cases.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on I’m a developer. I won’t teach my kids to code, and neither should you in ~comp

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    Do you agree with my analysis on which programming language to learn? Most of my points aren’t super controversial but I thought that one might be.

    Do you agree with my analysis on which programming language to learn? Most of my points aren’t super controversial but I thought that one might be.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on I’m a developer. I won’t teach my kids to code, and neither should you in ~comp

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    When I said this I meant “computation”. I think because more and more things in our democracies are shifting to being computerised people need to understand how computation works to avoid treating...

    How is it important to know how computers work?

    When I said this I meant “computation”. I think because more and more things in our democracies are shifting to being computerised people need to understand how computation works to avoid treating them as infallible, or also being unnecessarily distrustful.

    Additionally, will learning basic Python really teach you much about how they work?

    I mean I’ve already mentioned I’m against teaching Python but I do think learning how software is made will give children a better idea of computation. Remember we’re talking about children here, I don’t think dry class discussions will really engage them that much; this is why we do science labs in school.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on I’m a developer. I won’t teach my kids to code, and neither should you in ~comp

    ClearlyAlive
    Link Parent
    The same is true of Art or Science (noöne needs to do a science lab), but just like painting or a science lab, coding is more fun. When I say “how computers work”, I don’t mean just the physical...

    It’s quite possible to have a general understanding of how computers work without ever writing a single line of code.

    The same is true of Art or Science (noöne needs to do a science lab), but just like painting or a science lab, coding is more fun.

    Just ask the thousands of gamers that plan, purchase and assemble their desktop computers every year.

    When I say “how computers work”, I don’t mean just the physical hardware, I also mean the software, the programs, the algorithms.

    And yeah, I suppose programming might help problem solving overall, but it’s certainly not the only resource.

    No of course not, but we try to teach children these skills with a variety of sources.

    Also see my edit.

    5 votes