Cycloneblaze's recent activity
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Comment on IRC for tildes? in ~tildes
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Comment on Bluesky is Jack Dorsey’s attempt at a Twitter redo and it’s already growing fast in ~tech
Cycloneblaze Link ParentSure there is. It's not as overt, but it's definitely there, and there's definitely a lot of resistance if you go against it.There isn't nearly as strong of a set of baseline cultural or ideological values that users need to meet to really fit in here.
Sure there is. It's not as overt, but it's definitely there, and there's definitely a lot of resistance if you go against it.
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Comment on The future is a dead mall - Decentraland and the metaverse in ~tech
Cycloneblaze Link ParentIt aged incredibly well. Most media from the 80s really feels like it came from there. Neuromancer is so unique, I felt like it could have been written today. And as has been said elsewhere it's...I can't believe neuromancer is so old.
It aged incredibly well. Most media from the 80s really feels like it came from there. Neuromancer is so unique, I felt like it could have been written today. And as has been said elsewhere it's if anything more familiar as we've lifted terms from it and made them real. (Maybe I just need to read more books from the time...)
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Comment on The world's biggest charity speedrunning [GDQ] event just banned Hogwarts Legacy in ~games
Cycloneblaze Link ParentI don't think a transactional view of morality like that is useful personally. The morally positive thing and the morally negative thing can't cancel out, they just both happen at the same time....I don't think a transactional view of morality like that is useful personally. The morally positive thing and the morally negative thing can't cancel out, they just both happen at the same time. Considering a charity dedicated to helping trans people is going to put some amount of its resources to undoing the kinds of harm done to trans people which is funded by someone like Rowling, it's probably better that neither thing happens in the first place.
(there's also the issue of using wealth to buy your way out of purposely doing a bad thing which, abstractly, is a bit iffy)
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Comment on My one year temporary ban lifted a few days ago in ~talk
Cycloneblaze LinkWelcome back, Gaywallet!Welcome back, Gaywallet!
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Comment on Norway's sovereign wealth fund reported a record loss of $164 billion for the whole of 2022, citing 'very unusual' market conditions in ~finance
Cycloneblaze Link ParentI'd guess not. But it's not exactly analogous. You can take and use wood from forests in sustainable ways that allows the forest to be refreshed and doesn't cause damage. You can't, by contrast,...I'd guess not. But it's not exactly analogous. You can take and use wood from forests in sustainable ways that allows the forest to be refreshed and doesn't cause damage. You can't, by contrast, replenish oil or gas, and you can't use them as fuel (at least!) without causing pollution. I don't think it's controversial to say that's unethical.
That's why I said "unrestricted", to make the analogy accurate. But I think you knew that, and I don't feel like your questions are really trying to engage with what I said, so I'll leave it here.
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Comment on Norway's sovereign wealth fund reported a record loss of $164 billion for the whole of 2022, citing 'very unusual' market conditions in ~finance
Cycloneblaze Link ParentThat's a strange statement to me. It depends on what resource and how it is being exploited. Is it ethical for the Brazilian government to allow unrestricted logging in the Amazon rainforest,...That's a strange statement to me. It depends on what resource and how it is being exploited. Is it ethical for the Brazilian government to allow unrestricted logging in the Amazon rainforest, within its borders?
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Comment on Norway's sovereign wealth fund reported a record loss of $164 billion for the whole of 2022, citing 'very unusual' market conditions in ~finance
Cycloneblaze Link ParentExploitation of oil and gas resources, which they sell. The fund is made from profits from those sales. There's the general concerns of profiting from (and pinning a certain part of your economy...Exploitation of oil and gas resources, which they sell. The fund is made from profits from those sales.
There's the general concerns of profiting from (and pinning a certain part of your economy on) the sale of fossil fuels, and the more specific concern of large profits arising from the war in Ukraine.
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Comment on Unpopular opinion: Wikipedia's old look was much better than the new one in ~talk
Cycloneblaze Link ParentThey do, if you have an account, you can set your preference to use the old style. You can also use an even older style from 2007, for those who were complaining about Wikipedia's new skin before...Maybe they'll be like reddit and have "old wikipedia."
They do, if you have an account, you can set your preference to use the old style. You can also use an even older style from 2007, for those who were complaining about Wikipedia's new skin before it was cool.
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Comment on McCarthy fails on first speakership vote in historic loss in ~news
Cycloneblaze Link ParentIs there such a thing as a "moderate" Republican anymore? Particularly in the House? We shouldn't pretend that McCarthy himself is a moderate, he was a full-throated supported of Trump.Is there such a thing as a "moderate" Republican anymore? Particularly in the House? We shouldn't pretend that McCarthy himself is a moderate, he was a full-throated supported of Trump.
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Comment on Twitter is planning to start charging $20 per month for verification. And if the employees building it don’t meet their deadline, they’ll be fired by Elon Musk. in ~tech
Cycloneblaze Link ParentI have to say this financialisation of social media does not sound fun to me, as a consumer. I think that the commercialisation of more and more places where we spend our time, to a greater and...Imagine if say, the front page of reddit (what those not logged in see) or r/all only had content from people who have paid a token sum.
I have to say this financialisation of social media does not sound fun to me, as a consumer. I think that the commercialisation of more and more places where we spend our time, to a greater and greater degree, is bad, actually.
Yes, some amount of the ostensibly-organic posts I see are actually bought and paid for, but who do you think is going to have the incentive to pay for their posts to be boosted? All you're going to see is people who have something to sell, because that's the whole reason posters are being charged for it. It converts the entire feed into ads.
And also, I'm not particularly in love with using financial means as the mark of authenticity and trust. It shuts out a great deal of people who don't have the ability or desire to pay, and concentrates speaking power on these websites in the hands of people who can. That's already biased enough towards the relatively wealthy who can afford internet access, and I guess the time to spend posting too.
I will say though, I agree with you that the firehose of content is not moderated well as it is, and the people who do spend their time on it are frequently exploited. Novel ways to stop spam and astroturfing and trolling and intolerance are worth considering. I just don't have much faith that this one will be much more than a cash grab.
And for spammers and trolls that pay up, reddit can much more easily identify the people/network behind them and then ban them permanently once they're identified as bad actors, all while keeping the money.
This is also not as clear-cut as it seems - bad actors will try their best to not actually spend real money on their spam and agenda posts, but state actors, apparently, can easily abuse the system of using "can pay money" as your verification standard.
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Comment on The crypto story: Where it came from, what it all means, and why it still matters in ~finance
Cycloneblaze Link"Long read" is 40 000 words, so it's basically a short book. I thought it was lucid and entertaining, even though I already knew a lot of the story - there are a few decently sharp points in..."Long read" is 40 000 words, so it's basically a short book. I thought it was lucid and entertaining, even though I already knew a lot of the story - there are a few decently sharp points in there, as I usually find with Levine. (I've been reading him since the GameStop thing - as probably many others have)
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Comment on Shutterstock will start selling AI-generated stock imagery with help from OpenAI in ~arts
Cycloneblaze LinkMy first thought was that this is fine, good even - nobody really expects stock imagery to be a creative output, it's just a tool or resource, and it's pretty much definitionally regurgitation of...My first thought was that this is fine, good even - nobody really expects stock imagery to be a creative output, it's just a tool or resource, and it's pretty much definitionally regurgitation of a pattern. AI, if nothing else, is extremely good at repeating finely-tuned patterns. Generating stock imagery with AI tools seems like a good use case for them.
But as the article immediately points out, stock photos are - well - photos. Someone had to set up that scene and take the photo and edit it. At one point in time that image, which we treat merely as visual punctuation, was a physical event. It did take creativity to make that image, inane as it seems to us when placed on some content-farm blog; it did take labour which would be automated away by these tools.
Once again, I'm left feeling that the rabbit-hole is endless.
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Comment on Stadia is shutting down in ~games
Cycloneblaze Link ParentSeems you're right! I had a mistaken impression then - I think I was thinking of Artefact which cost money to buy but also ongoing costs to buy new card packs. I think it still put me off but hey,...Seems you're right! I had a mistaken impression then - I think I was thinking of Artefact which cost money to buy but also ongoing costs to buy new card packs. I think it still put me off but hey, that's on me for not being informed.
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Comment on Stadia is shutting down in ~games
Cycloneblaze Link ParentI think the pricing model (pay for a subscription and then also buy the games) put a lot of people off, myself included, who might otherwise have given it a try. But they never changed that -...I think the pricing model (pay for a subscription and then also buy the games) put a lot of people off, myself included, who might otherwise have given it a try. But they never changed that - despite that they were just ploughing money into the service to get the games and will also be spending untold millions on refunds now.
But also, many of the people who might have been early adopters were certainly warned away by Google's history of killing products. I don't think anybody assumed this (pretty laudable) refund scheme would be in place when Stadia did die (and for many it was a when), so they'd just have sunk a bunch of money into something they did not own and would lose after not too long. Stadia was a victim of Google's reputation before it even launched, so, maybe Google should have seen this coming! I vainly hope that this will get it through to them: when your business is running services, not releasing products, people need to be able to trust that you will actually keep offering the service, otherwise you may as well not launch it.
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Comment on America’s self-obsession is killing its democracy in ~humanities
Cycloneblaze Link ParentI think in its current form the federal structure of the United States is more of a drag on its ability to serve its people than a legitimate defence of theirs against tyrannical government. While...I think in its current form the federal structure of the United States is more of a drag on its ability to serve its people than a legitimate defence of theirs against tyrannical government. While in the 1700s states may have been distant enough (in terms of travel time but also information spread and therefore politics) that balancing them against each other in a federal system made sense, today the US is very homogenised, but the federal system vastly limits its ability to express that, and more importantly, the ability for the national government to actually govern in a national way. States end up being a barrier between people and democratic government. Are the people in Texas really that different from Californians that they need to have their own additional sovereign governments?
I also tend to think that this applies to other countries with federal governments - in general federalism seems to tie together groups who would rather not be united, or it puts a layer of bureaucracy and abstraction between people who have no reason to be divided so. Local government is important, but removing policy areas from the national government which would be better managed there ain't it.
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Comment on What's changed here on tildes? in ~talk
Cycloneblaze Link ParentThe third one was @suspended here.The third one was @suspended here.
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Comment on Creators are mitigating burnout with longform YouTube videos in ~tech
Cycloneblaze LinkAn article giving a look into what some video essayists think about the rise in popularity of their format.An article giving a look into what some video essayists think about the rise in popularity of their format.
Nicholson, who attended VidCon as a Featured Creator, noted the demand for longer, nostalgic content during a panel featuring pop culture commentary YouTubers.
Despite doing the complete opposite of what industry experts and many established creators recommended, like posting frequently to engage with viewers, Nicholson's church play video was viewed more than a million times in the few days since she posted it. She and other creators who specialize in documentary-style deep dives, pop culture analyses and video essay takes have carved out a niche of viewers who demand quality over frequency.
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Creators are mitigating burnout with longform YouTube videos
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Comment on Introducing the Himitsu keyring & password manager for Unix in ~comp
Cycloneblaze Link ParentThis is apparently used for an optional key, like a comment. Personally I think the exclamation point conveys importance and caution well enough while being simple. Maybe you could put it before...How about using a question mark instead?
This is apparently used for an optional key, like a comment. Personally I think the exclamation point conveys importance and caution well enough while being simple. Maybe you could put it before the key name?
I'll be honest, it's been basically dead for months, so you're not missing much. I would put it that there is effectively no Discord for Tildes right now.