Grzmot's recent activity
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Comment on Illiteracy is a policy choice: why aren’t we gathering behind Mississippi’s banner? in ~society
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Comment on OpenAI launches new AI video app spun from copyrighted content in ~tech
Grzmot Link ParentI know it's not legally accepted as IP infringiment (hopefully only yet) but it's really funny in a bleak way if you read the sentence this way:I know it's not legally accepted as IP infringiment (hopefully only yet) but it's really funny in a bleak way if you read the sentence this way:
Copyright owners, such as television and movie studios, must opt out of having their work infringed upon by OpenAI
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Comment on NET Dollar by Cloudflare in ~finance
Grzmot Link ParentThank you so much for being a better computer scientist than I am! :D I will investigate how this is possible.Thank you so much for being a better computer scientist than I am! :D
I will investigate how this is possible.
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Comment on NET Dollar by Cloudflare in ~finance
Grzmot LinkI have a technical question here, how were these animations accomplished? I really love the look of the website and the way it animates through letters.I have a technical question here, how were these animations accomplished? I really love the look of the website and the way it animates through letters.
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Comment on NET Dollar by Cloudflare in ~finance
Grzmot Link ParentThe true value of cryptocurrency has always been that it has no masters.* *This is a loaded statement that is not entirely true, bear with me. There's really two big parties that enjoy crypto, one...The true value of cryptocurrency has always been that it has no masters.*
*This is a loaded statement that is not entirely true, bear with me.
There's really two big parties that enjoy crypto, one side uses it as thing to speculate on. It wants to see the value of 1 crypto coin go up, when valued in real (issued by a central bank) money. They don't really care about the original mission of bitcoin, but what they profit off of is that the supply is fixed and cannot be changed, and demand is soaring, for whatever reason. There is no central bank that can add to the supply.
The other party are the people that actually use crypto for paying. This is currently relegated to illegal or near illegal payments. But, as anyone handling actual money will tell you, you don't want the value of it to fluctuate wildly. What we have seen in history is usually a massive devaluation of a currency (=inflation, see the end of the Weimar republic and the famous Zimbabwe dollar), mostly because it's much easier to do than the opposite, but that's what's happening to crypto, see paragraph above. The problem is, that that makes crypto pretty shit as an actual currency which you use in exchange for goods and services.
Right now when I see people talking about cryptocurrency, I don't see them talking about it's potential as a currency, just as a highly volatile asset that you speculate with. Stablecoins is crypto that tries to appeal to people who want to use it as a currency and not as an asset, by leveraging some backing asset. It's kinda replicating the gold standard of old that central banks once used to back their own made up currency. This ideally stabilizes the value, while still benefiting from the easy international money transfer that cryptocurrency offers.
Of course, the question is, where does Cloudflare profit from this? They've done these seemingly altruistic things in the past when they benefit from the ecosystem around it. For example, they are still the cheapest domain store that exists because they don't charge for that service, they just charge you the fee from the registrar. But that can change on a whim. I suspect that they'll do this at cost for now.
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Comment on A review of the book "The War on Science" in ~science
Grzmot LinkI had really hoped that a book titled The War on Science would be one about the continued errosion of trust in scientific institutions by the general population and especially the endless attack...I had really hoped that a book titled The War on Science would be one about the continued errosion of trust in scientific institutions by the general population and especially the endless attack of certain governments against said institutions, but instead it's just a series of mostly recycled essays by disgraced scientists trying to paint their disgracement in the best possible light.
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A review of the book "The War on Science"
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Comment on The Buff Scammer, isolation, and the male loneliness epidemic in ~life.men
Grzmot Link ParentThis is a lovely post, thank you for posting it!This is a lovely post, thank you for posting it!
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Comment on The Buff Scammer, isolation, and the male loneliness epidemic in ~life.men
Grzmot Link ParentThe type of straight male behaviors that, if taken to the extreme, lead to harm and assault, are at the same time, if exercised in moderate amounts, explicitly desired. Men are still expected to...There's a reason for this cultural perspective: the vast majority of predators are men, and a horrifyingly large portion of non-men have experienced at least some level of predatory sexual behavior from men. But I would contend that most straight male sexuality is probably still not predatory?
The type of straight male behaviors that, if taken to the extreme, lead to harm and assault, are at the same time, if exercised in moderate amounts, explicitly desired. Men are still expected to make the first move when dating. Confidence and (monetary) independence are still highly valued traits, which if taken to the extreme, lead to this classic manosphere toxic masculinity described in the tumblr post from OP. But if you take that confidence down a few notches, then it's what's required for dating. The "traditional rugged man" is what a lot of women still like and want.
(Edit: I remember years ago reading an article from a reputable German newspaper about how university educated women still look towards a man that is higher on the educational ladder than them, which narrows your dating scope significantly when you have a Master's, lol.)
At the same time, I think that considering how many individuals on the internet this discussion involves every single time, you're just going to get a lot of conflicting opinions on top. It's the usual mistake of online discussions involving 3+ people.
I think there's also a lack of role models right now. Look at famous men. The really famous ones. What do they embody? What do they stand for? Could a boy growing up, lacking good examples in his immediate surroundings, use them as a guiding star? It just seems dire to me.
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Comment on Dark patterns killed my wife's Windows 11 installation in ~tech
Grzmot Link ParentI know the "every year is the year of the linux desktop" people are annoying, but I did also recently switch after my boot drive blew up. Since I was planning to switch away from Win 10 once M$...I know the "every year is the year of the linux desktop" people are annoying, but I did also recently switch after my boot drive blew up. Since I was planning to switch away from Win 10 once M$ ended support for it, I figured I might as well jump ship now, when I was reinstalling anyway.
I switched to Fedora and it's been fantastic. I've only needed to do cryptic command line shit twice, once when installing nvidia graphics drivers, and then when installing HEVC video codecs. Granted, the latter did send me on a bit of a wild goose chase because h265 encoded video was still playing, albeit with audio only, and I had just completed a remux of my entire media library to h265 to save storage space.
I'm also a programmer, but genuinely, the things I did was all copypasting commands into terminal, and needed to happen just twice after installing. Never again since. Steam runs flawlessly and the game I play the most right now, Helldivers 2, a graphically intense Windows only game, runs very well through Proton emulation, all of which works seamlessly and without needing to do anything more than check a box in the Steam settings.
It depends on your usecases, but the majority of people browse the web and write documents, and libreoffice is serviceable and for browsing it works great.
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Comment on My guess and opinion on the common blockers to Linux adoption in ~tech
Grzmot (edited )Link ParentA large segment of users just "don't want to deal with it". They don't care about computers and do not want to learn because they are just not interested. There's a reason Youtube took so long to...I have a hard time understanding how an otherwise highly intelligent person can be so resistant to understanding a system that they use daily, how someone would not want to be able to control their experience instead of passively accepting frustrations daily--but that seems to be the choice many make.
A large segment of users just "don't want to deal with it". They don't care about computers and do not want to learn because they are just not interested. There's a reason Youtube took so long to start dealing with adblockers: Few people are using them, even though everyone really should.
But what hammered the point really home to me was the when the Youtuber Tantacrul, who has previously worked at Microsoft and designed the Paint3D UI, mentioned how app usage statistics showed that the Undo button (CTRL+Z) in Paint3D was the most clicked on button in the app. I confirmed this in person when I helped a zoomer friend of mine out with a computer and showed her CTRL+Z. She had gone through all of school with a heavy emphasis on PC usage, including the actual covid pandemic and made it all the way onto university before she meet a computer science person (me) that showed her what CTRL+Z is, you know, the most basic bitch shortcut there is.
Most people just do not care. I could tell my dad all day about how'd actually spend less time at the computer entering in data (a necessary task he hates) if he knew how to properly type. But I don't do that, because it's pointless. There's a reason Windows got so damn popular in the 90s. Graphical interfaces are just what the "dumb" user prefers.
Most geeks have a total blindspot about the fact that if you even are a person who's writing a comment on Tildes or reddit or ycombinator, you are already an incredible power user just by the virtue of writing a comment on those places.
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Comment on Conservative activist Charlie Kirk shot and killed at Utah college event in ~society
Grzmot Link ParentAs someone unfamiliar with the various splinter groups of MAGA (aside of MAHA), it would be lovely to get some links to your research!As someone unfamiliar with the various splinter groups of MAGA (aside of MAHA), it would be lovely to get some links to your research!
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Comment on Conservative activist Charlie Kirk shot and killed at Utah college event in ~society
Grzmot Link ParentI think it became recently much more popular because it was heavily featured in the Spanish tv series La Casa de Papel (Money Heist). I even heard a club remix of it recently.I think it became recently much more popular because it was heavily featured in the Spanish tv series La Casa de Papel (Money Heist). I even heard a club remix of it recently.
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Comment on Conservative activist Charlie Kirk shot and killed at Utah college event in ~society
Grzmot Link ParentThe "with permits" has to be restricted even further. In my country, it is theoretically possible to apply for a permit to carry a gun in public, but you need to have a very good reason for being...The "with permits" has to be restricted even further. In my country, it is theoretically possible to apply for a permit to carry a gun in public, but you need to have a very good reason for being granted such a license, and generally the only valid one is "I need it for my job", which is why the only people granted the license are generally cops and specialized security guards, if even. So basically, it's illegal.
This is separate from the license to own a firearm, mind you. That one is easier to get.
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Comment on The day return became enter in ~tech
Grzmot Link ParentIt's a very artistic book with lots of images, not very well suited for an e-reader. I suspect that's the reason for there not being an eBook.It's a very artistic book with lots of images, not very well suited for an e-reader. I suspect that's the reason for there not being an eBook.
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Comment on The day return became enter in ~tech
Grzmot (edited )Link ParentWhat a great and terrible thing to discover so long after the initial print run, with no new prints planned. I would love to own this. :(What a great and terrible thing to discover so long after the initial print run, with no new prints planned.
I would love to own this. :(
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Comment on My favorite mouse costs less than USD 10 in ~tech
Grzmot Link ParentFair warning, these sites usually just grade the product the highest that gives them the best affliate deal. But yeah, buying appliances sucks.Usually you can go to a few recommendation sites and find a brand/model pattern
Fair warning, these sites usually just grade the product the highest that gives them the best affliate deal.
But yeah, buying appliances sucks.
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Comment on Why are there so many rationalist cults? in ~life
Grzmot Link ParentThe problem, as with everything, is that "not trusting the government" is is a very broad range, going all the way from "people shouldn't need driver's licenses to drive a car" type libertianism...The problem, as with everything, is that "not trusting the government" is is a very broad range, going all the way from "people shouldn't need driver's licenses to drive a car" type libertianism towards "maybe we don't need 15 regulations and expensive certifications every 5 years for mundane screws".
At the risk of sounding like an elightened centrist:tm:, a lot of the sauce is finding the sensible out of all of these opinions and ideologies and slapping them together into something that works for you. Of course, centrists then also falls for the trap of extremists where they think that harmful opinions are okay as long as they're expressed nicely.
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Comment on Why are there so many rationalist cults? in ~life
Grzmot Link ParentSmarter than ≥95% of the population is a pretty bold statement, given that in western nations, ca. 10 to 20% of the populace is university educated.Smarter than ≥95% of the population is a pretty bold statement, given that in western nations, ca. 10 to 20% of the populace is university educated.
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Comment on Why are there so many rationalist cults? in ~life
Grzmot Link ParentHonestly, I don't think Taylor's take on this is exclusive to rationalists. I think this is something that came up with the internet, and was later super-charged by social media's recommendation...Honestly, I don't think Taylor's take on this is exclusive to rationalists. I think this is something that came up with the internet, and was later super-charged by social media's recommendation algorithms: it gave people the ability to build their own global echo chambers, because finding like-minded people has become so damn easy.
While this has also lead to a lot of good, the bad side of it is that people automatically become less trusting of institutions, because they spend so much time on their phones, getting pushed sometimes borderline propaganda which entrenches them further in their beliefs.
People are inherently lazy, like all animals. It is rare for us to seek out material that challenges us all the time. It is much easier for us to accept a new fact that fits in with our own mental model of the world. Recommendation algorithms coupled with the fact that our attention has been monetized means that there is a ton of money being made by people sliding down the extremist pipeline. There is simply a lot of people who are not smart enough to understand that the only reason they accept some fact given by a stranger on the internet is that they already agree with it.
Like with all things, governments were way too slow to react and education has lost multiple generations to this, and the problem is that public education is an institution, which is going to have a hard time reviving the idea of trusting in institutions among those who don't trust in them.
This feels like a weird dig that the author admits is unfounded ("maybe"), especially when every single exchange student I've talked to that went from Europe to the US, from multiple different central/western EU countries described to me at great length how utterly dogshit the system over there is. Like, I'm open to having my mind changed on this, but then at least cite your reasons for writing this short paragraph. It just seems out of place to the rest of the article.