Hollow's recent activity
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Comment on The co-opted Chinese word that broke risk management - crisis is not danger plus opportunity in ~humanities.languages
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Comment on Gunman shot dead nine years after opening fire on diner over ‘Pizzagate’ conspiracy in ~news
Hollow Link ParentPhilandro Castile was told to get his wallet, warned the police that he also had a firearm on him so they wouldn't see it, get jumpy and shoot him, and the police got jumpy and shot him without...What? You keep your hands visible. When they ask for your ID, you say it’s in your pocket, and they tell you to get it out. It isn’t that hard.
Philandro Castile was told to get his wallet, warned the police that he also had a firearm on him so they wouldn't see it, get jumpy and shoot him, and the police got jumpy and shot him without ever seeing it.
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Comment on Proton CEO tweets support for Donald Trump's Department of Justice pick and the US Republican Party in ~society
Hollow Link ParentI use Sync.com. You can get 2TB for $98 per year.I use Sync.com. You can get 2TB for $98 per year.
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Comment on What hard scifi books could you recommend? in ~books
Hollow Link ParentI'm ninety percent sure that the smallest mote of dust is enough to ruin an entire hard drive sector because of how densely packed and delicate the internal magnetic platters are, but I appreciate...I'm ninety percent sure that the smallest mote of dust is enough to ruin an entire hard drive sector because of how densely packed and delicate the internal magnetic platters are, but I appreciate the attempt the author made.
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Comment on New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill in ~tech
Hollow Link ParentThey absolutely do. For example they will use the word "delicious" instead of 'tastes good' because even though it's much stronger than they mean it's a one word adjective and thus easier to learn.I guess they essentially just teach Chinese English with their own weird grammar and rhythms that they are graded on in school.
They absolutely do. For example they will use the word "delicious" instead of 'tastes good' because even though it's much stronger than they mean it's a one word adjective and thus easier to learn.
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Comment on New York starts enforcing $15 broadband law that ISPs tried to kill in ~tech
Hollow Link ParentSo I can try to answer this, the idea is to emphasise the "person" part as a guard against dehumanisation. Eg. It's hard to imagine Paul Revere on horseback yelling "British people are coming!"...Even more off-topic, isn't it odd that we (typically) refer to nationalities using adjectives, by saying "British people," "French people," "Japanese people," yet people from smaller localities are exclusively referred to using noun demonyms ("Illinoisans," "New Yorkers," "San Diego...ites...Diego-ins...San Diego-uns...San Diegans!")
So I can try to answer this, the idea is to emphasise the "person" part as a guard against dehumanisation. Eg. It's hard to imagine Paul Revere on horseback yelling "British people are coming!" and it carrying the same connotation as simply "The British" which has a stronger tie to national powers.
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Comment on Your favorite game OSTs in ~games
Hollow (edited )Link ParentLinks, both of Ace Combat final mission OSTs and one personal favourite from each: Ace Combat 4 OST - Bunker Shot: A tense track that plays over the Strangereal equivalent of the Normandy...Links, both of Ace Combat final mission OSTs and one personal favourite from each:
Ace Combat 4 OST - Bunker Shot: A tense track that plays over the Strangereal equivalent of the Normandy Landings, an incredibly dangerous and costly operation that neverthelessis also the turning point in the war as the allies, ISAF, finally go on the offensive.
Ace Combat 4 OST - Megalith Agnus Dei [Digitally Remastered Remix by DarkIce]
Ace Combat 5 OST - Rendezvous: A track reflecting rising tension, as the fleet you're escorting is ambushed by a surprise attack.
Ace Combat 5 OST - The Unsung War
Ace Combat Zero OST - Diapason: A triumphant early victory, as the capital of your occupied country is liberated and the people celebrate in the streets, before the counter attack of the invaders begins in the following act.
Ace Combat Zero OST - Zero [Digitally Remastered Remix by DarkIce] -
Comment on US Justice Department files amended complaint in rent price fixing lawsuit. Landlords colluded directly. in ~finance
Hollow LinkAlso, gift link to the interactive map tool the Washington Post built to show affected buildings: https://wapo.st/425S7j5Also, gift link to the interactive map tool the Washington Post built to show affected buildings: https://wapo.st/425S7j5
To assess how widespread use of RealPage’s rent software may be, The Post identified 3.1 million market-rate rental units managed by companies named in the lawsuits. That analysis found 10 counties where more than 1 in 3 multifamily units are managed by a property company allegedly using a rent-setting program from RealPage.
Nationwide, the named companies manage at least 12 percent of all multifamily housing units, a Post analysis found, often concentrated in areas that have seen recent building booms. Of units built since 2020, more than 70 percent are managed by alleged clients of RealPage’s rent-setting software.
In the region around D.C., the first government to file suit against RealPage, about 24 percent of multifamily units are managed by companies alleged to have used RealPage’s rent software.
These buildings are often new high-rises chock-full of amenities. In just one square mile of Washington’s Navy Yard neighborhood, for example, where an onslaught of development has sent rents soaring, 22 buildings are managed by companies named in the suits, according to The Post’s analysis. -
Comment on What hard scifi books could you recommend? in ~books
Hollow (edited )Link ParentI don't think having to storm a ship with terrorists on board, while needing to preserve vital intel that's also on board is that novel. EDIT: I'm very much reminded of the Flight 8969 hostage...I don't think having to storm a ship with terrorists on board, while needing to preserve vital intel that's also on board is that novel.
EDIT: I'm very much reminded of the Flight 8969 hostage crisis in France, when Algerian Islamic terrorists hijacked an aeroplane at an airport and held the passengers and crew, shooting one when their cover was blown and it wasn't allowed to take off. France's special forces police team, GIGN, stormed the plane when it landed for refuelling.
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Comment on US Justice Department files amended complaint in rent price fixing lawsuit. Landlords colluded directly. in ~finance
Hollow LinkThis is the press release that the article is based on itself, which I think has more details:...This is the press release that the article is based on itself, which I think has more details:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-six-large-landlords-algorithmic-pricing-scheme-harms-millionsLandlord Cortland Agrees to Cooperate with Justice Department and Enter into a Settlement to End the Use of Common Rental Pricing Algorithms and Competitively Sensitive Data to Set Rents
The amended complaint alleges that the six landlords actively participated in a scheme to set their rents using each other’s competitively sensitive information through common pricing algorithms. Along with using RealPage’s anticompetitive pricing algorithms, these landlords coordinated through a variety of means, including:
- Directly communicating with competitors’ senior managers about rents, occupancy, and other competitively sensitive topics. In one example, Greystar supplied Camden with information not only about very recent renewal rates, but also its approach to pricing for the upcoming quarter, its acceptance of RealPage’s pricing recommendations, use of concessions and competitively sensitive information about occupancy. Likewise, executives at Camden and LivCor communicated over the course of months about their pricing strategies, including plans for certain price increases.
- Regularly conducting “call arounds.” During these discussions, euphemistically referred to as “market surveys,” property managers called or emailed competitors to share, and sometimes discuss, competitively sensitive information about rents, occupancy, pricing strategies and discounts.
- Participating in “user groups” hosted by RealPage. For instance, landlords discussed via user groups how to modify the software’s pricing methodology, as well as their own pricing strategies. In one example, LivCor and Willow Bridge executives participated in a user group discussion of plans for renewal increases, concessions and acceptance rates of RealPage rent recommendations.
- Sharing information with competitors about parameters in RealPage’s software. As an example, at the request of Willow Bridge’s director of revenue management, Greystar’s director of revenue management supplied its standard auto-accept parameters for RealPage’s software, including the daily and weekly limits and the days of the week for which Greystar used “auto-accept.”
The Justice Department also announced a proposed consent decree that, if approved by the court, would resolve its claims against Cortland, a landlord that manages over 80,000 rental units in 13 states. Under the proposed consent decree, Cortland would cooperate in the Justice Department’s investigation and litigation and be barred from, among other things:
- Using competitors’ competitively sensitive data to train or run any pricing model;
- Using third-party software or algorithms to price apartments without the supervision of a court-appointed monitor; and
- Soliciting, disclosing or using any competitively sensitive information with any other property manager as part of setting rental prices or generating rental pricing recommendations.
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Comment on What hard scifi books could you recommend? in ~books
Hollow Link ParentI felt Three Body Problem had a common issue in scifi where the author feels compelled to pick the most futuristic solution to a problem and handwaving away conventional ones. Three Body Problem...I felt Three Body Problem had a common issue in scifi where the author feels compelled to pick the most futuristic solution to a problem and handwaving away conventional ones.
Three Body Problem ship cheesewire event spoiler
In this case, there's a bunch of terrorists on a cruise ship passing through a canal and the government needs to recover sensitive intel from their computer without giving them a chance to delete it. They settle on using carbon nano filament to cut the ship and everyone in it up into itty-bitty slices as it passes, but this has the fairly obvious drawback of also cutting through and destroying any hard drives and electronics on the ship that are at the wrong height, too, and no-one brings it up. Even just cutting through the power system could destroy the data if they're paranoid enough to put it on volatile memory, so it's lost when the power goes out. It's presented as an incredibly simple solution and all others are dismissed as "they could have prepared for that and given themselves enough time to delete the data." -
Comment on What hard scifi books could you recommend? in ~books
Hollow Link ParentYes, the Void trilogy blurb was what made me not want to go on to it after the Commonwealth duology.Yes, the Void trilogy blurb was what made me not want to go on to it after the Commonwealth duology.
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Comment on What hard scifi books could you recommend? in ~books
Hollow LinkI think you'd enjoy Pandora's Planet and Judas Unchained, a duology about humanity in the future, the Commonwealth, building its first spaceship after centuries of relying on wormholes to connect...I think you'd enjoy Pandora's Planet and Judas Unchained, a duology about humanity in the future, the Commonwealth, building its first spaceship after centuries of relying on wormholes to connect planets in a vast intragalactic network transited by trains. They're there to explore an ancient artefact, an entire planet sealed off by an alien forcefield that's recently dropped, in their first ever encounter with alien life. Points in its favour:
- Heavy world building of the Commonwealth, its government, and the individual planetary societies some characters come from. It's beneficial but imperfect, and there are even terrorist organisations that form based on that imperfection;
- Exploration of how transhuman augmentations have changed society - everyone is technically immortal, insured against death with implants that both connect to the internet and back up their personalities and memories, so biodeath is not (usually) permanent.
- The alien species has a lot of world building too, with an entire condensed history of technological development from their equivalent of the Jurassic Period all the way to today, and the social interactions between each other that form how they see the world.
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Comment on All main Disney animated canon films are going to be destroyed and you can save five, which five do you pick? in ~movies
Hollow Link ParentThey do have their own grounds, and it's a graveyard. Scar's reign failed because he refused to migrate with the herds when the weather changed leaving the Pride Lands barren, unable to abandon...The Lion King never questions Mufasa's decision to completely deny the hyenas access to hunting grounds, never admits the justified resentment of the hyenas, never suggests that perhaps Scar's coup might have failed if the hyenas had marginally better conditions or owed Mufasa slightly more allegiance.
They do have their own grounds, and it's a graveyard. Scar's reign failed because he refused to migrate with the herds when the weather changed leaving the Pride Lands barren, unable to abandon the land he'd worked so hard to usurp. I took the implication to be the hyenas overhunt their territory, exhausting or driving away their food source, in an example of what happens when you don't respect the Circle of Life.
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Comment on Square root of 0<x<2 in ~science
Hollow LinkGenerally you can say this is an issue of scale. Any greater order operation will at first be beaten out by a simpler one at very low values, but then overtake them in efficacy. 0.5 + 2 = 2.5 0.5...Generally you can say this is an issue of scale. Any greater order operation will at first be beaten out by a simpler one at very low values, but then overtake them in efficacy.
0.5 + 2 = 2.5
0.5 × 2 = 1
0.5^2 = 0.25Here adding instead of multiplying or squaring is the most effective, but that reverses as soon as you get to the next whole number. It's like how points multipliers are most effective at the endgame when players already have big totals to multiply and comparatively wasted near the beginning.
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Comment on 2 January is National Science Fiction Day (in the US)! What are some sci-fi films you feel are particularly memorable or that you return to regularly? in ~movies
Hollow Link ParentI've watched Equilibrium and was impressed by Bale's performance, but I found the world it was in to be extremely unsubtle about how evil it was. Overall I think it was interesting, just not to me.I've watched Equilibrium and was impressed by Bale's performance, but I found the world it was in to be extremely unsubtle about how evil it was. Overall I think it was interesting, just not to me.
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Comment on 2 January is National Science Fiction Day (in the US)! What are some sci-fi films you feel are particularly memorable or that you return to regularly? in ~movies
Hollow LinkDisney's The Black Hole, their attempt at cashing in on Star Wars. They ended up with a classic horror movie that happened to be set in space, one that was still too kid-friendly in parts but also...Disney's The Black Hole, their attempt at cashing in on Star Wars. They ended up with a classic horror movie that happened to be set in space, one that was still too kid-friendly in parts but also had some very gruesome deaths. The third act falls apart into a very standard action adventure, but it had really good buildup and suspense beforehand.
EDIT: Also, The Thirteenth Floor is a low budget Matrix cash-in with Vincent D'inofrio. It's about VR video game devs building what we'd call now a persistent open world populated by NPCs, some of whom are player characters who get their bodies taken over when a player logs in. One of those characters is inadvertently sent the other way, into the body of one of the devs.
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Comment on Step 1: Slow down in ~enviro
Hollow Link ParentThe potential gains are different. Trains only require a two man team to run, and the US only recently illegalised one man teams:...The fact trains -the transport vehicle on a preset path with preset signals and preset timetables- are manned tells me enough about the future of self-driving cars.
The potential gains are different. Trains only require a two man team to run, and the US only recently illegalised one man teams: https://apnews.com/article/two-man-train-crew-railroad-rule-72393a8ad58584ba2c5cdda8f2361130
Those crews are responsible for potentially hundreds of tons of freight, each. Getting rid of them doesn't save much money relative to the value of the cargo, compared to implementing self-driving on vehicles. Life span is also an issue - cargo trains stay in service for twenty years on average and fifty at max, so gradual upgrades aren't an option - reliability is more important innovation, not to mention the highly regulated environment that unlike cars, doesn't have vast popular support. -
Comment on ‘Hedgehog’ still has upper claw over ‘Mufasa’ with $62m+ in pre-Christmas frame as ‘Lion King’ prequel loses crown in ~movies
Hollow Link ParentThat's weird. I can believe it was a multi-part episode, or that it took up the production costs of those five episodes, or that those five had their plots rewritten to the pacing of a feature...That's weird. I can believe it was a multi-part episode, or that it took up the production costs of those five episodes, or that those five had their plots rewritten to the pacing of a feature film, but I can't believe that five standalone episodes were stitched together into a feature film, in the way the two above examples were made of three each.
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Comment on ‘Hedgehog’ still has upper claw over ‘Mufasa’ with $62m+ in pre-Christmas frame as ‘Lion King’ prequel loses crown in ~movies
Hollow Link ParentI don't think I can agree with that, because unlike Cinderella 2 or Belle's Magical World, it wasn't literally three subplots with a barely existent framing device. Aladdin 2 had one unified plot,...Also because it was a bunch of TV episodes stitched together,
I don't think I can agree with that, because unlike Cinderella 2 or Belle's Magical World, it wasn't literally three subplots with a barely existent framing device. Aladdin 2 had one unified plot, though it was also undoubtedly a TV pilot, hence the open ending.
https://www.imdb.com/list/ls022726975/
I know because I wore that VHS tape out in our car VCR.
Oh man, similar story. I actually watched it before the original because my family didn't have much growing up, and a VHS to be played many times was cheaper and stretched further than a one-time cinema ticket. I still remember Genie Jafar's epic laugh when he's freed.
Hah.
"Oh, metro is 地铁, Ground Rail. And high speed trains are 高铁, Tall Rail, and they run on elevated tracks, so that's logical. Ground Rail runs underground and Tall Rail runs over the ground"
Nope it turns out that 高 means high both as in tall and as in high speed, and 高铁 is a contraction of High Speed Rail that happens to also translate literally as Tall Rail.