Hollow's recent activity

  1. Comment on How Sam Altman is profiting off of AI's problems in ~tech

    Hollow
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Well...yeah. It's a non-profit led by Bernie Sanders' senior policy advisor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Perfect_Union_(media_organization)#Organization_and_leadership

    Oversights like that make it feel like this is a person with a political agenda rather than a journalist reporting on a story.

    Well...yeah. It's a non-profit led by Bernie Sanders' senior policy advisor.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Perfect_Union_(media_organization)#Organization_and_leadership

    4 votes

  2. Comment on Steam Winter Sale 2025: Hidden gems in ~games

    Hollow
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    Underrated Greats (≤500 reviews) Celestial Empire Just about to breach Cult Classic with 493 English-language reviews, Celestial Empire is a city builder based on Ancient China. It has two...

    Underrated Greats (≤500 reviews)

    Celestial Empire

    • Just about to breach Cult Classic with 493 English-language reviews, Celestial Empire is a city builder based on Ancient China. It has two different systems for perks - technology and religion - and different ways in which they interact with the city, religion providing short-range permanent Blessings or temporary, global Miracles, while investment into technology unlocks different boosts for production buildings and new support buildings, such as longer range Blessing shrines. Like Anno, citizen tiers unlocked by increasingly complex production chains, but diplomacy and trade is mandatory to get certain valuable goods that can't be grown domestically. And as a bonus, when you get bored with the God's-Eye view, you can wak around the city as its lord, seeing the streets and decorations from the point of view of the citizens living it. Currently on a 20% discount on Early Access.
      (note: I was a playtester for this game after playing the demo but I didn't really interact with the devs, and when it went to EA I purchased it as a normal player)
    3 votes

  3. Comment on Wells Fargo analysts call plans for all-day Nasdaq trading ‘the worst thing in the world’ in ~finance

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    See that's the important context to apparently agreeable statements I come to Tildes for ;)

    the outsized power institutionalized banks have over retail traders by being allowed to trade outside of regular hours.

    See that's the important context to apparently agreeable statements I come to Tildes for ;)

    7 votes

  4. Comment on Wells Fargo analysts call plans for all-day Nasdaq trading ‘the worst thing in the world’ in ~finance

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    “This is literally the worst thing in the world,” Wells Fargo analysts wrote in a note Tuesday, adding the move “gamifies” the stock market and is the “epitome of making trading even more like gambling.”

    2 votes

  6. Comment on The drug that taught me how much I should suffer in ~health

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    I forgot about those tests - I got them too, I believe it was for liver function. That's why I couldn't drink, Roaccutane was already bad for the liver and alcohol would make it significantly...

    I forgot about those tests - I got them too, I believe it was for liver function. That's why I couldn't drink, Roaccutane was already bad for the liver and alcohol would make it significantly worse. My first test was what got me over needle anxiety now I think of it.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on The drug that taught me how much I should suffer in ~health

    Hollow
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    With regard to the example the author uses: I myself was on Roaccutane (as it was branded in my country) for months, and in retrospect I'm not sure how much it helped, because I still get...

    With regard to the example the author uses: I myself was on Roaccutane (as it was branded in my country) for months, and in retrospect I'm not sure how much it helped, because I still get recurring acne past my twenties. What it did was dry out my skin to such an extreme I resembled Father Christmas, to the point of needing to slather on moisturiser to avoid cracking and chin-based dandruff, while being forbidden from drinking - which wasn't a big deal, I don't drink much, but all three side effects led to me feeling excluded and depressed.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Supergirl | Official teaser in ~movies

    Hollow
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    Yeah...this just isn't what I'm looking for in a Supergirl/woman story at all. I get that the writers would want to differentiate her from the more optimistic take on Superman this time around,...

    Yeah...this just isn't what I'm looking for in a Supergirl/woman story at all. I get that the writers would want to differentiate her from the more optimistic take on Superman this time around, but my enbcounters with Supergirl in the DCAU and the CW show has been that if anything she's more naive and optimistic than he is, and gets to get away with it due to her youth. Seeing her being a drunken wreck is the opposite of

    3 votes

  9. Comment on Low pressure, fatal consequences: Explosion at Yenkin-Majestic in ~science

    Hollow
    (edited )
    Link
    I don't understand the point about the pressure vessel. It was never supposed to operate above 4 PSIC anyway, so why is the company obliged to test the modification all the way up to 12? And if it...

    I don't understand the point about the pressure vessel. It was never supposed to operate above 4 PSIC anyway, so why is the company obliged to test the modification all the way up to 12? And if it was certified to hold up to 12, then would the gasket have blown out anyway once enough solvent was vaporised?

    EDIT: You know what, in retrospect this is a bad comment.

  10. Comment on Paramount launches a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery in ~movies

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    The SWFs are money men, they won't have any power over WB's governance; just a cut of the revenue.

    the company made changes in response to concerns from the WBD board, including removing Tencent from the consortium, and with Affinity and the sovereign wealth funds agreeing “to forgo any governance rights – including board representation – associated with their non-voting equity investments.”

    The SWFs are money men, they won't have any power over WB's governance; just a cut of the revenue.

    4 votes

  11. Comment on Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston and a gaggle of stereotypes introduce Windows 95 features in this time capsule video in ~tech

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    You know - the stereo typical propeller beanie. https://todayinsci.com/Events/Patent/UltimatePropellerHead.htm

    You know - the stereo typical propeller beanie.

    https://todayinsci.com/Events/Patent/UltimatePropellerHead.htm

    The name “propeller-head” is used nowadays for a technophile, sometimes disparagingly, for an enthusiast of technology and (according to the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary) especially of computers. In images, the modern geek may be satirized with a cap having one or two toy propellers mounted to spin horizontally above the top of the hat.

    So, was this flamboyant hat originated in the flower-powered hippie era of the 1960s? Well, no - decades earlier, in fact. It is generally accepted to have been first improvised in Cadillac, Michigan, using a beanie (a visorless cap) in 1947, made by Ray Faraday Nelson. It quickly became an icon for science fiction fans to identify themselves, and a national fad.

    3 votes

  12. Comment on How did you choose your podcast app and would you switch to a different one? in ~tech

    Hollow
    (edited )
    Link
    I'm on PocketCasts because it's the first app I found to meet my needs. I think I tried Stitcher when they were around, but they wanted me to create an account and I didn't see the benefit....

    I'm on PocketCasts because it's the first app I found to meet my needs. I think I tried Stitcher when they were around, but they wanted me to create an account and I didn't see the benefit. There's a subscription premium option but none of it seems to be required, just an optional extra.

    As for podcasts, I unambiguously recommend Knowledge Fight, a podcast by two stand-up comedians who listen to Alex Jones - one who selects the clips and one who hasn't them before. You'd think this would be a long slog of snark and jokes, but while they're certainly present, Dan (the knowledgeable one) puts in quite a lot of research into the stories Alex twists into far-right propaganda, and also analysis of the state of his business and the behind the scenes drama between Alex, RL events, and his guests in the media space.

    In particular I would recommend their coverage of the Jan 6 riot (#517), and/or his staff's very poor attempts to cover their irresponsible coverage of the Sandy Hook shooting in the lawsuit (any Formulaic Objections episode really, but let's say #378) and how they sound very different when presented with a lawyer who can ask logical followup questions.

    There are no ads and no sponsors.

    Our podcast is nearly impossible to sell to you. We primarily talk a bunch about how Alex Jones is an idiot and intentionally misleads his listeners for fun and profit, but that's not the whole story. We also branch off into the nature of conservative propaganda and the art of the con, breaking down scam artists from the worlds of politics, religion, and of course, outer space. It sounds more complicated than it is; really it's just a show about one friend researching things and telling another friend about the depressing and hilarious things he learned.

    In a similar vein, I also recommend QAA (previously called QAnon Anonymous, about a wider range of fringe conspiracy theories including but not exclusive to QAnon), and Weird Little Guys (researched biographies of right wing extremists by the investigative journalist host, delivered in a dryly humourous tone).

  13. Comment on How did you choose your podcast app and would you switch to a different one? in ~tech

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    As a current PocketCast user, thank you for exposing that issue for me. I'm not sure I'm addicted enough to need updates on a faster than hourly basis, but this does explain why updates seem sluggish.

    As a current PocketCast user, thank you for exposing that issue for me. I'm not sure I'm addicted enough to need updates on a faster than hourly basis, but this does explain why updates seem sluggish.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on Helldivers movie in the works from Justin Lin, Sony in ~movies

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    Honestly I think leaning on the video game in marketing at all would be a mistake, given how utterly tainted "video game movie" is in the public perception. Market the movie in the game, but leave...

    Honestly I think leaning on the video game in marketing at all would be a mistake, given how utterly tainted "video game movie" is in the public perception. Market the movie in the game, but leave the game out of the movie marketing.

    (I say this while secretly wanting an Ace Combat movie some day)

    3 votes

  15. Comment on Helldivers movie in the works from Justin Lin, Sony in ~movies

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    Let's face it, Sony doesn't have a good record, and especially not of its video games. Neither Uncharted (made its money back, but not enought for a sequel) or the Ratchet & Clank movie (bombed)...

    Let's face it, Sony doesn't have a good record, and especially not of its video games. Neither Uncharted (made its money back, but not enought for a sequel) or the Ratchet & Clank movie (bombed) were terribly well-received.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on ‘Zootopia 2’ jumps to $556.4m global opening for biggest WW start of 2025 in ~movies

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    I think we're talking past each other a bit? My point wasn’t that women must shield themselves from male lust, or that breasts ought to be sexualized - merely that they are. In human biology and...

    I think we're talking past each other a bit?

    My point wasn’t that women must shield themselves from male lust, or that breasts ought to be sexualized - merely that they are. In human biology and anthropology, female breasts are a secondary sexual characteristic that reliably evoke sexual attention in most heterosexual men, regardless of cultural context. That doesn’t mean they must strictly be “for reproduction”. Sexual signaling and parental provisioning are not mutually exclusive, and lots of our bodily bits serve multiple functions because much like any old legacy system, it's easier and more efficient to adapt than build a whole new organ for each one.

    Saying breasts are no more sexual than elbows is a claim about how they should be seen, not how they are perceived by most people right now. You can call that cultural conditioning, but it’s very persistent cross-culturally and predates modern patriarchal norms. It doesn’t mean women need or deserve policing - just that the double standard isn’t rooted in pure irrational supremacism.

    To be abolutely clear: I agree men should control their impulses, that women shouldn’t be blamed for. But that isn't the same as saying either should go around with their respective floppy bits hanging out (breastfeeding excempt ofc)

  17. Comment on ‘Zootopia 2’ jumps to $556.4m global opening for biggest WW start of 2025 in ~movies

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    Why? Women evolved enlarged breasts as a secondary sexual characteristic, after the switch to a bipedal gait meant the female ass was no longer at eye level. They exist in the state they do,...

    Most people should be OK with topless women if they are OK with topless men. The problem is more the double-standard than the general boundry.

    Why? Women evolved enlarged breasts as a secondary sexual characteristic, after the switch to a bipedal gait meant the female ass was no longer at eye level. They exist in the state they do, literally, to stimulate lust (tbc this is not a judgement on any woman or their intentions, just an explanation of what their body's function is). Men who aren't bodybuilders don't provoke that reaction.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on ‘Zootopia 2’ jumps to $556.4m global opening for biggest WW start of 2025 in ~movies

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    I haven't seen a review thread here, so I'll drop my spoiler-free impression here. Zootopia 2 is a great experience. It has amazing, vibrant animation, fun action scenes, and funny gags and...

    I haven't seen a review thread here, so I'll drop my spoiler-free impression here.
    Zootopia 2 is a great experience. It has amazing, vibrant animation, fun action scenes, and funny gags and in-jokes. You will have a blast watching it. However, so much time is dedicated to these that there is very little time left for character or story. There is no mystery this time around - the villains literally burst in on Judy and Nick loudly expositing how evil they are, and that's the status quo for the rest of the movie. Nor is there much satisfying character work, as while there's setup for Judy having a hero complex and Nick getting increasingly worried about the danger she's pulling them both into...all the movie has time for is to say Nick's wrong and should risk his life more, and then, I am not kidding, have him and Judy yell their psychological issues at each other for a full thirty seconds before waving it off with "eh, we'll get therapy".

    8 votes

  19. Comment on The final line in Los Angeles's holy trinity of future rail: Vermont corridor in ~transport

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    Here I was thinking the title meant a rail line to the state of Vermont, funny.

    Vermont is one of those major surface streets that connects several different popular areas.

    Here I was thinking the title meant a rail line to the state of Vermont, funny.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on Reselling tickets for profit to be outlawed in UK government crackdown in ~music

    Hollow
    Link Parent
    We all hope, but charging fees is still allowed to an unknown amount.

    it will also hit Ticketmaster et al via their own reselling services plus the abolition of astronomical hidden service fees

    We all hope, but charging fees is still allowed to an unknown amount.

    Under the plan, which could form part of next year’s King’s speech, anyone selling a ticket will not be allowed to charge more than they paid for it. Resale platforms will be allowed to charge fees on top of that price. These extras will also be limited, to ensure that they can’t be inflated artificially to offset profits forfeited owing to the legislation. The scale of the ceiling on service fees is yet to be determined.

    6 votes