Jordan117's recent activity
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Comment on Historic voter turnout powered US Democrats’ blue wave in ~society
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Comment on I updated a vintage viral political video to fit the 2026 midterms in ~creative
Jordan117 LinkOne of my earliest political memories was this viral video about the 2006 midterms set to George Michael's "Freedom". It's been stuck in my head for years, and since these midterms are feeling...One of my earliest political memories was this viral video about the 2006 midterms set to George Michael's "Freedom". It's been stuck in my head for years, and since these midterms are feeling very much like 2006, I decided to mark the 20th anniversary by updating it for modern times. It was a fun exercise in finding parallels between then and now, some light visual storytelling, jokes/puns galore, and more than a little inspiration for today. I hope you enjoy!
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I updated a vintage viral political video to fit the 2026 midterms
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Comment on 2026 United States midterm elections megathread in ~society
Jordan117 LinkOne of my earliest political memories is seeing a pretty clever viral video for the 2006 midterms set to George Michael's "Freedom." It's been stuck in my head for years, and now that the...One of my earliest political memories is seeing a pretty clever viral video for the 2006 midterms set to George Michael's "Freedom." It's been stuck in my head for years, and now that the anniversary's here (and is feeling very much like 2006), I decided to make an updated version for the Trump era. Enjoy, and go vote if you can!
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Comment on Brazil election: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beats Flavio Bolsonaro in shock upset in ~society
Jordan117 LinkThe betting markets tell the story here (and show the weaknesses of betting markets). After Flavio pulled ahead in the first round, everyone assumed he was favored to win, with odds over 80%....Brazil’s incumbent President Lula has edged past his rival Senator Bolsonaro to win an unprecedented fourth term, according to Brazil’s official election body.
Lula received 51.75% of votes with 98.76% of votes counted, while his challenger Senator Bolsonaro trailed slightly with 48.25%.
The betting markets tell the story here (and show the weaknesses of betting markets). After Flavio pulled ahead in the first round, everyone assumed he was favored to win, with odds over 80%. Those collapsed within an hour or so as actual results began to come in.
Lula will face a hostile right-wing congress, but at least the worst excesses of a Bolsonaro regime with all levers of power will be avoided.
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Brazil election: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beats Flavio Bolsonaro in shock upset
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Comment on 4 × 6 in ~games
Jordan117 Link ParentIt doesn't feel vibe-coded, tbh -- like his other games, it's polished, works well, and feels fun enough to return to. My biggest criticism for this one is that it feels like one of those...It doesn't feel vibe-coded, tbh -- like his other games, it's polished, works well, and feels fun enough to return to.
My biggest criticism for this one is that it feels like one of those test-tube color sort mobile games rotated 90 degrees, albeit with some extra mechanics to make things more interesting.
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Comment on What it means when the US right refers to the ‘Indian question’ in ~society
Jordan117 LinkFeels like pregaming a push to oust JD Vance for an (even more) openly racist nominee in 2028. The fact that the same hatred is harming Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign is "good" in that it suggests the...Feels like pregaming a push to oust JD Vance for an (even more) openly racist nominee in 2028.
The fact that the same hatred is harming Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign is "good" in that it suggests the Groyper types can't help themselves even when it harms their electoral prospects, but at this point it's pretty clear that even the most toxic candidates are electable under the right conditions.
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Comment on "What do we do with Jacob Geller?" (Self admitted sexual assault, removed from Nebula streaming) in ~tech
Jordan117 (edited )Link ParentIt's a weird situation. The original forum, NeoGAF, was one of the biggest surviving old-school forums in the world, and easily the most influential in terms of video game industry insiders,...It's a weird situation. The original forum, NeoGAF, was one of the biggest surviving old-school forums in the world, and easily the most influential in terms of video game industry insiders, leaks, etc. It also had a strong progressive streak among the users and moderators. In 2017, the owner Tyler "EvilLore" Malka was exposed by a #MeToo scandal, and the staff and a huge number of users jumped ship for a new purpose built site (ResetEra). GAF, left as a much chuddier/boy's club shell of itself, banned political discussion and made mods anonymous.
Unfortunately, like the Twitter-Bluesky split, isolating the most stridently left-wing members in an echo chamber sharpened their worst instincts and turned them inward. Staff turnover empowered more and more ideologically rigid and contemptuous mods, who grew more comfortable enforcing rules capriciously and doling out lengthy bans for ridiculous reasons, even to longtime, prominent members. Topic blacklists proliferated; you could get banned for merely mentioning Hogwarts Legacy or linking to a disfavored outlet. The most aggressive users became emboldened to pile on others harshly or bait them into a ban. Center-right users were increasingly turfed out, then centrists, then center-left, etc. Developers largely ghosted, fearful of being the next target. There were periodic clashes between mods and various community groups, leading to multiple exoduses. Threads more than a year or two old are graveyards full of normal-sounding commentary from banned or self-deleted accounts. I myself was permanently banned earlier this year for criticizing mods (in the official moderation feedback thread!) for ignoring multiple threads full of people celebrating and calling for violence against tech industry figures, what used to be an ironclad zero-tolerance sort of thing.
It sucks because most of the regular people there are pretty great -- smart, witty, empathetic GenX/Y/Z geeks -- and there are still solid hobby and interest-based groups that are a good resource. Great for media discussion and breaking news with a healthy dose of memes and gallows humor. As far as general-interest forums go, it's one of the last holdouts on an internet walled off and enshittified by social media. But it's domineered by terrible mods and a clique of overbearing users that increasingly narrow the bounds of acceptable discussion and gleefully exile people from their "community" at the drop of a hat -- to the point a dozen people can catch month-long bans for saying they liked the article in this post. It's large and active enough that it's still possible to enjoy if you tread carefully and can tolerate the obnoxious contradictions on display every day. But it's firmly in a downward spiral of their own making.
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Comment on "What do we do with Jacob Geller?" (Self admitted sexual assault, removed from Nebula streaming) in ~tech
Jordan117 LinkMy favorite irony about this piece is that when it was posted in the Gellar thread over at self-styled "progressive community" ResetEra, both the poster who shared it and over a dozen longtime...My favorite irony about this piece is that when it was posted in the Gellar thread over at self-styled "progressive community" ResetEra, both the poster who shared it and over a dozen longtime users were banned for a month (or more) simply for saying they liked the article or appreciated the poster for sharing it. Reason: "Dismissive commentary around sexual assault." No self-awareness whatsoever.
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Comment on Someone ‘torturing’ LLMs in a robot prison has triggered the dumbest debate in AI yet in ~tech
Jordan117 (edited )LinkThere were similar experiments (and similar backlash) in the relatively simpler creature sim Creatures back in the day. IMHO, we simply don't know enough about the inner workings of LLMs or the...IMHO, we simply don't know enough about the inner workings of LLMs or the nature of consciousness to say this is totally fine. It's entirely possible that model weights function similarly enough to neurons that they can experience some form of suffering. I'm agnostic on it, but do think this is a shitty and pointless thing to do -- even if only to the extent that, like the Creatures drama, it's designed to distress people who sincerely believe think there's real moral wrong here. It's just gratuitously cruel.
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Comment on What are your current pain points with Linux? in ~tech
Jordan117 (edited )Link ParentIn fairness, I did understand what it was going for (deleting three cache files for a specific program). But there was a syntax error that inserted an extra tilde and space before the file paths,...In fairness, I did understand what it was going for (deleting three cache files for a specific program). But there was a syntax error that inserted an extra tilde and space before the file paths, broadening the scope to the entire home folder. I think this can also happen if you add a space after the tilde, or accidentally hit enter after it.
When first working with the terminal, I was wary of any rm -rf command -- that meme about maliciously suggesting "rm -rf /" as a fix hit home its destructive power. But I had let my guard down on that front after reading about how Linux added protections against misuse, triggering a warning and requiring an explicit override if attempted. But turns out that only protects against targeting "/", not "/*", "~", etc.
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Comment on What are your current pain points with Linux? in ~tech
Jordan117 LinkSo I've got a major amendment to my earlier comment: As a longtime Windows user who is reasonably tech-savvy but had no Linux experience, I've been relying pretty heavily on Gemini to navigate the...So I've got a major amendment to my earlier comment:
As a longtime Windows user who is reasonably tech-savvy but had no Linux experience, I've been relying pretty heavily on Gemini to navigate the terminal for stuff like installing programs, debugging stalled updates, writing small scripts and config tweaks, etc. It's been fantastically good at this, to the point I had my Fedora OS, KDE, and Firefox running exactly the way I wanted. I'd scoffed at people who ran autonomous AI agents freely, like OpenClaw, but after awhile I grew to trust Gemini's skills until I was basically just a copy-pasting middleman.
So when I was troubleshooting a program crash at startup, I didn't clock that its first suggested command included an errant space that caused rm rf to run on not just the targeted cache folder, but my entire home directory. I was confused when the terminal started filling up with text, and panic-quit when desktop icons started disappearing and my theme reset to default. After a few minutes interrogating Gemini, I shut down, and signed up for Claude (the strongest coding model, I've heard) to piece together what happened and how to recover.
The good news is that I killed the process fast enough and shut down soon enough that much of my home directory is intact, and at least some of the deleted material may still be recoverable with forensic tools (or at worst a professional service). But it's still done significant damage.
This isn't really Linux's fault -- it's on me for not having a backup system set up yet on this machine, and for trusting AI output too blindly. But Linux culture definitely pushes terminal use much more than Windows, which isn't great for those without a programming background. AI tools are immensely helpful here, but clearly not 100% reliable. I guess the biggest takeaway is: back up your shit, yesterday.
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Comment on Paramount settles with California, other states over Warner Bros merger in ~movies
Jordan117 LinkWhat happened to Keith Ellison, Letitia James, and the other state AGs who were vowing to oppose this settlement not even 24 hours ago?What happened to Keith Ellison, Letitia James, and the other state AGs who were vowing to oppose this settlement not even 24 hours ago?
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Comment on VR questions, recommendations, tips, and tricks in ~games
Jordan117 LinkIt's not technically a game, but Google Earth VR is an absolute must-have. Not only is the 3D stereophotogrammetry amazing to move through in both cities and natural landscapes, but you can also...It's not technically a game, but Google Earth VR is an absolute must-have. Not only is the 3D stereophotogrammetry amazing to move through in both cities and natural landscapes, but you can also explore Street View imagery, including the insides of buildings, parks, deserts, etc., basically anywhere people have uploaded 360-degree imagery. You can easily get lost in it for hours.
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Comment on Who gets the Steam Frame? Did Valve pick you for the first wave? in ~games
Jordan117 Link ParentHadn't heard of that one -- the specs seem great, but what looks to be a ~$1500-2000+ expected price tag stings. I can find a used Quest 3 for less than 20% of that.Hadn't heard of that one -- the specs seem great, but what looks to be a ~$1500-2000+ expected price tag stings. I can find a used Quest 3 for less than 20% of that.
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Comment on Who gets the Steam Frame? Did Valve pick you for the first wave? in ~games
Jordan117 LinkI strongly considered it, but it was just too expensive. Even the base model is over $1000, and you have to tack on hundreds more to future proof storage, get decent pass-through, and make it...I strongly considered it, but it was just too expensive. Even the base model is over $1000, and you have to tack on hundreds more to future proof storage, get decent pass-through, and make it actually comfortable to wear and hold. And at that price, it was disappointing to get weak battery life and no OLED.
Tbh, I'm thinking of getting a Quest 3. It has comparable specs, and would be a massive leap over my OG Vive. Meta is gross but I figure a throwaway account and buying used on eBay minimizes the harm. I just wonder how well it works tethered vs. wireless, and how the Linux support is.
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Comment on What's a show you love that's from before your time? in ~tv
Jordan117 (edited )LinkI Love Lucy. My mom loved to play the reruns on TV when I was a kid, so there's some nostalgia there, and granted a lot of the social norms are outdated by now. But it's amazing how well the...I Love Lucy. My mom loved to play the reruns on TV when I was a kid, so there's some nostalgia there, and granted a lot of the social norms are outdated by now. But it's amazing how well the comedy holds up:
And it's funny to think how the pop cultural juggernaut of the whitebread 1950s was helmed by a woman and a Cuban immigrant.
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Comment on What made that wedding that you attended particularly memorable? in ~life
Jordan117 LinkOne cool thing at my brother's recent wedding was that each table was numbered, and then given "time capsule" cards where you could write a private message that would not be opened until that...One cool thing at my brother's recent wedding was that each table was numbered, and then given "time capsule" cards where you could write a private message that would not be opened until that numbered anniversary.
They also hired not just a photographer and videographer, but a "content creator" who would record fun shortform candid videos that could be more immediately shared with people who couldn't make it.
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Comment on How accurate have Ed Zitron's AI skeptic predictions been? in ~tech
Jordan117 Link ParentAs somebody who has twigged to AI since the TalkToTransformer/ThisPersonDoesNotExist/GPT-2 days circa 2019, I feel this comment so damn hard. The underlying technology is so deeply fascinating on...As somebody who has twigged to AI since the TalkToTransformer/ThisPersonDoesNotExist/GPT-2 days circa 2019, I feel this comment so damn hard. The underlying technology is so deeply fascinating on a philosophical level -- for the first time we have software that can recognize, process, and create raw concepts. Like a synthesizer for ideas, in every medium. I had so much fun generating narratives in AI Dungeon, images in DALL-E 2, and gibberish covers in AI Jukebox. And the people and communities I shared them with found them just as amazing. Incredible future shock.
Then came the ChatGPT-driven rush to commercialization, and the hyperscalers, and Trump and Musk and DOGE and all the same grifters and frauds that had pumped NFTs and the metaverse. And I saw these same people and places polarized against all use of the tech, even the non-commercial small-scale open-source stuff. Earlier this year I was permanently banned from a forum I'd been a member of for almost 20 years, because I had called out how the moderators were turning a blind eye to users jeering for violence against big tech figures. The vicious absolutism and close-mindedness is shocking and sad. But I'm glad Tildes is one of the few places that embraces nuance about the subject without tipping over into blind boosterism.
If it makes you feel any better, these midterms saw the second-highest turnout in history, only marginally behind the 2018 elections. Also, Democrats did so well in part because a lot of Republicans stayed home (as opposed to '18 where many were motivated by the Kavanaugh hearings, helping to oust several red-state Dem senators even as Dems took the House). Lastly, many states are either uncompetitive or didn't feature any Senate/gubernatorial races, which depresses turnout for people who have nothing significant to vote for beyond safe/gerrymandered House seats or low-profile local races.