kaffo's recent activity

  1. Comment on TV series suggestions in ~tv

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    I read your list and decided to give Danger 5 a go. The first episode made me laugh pretty hard. Good recommendation!

    I read your list and decided to give Danger 5 a go. The first episode made me laugh pretty hard. Good recommendation!

    1 vote
  2. Comment on TV series suggestions in ~tv

    kaffo
    Link
    Sorry if these have already been suggested, there's a lot in this post already to remember! Landman - excellent show following a landman and his family living in Texas as they deal with the...

    Sorry if these have already been suggested, there's a lot in this post already to remember!

    • Landman - excellent show following a landman and his family living in Texas as they deal with the extreme stress of the oil business. It sounds boring, but this is like a 9.5/10 show in terms of pacing, characters and direction. Huge recommend.
    • For all Mankind - I saw this recommended above, alt history where the Russians get to the moon before the USA in the 60s and it starts a huge space race instead of killing it. The first two seasons are peak TV, like 10/10. Then it quickly falls off. I think they must have got a writers room or maybe started to get pushed by publishers or something because the quality completely falls off. I would personally stop at the end of season 2.
    • Mr Inbetween - I saw a couple of mentions for Barry and this is Australian Barry but it leans towards the more serious side (still a little funny!). It follows a dude who's essentially a hit man, but he'll do anything for cash really. He has a kid, a brother and a couple of episodes in a girlfriend. How he juggles them all and also deals with the emotional pressure of murdering people is what the show is about. It's very big on "show don't tell" and it's very well done. There are scenes in the show where characters say like a couple sentences but their body language says volumes, it's really well done. And the guy who plays Ray also wrote it and directed it! Must watch!
    • El encargado - Real left field one here, this one is from Argentina, so avoid if you don't want to watch subs. It's about a building manager who finds out his residents have a plan to evict him from his completely free apartment in the building by building a pool over it, so he goes rogue and does everything in his power to fuck with them and get his way. It's a very particular kind of humor I think, but I really enjoyed it.
    • Judy Duty - This makes me cry laughing, no joke. It's the same producers as the office and you can tell. So they set up a TV court case and make a series like the office right, like a mockumentary thing... Except they've also recruited a completely ordinary member of the public to go on the jury. So you've got scenes of dumb shit happening mixed with the same interview format as the office AND there's this dude who has literally no idea that any of it is fake. It's pure gold. Everyone loves the office, this is a complete slam dunk and should be as popular.
    1 vote
  3. Comment on I think Tildes moderators and admins may need to make a decision regarding how to handle Harry Potter related posts in ~tildes

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    I like this thinking. There are many places on the internet to get excited about Harry Potter and ignore the bigotry, but there are few that are willing to do the opposite. And I would...

    I like this thinking. There are many places on the internet to get excited about Harry Potter and ignore the bigotry, but there are few that are willing to do the opposite. And I would (personally) prefer that we are one of those places that really does actually care.

    35 votes
  4. Comment on Why Scotland succeeded in ~humanities.history

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    Thanks for posting! The story keeps getting interested after that as well if you're interested. Glasgow had always been the ship building capital of the empire, and in the industrial revolution it...

    Thanks for posting! The story keeps getting interested after that as well if you're interested. Glasgow had always been the ship building capital of the empire, and in the industrial revolution it was almost like a steam punk city with iron clads, factories lining the river Clyde and a thick sea of smog across the whole city.
    Then after the war, we didn't need boats any more... And the whole trade completely imploded. Thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and ended up in slums. By the late 1900s Glasgow was a shadow of it'd former self. No money, left to rot, the population quickly sliding down the class scale.
    Recent years there's been money from the financial sector in Glasgow, and there's been improvements, but it's not ship building capital of the world any more.

    Definitely worth a read of the history. Aberdeen too. It's also suffered it'd own fall from grace with the oil situation in Scotland.

    3 votes
  5. Comment on Job hunting absolutely sucks right now in ~life

    kaffo
    Link
    Also software engineering. I'm really sorry you're looking for a job right now, it's definitely very difficult. We've been recruiting this year for all levels, junior though to senior and it's...

    Also software engineering. I'm really sorry you're looking for a job right now, it's definitely very difficult.
    We've been recruiting this year for all levels, junior though to senior and it's extremely rough for everyone. There are volumes more CVs for each position than previous years meaning we've had to do more aggressive screening. Then when it's come down to choosing a candidate a huge amount of it comes down to luck, because we have an unusual amount of choice and sometimes it's just who we interview first or some arbitrary thing like someone has a shorter notice period.

    I guess it's probably only going to get more difficult. I can honestly see AI making software accessible to a different group of people it didn't before, while probably alienating a group of current developers. Who knows if one group is smaller or larger than the other.

    15 votes
  6. Comment on Digg has shutdown (again) in ~tech

    kaffo
    Link
    I feel like I read it differently? The site was still up in a alpha/beta phase right? It was never "ready" (though I didn't keep up with it so I dunno if they actually did go "live"). Even so, I'm...

    I feel like I read it differently?
    The site was still up in a alpha/beta phase right? It was never "ready" (though I didn't keep up with it so I dunno if they actually did go "live").

    Even so, I'm reading this as they tried something and considered it a failure, so they are regrouping (with a smaller team) to try something new. Not that it's completely dead.

    That said, I'm still not particularly interested personally. Tildes has proved the exact kind of online social experiment I needed for the most part.

    The only thing that would get me going would be a social media platform that tried to emulate early Facebook and MySpace. Mostly just a social media space where you are friends with your actual friends and your feed is people you actually know. It'd need to do some thing pretty smart though in 2026 to not end up an Instagram cesspit of meme pages and influences.

    17 votes
  7. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    kaffo
    Link
    Haven't posted in a while, but I've been playing a lot of... Survival: Fountain of Youth This is a survival crafting game set on some made up Pacific Island as your part of a crew that goes off...

    Haven't posted in a while, but I've been playing a lot of...

    Survival: Fountain of Youth

    This is a survival crafting game set on some made up Pacific Island as your part of a crew that goes off looking for the Fountain of Youth, but of course end up ship wrecked.

    I'm one of those people who loves the idea of survival crafting games, but they are all way too grindy. This one, thankfully, is not.

    In general, non spoiler, terms. The progression is really nice. There's very little actual gating you from progressing in this game, but there's a lot of stuff to build and craft to over prepare. It never really makes you grind to get all the gear either (except a little mining).

    There's a huge complaint on the steam reviews about the number of menus in this game and I get it, the game is menu heavy. There's no animations for harvesting or building like the forest or something, everything is a menu. But it's all done with some reasonable thought put into it. For the early game to mid game you will be deciding how much time, tool durability and stamina you want to put into any action. I felt it was a fun mini game. It does become way less of a problem later when you have gear and food but the menus are definitely a preference thing.

    Extremely light progression format spoilers

    The game is broken up into 5 islands which you explore one by one. To unlock the next you need to either follow the completely average storyline with hilariously over the top voice acting, find pieces of map around the current island or build the next tier of boat. If you do all three you get a skill point.

    I like this progression, it give you a lot of freedom. I've been doing all three the whole time, but I can easily see someone shorter on time just doing one and going right to the next island.

    The combat is completely fine, there's base building and a reasonably complicated disease system. I like the cooking and drinking mechanics. The maps are really well thought out and clearly everything is hand placed which is really great to see.

    Overall I would recommend it if a. You like survival crafting and b. You can deal with the menus.

    1 vote
  8. Comment on Norwegian influencer buys failed property development in Spain to build ‘self-sufficient’ eco-community – Modern Eco Village plans to erect 500 homes, schools and shops in ~design

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    Norwegians aren't super rich or anything. The wealth gap is smaller than a lot of countries though. You earn a lot more doing blue collar work here than you do else where, but you earn way less...

    Norwegians aren't super rich or anything. The wealth gap is smaller than a lot of countries though. You earn a lot more doing blue collar work here than you do else where, but you earn way less owning a business or being senior leadership.
    Like the other commenter said, most of the money goes into public spending, for everyone. The Healthcare is good, the infrastructure is good, etc etc.

    Yet after all that the post here sucks, unbelievable haha.

    9 votes
  9. Comment on Norwegian influencer buys failed property development in Spain to build ‘self-sufficient’ eco-community – Modern Eco Village plans to erect 500 homes, schools and shops in ~design

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    Considering it's a Norwegian influencer, I assume that the intention is to target Norwegians. There's a culture here of staying in Norway in the summer and going to Spain for a long holiday in the...

    Considering it's a Norwegian influencer, I assume that the intention is to target Norwegians. There's a culture here of staying in Norway in the summer and going to Spain for a long holiday in the winter. Richer Norwegians have holiday homes in Spain for the winter.

    17 votes
  10. Comment on Anyone get into caffeine (coffee/tea) as an adult? in ~food

    kaffo
    Link
    I mean I also have been drinking tea since a kid, but I have some useful input here. Tea has a slower release of caffeine than coffee. If you drink coffee (unless it's a teeny shot) you'll feel...

    I mean I also have been drinking tea since a kid, but I have some useful input here.

    Tea has a slower release of caffeine than coffee. If you drink coffee (unless it's a teeny shot) you'll feel the buzz right away. Tea you might not even realize the caffeine has hit you until you do a comparison to baseline (like trying to go to sleep).

    I used to drink a stupid amount of tea, like 8 cups a day, and I did not realize how wired I was until I cut down. I'm down to one cup of tea in the morning and... 7 decaf lol but like if I drink a normal cup of tea before bed time there's no sleeping for like 4 hours.

    I think it does also hit you in a different way as you get older, you'll hear so many people say they had to cut down because they can't drink as much coffee any more, so I dunno what's going on there to be honest.

    2 votes
  11. Comment on How do you remember? in ~tech

    kaffo
    Link
    For work, I do similar to a lot of other folk here. For my personal life it's kinda more complicated... I think I have some kind of ADHD and I forget important stuff all the time. I tried notes...

    For work, I do similar to a lot of other folk here.
    For my personal life it's kinda more complicated...

    I think I have some kind of ADHD and I forget important stuff all the time. I tried notes apps, physical paper, calendars and whatever and nothing stuck.
    My uh, workaround? Is I just do as much as I can immediately lol. As soon as I have a new item to put on the list, I just do it. If I do have something to do, it's normally like 1 or 2 things and I can actually remember them.

    Like, terrible advise I know, don't do this. It's gonna get me. But thought I'd share.

    1 vote
  12. Comment on Group chat solutions for small groups? in ~comp

    kaffo
    Link
    Try out Signal? It has pretty much all the WhatsApp features (and also chat themes) except it's not Meta. I'd use it for all my chats if I could get my friends to change, but alas. For the emoji...

    Try out Signal?
    It has pretty much all the WhatsApp features (and also chat themes) except it's not Meta.
    I'd use it for all my chats if I could get my friends to change, but alas.

    For the emoji button, I'd just use a different keyboard on your phone, and use whatever app on the various desktops to type it to be honest.
    I have an emoji button on SwiftKey and I use it all the time.

    29 votes
  13. Comment on Communities, relationships, and navigating the enshittification of absolutely everything in ~talk

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    It's true, a move like that is a big deal! You're welcome to ask. I met my partner online and we were long distance dating, then when it came to living together one of us had to make a big change...

    It's true, a move like that is a big deal!

    You're welcome to ask.
    I met my partner online and we were long distance dating, then when it came to living together one of us had to make a big change to move. It made way more sense for me to move and my job were completely ok with me working remote.
    I did lose friends, but I made some new ones.
    Though my family being so far away does suck sometimes, but I see them 3/4 times a year.

    Anyway, I hope you find a compromise!

    2 votes
  14. Comment on Communities, relationships, and navigating the enshittification of absolutely everything in ~talk

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    Yeah, exactly. I think your (mental) health is important. It makes me sad that you're sad! So... Not retiring but why have you not tried either? I moved out the city to a farm 3 years ago and it...

    Definitely prioritize your own health over gestures vaguely all of this, yes.

    Yeah, exactly. I think your (mental) health is important. It makes me sad that you're sad!

    ... I dream about retiring and operating a farm or running a small restaurant quite a bit...

    So... Not retiring but why have you not tried either?
    I moved out the city to a farm 3 years ago and it did amazing things for my mental health.

    Sorry if it feels like I'm calling you out, it sounds like you're having a tough time and it sounds to me like you already have your answers.

    2 votes
  15. Comment on Communities, relationships, and navigating the enshittification of absolutely everything in ~talk

    kaffo
    Link
    So honestly, I agree broadly with you. I think other commenters have done a good job of sharing their feelings and talking about your sections and I won't try to do the same. You are clearly very...

    So honestly, I agree broadly with you. I think other commenters have done a good job of sharing their feelings and talking about your sections and I won't try to do the same.

    You are clearly very passionate about these things and I think that's maybe why you're seeing the disconnect with "everyone else".
    I'm bothered about my privacy, I'm bothered about the AI hype and enshittifaction, but I don't think about it all the time nor do I go too far out my way to do anything about it... Because honestly it would completely ruin my mental health.

    I'll be completely real with you, if I wanted to be genuinely upset about something and have it effect my mental health in a real, negative way then I would be getting upset about the outright murder and genocide going on right now, or global warming, and not "trillion dollar companies have once again decided to make more money at the expense of Discord".
    I can do without a third space on the internet, I can do without AI and fuck it I can just not use the internet except for work to be honest.

    But I do want a healthy lifestyle, food on the table, a loving parter, etc. World peace would be nice too but let's be real.

    So I dunno, I agree, it's not good. Huge corporate is gonna make everyone's lives worse in someway if they can make more money, that's a fact. It's shit the internet is trash these days and we aren't going back, the deal is done. But I personally think that too many people let their mental health get effected by wrong things. And yeah, that's also the modern internet to blame for that too in a big way.

    9 votes
  16. Comment on Giving my AI agent its own team and what that taught me about AI in ~tech

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    If I'm understanding this correctly, I've tried similar things myself and had some success. I wanted to see if I could throw together a web novel generator for fun. You gave it a blurb and it...

    If I'm understanding this correctly, I've tried similar things myself and had some success.
    I wanted to see if I could throw together a web novel generator for fun. You gave it a blurb and it would try to output a reasonable amount of badly written fan fiction in bite sized chunks.
    To try and stop the AI just making stuff up every chapter and keep the story kinda sane I had a second agent "judge" the output and critique it, pointing out plot holes and any errors.
    Trying to find a balance between the judge just always finding a problem, even if it was completely reasonable, and letting slip the occasional plot hole was really difficult, but it mostly made sense in the end.

    1 vote
  17. Comment on E-ink tablet recommendations for note taking in ~tech

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    Honestly it's fair to ask, good to get challenged! It's a few things for me and this might not fix any of them: I would like to keep some notes forever digitally and taking pictures of notes...

    Honestly it's fair to ask, good to get challenged!

    It's a few things for me and this might not fix any of them:

    • I would like to keep some notes forever digitally and taking pictures of notes really sucks. A digital scanning tool thing does not sound great either
    • I'm always switching between lined, gridded and blank paper for different things and I end up with paper everywhere, then I can't find notes
    • I have a bad habit of spilling drinks on my notes and then they become extra unreadable and it ruins the paper
    • I always run out of space physical paper, it'd be nice to have more like an infinite canvas
    • It would be great to organise notes by folder. I just throw all my notes away because I don't have much space to keep them around the house

    I don't fancy spilling tea on an expensive tablet, but the rest I'm hoping I could maybe improve!

    2 votes
  18. Comment on E-ink tablet recommendations for note taking in ~tech

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the detailed reply! That's very interesting, I had actually completely written off the remarkable because I misunderstood the subscription. I thought that without it you'd have limited...

    Thanks for the detailed reply!
    That's very interesting, I had actually completely written off the remarkable because I misunderstood the subscription. I thought that without it you'd have limited cloud support to all cloud providers, which seemed extremely dumb. So glad to hear that was just me misreading it.

    Definitely sounds like a contender, I'm going to put it on the list!

    2 votes
  19. Comment on E-ink tablet recommendations for note taking in ~tech

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    Thanks! Sounds pretty manageable then.

    Thanks! Sounds pretty manageable then.

  20. Comment on E-ink tablet recommendations for note taking in ~tech

    kaffo
    Link Parent
    Thank you for your reply, it does help! I understood that you needed to replace the pen nubs occasionally if you used the stylus a lot, is that something you've experienced? To be honest, my plan...

    Thank you for your reply, it does help!
    I understood that you needed to replace the pen nubs occasionally if you used the stylus a lot, is that something you've experienced?

    To be honest, my plan is to use this thing to sit on my desk during the day and replace my A4 paper note book and pencil for work and game notes. I've got a Kindle that my partner and I have been using to read for years now.