LewsTherinTelescope's recent activity

  1. Comment on Productivity tools on MacOS in ~tech

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link
    People have mentioned the big things like Raycast already, but a few other utilities I like: toggleMute: Adds an icon to the menu bar showing whether your mic is muted on the system level and lets...

    People have mentioned the big things like Raycast already, but a few other utilities I like:

    • toggleMute: Adds an icon to the menu bar showing whether your mic is muted on the system level and lets you use a global hotkey to toggle it. There's a Raycast extension that's similar, but I found the icon for the standalone app to more reliably show the correct state when I tested it.
    • BackgroundMusic: App-specific volume levels. Has the unfortunate side effect of always showing the warning that an app is recording audio, though, so I tend to keep it off except when I need it.
    • OpenMTP: File transfer with plugged-in Android devices. SwiftMTP is a newer alternative with a more native-feeling UI, but I've not tested the functionality to see if either works better or not.
    • Karabiner-Elements: Key remapping. Has some complex options, but I mostly use a few simple things like changing around the media keys on my external keyboard.
    • Keka: Archive creation and extraction for a bunch of file types. Note that it works like the default MacOS unarchiver in that it just extracts the contents right away; if you want to browse them first, it looks like ShichiZip supports that, but I only just discovered it exists so I can't yet vouch for quality.

    And a couple built-in features:

    • Keyboard Shortcuts: Page in system settings that not only lets you change most system-wide shortcuts, but lets you assign a custom shortcut to any menu bar item in any app (at least, any app that uses the system menu bar).
    • Login Items: Page in system settings that allows you to run any app or shell script at login.
    2 votes

  2. Comment on Productivity tools on MacOS in ~tech

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    Do note though that Homebrew is dropping support for Intel Macs; the last applicable model is six years old so if you're getting a new computer it's probably not relevant, but in the case that it...

    Do note though that Homebrew is dropping support for Intel Macs; the last applicable model is six years old so if you're getting a new computer it's probably not relevant, but in the case that it is, you may need to look into alternatives like MacPorts.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Trolley problem, again in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    This page lists some Nitter instances which are still active, and this page has uptime info for a few of them. (Nitter being the software underlying XCancel.)

    This page lists some Nitter instances which are still active, and this page has uptime info for a few of them. (Nitter being the software underlying XCancel.)

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Trolley problem, again in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    If I understand correctly the paper actually concludes the doctrine is mistaken and lands on an alternative standard the author believes fits what she considers moral intuition more consistently,...

    If I understand correctly the paper actually concludes the doctrine is mistaken and lands on an alternative standard the author believes fits what she considers moral intuition more consistently, but yes that's apparently the topic it originally comes from. (Though I was more sharing it because of the questions than because of the answers.)

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Trolley problem, again in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link
    I recommend the original paper the thought experiment comes from, it's a rather more interesting read to me than the sort of "moral personality test" way it tends to be used. The initial context...

    I recommend the original paper the thought experiment comes from, it's a rather more interesting read to me than the sort of "moral personality test" way it tends to be used. The initial context was the author presenting a series of similar situations where she felt most people would intuitively agree one side is the right choice, yet where the consensus would be different for each question despite them being mathematically equivalent, and trying to puzzle out what the underlying principles that make them distinct are to then examine the question of abortion in various circumstances.

    6 votes

  6. Comment on UN says world will miss its climate target, warming must be reversed in ~enviro

  7. Comment on Replicating Reddit's best feature on other forums in ~tech

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    Yeah the custom colors and notes wouldn't be so smooth. It looks like Less has regex replacement and Stylus has string splitting, so you could come up with some bespoke syntax like...

    Yeah the custom colors and notes wouldn't be so smooth. It looks like Less has regex replacement and Stylus has string splitting, so you could come up with some bespoke syntax like username:color:note, have the user enter a list of those entries into the option instead, and plug it into a function to extract those parts at compile time, but... feels mildly cursed and definitely not the best editing UX.

    Though if I'm being honest the fact it feels mildly cursed makes me tempted to try, it probably wouldn't be that complicated... But it wouldn't be what you'd want to recommend people use lol.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Replicating Reddit's best feature on other forums in ~tech

    LewsTherinTelescope
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Toyed around with it and this seems to work: original attempt, see below /* ==UserStyle== @name Tildes - Highlight Users @namespace I don't have one (oh it lets me enter this, cool) @version 1.0.0...

    Toyed around with it and this seems to work:

    original attempt, see below 
    /* ==UserStyle==
@name           Tildes - Highlight Users
@namespace      I don't have one (oh it lets me enter this, cool)
@version        1.0.0
@description    Imitates Reddit's "friends" feature on Tildes by highlighting the usernames of the given users.
@preprocessor   less
@var            text users "Comma-separated list of users (enter a single - for none)" "-"
==/UserStyle== */

@-moz-document domain("tildes.net") {
	each(@users, .(@user) {
		.comment-header > a.link-user[href $= "/@{user}"],
		.topic-info-source > a.link-user[href $= "/@{user}"],
		.topic-full-byline > a.link-user[href $= "/@{user}"] {
			color: #ff4500;
		}
	})
}

    Main paint point was that the parser really doesn't like values ever being blank—it throws a compile error if @users is empty, and when I tried the backup plan of adding a when not check to the loop body to skip emitting CSS if the dummy value is set it complained that the style would be empty (that's the point!), so I settled for just telling a white lie to avoid confusion. In practice there should never be anyone with the username -, so if it's set to that the generated styles won't do anything. (Same issues when I tried stylus-lang.)

    Seems you do need to reload the page for settings changes to take effect, but easier than recompiling each time lol.

    Edit: Oh, actually, adding a comment is enough to prevent the empty style error from the guard. With this version it shouldn't produce any real styles at all if the list is set to _.

    new version 
    /* ==UserStyle==
@name           Tildes - Highlight Users
@namespace      I don't have one (oh it lets me enter this, cool)
@version        1.0.0
@description    Imitates Reddit's "friends" feature on Tildes by highlighting the usernames of the given users.
@preprocessor   less
@var            text users "Comma-separated list of users (enter a single _ for none)" "_"
==/UserStyle== */

@-moz-document domain("tildes.net") {
	& when not (@users = _) {
		each(@users, .(@user) {
			.comment-header > a.link-user[href $= "/@{user}"],
			.topic-info-source > a.link-user[href $= "/@{user}"],
			.topic-full-byline > a.link-user[href $= "/@{user}"] {
				color: #ff4500;
			}
		})
	}
	
	/* dummy comment so style isn't empty if condition fails */
}
    1 vote

  9. Comment on Replicating Reddit's best feature on other forums in ~tech

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link
    Neat! I wonder if, rather than using a CLI to generate the CSS, it could be done directly in the userstyle with Stylus's preprocessor support and variables? Seems LESS and stylus-lang (name as far...

    Neat!

    I wonder if, rather than using a CLI to generate the CSS, it could be done directly in the userstyle with Stylus's preprocessor support and variables? Seems LESS and stylus-lang (name as far as I know coincidence) support iteration.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on What server location should I use for a VPN? in ~tech

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    Ah I see, it's to route everything from non-home networks back to home. Makes sense, thanks!

    Ah I see, it's to route everything from non-home networks back to home. Makes sense, thanks!

    1 vote

  11. Comment on What server location should I use for a VPN? in ~tech

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    Question from the uninformed (me): if you set up a VPN on your home network and are the only one using it, what privacy does it bring?

    Question from the uninformed (me): if you set up a VPN on your home network and are the only one using it, what privacy does it bring?

    3 votes

  12. Comment on Suggest Chicago food places in ~food

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link
    Cozy Noodles & Rice is a great Thai place and the owner's collection of random doodads all over the walls gives it a fun vibe, but checking the map it might be too far out of the way from where...

    Cozy Noodles & Rice is a great Thai place and the owner's collection of random doodads all over the walls gives it a fun vibe, but checking the map it might be too far out of the way from where you're staying.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    It was The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson. (To be clear, it's not at all a major part of the book, just a brief joke to show how out of his element...

    It was The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson. (To be clear, it's not at all a major part of the book, just a brief joke to show how out of his element the main character is by upending his assumption.)

    2 votes

  14. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    I once read a book that had a small bit riffing on this, where a character stuck in an alternate history timeline asks about Christianity, but finds that here Ahura Mazda is more popular and is...

    I once read a book that had a small bit riffing on this, where a character stuck in an alternate history timeline asks about Christianity, but finds that here Ahura Mazda is more popular and is said to have intervened when the Romans tried to crucify Yeshua and in so doing taken "the Yeshuans" into the Zoroastrian fold for a time.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    I agree with that, yeah. I was just disagreeing with the framing that which irrational beliefs people hold doesn't matter at all, which IME is a well-intentioned sentiment that nonetheless can end...

    I agree with that, yeah. I was just disagreeing with the framing that which irrational beliefs people hold doesn't matter at all, which IME is a well-intentioned sentiment that nonetheless can end up leading to ignoring more subtle harms (like the example I used earlier about science denial).

    3 votes

  16. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    Sure, you can probably leave it be since the effects of the belief in this context are almost solely good (bringing her comfort). On the other hand, if she believed she was going to Hell, I'd...

    Sure, you can probably leave it be since the effects of the belief in this context are almost solely good (bringing her comfort). On the other hand, if she believed she was going to Hell, I'd instead try to convince her otherwise. What the actual belief is and what its consequences are is just as relevant to the decision here as it is to the other examples, it's not a "who cares what they think, we're all irrational" scenario.

    2 votes

  17. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    I've been mentioning both positives and negatives, my position has never been that religion is evil nor that belief is unimportant. Just that our beliefs about the world do have consequences that...

    I've been mentioning both positives and negatives, my position has never been that religion is evil nor that belief is unimportant. Just that our beliefs about the world do have consequences that matter, and while religion is not alone in this it's not a lone exception either.

    You say good is more important truth, but where does that judgement come from? In your deer-hunting example, the behavior is good because it accounts for your physical and emotional needs. In your vegetarianism example, the behavior is good because of the consequences of meat consumption. In your soup kitchen example, the behavior is good because those beliefs drive someone to recognize the humanity in those around them. In your leftist passivity example, the behavior is bad because of the harm being allowed. In these contexts those people having those beliefs is a net positive (or in the last case perhaps not), but we can only determine this because we try to look at the beliefs and their outcomes analytically too rather than treating them as separate from the rest of life.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    I don't know enough about those specific examples to comment, but I'm not denying that religion is heavily affected by the culture in which it's practiced, I'm disagreeing with the "so what?" and...

    I don't know enough about those specific examples to comment, but I'm not denying that religion is heavily affected by the culture in which it's practiced, I'm disagreeing with the "so what?" and "what the fuck right to complain about irrational beliefs do I have?" framing. What someone believes about the world influences how they interact with that world, which impacts both them and the people around them (both positively and negatively). That makes those worldviews important.

    You use the analogy of believing Hillary Clinton was a shoo-in for the presidency. Perhaps this was rational-but-ill-informed or perhaps it was irrational, I don't know enough about how you formed the conclusion, but when it was shown to be false you evidently accepted that. On the other hand, in 2021 we saw thousands of people who had believed their preferred candidate was a shoo-in decide that rather than accepting they were incorrect they would storm the Capitol. The presence or absence of a well-informed and rational response to the situation led to two very different outcomes. Should we have reacted by going "well really we're all irrational sometimes, what right do we have to complain?"

  19. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    I've no idea whether his full reasoning is good or not, mind (though admittedly the answer here doesn't feel like a very compelling start to me). I just don't think a single question in an...

    I've no idea whether his full reasoning is good or not, mind (though admittedly the answer here doesn't feel like a very compelling start to me). I just don't think a single question in an interview about a separate topic is likely to be a complete position, especially when it starts out with a caveat like that.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on "The reason I'm not an atheist is that I think the philosophical arguments against it are unanswerable" in ~humanities

    LewsTherinTelescope
    Link Parent
    This is a false dichotomy, imo. Religion is not the only way to be kind, but a church that opens a food shelter because they believe Christ commands them to care for the downtrodden is being kind...

    This is a false dichotomy, imo. Religion is not the only way to be kind, but a church that opens a food shelter because they believe Christ commands them to care for the downtrodden is being kind for a religious reason. Religion is not the only way to be hurt, but a queer child whose parents pressure them to deny who they are because a pastor said they'd burn eternally otherwise is hurting for religious reasons. Religion is not the only way to be curious, but a scientist who studies nature to understand God's glory is being curious for religious reasons. Religion is not the only way to be ignorant, but someone who avoids the COVID vaccine because they were taught scientists are morons who can't even get the age of the Earth right was kept ignorant for religious reasons. Religion is obviously not immune to people, but people are not immune to religion either. They influence each other, just as with any cultural belief.

    Their core belief is that climate change isn't real, and they'll finds belief systems that supplement that.

    With all due respect, this sounds to me like a secular version of presuppositionalist assumptions—"everyone knows I'm right, they just pretend otherwise so they can sin". Perhaps there are some who fall in that camp, but there are also people who are just incorrect, and the reasons for that incorrectness can be influenced by religion as much as by any other element of society.

    2 votes