Lia's recent activity

  1. Comment on Is LibreOffice Calc decent to use as my primary spreadsheet tool? What are your worst experiences with it? in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    Thank you for the write-up. It seems like LibreOffice is indeed the best choice for me. I haven't ever tried VBA (I even had to make an online search to see what that was) so I don't mind if it...

    Thank you for the write-up. It seems like LibreOffice is indeed the best choice for me.

    I haven't ever tried VBA (I even had to make an online search to see what that was) so I don't mind if it doesn't work well. I love that I could tweak the UI to some extent and generally speaking, the boringness of what I see when I open the thing is a huge plus.

    I was mainly worried that it would be so unreliable that I wouldn't be able to trust the output from a formula, or similar level issues.

    3 votes

  2. Comment on Is LibreOffice Calc decent to use as my primary spreadsheet tool? What are your worst experiences with it? in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    I'm so unimpressed by the idea of trying to vibe code all of those pro apps rather than do one thing that actually works that it's a no from me dawg.

    I'm so unimpressed by the idea of trying to vibe code all of those pro apps rather than do one thing that actually works that it's a no from me dawg.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Is LibreOffice Calc decent to use as my primary spreadsheet tool? What are your worst experiences with it? in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    Fn+backspace seems to do the trick (on a Mac - on Windows you can just press delete). Good enough for me. Any other annoyances you've come across?

    why clearing a cell makes a dialogue box pop up and you have to confirm - simply boggles my mind

    Fn+backspace seems to do the trick (on a Mac - on Windows you can just press delete). Good enough for me. Any other annoyances you've come across?

    5 votes

  4. Comment on Is LibreOffice Calc decent to use as my primary spreadsheet tool? What are your worst experiences with it? in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    That's great, thanks for sharing!

    That's great, thanks for sharing!

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Is LibreOffice Calc decent to use as my primary spreadsheet tool? What are your worst experiences with it? in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    This is great news then! I can always convert Excel files in the Numbers app if ever I need to access or edit one. I do sometimes receive them from the odd subcontractor but most companies in my...

    This is great news then!

    I can always convert Excel files in the Numbers app if ever I need to access or edit one. I do sometimes receive them from the odd subcontractor but most companies in my field haven't been using Microsoft products since.. forever? So definitely not an issue for me.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Is LibreOffice Calc decent to use as my primary spreadsheet tool? What are your worst experiences with it? in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    Said buzzwords made me turn away. Even if you can turn it off for now, I'd rather not risk migrating my things into a system that may become fully AI-pilled in the future, or may focus most of...

    What about OnlyOffice? Their website does have AI buzzwords like most things nowadays, but it's not pushed in the app itself (I never even knew it's there before looking at the website now) and one of the screenshots on the site specifically shows a toggle to turn off AI functionality.

    Said buzzwords made me turn away. Even if you can turn it off for now, I'd rather not risk migrating my things into a system that may become fully AI-pilled in the future, or may focus most of their development efforts to AI at the expense of what I consider important. As well, whenever possible, I will avoid being counted as a user for an app that is marketing itself this way (fluffy buzzwords of any kind that is - right now they're most often related to AI).

    Web apps are another thing I don't like and one of the reasons I'm migrating away from Google. I want better control of when and how I access my files - and better security wrt others not being able to access them.

    5 votes

  7. Comment on Scientists study thousands of giant space shades to cool Earth in ~space

    Lia
    Link
    The Earth's weather systems are too complex for humans to model them reliably. Putting a giant shader in front of the Sun is bound to affect these systems in ways that cannot possibly be...

    The Earth's weather systems are too complex for humans to model them reliably. Putting a giant shader in front of the Sun is bound to affect these systems in ways that cannot possibly be predicted. And how about the loss of daylight and its immediately negative effects on humans?

    Humanity needs to find a way to deflate our egos and put all this cash into reducing our impact on the planet - not such silly patching attempts. Our globe is like a binge-drinking, overeating couch potato of a person who believes a gastric bypass and liposuction will get similar results to adopting a healthy lifestyle. Instead it's just going to cost a great deal more and the results will be inferior and temporary at best.

    11 votes

  8. Comment on Historic voter turnout powered US Democrats’ blue wave in ~society

    Lia
    Link Parent
    I'm not American and haven't met anyone personally, but I've heard it can be really hard for low-income people living in places where the voting stations are deliberately placed so far away that...

    I'm not American and haven't met anyone personally, but I've heard it can be really hard for low-income people living in places where the voting stations are deliberately placed so far away that it takes hours to travel there. There might be a really long queue too. Afterwards you still have to travel back. Being absent from work for that long may mean risking losing your job.

    5 votes

  9. Comment on Historic voter turnout powered US Democrats’ blue wave in ~society

    Lia
    Link Parent
    Thank you for taking the time to explain this. I had a vague idea that voting is more cumbersome in the US than in my EU country but I didn't realise it was this hard! For me, voting is as easy as...

    Thank you for taking the time to explain this. I had a vague idea that voting is more cumbersome in the US than in my EU country but I didn't realise it was this hard!

    For me, voting is as easy as walking 200 meters to my closest voting station on a Sunday any time between 8 am and 9 pm (I think) with my ID in hand and writing down one single number. It's always the same familiar location. I can pick a candidate I like or if unsure, just any candidate that represents the party I like and I'll feel like I've had my say. We also have early voting options but I've never tried those because I enjoy doing it on the official day. I can't imagine not voting - maybe if I was suddenly hospitalised it could happen.

    3 votes

  10. Is LibreOffice Calc decent to use as my primary spreadsheet tool? What are your worst experiences with it?

    ~tech Ask (recommendations)
    I've reached the next stage in the process of reclaiming control over my tech and that entails switching my spreadsheets away from Google. Stage one was about turning off notifications, removing...

    I've reached the next stage in the process of reclaiming control over my tech and that entails switching my spreadsheets away from Google. Stage one was about turning off notifications, removing bloatware and changing settings to be more privacy-oriented whenever I got a new device, etc. Second stage: replacing numerous different software with Obsidian, a huge productivity and convenience win. So these days I use Obsidian for almost everything but it doesn't do spreadsheets yet (if ever).

    So I did some research and it looks like LibreOffice is the only option that doesn't come with some sort of AI stuff and makes the .xls(x) file format I can display in Obsidian. This conversation is not about why I'm choosing to avoid AI features and companies that won't allow me to turn them off, but that's what I aim to do, as much as possible. Edit: I also want a local installation that works offline and doesn't send anything to some cloud.

    I searched Tildes for LibreOffice and found some damning comments but they were all fairly vague and I'm unsure how much the disappointment applies to LibreOffice Calc specifically, so I thought I'd ask about people's experiences.

    My use case is primarily for personal finance calculations, as well as costing sheets for work. Not super complex high level math but there are some more complicated formulas and I do like to have conditional formatting options too. Mainly I'm interested in reliability, even if the thing isn't as feature-packed as Google Sheets. I'm on MacOS if that matters.

    35 votes

  11. Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    I'm like this too. My favourite is a private Kebble sub that requires logging in to even see it. Other than that, most of my commenting is helping people use Obsidian or solve some relationship...

    I'm like this too.

    My favourite is a private Kebble sub that requires logging in to even see it. Other than that, most of my commenting is helping people use Obsidian or solve some relationship issue. Some hobby subs are still awesome but I don't have interest to browse further than that because most of general reddit is just so shitty.

    If they somehow manage to make Ublock Origin not work, then I'll have to end my relationship with them entirely. I'm on new reddit (on my laptop) and I'm blocking so many annoying elements that without this it would be unusable.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Shaun reviews UK right wing politician's new book in ~society

    Lia
    Link
    Okay I finished listening and the book is also a prime example of why people shouldn't use AI to do creative tasks, or for feedback on their creative pursuits. Or for research, especially research...

    Okay I finished listening and the book is also a prime example of why people shouldn't use AI to do creative tasks, or for feedback on their creative pursuits. Or for research, especially research that impacts anything that another human being is later subjected to.

  13. Comment on ChatGPT keeps telling people 404 Media can solve their tech support problems in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    This isn't the goal, at least not my goal. Some people are interested and want to learn, and sometimes when I have enough time and energy, I will try to share my expertise. But I can't easily give...

    The more useful exercise, then, would be to try and popularize a more specific word that refers to human art, if distinguishing the two is the goal.

    This isn't the goal, at least not my goal. Some people are interested and want to learn, and sometimes when I have enough time and energy, I will try to share my expertise. But I can't easily give everyone pro level understanding and I'm especially not interested in educating people who don't seem curious enough to match my effort on their side. Because that's almost certainly not going to be fruitful. And someone who doesn't have such curiosity wouldn't be able to understand or adopt this new terminology anyway - and on the other hand, if everyone shared this understanding we wouldn't even need a new term for art.

    Some people use language inaccurately and I will continue pointing that out when it's a term I care about.

  14. Comment on ChatGPT keeps telling people 404 Media can solve their tech support problems in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    Is it?

    The reality is that the common understanding of the word "art" includes creations by AI.

    Is it?

  15. Comment on Shaun reviews UK right wing politician's new book in ~society

    Lia
    Link
    I am only 14 minutes in but I've already got many laughs out of how ridiculous this situation is - as well as Shaun's completely calm but scathing presentation style. I admire his ability to...

    I am only 14 minutes in but I've already got many laughs out of how ridiculous this situation is - as well as Shaun's completely calm but scathing presentation style. I admire his ability to meticulously go through such phenomenal crap, so I don't have to.

    I didn't post this in books because I have no desire to promote the "book". The post is about Shaun's video, which is about the "book". I also do not name the "author" of this "book" in the title because I don't think cretins like him deserve to be named. (Feel free to name him in the comments though, if you want.)

    Like I said I'm only 14 minutes in, but it seems like the book is the same old xenophobic story of how immigrants are here to take our jobs, women, culture and money. What's new is the perhaps unprecedented level of audacity and falsehood the author has managed to reach. And the smartest of us have already guessed what new technology enabled him to get there. Enjoy!

    3 votes

  17. Comment on ChatGPT keeps telling people 404 Media can solve their tech support problems in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    No. Some people are better at reading meaning, often because they've been trained to do so - or at least passionate enough to have invested a lot of time and attention and developing their taste....

    So is art only meaningful if it appeals to some set of insiders who knows “what’s what”?

    No. Some people are better at reading meaning, often because they've been trained to do so - or at least passionate enough to have invested a lot of time and attention and developing their taste. But on an emotional level, the meaning will touch even those of us who aren't trained to discern it.

    The point is that arguments based on presenting definitions of common words which diverge from the colloquial, common understanding of them is just kinda pointless.

    Art is a profession. If I can't speak from a professional perspective, then I can't speak at all. It's perhaps unfortunate that I can't transfer the understanding that took me decades to accumulate over to you with a couple replies on an online forum, but that's the reality of all professions. I wonder if you'd expect a lawyer or a medical doctor to similarly abandon their professionalism in favour of "common understanding" or if you'd be more willing to accept their "because I say so".

    7 votes

  18. Comment on ChatGPT keeps telling people 404 Media can solve their tech support problems in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    There are all sorts of art competitions in the world. I could still go win one this year (I think, not going to check the schedule) if I wanted to. The judges would be professional but insiders...

    There are all sorts of art competitions in the world. I could still go win one this year (I think, not going to check the schedule) if I wanted to. The judges would be professional but insiders would still know what's what and I wouldn't gain much recognition in their eyes. I might gain attention and commissions from people who buy art for the wrong reasons (wrong in my personal opinion).

    Someone posted an unknown monet painting...

    Fooling a reactive, blindly AI-hating online audience like this is not the flex that person thought it was.

    3 votes

  19. Comment on ChatGPT keeps telling people 404 Media can solve their tech support problems in ~tech

    Lia
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Sure, if an artist uses generative AI as a tool in an original way, then it can result in something I'd call art. But in that case I wouldn't say AI "made" it. The artist did. (Edit: I haven't yet...

    I think AI can produce good art, but that art will have a lot of human tweaking in it that begins to blur the lines between human and AI.

    Sure, if an artist uses generative AI as a tool in an original way, then it can result in something I'd call art. But in that case I wouldn't say AI "made" it. The artist did. (Edit: I haven't yet seen any examples of this type of AI art so it can't be very common.)

    Hell, look at the first big piece of AI art, Théâtre D'opéra Spatial, that IMO actually looks good.

    "Looks good" and "is art" have almost nothing at all to do with each other. In my opinion that image is not art and it does not look good either. I'm not mad if someone likes it though - different people like different things. Someone liking something doesn't make it art.

    3 votes

  20. Comment on ChatGPT keeps telling people 404 Media can solve their tech support problems in ~tech

    Lia
    Link Parent
    Yep, that's semantics. My bar for art is high (I suppose some people would say "fine art"), and the same goes for "being capable of producing art".

    Yep, that's semantics. My bar for art is high (I suppose some people would say "fine art"), and the same goes for "being capable of producing art".