NaraVara's recent activity
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Comment on Marc Andreessen is a philosophical zombie in ~humanities
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Comment on These tacky men with ridiculous glasses want you to wear them too in ~life.style
NaraVara Link ParentAh yeah disability/accessibility uses are different. I imagine for a blind person it’s the cameras that are the game changers? Like it can probably narrate everything you’re looking at. I’ve...Ah yeah disability/accessibility uses are different. I imagine for a blind person it’s the cameras that are the game changers? Like it can probably narrate everything you’re looking at. I’ve listened to how screen readers “read” and it’s incomprehensibly fast to me.
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Comment on Apple announces significant price increases for MacBooks, iPads, more in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentIt’s absurd to me that “optimization” is even a serious consideration when most of what needs to be done is display static text and images, at most people are inputting text into forms. These are...It’s absurd to me that “optimization” is even a serious consideration when most of what needs to be done is display static text and images, at most people are inputting text into forms. These are long-solved problems. There’s nothing to “optimize” just stop doing unnecessary shit.
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Comment on Apple announces significant price increases for MacBooks, iPads, more in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentEntry level ones though? It’s bleak, bootcamp programs are very “Do this by typing these glyphs in the window” and people have no idea what any of it actually does conceptually.Entry level ones though? It’s bleak, bootcamp programs are very “Do this by typing these glyphs in the window” and people have no idea what any of it actually does conceptually.
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Comment on These tacky men with ridiculous glasses want you to wear them too in ~life.style
NaraVara Link ParentThere’s an iOS app called “Seek by iNaturalist” you should try playing with. This problem has been solved. Not perfectly, but very substantially. I walk my 4-year old to school every morning and...There’s an iOS app called “Seek by iNaturalist” you should try playing with. This problem has been solved. Not perfectly, but very substantially. I walk my 4-year old to school every morning and we spend most of the stroll identifying various plants and insects along the way. He’s been developing an encyclopedic knowledge of the local flora and whatever fauna can sit still long enough for me to scan it.
One of the keys is that when it identifies the species it pops up a profile page full of photos including that plant, bug, or animals’ various developmental stages. That way you can directly confirm if it matches the reference pictures.
The main drawback is that it takes time to ID something accurately so it’s difficult to get an ID on things that move a lot. Birds can be tough if you don’t have a telephoto zoom lens, many flying insects as well. I have a bunch of beetles but good luck catching a gnat or fly. It’s spotty as to whether it can ID my breed of dog because he never sits still, but even if it doesn’t have it down it still gets in the neighborhood of canid and speculates he might be a jackal or coyote (he’s a kelpie, so at a distance even a human with poor vision could get confused).
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Comment on These tacky men with ridiculous glasses want you to wear them too in ~life.style
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentThere’s almost no situation where I would want a HUD like that 24/7. There’s an endless number of particular scenarios where I can think of a HUD being useful, though. But as I said in my other...There’s almost no situation where I would want a HUD like that 24/7. There’s an endless number of particular scenarios where I can think of a HUD being useful, though. But as I said in my other comment, modern tech overlords think the purpose of technology is to make us use and engage with the technology. Their brains just aren’t wired to think in terms of technology as enabling us to engage more deeply with the world instead.
Most AR use cases I can think of would benefit from having something that wears more like ski goggles or welding goggles. Having a HUD overlay while I’m riding my bike for turn-by-turn directions and safety warnings would be great. If I’m trying to fix an appliance or something being able to overlay a schematic over my view would be amazing. But I don’t need to wear something 24/7 to do that.
The one case I can think of where I’d maybe want to wear something and walk around as I do normal stuff would be like if I’m in a foreign country and would like a thing that can live-translate signage or things people are saying to me. But that’s SUCH a narrow use case and I imagine carrying something for that would be more like having reading glasses (or clip-ons to normal glasses) than the kind I use to see.
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Comment on These tacky men with ridiculous glasses want you to wear them too in ~life.style
NaraVara Link ParentThe notification settings thing is like telling someone to walk around with an air purification mask if they complain about toxic smog. Like yeah it technically solves the problem, but...The notification settings thing is like telling someone to walk around with an air purification mask if they complain about toxic smog. Like yeah it technically solves the problem, but notifications are supposed to be useful. If I am being nagged so much it makes me turn them off how is this not framed as a profound failure of design?
The core problem is that companies feel entitled to my time and attention. If I am using a tool they’ve given me they feel like their purpose of the tool is to facilitate my use of the tool (e.g. “Did you know you can now do. . .?”) But the point of the tool isn’t to use the tool, it’s to accomplish the task I picked it up to do. Software developers, and the tech industry in general, have completely lost the plot.
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Comment on Do you cook with cast iron? Is it the hassle everyone says it is? in ~food
NaraVara Link ParentAs long as you’re regularly cooking other stuff with some kind of fat it shouldn’t be a problem because you’ll be continually reseasoning it by doing so. Generally people will say the problem is...As long as you’re regularly cooking other stuff with some kind of fat it shouldn’t be a problem because you’ll be continually reseasoning it by doing so.
Generally people will say the problem is that acid can leach metal into the sauce and make it taste off, but I’ve never noticed it. It’s possible I have an insufficiently sensitive palate or the tomato sauces I’m making aren’t sufficiently acidic.
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Comment on Apple announces significant price increases for MacBooks, iPads, more in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentIt’s not gonna happen. I’m sorry. We just don’t have the technology to render text and images without uploading 500MB of JavaScript on the side. The people who knew how to do this retired long...It’s not gonna happen. I’m sorry. We just don’t have the technology to render text and images without uploading 500MB of JavaScript on the side. The people who knew how to do this retired long ago, it’s like trying to find a COBOL developer.
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Comment on These tacky men with ridiculous glasses want you to wear them too in ~life.style
NaraVara LinkThe Vision Pro is a different class of device than the smart glasses. It’s more like the Meta Quest and other VR headsets. It’s a very odd inclusion on a piece like this. Also several of these,...The Vision Pro is a different class of device than the smart glasses. It’s more like the Meta Quest and other VR headsets. It’s a very odd inclusion on a piece like this.
Also several of these, especially the Snap and Warby Parker ones, just look like fairly normal glasses. Whether they look tacky or not depends more on how they’re culturally coded. Like the style of normal glasses that’s popular now look a lot like what used to be standard issue military spectacles that were regarded as SO ugly they got the nickname “Birth Control Glasses.” Tastes change.
Now the bigger question is, are smart glasses useful for anything people want to do? Unless you’re the sort of creep who takes up skirt photos, the answer seems to be “no.” So focus on that.
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Comment on How much of an echo chamber is Reddit/the internet, really? in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThere’s a particular style I hate. It’s most popular among techie/engineering heavy writers. They’re usually on substacks or self-hosted blogs. It’s just one or two sentences separated by line...There’s a particular style I hate.
It’s most popular among techie/engineering heavy writers.
They’re usually on substacks or self-hosted blogs.
It’s just one or two sentences separated by line breaks. It’s like just stream of consciousness.
Just no organization or structure to the thoughts either. Just a jumble of half considered thoughts.
If there’s proofreading at all it’s just for typos.
Also replete with LLM speak.
It drives me up a fucking wall.
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Comment on SpaceX stock tumbles 23% from its high as average investor sees gains wiped out in ~finance
NaraVara LinkI recently learned that Chinese finance folks call retail investors 韭菜, literally meaning “chives.” Because they grow fast only to be cut and harvested, and then grow right back again with a...I recently learned that Chinese finance folks call retail investors 韭菜, literally meaning “chives.” Because they grow fast only to be cut and harvested, and then grow right back again with a little bit of
hypewater. -
Comment on How funerals keep Africa poor in ~life
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentYeah it’s a general rule that most people are bad with money and tend to blow it on frivolous things. It can explain why a person or a family is poor but generally they’re making themselves poor...Yeah it’s a general rule that most people are bad with money and tend to blow it on frivolous things. It can explain why a person or a family is poor but generally they’re making themselves poor to the benefit of other people around them who are getting richer at their expense. Unless the money is actually being destroyed, like blowing up productive capital or demolishing your house, those choices don’t make the nation poorer. More unequal certainly, but not poorer.
There’s arguments to be made that it’s gauche and tacky. I happen to think it is! But that’s an aesthetic preference. When I was planning my wedding I was frequently annoyed by the Indian cultural expectations to keep going bigger and BIGGER with everything but that was mostly culture clash in wanting to save the money for personal travel rather than on the community.
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Comment on How funerals keep Africa poor in ~life
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentChiming in with my degree in development economics here, the author doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about. Funerals, weddings, and kinship networks are not why these societies are poor....- Exemplary
Chiming in with my degree in development economics here, the author doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about. Funerals, weddings, and kinship networks are not why these societies are poor. They may explain foolish spending beyond your means by individuals in these societies, but then you’d have to argue with a straight face that the upper middle class American with a 6 bedroom McMansion and $2k/month in car payments is culturally more inclined to build wealth. In contrast to claiming the people are poor because the funerals are lavish, the funerals are actually growing increasingly lavish because the people are becoming richer and cultural expectations are ramping up to revel in the new wealth. That may be healthy or it may not be, but that’s a discussion for Ghanaians to have themselves about whether it’s worth it to them without being lectured by some dipshit blogger.
For one thing, where does he think the money spent on lavish funerals is going? If a hospital charges you an arm and a leg to keep a corpse refrigerated, what does he think happens to the money the hospital now has after charging you? Do you think that, maybe, they invest more capital into the hospital!? What does he think happens to the vendors from whom they buy the food? To the DJ? To the people who sell the clothes?
A society’s economic vitality is measured by how many goods and services it can produce. If people are spending heavily that circulates money around to incentivize production of more stuff. If there’s enough surplus capital afterwards they can invest it into productivity enhancing tools and practices to produce even MORE stuff that they value for less input. As usual with this type of moralizing scold, they confuse how personal finances work with how national wealth accumulation works. It’s also not as if the funeral doesn’t benefit the community in any way. The thing itself is an excuse to have a party, parties are things people do because we are not Vulcan ascetics. If they weren’t saving up money for funerals to party at, they’d have spent more on birthdays or baby showers or whatever other occasions they want to celebrate. In a family’s lifetime budget the funeral just comes out in the wash. It’s just an example of seeing a notable and distinctive element of a different culture and deciding that THAT difference must explain all the other differences.
And secondarily, tight kinship bonds are how social welfare services are provided in societies that lack the state capacity to provide those services through bureaucratic programs. Ritualized contexts to affirm those ties are how those bonds are maintained. You don’t magically become rich by removing peoples’ safety nets, the reason more developed economies fray these ties is because people have access to other means of supporting themselves! But even in the developed world, immigrant communities tend to thrive in contrast to their native born counterparts in large part because they have strong communal and kinship ties where they support each other instead of regarding each other in intensely individualistic and transactional terms.
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Comment on Leak exposes members of Peter Thiel’s secretive ‘dialog’ society in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentPeople desperately want to point to a single villainous entity they can point to as the source of all that ails them. They will keep doubling down on going after the villains, find things haven’t...That wealthy people talk to each other is not some world shattering revelation. That some of the wealthy people turn out to be bad is also not mind blowing. I think with both Epstein and now this people take a kernel of truth and run with it. It's to the point that many good left leaning people think all the worlds governments are part of a cabal of baby eaters or something. This isn't significantly different from pizzagate or q-anon in my opinion.
People desperately want to point to a single villainous entity they can point to as the source of all that ails them. They will keep doubling down on going after the villains, find things haven’t improved, and double down harder trying to find the scapegoat that purges the problems. And once you sufficiently commit to the “everything bad is because of a shadowy conspiracy of elite puppet-masters” model of the world it’s just a matter of time before you plink your way down the pachinko board of scapegoats until you end up at Jews*.
*If Jews are not available in your society, any sufficiently insular community of educated people will do (e.g. Tutsis, witches). Generally the actual people doing stuff won’t be successfully targeted except by luck. The consequences will fall on folks who happen to share general demographic traits in common with them.
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Comment on Leak exposes members of Peter Thiel’s secretive ‘dialog’ society in ~society
NaraVara Link ParentPowerful people having a group chat together is a far cry from “The Illuminati.”Powerful people having a group chat together is a far cry from “The Illuminati.”
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Comment on Commodore Callback flip phone in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentInstagram is the primary chat app for younger people. They give out their Instagram handles rather than giving out their phone numbers.Instagram is the primary chat app for younger people. They give out their Instagram handles rather than giving out their phone numbers.
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Comment on Commodore Callback flip phone in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentYeah but that cultural shift isn’t going to roll back because you, individually, bought a T9 flip phone. That’s my entire point.Yeah but that cultural shift isn’t going to roll back because you, individually, bought a T9 flip phone. That’s my entire point.
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Comment on Commodore Callback flip phone in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentDamn! It would have been so useful if it actually worked. I guess the voice messages basically do the same thing in a way that’s friendlier to asynchronous communication though, but having a...Damn! It would have been so useful if it actually worked. I guess the voice messages basically do the same thing in a way that’s friendlier to asynchronous communication though, but having a transcript come with the clip so the recipient can read it if they don’t have access to their headphones or something would be nice.
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Comment on Commodore Callback flip phone in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentThe Apple Watch has a Walkie Talkie feature (that has literally never worked for me) but would probably suit this use case very well. Like, send both a transcript an audio clip for each transmission.The Apple Watch has a Walkie Talkie feature (that has literally never worked for me) but would probably suit this use case very well. Like, send both a transcript an audio clip for each transmission.
The part where she jokes that we might have a methodology to create p-zombies at will gives me an idea for a sci-fi horror movie. Imagine taking an otherwise dull man and unknowingly placing him in a “Truman Show” type situation surrounded by sycophantic cyborgs until he loses all sense of qualia.
The movie would just close with him releasing himself into an empty world and immediately losing his mind when he sees a butterfly and can’t will it to land in front of him so he can get a better look at the pattern on its wings. Nature gives no shits about him and he’s forced to ask “WHO AM I!?” for the first time before a bear mauls him.
Or maybe he sees a pretty berry and eats it before we close with him shitting himself to death. Being as how taking a dump is when one is most private and free to introspect there’s some poetic symmetry there.