Narry's recent activity

  1. Comment on Clanker: A word for the machine in ~tech

    Narry
    Link Parent
    Oh, I wasn't suggesting anything else. I just wanted to know the flavor and tone of it. Usually word's earliest introduction has a great deal of influence on its later adoption.

    Oh, I wasn't suggesting anything else. I just wanted to know the flavor and tone of it. Usually word's earliest introduction has a great deal of influence on its later adoption.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Clanker: A word for the machine in ~tech

    Narry
    Link Parent
    I curse the programmers and whichever petaQ unleashed this spoiled gagh onto unsuspecting innocents, then I do glorious battle with it. But I am secretly a Klingon.

    I curse the programmers and whichever petaQ unleashed this spoiled gagh onto unsuspecting innocents, then I do glorious battle with it. But I am secretly a Klingon.

  3. Comment on Clanker: A word for the machine in ~tech

    Narry
    Link
    I dislike "clanker" because I mostly see it being used as a slur, and I don't need special words or pejoratives for LLM Agents, because they're nothing special. Just like I don't have a special...

    I dislike "clanker" because I mostly see it being used as a slur, and I don't need special words or pejoratives for LLM Agents, because they're nothing special. Just like I don't have a special word for the printer that refuses to let me print anything, or any other piece of tech that doesn't function exactly as I think it should. What are we going to do next, invent a slur for the fridge with advertising on its front panel? How about smart TVs that refuse to work without an internet connection? Shall we call the TVankers? Miss me with that.

  4. Comment on Clanker: A word for the machine in ~tech

    Narry
    Link Parent
    Was it used pejoratively in that game? I ask because "clanker" in the Star Wars media that I've seen that uses it seems to use it disparagingly or derisively. At least that's my understanding of...

    Was it used pejoratively in that game? I ask because "clanker" in the Star Wars media that I've seen that uses it seems to use it disparagingly or derisively. At least that's my understanding of the term in that milieu.

  5. Comment on Who’s buying SpaceX and Anthropic? in ~finance

    Narry
    Link Parent
    I feel that. My 401(k) (the only investment I really own) is 100% in a Vanguard index fund. I'm not Mr. Diversify Your Assets, I'm Mr. Plunk The Money Down And Walk Away. The index fund I picked...

    I feel that. My 401(k) (the only investment I really own) is 100% in a Vanguard index fund. I'm not Mr. Diversify Your Assets, I'm Mr. Plunk The Money Down And Walk Away. The index fund I picked is better rated, lower fees, and has an excellent record. If this thing craters, the entire US economy is a smoking crater anyway and I've got more to worry about than my retirement fund.

  6. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    Link Parent
    It's short for "Narrator" since my favorite thing is to narrate TTRPGs for my friends.

    It's short for "Narrator" since my favorite thing is to narrate TTRPGs for my friends.

  7. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

  8. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    This theory doesn’t originate with me, but I don’t really remember where I originally heard it. It goes down to the technology and the aliens that were in both the original trilogy and the...

    This theory doesn’t originate with me, but I don’t really remember where I originally heard it. It goes down to the technology and the aliens that were in both the original trilogy and the original series. This breaks down the more you bring in the extended universe of either one of them, because a lot of this has been corrected for later. But if you compare the original of the two, Star Trek actually used a lot more fantasy components for its technology, its stories, and its aliens than Star Wars did.

    This specifically goes towards things like communicators that work pretty much everywhere (unless the plot demands that they don’t), teleporters that get you down to the planet rather than having to take a craft to get to the surface of a planet (this is something that is addressed somewhat in the original series and a few of the precursor ones like ENT, DIS, SNW), Star Wars having a wider variety of aliens than Star Trek had (most Star Trek aliens had to fit within the budget so they were humans in a costume most of the time) including many more body types and forms (The Hutts, the Jawa, Yoda: basically any puppet.)

    Star Wars also had what at the time was considered by some (who? I don’t know) to be a more realistic take on faster than light travel, where you had to have either ships with big enough engines or use a special piece of equipment for smaller ships to get yourself further down the line, and I believe it was stated somewhere in the original trilogy that FTL travel at those speeds was not that fast necessarily.

    Star Trek also tended to encounter a lot more magical entities than Star Wars does. If you look at the number of times that Star Trek encountered a reality-bending god-like entity versus Star Wars where the only real “magic” users wereas the Jedi and their powers weren’t that startling: some lightning, some pushing people around with your mind, magical swords. Star Trek was also much more likely to lean on fantasy tropes than science fiction tropes in the early days, whereas Star Wars was literally just a typical hero's journey story with a veneer of science fantasy thrown onto it. Star Trek had a lot more room to explore big ideas, so they could explore much more fantastical storylines. One man’s science is another man’s magic, etc..

    When you take those kind of nebulous extraneous elements and you compare them one to one you find that Star Trek actually tends to lean on the fantasy elements of science fiction more than you would expect, and that Star Wars seems to make magic a less powerful force, despite the fact that the story centers around magical knights doing battle over the core moral imperative of the universe.

    That’s the conspiracy theory anyway. Whether that holds up in the aggregate is unclear.

    Edited some for clarity.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    Link Parent
    Every time I bring it up I get told that it’s really not a kid’s franchise. You can even see someone in the replies making the case that it’s General Audience, and perhaps “big kid”… The real...

    Every time I bring it up I get told that it’s really not a kid’s franchise. You can even see someone in the replies making the case that it’s General Audience, and perhaps “big kid”… The real conspiracy is that Star Wars is actually harder Science Fiction than Star Trek.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    Link Parent
    There’s a certain blindness to one’s own shortcomings that sends absolutely vital to the personality makeup of dictators, cult leaders, serial killers, corporate executives, and politicians. I’m...

    There’s a certain blindness to one’s own shortcomings that sends absolutely vital to the personality makeup of dictators, cult leaders, serial killers, corporate executives, and politicians. I’m convinced they’re all the same type of person, with the same obsession (power) that they pursue via different routes (purity, perfection, pain, profit, personal enrichment.) Of course I’m no psychologist or in any way trained in this sort of thing, so I may be way off target.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on Website is unhappy in ~tildes

    Narry
    Link Parent
    For some reason this reminds me of this parody, a time capsule of its era: If American Psycho were about Programmers

    For some reason this reminds me of this parody, a time capsule of its era: If American Psycho were about Programmers

    6 votes

  12. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    Link Parent
    I used to have that problem in Los Angeles, until I was told that the speed limit is pegged to the exact amount of time it takes to get from one traffic light to the next. If you go 5 under the...

    I used to have that problem in Los Angeles, until I was told that the speed limit is pegged to the exact amount of time it takes to get from one traffic light to the next. If you go 5 under the speed limit when you come away from the red, and then match the exact speed limit as soon as you're at the next green light, you'll get greens all the way down. It worked in Los Angeles as recently as 2008 but I wouldn't swear to it anywhere else or even there nearly 20 years later. If you're going to be late anyway, might be worth a try next time.

    7 votes

  13. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    Link Parent
    Maybe they've flipped to that model and I haven't noticed; in the 90's my folks used to know a lot of behind the scenes Disney folks when we lived in California, both at Disneyland and at the...

    Maybe they've flipped to that model and I haven't noticed; in the 90's my folks used to know a lot of behind the scenes Disney folks when we lived in California, both at Disneyland and at the actual studios in Burbank. Back then Disney were doing a ton of innovation but all of it was for the movies and rides, which in many ways they tried to make good as actual movies for the prestige of having award-winning titles, but they also tried to make movies that were easily adaptable for merch and tie-ins.

    Maybe today that makes them a tech company. On their About page, they describe their missions as:

    The mission of The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.

    Technology is mentioned, but one of the last things they mention but not in a way that makes it seem like it's more or less important than the other stuff. So maybe they do think of themselves as a tech company that happens to have a strong set of brands to protect.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Star Wars was always on TV every Thanksgiving as a kid. I always fell asleep trying to watch it. Usually, I would doze off somewhere on Tatooine and I wouldn’t wake up again until the swamps of...

    Star Wars was always on TV every Thanksgiving as a kid. I always fell asleep trying to watch it. Usually, I would doze off somewhere on Tatooine and I wouldn’t wake up again until the swamps of Dagobah. I tried real hard to get into it, but it just bored the crap out of me. I wasn’t able to pay attention to it until later. Yet somehow Indiana Jones held my attention. So did the various Batman movies. And Jurassic Park.

    Edit: actually I’d doze off on Tatooine, wake up for the Battle of Yavin, conk out again, wake up for the ice monster on Hoth, pass out again and wake up for training on Dagobah, snooze again and wake up for Han Solo getting frozen in carbonite, and then I’d usually get up and wander away to play. I rarely ever stayed for Return of the Jedi, but if I did wander back in it was almost always for the fight scenes on Endor or sometimes the new Death Star…

    1 vote

  15. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    Link Parent
    I’m curious what technologies it is that they specialize in besides animations and animatronics? So far every innovation I’ve ever seen them come up with has been directly aimed at one of their...

    I’m curious what technologies it is that they specialize in besides animations and animatronics? So far every innovation I’ve ever seen them come up with has been directly aimed at one of their movies or one of their theme parks. I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m saying I’m just not sure I would describe them as a technology company first.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    Link
    My big conspiracy theory is that Star Wars is a children’s toy franchise first and foremost, and that’s the reason that the latest movie starred baby Yoda rather than a dreary, social and...

    My big conspiracy theory is that Star Wars is a children’s toy franchise first and foremost, and that’s the reason that the latest movie starred baby Yoda rather than a dreary, social and political commentary about the evils of the empire. Basically the idea is that Disney really wants to sell toys and merchandise and theme park tickets, and that they don’t really give that much of a shit about high caliber, Oscar worthy films.

    It’s a long held suspicion of mine that Disney is actually in the business of profiting off of children and nostalgia. But Reddit tells me I’m crazy.

    17 votes

  17. Comment on US FBI says Google engineer used internal search data to win $1.2M on Polymarket in ~tech

    Narry
    Link Parent
    Yes, but he fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is “never get involved in a land war in Asia.” But only slightly less well known as this: never steal from the rich if they...

    Yes, but he fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is “never get involved in a land war in Asia.” But only slightly less well known as this: never steal from the rich if they have even a slight chance to identify you. They will find you and they will employ their militias and governments to get the money back from you, or get back at you if there’s no money to be had.

    21 votes

  18. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    Narry
    Link Parent
    I grew up in a fairly small church that was centered around an individual preacher who was deeply flawed. From birth until age 14 that church was my entire life, and it was a miserable existence....

    I grew up in a fairly small church that was centered around an individual preacher who was deeply flawed. From birth until age 14 that church was my entire life, and it was a miserable existence. By age 6, I could not tell you if God did or did not exist (I leaned towards “this is horse shit” even at that young age), but I was dead certain the devil did.

    In fact, it took me until my 30s to realize that there was no devil; just humans being the shittiest and most selfish version of themselves. You don’t need an outside influence to be this demonic, you just need personal permission.

    The first person that a con man cons is himself into believing he’s justified in his shitty immoral behavior.

    17 votes

  19. Comment on Bricks & Minifigs corporate stole a man's $200,000 Lego collection and told him to get bent in ~hobbies

    Narry
    Link Parent
    Unfortunately not. If anything I'm more strongly tied to American corporations than ever in my life. My initial comment probably should've been tagged noise. Still could be if it isn't already...

    Unfortunately not. If anything I'm more strongly tied to American corporations than ever in my life. My initial comment probably should've been tagged noise. Still could be if it isn't already...

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Bricks & Minifigs corporate stole a man's $200,000 Lego collection and told him to get bent in ~hobbies

    Narry
    Link Parent
    Therein lies the rub…

    Therein lies the rub…

    2 votes