Narry's recent activity
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Comment on What’s a point that you think many people missed? in ~talk
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Comment on What’s a point that you think many people missed? in ~talk
Narry Link ParentI have a very glib example, top of mind, but this is how I tend to explain it: Say that tomorrow they decide to ban all users of your preferred brand of phone, run them out of the country or...I have a very glib example, top of mind, but this is how I tend to explain it:
Say that tomorrow they decide to ban all users of your preferred brand of phone, run them out of the country or worse. They've forced that phone maker to turn over all data related to who uses that brand of phone, and every identifying piece of information on their customers that they have. Yesterday, before the ban, you had nothing to hide. Today, you do. All that changed was who had your data. Oh, you were clever enough to hide your real information from them? You bought it through a third party? It was a gift to you? You just have it because your job made you have it? Guess you had something to hide after all.
That's a truncated version of the argument I make. Does it work? No. People tend to misunderstand marginalization and victimization, and tend to focus on how they can "beat" the scenario. Just like any victim would do in real life. "No, no, you see I'm not part of the victim class, because my case is special..."
It still doesn't work, but I do it anyway.
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Comment on What’s a point that you think many people missed? in ~talk
Narry Link ParentYou hit on a point I failed to make: a good marketer, or a good designer, can make "good enough" not feel like a downgrade from "good" and make the customer feel like the sacrifice is reasonable....You hit on a point I failed to make: a good marketer, or a good designer, can make "good enough" not feel like a downgrade from "good" and make the customer feel like the sacrifice is reasonable.
And the flip is... most people really don't care about all three, even if they think they do. Most people really only care about one or two, the others can be "enough" if you can explain why they're ultimately not important to their end goal.
So I'll amend it:
Good, fast, cheap: pick two, apply the "Enough" tag to one or more at your leisure.
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Comment on What’s a point that you think many people missed? in ~talk
Narry Link ParentSous vide is a natural extension of the written recipe: a way to take out the guesswork and learning by heart that made cooking basically magic for countless generations. But a lot of people still...Sous vide is a natural extension of the written recipe: a way to take out the guesswork and learning by heart that made cooking basically magic for countless generations. But a lot of people still seem to have this magical thinking notion that cooking is not a skill that you learn, but rather is an inborn talent that some have and some don’t. Hogwash, of course, but pervasive.
People also greatly mistrust and misunderstand microwaves much the same way. As long as you understand what a microwave does and what it’s best suited for, it’s an essential kitchen gadget you will turn to time and time again; there’s a reason Chef Mike is in pretty much every kitchen ever.
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Comment on What’s a point that you think many people missed? in ~talk
Narry LinkUnderstanding and empathy are not forgiveness. Just because I understand why you did the thing you did, and I empathize with the conditions that resulted in that outcome does not mean that the...Understanding and empathy are not forgiveness. Just because I understand why you did the thing you did, and I empathize with the conditions that resulted in that outcome does not mean that the behavior is excused, and it doesn’t mean that I cannot demand that you pay penance.
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And one thing I’ve found myself boiling down for many people in my life again and again is:
Fast, Cheap, Good: pick two.
If it’s fast and cheap, it ain’t going to be good. Is it’s cheap and good, it ain’t going to be fast. If it’s fast and good, it ain’t going to be cheap. These are damn near universal rules of product creation and consumption, but everyone seems belligerent on being shown the truth that you basically cannot have all three, ever.
If there’s something that’s seemingly all three, then you’re falling for good advertising. You’re probably settling for a lower standard on one of the three merits and don’t realize it. But it’s the job of advertisers and marketers to assure you that you are, in fact, getting all three, somehow circumventing production realities. It’s maddening.
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Comment on Mac advice for a long time Windows user in ~tech
Narry LinkI cannot brain so good because I should be in bed, but to give you an idea, the tools that I find I cannot do without are (I only link to stuff that you cannot install via either the Mac App Store...I cannot brain so good because I should be in bed, but to give you an idea, the tools that I find I cannot do without are (I only link to stuff that you cannot install via either the Mac App Store or via Homebrew, which I link to below.) I wrote this just before bed, so hopefully I didn't screw it all up. Follow links and such at your own risk, I'm pretty sure I have legit ones but... I am very tired.
GUI Apps
(Mac App Store) Velja - This allows me to quickly pick what browser I want to open links from Discord, Messages, and non-browser apps in. I keep Safari, Zen, Firefox, and Vivaldi installed on my system, and I use them all for different things. I like to choose where things go, so my "default" browser is Velja. It's free in the Mac App store.
(Mac App Store) Pure Paste - It hangs out in the background and clears formatting when I copy text. I almost never want to keep the formatting, so this handles that nicely.
(Homebrew) Shottr - Others have explained Shottr's appeal, but I like it for when I want to capture an entire web page and I don't want to use things like Firefox's built-in ability.
(Mac App Store) Scrivener - I cannot do serious writing without this. My only issue is that I still haven't figured out how to correctly get the iPhone and Mac versions to sync.
(Mac App Store) Scapple - Mind-mapping from the creators of Scrivener. It's more free-flowing in ways that other mind maps aren't, and doesn't assume a default node like so many others.
(Mac App Store) Hidden Bar - Too many tiny widgets that I never touch at the upper-right of the screen, but need to find on occasion. Hidden Bar does what many other paid apps do, but free. It's free in the App Store.
(Website) LuLu by Objective-See - This is a snooper that I keep running so that I know when an app does something naughty like try to phone home. It's free and by a guy that seems to have some level of industry trust. This is basically a per-app firewall. You can permanently allow something internet access, allow it while it's running but force it to request access again next time, or allow it until a certain time stamp. Probably my most-used app.
(Website) Multi-Touch by Ryan Hanson - You've been recommended Rectangle. This is that on steroids. I have the paid version, which means if I wanted I could put it on a MacBook and enable all sorts of wild gesture-based stuff, or get a touch pad for my Mac, but I shan't.
(Homebrew) ImageOptim - This is great for quickly clearing metadata from supported files. Mostly I use it when I want to ensure that something I'm going to upload somewhere doesn't have a bunch of crap that points back to me, like GPS coordinates and other horse shit like that.
(Homebrew) iTerm 2 - There are other terminal emulators I'm sure are excellent, and if I hadn't spent the last 5 years configuring zsh and iTerm 2 to do my bidding I'm sure I'd love them, too. But I can't stand fiddling around and getting nothing done, so iTerm 2 is what I started with. But you can start fresh with Kitty or WezTerm or something.
Terminal Stuff
(Website) Homebrew - The best way to install apps for the terminal, and a lot of 3rd-party apps.
(Homebrew) micro - This is a tool I use in the terminal for file editing. Vi/Vim/Neovim is the standard, but I hate modal editing because I'm too dumb and I've got 30+ years of ctrl/command muscle memory to fix it now, and so I use micro.
(Homebrew) helix - I know I just said I don't like modal editors, but helix is the exception. It's built for modern use from the ground up, it's stable as hell, and I've customized the crap out of it.
(Homebrew) ffmpeg - In addition to being the backbone of a lot of other work horses, it's good to know how to use the best multimedia conversion tool on the planet.
(Homebrew) zoxide - I use this in place of the "cd" command because it remembers places I've been so I can type partial directories and often find where I need to go, exactly
(Homebrew) zsh-autopair / zsh-syntax-highlighting - these introduce some functionality native to fish that I really liked. autopair lets me hit tab to get a list of compatible commands to what I've begun typing. syntax-highlighting lets me see when I've entered a valid command, which is excellent for telling me when aliases are messed up.
(Homebrew) starship - lets me customize my prompt so that I know that a) my last command took x amount of time, was run at y timestamp, I am in some directory, and whether or not I've currently got sudo permissions.
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Comment on Steam: Best of 2025 in ~games
Narry Link ParentAh, so I do own many of them! I was line “I am behind the times” but not really sad about it, if I’m honest.Ah, so I do own many of them! I was line “I am behind the times” but not really sad about it, if I’m honest.
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Comment on Steam: Best of 2025 in ~games
Narry LinkThat's pretty great. I own literally zero of these games, somehow. Usually, most years before this, I've owned at least a few, but this year is it's a total goose egg. I guess that's because I've...That's pretty great. I own literally zero of these games, somehow. Usually, most years before this, I've owned at least a few, but this year is it's a total goose egg. I guess that's because I've barely touched my gaming rig this year. It consumes a lot of power, and I used to keep it powered on and on standby, but it's an older rig with around an 850W power supply that consumes so much electricity that over the spring and summer I flipped it off to keep our bills down (and it immediately dropped my bill by about $25-$30, which for me is around 1/5th of my average monthly billing) and haven't really found myself missing it all that much (at all, really.) I briefly powered it on a month or two ago and diddled around, then shut it down and haven't touched it since. I'll stick to playing some stuff on my Xbox and the rest on my Mac or iPhone.
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Comment on Movies like Dream Scenario need a warning in ~movies
Narry LinkSounds like you might be able to get some help with that with Does the Dog Die? (that link is directly to the categories they list.) The two closest I could find were "Abandonment" and "The Ending...Sounds like you might be able to get some help with that with Does the Dog Die? (that link is directly to the categories they list.) The two closest I could find were "Abandonment" and "The Ending is Sad" but there is a place to request more at the end. As far as I understand, this is entirely crowd-sourced, according to their About Page.
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Comment on The future of Veritasium in ~science
Narry Link ParentIt's more than just Veritasium that's sold to a company like Electrify: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ-rRXWhElIIt's more than just Veritasium that's sold to a company like Electrify: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ-rRXWhElI
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Comment on Are you still using social media? in ~tech
Narry LinkTildes for talking to you fine folks, Reddit for talking to a few niche communities and finding niche information, YouTube for a lot of educational content, Discord for actually having discussions...Tildes for talking to you fine folks, Reddit for talking to a few niche communities and finding niche information, YouTube for a lot of educational content, Discord for actually having discussions with friends and sometimes family, BlueSky is almost entirely passive and I use it for finding artists and webcomics. Everything else I've probably tried at least once and decided it wasn't for me for one reason or another.
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Comment on I force my shell prompt to the bottom of the screen in ~comp
Narry (edited )Link ParentThank you, I used zsh and was about to be awake half the night looking for this… Edit to add, I popped the following into my ~/.zshrc: alias cls="clear; printf '\033[%s;1H' $((LINES - 1))" alias...Thank you, I used zsh and was about to be awake half the night looking for this…
Edit to add, I popped the following into my
~/.zshrc:alias cls="clear; printf '\033[%s;1H' $((LINES - 1))" alias clear="clear; printf '\033[%s;1H' $((LINES - 1))"clsis in there because I sometimes have a brain fart and type that instead. -
Comment on How many trees are there in Skyrim? in ~games
Narry Link ParentIf I’m recalling the conclusion correctly, of course. I wasn’t far off the mark… I guessed 50k and stuck with my guess throughout the video.If I’m recalling the conclusion correctly, of course.
I wasn’t far off the mark…
I guessed 50k and stuck with my guess throughout the video. -
Comment on HistoSonics turns its tumor-liquifying tech against pancreatic cancer in ~health
Narry LinkTruly remarkable. This is the sort of tech that gives me hope for the future. The biggest knock-on effect of current radiation treatments is that they may give you other, possibly even worse...Truly remarkable. This is the sort of tech that gives me hope for the future. The biggest knock-on effect of current radiation treatments is that they may give you other, possibly even worse cancer later. If we had something like this available widely I believe we’d save a lot of lives from both avoiding secondary cancers and also treating secondary cancers that do spring up.
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Comment on Think you know Hans Christian Andersen? Four experts pick his weirdest fairy tales to read this Christmas. in ~books
Narry Link ParentYes, you roll the dice and go with what the sheet says based on your stat points. The RPG storytelling element is up to you, as you are effectively your own narrator. When I played it, I pretended...Yes, you roll the dice and go with what the sheet says based on your stat points. The RPG storytelling element is up to you, as you are effectively your own narrator. When I played it, I pretended I was writing daily diary entries about what the mad man on my lawn was getting up to today, and how I felt about it. It was a creative writing exercise in that regard. Maybe my brain is weird but I find constrained writing to be enjoyable at times. My username is short for “Narrator” so it’s definitely at least somewhat a “me” thing.
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Comment on Anyone else using the Zed editor? in ~comp
Narry Link ParentThe flexibility is really appreciated, for sure. It took me a bit of doing to get it set up to be able to let me try out Odin, but once I figured out what it was asking for it wasn't that big a...The flexibility is really appreciated, for sure. It took me a bit of doing to get it set up to be able to let me try out Odin, but once I figured out what it was asking for it wasn't that big a deal. Most stuff just kinda works with Helix out of the box, and being able to just type
hx --healthand whatever language I'm interested in is very handy. It just feels out of the box more complete than neovim, which I was always endlessly fiddling with. Helix I fiddled with for awhile, then I was satisfied and started to actually code. Very strange concept, not sure that's allowed.I should look into the compose key for my terminal. I'm on macOS so I'm very accustomed to being able to use the Option key to accomplish all of that; — – - … ¬.¬ ™ ® © ç ñ etc. “” ‘’ «» etc, however Option is treated as "Alt" by my terminal. Perhaps I should see if I can get it to allow Option to function as intended and move Alt's functionality to the caps lock key. At the moment, the escape key is literally mapped at the keyboard configuration level with my keyboard mapping software.
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Comment on Think you know Hans Christian Andersen? Four experts pick his weirdest fairy tales to read this Christmas. in ~books
Narry LinkThe man was an absolute gem for wild stories of "really? He did that?" One of my favorite single-player TTRPGs is Trapped In Your House Due To Hans Christian Andersen and it's based off a real...The man was an absolute gem for wild stories of "really? He did that?" One of my favorite single-player TTRPGs is Trapped In Your House Due To Hans Christian Andersen and it's based off a real incident, I think, the one where Andersen showed up at Charles Dickens' place for 5 solid weeks just to visit.
In any case it's a hoot, and I recommend playing it at least once or twice.
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Comment on Anyone else using the Zed editor? in ~comp
Narry Link ParentI've been using Helix for awhile myself and I have my config.toml customized to hell and back. It's half modal editor half text editor now, due to 30 years of muscle memory making it tough to...I've been using Helix for awhile myself and I have my
config.tomlcustomized to hell and back. It's half modal editor half text editor now, due to 30 years of muscle memory making it tough to convert to modal editing. Now things like hitting return or backspace or delete will immediately drop me into INS mode, and to give myself a visual indicator I have a hacky thing where I change themes when I drop into various edit modes versus when I exit.The really crazy stuff is what I do with keyboard shortcuts. I missed VScode's ability to move a whole line up or down (I couldn't figure out how to do it in Helix), so I made my own, same with duplicating a selection (down only, I couldn't figure out how to do it going up without it getting weird.) It basically deletes the yank registry, though, so it's not ideal...
I also have a few "omni" keys, like if I hit "q" from Normal mode it presents me with a quit menu that lets me perform
q q! qa wq wq! wqa wqa!with just a few keystrokes.It also caused me to permanently map my caps lock key to become "escape" because I only rarely ever use all caps, and I got tired of 30 years of "accidentally mess up my login password" button being a thing. I'm still pondering if there's something else I think would be better suited for that button, but for now "escape" is good enough.
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Comment on What are some of your "life hacks" you use regularly? in ~talk
Narry Link ParentI do this a lot with the decision coin from Random.org’s app. I have it toss 5 coins for me, best of five wins.I do this a lot with the decision coin from Random.org’s app. I have it toss 5 coins for me, best of five wins.
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Comment on Bowen Yang is leaving Saturday Night Live after tonight’s episode in ~tv
Narry LinkWild. Best of luck to Bowen! He was always a solid player but I feel like he never got a good breakout character. He was in almost every sketch yet was still somehow underutilized.Wild. Best of luck to Bowen! He was always a solid player but I feel like he never got a good breakout character. He was in almost every sketch yet was still somehow underutilized.
My father was always on about "exploding water molecules" like yeah dude, it's called boiling. "No, it's internal, it's worse, it's damaging the cells" sir, what do you think cooking is?