SloMoMonday's recent activity
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Comment on Goodbye refrigerants, hello magnets: Scientists develop cleaner, greener heat pump in ~enviro
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Comment on What possession(s) do you have that continue to delight you every time? in ~talk
SloMoMonday LinkAn item that brings me endless joy is a raggy old jacket that was given to me in 2017. I needed to go to Yukon in winter and all the cold weather gear I got in Phoenix was not cutting it. My...An item that brings me endless joy is a raggy old jacket that was given to me in 2017.
I needed to go to Yukon in winter and all the cold weather gear I got in Phoenix was not cutting it. My driver in Whitehorse took pity on me and got me a dirty, patched up jacket from a charity shop. And I did not take it off for 3 weeks.
I love it. It comes out every winter and is packed for every trip. I've had to patch it up a few more times and put a new flease lining in the hood. It makes for a nice blanket on long transits. Wife and kid love to snuggle in it. Have never been able to get the smell out fully. Looks absolutely horrible. And I will wear it at every opportunity.
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Comment on Are there any guides that properly explains the crypto space? in ~finance
SloMoMonday Link ParentAppreciate the breakdown. I think one of the ideas I can't get over is the way people keep associating crypto and the blockchain with independence and deregulation. Because outside of Bitcoin, it...Appreciate the breakdown.
I think one of the ideas I can't get over is the way people keep associating crypto and the blockchain with independence and deregulation. Because outside of Bitcoin, it seems to be the opposite. Hell, the blockchain itself is tailored specifically to enforce oversight by a central party. It's a privacy nightmare and the inefficiency of needing multiple independent verification just add a security nightmare on top of it.
I spent way too much time workshopping "industry ready blockchain solutions" and the whole idea of a decentralized system seemed very nice. We tabled pit-to-port as a system where every handover of raw materials could be tracked and approved by all interested stakeholders. There was also a vehicle lifecycle solution that see a vehicles history from manufacturing to scrapping. Agri-chain to track national food production. Even a system to track nuclear fuel rods and the blockchain recorf would be etched on the side of the disposal barrel.
Every solution involved all parties having full visibility on every transaction and each node validate actions for consensus to be reached. But I would not call any of the blockchain or ETH based coins decentralized or even unregulated. There's still one party designing, maintaining and managing that smart contract. Centralized regulation is a requirement of the system and in the case of coins, they have no commitment or oversight.
And 9.995 out of 10 times they can just grab the bag and run while every other party is powerless to stop them.
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Comment on Are there any guides that properly explains the crypto space? in ~finance
SloMoMonday Link ParentAppreciate the good sources. A lot of what floats up in my search results tend to be super generalized, outdated or outright propaganda. I am trying to figure out scams are a result of the...Appreciate the good sources. A lot of what floats up in my search results tend to be super generalized, outdated or outright propaganda.
I am trying to figure out scams are a result of the complexity or of the made it so overly complex.
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Are there any guides that properly explains the crypto space?
So my only experience with crypto is buying a little bitcoin after big crashes, ignoring it for 5 years and selling it when theres hype in mainstream media. Happens reliably enough and i made a...
So my only experience with crypto is buying a little bitcoin after big crashes, ignoring it for 5 years and selling it when theres hype in mainstream media. Happens reliably enough and i made a little change. Also did some fruitless blockchain work when it was a corporate craze in 2017 but overall, don't care for the tech much.
Anyway, I've been looking into some things for work and a lot of roads lead to cryoto. I'm decent at picking apart a reasonable technical system and can call on people who understand legal, financial, logistical or company structures. But the crypto space is a weid mess. It feels like kids playing a pretend game of being a central bank.
There's official documents and company filings with full corporate structures, but everything is just a bit too juvenile. Like you'll see a Senior Auditor with 10 years experience at KPMG, next to the head of marketing: YoloSwagger with an animated One Piece profile pic. There's also these ambitious White Papers attached to code base that seems like the same boilerplate example but with stupid variable names.
A bulk of the info i need is the diction and syntax. Don't know if its because I'm old because I don't get it. I see a lot of start-up and investment language thrown around. And it's mixed with a plenty of meme terms and some utter nonsense. I can't get a straight answer on the meaning of Utility even though its thrown around like a core metric. And don't get me started on Wallets because that definition seems to change mid sentence.
The other thing I need to understand is the technicalities involved and accessing the right info. Before my searches were polluted with the meme coin story today, there's not a lot of good info. Most of what I found was exchanges telling you to not worry about it and give them money, or crypto bros telling you not to worry about it and give them money for their course.
I understand transactions and how everything is just a pump-and-dump to get at whatever liquidity was raised. All the evidence for fraud is obvious in hindsight. There must be ways to track those trends before it happens and find consistent factors. At the same tine how the hell can people just start a coin and other people throw small fortunes at it for a laugh.
I'd be grateful for any good primer unpacking things. It really looks like the normal education is to jump in with you life savings and sink or swim.
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Comment on Your partner asks for your phone, you refuse over privacy, they tell you they don't trust you. How do you respond? in ~talk
SloMoMonday LinkIts weird to talk to relationship hypotheticals, simply because everyone has very different ideas on what a committed partners looks like. I'm very much in a decade long honeymoon while my sibling...Its weird to talk to relationship hypotheticals, simply because everyone has very different ideas on what a committed partners looks like. I'm very much in a decade long honeymoon while my sibling seems to just have a friend with tax benefits.
So speaking for myself, this is pretty much a non-issue.
My wife and I trust each other but we also understand that our phones have info that is not for the other person. Most notably: sensitive client/work info, our friends and personal finances.We pick up and use each others phones when needed and know to not pry when we hit a password screen. But we also know each others passwords. Sometimes we need to use the messaging app or get a proof of payment for something so it's understandable.
We don't see the need to go through every message or scrutinize every contact or transaction. If there's something weird, we talk about it. I've been called out on some wasteful spending and toxic family stuff. I called her out on her overworking and her social media use. We're adults that love each other. There's no winning by putting each other down. But we need to have hard conversations to lift each other uo.
But like I said initially, that line of trust is not a standard. Everyones different and relationships evolve. There's also the messy topic of what is private and what is sacred in your relationship. For the time and emotional investment, everyone owes their partners more than "its private" because that term is so loaded. It's a series of difficult conversations, but you're essentially clearing a minefield together and you will have a much better idea on what can end your relationship. There's nothing more dangerous in a social contract than expectations built on assumptions.
So agree on what's private and where your lines are. And be mature and understanding without compromising on your values. There are so many things that people avoid. Porn. Being flirty. Friends with the opposite gender. Spending habits. Open relationships. Former partners. Backup plans. Family. Kids. Your jobs. Aspirations. Vices. Politics. There's no right or wrong, just the difference on where both (or all) of you stand.
Sometimes you're on the same page. Sometimes the gap is small enough to bridge. Sometimes you're on the other side of the world and you're going to have to come together or drift apart.
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Comment on Great shows with a truly satisfying ending? in ~tv
SloMoMonday LinkI really love the ending of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel but it has its caveats. Because the final season needs to conclude the "origin" story and the character story at the same time. Theres no...I really love the ending of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel but it has its caveats. Because the final season needs to conclude the "origin" story and the character story at the same time. Theres no elegant way to handle this because media formatting hell. You cant have infinite seasons, or single episodes for different time periods or some flexible way out, especially with the cast and crew wanting to move on. So you have a season of non-chronological storytelling that clashes with the format so far and its jarring. But that finale is just incredible and just wraps up the series beautifully. My wife and I are both big standup fans and will occasionally rewatch that episode when we need a pickup. The entire series is fun mash of New York story, family comedy, period piece and comedy industry showcase. Also the two part "We're going to the Catskills" episodes is easily some of my favorite media of all time.
I also have to mention Star Trek TNG. Don't know if it's just my love of the show but All Good Things was an amazing finale.
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Comment on Are we all capable of being slaveowners or nazis? in ~humanities
SloMoMonday LinkIm seeing a lot of good ideas, but id argue cruelty on a societal level can be better explaind by the greed of a few breeding desperation in the masses. I get the sense that a lot of people look...Im seeing a lot of good ideas, but id argue cruelty on a societal level can be better explaind by the greed of a few breeding desperation in the masses.
I get the sense that a lot of people look at the current trajectory of geopolitics, in the face of wholesale atrocities, and we want to know whats the domino keeping the mob off our doorstep.
But all the propaganda, debased language and whitewashed history doesn't exactly help the discussion. Because humanity on the whole is a messy timeline of desperate actions. Good and bad are decided after the fact. Hell, Thanksgiving is probably the prime example of exactly why thinking about the topic is so challenging. Would you blame any native American for calling other races on their ancestral land today, colonizers? Where would that crime sit on the spectrum next to Nazi and slave-owner? Because multiple cultures across a continent were all but eradicated and the survivors subjected to generations of indignity to this day. And we enjoy a privlaged life for it.
I don't want to come across as edgy or crass. Nazis, slavers and colonizers are all their own flavor of evil. But on the lines of what post_below pointed out, for every captain that was loving the idea wiping out the natives in the name of the empire, there were tens of thousands of people from a place where every square foot and gold coin was already spoken for by royals and loards. That virgin land was a once in a history opportunity and those pagan savages weren't using all of it anyway.
For every plantation owner or rail baron importing slaves by the thousands, there were a hundred southern families unsure if they'd make the winter. Those extra hands would go a long way, especially if they weren't a drain.
Every nazi general, looting Jews that were industrially murdered, was probably leading towns of Germans who fathers were killed or horrifically traumatized in a pointless war while their family was likely in hopeless debt and the world had left them to rot.And this is just fairly recent, post (ish) enlightenment, history. Empathetic, humanist morality is a fairly modern invention. One that only really holds water in a post-scarcity society.
Slight tangent but, as I tried to get at this in the coffee thread yesterday; we also do not apply these moral standards at anything that risks our abundance. We talk a big game about fair trade and sweatshops, child workers and slave mines. But if its already happening out of sight, we might as well enjoy it. We say it should be the responsibility of the corporations that facilitate it, but its rarely a matter of policy or legislation, unless tied to some other agenda. For example, the biggest argument against a living minimum wage or UBI that protects everyone for the long term, is that it might raise my prices now.
Tangent aside, i think the reason why tension is ramping up and civility is slipping, is that we are right back in an age of scarcity. The Trump landslide is the prime example. They're doing a job of sanitizing it, but his platforms, associations and rhetoric are hateful and regressive. But most people dont care because they dont have a hope of land ownership, a relationship, a family, healthcare and even groceries are looking shaky.
I don't think most of these people are racist, sexist, homophobic nazis. I think they saw the vice president talk about how the economy was fixed. Fixed meant busting unions and letting tech companies lay off by the thousands and not halting ai development and mishandling major conflicts and flaking on student loans and homes drying up and prices still being high; all while companies show record profits. Maybe the administration had a reason for all of that. But you cant expect people to make rational, long term decisions when they dont think there is a long term.
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Comment on Coffee prices surge to highest since 1997 on supply fears in ~food
SloMoMonday (edited )LinkI'm curious how people will react to this specific instance of scarcity. There is a real possibility that without some intervention or technical breakthrough, industrial coffee production becomes...I'm curious how people will react to this specific instance of scarcity. There is a real possibility that without some intervention or technical breakthrough, industrial coffee production becomes unfeasible. And if that is the first casualty of climate change, what effect does it have going forward.
We joke about "Don't talk to me before my coffee.", but morning brews are a soft ritual so ingrained in humanity that for most people its beyond sacred. And coffee represents so much gross waste and evil, while still being a chemical, psychological, social, cultural and production dependency for a good chunk of the global population.
A big part of colonialism was to maintain and facilitate the mass production and flow of luxury goods that the western world had become reliant on. And our global supply chain is decendent from colonizers needing to supply other colonizers. Almost all the benefits and wealth generated from that enterprise is still largely enjoyed by the people who facilitated it and the cost consideration kept institutional change at bay for centuries now. No amount of fair trade and ethical sourcing will change the reality that there has been no real reconciliation for that history. But more importantly, it indicates the society we developed is reliant on excess and exploitation to a self destructive degree. It's such a fact of life that the non-consumption of coffee isn't even consideration yet.
I remember an old study (will try to find it) detailing that the greenest, most ethically sourced coffee can "only" produce around 3kg of carbon emission per 1kg bag. And this is dependent on revolutionary techniques like regenerative planting, healthy crop cycling and not using air freight for every bag.
That accounts for a negligible percentage of global production. Average production is 15kg of CO2 to get 1kg of bulk coffee to a port. And the study was about green coffee and doesn't account for land transport, roasting, grinding, packaging, distribution and actually brewing with all the supporting milk, sugar and other supporting chains.I'm not judging. I take my morning coffee black with a concerning amount of sugar every other day. I have two bags of specialty blends, along with Indian teas and some matcha, rooibos, chocolate and spices. I use Chinese made phones made by underpaid labor and crammed full of precious metals that was dubiously sourced from around the world, all while burning fuel for a biking distance commute. I don't consider any of it as wasteful consumption and I don't know how to feel about it.
A buddy of mine insists that the market and technology will fill in the gaps and maintain normalcy, but I don't think the market can solve issue created by the market. At least not without creating more problems. It just feels like maybe having a coffee industry to loose is part of the problem. My fear is that people focus on going back to the way things were instead of figuring out a better way to rebuild. Like having a daily brew that wasn't dependent on global distribution infrastructure.
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Comment on Just bought a Sous Vide. Those who own one, what are your favorite things to use it for? Any recommended accessories? in ~food
SloMoMonday (edited )LinkNot exactly the easiest recipes, but I really enjoy using mine for making ice cream and cheese. Basically any time you need to precisely cook milk and need to be in the sweet spot between boiling...Not exactly the easiest recipes, but I really enjoy using mine for making ice cream and cheese.
Basically any time you need to precisely cook milk and need to be in the sweet spot between boiling off water, without burning the fat molecules. Even if you just burn milk a little bit, and it's sticking to the bottom of the pot, the "ash" sediment can be dispersed through the liquid and it will affect taste.
Its particularly important in cheese because the exact temperature changes over time dictates the culture profile, affecting taste and texture.
I also use the SV for "utility cooking" like tempering chocolate, pasteurized milk or making caramels and preserves. Even sterilizing containers or just melting wax enough to still be thick is a lot easier.
Its a very powerful device, especially if you have a good container or deep sink to really put it to use.Edit
Forgot to include the recipes.For all cheese making: https://www.youtube.com/@GavinWebber
As for ice cream
Sweet cream base that's still a WIP. It's a large batch that you can split for different flavors.750 ml whole milk / 25¼ fl oz whole milk
375 ml single cream / 12¾ fl oz single cream
500g mascarpone / 1 lb mascarpone
85 g caster sugar / 3 oz caster sugar
360g evaporated milk / 12¾ oz ideal milk
teaspoon salt
optional stabilizer (you'll need to experiment. I like gum Arabic but it can have weird texture effects with different measurements and quality)I found a big bath for the SV and I immerse my pot in water, being sure to keep the water line just over the level of the milk. This allows for a much more even boil. Be careful not to allow water to splash into the pot though. I had laser cut stencils for my pots to snugly sit in and also kept them off the bottom of the bath but I'm getting away with just using a taller pot now.
Just mix or immersion blend all the ingredients together and heat up to 95 C - 102 C , constantly stirring (exact temp depends on altitude. Higher temps for coastal areas). Skim off all the muck that floats to the top and after 30 - 45 min the mixture should have thickened considerably.
This is a low sweetness mixture, without eggs for a clean taste and color. Its easier to add sweetness than take it out. I don't like egg yellow and vanilla custard flavor in everything. Excellent mix to accompany another desert like hot brownies/sweet pies /lava cake in winter or fruit salads or ice cream cakes in summer.
Except for coffee, caramel and chocolate, I prefer to incorporate any flavors after the mixture cools so the heat doesn't affect them. Most of my flavors I just improvise and I just add and taste till its good.Also I never follow this recipe exactly and constantly change things. Like mascarpone is not as cheap anymore so I'm trying to find something else to add that density.
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Comment on What's the biggest YouTube channel still run by just one person? in ~creative
SloMoMonday Link ParentWas talking more on the video production. If I remember right, Joyride is not like a MrBeast controlled feastables or the family made Sourboys. Its the standard marketing/PR arrangement between...Was talking more on the video production.
If I remember right, Joyride is not like a MrBeast controlled feastables or the family made Sourboys. Its the standard marketing/PR arrangement between Trayhan and an established candy company out of Houston. He probably has some say in the flavour and enough equity to not be considered deceptive about releasing "his own candy".
Did a bit of digging to confirm is video production and I get the sense that its mostly solo while he brings in editors for support. Will let you know if I get a definitive answer.
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Comment on What's the biggest YouTube channel still run by just one person? in ~creative
SloMoMonday Link ParentDidn't intend to come across as negative. But looking at all of YouTube since inception, i do see that I talk about the platform with a great deal of malencology. The commercialization of the...- Exemplary
Didn't intend to come across as negative. But looking at all of YouTube since inception, i do see that I talk about the platform with a great deal of malencology. The commercialization of the platform was inevitable once there was a profit motive, and some amazing work has come from that. The things i particularly appreciate are Markipliers increasingly ambitious projects, the explosion in high quality indie animation/horror and the way the platform can supercharge smaller projects.
But all the structures, money and growth could not make up for Googles comical aversion to accountability and strategy. Seriously, you could write entire books on every one of YouTubes development troubles and how they consistently dropped the ball. Yes, hindsight is 20-20, but every decision feels like a detriment to the ecosystem as a whole.
From the hostile copyright system, to the exploitation and unfairness of the old MCN groups, to ignoring issues like Elsa gate, to removing critical features like annotations and dislikes, to the ass backwards auto moderation bots that have butchered the sites diction (i swaer i will unalive someone in Minecraft for that), to ignoring issues like nazis and manosphere creeps, to the ineffective ad policies, to the joke that is YouTube Red, to the Rewind debacles, to multiple adpocolypses, to the cryptic rules/policies, to banning a massive livestream chat and practically deleting their gmail accounts, to YTKids being a mess, to ignoring issues like harassment in the beauty space....
And apart from google, the issue with how a lot of channels are organized is that it created environments ripe for exploitation and abuse. Theres plenty of high profile figures that have been uncovered over recent years; but these same people who have been operating like that for nearly a decade. I've also had the displeasure of working with and supporting absolute monsters. Many of them eventually burned enough bridges and faded into obscurity, but the current news is shining a light on the people who made it big and were shielded by their status for years.
And to touch on the idea of The Algorithm. I sort of agree that it not really so important from a technical standpoint. My guess is that when you upload, google applies all thier context analysis bots to calculate a neat z-score against arbitrary factors from the platforms most profitable videos. Then they adjust it based on demographic and watch statistics and use the result to calculate the cost per ad impression.
My worry is more on the implications of this algorithm, that is strongly promoted by these platforms because it is essentially your paycheck. I use the examples of Mr Beast a lot, simply because he has so much reach and amasses so much "organic" success. So other creators sees and copes the style and the system promotes Beast-like content and you've basically made a self fulfilling prophecy. Eventually you have entire communities and creative visions erased and redefined to how one person wants to be.
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Comment on What's the biggest YouTube channel still run by just one person? in ~creative
SloMoMonday (edited )LinkI used to help with some new media production and the way I see it, at the moment the deck is stacked against solo acts on the more established platforms. Its even creeping into micro-content like...- Exemplary
I used to help with some new media production and the way I see it, at the moment the deck is stacked against solo acts on the more established platforms. Its even creeping into micro-content like TikTok and Instagram.
At a certain size, career video creatives need to transition into a talent/production structure or fall into the algorithm spiral. Internet media is still a wild west, but it's gone from a Manifest Destiny free for all to the age of money men and company interests gaming the system (and people but that's its own canned worm factory). The math is simple, more manpower equals more output. Yes, a single person can leverage all the amazing tools and technology to maintain their independence and control an entire enterprise, but full teams are leveraging those same tools and will always outcompete.
This has extended to the bigger twitch streamers (many of whom were the last solo YouTubers) who can put out hours of content on their own. But they have managers to handle brand/ad deals and admin, editors to make clips (that is a big part of bring in new viewers) and moderation teams across every platform to maintain their communities. Even "slop content" like reaction videos and clickbait have editing teams to manage the stock images, subtitles, effects and sounds; because it's very hard to keep up with production trends while maintaining multiple daily uploads.
However, different creators draw the line at different places. Like I know someone that has 6 people on payroll with contractors on call and they consider themselves a solo creator because the main project files never leave their hard drive. Some people produce with thier partners, siblings or friends which isn't a formal company, but is still a group effort. VTubers need to have a good handles on the technical aspects of thier avatar, but rely on riggers and artists to keep thier brand fresh.
I like the romantic idea of a solo artist going at it alone and making ground breaking works in the face of mass produced junk. But at the end of the day, it's a business for the platforms and creators. The algorithms are geared for that. For every Bill Wurtz and SovietWomble who dictate every frame, there's a hundred MrBeasts or Asmondgold playing the system or flooding the feed. Most of the solo creators that are still around are purely there for the art or use the platform to promote their careers or larger business.
With that being said, there are a lot good small-team creators that have interesting workflows.
The big one is Ryan Trayhan. I dont think he has an editing team, just judging by his solo shooting style and long production timeline. But he sort of represents an anti-MrBeast with a personable voice that still aligns with big trends. I just really love his meta story of capturing video of himself capturing video. He also doesn't shy away from less popular details like the fact that his married, the isolation of solo production and that he can be genuinely cringy. He's also attempting a crazy balance by showcasing luxury but without the fetishistic obsession of money.
There's also the maker channels that often seem to be 2-4 people teams. William Osman is trying to foster a community around it with OpenSauce. A lot of the creators involved work on insane timelines to make stupid things that will not compete in the algorithm. But it is fun. NileRed being a modern Alchemist that is awestruck by basic cooking (Nileblue). Styropyro making a macrowave. Electroboom being insane. Fun bunch all round.
Miniminuteman is on a quest to be the hot Architologist for a generation and the man in cooking in his latest Vampire video.
If i rememver, I'll check my list when I get home and add here.
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
SloMoMonday LinkRan a meme gaming club called DAYS. The only entry requirement was to have a day of the week in your user name. Were open to public holidays or important dates if you could make it work. Was silly...Ran a meme gaming club called DAYS. The only entry requirement was to have a day of the week in your user name. Were open to public holidays or important dates if you could make it work. Was silly but a lot of fun.
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Comment on Satisfactory tips and tricks? in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkA couple of important realizations I had that sort of relates back to the first idea that: Screws suck. Seriously. Screws are the components that ruis a lot of your logistics with the numbers...A couple of important realizations I had that sort of relates back to the first idea that:
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Screws suck.
Seriously. Screws are the components that ruis a lot of your logistics with the numbers needed. For that reason alone, they should only ever exists where they are needed. Don't move them by train or try to full optimize its use because you're just setting yourself up for some frustrating math. -
Resource rarity and abundance
Because the map is hand made, there's a set number of nodes available to harvest. Even with their Infinite capacity, material converters and overclock potential: there will forever be a throughput cap on your world. Iron is the most plentiful resource around, which means you'll always have facilities to make screws and other basic iron components where you are. But with the abundance of iron, you can pull off a bunch of neat tricks with... -
Alternative recipes
This is the reason I love this game. Tier 4 needs 100 nuclear pasta and you could probably have a different production line for each one. Having a good recipe library let's you build for the situation you're in and not force you to spiderweb miner-belts across biomes. But it also has the potential to eliminate screws from almost all productions. You can also eliminate copper. And most caterium and steel. And I think aluminum too. You can get some very clean lines by working in the excess iron around the map and... -
Under/precision-clocking
If you don't want to fine tune lines around weird numbers, you can just make it a clean number with precision clocking a bottleneck. My old goto was always fully overclock for max output, but that can be hell on power in terms of draw and big fluctuations as different machines cycle to make 1 item. SINKing excess is always an option, but in the late game the energy economics are way off for tickets you don't need anymore. But when you unlock overclocking tech, you can set exactly how much the machine produces (instead of moving the slider, you can set any of the numbers and the others will adjust) and can copy/paste that setting across your array. Amazing when you have to manage bad bulk items (screws) but it also lets you eek out some extra materials for a factory while smoothing out the power draw.
Other minor tips:
- Mods are amazing. A lot you'll want to save for second or third playthroughs, but I strongly recommend infinite-nudge, Infinite-zoop, infinite colors, architectural solutions, world props (for plants and rocks) and wall holes.
- Set up battery farms in each factory and priority switches when they become available. Late game power management sucks.
- You'll want to sit your friends down and have the very important discussion about Brutalist Architecture color coding.
- Dimensional storage is amazing to max out so have some people focused to collecting as many marbles as they can.
- DO NO TALK TO YOUR WIFE ABOUT YOUR OIL SOLUTION. I KNOW YOU'RE PROUD OF IT. I KNOW YOU WANT TO SHOW HER HOW CLEAN AND ORGANIZED IT IS. DONT. IT'LL JUST REMIND HER ABOUT ALL THE OTHER THINGS YOU'VE NOT CLEANED AND ORGANIZED.
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Comment on How do people get over enshittification? in ~life
SloMoMonday LinkI don't think it can be overstated just how big a factor converging business interests have become in not just retail textile, but every single industry. We're at the point where a considerable...I don't think it can be overstated just how big a factor converging business interests have become in not just retail textile, but every single industry.
We're at the point where a considerable chunk of manufacturing, distribution and retail across most of the US and world is influenced by the half a dozen institutional investors. The biggest of them being Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street and FMR LLC.
Hell, I just had half an hour free now and whiped up some interesting stats straight from the NASDAQ website.As a materials supplyer, you should reserve premium prices for premium product. Manufacturing should be diversified for every market segment. You need to distribute across the most effective channels and retailers cater to their customers budget and expectations. And if you fail at any one of these areas, the supply chain should shift in favour of the competition.
But you have a reality where not just every step of the chain is owned but the same people, and not just alternative service provider, but every possible chain across every industry. Every consumer good jumped the same shrinkflation/enshittification trends to the same insane degrees with no viable alternative to compete. Every major tech company shed staff in the thousands so few competeting organizations open to absorb all that talent. Cosolodated property. Every startup funded and mentored by the same VCs. Both political parties funded by the same firms with all politicians being clients.
The reason it feels every company is the same company is because they probably are. The reason private equity is obsessed with IP and brands is because they know there is considerable lag before the dip in quality results in a dip in trust. But by then, the market is effectively cornered.
And the cherry on top is that the private equity firms are clients and shareholders of each other. Musk's everything company already exists and they own a big chunk of Tesla and probably X too.
I'm all for minimizing risk, but the reason free market economics worked so well was competition. The risk of failure, new innovations and outdated products kept industry moving forward. These companies have put themselves into a no-loose situation and that means they have no reason to change course. What are you going to do? Take your business to the same owners next door?
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Comment on Linux Mint desktop environment recommendations? in ~comp
SloMoMonday LinkI've not really enjoyed KDE on Arch over the last patch and wouldn't recommend it. Almost every custom theme constantly broke or caused hang ups. Window priority layering seems random. Widgets are...I've not really enjoyed KDE on Arch over the last patch and wouldn't recommend it. Almost every custom theme constantly broke or caused hang ups. Window priority layering seems random. Widgets are inconsistent and can be pretty unintuitive. The mobile tool worked once. And it doesn't play nice with my notification scripts. People say the latest patch is much better but I haven't tested it yet.
I tried the new Deepin DE for a test VM and its pleasant to look at. Lots of little tools and QoL features wrapped up in clean animations and designs. Pretty close to a Mac style of seamlessness but with its own flavour. It's not perfect though, lot of people (myself included) don't exactly trust the CCP ties. It can also feel very casual-user focused and there was a few major bugs. Prime example is that some password dialog boxes are called but don't fully render. Sometimes you might see a drop shadow outline or accidentally click a button on it, but if you don't, you'll never know what's going on.
And speaking for another new user, my wife is trying PopOS with Cosmic GNOME and she's enjoying it. Only complaints is that it sometimes bogs down her old laptop. I think there is a version of Cosmic being made from scratch that will be better optimized and have nvidia compatibility out the box so it's worth keeping an eye on.
Personally, I'm on a minimalist kick and currently Frankensteining Hyperland to have task specific workspaces. It's not an environment I'd recommend to anyone, especially new users, simply because its a major departure from the normal PC experience and needs a ton of added work. MATE works well as my stable environment with how bare bones it is.
At the end of the day, most DEs and Distros are just a matter of fetures and compromise. My recommendation would be to start with the stable, basic and supported Cinnamon environment, then use that as a springboard to explore others and a safe space to come back to when things go wrong. There's nothing wrong with having a few installed and jumping between them.
On that note, don't get too attached to your build until a few months in. I've worked with a few linux based severs and used Qubes for a while, but fully jumping from Windows this year was fun, but pretty humbling. Just had to do my 4th arch reinstall last week and almost mixed the 250 GB system partition with the 2.5TB data partition. But every time you reinstalls or distro/kernal hop, you'll learn a lot and might want to get a clean start. And there can be quite a few risks in a Linux environment if you are unfamiliar.
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Comment on 2024 United States election megathread in ~society
SloMoMonday Link ParentI know the meme is that since 2016 Republicans have gone so far off the right that Democrats are basically center right. But this is bed decades in the making. Biden, Obama and especially the...I know the meme is that since 2016 Republicans have gone so far off the right that Democrats are basically center right. But this is bed decades in the making. Biden, Obama and especially the Clintons are hardly bastions of progressive values.
From the outside looking in, it feels like it's just two different flavors of MAGA. The obvious one wants to go back to the good old days of 50c big macs, winning the cold war and life being simple because they were much younger or fetishized that period in time.
But it feels like all the Democrats want is to go back to 2015. Geopolitics was stable, money was cheap, business was boomong and everyone was acceptable levels of miserable. Then the government can go back to being a prop in most peoples lives.
That's a lot of what the last administration looked like. What the Republicans lack in policy pales in comparison to the Democratic lack of vision and strategy. Everything they do is reactionary appeasement and deaf to real world expectations. And now it proves that they are blissfully unaware of the reality for everyone on the ground.
Biden alone had opportunity to side with railworkers. The opportunity to clear student debt. Opportunity to halt Data Model development and its impact on jobs. Refused to intervene in the writers strike. When he found out about price gouging, they had the opportunity to drag every executive over the coals and make an example of them with massive punishment proportional to the corporate crimes, and settled with a slap on the wrist and one click cancellations. They half arsed on Gaza and pissed off both sides while making your government completely impotent, while handing over tons of weapons. They also half arsed on Russia, urging restraint against an existential threat that is now given free reign. Hell, they pussyfooted around prosecuting and charging Trump for years and its too late for that now.
They forgot the popular vote means doing popular things occasionally. And things that are popular to everyone, not just those in your circle. The culture war was a trap democrats walked into and told every American to suck it up and worry about these issues important to subsets of already blue states (I'm not saying they're not important issues with serious outcomes for many people, but it doesn't apply to 50% of the electorate).
Imagine if Harris could go off on Private Equity firms and promise to bring them in line. Force them to sell millions of residential properties at cost. Its stupid, pie in the sky, posturing, but thats something I'd vote for. Or any of the big issues like min wage, price gouging, tech company influence, student debt. Something better to believe in and not just the same old.
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Comment on ‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Donald Trump in ~society
SloMoMonday Link ParentI vaguely remember that being a big deal back in the day but figured it was a fever dream when I tried to fact check it. That internet around early 2010s is a massive blob in my memory with all...I vaguely remember that being a big deal back in the day but figured it was a fever dream when I tried to fact check it.
That internet around early 2010s is a massive blob in my memory with all the fandom drama. Think it was the worst parts of the Harry Potter, Omegaverse, Homestuck, Twilight, anime and even One Direction communities all trying to stir up as much crap as possible. We had a small shared-world DnD club on Facebook and were forced to completely block new members who were not personally referred and vetted. Weren't that strict on pop culture references and even had our own Muttonscab Academy for Unsupervised Magical, but people wanted to live out very precise fantasies. -
Comment on ‘Fandom has toxified the world’: Watchmen author Alan Moore on superheroes, Comicsgate and Donald Trump in ~society
SloMoMonday (edited )Link ParentI'd argue Bet's observation is less about passive/active relationships with media, but rather the type of actions people are encouraged to take beyond the initial engagement. You've referenced...I'd argue Bet's observation is less about passive/active relationships with media, but rather the type of actions people are encouraged to take beyond the initial engagement.
You've referenced very active and productive outlets for fandom and I'd add to that category activities like game mods, legacy game tournaments and the libraries of community made TTRPG expansions. They're constructive avenues that allow the works to exist as the community wants it to while manifesting their idea of it. Its also how art has always worked and iterated throughout history. Fifty Shades of Grey was Twilight fanfic, Twilight is heavily inspired by romantic classics, namely Pride and Prejudice. And while Jane Austen is the pillar of contemporary romance, she definitely had influences of her own. And of course companies are trying to kill that too but that's its own story.However, from what I've seen, a lot of toxicity stems from the creatively passive parts of the fanbase. The type of people who punctuate their arguments by some exceptionally rare or costly merch and often reference some meaningless contest. Marvel and DC. PS and XBox. A lot of stan culture and now with culture warriors (good god there's a lot of merchandising opportunities for socio-political issues).
I believe that toxic fandom is born from an innate desire to destroy or tear down art to prop up ones own. And when you run out of external targets, the sights turn inwards to "purify" the brand. Regret is a very difficult emotion to reconcile, especially when its tied to a lot of foundational positive association. These associations were easy as children because it was mostly freely gained, lacked almost all wider context and propped up by a ton of positive social reinforcement. Now as economically active and often struggling adults, there is an incentive to not only make the right choice, but justify all prior investment all while maintaining the status-quo. It's all about preventing the buyers remorse for how one chooses to invest their limited cash and ultimately time. And the phenomenon is obviously supercharged by corporate/capitalist forces because we live in hell.
This makes me think of my late uncle who's pet project was some sort of domestic thermal interchange cell. It was way above my head but he used to design them for industry and he was very interested in minimizing costs by effectively moving energy instead of generating more of it. He had plans for some sort of one-way heat trap, designs to adapt it into AC systems and a cool type of stovetop/oven that would hold all this energy, with induction plates to make the difference.
I'm sure refrigerant dependency was one of the big road blocks so would have loved this.
Tempted to fork out a few bucks for the actual paper and try to figure out exactly what goes into it.