sparksbet's recent activity
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Comment on Israel frees dozens of Americans, including US Congress nominee, after West Bank arrest in ~society
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
sparksbet Link ParentI think in theory Deimos does take labeling abilities away from people who abuse it. What his threshold is for doing so and whether it's happened recently, I don't know, but I know I'd heard...I think in theory Deimos does take labeling abilities away from people who abuse it. What his threshold is for doing so and whether it's happened recently, I don't know, but I know I'd heard reference to it earlier in my time on Tildes.
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
sparksbet Link ParentTheir exit was earlier than this most recent thread, so I think this particular thread was inspired by someone else.Their exit was earlier than this most recent thread, so I think this particular thread was inspired by someone else.
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
sparksbet Link ParentI unironically love the face-punching machine metaphorI unironically love the face-punching machine metaphor
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Comment on Non-queer men of Tildes: PLEASE consider before commenting on ~life.women and ~lgbt without careful consideration. We are losing members over this issue. in ~tildes
sparksbet Link ParentI think a lot of those of us who would have informed said user how out of pocket they are two years ago are exhausted by constantly doing it and then seeing the same comments on the next topic,...I think a lot of those of us who would have informed said user how out of pocket they are two years ago are exhausted by constantly doing it and then seeing the same comments on the next topic, and thus have become burnt out and stopped spending as much time on Tildes. I know that's been the case for me.
I also used to leave Malice reports on threads that were getting spicy so Deimos would know to keep an eye on them, but it's gotten to the point where I often just don't click on threads about certain topics because I know it'll be exhausting to read and futile to participate, and I don't like to spend my time and energy on stuff that makes me angry if I can help it.
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Comment on A deep sense of ease – what the Danes call ‘tryg’ – is a collective responsibility that allows individuals to flourish in ~health.mental
sparksbet Link ParentLeaving the US won't fix these things for you. In part because your mental image here is a romanticized one that doesn't reflect reality, and in part because immigrants are so frequently othered...Leaving the US won't fix these things for you. In part because your mental image here is a romanticized one that doesn't reflect reality, and in part because immigrants are so frequently othered and excluded from existing social cohesion.
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Comment on iPhone Duo sells out immediately, now backordered until next year in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentTo be fair, I've been hearing anyone even vaguely knowledgeable about cybersecurity talking about how insecure SMS is and how we shouldn't use it for MFA for years now.To be fair, I've been hearing anyone even vaguely knowledgeable about cybersecurity talking about how insecure SMS is and how we shouldn't use it for MFA for years now.
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Comment on Why is there no word for please in the Nordic languages – are their speakers simply more direct, or is politeness expressed in ways outsiders may not immediately recognise in ~humanities.languages
sparksbet Link Parentiirc Australians in the comments also seemed to feel similarly to Americans on the acceptability of "please" in that context, so that tracks. It's not something most people think about until they...iirc Australians in the comments also seemed to feel similarly to Americans on the acceptability of "please" in that context, so that tracks. It's not something most people think about until they encounter a culture that does it differently, and even then most people jump to "these weirdos are being rude" rather than analyzing subtle cultural and linguistic differences in politeness.
An Australian accent also wins over a lot of Americans very quickly imo, but I haven't heard of the reverse...
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Comment on 1 in 8 Billion - Browser game, free, life sim with real statistics from 172 countries in ~games
sparksbet LinkHow are other people being born in years other than 2026? When I've played they're always born right now, but others are mentioning birth years like 1950 and 1985.How are other people being born in years other than 2026? When I've played they're always born right now, but others are mentioning birth years like 1950 and 1985.
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Comment on Why is there no word for please in the Nordic languages – are their speakers simply more direct, or is politeness expressed in ways outsiders may not immediately recognise in ~humanities.languages
sparksbet Link ParentThere's actually a lot of work on "please" and its distribution in various English dialects, and I highly recommend this blog post from Separated By A Common Language (run by a linguist) about...There's actually a lot of work on "please" and its distribution in various English dialects, and I highly recommend this blog post from Separated By A Common Language (run by a linguist) about saying "please" in restaurants. It points out how use of this particular word in that context differs between US and UK English in ways that correspond to our different underlying notions of what constitutes politeness -- my feelings on "please" match up with yours, but this post goes into why that differs between different groups of English speakers. Genuinely a fascinating topic imho.
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Comment on An update in ~health.mental
sparksbet Link ParentI'm rooting for you. Glad things have improved.I'm rooting for you. Glad things have improved.
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Comment on Anyone read "Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents"? What was your experience with it? in ~health.mental
sparksbet LinkMy ex started reading this book shortly before we broke up and seemed to be getting a lot out of it, though I never saw if that culminated in anything. She read me one of the heuristics from it...My ex started reading this book shortly before we broke up and seemed to be getting a lot out of it, though I never saw if that culminated in anything. She read me one of the heuristics from it and it didn't resonate much with me, but I'd generally consider my parents pretty emotionally mature so that makes sense.
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Comment on Why is there no word for please in the Nordic languages – are their speakers simply more direct, or is politeness expressed in ways outsiders may not immediately recognise in ~humanities.languages
sparksbet Link ParentEnglish's do-support makes this weirder, though.English's do-support makes this weirder, though.
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Comment on Why is there no word for please in the Nordic languages – are their speakers simply more direct, or is politeness expressed in ways outsiders may not immediately recognise in ~humanities.languages
sparksbet Link ParentMandarin has something similar with the difference between 不 and 没, though it's not precisely the same distinction.Mandarin has something similar with the difference between 不 and 没, though it's not precisely the same distinction.
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Comment on Why is there no word for please in the Nordic languages – are their speakers simply more direct, or is politeness expressed in ways outsiders may not immediately recognise in ~humanities.languages
sparksbet Link ParentHaving a word for "yes" isn't nearly as universal as many people think. Many languages answer yes/no questions by repeating the verb, either with or without negation, which is more or less what...Having a word for "yes" isn't nearly as universal as many people think. Many languages answer yes/no questions by repeating the verb, either with or without negation, which is more or less what Mandarin does. This type of response, sometimes called echo answers, is even sometimes employed heavily by languages that do have distinct words for yes and no.
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Comment on Solo developer rebuilds Adobe Creative Suite in Rust using Claude, releases it free to all in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentTrademarks probably won't protect anything functional or even the general look of the UI. That comes closer to what is covered by trade dress or a design patent, but those come with much more...Trademarks probably won't protect anything functional or even the general look of the UI. That comes closer to what is covered by trade dress or a design patent, but those come with much more limited protection than a trademark. Trademarks are intended to make the source of a product clear to consumers, so it would only apply to something like your product's UI if it were so unique that it immediately identified your product, which is not the case here afaik.
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Comment on Man shot by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in New York City's Marble Hill, authorities say in ~society
sparksbet Link ParentWhile this is not what is grammatically considered passive voice (it's actually straight-up active voice here), people who complain about "passive voice" in newspaper headlines and articles tend...While this is not what is grammatically considered passive voice (it's actually straight-up active voice here), people who complain about "passive voice" in newspaper headlines and articles tend to actually be complaining about a whole swath of different structures that are used to more or less subtly remove any implications of agency on behalf of the agent in a particular action. This especially occurs with law enforcement-related pieces. It's worth engaging with that criticism without nitpicking their imprecise use of grammatical terminology (which annoys me as much as it does you, I promise). In this case I suspect that they're complaining about the indirect language as opposed to saying "The ICE agent shot him X times."
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Comment on Someone ‘torturing’ LLMs in a robot prison has triggered the dumbest debate in AI yet in ~tech
sparksbet Link ParentI haven't looked deeply into this particular case, so I'm willing to be corrected if I'm wrong, but most LLMs aren't operating using that type of simple reinforcement learning, especially not...I haven't looked deeply into this particular case, so I'm willing to be corrected if I'm wrong, but most LLMs aren't operating using that type of simple reinforcement learning, especially not after training. I was under the impression the "torture" here was deliberately activating particular combinations of nodes in the neural network associated with expressions of pain rather than directly manipulating a simple reward function like that. The rewards for the reinforcement learning involved in LLMs are pretty tailored to generating the right response given the prompt, in my understanding. But again, I haven't looked deeply into this particular case, so I may be conflating it with something else.
If just giving a negative reward to a reinforcement learning model until it stops doing unwanted behavior is causing pain, this is the opposite of news because it's not novel. I don't think it makes sense to equate a reward function for models like these to human qualia even if they sometimes serve a similar function on a behaviorist level, but if we do equate them then we've been torturing these types of models to train them for, like, decades now.
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Comment on Anyone else have Inattentive ADHD? in ~health.mental
sparksbet Link ParentI've been doing better on that front lately, but I feel this with my soul. I hope you get to feel rested soon.I've been doing better on that front lately, but I feel this with my soul. I hope you get to feel rested soon.
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Comment on Anyone else have Inattentive ADHD? in ~health.mental
sparksbet (edited )Link ParentIt is a huge pain, but tbqh I do think this comment reads like using the annoyances of getting prescribed ADHD medication as an excuse to not even try to get on medication. You can make your own...It is a huge pain, but tbqh I do think this comment reads like using the annoyances of getting prescribed ADHD medication as an excuse to not even try to get on medication. You can make your own decisions, ofc, and if medication isn't right for you, then go ahead, live your life. But this rationale reads like the way my brain thinks when I'm trying to convince myself that it's not worth doing something difficult that I know I should do, and I think sharing my own experiences here might help others in these comments who are hesitant to try to start on the bullshit involved in getting medicated for ADHD and feeling the same way.
When I lived in Germany, I lived an hour train ride from my pharmacist and I had to take off work once a quarter to physically go there and pick up my prescription for my ADHD meds (and while we were first adjusting dosage, I did indeed need to visit a bunch in quicker succession). Not sure why you'd need to include another doctor if you already have a psychiatrist though, as they can handle prescribing and finding the right dose themselves, but in Germany GPs never prescribe ADHD meds whereas in the US they often do, so that may be a factor -- but that's a factor that likely it more convenient for you once you've found a dose that works for you, because it doesn't require you to continuously see a psychiatrist alongside your GP for this one medication like I had to. I also had to get my heart checked, but that involved one doctor's visit to get an EKG after the two hour-long sessions with a therapist in which I got officially diagnosed. It wasn't trivial, but compared to more serious medical procedures with lots of bureaucracy, it was a breeze. There are ofc struggles like those you mentioned -- in Germany I had to get a new prescription several times because of weird rules about how quickly you had to fill your prescription, and I had to get a physical paper prescription unlike the electronic kind you can get in the US. I had situations where I went without my medication for a short period because either I fucked up or there was a shortage. It can be a huge pain in the ass.
But the degree to which this was a pain in the ass -- and it's a bigger pain in the ass in Germany than here in the States for sure -- was so far outweighed by the degree to which it improves my life when I take it regularly. My ability to take care of household chores, do anything that requires sitting down and focusing on something not super fun (desk-job work, applying for jobs, etc), keep up with refilling other medications that severely impact my health? It's like night and day when I'm on my ADHD medication, and that difference is worth every stupid hoop I need to jump through to stay on that medication. I would never have gotten all the bureaucratic nonsense needed for my top surgery together and actually gotten it done while I was able to on public healthcare if I hadn't been on ADHD medication -- if you think getting ADHD meds is hard, look into the process of getting approved for gender-affirming surgery in any country without informed consent clinics. My ADHD medication has also had a stabilizing effect on my mood, to the extent that I was able to go off the SSRI I was on because between my ADHD medication, my thyroid medication, and some lifestyle changes (go outside regularly if you can guys), my depression symptoms were largely gone and I didn't need that added treatment. The benefits from being on my meds have been so stark that there has never been a moment where I thought that they were not worth all the faff involved in getting prescribed them in the first place. My only regret has been not getting medicated earlier.
Yes, the system makes it hard to get medicated and is deliberately hostile to those trying to get stimulant medication in ways that are especially hard for those of us with ADHD. That doesn't give you an excuse to not even try. Sometimes you have to do hard things that suck. That's just life. Medication makes that a lot easier once you're on it, but it never becomes sunshine and rainbows. I would be hesitant to label anyone who has successfully forced themselves to endure that hardship to get and stay medicated as having less severe ADHD than you -- that feels like another excuse to let yourself write off medication as a possibility. If you haven't even tried and failed, then you're the real barrier here.
NB: had this as a top-level comment but deleted it to reply here so there's only one thread about the title. I'm with rosco in that I don't blame you and I think posting this news here is important, I'm just exhausted with BS like this from media outlets like NPR.
This title is misleading enough that I don't think it's appropriate for Tildes. There needs to be something in the title that makes it clear who detained them in the first place. As it has presumably also been edited, the NPR article headline is now less misleading than the title here. (Hopefully in response to backlash?)