ThrowdoBaggins's recent activity

  1. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    ThrowdoBaggins
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    For some reason, I always thought “brownout” was about timing more than voltage, but maybe those two things are related? I don’t really know a lot about electricity, I’ve just absorbed random...

    Since "brownout" is clearly problematic, they can only refer to "low voltage events" which is wordy without much benefit to the professionals that have to plan around brownouts, particularly in developing nations.

    For some reason, I always thought “brownout” was about timing more than voltage, but maybe those two things are related? I don’t really know a lot about electricity, I’ve just absorbed random fragments of knowledge from my dad (a sparky for his entire working life, recently retired)

  2. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    I kinda love that you picked a drug-fueled psychosis episode as your example for policing here. For me personally, I think “armed forces responsible for law enforcement” is about the last person I...

    I kinda love that you picked a drug-fueled psychosis episode as your example for policing here.

    For me personally, I think “armed forces responsible for law enforcement” is about the last person I would want to deal with that situation, especially in the US where they seem to have a horrible reputation for escalation and murder.

    Give me paramedics, or a nurse, or a social worker, or a firefighter, or even a gentle giant gym bro passerby to talk to the person and defuse the situation and bring them to professional help before you send a cop that way. Maybe a cop on standby in case things get violent, but not as the first point of contact.

    If someone is holding a local business owner at gunpoint, that’s when I want cops involved. If someone is mugging people at knifepoint, that’s when I want cops involved. If someone is punching pedestrians on the street, that’s when I want cops involved. Cops in the US as they currently exist are great for violent crime, but so poorly equipped for anything else.

    I guess when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, so I can see the allure of thinking police are the answer to these kinds of situations exist. I know healthcare is in such a bad way in the US, so I’m not surprised at this way of thinking, but there are other/better options for everything that’s not a crime.

    8 votes

  3. Comment on What are some stories of progressivism gone wrong in implementation? in ~society

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    I heard that having Irish background has only been folded into “whiteness” in the last half a century. Which, based entirely on sunburn risk, completely baffles me. Based on historical stuff,...

    I heard that having Irish background has only been folded into “whiteness” in the last half a century. Which, based entirely on sunburn risk, completely baffles me. Based on historical stuff, however, makes a lot of sense.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on How do you report an entire topic? in ~tildes

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    You yourself have conflated “report to the site creator” into “nuke the conversation” but those are actually two separate actions. Only the site creator can nuke a conversation, at their own...

    want to report the entire thread to the site creator to nuke it. That's the definition of shutting down a conversation.

    You yourself have conflated “report to the site creator” into “nuke the conversation” but those are actually two separate actions.

    Only the site creator can nuke a conversation, at their own discretion. It’s up to Deimos to make that call.

    All Drewbahr is asking for is to raise the concern to get it looked at.

    By arguing against the idea of a report button for threads, you seem to be under the impression that allowing someone to hit a report button on a whole thread is itself a threat to conversation (it’s not, I hope I’ve illustrated that they’re two separate things), or otherwise that nuke-worthy threads should continue to fly under the radar by not having a way to flag with the site owner.

    Or perhaps you believe that the site owner is so swayed by the mere existence of reports that they are effectively a proxy for an end-user nuke button, but I don’t share this view at all.

    5 votes

  5. Comment on Moving out soon. Think out loud with me regarding saving money vs. quality of life. in ~life

    ThrowdoBaggins
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    You asked for considerations that you might have missed, so here’s a small one I didn’t see in your original post — do you have pots and pans, dishes and cutlery? Living solo you won’t need much,...

    You asked for considerations that you might have missed, so here’s a small one I didn’t see in your original post — do you have pots and pans, dishes and cutlery? Living solo you won’t need much, but you’ll need more than zero. If you’re heading into the sharehouse then they probably already have stuff but it would be worth asking if it’s communal or not.

    All the sharehouses I’ve lived in for the past ~15 years, everyone was generous with their cookware etc and it was low stakes “grab whatever you need, I guess if something breaks then we’ll replace it”. But most recently, me and my long term partner added a housemate to the mix to help keep costs down, and he’s a bit more particular in his tastes for cookware/dishes/cutlery and has generally set the expectations that if I want to borrow his stuff, I ask first, rather than “every plate is in the drawer and who cares which is which” that I’ve had from previous sharehouse situations. It’s not a big deal at all, it’s just a small thing I had to adjust my assumptions about.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on US Federal Communications Commission bans new DJI Chinese drones, citing national security in ~society

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    That’s a great point too - iterating quickly means you have more immediate feedback on what was changed, but I guess I was thinking more on developing/improving the baseline features rather than...

    That’s a great point too - iterating quickly means you have more immediate feedback on what was changed, but I guess I was thinking more on developing/improving the baseline features rather than on taking a risk on a different and somewhat opinionated category of product.

    Also I forgot to mention in my above comment, I had mentally ruled out things like phones because for the majority of people, they’re replaced entirely when the battery capacity or performance doesn’t meet minimum expectations, and being a daily-use object it gets much heavier use than, say, a rugged sports camera (e.g. GoPro etc) for most people. I think.

  7. Comment on US Federal Communications Commission bans new DJI Chinese drones, citing national security in ~society

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    A thought I’ve had for a little while recently is how yearly sales strategies (as in, discounts, not just how many units have been sold) strongly encourage rapid incremental development instead of...

    effectively preventing U.S. consumers from buying new models of the Chinese company’s drones. Existing models already approved for sale, as well as those currently in use, are not affected by the ban.

    A thought I’ve had for a little while recently is how yearly sales strategies (as in, discounts, not just how many units have been sold) strongly encourage rapid incremental development instead of taking more time in R&D to make a standout product. If not for the fact that a company has to have a new model for this year’s Black Friday Sales than they had for last year’s Black Friday Sales, I wonder if it would be better to have 2-3 year product cycles to be able to invest more into R&D between iterations, and spend comparatively less on retooling every component in their manufacturing line every 12 months or so.

    The way this ban is implemented seems like it would benefit this kind of thing too - “okay you’ve banned our 5th generation, but that’s fine because we’re still manufacturing our 4th generation for another 18 months”

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    Yeah okay, I can always hold onto my gmail and set up email forwarding if needed, that’s a good point. I’m in Australia, so businesses here are kinda half and half between sensible European style...

    Yeah okay, I can always hold onto my gmail and set up email forwarding if needed, that’s a good point.

    I’m in Australia, so businesses here are kinda half and half between sensible European style “you want a service, we offer it, let’s not try to make things complicated” on one side and the more American style “can we please harvest your entire digital identity to piss ads directly into your eyeballs, to opt out you need to access our unfindable privacy page at exactly 4:07am on the night of a full moon” on the other.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    Okay fantastic! Last year I already moved all my photos away from google, so I don’t even have that as a consideration anymore. But your benchmark tells me that my barely-used 2TB external drive...

    Okay fantastic! Last year I already moved all my photos away from google, so I don’t even have that as a consideration anymore. But your benchmark tells me that my barely-used 2TB external drive is easily enough to hold onto everything well into the future. Thank you!

  10. Comment on Dissecting bad internet bills with a digital rights advocate: KOSA, SCREEN Act, Section 230 repeal in ~tech

    ThrowdoBaggins
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    Ohhh I completely misunderstood “bad internet bills” and thought it was someone needing digital rights advocates to help them go through a horribly convoluted nvoice from their ISP in order to...

    Ohhh I completely misunderstood “bad internet bills” and thought it was someone needing digital rights advocates to help them go through a horribly convoluted nvoice from their ISP in order to challenge unnecessary costs and charges!

    7 votes

  11. Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    I’ve had an Apple account since the very early iTunes days, I believe since around 2005 or so, and my family’s financial situation growing up trained me to never trust credit cards or have...

    I’ve had an Apple account since the very early iTunes days, I believe since around 2005 or so, and my family’s financial situation growing up trained me to never trust credit cards or have services linked to my actual bank account. I’ve been buying those $20 and $50 “iTunes gift cards” as the only way to buy apps or in-app purchases for literally decades. I think of it somewhat like having my bank account airgapped from my spending, as a way to help mitigate against impulse spending.

    Last year, when I finally decided to upgrade my phone, my brother had credit card bonuses which needed him to spend a certain amount within some time limit, so he bought Apple gift cards up to the amount that my phone cost, since I was making the purchase anyway and didn’t care what method of payment.

    There’s nothing illegitimate about buying that much Apple credit, especially for someone who already has invested into the ecosystem. I could easily imagine someone spending that credit over a few years on subscriptions for whichever professional macOS or iPad software they needed, so why not get a bunch of it all at once?

    6 votes

  12. Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    In this thread, I’ve seen “Google Takeout” referenced a few times — can you give me an indication of your usage of Google services, which services you actually use the Takeout for, and the end of...

    In this thread, I’ve seen “Google Takeout” referenced a few times — can you give me an indication of your usage of Google services, which services you actually use the Takeout for, and the end of year file size that you have to work with once it’s arrived?

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Twenty years of digital life, gone in an instant, thanks to Apple in ~tech

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    That’s a little disappointing to hear, because one of the reasons I finally bought a domain this year was because I was sick of websites saying the ‘+’ character makes my email address invalid. I...

    Several times a site or app wouldn't allow me to create an account without using a large provider's domain like gmail or outlook, particularly those relating to job-hunting, claiming my email address wasn't valid.

    That’s a little disappointing to hear, because one of the reasons I finally bought a domain this year was because I was sick of websites saying the ‘+’ character makes my email address invalid.

    I heavily lean into “myname+service@gmail” format when I create a new account, both as a scam-protection measure (if this is a legitimate email from my bank then why was it sent to myname+petsupplies@gmail?) and also to see which service leaked/sold my email address to spammers/scammers.

    I’m hoping that by having my own custom email domain, I can do the same one-email-alias-per-service system without being snagged by the ‘+’ character. If too many services don’t even allow my own domain then that’s going to be pretty disappointing.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on Modern Christmas carol renditions that aren't mediocre CCM? in ~music

    ThrowdoBaggins
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    I don’t think he ever turned it into a whole album, but my single favourite Christmas cover is “Little Drum n Bass Boy” by Andrew Huang (cover of Little Drummer Boy) and going back to it just now...

    I don’t think he ever turned it into a whole album, but my single favourite Christmas cover is “Little Drum n Bass Boy” by Andrew Huang (cover of Little Drummer Boy) and going back to it just now to find the link makes me realise it’s basically 15 years since he made it!

    Anyway, it’s definitely a novel take on the song, and I love it so maybe you’d be interested too?

    1 vote

  15. Comment on Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world in ~health

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    It took me half a second to realise you were referring to “fruity weirdos” here as the subject of your sentence, and not “vaccines” 😅 /noise

    I used to think they were harmless, but now I recognize them as actively harmful to society

    It took me half a second to realise you were referring to “fruity weirdos” here as the subject of your sentence, and not “vaccines” 😅

    /noise

    3 votes

  16. Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    Copyright law is the easiest example I can think of, and various other intellectual property (IP) laws. But given my example included someone not just saying “pretty please” but also enforcing...

    Where does the notion come from that you can post anything you want online and then exclusively decide exactly how people use it?

    Copyright law is the easiest example I can think of, and various other intellectual property (IP) laws. But given my example included someone not just saying “pretty please” but also enforcing their wishes with a paywall and robots.txt then to my mind it’s clearly also protected by laws against circumventing technological barriers (to grossly simplify, “anti-hacking laws” etc)

    Plagiarism (taking things as is) is a very specific case that we forbid.

    Plagiarism is a much more narrow slice of IP, and I mostly see it discussed in an academic environment, but that’s about crediting the original source (which LLMs are also bad at). But it’s certainly not the only case that’s forbidden.

    If I start printing and selling copies of the Harry Potter books verbatim (without a licensing agreement), but I make it clear on the front of the book that I’m not the original author, then this isn’t plagiarism, specifically. But this is definitely still illegal under copyright and other IP laws.

    Moreover, for 10 years everyone was free to copy this content, save it on their computers, run algorithms, study that data, transform it, make it into something else, sell the results and it was fine.

    There’s a huge difference between what’s simply possible and what’s permitted. I think all of this has been possible, but I disagree with the idea that it’s been legally permitted this whole time. If you can give me some examples so that I have a better idea of what you’re referencing here specifically, that would be great.

    Oops wrote out a whole tangent on Fair Use which isn’t really relevant to the conversation currently

    And there’s also a significant difference in how these actions are viewed (e.g. when examining if Fair Use applies) when the results are for educational purposes, or for personal/private use, or for commercial reasons, or if the results of the data processing are themselves also freely shared or not.

    For example, if I scraped the internet for all writing (including copyrighted works, like LLMs have been doing) and then created an LLM that I never distributed and only kept on my home computer for personal use, then there would be a very weak case against me.

    Or if I did the same and wrote academic papers about what I’d learned in the process, and provided educational materials for how this new transformer style model could do much more than markov chains, that would also be a fairly weak legal case against me.

    Or if I did the same as both of the above, but also released the entire model free to the world to use, then there would be a bit of a stronger case against me, because now I’m making protected works available to the public, albeit in a somewhat scrambled way.

    But it’s been proven than LLMs can be prompted to reconstruct entire copyrighted works, so saying “it’s transformative” as my defence is pretty weak when the model is fully capable of recreating entire non-transformed unaltered works.

    But doing all of the above and then putting it all behind a paywall, I’ve now clearly swayed all four factors of Fair Use against myself, and if I don’t have Fair Use to hide behind then it’s pretty clearly in the territory of copyright infringement.

  17. Comment on Russians confront wartime internet cuts with public shrug, private fury in ~tech

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    One person’s learned helplessness may be another person’s survival instinct. After all, you’re right that this is not a recent experience, and at a population level, I feel like you’ll eventually...

    One person’s learned helplessness may be another person’s survival instinct. After all, you’re right that this is not a recent experience, and at a population level, I feel like you’ll eventually see survival-of-the-shruggiest (to borrow words from the article), because the individuals and families who are inclined to kick up a fuss or fight for their freedoms are less likely to continue growing the family tree if they end up being disappeared.

    11 votes

  18. Comment on The final straw: Why companies replace once-beloved technology brands in ~tech

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    Now I’m picturing Lina Khan wielding an enormous oversized sword, and that seems fun! /noise

    Need some demonslayers.

    Now I’m picturing Lina Khan wielding an enormous oversized sword, and that seems fun!

    /noise

    6 votes

  19. Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    I’m not sure what you think “not explicitly stated” means, but if a website has a robots.txt that permits only a google search web crawler, or otherwise enumerates the options that the website...

    I’m not sure what you think “not explicitly stated” means, but if a website has a robots.txt that permits only a google search web crawler, or otherwise enumerates the options that the website owner writes up, I think that’s pretty explicitly stated intentions.

    I think it’s ludicrous to assume that a new technology or a new use case for harvesting data somehow gets a free pass by default, instead of a requirement to seek permission first by default. Especially in the context of a for-profit company locking the result behind a paywall but paying for none of the pieces.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on SAG Awards change name to the Actor Awards starting in 2026 in ~movies

    ThrowdoBaggins
    Link Parent
    Maybe it’s just my exposure to medieval fantasy tropes, but “The Guild Awards” could have been an excellent switch! Could even nickname them “The Guildies” to go with the Emmy’s and Grammy’s at...

    Maybe it’s just my exposure to medieval fantasy tropes, but “The Guild Awards” could have been an excellent switch! Could even nickname them “The Guildies” to go with the Emmy’s and Grammy’s at least in pronunciation if not spelling

    4 votes