ThrowdoBaggins's recent activity
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Comment on How can I prevent my work computers turning my home into an oven? in ~comp
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Comment on Why is it so hard engage people about indirect effects? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentMy family had computers for as long as I’ve been alive, and I got my own personal laptop at age 13, and tinkered with it until it broke in a way that needed a complete wipe and reinstall (multiple...Just” reading error messages and acting based on their contents requires a set of skills that for one reason or another these individuals never developed particularly well.
My family had computers for as long as I’ve been alive, and I got my own personal laptop at age 13, and tinkered with it until it broke in a way that needed a complete wipe and reinstall (multiple times!) so my familiarity with computers and troubleshooting is probably significant for anyone who doesn’t literally work in IT.
It was only in the last few years that I’ve found myself working within a large corporate structure with a dedicated IT department (previous jobs were much more physical and a lot less need for computers day to day) and I’ve gotta say the way my hands are bound is something that took a while to adjust to. I still follow troubleshooting steps if I can, but genuinely the number of times I look up an issue and the top results are “download X program” or “change Y setting” or “add Z into RegEdit” is well above 50%
I can easily, easily imagine that just about every person I work with could have had their life’s experience of computer interactions being significantly limited from day 1 by an IT system that doesn’t want you breaking shit, from the school computers in early education all the way through to their careers in larger organisations.
In that environment, there’s just no way anyone would learn that they can just keep digging to eventually find an answer and a solution that they can enact. I don’t even think I could call it learned helplessness because it’s just that they’ve literally never had the opportunity to learn at all through their lived experiences.
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Comment on Our interfaces have lost their senses in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins LinkThis immediately brought to mind two ideas for me. The first was the Pattie Maes TED Talk from 2009 (barely two years after the first smartphone!) with an incredibly clunky prototype...This immediately brought to mind two ideas for me.
The first was the Pattie Maes TED Talk from 2009 (barely two years after the first smartphone!) with an incredibly clunky prototype camera+projector device that was supposed to be a more intuitive gesture-based way of interacting with the digital world.
The second is the current state of VR, which other than refresh rate and number/density of pixels, really doesn’t seem to have progressed much further than this 2009 tech demo with regards to interface. My experience is likely coloured by Meta’s Quest 3 being basically my only VR UI experience which I’ve heard is even less imaginative than other VR, although not my much.
I wonder if better pass through AR and a complete projector wall might push for better ways and types of interacting with data? Because at the moment it seems like there are too many people who get motion sick from VR (even with high frame rates and low latency) for it to ever be truly ubiquitous.
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Comment on How do you feel about your PTO? in ~life
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI almost reflexively responded with “but a week is 5 days” because I’m too neck-deep in internal policy in my current job I forget just how comparatively good Australia has it, because I don’t...I almost reflexively responded with “but a week is 5 days” because I’m too neck-deep in internal policy in my current job
I forget just how comparatively good Australia has it, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen capped PTO, and the closest I’ve seen would be “if you have more than 8 weeks accrued (calculated pro-rata for part time) then the business can ask you to take leave”, and therefore there’s pressure on managers from higher ups to let the employees take regular holidays, so it’s pretty rare to have actually abusive managers deny leave forever
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Comment on How do you feel about your PTO? in ~life
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentMy instinctive response to this is to book well in advance and give your workplace plenty of notice, but then take more time off than your desk can be acceptably unattended. I’ve never worked...I guess ultimately I just feel like in a company of this size, a week off is just a week behind
My instinctive response to this is to book well in advance and give your workplace plenty of notice, but then take more time off than your desk can be acceptably unattended.
I’ve never worked anywhere with unlimited PTO but I’ve been in the situation where short breaks just result in catch-up when you return.
My solution to that was to take much longer breaks — they can definitely leave your work to pile up for a few days or a week, but if you give 6-months notice that you’re away for 5 weeks in a row, that’s going to be a lot harder for them to ignore.
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Comment on Hollywood’s IP dilemma | Whether it’s “Novocaine,” “Mickey 17” or the “Oceans” director’s latest, audiences are slow to show up for original films in ~movies
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentHaving recently watched Mickey17 and read the Wikipedia plot of Moon, I think they’re definitely different enough to be worth watching. The trailers lean into the kinds of issues that Moon seems...Having recently watched Mickey17 and read the Wikipedia plot of Moon, I think they’re definitely different enough to be worth watching. The trailers lean into the kinds of issues that Moon seems to deal with, but I feel like that only takes you up to Act 2 of Mickey17, there’s definitely more beyond that. But yeah having never heard of Moon, the parallels are surprising!
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Comment on Eleven spouses on what it’s like to live with someone on Ozempic in ~life
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThis attitude reminds me of “if you have a cold, have some citrus for the Vitamin C” — sure, in extreme situations, lack of Vitamin C (aka “scurvy”) can weaken your immune system to the point...See also chronic pain med use (you're just an addict), blood pressure meds (try yoga), ADHD meds (just stop eating refined sugar), depression meds (have you tried getting some sunshine instead?)
This attitude reminds me of “if you have a cold, have some citrus for the Vitamin C” — sure, in extreme situations, lack of Vitamin C (aka “scurvy”) can weaken your immune system to the point where you get sick more often, but with a modern diet where even the whitest of white bread is stuffed full of extra vitamins and minerals, I think it’s fairly unlikely anyone with a modern diet gets scurvy and that’s why they’re sick?
Likewise, sure in severe cases, lack of vitamin D might lead to being a bit morose, but that’s a long way from depression being cured with sunshine
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Comment on Steam Spring Sale suggestions in ~games
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI wish I could re-add games to my wishlist even after I’ve bought them! The wishlist already has the functionality I want — I can choose to have email updates when they go on sale, I can see them...I wish I could re-add games to my wishlist even after I’ve bought them! The wishlist already has the functionality I want — I can choose to have email updates when they go on sale, I can see them all in a single list with prices and discounts shown, and I can rearrange the list to whatever custom order I want!
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Comment on Steam Spring Sale suggestions in ~games
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentAgreed, and/or allow me to choose which games turn up there, because some games post wayyyy more than others. This small indie game that I love has had an update? Yes, tell me about it! I’m still...Now if they would just let us turn off the unneeded and poorly implemented news item line at the top of the librar
Agreed, and/or allow me to choose which games turn up there, because some games post wayyyy more than others.
This small indie game that I love has had an update? Yes, tell me about it! I’m still playing this game regularly, so I’d love to try out the new features as soon as they’re available!
That multiplayer behemoth of a game that I decided I’ve quit playing forever because Australia no longer has the population to sustain queue times has released yet more cosmetics and skins that cost the price of that beloved indie game I’ve been playing? No thanks, I am still not interested in it as I’ve ever been.
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Comment on What's a feeling you sometimes experience that you don't have a name for? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentFor context, my partner was ultimately diagnosed with both ADHD and ASD, whereas I only have the ASD and not the ADHD (although I’ve never been diagnosed officially, there’s a strong trend of ASD...but I honestly still find it hard to believe that waiting without something to occupy your mind with like that isn't unbearable for most people!
For context, my partner was ultimately diagnosed with both ADHD and ASD, whereas I only have the ASD and not the ADHD (although I’ve never been diagnosed officially, there’s a strong trend of ASD in my family, which is pretty heritable, so it’s pretty likely I have it)
It feels weird to say, but I could probably sit in a waiting room for most of an hour with zero stimulation before I’d start to get uncomfortable. It’s not something I’d go out of my way to experience, of course, but I think your therapist was right to write down that quote — unless I was being deliberately melodramatic, “unbearable” is not a word that comes to mind for me in that scenario, basically at any extreme of waiting.
Just wanted to provide my experience so you can see how other people might experience things. Note that I suspect ASD without ADHD pushes me even further along that axis than usual, and a neurotypical person would probably have patience somewhere between my benchmark and yours.
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Comment on A newly designed $5 snakebite armor quickly earns US student 18,000+ orders in ~engineering
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentFrom the article itself, it sounded like the big difference was that instead of looking industrial and generic, they responded to direct feedback and changed up the appearance to better fit in...From the article itself, it sounded like the big difference was that instead of looking industrial and generic, they responded to direct feedback and changed up the appearance to better fit in with the women and children in traditional styles.
The physical shape seems irrelevant to this particular point, and one of the photos I saw seemed to show the earlier version that wasn’t tailored to fit in with the local culture, so I was hoping for another photo later showing the difference.
I don’t mind so much, but it would have been nice to see the colourful version.
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Comment on What's a feeling you sometimes experience that you don't have a name for? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThe problem with questions like this is that everyone lives their life in first person “No I don’t pay special attention, just the normal amounts as everyone else does” from an internal...do you pay special attention
The problem with questions like this is that everyone lives their life in first person
“No I don’t pay special attention, just the normal amounts as everyone else does” from an internal perspective is a totally valid answer, and yet might not be at all accurate from an external perspective
When my partner was going for ADHD diagnosis, the psych she was talking to usually diagnosed children and therefore part of the process was usually asking the parents for their perspective. However, by the time you reach adulthood you’ve usually developed a few coping mechanisms which hide the underlying issue that young kids definitely haven’t sorted out yet
So when the psych was asking questions, the initial answer to something like “do you lose or misplace your keys” was a “no, never” with the unspoken “because my keys have a single place that they always have to be, and as soon as I get home, my keys always go into the bowl by the front door, because that’s where they belong” which reveals a hidden “and if they’re ever somewhere that’s not the Place They Belong, then they’re actually Lost Forever, because those are the only two states that a thing can be in” so the answer to whether you lose things is actually a solid “yes, except for this coping mechanism I’ve developed over the years”
As a substitute for parents, when my partner got to that part of the process, I came along and was able to provide those unspoken caveats to the questions as they were answered (because we had been together long enough that I saw all the little behaviours over the years), so I think that helped the psych reframe the questions to more easily get at the answers underneath
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Comment on What's a feeling you sometimes experience that you don't have a name for? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentAh, see this is where leaving bits up to the reader can enrich the story so much further! My mental model as I was writing was that the grandma dying and the cheap furniture were memories from...Ah, see this is where leaving bits up to the reader can enrich the story so much further! My mental model as I was writing was that the grandma dying and the cheap furniture were memories from before bodyprinting was available, but leaving it open was a good call because I much prefer your interpretation!
(Also, I hope the influence wasn’t way too obvious but the implanted memories and bodyprinting were heavily inspired by recently watching Mickey17 — it’s a little more trippy than I expected, but I recommend watching it if you have the opportunity and you like movies! I had a lot of fun with it!)
(Edit: you too @hobblyhoy, if you enjoy watching sci-fi movies, this one didn’t hit my “but that’s not how it works” bell too much, although the sci-fi setting is not completely at the forefront of the story)
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Comment on What's a feeling you sometimes experience that you don't have a name for? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentThank you, I appreciate your support! I certainly enjoy it, but I don’t think I could ever hold enough things together to write a short story, let alone a novel. Tiny snippets in random threads,...Thank you, I appreciate your support!
I certainly enjoy it, but I don’t think I could ever hold enough things together to write a short story, let alone a novel. Tiny snippets in random threads, though, I can probably keep doing.
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Comment on What's a feeling you sometimes experience that you don't have a name for? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentI get this too, I think it’s like an audio processing issue. I might be having a really lovely conversation with someone right next to me and they can be talking plenty loud, but then there’s a TV...I'm aware of the noises but struggle to hear voices or discern speech, even when it's right next to me
I get this too, I think it’s like an audio processing issue. I might be having a really lovely conversation with someone right next to me and they can be talking plenty loud, but then there’s a TV on the other side of the room playing super quietly, and suddenly I realise I missed half of what the person said but I know exactly what was happening on the TV
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Comment on What's a feeling you sometimes experience that you don't have a name for? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentOh boy, the overwhelming becoming-yourself-again feeling of when your memories are uploaded back into your just-printed body, as every sliver of memory and every morsel of emotion and every waft...I wonder what I'm missing out on not being born 200 years later
Oh boy, the overwhelming becoming-yourself-again feeling of when your memories are uploaded back into your just-printed body, as every sliver of memory and every morsel of emotion and every waft of consciousness bump past each other on their way in, before they settle into their usual structured place that they belong.
It’s difficult to describe, but it’s kinda like synesthesia turned up to 100. When the last time you hugged grandma collides with the year that measles was finally eradicated and they both get smushed up against your memory of just how much pressure you can apply when tightening the screws in cheap furniture before the wood splinters, and suddenly you’re actually thinking about just how much pressure to apply to measles before your grandma is eradicated, and it makes no sense until suddenly it all falls into place.
If you could feel emotion in that moment, you might name it bewilderment, but actually I think it’s a lot closer to that look you see on a baby’s face the first time they experience something completely new. They don’t have room for the emotion of bewilderment, because every neurone in their brain is working overdrive in order to synthesise this brand new experience into a cohesive whole. You don’t have room for emotions or even confusion, because you’re experiencing your entire life, one neurone at a time, and all crammed in together at once.
It feels like that, and you have no sense of time, so it takes forever and also it’s over in the blink of an eye, and both are true at once.
(Thanks for unintentionally giving me an opportunity to flex creative writing, I forgot how much I missed doing this, even if it’s not very good yet)
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Comment on What's a feeling you sometimes experience that you don't have a name for? in ~talk
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentJust as a counter-argument, my answers probably align with yours here too, and although I’ve never had it severely enough to be diagnosed, it runs in the family for me so I’ve likely got it a bit....Just as a counter-argument, my answers probably align with yours here too, and although I’ve never had it severely enough to be diagnosed, it runs in the family for me so I’ve likely got it a bit.
Try these ones on for size:
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do you have any siblings (non-gendered word for “bothers and sisters”), niblings (non-gendered word for “nieces and nephews”), or cousins (non-gendered word for “cousins”) who have been diagnosed with autism?
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do you think the incidence of autism, adhd, and/or or bipolar within your friends group would likely be higher-than-average or lower-than-average (I’m not letting you choose “probably about average” as a choice here because that’s just the default position of a brain trying to shortcut its experience as generic or typical, and also it’s not a useful answer here)
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if you play board games, do you like to pick at or unravel ambiguous game rules that don’t account for every edge case?
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do you have good attention to detail, or do you spot things other people might miss? Have people told you that you do, even if you doubt it within yourself?
None of these will be comprehensive of course, but if you resonate with all of them, then it might be something.
Having said that, while I’m pretty sure I’ve got it at least mildly, I don’t think I’ll ever get diagnosed (and indeed don’t think I could get diagnosed) because I’ve already shaped my life to accommodate some of the weaknesses and amplify the strengths that it provides, so it will never cross the threshold of “disrupts my life” that a diagnosis would require
Also, just on question 2) there’s already a very small push here towards “above average” given you’re in Tildes. I don’t know if we have proper statistics, but I feel like I see a higher rate of people discussing neurospicy here than the wider population demographics should predict
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Comment on What are your personal reading "rules?" in ~books
ThrowdoBaggins LinkI read less than I would like to, and very slowly at that, so my general guideline is pretty simple, and has worked for the last decade and a half... I read Peter F Hamilton’s sci-fi books in...I read less than I would like to, and very slowly at that, so my general guideline is pretty simple, and has worked for the last decade and a half...
I read Peter F Hamilton’s sci-fi books in approximately the order they were published, usually trying to focus on one “universe” at a time (e.g. if multiple books come out that jump back and forth between different universes, I try to follow one at a time through to completion before picking up books in the next universe)
I always buy paperbacks and then laminate the covers so they hopefully last longer, and I like getting matching cover art styles which means carefully looking up ISBN numbers for reprint batches that all got done at around the same time
He’s still alive and publishing, and I’m still a really slow reader, so this will likely continue working for me for maybe another decade?
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Comment on What are the best truly unbeatable E2EE, presumably P2P messaging apps? in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentYeah, a book or maybe something like Library of Babel? https://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?xwtt.rjw311Yeah, a book or maybe something like Library of Babel? https://libraryofbabel.info/bookmark.cgi?xwtt.rjw311
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Comment on What are the best truly unbeatable E2EE, presumably P2P messaging apps? in ~tech
ThrowdoBaggins Link ParentYeah I meant the bible as an illustrative example, I feel like it’s too widely known to be very secure. But the idea behind it would be that a person who decrypted the message only ever sees a...Something that actually involves the bible or a book is going to be low entropy enough that codebreakers can trivially break the code.
Yeah I meant the bible as an illustrative example, I feel like it’s too widely known to be very secure. But the idea behind it would be that a person who decrypted the message only ever sees a bunch of numbers, so actual non-automated effort would be required to start attempting to identify the cypher, which might not be robust against a dedicated team focussing their efforts on you, but certainly gets in the way of automated mass surveillance.
But the logical extension of cyphers is the One-Time Pad. And as lot as your OTP is truly random, then it is as unbreakable as it is random.
Before your comment I wasn’t sure what a one time pad actually was, but Wikipedia has given me a useful understanding, and yeah that seems pretty convincing to me, but also the effort in creating two copies of truly random keys seems considerably above anything I’d ever need given I don’t intend to be targeted by actors with state-level resources. But super cool to learn about it, thank you!
I wonder if literally popping town to the local police station and asking them might at least put you on their radar so they maybe double check before sending a raid?
(This assumes the police operates for the benefit of society, which I would argue is a bit of a stretch or complete fabrication in many places)
I could imagine even starting the conversation with “hey I’m concerned that from the outside, my home data centre might look like a weed growing operation, could you please send someone around to have a chat and explore my options so that we avoid an expensive misunderstanding?”