UniquelyGeneric's recent activity
-
Comment on What server location should I use for a VPN? in ~tech
-
Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in to use old.reddit.com in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentAnother proxy service I discovered is safereddit.com. It’s got a slightly nicer UI in my opinion (particularly comment sections), and darker dark mode. It’s just one of many instances of redlib if...Another proxy service I discovered is safereddit.com. It’s got a slightly nicer UI in my opinion (particularly comment sections), and darker dark mode. It’s just one of many instances of redlib if you’re curious seeking others in the future.
Keep in mind it proxies all content so images and videos in particular load more slowly. I actually see this as a benefit as it helps me limit my usage out of frustration waiting for a video to load. The time spent waiting is a moment of self-reflection of whether I really care about the content I’m consuming. It also has pages like old Reddit so it prevents doomscrolling.
I suppose these services may not last forever (I do not understand the business model), but in some ways this is helping me wean off Reddit while still letting me check in on small subreddits.
-
Comment on Any significant changes to Tildes are extremely unlikely in ~tildes.official
UniquelyGeneric (edited )LinkWhile I will echo the somber sentiment of this thread, can I entreat others to potentially look at it as a positive? Tildes has gone through ups and downs over the years, somewhat reactive to...While I will echo the somber sentiment of this thread, can I entreat others to potentially look at it as a positive?
Tildes has gone through ups and downs over the years, somewhat reactive to changes by Reddit, and yet it remains. Perhaps the original userbase has shifted with exodus waves, but the flame of the Tildes torch has been continuously lit. Yes, there has been internal drama, but the core ethos of meaningful text-based discussion hasn’t been lost.
In an age where AI threatens every corner of the web, Tildes operates as a small but mighty bastion against the tides. Locking down user growth insulates it from the growing influx of AI slop and manufactured outrage. Tildes is not immune to the general sways of the public sphere, but we have less of a chance of being infiltrated by astroturfing due to the low user numbers. That may end up being our strength.
Our own format excludes low-effort users as well: long voluminous comments are prized, whereas short quips and puns are discouraged (or labeled as noise). Maybe this stagnation in embracing change is actually a strength? This “off putting” aspect has organically found its own human verification rather than subscribe to the misguided efforts seen across governments in the modern world.
One thing I’ve always appreciated with Tildes is the commitment to the ideals of the Socratic dielectic: that through discussion and good faith arguments we might strive closer to achieving something beyond current knowledge and edge closer to the Truth. In practice (with notable examples of users feeling disregarded/silenced) this can be debated at length, but that’s the magic: the healthy debate/discussion is the point. Otherwise we might as well be throwing our thoughts into the æther. Even if another human connects with a thought/comment from another it is a net-benefit to communal understanding. It’s my personal philosophy that this shared understanding is the whole point of life. The problems we face only seem surmountable with a shared understanding and empathy that comes from open communication itself.
To adapt /u/delphi’s analogy, we are a humanist cult collected in makeshift/open source camps of our own doing. We tend to our small fires of enlightenment, dotted alongside the superhighway in hopes of attracting those offbeat users, but with no intention of inviting the throngs of incurious and caustic elements that make the rest of highway toxic to engage with. We can redefine ~society/life as we see fit, but only with the consent of those who agree to participate in our own little experiment on this sometimes-cozy corner off the beaten web.
-
Comment on Movie fatigue in ~movies
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentSome one-room movies that are engaging and might pique your interest (I’m breaking your 2010 rule because I personally think you’re self-limiting for the wrong reasons): My Dinner with Andre...Some one-room movies that are engaging and might pique your interest (I’m breaking your 2010 rule because I personally think you’re self-limiting for the wrong reasons):
- My Dinner with Andre (1981)
- Coherence (2013)
- The Sunset Limited (2011)
- Locke (2013)
- Buried (2010)
- Exam (2009)
- Cube (1998)
- Rope (1948)
- Rear Window (1954)
- The Man From Earth (2007)
- The Lighthouse (2019)
- The Hateful Eight (2015)
Sorry that I don’t have more time to explain more. I just boarded a flight. Some of these are not cinematographically as interesting as the cerebral discussion themselves.
As many other commenters have said, there is a wealth of historical cinema to experience and with the age of AI there’s no reason you can’t find more content if you look for it.
When I saw the post title I originally anticipated the opposite: that you didn’t have the energy to watch high quality cinema. My problem these days is trying to find the time with my partner to watch movies that I think are high value but require paying full attention to appreciate (a challenge after getting burnt out throughout the week). Assuming you are willing to put in the time and effort, there isn’t a lack of good movies, just maybe challenges with availability.
-
Comment on Things that don't suck in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentOn a similar thread I think it's fascinating that there's a growing body of evidence that animals have some form of consciousness: Rats showing human-like imagination (2025) The NY Declaration on...On a similar thread I think it's fascinating that there's a growing body of evidence that animals have some form of consciousness:
- Rats showing human-like imagination (2025)
- The NY Declaration on Animal Consciousness signifies a growing consensus amongst academics on the science in this field (2024).
- Birds demonstrate a theory of mind, imagining someone else's motivations (2016)
- Consciousness itself may stem from vertebrate evolution (2013)
Heck, even plants are showing signs they can count (2026)! To the extent that we recognize other conscious life forms on Earth, we have a greater potential to learn from them as well.
However, despite all the interesting research, that's not why I felt compelled to post. I came to the thread to avoid some of the doom and gloom, but seeing the most voted on post being about penguins made me uneasy since this very same week emperor penguins were reclassified as endangered species. This is largely due to a major drowning of penguin chicks due to climate change.
I don't want to bring down the thread entirely, and I don't want to downplay the insights we can gain from raising animals in captivity so I'll leave with some other recent good news: Pandas are no longer an endangered species!
-
Comment on Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentLooking at this report from 2023, it looks like ~24% of the ad traffic on Twitter/X was invalid/bot traffic. While I agree that Dead Internet Theory may have started as an online joke, I think...Looking at this report from 2023, it looks like ~24% of the ad traffic on Twitter/X was invalid/bot traffic.
While I agree that Dead Internet Theory may have started as an online joke, I think there’s some truth to it when a quarter of one of the largest social media sites was bots. Now, there are a lot of reasons why there could be bots, and surely not all of them are posting content, but the ones that do can generate more in an hour than a single human can in a day. Now with the rise of AI agents and Clawdbots, the barriers for creating bots are getting lowered every day. Paired with such large financial incentives to create engagement and steer public discourse, I can only imagine the number of bots has gone up in recent years.
To your point about low effort content getting signal boosted, the bots don’t need to be producing high effort content either to attract upvotes. Bots can dominate conversation simply by generating superfluous content to drown out the genuine humans.
It’s a commonly recognized phenomena for new bots to make reposts on Reddit (particularly in r/aww and r/todayilearned) to farm karma, thereby establishing a false legitimacy before moving on to more nefarious astroturfing. When you look at the comments on these reposts they are carbon copies of the top comments on the original posts. These aren’t just low effort jokes either, they can be word-for-word anecdotes. The bots commenting on bot reposts could be fueled by bot farms looking to quickly karma farm multiple new accounts.
It’s very telling when you look at Reddit’s auto-generated username format (e.g. Adjective-Noun-XXXX, where X is a number). The bots don’t even need to generate their own username and avoid collisions anymore, Reddit does it for them! Once you see it you’ll notice it everywhere, particularly in comment threads, and that’s why I feel Dead Internet Theory may not be such a joke after all.
-
Comment on Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentYeah, their subjective definition of what is a good bot gives them flexibility to pick and choose what helps foster engagement from real users (or maybe even just other bots?). We already know the...Yeah, their subjective definition of what is a good bot gives them flexibility to pick and choose what helps foster engagement from real users (or maybe even just other bots?). We already know the negative effects that rage-baiting and engagement driven metrics has on public discourse at large.
This also reminds me of when Elon Musk bought Twitter to fight the bot problem, and then suddenly became silent about it once he was behind the helm. One can imagine once he saw the actual numbers he realized that bots are a significant portion of traffic, to the point that advertising revenue/profitability may have been dependent on it.
-
Comment on Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric LinkOn the heels of Reddit getting fined for not being aggressive enough with its age verification, they will now implement human verification to allegedly combat the rampant bots on the platform. I...- Exemplary
On the heels of Reddit getting fined for not being aggressive enough with its age verification, they will now implement human verification to allegedly combat the rampant bots on the platform.
I was initially intrigued by the idea that bots can effectively be labeled and filtered out on a site I’ve long suspected has been succumbing to Dead Internet Theory. One does not have to look far to see that Digg’s reboot couldn’t even last a year due to supposed bots overwhelming its platform. In an age of AI agents, it’s no surprise this is likely a serious problem that large social media sites have to deal with.
Whereas Meta may soon be embracing the bots, it’s interesting to see Reddit is primarily labeling them. It appears they will allow “good” bots on the platform while banning the malicious ones (something they claim to already do to 100K accounts a day).
While Reddit’s CEO claims this will be done in a privacy-safe manner, and that they do not want their users’ identity, this doesn’t seem to track with what they are actually doing. First off, they already do collect users’ identity through email verification which in turn makes Reddit’s ads business more enticing to advertisers. Secondly, their proposed methods of human verification don’t pass the sniff-test:
- Passkeys - This does nothing other than verify you have a separate device or service to store the passkey. Bitwarden does this for free in a browser extension. While this may increase the effort to run a bot, it does little to prevent a motivated bot farmer from operating.
- Third-party Biometric Verification - This is an area already fraught with privacy violations due to poorly implemented age verification systems over the past year. To make matters worse, the one example given is Sam Altman’s controversial iris scanning crypto company (although Reddit’s CEO vaguely describes a hypothetical method that wouldn’t use iris scanning…hand-waving away any privacy concerns).
- Age Verification - The very same technology that is currently being shoved down the Internet’s throat via draconian laws, questionable vendors, and suspect lobbying sources. It’s an easy scapegoat to deflect blame by claiming it is a method of last resort, yet there are no laws requiring Reddit to perform human verification in the first place.
It makes me wonder if it’s incompetence that has led to the CEO sharing half-baked ideas rather than launching with a fully executed strategy, or if there is something more nefarious going on. It sure is convenient that they claim not all users will be requested for human verification, just the ones engaging in “fishy behavior”. This could easily be used as a tool to censor users and/or gather more information on political dissidents. The fact that there will be no actions taken against human accounts that post AI slop makes me question what their desired end result is here.
Perhaps it’s the privacy advocate in me just getting paranoid at the continuing erosion of Web 1.0 freedoms. Perhaps it’s my jaded cynicism at the motives behind Reddit (and social media at large) over the past 10+ years. Perhaps I’m just not ready to accept the brave new world we’re entering.
Perhaps I’m not alone.
-
Reddit will implement human verification to tag and combat bots
48 votes -
Comment on ArXiv is separating from Cornell University, and is hiring a CEO, who will be paid roughly $300,000/year in ~science
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI’m really interested in what seems to have caused expenses to triple. It looks like Cornell must have been indirectly funding it by hosting the servers and general costs around electricity and...I’m really interested in what seems to have caused expenses to triple. It looks like Cornell must have been indirectly funding it by hosting the servers and general costs around electricity and maintenance. That seems to have ballooned >3x from 2024 to 2025. The cynic in me wonders if AI tooling made it easier to publish and/or scrape content about AI research.
-
Comment on Lenovo’s new ThinkPads score 10/10 for repairability in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric LinkI hate to be that guy, but Lenovo and iFixit have a partnership, so a 10/10 review by iFixit is a little like grading your own homework and/or biased towards driving sales to their partnership....I hate to be that guy, but Lenovo and iFixit have a partnership, so a 10/10 review by iFixit is a little like grading your own homework and/or biased towards driving sales to their partnership.
Not to diminish the benefits to repairability. As a ThinkPad owner whose trackpad needs replacing, this is a welcome alternative to my current strategy of just dealing with it.
That being said, as a daily driver of a Framework laptop, the repairability is only one aspect. I would prefer to see upgradability as well, particularly in this era of RAM/Storage/GPU scarcity. I may only have an opportunity to upgrade one component at a time and I would hope that as ThinkPads become more modularized the ability to upgrade becomes part of their business strategy.
-
Comment on Bookmark management for non-technical people? in ~tech
UniquelyGeneric (edited )LinkI feel like this pithy comment will drown in the valuable Tildes advice, but my recent job drowned me in documents that I sometimes-regularly referenced. I looked into a lot of productivity...I feel like this pithy comment will drown in the valuable Tildes advice, but my recent job drowned me in documents that I sometimes-regularly referenced. I looked into a lot of productivity managers and I hated the overhead in most of them.
My saving grace was the Arc Browser. It exchanges the idea of bookmarks and tabs to make you think critically about whether a tab is really something worth keeping long-term (ie a bookmark). The integration is relatively seamless for those who have to sift through a constant stream of URLs. If you have a set list of sites you alway use then it’s easy to import bookmarks but you may not be the target audience of the browser.
I feel the need to comment that Atlassian acquired The Browser Company, which manages Arc, and has grandiose ideals of making a truly AI agentic browser (the Dia browser), leaving Arc to rot. That being said, even if the browser lacks development, I really appreciate the mental mode of thinking about browser tabs ephemerally (ie kill after 24 hours).
-
Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentThere’s capacitive touch on the thumbsticks and capacitive grip sense on the handles. I imagine a combination of those is used to determine grip position to disengage the touchpads while you’re...There’s capacitive touch on the thumbsticks and capacitive grip sense on the handles. I imagine a combination of those is used to determine grip position to disengage the touchpads while you’re using thumbsticks for control. Given the deliberate decision to depart from the original Steam Controller design I’m willing to give Valve the benefit of the doubt on having thought this through.
That being said, I’m somewhat disappointed with the lowered trackpads and skeptical that it will be comfortable to use properly, but I will likely see for myself once I get my hands on them. I’d still prefer the original Steam Controller design of a top-right concave trackpad, as that is the most natural position for thumbs to go. Maybe I’ll still keep my OG Steam Controller for mouse-heavy games.
-
Comment on Is vaping less harmful than smoking, and does it help people quit? in ~health
UniquelyGeneric LinkWhat the article doesn’t touch one, but I am extremely curious on, is the impact of vaping weed. This article basically throws its hands up in the air because it’s too difficult to measure,...What the article doesn’t touch one, but I am extremely curious on, is the impact of vaping weed. This article basically throws its hands up in the air because it’s too difficult to measure, despite some obvious negatives like pesticide concentration and vitamin E used in solvents.
It feels like weed vaping is less dangerous than nicotine, but that might just be based on decades of propaganda promoting cigarettes and the subsequent fallout of lung cancer diagnoses. Weed has never been as widely marketed in the mainstream and vaping is a relatively new concept that coincides with legalization (and therefore an increase in general usage).
Time will tell, but I also wish I had a near term indicator to help gauge what’s truly dangerous and what’s effectively as dangerous as alcohol (which I know is also a carcinogen, but also clearly not as damaging as tobacco smoke has proven to be).
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentYeah, you’re likely right. If I redefined my list, “probably” would be 50% and “likely” would be something higher (but with an upper bound of 90% to give enough of a degree of uncertainty) so...Yeah, you’re likely right. If I redefined my list, “probably” would be 50% and “likely” would be something higher (but with an upper bound of 90% to give enough of a degree of uncertainty) so maybe 75% is the right sweet spot.
I wrote my initial list at a bar so it was not going to be exhaustive, nor academic, but this is the type of topic that would make for a fun bar debate.
To fuel the fire, I wonder what other terms like “maybe” or “perhaps” imply in terms of probability?
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentYes, the PIE roots are often theorized because there wasn’t a written language when they were initially formed, so you’ll see notation with an asterisk (*) like: for the root of both “wind” and...Yes, the PIE roots are often theorized because there wasn’t a written language when they were initially formed, so you’ll see notation with an asterisk (*) like:
*wendh-
for the root of both “wind” and “wander”.
-
Comment on What are some “sore thumb” lyrics for you? in ~music
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentThis comment was borne out of a place of open-minded intrigue and a desire to challenge personal assumptions, but I want to caveat that as the writer, I am a member of generally accepted majority...This comment was borne out of a place of open-minded intrigue and a desire to challenge personal assumptions, but I want to caveat that as the writer, I am a member of generally accepted majority in society and therefore may have an unconscious bias to downplay eugenics in its various forms.
The outcome of the movie is that the world learns and adapts to new information, and for the better. President Camacho is one of the first individuals to overcome his ego, eventually abdicating his own position for the greater good.
It may not be a super compelling argument against eugenics, but I think the fact that characters (and the general populace) show some growth at the end tips the scale towards “nurture” in the nature vs. nurture debate.
That overall message may be done through crude humor and now-verboten slurs, but as I’ve dissected the film I don’t think the premise was inherently eugenicist. It’s ultimately the lopsided population distribution (to low socioeconomic status) and environmental destruction (due to lack of expertise) that causes a vicious cycle that leads to the idiocracy, not a “poisoned” gene pool. You could argue that “poor people over-producing” aligns with many eugenicist beliefs, but the film isn’t advocating for murder or violence against these people either.
I started to get deep into this and wanted to understand what constitutes genocide, to see if it strictly had a genetic component. According to the Genocide Convention, it involves an “intent to destroy[…]a national, ethnically, racial, or religious group”. I don’t see the lower socioeconomic status group in Idiocracy as belonging to those since the eventual governing body of the US (/world?) is itself a racially diverse group. However, if I were to be more fast and loose with definitions and instead claim that the descendants of the low socioeconomic progenitors are themselves one of these qualifying bodies, then the education of “low IQ” individuals could qualify as genocide under:
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
But even then we are talking about people evolving into improved human beings…not being destroyed/murdered. So from this perspective the film is not advocating for eugenics.
Outside of the film, there’s relatively strong evidence to indicate that socioeconomic status is a far more likely of predictor of outcomes than genetics. Some of the counterfactuals to those studies (e.g. that adults can increase IQ over time) continue to give credence to the “nurture” side of the debate as they imply the environment is the primary limiting factor to IQ rather than genetics.
I didn’t start this comment to downplay your interpretation. I saw the film a year or two ago and some elements definitely did not age well by modern standards. That being said, I have personally used the film as an allegory for some of the current decline we’re seeing in society and I wanted to reassess whether my memory clouded my judgement in its message (to the extent that I looked up the full screenplay to be certain of the ending narrative). There’s definitely some ambiguity still left in interpretation, as most art tends to have, but the concrete examples I found led to my ultimate evaluation that it’s not genes but the social environment that deserves critiquing.
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI do see a hierarchy of likelihood via various terms: Possible - the base form. The laws of physics don’t preclude the outcome from happening. Feasible - the outcome is achievable based on an a...I do see a hierarchy of likelihood via various terms:
- Possible - the base form. The laws of physics don’t preclude the outcome from happening.
- Feasible - the outcome is achievable based on an a set of common/available conditions, but needs an independent impetus to actually happen.
- Plausible - it’s believable that the outcome can be / was achieved
- Likely - it’s beyond a 50% chance the outcome has or will happen
- Certainly - it’s beyond any doubt that the outcome has or will happen
- Definitely - it’s a 100% chance at achieving the outcome
Now, when you string these hierarchies together (“it’s certainly possible…”, “it’s definitely likely”) it becomes a layer too deep for me to want to explore further.
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric Link ParentI’ve been fascinated at the similarities between “wonder” and “wander” since they are conceptually similar (i.e. to wonder is to let your mind wander). The etymologies appear separate (though both...I’ve been fascinated at the similarities between “wonder” and “wander” since they are conceptually similar (i.e. to wonder is to let your mind wander). The etymologies appear separate (though both of Germanic origin). The PIE root for “wander” at least gives some indication of its base abstraction which also forms the word “wind” (as in to turn / winding around). Makes sense, since you try to “wrap your mind” around a concept by wondering/wandering about various facets of it.
-
Comment on What words do you recommend? in ~talk
UniquelyGeneric LinkConflate - I most often use this when cautioning about equating two concepts that are necessarily distinct (e.g. “let’s not conflate rights with privileges”). Because I’m a sucker for etymologies...Conflate - I most often use this when cautioning about equating two concepts that are necessarily distinct (e.g. “let’s not conflate rights with privileges”). Because I’m a sucker for etymologies I looked it up and it’s essentially Latin for “with fire” as in to melt together.
First, choose a VPN provider you trust. I used to suggest Mullvad, but their CEO’s political involvement has made me more wary of their business practices. Regardless, they’re one of the the few VPN providers to have proven their no logging stance.
Second, be aware of what you are exposing on the wire. Notably, who is the intended recipient? How much do you trust them? Many websites gleefully share your data via trackers they purposefully embed on their own site. Some VPNs claim to Adblock these; in my experience having your own browser extension for adblocking is going to be far more effective (uBlock Origin is the de facto standard, but I also prefer uBlock Matrix to selectively grant access). Most browser extensions are not trustworthy either. Your own browser choice might be another consideration since it’s the agent exchanging information on your behalf. Firefox is good, but don’t assume its default configuration provides comprehensive coverage for your use case.
Lastly, geographic IP location matters to some degree, but not in the way you might be anticipating. Data privacy laws can get very specific in interpretation, and this doesn’t always mean a VPN exit node has any bearing. For example, California’s primary data privacy law explicitly protects California residents, not visitors. A savvy business could make that distinction based on your account/billing info and not your IP address. Conversely, the EU protects those physically located within its jurisdiction, and doesn’t make residency a requirement. In practice, this nuance is beyond most companies’ capabilities so you can generally assume they use IP address geolocation for applying privacy protections. If you’re not logged in, the EU will have the most protections for your web browsing, but you will have to suffer through a consent popup on every website you visit. California does not require you to opt-in to data sharing, so you would avoid the cookie pops, but not benefit from the data protections unless you are sending GPC opt-out signals from your browser (DuckDuckGo has this by default, Firefox must be manually set). In my opinion this is not worth your time unless you know what you’re doing, and even then it may still not be worth the trouble for the privacy gain (this is assuming you are already using a VPN with an adblocker). I’d choose a local VPN connection if your actual intent is blending in with the crowd, and it has a benefit of lower latency to boot.
There’s a lot more that goes into data privacy (e.g. what credentials are you using to login to a service?) that could be a post of its own, but since you’re specifically asking about server location I wanted to share the more relevant details to improving your privacy posture. VPN location is not high on the list of concerns imho.