V17's recent activity
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Comment on Megathread: April Fools' Day 2025 on the internet in ~talk
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Comment on Megathread: April Fools' Day 2025 on the internet in ~talk
V17 Link ParentI wonder how many times this has happened in different games. I can't remember which one it was, but one april fool's joke was implemented as a real game mode in Arma.started as a joke but is supposedly now in development.
I wonder how many times this has happened in different games. I can't remember which one it was, but one april fool's joke was implemented as a real game mode in Arma.
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Comment on Why I recommend against Brave in ~tech
V17 Link ParentSimilar experience here. I use a Xiaomi phone, those are somewhat known for having a bit too aggressive battery management, which may interfere with apps running in the background. However in...Similar experience here. I use a Xiaomi phone, those are somewhat known for having a bit too aggressive battery management, which may interfere with apps running in the background.
However in reality the only app that I used which had a problem with this (and it happened all the time) was Firefox.
There are few things more infuriating than when you have to login to some place that uses 2-factor authentization, so you switch away from Firefox into a 2-factor app for literally no more than 15 seconds to confirm, and as you switch back you find out that Firefox apparently stopped, started, loaded a cached version of the page and promptly reloaded it, interrupting the login process and forcing me to do the whole thing again, sometimes three times before it worked. This also caused some minor annoyance regularly in sites like reddit - I put the phone away, reopened it 10 minutes later and it showed the cached version but immediately after reloaded the whole page, completely losing the position on the page, which sometimes changed in the meantime (as votes changed and new comments appeared).
This has been a known bug for years.
On top of that tabs sometimes straight up crashed when loading specific sites.
Switched to Brave and I've had zero issues since.
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Comment on Tips on attending a metal fest in Europe in ~travel
V17 Link ParentAs much as I dislike pragocentrism, if you only have a couple days, it's probably best to just go to Prague. It's a beautiful city with lots to see and do, whether that's architecture, galleries,...- Exemplary
As much as I dislike pragocentrism, if you only have a couple days, it's probably best to just go to Prague. It's a beautiful city with lots to see and do, whether that's architecture, galleries, clubs (visit Cross Club if you go, at least for a beer if you don't find music you like, it's touristy and the atmosphere is not as good as it used to be, but it's still a world unique) or just walking around and getting mildly drunk in beer gardens (prices of beer are still good outside of tourist traps). Jazz Dock is a great jazz club, if you're into that.
If you're from a region with a different climate or landscape and enjoy hiking, then Czechia has a lot to offer - a dense network of well marked tourist trails and some areas that are quite beautiful and relatively diverse considering how small the country is. I'm particularly a fan of Šumava (woody hills and mountains), Vysočina ("highlands", partially grassy and partially woody hills) and southern Moravia (lowlands with vineyards and some pictoresque villages). However there's imo no sense in going to those places for just a day unless you're already nearby.
A trip to Brno, located in southern Moravia, which also offers interesting architecture, including some related stuff like huge empty 100+ years old underground water reservoirs and a network of baroque cellars, plus it has some of the best bars in Czechia and is overall much more chill than Prague because there are very few tourists, followed by a day in the actual countryside with the vineyards etc. that is nearby, might be doable and interesting.
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Comment on Tips on attending a metal fest in Europe in ~travel
V17 LinkYour date fits right between Obscene Extreme (which may not be what you want, but it surely is what you need) and Brutal Assault, which is good because otherwise I think it would have been a shame...Your date fits right between Obscene Extreme (which may not be what you want, but it surely is what you need) and Brutal Assault, which is good because otherwise I think it would have been a shame not to extend your trip locations to Czechia. Baden in Blut looks good and I wouldn't worry about language too much. Can't exactly speak about german festivals, but here in Czechia festivals are always full of foreigners and everyone in the festival crew expects this. With the visitors it can be hit or miss, but with enough beer (which in Germany should be a given) you'll make friends regardless of language.
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Comment on Tips on attending a metal fest in Europe in ~travel
V17 (edited )Link ParentAdding to this. You need hearing protection to any kind of music festival, it can be useful even for jazz festivals. I used to be a metal drummer and metal shows in clubs were some of the loudest,...Adding to this. You need hearing protection to any kind of music festival, it can be useful even for jazz festivals.
I used to be a metal drummer and metal shows in clubs were some of the loudest, louder than raves for example. Outdoor festivals doing any kind of modern music tend to be about equally loud.
The cheapest earplug with usable sound that I know of is Alpine WorkSafe - it reduces about 20 dB (enough to be in the pit) and has okayish frequency response (better than some of the musicians plugs - their quality varies a lot and most manufacturers choose not to publish their frequency measurement data for that reason) despite being marketed for work, and a pair costs about 12€ I think. However no earplugs apart from 200€ custom molded ones get anywhere close to flat frequency response, so what helps is to wear the plugs all the time so your ears get used to the sound and your brain compensates.
Also clean your ears well before the festival so the plugs don't get plugged with earwax, which further reduces treble.
Even the cheap foam earplugs are fine in a pinch
And if even those are not available, roll up a small bit of paper tissue and stick it in your ears. Seriously. When the sound is loud enough, even this increases comfort and reduces damage.
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Comment on Rodent for dinner? US residents encouraged to eat invasive nutria. in ~enviro
V17 Link ParentYou made me google rabbit sausages and they're uncommon and kind of expensive, but one that's mixed rabbit/pork is available near me. Seems like lunch for thursday is sorted. Oh, and I found a...You made me google rabbit sausages and they're uncommon and kind of expensive, but one that's mixed rabbit/pork is available near me. Seems like lunch for thursday is sorted. Oh, and I found a recipe for nutria sausages, but not actual sausages for sale here.
Speaking of mildly controversial sausage meats, horse sausages are great as well.
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Comment on Rodent for dinner? US residents encouraged to eat invasive nutria. in ~enviro
V17 Link ParentI like some game meat, but rabbits, apart from having a distinct taste that's imo less pleasant than boars, deer and other large animals, are weirdly dry. They're a traditional source of meat...I like some game meat, but rabbits, apart from having a distinct taste that's imo less pleasant than boars, deer and other large animals, are weirdly dry. They're a traditional source of meat where I'm from because they're so easy and cheap to breed almost every rural home used to have a few for meat, but their consumption reduced dramatically once we stopped being poor, so if nutria meat tastes similar, it's unlikely to become a hit.
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Comment on My sixteen-month theanine self-experiment in ~health
V17 Link ParentI don't believe that's all there is because I experienced a consistent difference between different teas and it also tended to only happen after second or third steeping of the leaves, when most...I do think a lot of the people who experience a calming effect from things like tea underestimate how much of the effect comes from the experience and ritual of making the tea and sipping a tasty warm beverage, as opposed to being the effects of a specific chemical.
I don't believe that's all there is because I experienced a consistent difference between different teas and it also tended to only happen after second or third steeping of the leaves, when most caffeine is flushed out. It only happened with relatively expensive high quality green teas, but not with all of them, it was not a function of price.
After all there are other active chemicals in tea than just theanine, and this could also be the effect of some interactions between them. It's been some time since I read anything about this, but iirc for example gamma-aminobutyric acid, which is present in teas in various quantities, may or may not have a small calming effect on its own, but it likely somewhat reduces the effect of caffeine itself and reduces "caffeine crash".
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Comment on My sixteen-month theanine self-experiment in ~health
V17 (edited )LinkInteresting and well-done. I think the probability of "it works, just not on me" is a bit higher than he suggests: there are some types of supplements for which the difference between responders...Interesting and well-done. I think the probability of "it works, just not on me" is a bit higher than he suggests: there are some types of supplements for which the difference between responders and non-responders can be really stark and the group of responders may be quite small because they all have some tiny metabolic issue causing something like reduced bioavailabililty and in time defficiency. Amino acids tend to be in this group because a slight deficiency can be caused by stress in some cases or by a gut microbiome dysfunction, and unlike genetic issues related to amino acids this doesn't tend to cause big issues that one would be aware of. edit: Forgot to add, since the responder to non-responder ratio is rather small, it tends to produce inconclusive or even negative study results unless closely examined, which would fit here.
Still, it doesn't seem super likely. Anecdotally I also used to get calming effects from high quality green teas and did not feel anything similar from an entirely non-blinded test of theanine.
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Comment on Disney scales back ‘Snow White’ Hollywood premiere amid Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot controversies in ~movies
V17 Link ParentThis is not that important and I'm not really arguing with you, just for the record because I recently looked into that: it was not just tumblr, which was still considered the craziest, it was...This is not that important and I'm not really arguing with you, just for the record because I recently looked into that: it was not just tumblr, which was still considered the craziest, it was very much on reddit and also on some more ideological traditional media already - recently when David Lynch died I looked through some articles about him and found several about him being a disgusting sexist and his movies being misogynistic, and reddit discussions on similar topics, much more aggressive than you would find now, and they were from around that era.
Bust mostly I just remember it because it all annoyed me when it was happening.
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Comment on The Sims 1 music is...different in ~games
V17 Link ParentAll of this is really interesting context. But without wanting to seem combative, as a musician who plays music that is partially similar (and yeah, most of such music is from the 50s or 60s) I...All of this is really interesting context. But without wanting to seem combative, as a musician who plays music that is partially similar (and yeah, most of such music is from the 50s or 60s) I just don't hear it in there, apart from obviously referencing a different era. My interpretation is that Will Wright chose this music because of the era it comes from and because of its energy, which helped create the image he was going for, but there is nothing strange or subversive about the music itself - if anything it may provide a contrast to a sim running around a house on fire by not being strange or complicated.
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Comment on Disney scales back ‘Snow White’ Hollywood premiere amid Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot controversies in ~movies
V17 Link ParentI don't fully agree. 2014 was definitely already peak "internet intersectional feminism" and for example articles denouncing real or imagined sexism or racism in any kinds of popular media were...I don't fully agree. 2014 was definitely already peak "internet intersectional feminism" and for example articles denouncing real or imagined sexism or racism in any kinds of popular media were definitely a thing, but it's likely true that cancellation attempts were much less of a thing or that the online activism would not extend on issues like dwarfism yet.
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Comment on The Sims 1 music is...different in ~games
V17 Link ParentI think this is to some degree necessary if you want music that's accessible to the mainstream. I'm not educated in this genre, but I wouldn't expect anything else. I play in a jazz band that...I've got a few composer friends and family who coincidentally grew up on The Sims; their professional opinion is that the music is kinda dreck. Especially the build mode piano music, as part of a modern classical / neoclassical/ whatever genre you want to call it movement of stuff that often pushes nothing and sounds really similar, sometimes because it's pop masquerading as classical.
I think this is to some degree necessary if you want music that's accessible to the mainstream. I'm not educated in this genre, but I wouldn't expect anything else.
I play in a jazz band that focuses on various subgenres mostly from 40s till 70s that are playful and digestible for non-jazz people but still interesting - some classic standards, some swing, 50s lounge and bossa, some Sinatra, some Brubeck... From this point of view some of the soundtrack's jazz songs are really good, they have great atmosphere, they have useful forms that allow for interesting improvisation when played live, and they have a core that's likeable for the "educated masses", not just jazz musicians. And indeed we actually play the two linked songs, Central Park Sunday and UpDown Town, and people seem to like them.
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Comment on Disney scales back ‘Snow White’ Hollywood premiere amid Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot controversies in ~movies
V17 Link ParentI don't think it's just that. The Hobbit trilogy was released just over a decade ago when social justice was already a big social trend, it had the same situation with different non-dwarf actors,...I don't think Gimli et al were "problematic" in their time, in large part because that was over 20 years ago now. Times and the conversation have changed and moved on, and I suspect there may be different opinions about the dwarves and their representation in Lord of the Rings.
I don't think it's just that. The Hobbit trilogy was released just over a decade ago when social justice was already a big social trend, it had the same situation with different non-dwarf actors, and I don't remember any controversy back then.
I think controversy like that tends to follow movies that are easy targets, usually those that are already expected to be bad due to other things. This was not the case at all with LOTR, but it was to some small degree the case with Hobbit - it wasn't super popular with LOTR fans and doing it as a trilogy was perceived as a cash grab (imo deservedly so). But for some reason the criticism did not arrive despite that, at least in the mainsteam.
With Snow White iirc the controversy only came when Disney released a couple stills and people found out it looks like Snow White and the Seven Diversity Hires (and also snow white is arguably clearly not better looking than the queen), which was a bad idea to begin with. If the film's production looked like it was as serious as LOTR, I'm sure some people would have complained anyway, but I do not believe the complaints would have received anywhere near as much attention as they received here. When it looks like it's going to be a crappy cashgrab that nobody wanted, it's a controversy magnet.
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Comment on The Sims 1 music is...different in ~games
V17 (edited )LinkTurned it off after a couple minutes because ugh, feels like a tumblr-style commentary making things up to be interesting. The name of the video did not help. The soundtrack is mostly made by...Turned it off after a couple minutes because ugh, feels like a tumblr-style commentary making things up to be interesting. The name of the video did not help.
The soundtrack is mostly made by Jerry Martin and Marc Russo, who are great musicians and didn't make "...different" music as a social commentary, they simply made a normal well made soundtrack inspired by the topics of the game. Parts of the style being different from how music is used in some games today is simply a product of the time when the game was created, not some conscious subversion. Some of their music for The Sims expansion packs is also excellent, and possibly their most famous work is the soundtrack for Sim City 3000.
Just spend 40 minutes listening to the music instead of watching this video.
Here are my favorites by them, from Sim City:
Jerry Martin - Sim Broadway - an orchestral piece that I sometimes listen to in the morning in stead of having a coffee
Marc Russo - Central Park Sunday - 5/4 jazz that sounds a bit like stealing from Take Five by Brubeck but transforming it into upbeat energy similar to the above.
Jerry Martin - UpDown Town - a sort of "90s modern jazz" with a slight lounge/cocktail bar feel.Edit: And out of The Sims soundtrack, my favorite is music from the Hot Date expansion
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Comment on You are witnessing the death of American capitalism in ~finance
V17 LinkI didn't watch all of it, too long, but I did try to get a gist and seeked out stuff that I think is missing in the argument. It was better than I expected, but: He seems to attribute the 50s...I didn't watch all of it, too long, but I did try to get a gist and seeked out stuff that I think is missing in the argument. It was better than I expected, but:
He seems to attribute the 50s economic boom solely to economic policies, neglecting the once in a lifetime economic circumstances after the end of WW2, together with favorable demographics and other external effects, which together likely affected the 50s more than any economic policies could. This is mentioned in the notes in the video description, but that's not enough - he's building a thesis while omitting possibly the biggest counter-argument of one of its parts.
And unless I missed something, he fails to do the most basic sanity check for many of his interpretations of economic and social changes: compare how Europe was doing the whole time. It's not only the post-WW2 situation, different parts of Europe were doing things quite differently from the US - western Europe always had a more regulated economy and the regulation usually kept increasing, UK pre-Thatcher was ricidulously overregulated in some areas with a deregulation shock afterwards, eastern Europe brought over many economic regulations even after getting rid of communism and soviet influence etc.
And yet some of the things that are happening in the US have been happening in many of those countries as well. And others were not. Unless you ask how well the generalization that you made from observations in the US fits in other contexts, you cannot know how wrong some parts of it may be.
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Comment on Repeatedly upvoting violent content on Reddit can now get you flagged in ~tech
V17 Link ParentI don't see any of those as comparable. Mastodon and Lemmy because their userbase is a tiny fraction, Truth I've never visited but afaik it's a safe space for american conservatives, so not...I don't see any of those as comparable. Mastodon and Lemmy because their userbase is a tiny fraction, Truth I've never visited but afaik it's a safe space for american conservatives, so not exactly general social media (though if it's actually mostly unmoderated, it shows that you don't need strong moderation to have a space suited for a group of people and relatively untouched by their outgroup, but I doubt that), and I don't remember advocating for completely anonymous free for all like 4chan - although even 4chan used to be less politically insane and less popular with regards to politics specifically, before the polarization that is at least partially caused by mainstream social media happened and some of the "refugees" started to go there and make it both more insane and more prominent in the conspiracy far right area.
X is very obviously moderated in an ideological fashion, just in a different direction than it used to be. Though community notes are imo one of the better ideas to handle this issue and one big advantage of X is that it easily allows you to circumvent "the algorithm" and view only posts from profiles you follow, in chronological order, and even make different topical groups of profiles.
In any case, this is most definitely off-topic, it has nothing to do with reddit or how policies that cause further chilling effect are going to affect its quality for the users.
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Comment on Repeatedly upvoting violent content on Reddit can now get you flagged in ~tech
V17 Link ParentI think those two things are two parts of the same thing. If you want your reddit comment to be seen, you have to write it in a way that people will actually see, and for that you need at least...I think those two things are two parts of the same thing. If you want your reddit comment to be seen, you have to write it in a way that people will actually see, and for that you need at least some people to upvote you. This new method is just another type of comment filter, it's dependent on what's written in the comment people are upvoting.
Regarding the moderation, imo all the big social media go too far and do it in a stupid and heavy-handed way. I don't know how difficult it is to do it better, I do know this isn't good. I will always prefer slight undermoderation to overmoderation: I am able to decide what I'm going to read or write about and when I'm going to stop, but whenever somebody else decides for me and a millions of other users, they inevitably decide wrong.
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Comment on Repeatedly upvoting violent content on Reddit can now get you flagged in ~tech
V17 Link ParentYes, it of course makes sense to do it from the point of view of people who run reddit. I don't think there's anything good about it though. Based on previous experiences I have no faith in reddit...If I don't want a certain type of content on my site, I don't just want to remove the users who post that content, but also the users who endorse and support it.
Yes, it of course makes sense to do it from the point of view of people who run reddit.
I don't think there's anything good about it though. Based on previous experiences I have no faith in reddit enforcing this in a way that makes sense and makes the community better, I expect the contrary.
I am also incredibly tired of the trend of infantilizing users and not letting them talk about what they want to talk about. Though I do find it funny that people tend to work around this infantilization by using infantile speech, like using "unalived" instead of killed, probably without even realizing this irony. Reddit is already doing that, people have been calling other people regarded for a couple years because retarded is a flagged word now, and the first reaction to this new change has been people finding out ways to talk about Luigi without triggering the autodetector.
This just leads into more dystopian control of human communication that big social media is increasingly known for, where the censorship is heavyhanded, often completely nonsensical (Luigi's Mansion is flagged when genuinely talked about as a videogame, but talking about the actual guy and just writing Luígí is fine) and with zero options to appeal to a human who gives a shit or even to understand how the system works.
Here's a private one: my friend works as a dev for a faculty of computer science and they quickly cobbled together an "ASCII-art" (actually short-unicode-art) console version of /r/place that appears for everyone who logs in through ssh today.
So far it's not very interesting, it seems like it hasn't spread around that much yet. It's 1 pm here, so most of the traffic is likely yet to come. And of course the unix guys were going to create a perfect Nix logo.
edit: it is indeed getting slightly more busy and
you can now watch it in realtimeactually not, it wasn't made for actual traffic lol, maybe later. Everything here was made literally last minute, so right now the realtime display crashed.edit2: Here's what it looks like now, 4:27 pm CEST.
edit3: uncrashed, realtime again