V17's recent activity
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Comment on Epstein-Barr virus appears to be trigger of lupus disease in ~health
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Comment on New ‘Star Trek’ movie in works at Paramount from Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) in ~movies
V17 Link ParentJust to be a balancing voice and make your expectations more favorable: SNW sucks less than Disco and it significantly improves some aspects, but other aspects suck in very similar ways to all of...Just to be a balancing voice and make your expectations more favorable: SNW sucks less than Disco and it significantly improves some aspects, but other aspects suck in very similar ways to all of NuTrek.
Basically there is visibly not enough talent and/or effort in the teams working on it. So while they genuinely attempt to create something with OldTrek vibes, instead of either truly making something that feels like it or changing but meaningfully developing it the result feels like Trek cargo cult that copies some of OldTrek's features without fully understanding why they existed in the first place and what made them great. The rest is filled with modern scifi/tv trends that are sometimes good and sometimes suck, and supplemented by writing that is sometimes good and sometimes jarringly lazy.
For me it was just not good enough to keep watching. I enjoyed seasons 2 and 3 of The Orville much more because despite its shortcomings and the fact that it doesn't take itself fully seriously it clearly has the effort and understanding of Trek that SNW lacks. Also for the record I thought Enterprise was fine.
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Comment on Danish man convicted of sharing nude scenes from copyrighted films and TV series on the social media site Reddit in ~tech
V17 Link ParentPerhaps I misunderstand, but what exactly are the consequences of sharing clips from publicly (if paywalled) available movies? I can see how it may be somewhat uncomfortable for the actors to be...BUT at the same time I think it’s important to bring this behaviour forward so we can discuss the very reel personal consequences this have on people in this line of work.
Perhaps I misunderstand, but what exactly are the consequences of sharing clips from publicly (if paywalled) available movies? I can see how it may be somewhat uncomfortable for the actors to be shared only for a nude scene, but it's hard for me to consider it harmful enough to be punished in any way since the scenes were already made to be aired. And the second potential issue, piracy, is obviously de iure real, but I find it hard to see a significant loss of potential profit here.
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
V17 Link ParentI wouldn't worry about that. Surely a niche artist isn't going to use basic AI to create unoriginal mainstream music. I was thinking of stuff like training music making AI models on field...@V17 made an interesting point about use of AI on the experimental, niche end of things that hadn't occured to me at all. That honestly bothers me a little. If AI becomes prevasive in the mainstream, how original can anyone be by using it?
I wouldn't worry about that. Surely a niche artist isn't going to use basic AI to create unoriginal mainstream music. I was thinking of stuff like training music making AI models on field recordings from a steel mill, experimental jazz musicians improvising with a realtime generating model (surely that's just a matter of time now) or making weird post-club music even weirder and more post-clubby.
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Comment on How has AI positively impacted your life? in ~tech
V17 Link ParentNo idea about China, but I've been using ChatGPT 5 to make executive summaries of relatively specialized documents in Czech (my native language, so I can easily check the validity) and it's been...No idea about China, but I've been using ChatGPT 5 to make executive summaries of relatively specialized documents in Czech (my native language, so I can easily check the validity) and it's been great both in understanding the document and in writing. In this technical non-artistic style it's usually good enough to be used without further editing, it feels like a native wrote it, which wasn't the case in some of the earlier models.
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
V17 Link ParentThis may sound like gatekeeping and snobbery, but I agree and I would expand this further: most "top xx" popular music of whatever genre is slop created by a cynical industry. So no matter what we...This may sound like gatekeeping and snobbery, but I agree and I would expand this further: most "top xx" popular music of whatever genre is slop created by a cynical industry. So no matter what we think about generative AI from a moral standpoint, it's not surprising that a new kind of slop can compete with the old kind of slop.
I predict that this is going to become very common in the future, and that generative AI is going to be used at this hyper-mainstream end of the spectrum, where people just don't care, and at the opposite end of the spectrum, in the strongly niche spheres where people are going to use it in creative ways to push the envelope. And the hugely broad middle of the road group, the people who like music more interesting than whatever's on the radio but don't seek out the most out there stuff, is going to stay strongly anti-AI.
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Comment on An AI-generated country song is topping a Billboard chart, and that should infuriate us all in ~music
V17 Link ParentThis has to be an individual thing because I've already seen many generated images where it was difficult to impossible to say whether they were real or not. And based on the relatively large...I think we have more defenses built into our visual processing (as we primarily interact with the world visually, and expect a lot more logical consistency in our visual inputs) vs audio processing, which makes it a bit easier to get AI music past them - most people process music on a more abstract level.
This has to be an individual thing because I've already seen many generated images where it was difficult to impossible to say whether they were real or not. And based on the relatively large "image generation turing test" done by Scott Alexander which used a number of curated real and generated images in different painted, drawed, digitally painted, 3D rendered and other styles I am way above average in my ability to spot them. There are styles in which AI is really good and others in which it's really bad, plus there are some common styles that are not technically bad but are immediately recognized as AI, but in the styles in which a model is good at it's possible to create something where most people cannot recognize real from fake even with effort.
However I have not so far heard a single generated song where I didn't quickly realize that it's AI generated. I think that most often you hear the artificialness in the color of the voice, and it's no different here. I think it also depends on the quality of reproduction, because many of the artifacts get lost if you just listen to it on your phone, but good headphones or loudspeakers really make a difference.
For the record I am both a musician with an interest in sound reproduction and a graphic artist, both on a "paid hobby" level, and I commonly use generative image AI myself.
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
V17 Link ParentReading this I think we have shifted a bit too far from my original point of "are these policies actually normal in Europe and is the article sensible?", because at this point it almost seems like...Reading this I think we have shifted a bit too far from my original point of "are these policies actually normal in Europe and is the article sensible?", because at this point it almost seems like we're just discussing whether "my" system or "yours" is better.
In the spirit of that, like you I do believe that a different environment and starting conditions usually need different policies, so there's no disagreement with what you say. And it's quite interesting, I had no idea that fare jumpers may get fucking shot, that is insane. I don't know how often that happens, but as far as I know around here something like that has never happened, so I find it shocking even if it's rare.
I do wonder how that may change the safety of NYC subway though - even through the positive trends it still has a few times higher rates of violent crime than Tallin, so I wonder if it may get worse and require more NYPD officers for security than however many are freed up by not pursuing fare jumpers. Pure speculation on my part though because I don't know what the presence is like these days.
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
V17 Link ParentI agree, but there has to be a line for this, because inevitably in every society you get some amount of people who don't pay pretty much just because they don't give a shit and/or who make public...My goal isn't to make people "feel it" it's to solve the underlying reason they're not paying.
I agree, but there has to be a line for this, because inevitably in every society you get some amount of people who don't pay pretty much just because they don't give a shit and/or who make public transport less safe or friendly for everyone else. And while some reason for that behavior surely exists, it's not realistically fixable. And if you make it worth it to not pay by making fines low and/or ticket control infrequent enough, many people are not going to pay regardless if they can afford it or not.
Regarding forgetting or losing your card, the public transport provider here went the Steam piracy route and tried to make things frictionless where possible, so that it's just easier to pay than to try to avoid fines. Your pass is tied to your identity, which was always the case, so they created and encouraged the option to register it to your debit/credit card instead of special pass card, since that is something that people always carry with them. Every debit card is contactless, so ticket control equals to just putting the card over a portable scanning machine. If you lose it, you can have it transferred to a different card and if you merely forget to have it on you the fine is very low, mostly symbolic, because it's trivial for the provider to check that you did indeed pay for a valid pass.
Similarly you can pay for standard tickets by putting a contactless debit card onto a terminal near every door in every vehicle when you get on, and at the end of the day the total cost is automatically paid from your bank account, the maximum being the price of a 24-hour ticket. This has reduced the amount of non-paying passengers significantly.
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
V17 Link ParentI think it's fine because it needs to serve as a real deterrent and it's done in combination with tickets that are affordable for pretty much anyone and a system so dense both spatially and in...I think it's fine because it needs to serve as a real deterrent and it's done in combination with tickets that are affordable for pretty much anyone and a system so dense both spatially and in frequency that for personal transportation you really don't need a car.
A basic ticket that lasts for 1 hour when switching lines or until the end of a single line, so it gets you nearly anywhere in a city of 400k, costs less than 1/5 of minimum hourly wage. And going to longer tickets or passes gives better prices. The standard cost of a yearly pass is over 5 days of minimum wage work, which is iirc the most expensive one in Czechia, but that's still significantly cheaper than using a car, and residents get a 30% reduction in price (something that I consider discriminatory but it is nevertheless useful for many people). In other words for 1/10 of a minimum hourly wage each day you get unlimited travel within the city limits that gets you nearly anywhere. If you decide to not pay it, you're going to feel it to some degree.
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
V17 Link ParentApart from this not being true as somebody else pointed out, it's also a clearly a bad example for the article because, as was my overall point, it's not at all a common thing in Europe. And this...The city-run grocery store is not replacing any privately owned ones, mereley supplementing them. f the city-run grocery store is such a bad idea, it will fall flat on its face inside of 5 years.
Apart from this not being true as somebody else pointed out, it's also a clearly a bad example for the article because, as was my overall point, it's not at all a common thing in Europe. And this is not just because it reminds eastern europeans of communism too much, it's also because it's solving a specifically american problem: we don't have big sprawling cities with food deserts and without public transport. Turkey is quite far from a typical European country and the reason for their grocery stores existing is likely not the same either.
Regarding public transport, it's really not clear whether it makes sense financially or not. Yes, the systems for collecting fares cost a lot, but for example ticket controllers collect enough fines to pay for themselves where I live, as far as I know, and that is despite the fact that the cost of the fine is limited by law to a relatively reasonable amount (currently it's about 7 hours of minimum wage work). Having to rely on collecting fares also brings incentives for the transport provider to increase the number of passengers.
Anyway, I would argue that completely paying for something so big and expensive is a somewhat radical proposal, but again my point is that firstly it's quite rare in Europe and secondly the whole situation and the problem that it's solving in Estonia is very different from what you or Mamdani say it would solve in NYC as well. Afaik, like most post-communist countries, Estonia already had a complete, developed system that was widely used.
I realize that I basically made two arguments: firstly that the positions mentioned in the article are radical, and secondly that using Europe as a comparison doesn't make sense. I still stand by the former, but it's more subjective than the latter, which I think is clearly true.
Interesting example with the library though.
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
V17 Link ParentI agree with many of your points, but I think this article does a bad job because instead of illustrating what you described quite well the author chose to talk specifically about policies that...I agree with many of your points, but I think this article does a bad job because instead of illustrating what you described quite well the author chose to talk specifically about policies that are either uncommon or nonexistent because there's no need for them in Europe (municipality owned grocery stores are quite irrelevant here since we don't have sprawling car-centered cities with food deserts). And I think Mamdani is not a good person to illustrate this on in general because anybody who isn't a fan of his will correctly point out that some of his policies indeed are quite uncommon anywhere else.
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
V17 Link ParentPersonally I think we should also draw a line between democratic socialism and social democracy. The latter is not socialism at all, it's regulated capitalism with welfare, which is what is...Personally, I draw a hard line between democratic socialist policies that I support and authoritarian/totalitarian government of all kinds including communism.
Personally I think we should also draw a line between democratic socialism and social democracy. The latter is not socialism at all, it's regulated capitalism with welfare, which is what is actually used in Europe, it's much more digestible to most people and it encompasses most of the important ideas like affordable healthcare, education or public transport.
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
V17 Link ParentI think you misunderstand. Yes, attempts at actual communism (not something like "free healthcare" policies) did immeasurable damage to my country, so it is a touchy subject and I hope it stays...I think you misunderstand.
Yes, attempts at actual communism (not something like "free healthcare" policies) did immeasurable damage to my country, so it is a touchy subject and I hope it stays that way, but also we do have many social democratic policies that leftist democrats call for, like tax paid healthcare and higher education or heavily subsidized public transport and any attempts to reduce those are met with significant protests.
Yet the policies that I mention and that are mentioned in the article go beyond things that we, a relatively well functioning society with policies that many americans would call "socialist", do or propose. And they are quite uncommon in western Europe as well. So my point is that the article tries to normalize Mamdani's policies by putting them into a new context, but the context is fictional. Whether they're good ideas is a separate issue, but in my opinion the article is simply wrong. And I don't think that saying "well in XXXX they do this!" is a good way to defend policies in general.
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
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Comment on Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ in ~society
V17 (edited )LinkI disagree with the article, starting with the title, and it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. The contents are not great either, starting with "left-leaning Dutch person calls US leftist politician...- Exemplary
I disagree with the article, starting with the title, and it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. The contents are not great either, starting with "left-leaning Dutch person calls US leftist politician normal", it would be hard to think of something more banal.
The reality in the post-communist Europe where I live is that the actually leftist democrats like AOC or Mamdani propose a strange mixture of policies, some of which just seem normal like the article claims, and others seem insane and/or remind us of dysfunctional soviet communism.
Usually the difference between mainstream opinions here and in the US is that since about 2010 even the mainstream democrats often are significantly more socially liberal than we are, despite the fact that US far left calls these mild democrats names for not being left enough. But with people like AOC or Mamdani even the purely economic policies are often quite far from normal.
Making public transport free is a radical idea that technically exists in Europe, but it's a very uncommon thing and there's no easy answer to whether it really makes sense or not. Generally services like this tend to be subsidized but not free. Municipally funded grocery stores would never fly here because communism, and also there's no need for it. Rent freeze may make sense, but it is again most definitely a radical idea because any such strong and large scale intervention inevitably always has negative side effects and one needs to be very careful to examine whether it's really worth it - and it very well may be, but it is a radical solution and this is the reason why.
Also seeing Hasan Piker at Mamdani's celebration say that it's a tragedy that the US defeated the USSR in the cold war was fucking disgusting. It may not be related to Mamdani's opinions, but it does bring a feeling of "jesus christ, these are the people in the broader group around him??".
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Comment on How Bill Gates is reframing the climate change debate in ~enviro
V17 Link ParentThe US also got many allies by projecting soft power through mutually highly beneficial things like USAID programs (whether aimed at health or regional development), defense treaties or simply...The US also got many allies by projecting soft power through mutually highly beneficial things like USAID programs (whether aimed at health or regional development), defense treaties or simply trade, all of that with pretty much no downsides, no catch. I'm in the ex-eastern bloc and US has been nothing but good to us.
Multipolar world in current reality means pretty much the opposite of "we talk stuff out and keep our promises", it means giving more influence to countries like Russia and China who care about international law even less than the US and want to expand their spheres of influence whether the affected countries want that or not. We want to be allies of the US. If the US backs out as a deterrent, sooner or later we will probably be forced into a hot war with Russia.
(the fact that Europe's defense and determination is not strong enough to be a deterrent on its own is entirely the result of our naivety and incompetence, not faulting US for that, though letting it happen would still be really stupid)
For a functioning multipolar world actors like China and Russia would have to change first and then the US could back down from being the biggest superpower, otherwise the result is going to be worse for everyone because at least now we have the US contest or deter their worst actions.
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Comment on Affinity V3 is here with a new freemium model in ~design
V17 Link ParentI still haven't tested it, but I've seen recommendations for RapidRaw as a good free alternative to Lightroom. It's new and it looks really good. Also Photopea, it runs in browser, which I hate...I still haven't tested it, but I've seen recommendations for RapidRaw as a good free alternative to Lightroom. It's new and it looks really good.
Also Photopea, it runs in browser, which I hate (but so does Graphite iirc), but I have to admit that feature-wise it's the best free Photoshop alternative there is, better than Affinity Photo in some ways. It's ad supported and needs internet connection to start it, but there are some forks on Github that add an electron wrapper to it and let you use it offline supposedly. Not sure how well it works or how kosher it is - I thought Photopea was merely freeware, not open source.
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Comment on How Bill Gates is reframing the climate change debate in ~enviro
V17 Link ParentPersonally I like realistic solutions the most. The chance that competitiveness between world's superpowers is going to end within the timeframe talked about here is tiny. And even with all the...Personally I like realistic solutions the most. The chance that competitiveness between world's superpowers is going to end within the timeframe talked about here is tiny. And even with all the criticisms that I have for the west led by the US I greatly prefer a world led by the west to a world led by China because the west decided it doesn't want to be a superpower anymore. Global socialism is a pipe dream.
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Comment on How Bill Gates is reframing the climate change debate in ~enviro
V17 (edited )Link ParentHis note doesn't read to me like he focuses on just economic growth in general. He still seems to want to focus on things that have the biggest impact on quality of life. I see the motivation as...My criticism of economic growth as a metric is that this is a very zoomed-out way of thinking. Some kinds of economic growth are surely more valuable than other kinds, and GNP doesn't make distinctions.
His note doesn't read to me like he focuses on just economic growth in general. He still seems to want to focus on things that have the biggest impact on quality of life.
I see the motivation as twofold:
- The problem with climate change mitigation is that the further you want to push it, the more expensive each bit gets. It gets incredibly expensive and inefficient. However programs for adaptation to climate change tend to be quite effective, whether in terms or lives or dollars saved per dollar invested. Therefore it seems like a good idea to cut the most expensive and least efficient ways of climate change mitigation and use the money for adaptation instead.
- Full on mitigation is politically untenable because of the huge costs and negative effects on economy, global competitiveness etc., and it's also often seen as unfair to third world countries. So focusing on creating more positive and visible outcomes and helping poor countries makes the whole effort more realistically viable.
edit: One more reason that I think is implied but not explicitly named in the article. Focusing on economically helping poor undeveloped countries is also very advantageous because you attack multiple targets: economical development reduces mortality, reduces overpopulation, reduces large scale migration, in some situations reduces violent conflict etc., on top of possibly reducing environmental impacts. Whereas green programs in developed countries focusing on one goal, while great in some situations, are often inefficient and notoriously full of negative side effects. The probability of fucking things up is way smaller when focusing on helping the poorest.
EBV seems to cause so much shit over time, I cannot wait till the vaccine is out. IIRC the Moderna Vaccine was already in the later stages of clinical trials and they were simultaneously developing a therapeutic vaccine, for usage when one already falls ill, though that one was in early stages.