ap0r's recent activity

  1. Comment on Do I need dating apps? (same-sex, a bit of ace) in ~life

    ap0r
    Link
    I used to think that dating and finding a "keeper" woman was complicated. Then this thread happened. Call me eye-opened, but not educated yet. How you guys and gals in non-heterosexual...

    I used to think that dating and finding a "keeper" woman was complicated. Then this thread happened. Call me eye-opened, but not educated yet. How you guys and gals in non-heterosexual relationships even manage to keep all these plates in the air is beyond my understanding.

    OP; this comes from a heterosexual male in a long-term partnership with my adorable wife, so take it with a huge grain of salt. But to me at least it makes zero sense to look for a new woman while hurting from a breakup. My advice to avoid latching yourself to the first person who gives you the time of the day would be to let 6 months pass before you start dating or even thinking of dating again. This is not tailored to you advice, this is general tailored to humans advice.

    By the way, this rule also applies to taking major decisions after a death in the family, or major trauma.

    5 votes

  2. Comment on Any male victims from female abuse? in ~life.men

    ap0r
    (edited )
    Link
    Thankfully no, but I bet it happens and it is extremely underreported. I am 194 cm and weigh 130 kg. About door-sized for the 'Muricans. If a female close to me were to attack me, there would be...

    Thankfully no, but I bet it happens and it is extremely underreported.

    I am 194 cm and weigh 130 kg. About door-sized for the 'Muricans.

    If a female close to me were to attack me, there would be no credible defense I could use without immediately being seen as the attacker myself. No police officer or judge would take me seriously.

    Thankfully I am surrounded by great women in my family and friends circle.

    9 votes

  3. Comment on How are we all feeling about piracy these days? in ~movies

    ap0r
    Link Parent
    One key evidence for your viewpoint is the timing of rise and decline in piracy, and how it matches with the enshittiffication timeline. When Netflix got started, they were in the User Acquisition...

    One key evidence for your viewpoint is the timing of rise and decline in piracy, and how it matches with the enshittiffication timeline.

    When Netflix got started, they were in the User Acquisition phase. The service was great, the price low, and the service exploded. Piracy declined because everyone saw the convenience. Again, most people do not fundamentally want to steal content, people want easy access.

    When Netflix got big and popular, they were in the Business Optimization phase. Prices steadily rose beyond inflation, there was a crackdown on account sharing, etc. Normies start to complain, and piracy sees a slow and steady rise.

    Then, at the end of the lifecycle, Exploitation (You are here). Exorbitant prices. Ads in a paid service. Selling your data to third parties (no evidence for this, no doubt either). Content fragmented and scattered. Editing of historical movies and shows to fit current morality. Push the narrative du jour instead of letting shows sink and float based on viewer choice. If you want to make a movie or show, you need to cater to Netflix execs. Sell 4K, provide 1080i. Have bean counters matter more than engineers in technical decisions.

    The service becomes shitty, the prices become unbearable. The value to the customer is gone. Normies start to move away. Piracy explodes. Stock price is still through the roof, so when the company goes under every MBA is like "surprised pikachu face".

    Mark my words, if a non-shitty streaming service is made, piracy will decline again. Until then, sailing the seven seas is the more logical option for reasonable people.

    8 votes

  4. Comment on Which Linux distro do you use, and why? in ~tech

    ap0r
    Link Parent
    Same. I am more interested in what I can do with my computer than what runs my computer. Therefore, I was content with Windows because of the huge software availability, especially games. It just...

    Same. I am more interested in what I can do with my computer than what runs my computer. Therefore, I was content with Windows because of the huge software availability, especially games. It just worked.

    But Microsoft Corporation had to go and extract maximum value from users and user's data. Let's add ads. Let's force online accounts. Do you want some AI snooping on your files? Speaking of files, of course you meant to look for Management 430 - Assignment 6 draft.docx on the Internet. With Bing, right? How about we encrypt your drive with Bitlocker, do not tell you about it, and also store the keys so any state agent can open 'er up? Frustration was accumulating, but man is an animal of habit and switching to a different OS felt like a big task that I kept kicking down the road.

    At some point there was a straw that broke the camel's back. A setting I had changed reverted back to Microsoft's preferred option. This user has their OS set to English - United States, therefore their keyboard distribution must also be EN-US. And even though the user has set their keyboard to ES-LA, clearly they are wrong and we at Microsoft know better. A quick web search revealed that yes, this is a common problem for some bilingual users since 15 years ago, and no, there is no clear reason why it happens or a solution.

    I felt that my computer was no longer mine, and that change was needed.

    My requirements were:
    a) easy transition from Windows, b) stable and gets out of the way, c) big community for improved support, d) a running start with most of what I would need rather than a bare-bones setup, e) no history of engaging in anti-consumerist practices, or being strongly influenced by big tech ecosystems with a track record of user-hostile behavior, and f) ability to play my games and use my software or a close enough equivalent.

    After researching, Linux Mint stood out as a popular distro that seemed to met my requirements. After some further research on Mint and determining that it fully fit my needs and was compatible with my hardware, I switched in Sep of '25 and haven't looked back.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on Project Hail Mary - Discussion thread in ~movies

    ap0r
    Link Parent
    This could be me but I found it hard to imagine Rocky's musical speech. The audiobook nails that in my opinion. That is all. It is not a huge difference, but it is superior to me.

    This could be me but I found it hard to imagine Rocky's musical speech. The audiobook nails that in my opinion. That is all. It is not a huge difference, but it is superior to me.

    5 votes

  6. Comment on Project Hail Mary - Discussion thread in ~movies

    ap0r
    Link
    Have read the book. Have listened to the audiobook. Spents months wishing they wouldn't mess the adaptation. I am very pleased with the movie. If you come into it expecting a blow-by-blow...

    Have read the book. Have listened to the audiobook. Spents months wishing they wouldn't mess the adaptation.

    I am very pleased with the movie. If you come into it expecting a blow-by-blow retelling of the book, you will be sorely disappointed. There is no way to fit sixteen hours' worth of content into a movie.

    If you come into it expecting a faithful adaptation to the spirit of the story, making accommodations for length and visual media, you will almost certainly be pleased, although there are a few nitpicks regarding plot points that are glossed over or changed. I felt that the changes are logical and understandable.

    The movie people did a great job adapting this story, I was pleased and will watch again. In order of enjoyment out of the experience, I would say the audiobook is king, and the book and movie tied for close second.

    Again, that is valid unless you go into the movie with a nitpicking mindset. The spirit of the story is there, but there were many understandable changes introduced, and some minor arguably unnecessary changes.

    I'd say, if you have not read the books go in blind. It will be a wild ride of emotion and friendship. If you have read the books, go into the movie with an open mind. The movie stands on its own, it is not a carbon copy of the book. If you are the type of person who obsesses over details and faithfulness to canon, skip the movie and stick to the books (but you will still be missing on a different, beautiful experience)

    Myself? Zero regrets. They didn't fuck it up.

    13 votes

  7. Comment on Commonly misspelled words quiz in ~humanities.languages

    ap0r
    Link
    Congratulations! You got 6460/8300—a high score! Typical score for my age group was 4506 I have been writing professionally since 2019, and am a non-native speaker. Turns out one learns a thing or...

    Congratulations!

    You got 6460/8300—a high score! Typical score for my age group was 4506

    I have been writing professionally since 2019, and am a non-native speaker. Turns out one learns a thing or two from writing and reading pages upon pages daily.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on This is old, but I learned about it today and it warmed my heart. What happens when a nursing home and a day care center share a roof? in ~life

    ap0r
    Link Parent
    The concept you mention is "healthspan", arguably more important than "lifespan". I wouldn't mind living to 200 in a decent body, with a sharp mind and intact memories, and with friends and...

    The concept you mention is "healthspan", arguably more important than "lifespan".

    I wouldn't mind living to 200 in a decent body, with a sharp mind and intact memories, and with friends and family. Living to 90 in a declining body with a mind that you know is feebler every week, and losing friends and family, everyone you hold dear? No thanks for me.

    3 votes

  9. Comment on This is old, but I learned about it today and it warmed my heart. What happens when a nursing home and a day care center share a roof? in ~life

    ap0r
    Link
    Combined nursing home and daycare. I am sure it improves health outcomes while delaying decline for the elder and enhances learning and socialization for the kids, but I mostly wanted to share...

    Combined nursing home and daycare. I am sure it improves health outcomes while delaying decline for the elder and enhances learning and socialization for the kids, but I mostly wanted to share because I thought this is a smart, simple idea to make the lives of everyone involved better.

    13 votes

  11. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    ap0r
    Link Parent
    Good idea, makes it look more intentional, and gives refined vibes. Have you considered any plants?

    Going to get my posters framed

    Good idea, makes it look more intentional, and gives refined vibes.

    Have you considered any plants?

    2 votes

  12. Comment on What radicalized you? in ~talk

    ap0r
    Link Parent
    I live in a country with state-funded healthcare. Our medical system is not top notch, but it is easily in the top 20 in the world. Still, people refuse to exercise and eat healthy. Cardiovascular...

    I live in a country with state-funded healthcare. Our medical system is not top notch, but it is easily in the top 20 in the world. Still, people refuse to exercise and eat healthy. Cardiovascular disease and diabetes are top killers, even with treatment, because the known preventatives in lifestyle and the known outcome improvers in lifestyle are not adhered to by people.

    This people problem is unrelated to politics. We eat junk, drive everywhere in giant motorized wheelchairs to our sit-down jobs, then go home to sit and stare at a screen and then blame Politician X from Y party for diabetes.

    17 votes

  13. Comment on AI was eroding trust in my classroom — so I got rid of typed papers and bought my students notebooks instead in ~life

    ap0r
    Link
    As someone who works writing papers for people, I was scared that the AI revolution and physical paper approaches like the one described here would kill my work. Turns out it is about the same it...

    As someone who works writing papers for people, I was scared that the AI revolution and physical paper approaches like the one described here would kill my work. Turns out it is about the same it has always been.

    There are AI detection tools, so flat-out copy-pasting does not work, and between fact-checking the AI for hallucinations and rewriting the paper to make it sound human, it ends up being about the same effort as writing the paper yourself, especially for longer 3+ pages papers, so customers continue to hire me. In the case of hand-written papers, the customer simply "hand-prints" my paper with a good old pen.

    Therefore, as a means to prevent cheating, this is a waste of the honest students time, and also a waste of valuable professor's time (reading handwriting is significantly slower than reading on a screen)

    However, I will note that AI has elevated the quality of my work. You can do so much with it that is not "write my essay". You can ask it for alternate theses, to find obscure facts and data that are hard to find and easy to check, to provide feedback on your paper, to contrast your paper against the rubric, to find factual errors and omissions, to organize your brainstorm into structured paragraphs, and so much else.

    If you are smart about it, you can use AI academically and increase the quality of your work while remaining 100% legit since you are not plagiarizing the LLM's output. It's like having a personal teacher. If you are dumb about it, you will copy-paste or replace words instead of properly paraphrasing AI and get found out.

    To the professor's credit, studies do show that handwriting can improve retention by forcing deeper processing and involving the motor cortex and other parts of the brain not stimulated by plain typing, so it might genuinely help some students. But mandating it for everyone, to me, feels like punishing the majority to catch a few, especially when smart AI use is already legit and undetectable if done thoughtfully.

    I guess the TL;DR of what I am saying would be:

    A) Handwriting is ineffective to stop LLM or traditional cheating.
    B) It increases workload for everyone for very minor retention benefits.
    C) AI can be used responsibly.

    So a better policy would be teaching students how to use AI well, rather than being a Luddite about it.

    5 votes

  14. Comment on GQ interview with Louis Theroux on his upcoming documentary about the manosphere in ~life.men

    ap0r
    Link
    Mr. Theroux’s interview failed to challenge my views about modern masculinity or the so-called "manosphere." It did, however, do an excellent job at reaffirming my skepticism towards...

    Mr. Theroux’s interview failed to challenge my views about modern masculinity or the so-called "manosphere." It did, however, do an excellent job at reaffirming my skepticism towards ideologically-driven authors (or documentarians in this case) and their narratives.

    From the headline and opening lines, the author's overly politicized language framing influencers as "ultra-misogynistic," "sinister," and part of a "grim coalition" signals a lack of objectivity, and the rest of the piece follos suit. Instead of presenting serious evidence for its case, it appears the documentary relies on a long list of anecdotal encounters and cherry-picked quotes to argue that the manosphere represents a broader systemic threat to society, particularly to young men. While dramatic and compelling, anecdotes lack statistical and empirical grounding.

    The piece conflates many social issues. Racism, antisemitism, homophobia, porn, human trafficking, and even conspiracy theories are packaged into an emotionally-charged narrative of internet toxicity, but it fails to provide clear causation links or even evidence of the relevance of this narrative to real-world harm.

    Indeed, it's true that many legitimate critiques can be made about toxic online influencers and their impact on impressionable audiences, but the interview's use of isolated cases detracts from those critiques by being methodologically unsound.

    As a man confident in traditional masculinity rooted in values such as responsibility, self-reliance, and respect earned through real-world actions, not online posturing I see the "manosphere" not as a powerful "final boss," but as a collection of weak men posing as alphas, hiding behind screens and ragebait to mask their insecurities.

    Mr. Theroux's portrayal amplifies them into villains, but it ignores how such figures thrive on the very attention pieces like this provide.

    The use of anecdotal evidence I could forgive if the narrative of escalating misogyny and cultural danger it pushes reflected reality, but available data contradicts this alarmism: Statistics indicate a general decline in domestic violence since the early 1990s.

    Of course, by ignoring the broader trends and selecting sensational examples, any compelling narrative can be spun, but without proper backing, this interview reads closer to promotional propaganda for Theroux's Netflix deal than to balanced journalism. It would have been much better if it had incorporated data to substantiate claims of widespread harm, rather than leaning on vague notions of "dark privilege" and existential burnout.

    Mr Theroux’s approach, evident in this interview and his body of work, reflects a progressive, media-savvy lens: Anti-traditionalist, quick to pathologize male struggles as "toxic," obsessed with vulnerability as a counter to strength, and allergic to nuance that might humanize without excusing. He raises a few interesting points about the internet's role in amplifying extremes, and the piece makes for good inflammatory reading, but with its evident ideological bias plus the statistics countering the main claim of a rising threat, it failed to change my views on masculinity.

    It serves as a cautionary tale on failing to separate cultural critiques from partisan activism rather than a good analytical discussion. Real men don't need to role-play as silverbacks. We build quietly, lead by example, and dismiss the manosphere posers without amplifying their noise.

    5 votes

  15. Comment on Do you have your invite request email? Post it and let's find out what drives people to want to be a part of Tildes. in ~tildes

    ap0r
    Link Parent
    Gmail does that to your sent emails (I guess to make them mobile-friendly). I copied and pasted it from my sent messages. I assure you the original was composed normally.

    Gmail does that to your sent emails (I guess to make them mobile-friendly). I copied and pasted it from my sent messages. I assure you the original was composed normally.

    4 votes

  16. Do you have your invite request email? Post it and let's find out what drives people to want to be a part of Tildes.

    ~tildes Ask
    Dear Tildes Team: I've been a long-time Reddit user, but lately it's been feeling more and more like Facebook. Suggested posts, hidden comments, and the subreddits I actually subscribe to are...

    Dear Tildes Team:

    I've been a long-time Reddit user, but lately it's been feeling more
    and more like Facebook. Suggested posts, hidden comments, and the
    subreddits I actually subscribe to are buried under irrelevant
    algo-suggested junk. The concept of Reddit is great, but its execution
    is done by a public corporation nowadays and its enshittification has
    been notable.

    I've been looking for a simpler, less commercialized place:
    chronological, user-curated feeds, thoughtful discussions as opposed
    to endless low-effort memes, and in general, absence of corporate
    nonsense to push engagement metrics and ads.

    Tildes seems to fit the bill. I like its focus on quality over
    quantity, clean and simple interface, and eemphasis on real
    conversations. It seems it's the kind of place I'd actually enjoy
    spending time on again.

    I'd really appreciate an invite if there's any room. I am also ready
    to answer any questions or provide whatever info you need.

    Thanks for keeping a corner of the internet sane.

    Best Regards,

    29 votes

  17. Comment on Booting from a vinyl record in ~comp

    ap0r
    Link Parent
    Thanks! I was able to watch the video. Still unable to access the website to learn how the infernal noise was made.

    Thanks! I was able to watch the video. Still unable to access the website to learn how the infernal noise was made.

    3 votes

  18. Comment on Booting from a vinyl record in ~comp

    ap0r
    Link
    It seems to be down right now :(

    It seems to be down right now :(

    2 votes

  19. Comment on The hidden engineering of runways in ~engineering

    ap0r
    Link
    There is so much engineering that goes into airports in general as well. To add to the video's material: All the navigation aid antennas and lighting poles near runways have to be frangible; i.e....

    There is so much engineering that goes into airports in general as well. To add to the video's material:

    1. All the navigation aid antennas and lighting poles near runways have to be frangible; i.e. fail in a controlled manner when crashed into to minimize damage to aircraft.

    2. A flat apron (the parking space for aircraft and where cargo and passengers are loaded and unloaded) is great for easy maneuvering and towing. However, it will flood easily in rain, so a graded apron is better. But the grading must be carefully designed, else under icing conditions planes, tow trucks, and even people may slide downhill or be hard to control. There are specs for grading airport aprons.

    3. To minimize the traffic of fuel trucks, many airports have a system akin to fire hydrants to deliver fuel under pressure directly to parking spots. One end of a hose to the airplane, the other end to the "fuel hydrant". To further take advantage of this system, many modern aircraft are designed with a single refueling point and a selector panel that ground crews can operate to fill separate tanks as needed instead of filling individual tanks on each aircraft, which requires hose repositioning.

    4. Airports can be surprisingly complicated to navigate on the ground, as there are many taxiways. Especially during the night or in bad weather, people have gotten themselves lost (or even used the wrong runway, which tragically resulted in fatalities). On many airports, you can request a "follow me" car, which does exactly that. A person familiar with the airport will drive to you, and guide you to a parking spot or runway.

    5. The iconic control tower look is there for a reason; the glass angle minimizes blinding sun reflections to aircraft approaching runways, and minimizes internal reflections for controllers.

    6. All airports will have a light gun to issue signals to non-radio equipped aircraft. Yes, flying without a radio is still legal in 2026. No, it is not a good idea to use busy airspace in a non-radio-equipped aircraft.

    7. Runway numbers and letters are not random; they are based on the runway's orientation. Instead of typing another paragraph, here is a video on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSRmfNDk87s

    7 votes

  20. Comment on What private companies are you happy doing business with? in ~talk

    ap0r
    Link Parent
    Of course the recipes are there to influence people to consume more baked products, ideally from that brand. What Slade meant (correct me if I am wrong, please) is that there is a difference...

    Of course the recipes are there to influence people to consume more baked products, ideally from that brand. What Slade meant (correct me if I am wrong, please) is that there is a difference between providing helpful information that may lead to a sale and disguising pure advertising as information.

    In other words, if I am a toolmaker and I publish a web compendium of useful niche tools, some of which I don't even make, this would be a boon to tool users, whereas if I published a web compendium of how to use my screwdrivers as ice picks, back scratchers, and tiny spears, I am fully focused on increasing my sales rather than providing true value to my customers.

    3 votes