arp242's recent activity
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
arp242 LinkI (finally) watched Denis Villeneuve's Dune. I still like David Lynch's version better, warts and all. Villeneuve's version is not a bad film, but I feel it looks too sterile and clean. It worked...I (finally) watched Denis Villeneuve's Dune. I still like David Lynch's version better, warts and all. Villeneuve's version is not a bad film, but I feel it looks too sterile and clean. It worked well for Blade Runner, less so for Dune. The Lynch version is messy, grotesque, even disgusting at times. IMO it worked very well.
I also felt it repeated some of the mistakes from the Lynch film, e.g. by having too many rather boring exposition scenes, rather than having a more "natural" flow. To be fair, it's hard to see how you can film the book without it while still remaining faithful to the original, but ... maybe it should have been less faithful? At least they didn't add those pointless Atreides sonic weapons; no idea what Lynch was thinking with that.
Lynch's version also had a great cast. Again, Villeneuve's version doesn't have a bad cast, Lynch's cast just had a lot more energy to it. I suppose this is mostly a directorial choice, but still.
Lynch said he might do a director's cut last year, after refusing to even talk about the movie for many years. We'll see if that happens.
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Comment on Inside the implosion of Justin Roiland’s animation empire in ~tv
arp242 Link ParentThe general sentiment I got from the rick and morty subreddit was "he hasn't had a writing credit for years, and loads of people can do the voices, so whatever". I'm not sure it was widely known...When the bouts of news first showed up, the prevailing sentiment about Rick and Morty seemed to be that the show would now change drastically without his writing.
The general sentiment I got from the rick and morty subreddit was "he hasn't had a writing credit for years, and loads of people can do the voices, so whatever".
I'm not sure it was widely known his involvement had broken down to this degree, but that he wasn't all that involved for a long time seemed to be well-known at least among the fans.
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Comment on Alec Baldwin charged with involuntary manslaughter in Rust shooting in ~movies
arp242 Link ParentThe article is rather unclear; it says "training on how to operate the prop gun", but then in the next paragraph it says "performed mandatory safety checks with armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed". It...The article is rather unclear; it says "training on how to operate the prop gun", but then in the next paragraph it says "performed mandatory safety checks with armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed".
It seems to me that a "training" and "safety check" are two very different things. A training is probably more akin to the flight safety instructions many of us have seen dozens of times and only barely pay attention to, and as a veteran actor Baldwin has probably seen such a training many times as well. A safety check however seems more akin to the visual inspection a pilot does before taking off.
Aside from the other screw-ups mentioned in the article, the biggest question remains what live ammunition is even doing on the set at all and how does a gun get loaded with three blanks and one live round?! Especially since a similar accidental discharge (without injuries) occurred just days before?!
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Comment on Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant | Official trailer in ~movies
arp242 Link ParentRitchie tried to go back to this with The Gentlemen. It had it moments, but mostly fell flat. IMO Lock Stock and Snatch are the only two really good films Ritchie has done, which isn't a bad track...I would have loved to see a "lock, stock, and two smoking barrels" or "snatch" version of this story.
Ritchie tried to go back to this with The Gentlemen. It had it moments, but mostly fell flat.
IMO Lock Stock and Snatch are the only two really good films Ritchie has done, which isn't a bad track record at all since many writer/directors only make one good film, and making more than two is fairly rare.
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Comment on Forks Over Knives - A documentary about whole food plant based diets in ~movies
arp242 Link ParentIt's not hard to see that a cat or dog has an emotional life: they can feel pain, can be sad, can be excited, can be happy, etc. Most people are less familiar with pigs and cows, but if you spend...Animals don't like being eaten? Neither do many of the plants we eat. Like animals, we bred them to become something easier to farm, yet they still have natural defenses.
It's not hard to see that a cat or dog has an emotional life: they can feel pain, can be sad, can be excited, can be happy, etc. Most people are less familiar with pigs and cows, but if you spend any amount of time with them you'll notice they're not that different from dogs in this regard.
It's much harder to see this for plants, or even insects. There are some chemical reactions in response to stimuli, but are these really "emotions" in the same way animals have them? Probably not.
It's basically not the same thing at all.
They're so black-and-white in their thinking they scorn honey, or the idea that eggs and milk could be gotten humanely. You can't be a "real vegan" and have a beehive and a few backyard chickens if you eat their products.
Most vegans aren't like that. There are definitely some extremists, but in my experience it doesn't describe the majority (in my experience the extremists are also unfun people in general).
I think owning pets is probably the strangest contradiction of "vegan for the animals" vegans. The backyard chicken is okay as a pet but suddenly deeply immoral if you take its eggs.
I'm not sure this accurately describes the majority position. Actually, I'm pretty sure it doesn't.
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Comment on Forks Over Knives - A documentary about whole food plant based diets in ~movies
arp242 Link ParentCheaper? Easier? Better properties? I'm not an expert on this, so I don't know. It's not necessarily "bad" by the way; I'm not sure if cows are being raised specifically for gelatin; I suspect...The little pudding cups at work use beef gelatin instead of corn starch or pectin. Why??
Cheaper? Easier? Better properties? I'm not an expert on this, so I don't know.
It's not necessarily "bad" by the way; I'm not sure if cows are being raised specifically for gelatin; I suspect it's more more of a "by product" than anything else. In the grand scheme of things, I'm not so sure gelatin really contributes all that much to the factory farming meat industry.
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Comment on Forks Over Knives - A documentary about whole food plant based diets in ~movies
arp242 Link ParentThe way I figure it, 95% is "good enough". Those last few percentage points aren't really worth the effort. Like @bahador, I don't object the basic principle of eating meat, but do to the factory...The way I figure it, 95% is "good enough". Those last few percentage points aren't really worth the effort.
Like @bahador, I don't object the basic principle of eating meat, but do to the factory farming conditions which I consider barbaric. I also don't really trust labelling all that much, so it's easier to just abstain for the most part, except when it's too inconvenient. I also subscribe to a "it doesn't matter what you eat, it matters what you buy". At a BBQ I will usually bring my own stuff if convenient, but I have no problems eating some of the leftover meat.
One ex-girlfriend would strictly scan labelling for any animal product, which is often present in small amounts. On one hand, I don't really think a lot of these products need to have any of this so I understand her viewpoint and I find it rather frustrating too, but on the other hand ... "95% is good enough". Or maybe it's not, but it's just all the energy I have to spend on this.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
arp242 Link ParentI'm not sure if "three people stranded on this abandoned prison colony full of men" would have worked as well. Newt probably would have worked, but big strong soldier Hicks? Less sure about that....Like many other have complained about I would have loved to see Hicks and Newt again but I don't know if that would have made a difference.
I'm not sure if "three people stranded on this abandoned prison colony full of men" would have worked as well. Newt probably would have worked, but big strong soldier Hicks? Less sure about that. David Cameron and Michael Biehn (who played Hicks) were apparently quite butthurt over it, but IMHO it makes good sense from a narrative perspective.
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Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv
arp242 Link ParentTurned out it's only six episodes, so I watched it. I would hesitate to call it a "spiritual successor to The Wire"; the plot and characters are rather thin; it feels more like a documentary,...Turned out it's only six episodes, so I watched it.
I would hesitate to call it a "spiritual successor to The Wire"; the plot and characters are rather thin; it feels more like a documentary, which is not entirely surprising since it's a true story rather than fiction.
Many scenes felt like essays designed to demonstrate "this is what's wrong with the police". e.g. basically all the scenes with the civil rights lawyer, most scenes where people are interrogated by the FBI. But it never really goes that far into the why of it.
Nowhere is the motivation of Wayne Jenkins or the rest of the Gun Trace Task Force made very clear. This makes sense, as he's a real person and it's not fiction. I can understand not wanting to take too much artistic license, but on the other hand overall, it felt ... shallow?
The thing that made The Wire so good is that many characters – both in the police and on the street – aren't "bad", per se. They're not exactly "good" either, but it goes in to detail on why people behave as they do, what the incentives are.
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Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv
arp242 Link ParentYeah, I'm planning to go through all of David Simon's work. I don't watch that much TV, so haven't gotten around to that yet.Yeah, I'm planning to go through all of David Simon's work. I don't watch that much TV, so haven't gotten around to that yet.
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Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv
arp242 LinkThe Corner is the series David Simon made before The Wire. It's hard to directly compare as it's just six episodes, but I feel it's just as good or even better than The Wire. You can find all the...The Corner is the series David Simon made before The Wire. It's hard to directly compare as it's just six episodes, but I feel it's just as good or even better than The Wire. You can find all the episodes on YouTube.
Homicide: Life on the Street is based on David Simon's book of the same name, although I believe he wasn't directly involved from the start (he certainly wasn't the showrunner like with The Wire).
The first two (short) series are pretty good, the third has its moments but meh overall, the 4th to 6th are hit-and-miss. It really trailed off in the 7th and last season and didn't bother to finish watching it. The movie is a good ending for the entire series.
Overall, it's rather mixed, but still absolutely worth watching. Some episodes and multi-episode arcs are real misses and sometimes even outright misguided IMHO, but some are absolutely fantastic episodes and has great multi-episode arcs too.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
arp242 LinkHaving rewatched all the Alien films a few weeks ago: Alien is a great film; looks amazing even by today's standards (actually, even better than many films today as it doesn't gratuitously...Having rewatched all the Alien films a few weeks ago:
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Alien is a great film; looks amazing even by today's standards (actually, even better than many films today as it doesn't gratuitously over-use CGI), it has a great cast, both for the main characters and the smaller roles. It's scary, it's exciting, it's fun. 9/10
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Aliens takes the Alien film and just pluralizes it, both in title and in concept. It's "more of the same", which is okay because "the same" was pretty good so why change it? Some of the characters becomes caricatures of themselves as the film progresses though, which bothered me somewhat. 8/10
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Alien 3 is the best Alien film. I will fight anyone who disagrees, one by one or all together. Okay, it's not perfect, but the setting and cast are great. The main problem is that it can't quite decide if it wants to be a slow-burn science fiction story or a sci-fi monster horror and switches between the two half-way through. It dissatisfied people wanting "more of the same" in the first half, and people who felt "the same" was getting a bit stale and wanted something different were disappointed in the second half. Taken individually, it's the best film though. 9/10
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The 4th film seems to be made by some frat boys smoking a joint going "you know what would be coooool brooooooo?" and then actually made the film. 4/10
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Prometheus is just dumb. My theory is that the crew already suffered from some alien virus affecting their cognitive functions before they landed. That's the only way I can explain things like "I am on an alien planet with an unknown atmosphere and biosphere, but my helmet is a bit annoying so let me angrily take it off" levels of idiocy. "Oh no, there is a hostile biological organism". I was 100% rooting for the aliens in this one as the entire crew deserved to be dismembered by aliens. I don't expect everything to make sense, but it's just distracting if nothing makes sense. 2/10
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Alien: Covenant continued in the same vein. You will be disappointed if you were hoping that it would clear up the things that didn't make sense in Prometheus. 2/10
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Comment on What is the present state of NPM Packaging System? in ~comp
arp242 Link ParentOkay, I did a quick test: % npm install up to date, audited 119 packages in 705ms % npm install webpack-dev-server added 195 packages, and audited 314 packages in 8s It does add quite a bit, but...Okay, I did a quick test:
% npm install up to date, audited 119 packages in 705ms % npm install webpack-dev-server added 195 packages, and audited 314 packages in 8sIt does add quite a bit, but still significantly less than the 1,123 before (checked out old revision to verify).
I did have to build a somewhat esoteric solution to make all of this work smoothly on dev though (the Go backend will start webpack with
watch, which will output build status as JSON which gets read and reported by Go, which also serves files from the dist directory. This sounds more complex than it is: it's actually very little code and quite simple, just a very non-standard way of doing it). -
Comment on Unpopular opinion: Brands will appear far more trustworthy if they stop all this "narrative feeding" in ~talk
arp242 (edited )Link ParentA lot of times when people criticize identity politics they don't mean "politics to advance the rights or status of a certain group of people" in general broad terms, but rather "undue focus on...A lot of times when people criticize identity politics they don't mean "politics to advance the rights or status of a certain group of people" in general broad terms, but rather "undue focus on identity, or injecting identity in topics where it's not very relevant or not relevant at all". These are two quite different things.
There are some people who throw "identity politics!" around willy-nilly, even when the topic at hand is about "advance the rights or status of a group of people", but that doesn't mean everyone does. It probably is a good reason to avoid using the term though, and instead being more specific (which is better in any case).
Often times when people criticize "identity politics" what they're really saying is "I think the current strategy is ineffective and doesn't focus on the root cause, and I think I have a better strategy to solve these issues". I'm having a hard time seeing how this is racist. You might disagree with their take, but that doesn't make it racist. They're trying to be part of the solution. Even if their views are misguided, foolish, or ignorant then it's still not racist (barring perhaps a few especially egregious cases), at least not how I would use the term.
I think these kind of conversations are critical; if you're not open to criticism and analysis from different viewpoints you run a high chance of going down a suboptimal path which would needlessly delay the solution, or even going down the wrong path altogether. To solve any problem effectively you must first understand it.
Cognitive biases and logical fallacies are rampant around the world everywhere. Even people who at least try to overcome our flawed nature still fail many times, just less often (myself included, of course). I'm not entirely sure how I should classify "if you disagree with my view of the situation then it's racist", but I think it's essentially a cognitive bias of sorts, and when used in an argument it becomes something of a logical fallacy. What's worse is that unlike the more traditional fallacies it's also a very effective fallacy, as the mere accusation – no matter how unfounded – will scare off many people and effectively shuts them up. I think it's a very dangerous thing to throw around carelessly because if everything is racist then nothing is racist.
All of the above doesn't mean there are scenarios where "that's racist" is a completely valid and reasonable thing to say, but here I'm mostly seeing "I think have a better way to solve this!"
Not that I agree with everything papasquat wrote by the way, or disagree with everything you wrote; I mostly wanted to comment on the debate itself.
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Comment on What is the present state of NPM Packaging System? in ~comp
arp242 Link Parent% ls -l /lib/**/*.so | wc -l 1354 There are all shared libraries on my system, and this count is inflated (e.g. /lib/zsh contains 37 dynamic .so plugins, gconv has a .so file for every encoding,...% ls -l /lib/**/*.so | wc -l 1354There are all shared libraries on my system, and this count is inflated (e.g. /lib/zsh contains 37 dynamic .so plugins, gconv has a .so file for every encoding, etc.)
Many JS projects have more than 1,354 dependencies.
Firefox – a large program by any standard – links against 93 libraries:
% ldd /lib/firefox/*(*) | grep -o '.*=>' | sort -u | wc -l 93It does bundle a few dependencies, such as hunspell, and you need a few things to build it, so let's add a liberal 50% to that and say it had 150 dependencies, which is significantly less than many JavaScript-based projects of significantly smaller size.
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Comment on What is the present state of NPM Packaging System? in ~comp
arp242 (edited )Link ParentLast month I updated a Webpack/Vue project that wasn't worked on for three years and it went from ~1,200 dependencies to ~100 dependencies (updating it all was a ridiculous amount of effort...I believe the pendulum is slowly swinging back to a more reasonable state, but of course, there's a lot of legacy.
Last month I updated a Webpack/Vue project that wasn't worked on for three years and it went from ~1,200 dependencies to ~100 dependencies (updating it all was a ridiculous amount of effort though). I also eliminated quite a few dependencies in the process such as webpack-dev-server and a few other small things (IIRC that didn't actually matter all that much in terms of dependency tree, but it helped a bit).
So from this one datapoint, it seems slightly more reasonable. Still seems a lot for something that essentially does "vue-compile *.vue | minify >file.js", but ah well.
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Comment on Unpopular opinion: Wikipedia's old look was much better than the new one in ~talk
arp242 Link ParentI would dispute that. The width is just one aspect of the new design. Actually, you can get the same with the previous Vector by using #bodyContent { max-width: 50em; }. You'd probably want to add...it's an objectively better design
I would dispute that.
The width is just one aspect of the new design. Actually, you can get the same with the previous Vector by using
#bodyContent { max-width: 50em; }. You'd probably want to add a bit more to make it centre-aligned, but overall: it's kind of a detail technically speaking.My main gripe is that there is little distinction between "content" and "UI" and that the UI is significantly more "busy" and distracting. The sticky top bar has a white background and has a very low-contrast border on the bottom, and it also animates when you scroll down. When loading a page you have UI elements on the top, left, and right, and only the left one has a slight low-contrast background colour to indicate it's UI. The page buttons on the top ("Page", "Talk", "Edit") are also a lot less clearly demarcated. When you scroll down two UI elements are always in view (left + top).
Compare this the old Vector where the top and left sidebar are clearly demarkated. They go away if you scroll down. Overall the design is a lot more "quiet" and a lot less distracting.
It just so happened I was browsing Wikipedia when it automatically switched to the new design for me, and I genuinely thought something was broken rather than "oh, they've got a new design".
Briefly back to the width – which again, I don't think is the biggest issue by far, especially since you can just turn it off in the user settings – smaller widths are better for reading, but slightly larger widths and more text on the screen is better for quickly finding that particular thing you're looking for on a page, which is probably a significant number of Wikipedia pageviews. So there it's not necessarily 100% clear-cut either.
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Comment on How far do you live from the place you were born? in ~talk
arp242 LinkCurrently 12,121km (Indonesia). My "record" is 18,756km (New Zealand).Currently 12,121km (Indonesia). My "record" is 18,756km (New Zealand).
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
arp242 Link ParentI guess it's related to this: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/08/reddit-resists-banning-pandemic-misinformation-allows-vaccine-dissent/I guess it's related to this: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/08/reddit-resists-banning-pandemic-misinformation-allows-vaccine-dissent/
If you force kill the process before the death animation plays you restart the level, and you don't need to start all over again. That's what allowed me to finish all of it except the final boss; I hacked the game to give him lower health (you can edit the JSON in the binary) 🙃 It's arguably "cheating", but whatever.
IIRC "restart level" thing is now also an option after a recent(-ish) update, but I haven't played it in a while. There are also some options to make the game easier.