atchemey's recent activity
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Comment on Reducing Europe's nuclear energy sector was 'strategic mistake', EU chief Ursula von der Leyen says in ~society
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Comment on Apple announces Macbook Neo, a new budget Mac in ~tech
atchemey Link ParentI had a Moto Razr 4G that did the same. It never quite worked right, was very finicky.I had a Moto Razr 4G that did the same. It never quite worked right, was very finicky.
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Comment on Is higher education still valuable? in ~life
atchemey LinkYou don't have to be interested in the education for it's own sake for it to be a valuable contribution. You are not the arbiter of worth, any more than I am. It is common for those who have STEM...- Exemplary
You don't have to be interested in the education for it's own sake for it to be a valuable contribution. You are not the arbiter of worth, any more than I am. It is common for those who have STEM backgrounds to denigrate education in non-"practical" areas; I say this as a STEM professor with a liberal arts BA complementing my BS. In a commercial education environment, it is understandable that you think in terms of financial gain, as it is truly a humongous investment of time and treasure that you want to pay off, but education is beyond the limited here and now.
Though many degrees - indeed nearly all at the Bachelor's level - are geared towards employment in the field, it is a categorization error to claim this is the principal (or only) good of education. Fundamentally, education is about reasoning, so please reason through the following scenario:
Imagine a world where "full luxury gay space communism" exists - STAR TREK with Pride Parades. Nobody has to work, all labor is automated and abundant resources are not limited. Technology is advanced and universal and inequalities of birth are treated as diversity in humanity but do not harm opportunities. It is, very literally, a Heavenly existence. Let's imagine one more thing; let's imagine that AI in any form greater than Clippy doesn't exist.
What value does education have there, by your standard? In an "ideal" world, no advancement matters, no employment matters, no struggle matters, no effort matters to any person other than the one making the effort. The lack of AI doesn't make a difference. This is not an original thought - The Good Place has a similar plot line - but it is a very interesting one. AI being there would make no difference. The answer, instead, is that one must construct ones own meaning, struggles, mischief, etc, simply to have any value in life.
Now let's address our world, but with a twist. Imagine a wealthy relative you never knew died. Imagine they leave you Scrooge McDuck swimming in gold amounts of money. Now imagine that they say you have to spend it all on yourself, and cannot give it away. Sure, you probably don't finish your MS, but what else changes? What struggles do you face that disappear in a moment? What meaning do your efforts to this point have? How do you spend your life? Any passion, any challenge, any finite problem - no matter how great - dissolves to nothingness in an infinity.
Education in either world helps one delve deeper, imagine new worlds, and think new things. It enables the exploration of reality and fantasy and the pursuit of new human experience. Perhaps STEM degrees would lose some of the urgency in such a scenario, but the arts and humanities would remain. That's not to say STEM is unimportant - I would directly disagree by both my actions and words - but only that its utility beyond its own good disappears.
You see, modern education has dual responsibilities: the propagation of knowledge and the development of new knowledge. Through the BS and MS, you typically only touch on the first. It is typically in a PhD that you add new knowledge to humanity's stores. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." (Hamlet) Education is the way to dream a little bigger.
I would argue that education is more important than ever, BECAUSE of AI. If AGI is ever developed, it will be an alien species, and it will need understanding from human intelligence. In the interim, education is the human bulwark against lies, distortion, and Dadaist lunacy brought on by indiscriminate AI usage. This is the greatest crisis of reality and truth in our history, and how we respond will determine our ability to live in a shared and moderately real world. Even if everything goes perfectly, meaning in our lives will have to remain - education is one way to open the door to new experiences and live a meaningful life.
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Comment on Need a replacement for my old macbook pro, should I just get another one? in ~comp
atchemey LinkI'm a long time Apple hater, but I have to say that my M1 MacBook pro is a very good investment. I'm not a big believer in the iPhone, but if it's useful for you, I'd stick with it. As with...I'm a long time Apple hater, but I have to say that my M1 MacBook pro is a very good investment. I'm not a big believer in the iPhone, but if it's useful for you, I'd stick with it. As with others, I'll echo that it is expected for Apple to be releasing a new entry level laptop soon, in the $600 range - if so it is probably going to be a steal at twice the price. I'd say decide around mid-March on a path forward. I would also suggest that he used M1 or M2 Macbook Pro may actually be a worthwhile investigation, as some of them are listed near me for only three or four hundred dollars. The build quality is exceptional, and I would trust it. I am a power user and have had mine since late 2022, but it has no apparent battery degradation, which is exceptional as well.
I will also note that I use Win 11 arm and Debian 13 arm on VMWare on my MacBook for anything I need to run that isn't Mac friendly, and it does well.
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Comment on Is anyone here in or familiar with Tokyo? Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist... in ~travel
atchemey Link ParentWell, having done 2434 days of Duolingo with a lot of English language media about Japan (mostly Abroad in Japan, like I said elsewhere), I can confidently say that you'll learn more than you...Well, having done 2434 days of Duolingo with a lot of English language media about Japan (mostly Abroad in Japan, like I said elsewhere), I can confidently say that you'll learn more than you think with it, but there are more effective ways to learn. I'd encourage you to find a way to speak it, saying things that are your own ideas, listening to people share theirs. I found I could recognize much of the Japanese on my first trip, but I could feel myself going through the "hear, translate, think, decide on what to say, translate, speak" stages for the first few days. The hardest was the second translation, for what I was trying to say, because you have to reverse engineer things if you don't practice it. My first time speaking Japanese in a conversation was after 6 years of study, and it was in Japan...it came slowly.
That said, Duo did bring me to a level of spoken proficiency that was surprising to me. I strongly recommend studying somewhere with a textbook, since Kanji (especially the joyo kanji/daily kanji) are a weakness with me, and I think learning to write them by hand would be a good thing. If you're near a university, maybe consider auditing a class? Or maybe there's an online class that can match people who need something asynchronous or not at usual "working hours"?
Japanese feels a bit like a puzzle, in a way German and Swedish haven't felt to me. Like all good puzzles, though, it gets more rewarding the further along you get. 日本語へがんばって！
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Comment on Is anyone here in or familiar with Tokyo? Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist... in ~travel
atchemey Link ParentIt truly is a remarkable place, isn't it? でも、日本語もう勉強しましょう! (Deh-moh, nihongo moh ben-kyo she-mah-shoh! Well then, you should also study Japanese! "But, Japanese also study should!")It truly is a remarkable place, isn't it?
でも、日本語もう勉強しましょう!
(Deh-moh, nihongo moh ben-kyo she-mah-shoh! Well then, you should also study Japanese! "But, Japanese also study should!") -
Comment on Is anyone here in or familiar with Tokyo? Going on a trip and have zero idea what to do as a non-tourist... in ~travel
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Comment on Playtiles: The pocket-sized gaming platform in ~games
atchemey Link ParentWomp womp. Is it bad for price or just bad bad?Womp womp. Is it bad for price or just bad bad?
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
atchemey LinkTwo culture shocks, related. I went to Japan early last year and immediately went to a small city in Kyushu. It was a 3 hour bus away from the airport I flew into, and I spent two days at a...Two culture shocks, related.
I went to Japan early last year and immediately went to a small city in Kyushu. It was a 3 hour bus away from the airport I flew into, and I spent two days at a luxurious ryokan, just vibing and enjoying walking around the town. After that, I took the train to the other side of the island for three days. On my way off of Kyushu to Hiroshima, I saw the first faces of European ancestry I had since leaving the airport, at the Kokura train station. I grew up and have lived and traveled (until that trip) in North America and Europe. Though I'm reasonably cosmopolitan, and have been the minority in many rooms, it was the first trip I had taken where, for days, I had seen nobody like the folks I grew up with. It was on an escalator, and I did a literal doubletake, because I had seen so many new faces in the past 5 days, but those two stood out.
On my way back from Japan, after 10 days, I landed in LA, and was immediately overwhelmed by all the things to read out there. In past trips, to various countries, I either read the language or knew the alphabet enough to sound things out on signs. Most written meaning in Japanese is conveyed by kanji, symbols adapted from Chinese writing with several readings and idioms, and it is very difficult to master. Although English writing (and kana, a few dozen characters which have defined sounds to make words) is everywhere in Japan, it was still mostly beyond me, despite being able to speak a good deal. Reading signs turned into a puzzle as I tried to expand my kanji comprehension, and it was a little endorphin rush to recognize a word or name I'd just learned that day. I've taken for granted the last 30 years of my life that I can read or at least get meaning from signs and other writing. Everywhere I look, I can get meaning, even if it is only, "that sign makes these sounds, which I can hear in my head, even if not understand." Getting into LA was a form of unexpected information overload.
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Comment on 2SAXY - Sweetwater music store in Fort Wayne, Indiana (Live saxophone improv session while walking around, 2026) in ~music
atchemey Link ParentI managed to escape that part of Indiana, but my folks still live there. They even know the owner, who I won't name even though he's a public figure. I may live 2000 miles away, but it's a small...I managed to escape that part of Indiana, but my folks still live there. They even know the owner, who I won't name even though he's a public figure. I may live 2000 miles away, but it's a small world.
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Strange Pop! OS 24.04 behavior
I have a computer that is not quite powerful enough to run my flight simulators, but which is still quite capable. I tried to sell it for close to what I bought it for, after using it maybe 50...
I have a computer that is not quite powerful enough to run my flight simulators, but which is still quite capable. I tried to sell it for close to what I bought it for, after using it maybe 50 hours, but the stink of "used" was on it, so I only got low ball offers for the system as a whole. Selling the individual components would be better but take substantially more effort. Instead, after finding an absurdly good 64 GB RAM deal ($150 for DDR4, in early December, crazy), I decided to use it to educate myself on some work-adjacent science simulation capabilities, putting it at home to avoid the feeling like I'm doing work (and also so I can install nonsense on it if I want).
I settled on Pop! OS, after finding out it has the best NVIDIA GPU support of the .deb Linux family, and installed 22.04 on it last month. After a standard "oops I messed something up on a new-to-me Linux distro, might as well wipe it," I reset the bios to see if it fixed things, then loaded 24.04 on a live USB and ran the update at POST.
24.04 made some very big changes to Pop! OS, which I won't list, other than one that puzzles me. After installing, I ran Geekbench 6 to benchmark it, and I found out my system CPU performance was about 33% down from the prior benchmark. I rationalized this as being due to no XMP being on, and tried to enter BIOS on boot...but Pop24 refused to enter BIOS, and my motherboard didn't even POST? But it would load into Pop24 without issue? So I was stuck without a way to tune my system. I eventually removed the SSD, hard wiped it on a separate device, and reinstalled Pop22, whereafter I was able to enter BIOS and enable XMP. Performance was restored, and even better than ever.
My question...why is Pop24 different? I tried to disable fastboot. I tried to have it use systemctl to reboot into settings. I tried everything I could find online. The best guess I have is something to do with UEFI? But I have no clue. I'm not really a computer guy, I just futz around, and I don't know what I'm doing.
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Comment on Statement from Mozilla's new CEO in ~tech
atchemey Link ParentRight? I just re-looked into it, and have set up a monthly donation for it. I occasionally have to use other browsers for work or because I'm setting something up unrelated to my normal browsing,...Right? I just re-looked into it, and have set up a monthly donation for it. I occasionally have to use other browsers for work or because I'm setting something up unrelated to my normal browsing, and they are strictly inferior to Vivaldi. Happy to support good web practices and no BS AI!
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Comment on Playtiles: The pocket-sized gaming platform in ~games
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Comment on Statement from Mozilla's new CEO in ~tech
atchemey Link ParentI've been a user of Vivaldi for almost a decade. Please show me any evidence of Vivaldi going down that route.I've been a user of Vivaldi for almost a decade. Please show me any evidence of Vivaldi going down that route.
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Comment on Without looking, do you have a vague idea of your coordinates? in ~talk
atchemey LinkI just thought about it and looked up. I guessed my location with a guess uncertainty of 0.25 deg Latitude and 5 deg Longitude. I ended up less than 0.1 off on Latitude and 3.3 off on Longitude....I just thought about it and looked up.
I guessed my location with a guess uncertainty of 0.25 deg Latitude and 5 deg Longitude. I ended up less than 0.1 off on Latitude and 3.3 off on Longitude. Of course I'm a big old geography nerd and have a major latitude line ~0.5 degrees away, so that's probably a big help.
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Comment on The lossless scaling plugin is officially on the Decky Store in ~games
atchemey Link ParentYep! SLI and CrossFire scale sublinearly because of the overhead coordinating the cards, and have all those asterisks attached. Lossless Scaling is $7 and can even run on an integrated GPU or...Yep! SLI and CrossFire scale sublinearly because of the overhead coordinating the cards, and have all those asterisks attached. Lossless Scaling is $7 and can even run on an integrated GPU or similar, though only newer ones are recommended. It's honestly pretty miraculous software, and the fact it's only $7 to nearly double frame rate (on a single GPU) or more-than double (with a mixed setup) is pretty bonkers.
A YouTube link I found helpful: https://youtu.be/JyfKYU_mTLA
A community spreadsheet with Lossless Scaling info from various sources and GPUs: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17MIWgCOcvIbezflIzTVX0yfMiPA_nQtHroeXB1eXEfI/edit?usp=drivesdk
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Comment on The lossless scaling plugin is officially on the Decky Store in ~games
atchemey Link ParentNot a dumb question, and neither! I'm running dual GPU with Lossless Scaling on a 2019 Mid-tier pre-built Alienware PC. My motherboard has an extra PCIe 4.0 x16 (physical) x8 (electrical), and I...Not a dumb question, and neither! I'm running dual GPU with Lossless Scaling on a 2019 Mid-tier pre-built Alienware PC.
My motherboard has an extra PCIe 4.0 x16 (physical) x8 (electrical), and I bought a GTX 1050 Ti to add to the RTX 2070. Lossless Scaling tells BG3 to render frames on the 2070 at ~75% of desired resolution, then pass those frames to the 1050 Ti. This second GPU (only 35% of the Geekbench 4 score of the 2070) then does two things: it adds a frame between frames from the 2070, doubling apparent frame rate. It then upscales the frames to the full desired resolution. Neither of these requires much VRAM nor compute, so even the much older 1050 Ti can accomplish this. I then plug my monitor into the 1050 Ti, set the Lossless Scaling "Preferred GPU" as the same, and it runs beautifully.
It appears that telling the 2070 to run at 75% of my ideal resolution improved the frame rate from 10->45, and then the 1050 Ti upscaled and doubled it to 90 FPS with steady frame times.
I have an eGPU enclosure that I wanted to test this with, but regrettably I don't have any motherboards with Thunderbolt 3 or 4 right now. I thought I did, and was mistaken, as I was hoping to mess around with this. I bet if you had an eGPU that could work with your Steam Deck, you could pass to the eGPU as the "preferred GPU" and plug the TV in. I don't know of any USB-C eGPUs without Thunderbolt, though, and that's pretty important. Give it a shot, what's the harm?
Edit for clarity: You can definitely run LS on a single GPU, but there's a small performance hit to the frame rate. Based on estimates with a different game, I'd expect 10->40 doubled to 80 with just my 2070.
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Comment on The lossless scaling plugin is officially on the Decky Store in ~games
atchemey LinkI can confirm Baldur's Gate 3 on a dual GPU LS setting with high settings for 3440x1440 goes from 10 FPS on a 2070 to 45/doubled to 90 FPS with the following settings: scale ~75% on 2070, 2x frame...I can confirm Baldur's Gate 3 on a dual GPU LS setting with high settings for 3440x1440 goes from 10 FPS on a 2070 to 45/doubled to 90 FPS with the following settings: scale ~75% on 2070, 2x frame generation, preferred GPU/plugged in GPU 1050 Ti, upscaled to native resolution...and it looks good.
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Comment on Zen browser / chrome alternatives in ~tech
atchemey LinkVivaldi! It's a reworked Chromium base that makes stuff more secure and improves the memory handling. I routinely have 100+ tabs open and it moves just fine. Plus it has a ton more...Vivaldi! It's a reworked Chromium base that makes stuff more secure and improves the memory handling. I routinely have 100+ tabs open and it moves just fine. Plus it has a ton more hotkey/customizability for power users. I made custom hotkeys for my search bar that lets me cue up things like Google Scholar, Wikipedia, eBay, and even the great circle mapper utility.
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Comment on NATO alphabet in ~talk
atchemey Link ParentThat whole scene... "Roger, Steven, whoever." https://youtu.be/_4jxLxZrMfs?si=W4n81c5DV8urWYI7
Nuclear scientist here with a few thoughts:
Though it is not economical vs mining, seawater is an abundant source of uranium, and there are ventures trying to reduce cost.
Many nuclear reactor-operating countries have an excess of uranium sufficient to run for a century or more.
Reprocessing of uranium (and plutonium) can recover usable fuel from once-through slugs. Japan previously used this method, France still does. (This has security implications, though.)
Some countries (like the US and France) have ex-weapons material that can be destroyed in reactors to make electricity or heat.
Some reactor designs are net-positive on fuel, "breeding" more material than it consumes. (This has security implications, though.)
Alternative fission sources can use breeding to make new fuel by thorium, which is everywhere in sands. (This has security implications, though.)