creesch's recent activity

  1. Comment on Boycotting palm oil in general is actually bad for the environment in ~enviro

    creesch
    Link Parent
    Eh, that is very reductionist. By sweeping it all into one big bucket in one grand statement you do simplify it a bit too much. There certainly is truth to what you are saying. However, as is...
    • Exemplary

    It's exactly the same with bio meat, energy and crops.

    Eh, that is very reductionist. By sweeping it all into one big bucket in one grand statement you do simplify it a bit too much. There certainly is truth to what you are saying. However, as is often the case things are wildly more complex than A is better than B.

    For example. Using less land per unit of output doesn't automatically means more land left wild. That only holds if the "spared" land actually gets protected. In practice, making a crop more efficient and profitable often drives more expansion, not less (Jevons paradox). Palm oil is actually a good example here.

    Reduce, reuse, recycle definitely also works for food and energy!

    This I fully agree with. Without cheap palm oil available it might actually have reduced our overall use of oils.

    You also mention CO2 specifically, but that isn't the only thing with a climate impact. Nitrousoxide from fertilizer also has various effects on the climate, certainly when it is used in the context of intensive "efficient" agriculture. Methane as a by product from palm oil production also plays a role.

    What is still CO2 related though is the fact that with palm plantations we are often talking about lands that used to be peat. Which when drained releases a ton of carbon and keeps oxidizing for decades.

    To be very clear, as I said at the start, I am not saying your points hold no merit. What I am saying here is not intended as a complete counter. What I am saying is that things are far more complex.

    As one final example. Yes, if everyone switched to organic meat in the same consumption pattern it would be bad for the climate. However, animal welfare is also something that should be taken into consideration imho. With factory farming animal welfare is poor to say the least. Some people might argue we should go all vegan or vegetarian, though we still depend on animal products for various other things that are difficult to replace without other things that impact the climate. But, we can certainly reduce our meat consumption by a considerable margin, which would allow for organic meat to be used without significant climate impact.

    17 votes

  2. Comment on Microsoft PowerToys in ~tech

    creesch
    Link Parent
    I knew about it for years and it certainly did help with some aspects of Windows. Didn't stop me from switching to Linux eventually. There is only so much you can do to polish a turd, certainly...

    I knew about it for years and it certainly did help with some aspects of Windows. Didn't stop me from switching to Linux eventually. There is only so much you can do to polish a turd, certainly when fresh excrement is continuously added.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games

    creesch
    Link Parent
    Well, the obvious answer is that this is the time to sign back into minecraft ;) But, on bluemap you can also see it

    Well, the obvious answer is that this is the time to sign back into minecraft ;) But, on bluemap you can also see it

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games

    creesch
    Link Parent
    I have heard this before from people and seeing impressive builds sure can be intimidating. However, people creating these awesome builds had to start from somewhere and often already spend many...

    To be completely honest, I was really excited to play Minecraft again when the server last came back online, but after like two days of seeing other people's builds I started feeling like an absolute moron and lost my desire to play

    I have heard this before from people and seeing impressive builds sure can be intimidating. However, people creating these awesome builds had to start from somewhere and often already spend many more hours in game than you did.

    It is the same as any creative endeavour, it takes a lot of practice to get at a certain level. Nobody is "just good", some people might have a little bit more eye for detail than others but that is something completely different.

    Building can also be a very iterative process, at least for me. Where you start out without a clear idea or just a rough idea and slowly rework it to see if you can reach it. For example, for the first weeks or so my house was just four walls, basically a squire/rectangle box. I didn't like it but was entirely sure what direction to take it. Then I decided to cut out a corner and add some detailing which gave me inspiration to continue working on it. But even then it took me a while to figure out what direction to take it. I think I initially didn't even plan for a third floor, but at some point decided I wanted a happy ghast and a place to park it. In a similar sense I at some point figured that since my house is at the edge of town I might try adding a gate. Most details around my house are the result of months of tinkering with it.

    Hamsters castle is a good example as well. If I remember correctly it started with just a tower and the compound around it including the other town gate just slowly appeared over time.

    The fun thing about playing on a server like this is that you can actually walk around and look for inspiration. See how other people have done stuff in detail and borrow certain elements in your own builds.

    And there is no requirement for it to be grand and awe inspiring, there are plenty of people who have build smaller simple builds and homes. If you look at bluemap, certainly in town you will also see simpler homes. And again, most of the fancy ones didn't start out being that fancy either.

    As long as you are having fun nobody is going to judge you for the quality of your builds. I'd honestly invite you to pick one of the plots still available and give it a go.

    Finally, even though people build a lot of creative stuff this isn't a creative server. There have also been people who decided to just head of in unexplored directions and build up everything from scratch. Which is also a very valid play style.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games

    creesch
    Link Parent
    I do play less but, for what it is worth, when I do get online I make it a point to check out Poland. I also do check things from bluemap on a regular basis. Having said that, I totally get where...

    I do play less but, for what it is worth, when I do get online I make it a point to check out Poland. I also do check things from bluemap on a regular basis.

    Having said that, I totally get where your feeling comes from. Ironically one of the reasons I am probably also playing less is because there has been little activity for a while now. It's not the only reason, but it certainly does play a role.

    Not sure what to do about it. Having some events certainly could help, the pvp event was a lot of fun but we could also do other stuff maybe.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Tidles Minecraft Weekly - Big Farts Edition (26.2 Update) in ~games

    creesch
    Link Parent
    @teaearlgraycold, you updated armor stands from vanilla tweaks I think, which is broken. Previously we used the one from here: https://modrinth.com/datapack/armor-statues-datapack/versions I'll...

    @teaearlgraycold, you updated armor stands from vanilla tweaks I think, which is broken. Previously we used the one from here: https://modrinth.com/datapack/armor-statues-datapack/versions

    I'll update it in the repo and will leave a note next to it I guess

    2 votes

  7. Comment on Tidles Minecraft Weekly - Big Farts Edition (26.2 Update) in ~games

    creesch
    Link Parent
    funny you are posting during a time where I am actually online :P Tbh, probably due to the minecraft version and the armor stands plugin or something. I can see if there are newer versions or...

    funny you are posting during a time where I am actually online :P

    Tbh, probably due to the minecraft version and the armor stands plugin or something. I can see if there are newer versions or stuff we need to update.

    Permissions are also fine of course.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Eve Online's Carbon engine is now open source: Fenris Creations explains why in ~tech

    creesch
    Link
    Opted to post this in ~tech and not ~games as it is more about the engine and not the game itself. I used to play spreadsheets online ages ago (I think my account is from 2006) and still remember...

    Opted to post this in ~tech and not ~games as it is more about the engine and not the game itself.

    I used to play spreadsheets online ages ago (I think my account is from 2006) and still remember the old engine. One of the image captions made me remember as it says "Eve Online launched back in 2003" while showing graphics that are much newer. I think the current engine (or at least the newer graphics) dates back to roughly 2007-2009.

    It is a shame that the code they submitted doesn't include all that history. It looks like they made a clean initial commit in 2025 (October). It does make sense as there might be things in there they don't want public but I would have loved to see more of the development history.

    I am curious to see how development moves forward and if the engine is going to be used by other games.

    13 votes

  10. Comment on Stellantis to sell small Fiat Topolino electric vehicle for $13,995 in US in ~transport

    creesch
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Can we stop shifting goal posts and arguments for a moment? Your entire argument so far is "no, it isn't subsidies" and now you are going "well yeah, but Tesla is also doing the same thing". Which...

    Is that any different than how Tesla makes 40% of its profit from EV credits? https://insideevs.com/news/742024/tesla-regulatory-sales-profit/.

    Can we stop shifting goal posts and arguments for a moment? Your entire argument so far is "no, it isn't subsidies" and now you are going "well yeah, but Tesla is also doing the same thing". Which is just one manufacture while I am explicitly targeting global car manufacturing (not just the US or EU).

    It's undeniable the BoM of Chinese EVs is far, far lower than US manufacturers.

    Yes, I said as much in my previous comment and before that. There is also a reason why the BoM is far lower as we also have touched on.

    It's not cheating, it's fantastic. The US and EU need to fight fire with fire - not tariffs, but subsidies of their own. Not only is moving to electricity beneficial for a number of reasons (such as efficiency, as electric motors can be 80-90% efficient vs the abysmal 20% efficiency of ICE), but battery technology is going to be critical in scaling solar up.

    Okay, straight up. Where does this suddenly come from? The first sentence I can place in the discussion we have had so far, the rest feels artificially injected. Where have I argued against investments and moving to electric, like at all?

    Investments in industries I am all far. But there is a line where you are no longer investing in them but are allowing them to undercut competing industries in a way that has nothing to do with supply demand. Basically the difference between what you have been claiming (kickstarting an industry) and ongoing subsidies doing much more than that. The latter is what I am still seeing and where I don't think it is as ridiculous for the EU to impose tariffs at the time being.

    Again from your own source

    This pattern is consistent with the European Commission’s findings in its anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese EV exports (Table 1) which found that Chinese OEMs disproportionally benefit from Chinese state aid.

    In that situation, even if you invest in your own industries you also want them to compete in an even playing field. That is where I see tariffs coming in, because Chinese companies clearly aren't just doing it entirely on their own merits either.

    Anyway, point is clear enough, I am bowing out of this conversation.

    4 votes

  11. Comment on Stellantis to sell small Fiat Topolino electric vehicle for $13,995 in US in ~transport

    creesch
    Link Parent
    That is one way of hand waving away the fact that these subsidies are ongoing and, as I already included, are propping up a third of BYD's profit. This is up from 26%, meaning that the number is...

    Because industrial policy to kickstart an industry and straight up per unit subsidies are very different. The latter is fundamentally unsustainable.

    That is one way of hand waving away the fact that these subsidies are ongoing and, as I already included, are propping up a third of BYD's profit. This is up from 26%, meaning that the number is growing, not shrinking while they are making these dirt cheap cars. If we were talking about "kickstarting" an industry you'd expect that number to taper off as the company matures and becomes self-efficient.

    And, again, this is just for BYD itself. A large part of the supply chain is subsidized in similar ways as well, meaning that even if they didn't get subsidized directly they would still be able to compete based on lower component costs like batteries.

    China isn't paying off some of the bill for every EV they sell. Rather, the government put the money up so that the companies could become efficient.

    These companies are not standing on their own right now. The end product is not directly subsidized, that we agree on, there is no car being sold at a much lower price than it did cost to manufacture. But, given all other information available including your report, it is also clear that for a large part is just a shift to ongoing subsidies in other areas including supply chains. In the longer term, when China does expect these companies to be completely to stand on their own I am willing to bet that prices of these cars will go up again.
    I have no doubt that these companies are efficient in some ways as well. However, I highly doubt they are efficient to the point that they will be able to keep undercutting car industries across the globe as they are doing now (Not just the US and the EU).

    4 votes

  12. Comment on Stellantis to sell small Fiat Topolino electric vehicle for $13,995 in US in ~transport

    creesch
    Link Parent
    Directly? Of course not. But China did spend roughly $230 billion to build up the industry (note, this is from a 2024 report the number is likely higher). It is much easier to compete at lower...

    But it’s not as if the Chinese government is paying for 20% of every BYD sold.

    Directly? Of course not. But China did spend roughly $230 billion to build up the industry (note, this is from a 2024 report the number is likely higher). It is much easier to compete at lower costs if you have had much lower upfront costs in building up industrial infrastructure, R&D, etc. It is worth noting that this number is a floor, leaving a lot out. Things like below market land costs, utilities not to mention an entire upstream supply chain also being heavily subsidized.

    If we stick with the source you linked, it is almost baffling that you are so highly selective with the information and absolute with your conclusion.

    However, there is a substantial difference in magnitude. Chinese OEMs simply get a lot more state support than Western rivals. Since 2022, Tesla has reported no grant income in China, while BYD’s subsidy income has risen sharply—accounting for 35% of net income in 2025, up from 26% in 2024. By comparison, between 2019 and 2022, when Tesla received Chinese state aid, Tesla’s disclosed grants amounted to roughly 2% of net income over the same period. This pattern is consistent with the European Commission’s findings in its anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese EV exports (Table 1) which found that Chinese OEMs disproportionally benefit from Chinese state aid.

    According to your own source subsidies are propping up a third of BYD's profit. So I am honestly not sure why we are trying to pretend that subsidies aren't a large part of why Chinese EV manufacturing is being able to be so extremely competitive on pricing right now. Even more so given you have no trouble calling EU import tariffs absurd without blushing

    They are different sides of the very same coin, so it just seems silly to me to call one out while downplaying the other.

    4 votes

  13. Comment on Stellantis to sell small Fiat Topolino electric vehicle for $13,995 in US in ~transport

    creesch
    Link Parent
    Let's not pretend that these cars aren't heavily subsidized though in order to undercut non Chinese manufactures. To be clear, not saying that US car manufacturing is without issues (far from it)....

    Let's not pretend that these cars aren't heavily subsidized though in order to undercut non Chinese manufactures. To be clear, not saying that US car manufacturing is without issues (far from it). But even if they were competent and trying to compete I highly doubt they (or other companies across the globe) can come close in pricing.

    7 votes

  14. Comment on Discord bans (then unbans) around 8400 accounts because of a CSAM neural hash collision in ~tech

    creesch
    Link Parent
    From a user perspective, yeah it seems bizarre. From a moderation perspective, seeing the many creative ways continue to try and spam on discord servers, or any other platform I have ever...

    so it’s so bizarre these systems are so sensitive.

    From a user perspective, yeah it seems bizarre. From a moderation perspective, seeing the many creative ways continue to try and spam on discord servers, or any other platform I have ever moderated, it makes more sense. Ideally you want no false positives, but having detection tooling run with no false positives at all means you will also not catch a lot of the things you do want to catch.

    However, what should be there when using systems like this is human review. Specifically an appeal process of some kind, which is often missing or very hidden behind all sorts of hoops to jump through with platforms like Discord (but really any modern tech company if you ever had the "pleasure" trying to deal with Google support, for example).

    18 votes

  15. Comment on Tidles Minecraft Weekly - Big Farts Edition (26.2 Update) in ~games

    creesch
    Link Parent
    mfw no web chat included :( Fun fact btw, if you look at the web chat versions 1.1.0 has an insane amount of downloads compared to other versions. Recently we finally found out that it is due to...

    mfw no web chat included :( Fun fact btw, if you look at the web chat versions 1.1.0 has an insane amount of downloads compared to other versions. Recently we finally found out that it is due to some weird russian modpack belonging to a specific server.

    To get back to your modpack. I noticed you included the Voxy alpha ( @TaylorSwiftsPickles ). It is worth noting, Voxy does not work with Vulkan yet and will crash the game if you have previously set the renderer to that.

    So for anyone experiencing a crash, you might want to disable Voxy, start minecraft and switch the renderer to openGL.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Tidles Minecraft Weekly - Big Farts Edition (26.2 Update) in ~games

    creesch
    Link
    @IsildursBane, took me a while but the town high speed line coordinates have been updated on bluemap.

    @IsildursBane, took me a while but the town high speed line coordinates have been updated on bluemap.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in to use old.reddit.com in ~tech

    creesch
    Link Parent
    A lot of mods also used old reddit for a long time. I suspect that this specific group has slowly started to move away from reddit in the past few years and this finally gave them the confidence...

    A lot of mods also used old reddit for a long time. I suspect that this specific group has slowly started to move away from reddit in the past few years and this finally gave them the confidence to slowly sunset it.

    7 votes

  18. Comment on Reddit will require you to be logged in to use old.reddit.com in ~tech

    creesch
    Link Parent
    I left reddit a few years ago but still strongly feel that didn't have to be the case. At least not for all subreddits. If they also had given attention to text based content, discussions and the...

    It's a combination of things but I think it was inevitable once it hit critical in popularity.

    I left reddit a few years ago but still strongly feel that didn't have to be the case. At least not for all subreddits. If they also had given attention to text based content, discussions and the moderation tools for subreddits to focus on those aspects. Of course, that isn't where the "growth potential" was or where potential income sources can be found.

    11 votes

  19. Comment on Around twenty drown in France as French seek relief from heatwave in ~enviro

    creesch
    Link Parent
    I had one from Inventum which I think is a relabeled Midea one. We currently have a Midea portasplit which actually does have a physical outdoor unit but fixed plumbing. Meaning you don't need to...

    I had one from Inventum which I think is a relabeled Midea one.

    We currently have a Midea portasplit which actually does have a physical outdoor unit but fixed plumbing. Meaning you don't need to have it installed by someone, though if you rent some landlords will not like the outdoor unit even though it is easily removable.

    Anyway, currently all stock will be sold out anyway. That's how it always works around heatwaves.

  20. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games

    creesch
    Link Parent
    Sorry, don't have a laptop with me and am out of the country right now.

    Sorry, don't have a laptop with me and am out of the country right now.