crowsby's recent activity

  1. Comment on Where do you all get your news from? How do you work to avoid echo chambers and propaganda? in ~life

    crowsby
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    I've divested my attention from NYT and WaPo over the last year. NYT has always had an inclination towards aggressively bothsiding in the name of clicks, as portrayed in the amazing Op-Ed sketch...

    I've divested my attention from NYT and WaPo over the last year. NYT has always had an inclination towards aggressively bothsiding in the name of clicks, as portrayed in the amazing Op-Ed sketch by Michelle Wolf. But their continual sanewashing of Trump's increasingly erratic behavior over the election finally did it for me, especially given that they had published something close to 100 op-eds critical of Biden's debate performance and questioning his faculties in the two weeks following his disastrous debate. And given Jeff Bezos' recent inclinations to treat WaPo as his personal blog, I've got no interest of relying on that as a primary outlet much either.

    So, I've mainly switched to Associated Press and Reuters. It's dry, it's straightforward, it's neutral, and it tends to shy away from clickbait.

    10 votes

  2. Comment on What side-gigs or passive income methods have you found helpful for earning a small amount of extra money? in ~finance

    crowsby
    Link Parent
    One downside of switching browsers/search engines away from Chrome/Google is that I rarely if ever get surveys anymore. I switched to Firefox/Kagi last year and haven't gotten a survey since...

    One downside of switching browsers/search engines away from Chrome/Google is that I rarely if ever get surveys anymore. I switched to Firefox/Kagi last year and haven't gotten a survey since October. No regurts, but I did like having all my Google Play purchases and subs covered.

    4 votes

  3. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    crowsby
    Link
    I recently finished up Billy Bat by Naoki Urasawa, which was a wild ride. I'm very glad I went in blind without reading too much of the plot summary beforehand. I'll just say that it starts out as...

    I recently finished up Billy Bat by Naoki Urasawa, which was a wild ride. I'm very glad I went in blind without reading too much of the plot summary beforehand. I'll just say that it starts out as a manga-within-a-manga and quickly evolves into something else.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Advice on sharpening skills for career pivot in ~comp

    crowsby
    Link
    As a data professional, I can say that the need for soft skills and cat herding definitely doesn't go away in this field, so just be aware. As far as pivots go, actual experience in the role is...

    As a data professional, I can say that the need for soft skills and cat herding definitely doesn't go away in this field, so just be aware.

    As far as pivots go, actual experience in the role is far more desirable to future employers than even dedicated evidence of training, so if there's any way you can start finagling data work into your current role, it's going to help you present as a much more serious candidate than if you just had some data certs and an unrelated managerial position. Companies are unimaginative these days in regards to hiring, (partially due to ML-powered resume scanning) and are basically looking for folks who have prior roles that match their job descriptions as much as possible.

    9 votes

  5. Comment on "&udm=14" strips AI junk from Google results in ~tech

    crowsby
    Link
    I got exhausted trying to unfuck Google's unrelenting parade of undesirable UX changes via extensions, ublock, and tampermonkey scripts, and just ended up switching to Kagi a few months back....

    I got exhausted trying to unfuck Google's unrelenting parade of undesirable UX changes via extensions, ublock, and tampermonkey scripts, and just ended up switching to Kagi a few months back. Google is still useful for some things like Maps, but beyond that it's been great.

    5 votes

  6. Comment on Finland has remained the happiest country in the world for the seventh year in a row, according to the annual World Happiness Report published on Wednesday in ~life

    crowsby
    Link
    As I recall reading about this the last time this survey floated around, the Finns have a different definition of "happiness", leaning closer to balanced contentment than how other folks might...

    As I recall reading about this the last time this survey floated around, the Finns have a different definition of "happiness", leaning closer to balanced contentment than how other folks might interpret it more as a continual state of euphoria.

    7 votes

  7. Comment on Three Cheers for Tildes: App updates and feedback (March 2024) in ~tildes

    crowsby
    Link
    Amazing work! I'm really impressed by how polished everything seems. I'd been waiting for topic sort options, so that's a welcome addition.

    Amazing work! I'm really impressed by how polished everything seems. I'd been waiting for topic sort options, so that's a welcome addition.

    17 votes

  8. Comment on The decline of username and password on the same page in ~tech

    crowsby
    Link
    Worse yet is when you first have a prompt for username, taking you to a second page that defaults to "send me a magic link", requiring you to hunt down the hyperlink that will open the actual...

    Worse yet is when you first have a prompt for username, taking you to a second page that defaults to "send me a magic link", requiring you to hunt down the hyperlink that will open the actual password page.

    Sometimes I feel like user-centric internet design peaked around 2012-2014.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on I can't get my head around US President Joe Biden polling poorly and Donald Trump polling well in ~talk

    crowsby
    Link Parent
    While voting rates for younger voters have traditionally lagged behind other cohorts, recent years have seen some of the highest levels of engagement in decades. Young voters showing up at the...

    While voting rates for younger voters have traditionally lagged behind other cohorts, recent years have seen some of the highest levels of engagement in decades. Young voters showing up at the polls is basically why the vaunted "red wave" of 2022 turned into a trickle.

    20 votes

  10. Comment on Firefox will support at least 200 new extensions on Android this December in ~tech

    crowsby
    Link Parent
    This is the one I'm most interested in. I've had to install KiwiBrowser to get it working on mobile. I wish there was a way to get it working on Firefox Mobile.

    This is the one I'm most interested in. I've had to install KiwiBrowser to get it working on mobile. I wish there was a way to get it working on Firefox Mobile.

  11. Comment on Mark Zuckerberg delivers on promise to pour 'gasoline' on Threads growth as the platform regains users while X shrinks in ~tech

    crowsby
    Link Parent
    The default Threads experience might be like that, but it's a platform that benefits greatly from heavy-handed gardening. The first couple weeks I was on it, I was slapping that mute button like I...

    The default Threads experience might be like that, but it's a platform that benefits greatly from heavy-handed gardening. The first couple weeks I was on it, I was slapping that mute button like I was playing hungry hungry hippoes, and now I don't see any of that stuff.

    My challenge is I'm not sure what it's supposed to be used for. I do not want to use it for news or politics, since I don't believe the format is helpful for those topics. So basically right now half the conversations I'm seeing are meta-conversations about twitter or threads, which is equally useless to me. I don't consider a platform dedicated to platformchat a good use of my time.

    6 votes

  12. Comment on Costco clothing is cheap. But is it good value? in ~life.style

    crowsby
    Link
    Every time I go there I'm struck by how low their clothing prices are. For sure, it's generally not the best textiles nor the best construction, but they're functional and come with price tags...

    Every time I go there I'm struck by how low their clothing prices are. For sure, it's generally not the best textiles nor the best construction, but they're functional and come with price tags which have somehow managed to ignore the last three years of inflation. I have noticed that their merino socks have steadily become less and less merinoey as the years have gone by to the point that I started to seek out alternatives a couple years back.

    18 votes

  13. Comment on Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s job is at risk after US House of Representatives votes to move ahead with hard-right effort to oust him in ~society

    crowsby
    Link
    I'm curious about the political calculus of the Democrats here. While Kevin Mccarthy was no prize, it's key to remember that his ouster came about specifically because of his willingness to work...

    I'm curious about the political calculus of the Democrats here. While Kevin Mccarthy was no prize, it's key to remember that his ouster came about specifically because of his willingness to work with Democrats. My assumption would be that whomever succeeds him is going to be even less inclined to compromise, especially after seeing how this scenario played out.

    12 votes

  14. Comment on Major League Baseball's 2023 postseason matchups are set in ~sports.baseball

    crowsby
    Link
    It's insane to see the Orioles sitting there with a first seed slot. That AL East division is a meatgrinder, and I'm happy for their fans to see them back in the postseason.

    It's insane to see the Orioles sitting there with a first seed slot. That AL East division is a meatgrinder, and I'm happy for their fans to see them back in the postseason.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on What have you been watching / reading this month? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime

    crowsby
    Link
    I just finished The Fable, a manga (and soon-to-be anime) about a professional hitman who has to lay low and live a normal life in a new city for a year. I really enjoyed it, particularly since it...

    I just finished The Fable, a manga (and soon-to-be anime) about a professional hitman who has to lay low and live a normal life in a new city for a year. I really enjoyed it, particularly since it seemed to have a cohesive and fulfilling narrative flow from start to finish. A lot of manga seem to fall into a pattern of abruptly switching directions and trying something new just for the sake of it, and it leads to a very herky-jerky narrative experience.

    There's also a second part to it which isn't quite as good imo, but is still pretty enjoyable.

    1 vote

  16. Comment on Philips Hue will force users to upload their data to Hue cloud in ~tech

    crowsby
    Link
    I've got a bunch of Hue bulbs and have been pretty happy with them, so I was alarmed when I first saw this headline. But upon reading into it a bit, I'm not really certain what I'm supposed to be...

    I've got a bunch of Hue bulbs and have been pretty happy with them, so I was alarmed when I first saw this headline. But upon reading into it a bit, I'm not really certain what I'm supposed to be alarmed about.

    They want users to create an account? Is that requirement really that big of a deal that people would leave the whole ecosystem over it?

    6 votes

  17. Comment on You can tell how bad Google Searches are now when you try to search for "Baldur's Gate 3 Wiki" and it pushes you a single outdated wiki and a bunch of posts telling you to use bg3.wiki in ~tech

  18. Comment on Anime/manga that inspired you to pick up a new hobby or something similar? in ~anime

    crowsby
    Link Parent
    Remarkable! Yakitate started me into baking as a lifelong hobby, and the Bread Baker's Apprentice sealed the deal. It's still one of my favorite animes of all time, and it still holds up well...

    Remarkable! Yakitate started me into baking as a lifelong hobby, and the Bread Baker's Apprentice sealed the deal. It's still one of my favorite animes of all time, and it still holds up well today imo.

    2 votes

  19. Comment on Toyota takes its biggest US port off the grid with hydrogen system in ~enviro

    crowsby
    Link Parent
    Not at all. At least not loud enough to be heard over ambient forest noise.

    Not at all. At least not loud enough to be heard over ambient forest noise.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Toyota takes its biggest US port off the grid with hydrogen system in ~enviro

    crowsby
    Link
    Toyota actually had a hydrogen generator at Pickathon, a music festival I went to earlier this year that prioritizes sustainability. Apparently it was powering multiple stages. I had no idea. I...

    Toyota actually had a hydrogen generator at Pickathon, a music festival I went to earlier this year that prioritizes sustainability. Apparently it was powering multiple stages. I had no idea. I walked past the thing dozens of times and assumed it was just some big piece of promotional collateral, I didn't know it was actually, like, the thing.

    8 votes