daturkel's recent activity
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Comment on The Google engineer who thinks the company’s AI has come to life in ~tech
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk
daturkel Link ParentI've actually been thinking of reading up on the cold war lately, so this is a great tip, thanks!I've actually been thinking of reading up on the cold war lately, so this is a great tip, thanks!
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk
daturkel Link ParentMy partner is French so I started learning vocabulary online last year with Babbel, but I'm ready for the next step and I really need to set up real lessons with a class or tutor. Online apps...My partner is French so I started learning vocabulary online last year with Babbel, but I'm ready for the next step and I really need to set up real lessons with a class or tutor. Online apps don't do much to get you spontaneously producing (written or spoken) sentences, though my reading is ok for someone who's never taken a real French class.
As for photos, my process is not very efficient as I have a tendency to let a trip's worth of photos sit around on my hard drive for years! I shoot on my phone all the time and post to instagram, but I also like shooting on my DSLR and on color film too. Film's great because it gets me to do a lot of editing (i.e. I don't just snap and snap because I'm working with a limited number of exposures). Digital I find challenging because, while my chances of "getting the shot" just right are higher, I end up with a ton of duds too because I don't really have to limit what I shoot.
As far as processing, I use Affinity Photo to process my raw (.NEF) files, though I process them pretty lightly (mostly just for exposure, highlights, and shadows, occasionally for color balance). I'm colorblind so I'm not much use with heavy color processing anyway.
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Comment on What were the best books you read this year? in ~books
daturkel Link ParentAfter Mason & Dixon, Don Quixote, and Mythos, you're going to plow through The Old Man and The Sea in a couple of hours. I tried listening to the Mythos audiobook over the summer but it's quite...The Old Man and The Sea
After Mason & Dixon, Don Quixote, and Mythos, you're going to plow through The Old Man and The Sea in a couple of hours.
I tried listening to the Mythos audiobook over the summer but it's quite long so I didn't make it all the way through. It's easy enough to pick up again at some point, though.
Yeah, it's really telling when you truly despise the narrator and the story being told, but love the form and themes explored enough to invest the time and effort to read it anyway. I really need to explore more of his work, but Nabokov's obsession with the despicable makes it a tough commitment.
I don't know what other Nabokov you've already read, but from what I've read:
- Pnin: hilarious and much more light-hearted than other Nabokov
- Invitation to a Beheading: extremely Kafkaesque (though Nabokov denied having read Kafka at this point) but more metaphysical; not worth it IMO
- Lolita: extremely well-written and worth reading if you can handle it
I think you'd probably like The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov too.
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Comment on What were the best books you read this year? in ~books
daturkel Link ParentPale Fire is probably the best novel I've ever read, and The Crying of Lot 49 is another personal favorite. What's next on your list?Pale Fire is probably the best novel I've ever read, and The Crying of Lot 49 is another personal favorite. What's next on your list?
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk
daturkel LinkI'm a bit late to this thread, but I've made some personal (measurable) goals for the year and wrote about them online to hold myself accountable. The long and short of it: read 25 books (3 of...I'm a bit late to this thread, but I've made some personal (measurable) goals for the year and wrote about them online to hold myself accountable.
The long and short of it:
- read 25 books (3 of which are "technical")
- write 12 blog posts
- take one online course
- get conversational in French
- shoot 2 new batches of photos and post them online (and get through some of my photo backlog)
I'm going to try to keep track of my progress against the goals throughout the year in the interest of staying motivated.
In terms of changes, I think I've got the same goal that many people have: eating better and exercising more. I was doing tons of walking early in the pandemic but it's fallen to the wayside lately, so I need to reincorporate it into my life. I'd also like to continue (or start in earnest) learning to cook to help fight back against my take-out habit (which is always a temptation in NYC).
But with the constant changes brought by the pandemic, I think the very least I can ask of myself is to maintain strong relationships with friends and family and to stay happy and healthy.
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Comment on Belated highlights from RecSys 2021 in ~comp
daturkel Link ParentThose are the biggest categories, but they're definitely not exhaustive. Any application with a highly personalized feed is likely using recommender systems to populate it (Facebook News Feed,...Those are the biggest categories, but they're definitely not exhaustive. Any application with a highly personalized feed is likely using recommender systems to populate it (Facebook News Feed, Instagram's main feed and Discover page, Steam's game suggestion queue, your Twitter feed). Linkedin uses recommenders to surface job postings and potential connections. I currently work in recommendation for online dating.
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Comment on Belated highlights from RecSys 2021 in ~comp
daturkel LinkHello, hope it's ok to share a blog post that I published yesterday on my thoughts from the ACM RecSys conference. I'd love to discuss this content more, but I'm also extremely open to any input...Hello, hope it's ok to share a blog post that I published yesterday on my thoughts from the ACM RecSys conference. I'd love to discuss this content more, but I'm also extremely open to any input on the post—it's my first blog post in a long, long time, so I'm a bit rusty.
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Belated highlights from RecSys 2021
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
daturkel Link ParentClaude. I read that it was easiest so it seemed like a good starting point.Claude. I read that it was easiest so it seemed like a good starting point.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
daturkel LinkI'm pretty deep in Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Switch. It's actually feeling a bit too easy (maybe I'm over-leveled?) but it's incredibly addictive and I can already tell I'm going to go back...I'm pretty deep in Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Switch. It's actually feeling a bit too easy (maybe I'm over-leveled?) but it's incredibly addictive and I can already tell I'm going to go back and replay it several times with the different houses. I'd definitely recommend it to people who like tactics games, though it's got a lot of Persona-style social simulation elements as well which might not be for everyone.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
daturkel Link ParentWow you picked three long, dense books to read in a row. I try to at least switch between easy and difficult reads. Were you aware that the edition of V available in the US is technically...Wow you picked three long, dense books to read in a row. I try to at least switch between easy and difficult reads.
Were you aware that the edition of V available in the US is technically unauthorized/uncorrected?
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Comment on Andrew Yang to launch a third party in ~society
daturkel Link ParentI think the motivation for "launching the new party" is more about:I think the motivation for "launching the new party" is more about:
Yang is expected to start the party in conjunction with the Oct. 5 release of his new book
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Comment on I’m scared of the person TikTok thinks I am in ~tech
daturkel Link ParentAgree with all your suggestions. The other one, which is more and less believable, depending on who you are, is that sometimes it's dumb luck. It might seem crazy, but you make note of the times...Agree with all your suggestions. The other one, which is more and less believable, depending on who you are, is that sometimes it's dumb luck. It might seem crazy, but you make note of the times there's a huge coincidence—you don't make note of the thousands of times that there isn't a coincidence, or that the ads are only vaguely relevant.
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Comment on I’m scared of the person TikTok thinks I am in ~tech
daturkel Link ParentTo be clear, neither Facebook nor Google nor Amazon etc is listening to your microphone to serve you ads. a) it would be prohibitively complex and b) they can already serve you better without the...To be clear, neither Facebook nor Google nor Amazon etc is listening to your microphone to serve you ads. a) it would be prohibitively complex and b) they can already serve you better without the need for that complexity (or bad PR). Not saying that you do or don't believe this, but this claim comes up a lot and talking about the very bad (but not real) things these companies do distracts us from the very bad and real things they do.
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Comment on Which language do you think is best? in ~talk
daturkel Link ParentEven as a native English speaker, I question the idea that English's (nominal) status as a "lingua franca" is due to linguistic properties rather than the global footprint of American and British...Even as a native English speaker, I question the idea that English's (nominal) status as a "lingua franca" is due to linguistic properties rather than the global footprint of American and British influence. For example: Why not Spanish? It has lots of grammatical niceties and extremely predictable phonics/spelling (though admittedly much more verb conjugation than English). But Spanish-speaking culture is not dominant enough to demand that people across the world learn the language.
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Comment on Is content moderation a dead end? in ~tech
daturkel LinkSubmission statement: I saw this essay posted on Hacker News (comments section here if you dare). I'm not sure I agree with the author's premise that content moderation can be side-stepped by...Submission statement:
I saw this essay posted on Hacker News (comments section here if you dare). I'm not sure I agree with the author's premise that content moderation can be side-stepped by "changing the model"—but, maybe I'd be a little more credulous if we had a few vague examples of what that might look like.
I know the Tildes community has historically been interested in issues of content moderation (especially as it relates to this site and others like it), so I thought it might be good fodder for conversation.
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Is content moderation a dead end?
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Comment on Repeatedly finding myself upset with the conversations on Tildes in ~talk
daturkel Link ParentI don't use Tildes nearly as much as the users you're describing here, but I do check it a few times a day and try to participate in discussions, and my perspective on why is that it's because...I don't use Tildes nearly as much as the users you're describing here, but I do check it a few times a day and try to participate in discussions, and my perspective on why is that it's because Tildes is/feels so nascent and has so much potential that people feel really invested in making it the space they want it to be. You naturally want to shape the assortment of what gets posted and contribute to discussions and suggest ideas and rules and so on because when a site like Tildes becomes even a percentage of the size of major social networks, the ability for individuals to shape its trajectory shrinks to almost nothing. I suspect that many users who express their unhappiness with the site (and I've seen several posts like that) don't want to just step away from the site because they know they can still play a part in making it a place for them.
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Comment on New groups and site mechanics - 2021 edition in ~tildes
daturkel (edited )LinkThis is a fairly minor suggestion, and one that's come up before, but I'd love the ability to be able to post the occasional anonymous comment (or post?). I think the practice of making throwaway...This is a fairly minor suggestion, and one that's come up before, but I'd love the ability to be able to post the occasional anonymous comment (or post?). I think the practice of making throwaway accounts on reddit is an emergent behavior because there was no official solution. It's tricky because anonymity is often a tool to enable conduct we wouldn't want to be held accountable for (abuse, flaming, spam, etc), but I've also found there are cases when I'd like to be able to share a perspective related to the industry I work in (lest it appear that I'm speaking on behalf of my employer), or based on my career, and I'd rather not have it linked to my named account.
edit with an unrelated suggestion: I'd love it if locked threads had just a one sentence summary of why they were locked. I've come across a few recently and while you can generally intuit what happened, I think it helps serve as a model for future behavior to know "this thread was locked because XYZ behavior made it shitty."
For what it's worth, he wasn't fired, he was put on paid administrative leave.