deimosthenes's recent activity
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Comment on US Federal Communications Commission abolishes gigabit speed goal, suggesting it is unfair to slower technologies in ~tech
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Comment on US Federal Communications Commission abolishes gigabit speed goal, suggesting it is unfair to slower technologies in ~tech
deimosthenes (edited )Link ParentYeah this is broadly speaking the approach that Australia has taken over the last 15-20 years. And it was a huge political fight, with subsequent governments gutting big chunks of the initial plan...Yeah this is broadly speaking the approach that Australia has taken over the last 15-20 years. And it was a huge political fight, with subsequent governments gutting big chunks of the initial plan for inferior options, too many carve-outs for existing business interests, cost blowouts, etc.
But at the end of the day it did lead to a much improved system which while not perfect didn't leave anywhere near as many people behind as private investment would have.
And to your point, a dedicated public corporation handling all of the last mile infrastructure and selling access to ISPs makes it so much easier to have competition in that space. I could sign up for an internet plan with a competing provider and transition across seamlessly with no downtime, no change to my hardware and no technician visit. -
Comment on The Apothecary Diaries | Season 3 main trailer in ~anime
deimosthenes Link ParentWell I mean I think Maomao and Lahan are biologically cousins or something so I didn't necessarily mean anything like that, just that the two interacting (and possibly needling each other a bit?)...Well I mean I think Maomao and Lahan are biologically cousins or something so I didn't necessarily mean anything like that, just that the two interacting (and possibly needling each other a bit?) could be fun. And yeah I guess her upbringing has her a lot more matter-of-fact about female beauty, while men were mostly a hazard to be navigated carefully.
I'd agree season 2 did have a bit more Main Plot, but they still managed to work in quite a few smaller mysteries. In terms of the progression of the relationship between Maomao and Jinshi... Yeah they're making it a bit of a slower burn, but I think there was still some definite progress. Aside from the frog thing and his identity, this season basically had them meeting each other's parents.
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Comment on The Apothecary Diaries | Season 3 main trailer in ~anime
deimosthenes LinkThat art is looking crisp! I was very impressed by the previous season, so I've got some high expectations going in for this. It looked from the trailer like we're going to get more Lahan? I have...That art is looking crisp!
I was very impressed by the previous season, so I've got some high expectations going in for this.
It looked from the trailer like we're going to get more Lahan? I have been curious about him and what the dynamic is like between him and Maomao. -
Comment on What game are you terrible at? in ~games
deimosthenes Link ParentThe DS1 approach to telling players to veer away from a later game area is to stick some extra hard enemy type you don't have an answer to yet. Where you were in the game there were 3 major paths...The DS1 approach to telling players to veer away from a later game area is to stick some extra hard enemy type you don't have an answer to yet.
Where you were in the game there were 3 major paths forward, but one had those ghosts you encountered and another had skeletons which are resurrected indefinitely after a few seconds.
The problem with this approach is plenty of players either overlook the 'intended' path or get stubborn about it, especially since the game has a reputation for being brutally difficult so it's not completely outside the realm of believability to have a sudden difficulty spike. -
Comment on D6 TTRPG suggestions in ~games.tabletop
deimosthenes Link ParentI can second that Scum & Villainy was pretty fun. I imagine that would be true of other Forged in the Dark systems too. The rules are on the lighter side but I did still find the character options...I can second that Scum & Villainy was pretty fun. I imagine that would be true of other Forged in the Dark systems too.
The rules are on the lighter side but I did still find the character options engaging.
A lot of the mechanics that are there are about keeping things flowing, rewarding some level of risk-taking and failing forward.
It plays a lot like an action movie, letting you jump right into the action immediately and then providing ways for your players to flashback to their earlier contingency plans, or why they happen to have exactly the equipment on hand they need. -
Comment on Would you eat "Casu Marzu," Sardinia's famous maggot infested cheese? in ~food
deimosthenes Link ParentAlcohol and peer pressure definitely helped considerably when it came to balut. The texture wasn't actually that bad, although I've been told it can vary with them getting distinctly 'crunchy' if...Alcohol and peer pressure definitely helped considerably when it came to balut. The texture wasn't actually that bad, although I've been told it can vary with them getting distinctly 'crunchy' if they're further along which I think would be a step too far for me.
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Comment on Is there a way to filter out everything posted by a user? in ~tildes
deimosthenes Link ParentOne of my favourite things about tildes is that I was able to unlearn getting nervous when I saw someone had replied to me. It took a little while to realise how weird a behaviour it was on other...One of my favourite things about tildes is that I was able to unlearn getting nervous when I saw someone had replied to me.
It took a little while to realise how weird a behaviour it was on other sites to sculpt every comment or message defensively such that nobody could find an angle to misconstrue my remarks and attack me over it.
Not to say that everyone on tildes is perfect all of the time but I have a lot more faith someone will attempt a good-faith read, or be civil if they genuinely disagree.Anyway having said all that apologies for potentially triggering that anxiety with a notification, haha.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
deimosthenes Link ParentHaikyuu is definitely a favourite comfort watch of mine, it just does such a great job of laying the groundwork for believable progression and character growth that it all feels earned when they...Haikyuu is definitely a favourite comfort watch of mine, it just does such a great job of laying the groundwork for believable progression and character growth that it all feels earned when they dial up the tension in the big matches.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
deimosthenes Link ParentSo I will say that the LitRPG genre predated Dungeon Crawler Carl by quite a while, so I wouldn't say it's a source of originality for the concept. There's some great stories (and a whole lot more...So I will say that the LitRPG genre predated Dungeon Crawler Carl by quite a while, so I wouldn't say it's a source of originality for the concept. There's some great stories (and a whole lot more mediocre ones) using that same veneer released years or decades earlier.
Having said all of that, it's clear that Dungeon Crawler Carl has been a really great introduction into the genre for tons of people who were unaware of it, which is a big achievement in its own right.
I've only recently started reading the series so I've only read the first book so far, it's covering ground I've seen covered in plenty of other series but it is still a lot of fun. Every chance it establishes more of its own unique identity outside of the premise as I read more, I suppose. -
Comment on Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ in ~tech
deimosthenes Link ParentYeah I've worked in a few startups going through that growth phase where they don't yet have any sort of HR and absolutely should do. It can get pretty messy. New starters being "jokingly" told...Yeah I've worked in a few startups going through that growth phase where they don't yet have any sort of HR and absolutely should do. It can get pretty messy. New starters being "jokingly" told that they should kill themselves, alongside such a culture of drinking that when renting a new office space they prioritised getting beer on tap over getting enough desks and chairs installed.
Funnily enough even the fairly ineffective HR person that was brought in put a stop to the worst of the excess, despite very much being a mouthpiece for management and on a couple of occassions being weaponised to make life harder for anyone they wanted to get rid of. -
Comment on How computationally expensive is filtering and ignoring? in ~tildes
deimosthenes (edited )LinkI haven't looked at the tildes codebase or infrastructure so the following is more generalised from my experience as a software developer rather than deep knowledge of this particular stack. So...I haven't looked at the tildes codebase or infrastructure so the following is more generalised from my experience as a software developer rather than deep knowledge of this particular stack. So anyone who chimes in with more specialised knowledge is probably more correct than I!
It's going to be a completely negligible difference for any remotely real-world usage scenario you might have. The database queries are still going to need to go and check whether or not you have ignored topics / tags even if you don't use the feature. Because it's the 'expected' way for users to use the site, I'd be quite surprised if those queries weren't fairly well optimised with whatever indexes were needed to make it quick and efficient to do so. Depending on how it's set up, maybe if you did something crazy like ignore every single topic that had ever existed that might have more of an impact? But that's not really what you were asking.
If it'll make your experience more pleasant I'd say use it and don't stress about it, I'd be pretty confident it's absolutely dwarfed by other areas of hosting costs and is as you say almost free.
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Comment on Is British English actually better than American English? in ~humanities.languages
deimosthenes Link ParentI like this answer a lot, but I was curious about the last paragraph. Would you not say that in many ways spoken language is itself a technology, that much like writing systems there are going to...I like this answer a lot, but I was curious about the last paragraph.
Would you not say that in many ways spoken language is itself a technology, that much like writing systems there are going to be advantages and disadvantages to different languages / language groups for a given set of purposes?
The various dialects of English are much too close to differentiate in this way, and it obviously could get a bit dicey and uncomfortable to try to evaluate other languages thus without it succumbing to sociocultural biases.
It seems to me though that there would be some relatively objective features you could measure, even if I'm not sure what those features would be. Languages that were more information dense perhaps, or those whose structure and lexicon led to greater conciseness or precision or abstract prose.Of course this would still be very different than saying "language X is better than language Y" as a general statement.
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Comment on Babylon 5 S01E09: "Deathwalker" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
deimosthenes Link ParentYeah it hasn't been said outright that the Vorlons are so far ahead of the other races that nobody can stop them, but the attitudes of everyone involved imply it pretty heavily. I guess the...Yeah it hasn't been said outright that the Vorlons are so far ahead of the other races that nobody can stop them, but the attitudes of everyone involved imply it pretty heavily. I guess the concept of an 'elder race' that's both incredibly powerful and equally inscrutable is ingrained in plenty of space opera settings such that you only need to gesture in the direction of the concept.
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Comment on Ted Lasso | Season 4 official teaser in ~tv
deimosthenes LinkNot sure how I feel about a continuation after they left the show in a pretty good place. Hopefully it's still got things to say and isn't just a cash-grab?Not sure how I feel about a continuation after they left the show in a pretty good place.
Hopefully it's still got things to say and isn't just a cash-grab? -
Comment on Babylon 5 S01E07: "The War Prayer" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
deimosthenes Link ParentIt's been a very long time since I've watched the show so mostly speculating based on these few episodes, but I'd tend to agree. In the small amount of time we spent with Takashima they seemed to...It's been a very long time since I've watched the show so mostly speculating based on these few episodes, but I'd tend to agree.
In the small amount of time we spent with Takashima they seemed to want to make it front and center. While it's a pretty mild infraction, there was something funny about giving a speech about how she'd been a bit of a loose cannon in the past and was working so hard to stay on the straight and narrow and stick to the rules while both characters were drinking the fresh coffee she'd just fessed up to.
Ivanova seems all business all the time, so I think they're using these mild exceptions to humanise her as a character, softening the image subtly so we as viewers find her easier to empathise with. That she takes her job very seriously isn't really up for debate, so what we read from it is completely different. -
Comment on Babylon 5 S01E07: "The War Prayer" - Episode Discussion in ~tv
deimosthenes Link ParentSo interestingly the illegal coffee has been mentioned, but it was grown by a different character! The pilot movie for the show had the previous second-in-command Takashima illegally growing...So interestingly the illegal coffee has been mentioned, but it was grown by a different character!
The pilot movie for the show had the previous second-in-command Takashima illegally growing coffee in hydroponics, when she was re-cast for the series I guess they kept that character trait alive for Ivanova?
The whole thing is pretty interesting. The movie is largely treated as canon and comes up in the plot in this very episode, yet they've usually tried to make clear that the cast changes were totally different people who have since been replaced in their postings in the year since.
Maybe Takashima and Ivanova know each other and she passed along knowledge of her little illicit garden to her replacement? -
Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
deimosthenes Link ParentI watched the Utena movie for the first time a year or two ago and it was quite an experience. I probably wouldn't be able to accurately summarise the plot as it's pretty heavy on the symbolism. I...I watched the Utena movie for the first time a year or two ago and it was quite an experience. I probably wouldn't be able to accurately summarise the plot as it's pretty heavy on the symbolism. I doubt I would have had the patience for it when I was a kid, but I'd certainly recommend it as a fairly unique film now.
I think the show and the movie are loosely both a retelling of the same material? I suspect the series might have been a little easier to follow in places, but I kinda liked the extravagance of going in and experiencing the movie without much in the way of expectations.
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Comment on Am I German or autistic? in ~health.mental
deimosthenes Link ParentI got 50% and 51% and I was definitely discomforted by it not adding up cleanly. Which felt fitting in a way.I got 50% and 51% and I was definitely discomforted by it not adding up cleanly. Which felt fitting in a way.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
deimosthenes (edited )Link ParentI'm yet to read DCC although it's been recommended to me a few times so I should really get on it. One litrpg I've thoroughly enjoyed is The Wandering Inn. It experiments with its own genre a...I'm yet to read DCC although it's been recommended to me a few times so I should really get on it.
One litrpg I've thoroughly enjoyed is The Wandering Inn.
It experiments with its own genre a bunch but the core is a mashup of high fantasy adventure and character-driven cosy slice of life stuff. It does a good job of keeping the RPG trappings in service of telling a story, rather than the other way around.
It does have a reputation for being very long, but the prose makes for easy reading and it gives plenty of time to build up an expansive world and a wide cast of fleshed out characters.
The whole thing is available for free on the web, otherwise there are ebooks and audiobooks for sale for those that prefer those formats.
Yeah pivoting from FttP to FttN and then having to go back and do the work a second time in many places when it wasn't sufficient... Hard to believe that didn't end up saving money.