disk's recent activity

  1. Comment on The collapse of self-worth in the digital age in ~health.mental

    disk
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    It's a great article and it summarises what I've been feeling for a long time. I like writing technical articles because I hope they reach someone looking for a specific bit of information and...

    It's a great article and it summarises what I've been feeling for a long time. I like writing technical articles because I hope they reach someone looking for a specific bit of information and makes their life easier, but I don't have comments or any social media. I have a plain, old-looking website and that's it. That's how I manage to "isolate myself" virtually, and my public online presence is limited to Tildes.

    I didn't find a way of summarising why I did what I did, but this is essentially it. The constant pursuit of metrics turns art into an impersonal exercise in maximising interaction, and the ways in which that can be done are not always what resonates with one internally.

    Anecdotally, this is one of the reasons I stopped playing videogames, and this is why the lines between work and personal life have become blurred to the point of no distinction for me. Even the things I used to enjoy had to be optimised to such a level where they are genuinely stressful. Plants, cooking, working on electronics, it's beyond frustrating.

    5 votes

  2. Comment on Why a helium leak disabled every iPhone in a medical facility (2018) in ~tech

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    That has to go on the list of "most surreal hardware/software faults in history"! Although I was aware that MEMS oscillators could theoretically be impacted by large concentrations of small...

    That has to go on the list of "most surreal hardware/software faults in history"! Although I was aware that MEMS oscillators could theoretically be impacted by large concentrations of small molecule gasses and high levels of noise, I never thought there would be a situation outside high power fast switching power supply racks, industrial environments that deal with hydrogen/helium (maybe this counts as one), etc. where they would be downright disabled.

    Fascinating read! I still think they are well worth the tradeoffs, and noisy/industrial/radiation applications can just stick to crystal oscillators

    7 votes

  5. Comment on Weak security defaults enabled Squarespace Domains hijacks of former Google Domains accounts in ~tech

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    That seems like an early-2000s kind of blunder. The whole situation is appalling, but this is a neat little detail

    What’s more, Monahan said, Squarespace did not require email verification for new accounts created with a password.

    That seems like an early-2000s kind of blunder. The whole situation is appalling, but this is a neat little detail

    7 votes

  7. Comment on What are some fun/interesting websites that don't involve news or current events? in ~tech

    disk
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    Wiby is a search engine for Web 1.0 (basically, early internet) websites, and I can definitely spend some time hitting the "surprise me" button over and over again. You come across websites for...

    Wiby is a search engine for Web 1.0 (basically, early internet) websites, and I can definitely spend some time hitting the "surprise me" button over and over again. You come across websites for niche interests, personal webpages, directories of useful information for things you didn't even know existed, art projects, so on.

    On that note, Defacto2 is a repository of old software, BBS adverts, demoscene stuff, cracking intros, ANSI art, interviews and more. It is more or less a museum of warez culture and everything is neatly organised.

    One of my favourite "small" websites is the Digital Museum of Plugs and Sockets, which does a fairly good job at keeping track of different plug, socket and electrical standards all across the world. It's not horribly technical and it can provide lots of amusement even if you don't have lots of electrics knowledge.

    Abandoned Southeast is a blog dedicated to documenting abandoned buildings in the American Southeast, often providing not only pictures, but also a glimpse of the historical significance of that building in the form of a short "context" paragraph.

    12 votes

  8. Comment on What happened to user interfaces? in ~tech

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    Not a huge fan of this video for reasons which were explored in more detail than those who commented before me, but commenting from the perspective of someone who had to design control system UIs...

    Not a huge fan of this video for reasons which were explored in more detail than those who commented before me, but commenting from the perspective of someone who had to design control system UIs alongside more standard, run of the mill "form" UIs, this critique doesn't seem incredibly valid to me.

    For instance, when talking about Venetian houses, he fails to mention that "modernist" architecture is flat not because of its purported laser focus on practicality, but rather a deliberate design choice. A lot of elements in modern architecture are functionless, whilst a lot of elements in Venetian houses were practical at the time they were built, and these functional elements became redundant once new technologies appeared.

    Furthermore, I don't see Rivian's attempt at a flashy touchscreen interface in a vehicle as a positive thing. Cars should have straightforward controls, which are easily distinguishable at a cursory glance, and a minimum of visual bloat around said UI elements.

    My favourite UIs to use are the most boring, flat UIs ever imagined, with lots of contrast, clear indications as to what each button does, with actionable elements a literal touch away. I adore how Tildes was designed because everything pops out, you know when you can interact with an element because its colour has strong contrast with the background, and space is used very intelligently without significant differences between the mobile/desktop experiences.

    I disable animations whenever possible, and I abhor newer "experimental" websites that try to be cute and unique with horrible, unintuitive design that is only aesthetically pleasing. I've encountered websites that download literal tens of megabytes of data for no good reason, hijack the scrolling mechanism, have features/information hidden behind specific actions, so on, so forth.

    9 votes

  9. Comment on Military flees Bolivia government palace after coup attempt fails, general taken into custody in ~society

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    There is another excellent (short) book that goes into the practical underpinnings of a successful coup d'etat, named Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook. It helps reflect what has been the larger...

    There is another excellent (short) book that goes into the practical underpinnings of a successful coup d'etat, named Coup d'État: A Practical Handbook.

    It helps reflect what has been the larger hurdle in recent failed coups in Latin America, such as Peru's self-coup, Bolivia's 2019 failed attempt and Brazil's recent coup plottings, which seems to be the belief by sectors of the military that they can achieve the same level of success as the Operation Condor coups without significant international backing, civilian backing and organisation.

    What led to success in 1960 was strong backing by the CIA and the US in general, as well as the ability to capitalise on a moralist/anti-communist sentiment in the population, leading to public support (seen in demonstrations such as the despicably named March of the Family with God for Liberty). Although Bolsonaro attempted something similar, utilising fear propaganda tactics, the military had "firmer" ties to the democratic process (as established in post-1985 reforms), no significant international backing and little to gain from a coup. The public was disorganised, and January 8th attacks were quelled quickly enough, despite moderately successful attempts to coopt politicians and disrupt police action.

    This has all the markings of a shoddy, last-minute action with little support even from military personnel, if anything, this would almost seem like a distraction propped up by some more powerful political player, but there are no indications of that.

    8 votes

  10. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    disk
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    Ah, I've been on an Eurodance streak as well, Come on let it be has been my favourite one this week, but there are a few ones from the list that I think are worth a listen: Hesperia - Blue Waves...

    Ah, I've been on an Eurodance streak as well, Come on let it be has been my favourite one this week, but there are a few ones from the list that I think are worth a listen:

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Raspberry Pi is now a public company in ~tech

    disk
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    I can second that. I used Beaglebone Blacks extensively because the double PRUs were fantastic for our purpose, but sadly the move to remoteproc CPU messaging was not done in the best of ways, and...

    I can second that. I used Beaglebone Blacks extensively because the double PRUs were fantastic for our purpose, but sadly the move to remoteproc CPU messaging was not done in the best of ways, and as you say, support is limited at best.

    Our move to Debian 10 was plagued with a ton of issues, and although I could squeeze out a bit more performance, it was difficult to justify the effort.

    It's a shame, because I adored working with the Beaglebone AI as I could effectively use one of the CPU cores as a RT processing unit, leave the other one for OS tasks, and pass down all the actual RT work to the 4x PRUs on it.

    Right now, as a hobbyist, I'm enjoying working with a Pico, as its PIO is similar to the PRUs in a sense, and the dual core capabilities are more than enough for most people.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Parable of the sofa in ~life

    disk
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    I sure hope patterns of consumption change. Instead of many pans, I've gone down to four, plus a frying pan, and I can't say I've been horribly affected by it. Nowadays there seems to be a trend...

    I sure hope patterns of consumption change. Instead of many pans, I've gone down to four, plus a frying pan, and I can't say I've been horribly affected by it. Nowadays there seems to be a trend towards "unitaskers" in all fields, not only cookery, and I'd like to see it extinguished, as it is not sustainable to keep selling, say, "banana slicers" or whatever is advertised on TikTok at the moment.

    6 votes

  13. Comment on Parable of the sofa in ~life

    disk
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    I'm lucky to live near a town that provides niche lifestyle businesses (shops that sell hats, pens, jackets, soaps, spirits and small furniture), but for larger/more mundane things, such as larger...

    I'm lucky to live near a town that provides niche lifestyle businesses (shops that sell hats, pens, jackets, soaps, spirits and small furniture), but for larger/more mundane things, such as larger furniture, kitchen items (pans, pots), I'm out of luck.

    It is increasingly hard, as the article said, to find great quality items, even at incredibly elevated prices, because the distinction between faux high-quality brands and actual good products has been blurred. I could be looking at a jacket by a formerly reputable brand, only to realise it is now made of inferior materials, by less skilled labourers, in appalling work conditions. All for a premium price. Not that it has ever been one, but price is even less of an indicator of quality now.

    Since local manufacturers have wilted down to a tenth (if lucky) of what they used to be, they now have to source machinery/materials that is almost bespoke to them at incredibly high cost, which is naturally passed down to the customer. I don't mind paying 70 GBP for a cast iron frying pan, but for stainless steel pots and pans, I cannot justify 100 GBP for a single saucepan when a whole set made of steel of comparable quality costs a fraction of that.

    It's sadly a bit of a "tragedy of the commons" situation, where if more people who could support local manufacturers would indeed opt for their products, then prices would go down across the board, but it is perfectly understandable to not want to overpay massively for every single item in your household.

    15 votes

  14. Comment on How are you dealing with inflation regarding everyday enjoyment? in ~life

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    Me and my friends switched to "free" activities, such as taking advantage of the many sports facilities around our area. Instead of going to the pub, we might just play some games of tennis, then...

    Me and my friends switched to "free" activities, such as taking advantage of the many sports facilities around our area. Instead of going to the pub, we might just play some games of tennis, then head off to someone's house to have afternoon tea or drink cheaper, store-bought alcohol.

    I myself was never a huge red meat eater, but I switched to basically only chicken (well, due to inflation and environmental reasons) as beef is simply not sustainable anymore. Eating out in general has become a luxury, I decided to cook at home more, and went from maybe one restaurant meal every two weeks to once every couple of months.

    Most we can do is take advantage of subsidised services/facilities around us, I've been going to libraries more, practicing sports more, and using all the benefits that came with my job. Nevertheless, there are some apps such as Olio and Too Good to Go that offer free or heavily discounted items that would be thrown away anyway.

    Conversely, inflation has led me to spend more on quality, "buy-it-for-life" products. For example, in the past I would buy the cheapest chair possible, but now, since said chair will break sooner than later, accompanied by a significant rise in said chair's price, it makes more sense to buy the expensive one that'll last me two decades.

    37 votes

  15. Comment on NHS is broken - also, did my Pa have a stroke? in ~talk

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    I'm sorry for all the hurdles and pain you're all going through, I hope he gets on the path to recovery soon. Sadly, a lot of times it's a lottery with healthcare. I'm very glad that my family has...

    I'm sorry for all the hurdles and pain you're all going through, I hope he gets on the path to recovery soon.

    Sadly, a lot of times it's a lottery with healthcare. I'm very glad that my family has been lucky on multiple occasions with my home country's healthcare system (which is also socialised) and I am thankful for the NHS, who promptly diagnosed and planned out treatment for a cancer that was detected after I went in for nothing more than what felt like a chest infection.

    But your experience shows that we need an overhaul of our medical system, it's not fair to have to go through what is frankly a stressful, traumatic experience because we're not able to retain staff or provide a "simplified" line of bureaucracy.

    You're right in your comment about this being a workflow issue (I too had to go after nurses to be sent home, dragging an infusion pump along the way) and the NHS' problems couldn't be solved with all the money in the world if we don't solve these workflow issues.

    That being said, I hope you and your family get through this as soon as possible, and that the NHS remains free and accessible in the future, so we can tackle these issues head on.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    disk
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    Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon. It's a fairly thorough dive into the beginnings of ARPANET, both from a political and technical standpoint, followed by an enticing...

    Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon. It's a fairly thorough dive into the beginnings of ARPANET, both from a political and technical standpoint, followed by an enticing exploration of how TCP/IP, backbones, the internet, and e-mail grew naturally from that. There are a few excursions into "what-could-have-beens", such as competing protocols for data transmission, or radio instead of undersea cables, all of which I believe are tackled in a superb manner.

    That being said, I'm trying to get my hands on a copy of How to Build a Car, but with limited success.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Why do some people posting ChatGPT answer to the discussion/debate/question? in ~tech

    disk
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    Certainly, it reminds me of mailing lists, with laconic answers ("yes", "no", "read the man pages") that contribute little to the discussion, since they're so vague you can't derive an actual...

    Certainly, it reminds me of mailing lists, with laconic answers ("yes", "no", "read the man pages") that contribute little to the discussion, since they're so vague you can't derive an actual solution to your problem/genuine answer.

    LLMs/transformers are a lot like that, I've asked Copilot about crystallography concepts as a test, only to be met with information about the fall of the Ottoman empire. And when it works, sometimes it comes up with vague non-answers (or worse yet, a confidently wrong answer).

    I don't see how someone could even equate "asking ChatGPT" to quoting an article or website. It's stripped of all references when posted here, and for all I know, it could be looking at a 1970s datasheet for something that was heavily reworked in the 2000s (that happened before, just not on Tildes).

  18. Comment on Ferrari patents inverted I6 hydrogen engine with electric turbocharging in ~engineering

    disk
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    Yeah, this is not going to be a "full package" that will be pushed commercially, but rather a conjunction of different experimental technologies that Ferrari can then cherry pick to augment their...

    Yeah, this is not going to be a "full package" that will be pushed commercially, but rather a conjunction of different experimental technologies that Ferrari can then cherry pick to augment their offerings for high performance engines.

    I could even see some of these (most likely the compressor arrangement) being tested on petrol engines in "real" environments, but definitely not all features at once.

  19. Comment on Tesla's gear-shifting problems known long before Angela Chao's death in ~transport

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    These attempts at innovation are frankly pointless. Sportscars have gullwing/scissor doors precisely because they sit close to the floor, and this is one way of making access slightly easier....

    These attempts at innovation are frankly pointless. Sportscars have gullwing/scissor doors precisely because they sit close to the floor, and this is one way of making access slightly easier.

    However, this is a SUV/crossover, which sits fairly high. There is no point in having fancy doors, other than looks, and the "emergency procedure" for the back doors looks damn near impossible to perform in a true emergency.

    Couple this with the weird procedure for shifting into reverse (apparently, they're using touchscreen controls now, which is easily worse than all the shifting mechanisms I've ever seen in my life, including knobs), and a regular car driver would get easily confused.

    Then you have the yoke as a steering wheel replacement, which is frankly ridiculous. It's even worse than the Austin Allegro's square steering wheel in every single way. The reason F1/GT3/WEC cars have steering wheels that look like they do is precisely because they have incredibly short steering racks, which mean they rotate much less lock to lock.

    And of course, the massive tablet that replaces every single control. Although this is done in plenty of modern cars, prompting Euro NCAP to step in and say "bring back physical controls", Tesla takes it even further.

    I never thought we'd have to regulate cabin controls, but this is getting ridiculous. Cars gravitated towards round steering wheels, gear levers and pedals the way they did precisely because of years of evolution in ergonomics, and this has proven time and time again to be the superior design. Senseless innovation is, well, senseless.

    49 votes

  20. Comment on Denmark's second-largest city is trialling a first-of-its-kind deposit scheme to tackle single-use coffee cups in ~enviro

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    Seems like a good idea, and it definitely solves the problem of "what if I forget my cup at home". Also, the disposable lids (at least it seems like they are disposed of), although not...

    Seems like a good idea, and it definitely solves the problem of "what if I forget my cup at home". Also, the disposable lids (at least it seems like they are disposed of), although not ecologically ideal, make it a bit more hygienic.

    I'd really like to see the results of this trial, as cup longevity, economic viability and return rates are absolutely going to make or break this. Especially cup longevity, since the cups use less plastic and don't seem as sturdy as regular reusable cups. Although the lessened amount of plastic should affect energetic use break-even, regular cups come in at about 17 uses, so a similar figure for a cup's "usable lifetime" needs to be achieved.

    9 votes