evercarrot's recent activity
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Comment on A rant about how devices handle users with language backgrounds other than English in ~tech
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Comment on A rant about how devices handle users with language backgrounds other than English in ~tech
evercarrot Link ParentThank you for this reply, I now understand this problem a little better even though I have zero experience in this field. For as long as I can remember, for at least some things there's always...Thank you for this reply, I now understand this problem a little better even though I have zero experience in this field.
For as long as I can remember, for at least some things there's always been the option between quick setup (select all recommended settings) and manual setup (manually toggle all settings you want). This is mostly a thing on computer software, but I think it would be good to have on mobile apps also. Understandably, it would cost money to implement, but I think it would really benefit both the developers and the end users in the long run.
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Comment on A rant about how devices handle users with language backgrounds other than English in ~tech
evercarrot Link ParentWow, it really didn't even cross my mind that this would be a thing, Definitely something I'm going to check out. Thank you for this!Wow, it really didn't even cross my mind that this would be a thing, Definitely something I'm going to check out.
Thank you for this!
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Comment on A rant about how devices handle users with language backgrounds other than English in ~tech
evercarrot Link ParentOof, the Youtube auto-dubbing was a problem I didn't remember, but now that you mention it, this has been bothering me a lot. I understand that they want people to use the new functions they...Oof, the Youtube auto-dubbing was a problem I didn't remember, but now that you mention it, this has been bothering me a lot.
I understand that they want people to use the new functions they implement but it's imo the most ignorant thing ever to have that functionality and no way to toggle it off. It's either assuming or forcing people into monolinguality little by little.
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Comment on A rant about how devices handle users with language backgrounds other than English in ~tech
evercarrot LinkBonus: Why does my band NEED to be connected at all times AND paid for with a subscription in order to be able to analyze my blood flow in real time? And why does it advertise this function by...Bonus: Why does my band NEED to be connected at all times AND paid for with a subscription in order to be able to analyze my blood flow in real time? And why does it advertise this function by making it seem like the capability isn't there before I pay? I mean, paying a subscription isn't going to make new hardware appear that wasn't there to begin with.
I'm just tired of the constant subterfuge.
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A rant about how devices handle users with language backgrounds other than English
How is it possible that in the year of our Lord 2026 my devices STILL use my physical location to determine everything? As I'm writing this, I'm still reeling from the emotional rage I experienced...
How is it possible that in the year of our Lord 2026 my devices STILL use my physical location to determine everything?
As I'm writing this, I'm still reeling from the emotional rage I experienced during the past days. A little context: I got a fitness band (smart band? health watch? smart watch?) as a Christmas gift from a family member. It's a Huawei fitness band that was quite cheap, and I was going to connect it to my (Samsung) android phone. It's the end of February now, and what put me off from configuring it for this long was the fact that I was quite concerned with the privacy side of things; How can I know that my health data isn't indexed by some foreign corporation, sold, and subsequently used against me by my insurance company in 20 years? (further context: I live in Finland)
After doing some research I decided to at least try it out to see how the band works, and only then decide whether I want to keep using it or not. I connect it to my phone, begrudgingly set up yet another account for a service I will use only for a single purpose, sign over my soul and am finally able to establish a connection between the phone and the band. The band asks me to choose the language, and I choose English. I have all of my devices in English even though it's not my native language, mainly for two reasons:
- the translations I've found to be quite clumsy/unintelligible at times, even (read: especially) on Windows
- 99.9% of all tutorials, guides and manuals exist in English, therefore it's easier to troubleshoot/fix problems if I don't have to translate stuff all of the time
After choosing the language and finally getting the damn vampire to work, I notice it's displaying the weather in Fahrenheit. This is odd, because my phone as well as the health app on it are both configured to display units in Celsius, and no matter what I do, I can't get it to change. This shouldn't be a big problem because I don't care what weather/temperature it displays; I already get that information elsewhere.
Now, I'm definitely not an expert on electronic devices or computers in any capacity, but I do dual-boot Linux and Windows on my PC with my main usage being on Linux Mint, and I've also tinkered with some Raspberry Pi and for example Lua coding during the past years, just because learning is fun. Really, the only reason I use Windows at all anymore is because I never got my favorite game, Horizon: Zero Dawn, to work on my Linux distro. I've chosen English (and only English; there is no secondary language) both as the Windows language as well as for Steam, Firefox etc.
Nevertheless, every time I start up Windows, approximately a third of all notifications, error messages and buttons are in my country's most spoken language. Why? Because I'm located in my country. The same is true for my browser, about half of all software and so on. The system detects that I'm located in Finland (or perhaps that the OS was obtained here), and therefore it desperately tries to adjust to that fact, among other things by assuming what language I really speak. Some things in Windows just seem to adjust automatically depending on where it detects I am, and for many problems the only solution seems to be to change my time zone, the unacceptability of which should go without saying.
I understand Windows has been going downhill for quite a while, pushing content and services that the end user didn't ask for and doesn't want/need while removing functionality to bar the user from tinkering with their product too much. That being said, I can't for the life of me understand in what world this particular decision benefits anybody. Why not make separate settings for the time zone, the display language and the displayed units and then respect those settings? It's annoying for the user and it doesn't make anything on my device easier to do, and every time I want to configure Windows, my Android phone or for example my smart band, I feel like a child that gets babied by all the adults and never taken seriously. The child's name? Not Albert Einstein, at least as far as Microsoft is concerned, because of course I am a stupid and lazy average person who speaks the majority language in my country, who wants to do the same things everyone else does, and who understands the error message in English perfectly until the word "OK", which needs to be translated to my country's majority language for some reason.
Back to the smart band problem: After scrounging the internet for a while, I noticed quite a few Europeans have had the same issue with not being able to change the displayed units on their smart band. The solution?
Change the language to UK English.
Now, I understand that this problem had a relatively easy "solution", and in any other scenario I would have jumped to solve the problem and get on with using the device, but this was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. When configuring a device, the user cannot be required to play 5D-chess against the manufacturer's cultural ignorance in order to get basic things to work. In trying to make their product as foolproof as possible, they've made all the end users fools in the process. And this goes for computers, phones, smart bands, smart TVs, gaming consoles and even toasters that nowadays all require AI+remote control completely set up in order to function. Why not let the user first decide what they want, let the user ignore the settings they don't know about, and then have this state-of-the-art technology adjust to that?
I have no interest in wearing this kind of "smart" device on me because it makes me feel stupid.
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Comment on I think I don’t like Pokémon anymore in ~games
evercarrot Link ParentI have one final tip for you that's really concrete, for when you start your first dungeon: You do attacks by pressing ["menu button"->"moves"->choose attack] from there. The "default headbutt" is...I have one final tip for you that's really concrete, for when you start your first dungeon:
You do attacks by pressing ["menu button"->"moves"->choose attack] from there. The "default headbutt" is not the only attack you can do, and it's not even an attack, just something you can do when you're out of moves.
There isn't really a tutorial other than one dialogue window per new game mechanic, so what happened to me as a child is I went through the first dungeons only using the "default attack" and it took a while. That was brutal.
Also you can speed this up, for example if you want to do the same attack again on your next turn, simply spam the menu button (on my emulator i had it on "c"). It will automatically do the same "path" through the menu that you did last time.
I really hope you don't sleep on this game, good luck!
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Comment on I think I don’t like Pokémon anymore in ~games
evercarrot Link ParentI'm not the person you replied to, but from the bottom of my heart I can recommend Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. It's the single best Pokemon game, and in my top three games of all time. It's...I'm not the person you replied to, but from the bottom of my heart I can recommend Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky. It's the single best Pokemon game, and in my top three games of all time. It's a shame it's not a mainline game because those pale in comparison to the music, vibe and especially story of MD:EOS. The amount of love put into this game compared to the attention is criminal imo.
Note that all Mystery Dungeon games are more or less the same game, just with some different characters etc. Explorers of Sky is just the most popular version, the "end" version, if you will. Also as a heads up, this game is old by today's standards, and e.g. the battle menu is very bare bones and takes some getting used to because it's really really simple looking, nothing fancy like in most pokemon games. I have not played the Nintendo Switch "remakes" of the game but please download an emulator on the computer and play the original Explorers of Sky.
Just dive into it blind and find your own combinations of moves/items/strategies/party compositions and you will have a really fun time. The game is definitely in the category of "easy to learn, hard to master", and the controls will become second nature so you can press three keys even without looking and execute moves just by finger memory. Also there is a ton of extra content in the form of backstories, i.e. you can play as every major character in the game in a side chapter and experience their backstories, but it's not necessary to progress or anything.
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Comment on Miynt – Blu-Ray Land (2025) in ~music
evercarrot LinkWell this was a surprise to my ears this Monday evening :P I remember when the album Lonely Beach came out a few years ago and it was randomly recommended on spotify, I spontaneously clicked it...Well this was a surprise to my ears this Monday evening :P
I remember when the album Lonely Beach came out a few years ago and it was randomly recommended on spotify, I spontaneously clicked it and started listening and it really defined my summer 2022 before life got in the way and I forgot about it completely. I've never really been good with music recommendations or songs that are very mainstream for some reason, the music that really sticks comes from completely random encounters. What I loved with this album was the sound, and listening to this song now reminded me of that album and the fact that I never got to listening to any of Miynt's other songs at all! Miynt really has the perfect sound for when you're driving on a summer night. This gave me huge nostalgia.
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Comment on An appeal to the community for non-algorithmic recommendations in ~talk
evercarrot LinkShould make this into a weekly topic -format, where everyone can freely speak their thoughts about something interesting they've read/watched/listened to. I see there's one specifically for books...Should make this into a weekly topic -format, where everyone can freely speak their thoughts about something interesting they've read/watched/listened to. I see there's one specifically for books and for movies and games, but for general?
Alternatively, there could be a "weekly text" where users all read or take part in a specific blog/article/book/podcast/political treaty/Wikipedia article/Star Trek episode/libretto and then freely talk about it and recommend a somehow connected topic to be read next by the community, like in the game of telephone. The most voted recommendation would then be the next topic and so on.
Just my two cents, if you really want to maximize getting out of evil algorithms dictating your life and make it a community effort.
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Comment on What's the best counter argument to "Well, if I don't do it somebody else will" in ~talk
evercarrot Link ParentYou already got some responses from other people and I don't mean to overwhelm you at all, whatever you choose I hope you give it at least a few chances before giving it up. I was going to...You already got some responses from other people and I don't mean to overwhelm you at all, whatever you choose I hope you give it at least a few chances before giving it up. I was going to recommend you watch the whole YouTube video by Jessie Gender "A Complete (& Unhinged) Guide to Watching Star Trek" and then go from there. Other than that, I'm sure other people are much more knowledgeable that me on this subject, I just gave my two cents, because it's really beautiful when you really get the grasp of why these shows (I've watched The Next Generation all 7 seasons, Voyager all 7 seasons) are so good.
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Comment on What's the best counter argument to "Well, if I don't do it somebody else will" in ~talk
evercarrot Link ParentIt probably isn't for everyone, I can agree. Many times you also have to look at it as a product of its time, meaning the baked in references to real world events aren't really relevant anymore,...It probably isn't for everyone, I can agree. Many times you also have to look at it as a product of its time, meaning the baked in references to real world events aren't really relevant anymore, though the point often still stands. It's much more about what's morally right and wrong, and the nuance therein (in contrast to more action-oriented shows). ST at its best is spot on in terms of questioning society and making you think about it long after you've watched the episode, but at its worst it can be very silly filler.
It's much more about the message.
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Comment on What's the best counter argument to "Well, if I don't do it somebody else will" in ~talk
evercarrot Link ParentNow that I read your highlighted part again I realize what I wrote makes no sense. My bad. What I meant to say was that they often respect the prime directive by not saving said civilization, even...Now that I read your highlighted part again I realize what I wrote makes no sense. My bad.
What I meant to say was that they often respect the prime directive by not saving said civilization, even if it means the civilization's end. Sometimes they do go against the directive, but for good reason.
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Comment on What's the best counter argument to "Well, if I don't do it somebody else will" in ~talk
evercarrot LinkI've been binge watching Star Trek Voyager recently, and there the episodes more often than not revolve around this exact question. There's the "Prime Directive" which is basically the rulebook...- Exemplary
I've been binge watching Star Trek Voyager recently, and there the episodes more often than not revolve around this exact question. There's the "Prime Directive" which is basically the rulebook for what you can and can't do as the captain/crew of a starship, and in true Star Trek fashion, the question often arises of whether it can be reasonably expected to follow rules such as "don't interfere with other lifeforms" when you're stranded 30 000 lightyears from home and when none of the hostile species you encounter follow any kind of similar rules. Who would know, right? And who would care? You were only trying to survive, after all.
In ST it usually ends with the captain, being presented with the moral dilemma, choosing the "right" option which is to respect the Prime Directive to save this unknown species even if it puts their whole crew at risk. Nevertheless, I think the show handles these moral dilemmas well. This sentiment is nice, and I believe stuff all the way from specific ideologies to internet group chats and driving in traffic largely depends on people thinking like this, "I will do it for my country/group/peers, and sadly, this trust in humans is often misplaced (greed in society, trolls in the chat group, drunk driver on the road). You can do everything right, and have everything go wrong regardless.
People are selfish and lazy. That's never going to change, and if you pick up a piece of trash from the street when nobody else is there, did you ever really pick up the trash? Was it a wasted act of kindness because nobody saw it? It was, yes, if you really did it because it felt good. But if you also did it because of your inner prime directive, then you did something huge. Much like in Star Trek, you didn't only clean one small trash that some ignorant person left behind, you didn't set an example to anyone, you didn't leave it for the next person to pick up. You simply did what you thought was right. That, in my opinion, is humanity.
Don't leave it because somebody else probably will do it, but also don't choose to do it because nobody else will do it. Choose to do it so that the next person doesn't have to.
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What exists behind us? - A reminder to actually spend time with content from the past, not just cherish it
The word "content" in this text means works that you can consume for knowledge or for entertainment, e.g. books, films, TV-shows, video games, scientific articles, podcasts, poems, music, all of...
The word "content" in this text means works that you can consume for knowledge or for entertainment, e.g. books, films, TV-shows, video games, scientific articles, podcasts, poems, music, all of those Youtube-videos you have saved for later never to be watched again, etc...
With streaming services, apps and tools becoming worse and harder to use while also increasing their subscription costs more often to appease investors, AI is taking over not only our future jobs but also our hobbies and passions, i.e. the very thing we were supposed to be able to make more of. Sponsored as well as subtle user-made advertisements are infesting site after site, but increasingly, the interactions these ads get also come from bots. Social media is no longer a place where I “trick” my peers into thinking I had a wonderful weekend - when in reality it was mediocre at best - but instead a battleground of different actors trying to inflate numbers for short-term gain. It feels like no film, no video game or book, no service, no image, no friend nor foe on the internet exists anymore for anything other than a fleeting moment of transactional gain. Nothing seems trustworthy anymore. Nothing seems genuine.
With the most recent YouTube video by Technology Connections (“Algorithms are breaking how we think”, 22. February 2025) that talks about “algorithmic complacency” and how people today let themselves be fed curated content instead of finding the content they are interested in, it highlights a shift I have felt the past year but never have had the words to express clearly, which is the following: People don’t care anymore.
And why should they? It’s much easier to come home from a long school or work day and just get cheap dopamine without having to put brain power into searching for entertainment. After all, I’m not trying to learn anything right now.
Now, I know I am preaching to the choir on this site. I don’t need to tell you of the bad effects today’s customs and practices on the internet will have on us and especially the next generation, both short-term and in the long run, but the worst one I can see is not back pain, short-sightedness, decline of web-searching skills or even gullibility. It is apathy.
Propaganda, misinformation, disinformation, manipulation, advertising, reaching voters, gaining consumers, decreasing attention spans and a willingness to pay more as long as no additional effort is required on my part. Escaping this fate seems to require an ever-increasing supply of vigilance and effort. The thought arises: What exists behind us?
Now, this might seem nonsensical. We all love to go back to older things from time to time. Stuff from previous generations has always intrigued us. But I am asking you, have you given any thought to the mind-boggling amount of content out there that has already been made? Think about all the books, movies, music, video games - although all this most probably was made with profit in mind, it was still made by people who chose to make it because they could.
The other side of the coin is realizing how small a portion all of this represents, when compared to the amount that has been lost to time, in one way or another. Why then, does it seem like the minuscule amount of content we have left from times gone is not treated with any respect at all? Why are alternatives to modern content taken from us just because they do not entail profit? Libraries have fever books, video games are taken offline, free software starts selling your data or making the free version have big restrictions, and then there is of course the whole case of The Internet Archive. I have even had to sail the seven seas to get ahold of books that don’t come in a format that confines them to a specific, paid app. This last part is seemingly becoming the only way of accessing a whole lot of stuff nowadays, which is a shame.
In essence, as archives and physical media die, we look to the corporations of today to satiate our craving for quality content, and in so doing, we alienate ourselves from our uniqueness and our soul. Why read a boring book when this streaming service is constantly getting new movies? Why make art when AI can make it for me if I ever need it?
It is precisely for these reasons that we need to keep a steady grip of the very thing that makes us human: our interest in creating. It is good for the mind, for the body, for the personality, for the diversity.
Thus, this is an argument for - or rather, a call to action to - spending time with content that was not made for one-time use, but rather, content that respects the time you put into it, be it book, film or game, not forgetting to let yourself be inspired and expressing yourself in the process.
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U r valuable. Pls donate ur kidney.
1 vote
This was something I couldn't even imagine, it sounds so horrible.