firedoll's recent activity

  1. Comment on Woman covertly filmed for 'humiliating' social media content - then told to pay for removal in ~tech

    firedoll
    Link Parent
    Personally I follow that logic farther. Content creators are generally people trying to make a living off their content. Many even have their own companies. Money introduces perverse incentives...

    Personally I follow that logic farther. Content creators are generally people trying to make a living off their content. Many even have their own companies. Money introduces perverse incentives and the algorithms they're focusing on tend to promote controversial behavior. They can easily and maliciously manipulate public perception of you through editing. If you let them off the hook, I think it will inevitably lead to all kinds of problems like harassment. While some are fine, at this point we've seen them cause lots of problems the world over.

    I don't know about the laws in the U.K., but it's feels inherently contradictory to me that the woman in the story would have to pay to have her video removed, as it implies there's some kind of for-profit venture.

    7 votes

  2. Comment on Woman covertly filmed for 'humiliating' social media content - then told to pay for removal in ~tech

    firedoll
    Link Parent
    There are even protections in many parts of the U.S. The right of publicity gives people control over their unauthorized commercial use of their likeness. If the photo or video is for commercial...

    There are even protections in many parts of the U.S.

    The right of publicity gives people control over their unauthorized commercial use of their likeness. If the photo or video is for commercial purposes and people are recognizable and/or speaking on camera, you potentially need a release document for their appearance/voice. That's part of why you see blurred faces on T.V.

    And, iirc the right to privacy is diminished in public, but not totally gone. It's more of a scale and courts may weigh if you're actively shielding papers or a phone screen, if you're changing clothes in a semi-private area, off in a secluded corner, etc.

    9 votes

  3. Comment on US Government UFO document release in ~society

    firedoll
    Link Parent
    I wonder what fun ways they could theme a site like this for the Epstein files.

    I wonder what fun ways they could theme a site like this for the Epstein files.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on Competence is lonely. Nobody talks about why. in ~health.mental

    firedoll
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    That's a fair warning and something I do consider. There are lots of businesses that seem to trap owners, not quite failing, but not succeeding enough to relieve the owner of the of that squeezing...

    be as attentive to how many hours you are putting in as you were when you were working for someone else... your cup is not endless.

    That's a fair warning and something I do consider.

    There are lots of businesses that seem to trap owners, not quite failing, but not succeeding enough to relieve the owner of the of that squeezing feeling, exhausting them. They can require more money or time than just taking a job would, meaning they aren't always most optimal or "meta" approach to using ones time or even surviving.

    So, it has it's own risks and stressors (especially right now... what if we can't make payroll for people, is this law about to change, etc), but for me the stuff that came before did too.

    Personally, I had to at least try, or I'd always be wondering if I'm putting my energy and focus into the right places. I frame it here as an exploration because I 100% do not want to indicate that it's some kind of silver bullet, just another outlook or path.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Competence is lonely. Nobody talks about why. in ~health.mental

    firedoll
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    I can't say that I've been entirely successful, but I'm currently testing the idea: "what if I pour all my workcohol into something I own. If I can't stop behaving like this, why would I give it...

    I can't say that I've been entirely successful, but I'm currently testing the idea: "what if I pour all my workcohol into something I own. If I can't stop behaving like this, why would I give it so freely to somebody else instead of potentially also receiving the benefits."

    That's not a perfect way to look at the situation, there are probably many paths to success, etc, etc. But, I'll see how this goes.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on US Pentagon declares Anthropic a threat to national security in ~society

    firedoll
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    The Pentagon just declared Anthropic a threat to national security and the government is being ordered to stop using it. OpenAI just agreed with Dept. of Defense to deploy models in their...

    They're going to have to do that to some extent with what they're doing now, because Claude is currently the only approved service now, and they can't just easily switch overnight.

    The Pentagon just declared Anthropic a threat to national security and the government is being ordered to stop using it. OpenAI just agreed with Dept. of Defense to deploy models in their classified network. It does seem like they in fact can just easily switch overnight. Will that be chaotic? When isn't it.

    And yeah, they could have done it a different way, but it's the sense of urgency and absolute nature of it that makes me assume it's coming from... maybe a more personally motivated place. That and it seems like maybe these deals aren't going to be that different.

    I don't think they'll ever skip an excuse to try and show off, threaten people, or bang the drum about how great they are, regardless of the motive.

    Several of these things can be true at once.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on US Pentagon declares Anthropic a threat to national security in ~society

    firedoll
    Link Parent
    Not having dove into this too deep, my pet conspiracy is that it's favoritism and not necessarily about what's on the tin--that somebody wants to bring in Grok or OpenAI and that means finding a...

    Insiders in the world of defense technology argue ...Anthropic appears to be more philosophical than technical, and that the administration had already soured on the AI company

    Not having dove into this too deep, my pet conspiracy is that it's favoritism and not necessarily about what's on the tin--that somebody wants to bring in Grok or OpenAI and that means finding a reason to get rid of Anthropic. Obviously, I don't know exactly what the motivations for the favoritism are, but it could be something like campaign contributions or the stuff that plays out in the business world (E.g. Some new person comes in and wants to leave a mark, wants to bring in buddies, can't figure out how to use the software, etc.)

    That's just speculation though and it feels like there's several reasons this could be playing out. I haven't seen anybody else voicing this idea, though.

    8 votes

  8. Comment on New accounts on Hacker News ten times more likely to use em-dashes in ~tech

    firedoll
    Link Parent
    You say "the worst part," but I quietly use this particular idiosyncrasy to try and glean information about who (or what) wrote something. Personally, I prefer the space-less version prescribed by...

    You say "the worst part," but I quietly use this particular idiosyncrasy to try and glean information about who (or what) wrote something. Personally, I prefer the space-less version prescribed by guides like The Chicago Manual of Style.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on Let's talk orchestrated objective reduction! in ~science

    firedoll
    Link Parent
    I've DM'd Paranoia on several occasions, but I don't really play many TTRPGs, so I haven't. Dropping the orchestrated objective reduction stuff, the world world would likely fit it with Paranoia,...

    As a continuation, had you considered how these concepts may play out in a TTRPG setting? Having physical processes be expressed in game rules could be a more instructive approach?

    I've DM'd Paranoia on several occasions, but I don't really play many TTRPGs, so I haven't. Dropping the orchestrated objective reduction stuff, the world world would likely fit it with Paranoia, but that's because Paranoia served as one of many inspirations. Again, maybe this is my own lack of creativity or focus, but it seems like it would be hard to layer OOR into such an already chaotic setting while not confusing players too much.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Let's talk orchestrated objective reduction! in ~science

    firedoll
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    I don't have a lot to add, but was working on sci-fi concept for little bit which ran with the premise: "what if orchestrated objective reduction is real and the key to strong AI?" I found it...

    Anyone else been thinking about this kind of stuff?

    I don't have a lot to add, but was working on sci-fi concept for little bit which ran with the premise: "what if orchestrated objective reduction is real and the key to strong AI?" I found it difficult to communicate the ideas clearly and things just ended up reduced down to a MacGuffin anyways. (That all probably says more about my ability than anything else, though.) The exact mechanics likely don't for storytelling purposes, but that's what makes it easy to easy to be a little handwavy and entertain the idea.

    I would still like to go back to that concept and world at some point. The more recent headlines keep it somewhat front of mind.

    While the theory can sound like a series of logical steps, overall I tend to lean toward determinism and am still very skeptical about it.

    I would meme on it if anybody I know would get the joke.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on The 2025 Steam Awards in ~games

    firedoll
    (edited )
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    I didn't set aside time to play much of anything in 2025, so I haven't played Silent Hill F. It does look like it drips with atmosphere. But, I'm just disappointed enough by the fact that ENA...

    I didn't set aside time to play much of anything in 2025, so I haven't played Silent Hill F. It does look like it drips with atmosphere. But, I'm just disappointed enough by the fact that ENA Dream BBQ didn't take home the prize that I came to comment on a 6 day old post.

    I had seen the previous animations by Joel G, but was unaware there would be a game until the trailer for Dream BBQ dropped.

    These things tend to be popularity contests and this is a very subjective category. BBQ is probably not going to be everyone's jam. My point is just: if you haven't seen it before, ENA Dream BBQ [Chapter One] is free. You should try it. [Apparently the rest will be paid on release. ] Maybe watch some of the videos (first?) too.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on I think nobody wants AI in Firefox, Mozilla in ~tech

    firedoll
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    If the models are running locally, I'm fine with it for certain utilities like accessibility and translation. But, I often find myself in situations where I have to make sense of content from...

    If the models are running locally, I'm fine with it for certain utilities like accessibility and translation. But, I often find myself in situations where I have to make sense of content from certain languages that traditional approaches butcher. (Being able to run content through AI and spot check with something like google translate is super useful for navigating those situations.)

    I don't need or want an AI assistant in my sidebar. Having used them, I think they tend to be awful productivity tools that potentially waste huge amounts of my time. Workflows that I have that involve them are often hit and miss. I never feel confident about what is still inside the context and what it's just "guessing" at, almost no matter the level of "context engineering."

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Need pixel art software recommendations (it can be free or paid) in ~games

    firedoll
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I'm not exactly a professional, but I'm wrapping a project where I had made some environmental sprites and about 150 different equipment sprites/icons with RGB masks for recoloring. I also used...

    I'm not exactly a professional, but I'm wrapping a project where I had made some environmental sprites and about 150 different equipment sprites/icons with RGB masks for recoloring. I also used Affinity Designer in a similar way to create vectors for several pieces. I wanted to throw another voice behind the idea that it's nice to have some assets in vector if you:

    • Don't know exactly how they'll fit in yet and want flexibility in the composition.
    • Need a lot of clones of something with slight variations.
    • Need to target multiple image resolutions. (I'm targeting web, so I needed higher pixel density versions.)
    • Are working on bigger shapes.
    • Want nice, higher color gradients.
    • Want to trace something complex (I was working with some of my own photography. I didn't need automatic tracing, and Affinity doesn't have it. But, Inkscape does if you need that, and you can bring the traced vector in.)

    That said, often for really small resolutions, I would touch up sprites saved from the vectors for clarity. And, vector isn't always the answer, sometimes it's way faster to just do something in raster (purely with pixels.) There were also some things like complex RGB maps width gradients between the channels that were created or fine tuned in Affinity Photo. (Keep in mind, Affinity just combined all their tools into one app now.)

    To be clear, I wouldn't recommend my workflow in it's entirety. It seems silly, but I haven't quite figured out the pixel art workflow in Affinity apps and kind of hated the feel of using them for laying down individual pixels, so I also ended up using Paint.net (Windows) for a lot of art as well, sometimes moving the art between apps. I also used Python to create the basis for some seamless animations. Also kind of silly: I used ezgif.com a good bit while working on animations, as I was outputting to webp. I meant to compile Aseprite, but never found the time.

    I'm just offering this last bit of context to illustrate that you may touch multiple tools for slightly different jobs.

    [Edit: importantly, I didn't care about fine-grain control over my color palettes for this project.]

    1 vote

  14. Comment on I want to learn to draw on my iPad in ~creative

    firedoll
    (edited )
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    There used to be a subreddit called ArtFundimentals that was pretty active, and the creator eventually created a site for the exercises. It had been closed due to disagreements with the...

    There used to be a subreddit called ArtFundimentals that was pretty active, and the creator eventually created a site for the exercises. It had been closed due to disagreements with the management, but I guess they literally just opened the sub back up because the owner is worried that otherwise reddit would step in to take it away.

    TL;DR: Don't be afraid of a pencil or wasting paper. There are lots of ways to start, but check out Drawbox. [I think are at least several free lessons there, and they come with video if that's more your style.]

    In general, I think there are lots of exercises to get you familiar with shape and form; familiar with breaking things down into simple shapes; to build muscle memory; etc. Depending on what you want to be able to draw, you may want to look into specific things like figure drawing and anatomy.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on Samification of the current Web in ~design

    firedoll
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    I've been digging through this space a bit for inspiration on some current projects. There's a lot of reasons the web has turned into a swamp of best practices and many of them are good ones....

    I've been digging through this space a bit for inspiration on some current projects.

    There's a lot of reasons the web has turned into a swamp of best practices and many of them are good ones. People have listed several good points and links, but I'll tack on a few thoughts about how we got here.

    To some degree, I think the web and "digital media" have become less prestigious than they were between 2000-2015, but maybe that's just me seeing it from a different angle at this point. The internet has become business as usual and websites are table stakes. Most importantly, for a lot of products, fairly straightforward pages tend to convert better and bring in more sales. People didn't necessarily know that in 2000--and why wouldn't they try to impress customers in any way they could?

    The tooling was obviously much worse in many ways. There were a ton of people experimenting with Macromedia/Adobe Flash for building interactive experiences that are now gone. There were also all kinds of crazy browser plugins for one off 3-D experiences and such. Over time online video was added in, but it was limited because performance was a major factor. These things were constraints that forced people to be creative. Now, a small business can use something like Squarespace or Shopify to do what they need, upload a bunch of high resolution images, and cut out engaging with creative/agencies to bring in that expertise. There needs to be somebody in the picture who wants to champion doing cool things, and businesses tend to be more focused on "make it work" than "make it nice."

    I think that for creatives in the early 2000s (and the people paying them), there was genuinely a lot of excitement about pushing boundaries and making things that stood out. Marketing people were still trying to figure out what would work and big corporations were spending a lot to take chances on bizarre campaigns like Sublymonal, Subservient Chicken, etc. (I'd love try and list more, but it's crazy how much of this really big stuff has become bit rot or lost media.) T.V. and print were still very much in the mix, cellphones/shortcodes were emerging, and people were looking for ways to tie them together.

    The audience, design trends, and the constraints have changed. The browsers people use now are on phones, with less screen real estate for flourish. Alternatively, now companies may just opt to build an app or something inside a walled garden. Do people even bother to look at product descriptions anymore? Can people even still read? It feels like we've moved to putting in a highlight video, or just laying rasterized text over product images. Going digging through some of these old sites and projects I think, "this would just be a video now, that other thing would probably be an animation." I could keep going.

    I think there's still a place for personality, and I've always tried to put some in my projects, but it's a harder to fit in these days. There's a tinge of sadness to the fact that now browsers have all these things that were dreamed of in the 90s/2000s (animations, 3d, video, music, etc) and most of us probably spend our time in the same old haunts, occasionally peeking out at a sea of largely identical feeling sites.

    With all that laid out, here are some potential paths to go down for anybody interested in tracking down old sites for inspiration (people here probably at least know some of these):

    4 votes

  16. Comment on What are some great actual comedies made in the last twenty years? in ~movies

    firedoll
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    If I recall, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is a pretty pure comedy and I enjoyed how over the top it was at points. Looking at the IMDB score, though, it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

    If I recall, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is a pretty pure comedy and I enjoyed how over the top it was at points. Looking at the IMDB score, though, it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

  17. Comment on Where do you go to veg out online? in ~tech

    firedoll
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    I may be a bit in the same boat. I've been trying to build up a list of sites to browse, like I had before the rise of social media and Reddit. I feel like the Fediverse should be a good match...

    I may be a bit in the same boat. I've been trying to build up a list of sites to browse, like I had before the rise of social media and Reddit. I feel like the Fediverse should be a good match here, because it's not designed around the same algorithmic engagement and therefore some of the behaviors shouldn't be as prevalent.

    Lemmy was already mentioned, but I have a bookmark for trending in the last 6 hours. But, I think there's still a lot to get charged up about there, at least on the main page. Sometimes I'll also just drink from the fire hose of Mastadon.social's live feed and hope to stumble into something interesting.

    Although I believe in the Fediverse, I haven't quite committed to accounts on various platforms yet. However, you may be interested in Pixelfed. Every now and then I'll hit the explore tab on some of the servers and the communities seem a lot more focused on photography and art, which may make for better veg material.

    Pixelfed also has a project called Loops, which is meant to be similar to tiktok, but I haven't tried it yet and don't know what the vibe is.

    I suspect that some of these communities are small enough, even if you got addicted, you'd run out of content. Nebula sort of feels that way to me, I find it a little hit or miss from day to day so I literally can't spend all my time on there.

    I don't think I've found a great source of humor, but maybe I've just turned into a grump.

    6 votes

  18. Comment on Some ChatGPT users are developing delusional beliefs that are reinforced by the large language model in ~tech

    firedoll
    Link Parent
    I'm not sure about all of them, but sycophantic is at least on the radar of Open AI. After a recent update cranked the dial up on it, they've made posts discussing why they think it happened....

    I'm not sure about all of them, but sycophantic is at least on the radar of Open AI. After a recent update cranked the dial up on it, they've made posts discussing why they think it happened.

    Personally, I can't stand the way Chat GPT constantly opens message by tying to affirm or flatter me, my system prompts have reduced it a little, but I haven't been able to get rid of the behavior.

    3 votes

  19. Comment on You can join thousands telling US President Donald Trump what they think of his anti-trans passport policies. Here’s how. in ~lgbt

    firedoll
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    I haven't actually posted a topic before, so hopefully I haven't missed anything major. That said, I just realized that nothing about this public comment period may have been posted on Tildes and...

    I haven't actually posted a topic before, so hopefully I haven't missed anything major. That said, I just realized that nothing about this public comment period may have been posted on Tildes and the comments close tomorrow (Monday, March 18th.)

    ...in mid-February, the State Department posted its updated passport policies for public comment, allowing individuals to submit their perspectives. With that comment period closing on Monday, March 17...

    Personally, I have several friends who would be potentially impacted and endangered by this administration's attacks on their ability to get a passport that properly represents them. All of this is coming on the heels of reports earlier this year that the State Department was holding on to trans people's passports and refusing to issue passports, even with the original gender marker.

    The ACLU has some text already written and a form for online submission.

    You can apparently also directly submit comments anonymously, although I'm not clear on the specifics of how:

    4 votes