first-must-burn's recent activity

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

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    I always find with Gibson, the first third is slow, then something clicks and I blow through the rest of it as fast as I can.

    I always find with Gibson, the first third is slow, then something clicks and I blow through the rest of it as fast as I can.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on On surveys in ~science

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    Exactly! But getting people to rate their feelings about potatoes on a scale of 1-5 is already a challenge. Getting them to introspect the meta question and provide a detailed response requires a...

    Exactly! But getting people to rate their feelings about potatoes on a scale of 1-5 is already a challenge. Getting them to introspect the meta question and provide a detailed response requires a high level of commitment or a certain type of person, both of which tend to bias the responses. I suppose in theory, there is an amount of money you could pay people to invest not only the time but the mental energy, but I think that number is quite high, and the fact that different people's threshold is different still introduces bias.

    Writing this reminded me that a fascinating look at the challenges of survey results is the XKCD color survey writeup.

    The whole read is amazing, as so much of Randall Monroe's work is, but (as a cis man) here is my favorite part:

    Here are the color names most disproportionately popular among men:

    • Penis
    • Gay
    • WTF
    • Dunno
    • Baige

    I … that’s not my typo in #5—the only actual color in the list really is a misspelling of “beige”.  And keep in mind, this is based on the number of unique people who answered the color, not the number of times they typed it.  This isn’t just the effect of a couple spammers. In fact, this is after the spamfilter.

    Also, he comments in his summary that, "nobody can spell fuchsia". Back in grad school, there was a set of shared machines that were named for colors. The basic color machines like black and red were always heavily loaded, but I learned to spell fuchsia, mauve, and beige because those machines were almost never used.

    3 votes

  3. Comment on GM ends OnStar driver safety program after privacy complaints in ~transport

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    True, but it won't be an existential threat to the company. I suppose there's an argument to be made that since their products can be in service for over a decade and are safety critical, its...

    True, but it won't be an existential threat to the company. I suppose there's an argument to be made that since their products can be in service for over a decade and are safety critical, its continuity is good for existing owners. But I'd like them to feel it as little more than the ebb and flow of stock price.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on GM ends OnStar driver safety program after privacy complaints in ~transport

    first-must-burn
    Link
    Corporation tries to pull a fast one, gets caught, faces few consequences.

    Corporation tries to pull a fast one, gets caught, faces few consequences.

    10 votes

  5. Comment on On surveys in ~science

    first-must-burn
    Link
    I took a research methods class in grad school, and we developed some surveys. It is constantly amazing to me how difficult communicating with writing is. People make different assumptions, read...

    I took a research methods class in grad school, and we developed some surveys. It is constantly amazing to me how difficult communicating with writing is. People make different assumptions, read tone differently, misunderstand.

    I think the only hope for a good survey is to do a pilot study first with a group where you can seek feedback on the survey itself, then refine. The pilot also lets you run preliminary data to see if you are even asking the right questions. Even then, it probably won't be perfect.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    Neat. I watched a YT video about it, it looks pretty nice and simple. Superficially, it looks pretty similar to Tenacity (which is free), but maybe there advanced features that help you out that...

    Neat. I watched a YT video about it, it looks pretty nice and simple. Superficially, it looks pretty similar to Tenacity (which is free), but maybe there advanced features that help you out that I'm not seeing. I will have to do some hunting for the synchronized tool you mentioned.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative

    first-must-burn
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    Any chance you'll share a link to the book? Fine to DM me if you don't want to out yourself publicly

    Any chance you'll share a link to the book? Fine to DM me if you don't want to out yourself publicly

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Self published authors, how do you market your books? Nothing I've tried has had any success. in ~creative

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    I am curious about the tools you use to record and edit your audiobooks. Lots of good audio editing tools, but I can see something that synchronizes chunks of audio against chunks of text being...

    I am curious about the tools you use to record and edit your audiobooks. Lots of good audio editing tools, but I can see something that synchronizes chunks of audio against chunks of text being really valuable for editing.

  9. Comment on Potential ties between quaternary ammonia and brain cell damage in ~health

    first-must-burn
    Link
    My dad sent me this and asked for my comment, so I thought I would post it here to see if anyone had any additional insight. I was aware that organophosphates are bad, but not aware that they were...

    My dad sent me this and asked for my comment, so I thought I would post it here to see if anyone had any additional insight.

    I was aware that organophosphates are bad, but not aware that they were used to make clothing flame retardant. The quatenernary ammonia angle is concerning given that almost all household cleaners are either QA or bleach based. It seems the key element here is the impact of these chemicals on a different aspect of neural tissue than usually studied.

    Two classes of chemicals [Quaternary ammonium compounds and organophosphate flame retardants] present in common household products may impair the development of oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells of the central nervous system (CNS), which are critical to brain development and function. However, the researchers as well as outside experts agree more research is needed before any firm conclusions can be drawn.
    ....
    They found that quaternary compounds were potently and selectively cytotoxic to developing oligodendrocytes and that organophosphate flame retardants prematurely arrested oligodendrocyte maturation. These effects were confirmed in mice and cultured human oligodendrocytes.
    ....
    "This study alone shouldn't sound neurotoxicant alarms yet. We've seen many past chemical scares like saccharin and phthalates fizzle despite alarming lab results when real-world human brain impacts failed to materialize," Lakhan cautioned.

    "Far more rigorous research directly linking household chemical exposures to cognitive deficits in people is still needed before drawing firm conclusions or prompting overreactions from the general public. Policymakers will eventually need to weigh potential risks vs benefits, but no definitive human health threat has currently been established," Lakhan said.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on What we learned about the publishing industry from Penguin vs. US Department of Justice in ~books

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    Even worse, with IEEE lately, I have seen that if you want your paper to be "open access", you have to pay the fee. So basically, they get their cut either way.

    Even worse, with IEEE lately, I have seen that if you want your paper to be "open access", you have to pay the fee. So basically, they get their cut either way.

    6 votes

  12. Comment on What we learned about the publishing industry from Penguin vs. US Department of Justice in ~books

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    I agree, I'm just pointing out that at scale, this would be the "Netflix for books" death knell for big publishing which might not be a bad thing.

    It's a travesty that libraries are expected to 'rebuy' digital books over and over and over again.

    I agree, I'm just pointing out that at scale, this would be the "Netflix for books" death knell for big publishing which might not be a bad thing.

    4 votes

  13. Comment on Spotify lowers artist royalties despite subscription price hike in ~music

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    I don't disagree with you that its a bad deal for artists. For me, the value (I have a Youtube/YT Music) is in discovering new things. I could pirate all the things, but I wouldn't know what to...

    I don't disagree with you that its a bad deal for artists.

    For me, the value (I have a Youtube/YT Music) is in discovering new things. I could pirate all the things, but I wouldn't know what to pirate. I even tried budgeting the cost of a music service toward buying new albums (so that I would own them instead of just renting them), and I just ended up buying a lot of albums that didn't hold my interest long term.

    9 votes

  14. Comment on What we learned about the publishing industry from Penguin vs. US Department of Justice in ~books

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    I think they mean a complete digital library that anyone could use cough, Anna's archive, cough. There was another story (I think here on Tildes) where someone said digital copies can only be...

    I think they mean a complete digital library that anyone could use cough, Anna's archive, cough. There was another story (I think here on Tildes) where someone said digital copies can only be loaned from the library so many times (~20) before the library has to "buy" another copy. So here you see the "why" of it.

    18 votes

  15. Comment on Jesse Welles - War Isn't Murder (2024) in ~music

  16. Comment on Former naturalists/materialists, what changed your view? in ~humanities

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent

    Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind.

    Frank Herbert, Dune

    2 votes

  17. Comment on Clothes shopping as a short & fat (trans) guy with narrow shoulders in ~life.style

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    https://amzn.eu/d/e0KCbfL these look like them but they only go up to 42 :( That is the case on the US site as well. As I was browsing the other Lee styles on Amazon.de, they seemed to be...

    https://amzn.eu/d/e0KCbfL these look like them but they only go up to 42 :( That is the case on the US site as well.

    As I was browsing the other Lee styles on Amazon.de, they seemed to be generally cut higher in the crotch and more fitted. So if that's the styling, I can see why it's hard to find a good fit.

    4 votes

  18. Comment on Ronald Reagan-era emergency health care law is the next abortion flashpoint at the US Supreme Court in ~health

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    Thank you! That is real for you in a way that it isn't for me (in the sense that am not a person who can become pregnant), but it is real for many people I care about. It matters to me that I work...

    Thank you! That is real for you in a way that it isn't for me (in the sense that am not a person who can become pregnant), but it is real for many people I care about. It matters to me that I work toward a society with meaningful equality for everyone, and I see the anti-abortion stuff is moving things the other way.

    7 votes

  19. Comment on Help me ditch Chrome's password manager! in ~tech

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    Thanks for the tip. I have been using KeepassDroid since the late 00's, and it is fine, but I installed KeepassDX. Even at first glance, it looks easier to use, and the keyboard integration is huge.

    Thanks for the tip. I have been using KeepassDroid since the late 00's, and it is fine, but I installed KeepassDX. Even at first glance, it looks easier to use, and the keyboard integration is huge.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on Ronald Reagan-era emergency health care law is the next abortion flashpoint at the US Supreme Court in ~health

    first-must-burn
    Link Parent
    I went back and reread it, and I think you're right. They even do acknowledge my point above about the negative impact of the narrowness of exemptions. I'm definitely on one side of this, so maybe...

    I went back and reread it, and I think you're right. They even do acknowledge my point above about the negative impact of the narrowness of exemptions.

    I'm definitely on one side of this, so maybe I'm just tired of hearing about these things that I consider incredibly harmful in a "both sides" way, but I think your point about balance is pretty accurate.

    13 votes