fross's recent activity

  1. Comment on Why doesn’t the US have paid parental leave and do you think we ever will? in ~life

    fross
    Link Parent
    The idea is parents would vote for rights relevant for all parents, from education to parental leave to safe environments for their kids etc etc. Not just for the next 4 years of their development!

    The idea is parents would vote for rights relevant for all parents, from education to parental leave to safe environments for their kids etc etc. Not just for the next 4 years of their development!

  2. Comment on Why doesn’t the US have paid parental leave and do you think we ever will? in ~life

    fross
    Link Parent
    EU standards are even higher than that in almost all cases - at the very top must be Sweden with a total of 480 days across both parents that can be split pretty much as they see fit, but most...

    EU standards are even higher than that in almost all cases - at the very top must be Sweden with a total of 480 days across both parents that can be split pretty much as they see fit, but most have 6 months full paid as a national legal minimum, with many legal minimums way above that. And that's the legal minimum, many companies give more generously than that of course.

    https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2022/698892/EPRS_ATA(2022)698892_EN.pdf gives a full breakdown as of last year!

    3 votes

  3. Comment on Why doesn’t the US have paid parental leave and do you think we ever will? in ~life

    fross
    Link Parent
    This is simply untrue. Across Europe, the benefits are tied to the individual, who is eligible for them regardless of whether they work for one company or 20 across their lifetime. Holidays, sicks...

    Compare to Europe or Japan, where workers are legally or socially tied to single employers.

    This is simply untrue. Across Europe, the benefits are tied to the individual, who is eligible for them regardless of whether they work for one company or 20 across their lifetime. Holidays, sicks days, parental leave, pension, none of it requires being tied to one company for an extended period of time.

    I would argue it's in fact the opposite - many Americans don't enjoy decent levels of benefits (such as holidays) until they have been with the company for a while. In Europe, you're entitled to it all from day one with each employer.

    7 votes

  4. Comment on Film and feelings: Stalker (1979) in ~movies

    fross
    Link
    I just watched this for the first time in many years again last month. I really like movies with these slow, enveloping scenes because they're designed to do exactly as OP said - to make the...

    I just watched this for the first time in many years again last month. I really like movies with these slow, enveloping scenes because they're designed to do exactly as OP said - to make the viewer feel something by association, not just being shown characters with emotions (or even worse, being told how to feel by dialogue or music).

    It is this delicate balance of hope (to find the room), of fear (of the zone), and ultimately of nihilism - they are presented with the door to paradise, and they just refuse to walk in. There is something very human about this, denoting both the shame and doubt that being presented with this induces (e.g., would having all your desires met reduce your humanity? What happens next?) and the very human experience that happiness is ultimately being happy with what you have, rather than something you can just acquire. Though through a very soviet lens, here.

    It's a very interesting study by omission of what is said, much like a lot of Tarkovsky's other work. I have a soft spot for this movie, it's simple but effective. And the direction is absolutely masterful - it is a lesson to any budding filmmaker on how to make something even mundane, totally compelling.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on Share your favorite musicians/bands! I want to discover some new music. in ~music

    fross
    Link
    Some recent plays from me, I am a bit all over the place: Elder - Innate Passage album (progrock/metal, and as I already commented elsewhere in this thread) Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest...

    Some recent plays from me, I am a bit all over the place:

    Elder - Innate Passage album (progrock/metal, and as I already commented elsewhere in this thread)
    Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest (electronic, downtempo, ambient, IDM) - it's the 10 year anniversary of this release today!
    Ne Obliviscaris - Exul (new album, death metal with progressive and classical elements, violins, prog rock interludes)
    Sleep Token - Take me Back to Eden (released just a few weeks ago - postrock, djent, alternative rock, even indie in there)
    Covenant - Skyshaper (EBM / electronic / techno, overlooked album from wonderful band of the genre)

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Share your favorite musicians/bands! I want to discover some new music. in ~music

    fross
    Link Parent
    Their most recent album, Innate Passage, is a masterpiece of prog rock/metal. There are still hints of the psychedelic and stoner metal in there but they've really progressed enormously....

    Their most recent album, Innate Passage, is a masterpiece of prog rock/metal. There are still hints of the psychedelic and stoner metal in there but they've really progressed enormously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jhmxHLJ1XU

    For those who like the more traditional progrock sound, they did a joint album a couple of years ago with Kadavar, called Eldovar - check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ8irXtVhtE

  7. Comment on What do you remember about the "old" internet? in ~talk

    fross
    Link
    Another oldbie here :) . First "online" in 89 on BBSes, then online properly in 92 while at University. The main thing to realise is what was missing. No web. No browsers. No HTTP. No search...

    Another oldbie here :) . First "online" in 89 on BBSes, then online properly in 92 while at University.

    The main thing to realise is what was missing.

    No web. No browsers.

    No HTTP.

    No search engines.

    No graphics. Not enough bandwidth to download them, really. Forget video.

    So it was almost all text. Knowledge was power - knowing where to get something was valuable, things weren't easily "discoverable". I knew a collection of psytrance sets held in someone's account on sweden's academic account (in .au format!), was excellent to share that with people.

    And that's the other thing - almost everyone until the "eternal september" was an academic. And a geek at that. The only way to get access was through university, and it was so obtuse it needed a computer geek to manage it. The equipment was tough to come across as well, outside a university context.

    So email, gopher, ftp sites, MUDs, unix talk, eventually IRC and stuff. Going back even further, almost all BBSes had only a few connections, so only a few people could be online at once. You'd go on, send some messages, then log off so someone else can have a slot, and come back later and see if you had anything, or continue the conversation!

    13 votes

  8. Comment on Rec Room in ~games

    fross
    Link
    I play it, very casually. Pop in once or twice a week. It is always fun seeing new people get to grips with VR in there, the social games (eg charades or disc golf) are just excuses to have fun...

    I play it, very casually. Pop in once or twice a week. It is always fun seeing new people get to grips with VR in there, the social games (eg charades or disc golf) are just excuses to have fun together around an activity, and the team games/quests are actually very difficult to complete!

    Overall a nice crowd of people, little to no trolling, and a simple yet entertaining set of minigames. You probably won't play it forever but it's fun while you do.

    3 votes

  9. Comment on Tineidae - Rigel (2012) in ~music

    fross
    Link Parent
    Nice! Yes, I know Solar Fields well. If you like bands on Ultimae (including SF, Aes Dana, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Asura, Miktek, and probably my favourites Connect.Ohm and Martin Nonstatic), you...

    Nice! Yes, I know Solar Fields well. If you like bands on Ultimae (including SF, Aes Dana, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Asura, Miktek, and probably my favourites Connect.Ohm and Martin Nonstatic), you will probably like many bands on the recently deceased Tympanik label, including Tineidae, Access to Arasaka, c.db.sn, Comaduster, Legiac, Stendeck, Subheim, Undermathic. A bit more IDM than UIltimae's dub influences but some real classics there too.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - go forth and multiply in ~tildes.official

  11. Comment on Brooklyn Nine-Nine cancelled in ~tv

    fross
    Link Parent
    It's not quite the same as P&R where the first season misses the mark - of course it takes some time to get the dynamics and characters down, but the writing is pretty consistent (I'd say...

    It's not quite the same as P&R where the first season misses the mark - of course it takes some time to get the dynamics and characters down, but the writing is pretty consistent (I'd say consistently good, you might disagree).

    To be frank most of the episodes don't have too much of an overarching narrative so I'd recommend pick one with good ratings from season 1 or 2 and give that a try.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - go forth and multiply in ~tildes.official

    fross
    Link Parent
    No, I think that captures the essence of meta-moderation well. What I liked is while it provided "cleanup" on the site, it also rewarded participation. I think caps on "abilities" would prevent...

    No, I think that captures the essence of meta-moderation well. What I liked is while it provided "cleanup" on the site, it also rewarded participation.

    I think caps on "abilities" would prevent the power users you call out as a potential problem, though an issue I always found with /. was having so few moderation points you felt like you couldn't spare them much. Though it is not worth overstating the effective low-end moderation that all users do on most reddit subs by downvoting stuff into oblivion before the mods can even get to it - on many threads this is the primary defense against brigading.

    6 votes

  14. Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - go forth and multiply in ~tildes.official

    fross
    Link
    Hi there I like the pieces you are taking from /., usenet and reddit, it feels like a good balance in theory to me. Apologies if this has been asked already, but what do you think about...

    Hi there

    I like the pieces you are taking from /., usenet and reddit, it feels like a good balance in theory to me.

    Apologies if this has been asked already, but what do you think about metamoderation, /. style? Could it be a good way to prevent people gaming the system?

    6 votes