gpl's recent activity

  1. Comment on Monitor recommendations? in ~tech

    gpl
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    As a final update, I just wanted to let people know that I am currently reading this from my brand new Dell S2721QS, and it is awesome - image quality is great to my eye. Thanks to everyone who...

    As a final update, I just wanted to let people know that I am currently reading this from my brand new Dell S2721QS, and it is awesome - image quality is great to my eye. Thanks to everyone who weighed in and thanks to @eve for finding such a great deal on a monitor.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on Why do recipe writers lie and lie and lie about how long it takes to caramelize onions? in ~food

    gpl
    Link Parent
    You can also add a pinch of baking soda to accelerate the caramelization process. I don't know exactly what is going on behind the scenes so maybe its not truly caramelizing but the end result is...

    You can also add a pinch of baking soda to accelerate the caramelization process. I don't know exactly what is going on behind the scenes so maybe its not truly caramelizing but the end result is pretty darn good and doesn't take as long.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Thoughts on brinkmanship with the US national debt? in ~finance

    gpl
    Link Parent
    How does this make the debt worse? The idea behind the trillion dollar coin is that the treasury does not have to issue new debt.

    How does this make the debt worse? The idea behind the trillion dollar coin is that the treasury does not have to issue new debt.

  4. Comment on Thoughts on brinkmanship with the US national debt? in ~finance

    gpl
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    Personally? I think the treasury should mint a trillion dollar coin and be done with it. The debt ceiling is an artificial limit that is not based in anything constitutional and I am sick and...

    Personally? I think the treasury should mint a trillion dollar coin and be done with it. The debt ceiling is an artificial limit that is not based in anything constitutional and I am sick and tired of this debate cropping up every few years. Dumb problems warrant dumb solutions.

    8 votes

  5. Comment on Thoughts on brinkmanship with the US national debt? in ~finance

    gpl
    Link Parent
    Hasn't Congress not passed a budget in the "standard" way in like, 20 years? I don't disagree with what you're saying but the process is broken in so many fundamental ways.

    Hasn't Congress not passed a budget in the "standard" way in like, 20 years? I don't disagree with what you're saying but the process is broken in so many fundamental ways.

    6 votes

  6. Comment on Monitor recommendations? in ~tech

    gpl
    Link Parent
    The USB requirement is a soft one! Thanks for the recommendation!

    The USB requirement is a soft one! Thanks for the recommendation!

    2 votes

  7. Comment on Monitor recommendations? in ~tech

    gpl
    Link
    I've been reading through all the replies here and have found them very helpful. I think the surprisingly close to unanimous opinion that I should go for a higher resolution monitor has talked me...

    I've been reading through all the replies here and have found them very helpful. I think the surprisingly close to unanimous opinion that I should go for a higher resolution monitor has talked me off the 1080p ledge, so to speak, and I think I will no longer be getting that. I am going to look around for a "cheaper" 4k, maybe between $300 and $400 dollars, that I will splurge on. I have a 2021 Macbook with the M1 Pro, so I believe I can natively support at least one external monitor (thanks @aphoenix for pointing out that I need to check!).

    I am still attracted to the Dell option I linked in the OP, but compiling some info I have learned from the posts here I think my criteria are:

    • 4K resolution
    • Ideally I would get a 23" or 24" monitor @ 4K resolution to prioritize higher DPI, but as per @Greg's very informative post and some other sources I have seen, this is not so common. I will be looking at 27" monitors for this reason as well.
    • Since I am mostly working with text, refresh rate dos not matter so much to me.

    One reasonably priced monitor I have found which seemingly matches this criteria is this Phillips one. I generally trust Philips as a brand, but this price seems almost too good to be true. Furthermore, @eve has found this likewise appealing Dell. Any red flags about either of these jumping out to people? Thanks for all the extremely helpful comments so far.

    2 votes

  8. Monitor recommendations?

    ~tech Ask (recommendations)
    I'm in the market for an external monitor for my Macbook M1 and wanted some advice on what I should get. I pretty much only code, read pdfs and webpages, and watch videos (not movies really) on my...

    I'm in the market for an external monitor for my Macbook M1 and wanted some advice on what I should get. I pretty much only code, read pdfs and webpages, and watch videos (not movies really) on my laptop, so these would be the use cases. I'm trying not to break the bank here so I was looking at some budget options. The Macbook has USB-C so I would be looking for a monitor with that, but my main question is regarding resolution. Do I really need a 4K monitor for my use cases? I'd be interested in hearing people's experiences with 4K versus without — I've never had one but I'm wondering if now is the time to splurge and get it? Will the difference be very noticeable if I'm primarily looking at text?

    My first place option right now is this one from Asus, so I'm curious if the brand is reliable as well. I don't think I've ever had an Asus product. If I were to splurge and get a 4K monitor I would probably get this Dell, but at $400 its a bit more than I was hoping to spend. But I also don't want to get a monitor that I immediately want to upgrade. Curious what other people's thoughts and experiences have been.

    EDIT: See my comment for some updates. I've backed away from the 1080p options!

    9 votes

  9. Comment on Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland filed for bankruptcy in wake of hundreds of sex abuse lawsuits in ~humanities

    gpl
    Link Parent
    This will be my last reply on this. There are many organizations that fall under the umbrella of the church. Are monasteries and their associated orders, communalism and all, properly described as...

    This will be my last reply on this. There are many organizations that fall under the umbrella of the church. Are monasteries and their associated orders, communalism and all, properly described as a business, as understood in the usual capitalistic sense? Are charitable organizations such as Catholic Charities, St Vincent DePaul society, Caritas, or any of these other major charitable orgs really best considered in the same category as companies such as McDonalds or Walmart or what have you? What other business provides as much health care for so many as does the Church? It seems clear to me that the church operates in a fundamentally different category than “business”, and is perhaps better described as a “religious institution”, because that is what it is.

    I want to be unequivocal here: the church and some of the people in it have many flaws and have perpetuated a number of travesties that cannot be left unanswered. I hope no one thinks I’m minimizing those and their victims by pushing back against this. But “the church is a business” is simply a category error that I don’t think serves a useful purpose, and which I think is quite clearly meant to minimize the good that the church has done and continues to do for countless people. If the church is a business, then I sure wish more businesses were like it.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland filed for bankruptcy in wake of hundreds of sex abuse lawsuits in ~humanities

    gpl
    Link Parent
    To each their own I guess. I don't think we're going to find common ground on this point if that is your starting conception of how the church does and has historically operated.

    To each their own I guess. I don't think we're going to find common ground on this point if that is your starting conception of how the church does and has historically operated.

    4 votes

  11. Comment on Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland filed for bankruptcy in wake of hundreds of sex abuse lawsuits in ~humanities

    gpl
    Link Parent
    I’m not arguing that there shouldn’t be serious consequences, especially when it is a systemic issue as you point out. I just think the notion that the church is a “business” is a useless talking...

    I’m not arguing that there shouldn’t be serious consequences, especially when it is a systemic issue as you point out. I just think the notion that the church is a “business” is a useless talking point that actually doesn’t strengthen the argument at all.

    3 votes

  12. Comment on Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland filed for bankruptcy in wake of hundreds of sex abuse lawsuits in ~humanities

    gpl
    Link Parent
    I’m not arguing that the consequences shouldn’t fall higher up. I am contesting the notion that the church is a business which I find to be a pithy talking point which doesn’t really add to the...

    I’m not arguing that the consequences shouldn’t fall higher up. I am contesting the notion that the church is a business which I find to be a pithy talking point which doesn’t really add to the discussion at all.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland filed for bankruptcy in wake of hundreds of sex abuse lawsuits in ~humanities

    gpl
    Link Parent
    Only one collection per year gets sent to the Vatican — easily more than 90%, 95% (conservatively) stays in the local parish where it is collected. The most recent info I could find had a...

    Only one collection per year gets sent to the Vatican — easily more than 90%, 95% (conservatively) stays in the local parish where it is collected. The most recent info I could find had a breakdown of how those are spent as roughly: 40% on salaries and benefits, 30% on building and operations, 15% on education and youth programs, and 15% on charities. The average operating cost of a parish in the US was around $800k per year. Keep in mind that most Catholic charity work does not come from local parishes but rather from organizations such as Catholic Charities USA, which has a similar expense ratio to charities such as the Red Cross, spending around 90% of its revenue on program costs. It is the second largest social safety net provider in the US after the government.

    You could compare this to a for profit business but that feels disingenuous to me both in terms of total revenue and operating costs and how that revenue is spent. I know that “the Catholic Church is a business” is usually shorthand for more general criticisms of their finances, of which there are plenty, but it is general not accurate. It is genuinely much more akin to other large charitable organizations.

    5 votes

  14. Comment on Conan O’Brien Must Go | Sneak peek in ~tv

    gpl
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    YES! Beyond excited for this. In many ways Conan is a form of comfort watching/listening for me and I’ve been anticipating his new show. I loved his Conan Without Borders specials on his TBS show...

    YES! Beyond excited for this. In many ways Conan is a form of comfort watching/listening for me and I’ve been anticipating his new show. I loved his Conan Without Borders specials on his TBS show and was hoping he would do more of this. Very exciting.

    5 votes

  15. Comment on Suggestion: Add "self post" tag to all posts that are self posts in ~tildes

    gpl
    Link Parent
    How much time per day would you say you spend tagging? I honestly struggle sometimes to think of tags, guiltily knowing I am making more work for you! Much appreciated.

    How much time per day would you say you spend tagging? I honestly struggle sometimes to think of tags, guiltily knowing I am making more work for you! Much appreciated.

    3 votes

  16. Comment on This free TV comes with two screens - Would you give up your data in exchange for a free TV? in ~tech

    gpl
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    In general I am adverse to 'free' things in exchange for advertising, especially if data is being collected as well. The only time I've see "free for the price of ads" done right is that company...

    In general I am adverse to 'free' things in exchange for advertising, especially if data is being collected as well. The only time I've see "free for the price of ads" done right is that company that gives out free water cans with ads on the label.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fights for survival with strategy of hope and fear in ~misc

    gpl
    Link Parent
    Any thoughts as to why the polls seemed to be off?

    Any thoughts as to why the polls seemed to be off?

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Thailand opposition crushes military parties in election rout in ~news

    gpl
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    Thailand's opposition secured a stunning election win on Sunday after trouncing parties allied with the military, setting the stage for a flurry of deal-making over forming a government in a bid to end nearly a decade of conservative, army-backed rule.
    ...
    To rule, the opposition parties will need to strike deals and muster support from multiple camps, including members of a junta-appointed Senate that has sided with military parties and gets to vote on who becomes prime minister and form the next administration.
    ...
    Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a retired general who led the last coup, had campaigned on continuity after nine years in charge, warning a change in government could lead to conflict.

    On Sunday, he slipped away quietly from his United Thai Nation party headquarters, where there were few supporters to be seen.

    A handful of staff sat beside plates of uneaten food as a giant television screen showed a live speech by Move Forward's leader.

    "I hope the country will be peaceful and prosper," Prayuth told reporters. "I respect democracy and the election. Thank you."

    6 votes

  20. Comment on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fights for survival with strategy of hope and fear in ~misc

    gpl
    Link
    If the election goes to a runoff, is that expected to help the opposition? How is it looking at the moment? The articles I have read are saying that different agencies are showing different...

    If the election goes to a runoff, is that expected to help the opposition? How is it looking at the moment? The articles I have read are saying that different agencies are showing different candidates in the lead, and lacking other info about Turkish elections and politics I don't know how to interpret that.

    3 votes