gt24's recent activity
-
Comment on Autistic/Neurodivergent/"just stubborn" members: how did you [happily] learn to do something you couldn't just instantly do? in ~life
-
Comment on Is there any interest in building a Tildes successor? in ~tildes
gt24 Link Parent(Just a random thought...) Something I remember from the old "Live Journal" days is that many sites based on that code used an invite code system and had people pay a trivial one time amount ($ 5)...(Just a random thought...)
Something I remember from the old "Live Journal" days is that many sites based on that code used an invite code system and had people pay a trivial one time amount ($ 5) to join if they did not have an invite code. While joining at a financial cost is not an idea solution at all, it did limit who could cause problems (at the time). Financial processors also do some anti-fraud stuff on their own so it also limits out "not people" from registering.
While the recent "Digg relaunch" didn't work (somewhat after when they allowed anyone to join for free), they did initially require that people pay a trivial amount of money to join.
While this pay idea isn't great, it may be better than the "no way to join" alternative.
I appreciate all that you have done and continue to do Deimos. Don't see my suggestion as criticism but simply as an idea or where I am thinking a bit too much.
-
Comment on Any significant changes to Tildes are extremely unlikely in ~tildes.official
gt24 Link ParentA temporary solution may be to post a new general topic here where people can comment to request an invite code and others can offer their invite codes that are not being used.A temporary solution may be to post a new general topic here where people can comment to request an invite code and others can offer their invite codes that are not being used.
-
Comment on Another week on Linux in ~tech
gt24 LinkOne thing that may have been an increased headache is that you wondered a bit into the "here be dragons" part of operating system distros. You were interested in using something like Asahi Linux...One thing that may have been an increased headache is that you wondered a bit into the "here be dragons" part of operating system distros. You were interested in using something like Asahi Linux for valid reasons, that being that it supported your hardware when other things do not. However, rather than use Asahi Linux directly (which is based on Fedora), you decided to use a Debian Bananas alternative that is trying to push Asahi Linux changes into Debian... and they haven't completed their work yet... and you ran into issues....
If you have time, try using the upstream Asahi Linux (the Fedora based one). I'm not saying it will magically fix the issues you have but it is the best chance of those issues being fixed.
This isn't to say that all the flagship distros are the best choices per say. Your hardware and experiences tend to be better in some and worse in others. Still, a distro that is trying to get off the ground (and is in early development) will have more headaches than a more established distro and those are usually not fun to deal with.
Another notable thing is that Fedora uses zram swapping which compresses your main memory like Mac OS does. Debian Trixie as modified by Bananas to be like Asahi does... I'm not sure what it does for swap. That may be why you were running into out of memory issues and a disabled swap configuration. The Bananas team is likely trying to get things working in some manner and just figure that early adopters of their work can smooth over the kinks in the meantime.
So, if you were to take a journey back into Linux land, you may want to try the mainline Asahi. Besides, the Asahi page for Asahi Linux says it gives you the option of KDE or Gnome as your desktop interface (I prefer KDE but I also appreciate the options).
-
Comment on Any significant changes to Tildes are extremely unlikely in ~tildes.official
gt24 Link ParentThe interesting thing about that is how that decentralization service seems to be migrating to centralization. While you can register for an account anywhere and comment on communities hosted...... decentralized solutions like lemmy ... don't work properly and regular people will never use them.
The interesting thing about that is how that decentralization service seems to be migrating to centralization. While you can register for an account anywhere and comment on communities hosted anywhere else, it seems like most people just register for an account at lemmy.world (the largest instance) and participate in communities hosted at lemmy.world (which seems to host the most communities too). If all the communities you want to participate in are hosted there, having an account there too simplifies things (and avoids technical "federating" issues).
At some point, could they become large enough to where interacting with any other instances (decentralization) is seen as an esoteric feature that can be ignored? If so, they could become a more notable thing as time goes on and become something that more people could use. It wouldn't be "Use Lemmy! Figure it out..." and more "Just use lemmy.world and don't sweat the details too much."
It is worth keeping an eye on because of that.
-
Comment on Why normal people aren’t using AI agents in ~tech
gt24 LinkGeneralized comment here because the linked article is behind a paywall so I can't read it... AI is hyped to be the next big thing for everyone. However, AI (when asked a question) will provide...Generalized comment here because the linked article is behind a paywall so I can't read it...
AI is hyped to be the next big thing for everyone. However, AI (when asked a question) will provide information that cannot be trusted (as people have learned and as people are notified). While it may not matter much for an errant thought to know the true capital of California, it does seem like a waste of mental effort to consider a wrong answer as correct or to hear an answer which would require me to do research to verify. For those who want to "not think", any response may be good enough to get by (and complete the test or homework assignment). For others, it seems like a waste of mental energy to ask something from something that will convincingly deliver incorrect information at random times.
When a person gets an impression about something, it can be hard for that impression to change. With people getting the impression that AI cannot be trusted, they would likely not use AI except in limited circumstances where the effort to monitor AI and research its' output is less than the effort it would be to just do the task yourself. AI does not save you time with regards to your question if you have to then research the question to see if AI is even telling accurate information to you.
When compared with earlier digital assistants, AI seems to fall flat too. With other assistants, I had to say specific key words (such as "Play 90s Rock on Pandora") to which the robotic assistant did what was asked. With AI, specific keywords seem to not matter as much and the responses from AI can be somewhat random as well. Rather than the old assistant way of "carry out my command", the new AI is more like "Google search what to do and guess what I want".
AI is impressive and does amazing things. Still, for most people, I imagine that they want their electronics to "do this command" and they want truthful answers to their trivia questions. With the impression that AI can't do either consistently, it is more consistent to just not use AI and do things in a matter which you know will lead to consistent results.
Of course, this is all with regards to the general public (which is generally hard to make sweeping generalizations about). I imagine that sweeping generalizations such as this have to be a very difficult field of study and is something yearning for a statistician to come and take surveys for. Without that, you just have my (likely inaccurate) hypothesis as to why AI isn't taking off as some people want it to.
-
Comment on Tildes Book Club discussion - June 2026 - How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler in ~books
gt24 Link ParentDroff, the stone eater, was an interesting highlight being a character that would believably be great at logistics. Notably, there wasn't much of a hint that the book would even consider any sort...Droff, the stone eater, was an interesting highlight being a character that would believably be great at logistics. Notably, there wasn't much of a hint that the book would even consider any sort of logistics so the stone eaters seemed to just be set up as huge "combat units". Still, having a character such as Droff being a character not quite like anything else was certainly something the story benefited from.
-
Comment on Tildes Book Club discussion - June 2026 - How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler in ~books
gt24 Link ParentThe violence at the beginning of the story (with the wizard) felt rather excessive but the story did move on and so that part of the story could fade into memory. At the end of the book (at the...The violence at the beginning of the story (with the wizard) felt rather excessive but the story did move on and so that part of the story could fade into memory. At the end of the book (at the convocation), Davi had the sudden realization that other people dying may actually be permanent this time around. That realization had more impact because of the earlier part of the book. So, that violence element of the book did eventually work out but it took a while to lead up to that.
-
Comment on Tildes Book Club - Have you started How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying? in ~books
gt24 LinkI'm currently reading this book due to this thread but figured that the "topic being over 3 weeks old" meant that I missed any sort of discussion about the book. It doesn't help that I'm not even...I'm currently reading this book due to this thread but figured that the "topic being over 3 weeks old" meant that I missed any sort of discussion about the book. It doesn't help that I'm not even through reading the book yet and that I am only about halfway through (only reading about 30 minutes a day likely doesn't help with that). The book is good but I would think that any discussion of this book will have long since past when I eventually complete the book (even though I am making steady progress).
One thought I have (which may reveal that I don't have enough breadth in what I read) is that the writing style is different from what I have generally read before. I have read things like Dungeon Crawler Carl, various Star Trek books, Project Hail Mary, Wayfarers series books (as a random assortment of examples). In those books, the writing is of the narrator just describing the scene and serving to knit together the story. In this Dark Lord book, the narrator is the main character but more like the main character writing and commenting on their past story. The notable thing is how different it was as a narration as compared to anything else I have read. I'm not sure if that is more of an autobiographical style (I have not really read any of those sorts of books).
Also the endnotes are an interesting inclusion that I don't recall being in any other books I have read either.
I don't know if this writing style is just unique to this author or if it is more commonplace than that...
-
Comment on What are some seemingly silly things in your life that have practical purposes? in ~life
gt24 LinkMy keys are on a lanyard which is looped through a belt loop on my pants and also pocketed. This allows me to unlock things with the keys attached to the lanyard (but I can unclip the keys to...My keys are on a lanyard which is looped through a belt loop on my pants and also pocketed. This allows me to unlock things with the keys attached to the lanyard (but I can unclip the keys to drive a car).
When I toss my keys on a desk and walk away (which I tend to do), the lanyard tied to me makes sure to drag the keys back to me to remind me to keep my keys on me and to not lock myself out of places.
As such, if I am going to leave my home for the day, the lanyard is tied to me. When I am home for the rest of the day, I can untie the lanyard.
May seem silly but I really didn't want to be locked out of places yet again. Thanks to doing this, I never got locked out again. Still, I don't know anyone else that does this sort of thing.
-
Comment on Who else is as excited as I am for the Backrooms movie tomorrow? in ~movies
gt24 Link ParentTo add to the other comments better describing the general Backrooms concept, there is an SCP that I feel is closely related as well - SCP-3008 (the "infinite IKEA"). That SCP was created around...To add to the other comments better describing the general Backrooms concept, there is an SCP that I feel is closely related as well - SCP-3008 (the "infinite IKEA"). That SCP was created around 2017 while the Backrooms thing was more of a 2019 creation.
Both feature an indefinitely sized (or infinitely sized) area with an unclear (or ever changing) floorplan with unknown things contained within. Both have the whole area matching a specific theme (such as the inside of an IKEA).
Backrooms is emphasizing the whole liminal spaces thing.
Still, in my opinion the SCP concepts are better put together as a whole as opposed to the Backrooms. It is easier to have a "suspension of disbelief" when reading an SCP article as opposed to a Backrooms article (where I can't help but to question plenty of things when reading along). Where SCP is an older concept that found its' footing, the Backrooms is still trying to do that.
-
Comment on “Rediscovering” the operating system (AKA: the desktop is the killer app) in ~tech
gt24 Link(I'm going to make sweeping generalizations to the best of my viewpoint of the world but without any evidence backing anything. As such, my generalizations may be significantly in error...) Early...I suspect this disconnect is a result of the iphoneification of personal computers, there’s a lot of layers between you and the file when you’re on a mobile device.
(I'm going to make sweeping generalizations to the best of my viewpoint of the world but without any evidence backing anything. As such, my generalizations may be significantly in error...)
Early computer use was something that was taught in school. The computers of the time were able to function but they were general purpose computing devices. To do a task with them, you had to learn to do that task with them. This was quite a bit of freedom, to use that computer "tool" for anything that could be done with with that tool, and people had to be taught how to use that tool.
There is something to be said about a specific tool too. If one wanted to write a document, a typewriter can only do that. It is easier to teach on (since it can only do that one thing), it is easier "to manage" (since users can only do that one task with that device), and seems like the ideal use case for document creation. Still, the device had notable drawbacks that made using computers a better idea (such as difficulty erasing things, difficulty formatting, lack of spell check, etc.)
It seems like the idea, in general, was not to teach the freedom of using a general purpose computer. The idea was to accomplish a task by teaching the use of a specific tool that only does that task. While some devices existed to try to push the specific tool narrative (like the Alphasmart typing device), it would take a while for something to really hit the proper notes for school use.
We now have Chromebooks. I can't fault what they are (they being "a browser" and "maybe something else") since they are cheap devices that have great battery life. The problem is that they are devices where the file system is generally avoided (and its' use discouraged) and using on device "apps" is also discouraged (since the browser can take you wherever you want to go). They are locked down to make sure that they do the specific tasks that classrooms desire. That being said, they are more akin to typewriters in that sense.
You use a website to enter your work. It "automatically saves" your work "to the internet" and allows you to submit from there. If you drop-kick your Chromebook then you are given another to log in. After all, "nothing is on the Chromebook" so you don't need to worry about that. The concepts of files and folders is abstracted away to being what is stored in your Google Drive if you even interact with it in a meaningful basis... and I don't know if students really do that too much.
(Sidenote: Chromebooks (with the Files app) does let you manage files and folders, let you store things on the device only, and let you manage removable storage as well. That being said, I'm not sure any students are taught about that or even interact with that.)
Students see Chromebooks as computers. Students don't see Chromebooks as a device giving them the freedom to organize data and run any general applications though. So while Windows and Macintosh and Linux will let you explore those options, those options are not on devices that most younger folks interact with. Since those options are not on Chromebooks, students are not taught about them (since a 'specific tool' to do specific things was the goal, schools want to teach how to use that tool in a specific manner).
I agree that the term 'iphoneification' can help describe what has happened over time (since it conveys the point rather well). Still, I think Chromebooks and their use as specific tools rather than general computing has done more harm to that end. A computer (seen equivalent as a Chromebook) is seen as a thing that does specific things and assumed to do nothing more. As such, file systems of files and folders is not generally necessary to teach and likely is just ignored these days.
Chromebooks have another interesting point to them. They have a wallpaper on their "desktop" but you cannot store any files or folders on the desktop. General experience on phones and Chromebooks conveys the point that icons are programs that can be run and nothing else... certainly not something like files or folders. It makes some sense... after all, phones are supposed to do phone things and small program tasks and Chromebooks are supposed to do browser things. They really don't want to emphasize that the device can store and organize data...
To attempt to come to a point with my meanderings, I don't think schools are really focusing on teaching "general computing" to their students. They have a ton of material to teach their students so they can't teach everything. It is easier to manage technology use when you don't emphasize that "computers can do everything" and instead emphasize that "computers only do your homework". Still, it does limit how much people would expect computers to be able to do for them when all the power and complexity is hidden behind "a curtain". It isn't all that surprising that I'm seeing more and more people using phones only these days and not bothering with computers... after all, they "know computers" as doing little more than a phone.
-
Comment on 'Star Trek: Starfleet Academy' to end with Season 2 in ~tv
gt24 (edited )Link ParentI think the issue is more with modern streaming. With earlier television, airtime had to be filled with something. They didn't want different hour blocks just filled with reruns or shows purchased...Ending a show after two seasons, well really after one, is kind of everything wrong with modern TV.
I think the issue is more with modern streaming.
With earlier television, airtime had to be filled with something. They didn't want different hour blocks just filled with reruns or shows purchased from elsewhere. As such, they likely had a strong reason to keep a show going (since they would otherwise have to create something completely new to replace the cancelled show). I also think that networks start to develop an identity (as the network that "has that show") which would be hindered if they kept on churning and only creating new shows.
With streaming, there are no "hour blocks". They can release as many or as few shows as they want whenever they want with any season length they want. If something is cancelled, they don't have a need to "fill that time slot" at any point and they can just proceed to create new things when they want and if they want. As such, they don't seem all that attached to any one thing unless it is obviously successful.
I also feel that the older shows were at least able to create a season, gather feedback, and then use that feedback to make the next season better. I'm not a fan of "they shot 2 seasons" and then they "cancelled the show at the end of season 1" since it would require them entering season 3 before they would be able to use any feedback to make the show better. I don't know how much current streaming shows react to audience feedback (or if they even have any new episodes to film after the shows "starts to stream"...
It would likely help shows that are "cancelled" to just immediately enter (release) their "season 2" without being "renewed yet" to see if people warm up to the shows before a final "cancellation" decision is made. If season 2 is far better, it is likely far too late to "un-cancel" the series to make season 3 (since the scenery would likely be disassembled, etc.).
I also find it a bit disappointing that a "cancelled in season 1 show" like this is not given the opportunity to make "a final episode" (2 part episode optionally) to wrap things up. That would at least make this sort of "new weird cancellation" thing feel less disappointing (since this would avoid any cancelled shows ending in cliffhangers). While people wouldn't be happy that a show is cancelled, they would wonder how things would be wrapped up...
-
Comment on New accounts on Hacker News ten times more likely to use em-dashes in ~tech
gt24 Link ParentI believe that the large AI negativity to certain narratives more related to how an em-dash is not a "key on my keyboard". For typing things, I tend to move quickly and unusual characters tend to...I believe that the large AI negativity to certain narratives more related to how an em-dash is not a "key on my keyboard". For typing things, I tend to move quickly and unusual characters tend to slow things down quite a bit (such as the ™ symbol). If you need the symbol, you can look up how to type it in and do that (with the ALT 0153 for ™) but that certainly isn't very memorable and certainly wouldn't be all that quick to type when compared to something like an E.
As such, I would type in things that may involve an "em-dash" --such as this-- with the more common - character even though it is wrong or with -- which is something that Microsoft Word would autocorrect into the — symbol. After all, I don't know of a way off the top of my head to even type the — symbol without a copy and paste from someone else posting it or by Googling the ALT code for it (Google tells me it is ALT 0151).
For a character that was so rarely encountered before (in "generally causal writing"), seeing it far more common now hints more at AI influence as opposed to a sudden boon in popularity. After all, that character is not suddenly easier to type.
-
Comment on A case for increasing computer literacy (but also a rant) in ~tech
gt24 Link ParentThis observation may or may not fit this topic well... In "the generic past" (what I have observed), people had access to things that they could be curious about and could experiment with. The...This observation may or may not fit this topic well...
In "the generic past" (what I have observed), people had access to things that they could be curious about and could experiment with. The computer was something that allowed ease of programming (with basic), could later on be easily constructed (assembling computer parts, installing an operating system of choice, installing programs of your choice, and doing it all over again), and was generally a thing that you could have as something you can experiment with. Curiosity means that you are able to just poke around and see what that thing is all about without fear of destroying it or harming it (or at least you were proceeding without the fear of harm or destruction of that thing). If given the opportunity to curiously explore, I feel that people will.
Now things are different. A Chromebook is generally the only computer someone has that is owned by the school, locked down so that you cannot do much with it, and any curiosity could lead to device harm and some angry folks (so you are likely strongly advised not to even try). This can extend to things like cell phones as well which are also "black boxes which you don't investigate too closely".
While a traditional computer could be a gateway towards curiosity, there are issues with this approach. For one, people generally do not have access to a traditional computer or at least they don't have access to one which they can just experiment with (they being children, adults likely do not see a reason to provide curiosity exploration hardware). Computers now tend to be laptops which are difficult/impossible to inspect the hardware of. Other operating systems can be explored (and some people do experiment around with that) and some people do that.
Barriers against curiosity and exploration likely dissuade many from making the attempt. The current computers and cell phones are pricey things that punish/resist curiosity. As such, they are just a "black box that does things". It likely feels safer and less stressful to not investigate those black boxes too much lest the box stop working and people get angry.
-
Comment on I tried to protect my kids from the internet. Here’s what happened. in ~tech
gt24 Link ParentOne possible idea (not mentioned on the website) relates to how people may track you using your ID. The Yubico devices are hardware devices and I assume that they can be made to hold whatever is...One possible idea (not mentioned on the website) relates to how people may track you using your ID. The Yubico devices are hardware devices and I assume that they can be made to hold whatever is required to make things work. As such, why have one ID? You have some measure of anonymity with IPv6 because your network adapter has many temporary addresses which it can use. Along that same line, it would help if your ID hardware device had many randomly generated identities on it (like 64?) which you can choose to use as you see fit (but they are usually randomly selected). That way it can be more difficult to track your activity since you can come in as many different IDs.
The goal is to make it less likely (and more difficult) to try to uniquely identify anyone and track what they are specifically doing. It is a bit harder to try to rope in many identities (64?) as one person with any reasonable certainty.
If the hardware device, with 1 ID, was "cloned" then it would not be all that easy to notice that (unless it was massively cloned). So having a device with more than 1 ID won't be that huge of an issue I would think... (admittedly, an assumption being made so as to favor the idea of increased anonymity).
To help mitigate issues, I would imagine all IDs would expire and need to be periodically updated (which I imagine would have to happen with 1 ID devices as well). There would likely be revocation lists too just in case they are needed (for IDs that would still be in date valid but were compromised in some other way).
-
Comment on AI is a mass-delusion event in ~tech
gt24 Link ParentI do think that the "internet pollution" concept will become a rather insidious problem. When AI answers a query, it is unclear how that answer was obtained (and perhaps that could never be...... What if the real doomer scenario is that we pollute the internet and the planet, ...
- AI plateaus and performs just good enough as the article describes. It might contribute some good solutions to certain issues but nothing life-changing, while making the world a whole lot worse.
I do think that the "internet pollution" concept will become a rather insidious problem. When AI answers a query, it is unclear how that answer was obtained (and perhaps that could never be figured out). The answer can be wrong, have omissions, and/or have hallucinations all the same. A person may or may not trust what the AI directly says to them however they may eventually learn to not really trust what another person says to them either if that other person is just repeating the errant output that they read from an AI.
The fallout of such an "AI information pollution" event is that people will feel like distrusting most everything they hear replacing that trust with "what they feel like trusting" (that being what they want to hear). While this isn't a new concept (with misleading books and goofy internet sources telling people whatever they "feel like trusting"), I feel that the concept will become more broadly practiced. When it is increasingly believed that all information you can reasonably access is tainted with being inaccurate, it does make researching anything a bit more frustrating and less desirable.
Bringing this back to the core AI weakness of "it is unclear how that answer was obtained", the AI is working as sort of a "black box" that gives "that answer". Without the ability to know how the answer was obtained, it sort of conveys that "how the answer was obtained" doesn't matter so long as the answer "sounds good enough" since most people will only believe what they "feel like trusting" anyway.
I know, I am doing a lot of "hand waving" through the overall thought process here and coming to a large conclusion that would certainly require far more evidence to back it up. Likely the end result will be far less dramatic than what I concluded. Still, the increase of information being "good enough" for people who "feel like trusting" what they want to hear is a bit concerning.
-
Comment on USB Wi-Fi adapter suggestions in ~comp
gt24 Link ParentMy wifi router wasn't quite getting along with the neighbors having their own powerful wireless signal. What made the issue worse was that my router was automatically choosing the best wireless...My wifi router wasn't quite getting along with the neighbors having their own powerful wireless signal. What made the issue worse was that my router was automatically choosing the best wireless channel which then, for some reason, had their router automatically choose a new channel which conflicted with my router which then chose a new channel and continued the channel switching mess. This likely was related to minor environmental differences... but still, channels kept switching which kept causing issues.
Once I used a Wifi analyzer app on my phone, I manually set what looked like the best channel at the time and just stayed there. That cleaned up a lot of issues (because their router was likely "automatically" realizing that my router wasn't moving from the channel it was sitting on and just kept their router on channels away from mine).
Try setting a router Wifi channel manually and see if that makes things better. If it doesn't then you can go back to automatic later.
-
Comment on My classroom will be AI-free this fall in ~humanities
gt24 Link ParentJust my own hypothesis... People are great at doing many different things. When modern internet society became established (and specifically talking about primarily text based experiences), we...What's your hypothesis? What commonality does the first world have that is seeing the decline in literacy rates in so many countries?
Just my own hypothesis...
People are great at doing many different things. When modern internet society became established (and specifically talking about primarily text based experiences), we were presented with an informational "window" of text and other material that had a large amount of un-helpful content (advertisements, "nonsense wording" to help search engine rankings, pointless internet comments, etc.). People are good at finding patterns and started to exercise that sort of metal activity to extract the "useful bits" out of a webpage.
Before the internet, when presented with a passage of text (from a book or article), generally the whole thing was worth reading. There was some parts that "didn't get to the point" so people back when learned to skim past those sections. Still, they were reading and generally learning useful reading skills.
Now, with the internet, people are extracting tiny bits of useful information. They may extract a sentence or two... or a few words strung together... or simply skim what they extracted to get the gist of that idea... but overall, they are not finding a point in reading (or even barely comprehending) most of the narrative. Most of it advertisements and search engine ranking nonsensical fluff after all.
That internet experience is set in as habit before introduction of books and articles in a school setting or otherwise. As such, the habit likely extends to that new medium where the new reader sees no point in the book or article at all (since they cannot easily extract the "few word" punchline from a 200 page book). Reading has not been an exercised skill so reading speeds are slow. Efforts to read a book or article are high. Going back to the familiar "extract a sentence from the internet" skill is easy. Therefore, reading overall has suffered.
I (with no research at all) am not aware of any studies that would compare and contrast how different "literary presentations" would influence learning how to read. That being said, I would imagine that the internet (generally as it stands now) would be an overall negative way to introduce such a concept.
-
Comment on Is there still an arcade gaming scene? in ~games
gt24 Link ParentThe arcade near me is Past Times Arcade which features about 400 pinball machines. Notably, they did a video about their Black Knight pinball table (on Youtube here). The interesting thing is how...The arcade near me is Past Times Arcade which features about 400 pinball machines. Notably, they did a video about their Black Knight pinball table (on Youtube here).
The interesting thing is how large that arcade is (and that it is in Northeast Ohio). When I hear of other arcades, they don't seem to be "larger" than what we have. For instance, the Pinball Hall of Fame seems to only have about the same amount of machines (368 according to this page). I figured that arcades in larger towns would inherently be larger...
Possibly it is because most of people's growing up happens in school and "I don't know" is not a very welcome phrase in that sort of environment. If a person gives the correct answer, they are able to exit that social interaction. If they give a "good enough guess" then it may do the same thing. If they give an "I don't know" then they are likely pushed to provide a different response even when a different response requires an exercise of creative fantasy.
I'm not wanting to imply that schools are a bad environment. Pushing a person to provide an answer may be the right call for that person if they do know the answer and just need to be encouraged to dismiss their timid nature. However, should that person be judged incorrectly, pushing them to provide an answer they truly don't have can be a bit traumatic.