guywithhair's recent activity

  1. Comment on It began as an AI-fueled dungeon game, it got much darker in ~games

    guywithhair
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    Title gets it right. An AI dungeon master is a pretty cool idea, but I can see how that would turn out poorly when a small subset (I hope) of players want to play the game erotically, are trolling...

    Title gets it right. An AI dungeon master is a pretty cool idea, but I can see how that would turn out poorly when a small subset (I hope) of players want to play the game erotically, are trolling the algorithms, or have overall fucked-up role-play fantasies. Really an instance of how a few bad apples can spoil the bunch.

    I imagine this is a huge challenge to deal with as the developers, because you basically need to sequester that community who different... interests to keep the game enjoyable for others. Sounds like that manifested as heavy moderation and content control, which most platforms that allow shared, community-generated content have to deal with. Just this this time, it's way more random because that self-sequestering content can get tossed in randomly at players based on how the within the ML algorithm (GPT-3) is trained.

    AI is what you train it on. That's why the text-analyzing and tweeting Twitter bot from Microsoft became racist, with the caveat that it was fairly tame compared to a game that manages to write fantasy child porn.

    Interesting article, disturbing implications.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on What's the coronavirus like where you are? in ~health

    guywithhair
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    Eastern United States, urban area. Things are starting to feel more relaxed. I was vaccinated (J&J) a few weeks into April. Most people I know have had at least one shot, and we're starting to...

    Eastern United States, urban area. Things are starting to feel more relaxed. I was vaccinated (J&J) a few weeks into April. Most people I know have had at least one shot, and we're starting to talk about emerging from work-from-home, which I'm looking forward to as someone who lives alone and moved here mid-pandemic. Summer is looking bright, and hopefully the vaccines are effective enough to keep us from going back into isolation due to some new variant. If so, then I'm expecting things to feel fairly normal around here by the Fall.

    13 votes

  3. Comment on Do you prefer to hand-pick the music you listen to, or rely on curators/algorithms to decide? in ~music

    guywithhair
    Link Parent
    Wow this sounds a ton like myself. Also started off with stuff like Pandora, but started hand-picking all of my music in college to the point where I had a similar "Listen to" playlist. I would...

    Wow this sounds a ton like myself. Also started off with stuff like Pandora, but started hand-picking all of my music in college to the point where I had a similar "Listen to" playlist. I would listen to music (mostly EDM) while studying/doing homework for college, and churn through 300 new songs in a 2-3 week basis.

    Every now and then, I'd try out the music recommendations on Spotify and Soundcloud, and it's often like searching for a diamond in the rough. Spotify's has gotten pretty good over the years, and can generally match a mood reasonably well off of an album/artist.

    I still mostly handpick music, but go much slower now, about 6 years after starting this. Unsurprisingly I have way too much music saved -- something like 150 playlists, but idk how many songs. I hardly like 50% of it anymore, but I find it really easy to find the right music to match what I'm feeling. It's probably been the best for helping me branch out into new genres.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    guywithhair
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    Spotify threw an irresistibly catchy Drum n Bass track at me by Fox Stevenson, which threw me into a DnB kick over the weekend. I pretty much only listened to that guy's discography, though; he...

    Spotify threw an irresistibly catchy Drum n Bass track at me by Fox Stevenson, which threw me into a DnB kick over the weekend. I pretty much only listened to that guy's discography, though; he has a pretty decent range within EDM and a great voice to back it up.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Mike Pence/Kamala Harris 2020 US Vice Presidential Debate - Discussion thread in ~talk

    guywithhair
    Link Parent
    Completely agreed; I was afraid this was the case. He's a stereotypical good-ole-boy politician in my eyes. It's going to appeal to a fairly large number of people, I feel.

    Completely agreed; I was afraid this was the case. He's a stereotypical good-ole-boy politician in my eyes. It's going to appeal to a fairly large number of people, I feel.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Mike Pence/Kamala Harris 2020 US Vice Presidential Debate - Discussion thread in ~talk

    guywithhair
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    Pence isn't even acting like he's trying to answer the question anymore. A decent amount of what he says strike me as blatant lies, but I don't have the sources (or time/energy) to try digging up...

    Pence isn't even acting like he's trying to answer the question anymore. A decent amount of what he says strike me as blatant lies, but I don't have the sources (or time/energy) to try digging up a reliable source that clearly states the contrary.

    Really frustrating to see the moderator gingerly thank him for going 30 seconds over each time he talks. I think he's pretty clearly 'winning' the debate. Harris isn't getting her points through, partly because she's trying to respond to Pence whereas he largely steps over what she says.

    10 votes

  7. Comment on Mike Pence/Kamala Harris 2020 US Vice Presidential Debate - Discussion thread in ~talk

    guywithhair
    (edited )
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    For the first time, I'm actually interested to see a VP debate, given the fact that we have two presidential candidates in their mid to late 70s during a pandemic. Hoping this doesn't devolve into...

    For the first time, I'm actually interested to see a VP debate, given the fact that we have two presidential candidates in their mid to late 70s during a pandemic. Hoping this doesn't devolve into what malarkey the last debate was.

    Edit: After the first segment or two, Pence seems competent, which is mildly scary. He's calm and measured, even though I interpret his words as honeyed BS. Seems adept at avoiding a question, and it doesn't seem like the moderator is trying to hold him (or Harris) to answer the question asked. Harris doesn't across all that well to me, personally. I don't feel like her arguments are coming across as intended.

    12 votes

  8. Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health

    guywithhair
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    Pretty sick of my home workouts at this point, but I'm still pushing through most of them even if it's not fun. I set a goal to do be able to do handstands, and that's been really fun, actually....

    Pretty sick of my home workouts at this point, but I'm still pushing through most of them even if it's not fun.

    I set a goal to do be able to do handstands, and that's been really fun, actually. I've done yoga for years alongside whatever else I do for exercise (lifting, climbing mostly), and it's something I've wanted to try for a while but never had a good home setup that would let me use a wall to help practice headstands and forearms stands. I get now why everyone says that you learn to appreciate your legs more when you try supporting all your weight with you upper body!

    Thankfully, I've been to get into the climbing gym again -- it's totally empty, which is a blessing and a curse. I'm mostly worried about the gym going out of business, but I also go at unpopular times.

    3 votes

  9. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    guywithhair
    (edited )
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    Flatbush Zombies - Vacation in Hell on repeat all week. Love a good hip-hop ensemble. They seem like a fun, wacky bunch, and they make great music. It's hard to describe with a genre - it has a...

    Flatbush Zombies - Vacation in Hell on repeat all week. Love a good hip-hop ensemble. They seem like a fun, wacky bunch, and they make great music. It's hard to describe with a genre - it has a unique creativity that I find more and more of as I listen to the album in a loop.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on Let's talk about taking notes in ~talk

    guywithhair
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    Yep, always been one to take heavy notes during class ,especially due to all of the math in undergrad. I started taking notes digitally just a few years ago, and I feel like my productivity and...

    Yep, always been one to take heavy notes during class ,especially due to all of the math in undergrad. I started taking notes digitally just a few years ago, and I feel like my productivity and clarity improved dramatically, especially as I switched to a more structured note-taking app.

    I've been absurdly happy with OneNote. It has enough of the formatting from Word to be fairly flexible, and I like the structuring of notes. I wish the file tiers were a bit more flexible, but the 'pages' are arranged in a directory structure that goes about 5 levels deep. The big thing for me is the way that notes are arranged in columns that can be dragged around, resized, embedded with images or files, checklists, etc. My recent discovery of internal links was a big boost too.

    I keep daily notes, mostly around work/school (PhD student) and usually generating internal links for anything I work on outside that day's column. It also helps that my tablet works well with its stylus, as I once again need to write math. That's not crazy flexible, but there are a lot of QoL things over pen and paper (erase, cut-paste)

    I tend to structure my thoughts around my notes, using it as a way to communicate to myself ideas without having too many things on my mind at once. Most of the time, my notes will never by looked at again. It's like Rubber Duck Debugging, except it manifests as rambling into a keyboard.

    But maybe the nicest thing is about not having to rely so much on pure memory. I'll certainly remember most anything important, but not quite so much the unimportant stuff. Good notes have really saved me there. Hell, it solved a few questions yesterday about something that happened 3 months ago, and I found it in 2 minutes because there's a decent search feature.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on Complete an emotional inventory of your music library/experiences in ~music

    guywithhair
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    This sounds fun -- modern streaming platforms have made it so easy to find tons of music, and I always like sharing some of my findings. I can't remember the website lots of people using for...

    This sounds fun -- modern streaming platforms have made it so easy to find tons of music, and I always like sharing some of my findings. I can't remember the website lots of people using for sharing links. If someone knows of a good one, I'll try to update the links I've posted below which are otherwise Spotify links.

    • Is an instant mood lift

    • Is emotionally devastating (which could mean several things to me -- I interpret to be focused on the message of a song)

      • u by Kendrick Lamar
        • There's so much to albums by Kendrick Lamar, and TPAB had such raw emotion that this is where my mind first went. He's an incredibly talented musician, and really has a way with using music as a medium for communication. He addresses it directly in AbSoul's Outro on section.80 in a way that I find really satisfying

    • You've cried to

      • Breathe by Laura Brehm
        • There are some artists like Laura Brehm who have voices that I could cry to. Not necessarily sad nor happy, but totally enveloped. There's something about self-harmonizing that always gets me.

    • Helps you relax

      • Darling by Real Estate
        • The simplicity of Real Estate's music is something I find very soothing. For most songs of theirs, it feels like I've known the song forever, even if it's my first timelistening. Even so, it seems fresh and satisfying each time I go back to them
      • Worms by The Japanese House
        • One of my favorites off her most recent album. I could just as well put this in the category above.

    • Amps you up -- I could post these forever because I used to be heavily into EDM, so here's my few favorites (It was really hard not to post 20 links!)

    • Makes you feel safe

      • Judy You Hung the Moon by HARBOUR
        • Another son gthat I felt like I'd heard a million times the first time I listened to it, yet I can't find anything else that gets it right like this track does. It feels like the perfect track for a corny 90s college rom-com, despite being recorded in the last 5 years
      • Souk Eye by Gorillaz
        • A simple, sweet, and familiar-sounding track
      • Love Won't Sleep by Lostboycrow
        • One of the best voices I've heard in recent music. I couldn't stop listening to this guy's voice for months when I first found him. I'm not gay, but I wouldn't interrupt if this dude serenaded me.

    • Makes you feel like you're on an adventure

      • Impurity by Kaizen
        • Mainstay song from a camping trip with the boys back in college
      • Around Your Sun by Surfer Blood
        • Great music for going on an adventure! This track is perfect road-trip music in my opinion
      • Born Yesterday by Tritonal
        • I'll only hint at it, but I've had a couple of... experiences with certain consumables, and this track (plus the next one) are some of the most engaging ones I've listened to. The types of songs that grab your attention whether you like it or not!
      • Pace by Julian Calor
        * I like that there's this simple beat that forms and changes as the song progresses, giving it this feeling of momentum as it reaches a climactic point fit for a movie score. Never heard anything else quite like it.

    • Reminds you that there is beauty in this world

      • Less Than Thou by The Beths
        • Beautiful song from a fantastic band. It's the perfect ending for their first album, too. I always appreciate a strong buildup to a song, even if it means the song feels stagnant for a minute or two.
      • Snowdonia by Surfer Blood
        • This is really 3 songs in one (3 movements, I suppose), and shows some great range inthis band. The first part is slow and uncertain, but morphs into something catchy and smooth before going through a neat time change as it settles into a more ethereal movement. I have to be in the right mood to listen to this song, but I never regret it. Not all of Surfer Blood's music is for everyone, but I enjoy some of the variability from them over the years
      • Butter Rum by Goose
        • An especially smooth track. Some of the best type of background music I've found. Simple and soothing, but not shallow.

    • Impresses you

      • Satellite by Froxic
        • This song is bananas once it finishes building up for... 80% of the song. This one takes some patience, but it pays off. I'm always hesitant to play this for something because I'm not sure if they'll stop it halfway and asks for something else. Nonetheless, one of my favorite drops of any EDM song ever (of however many thousands I listened to throughout college).
      • Be Above It by Tame Impala
        • Tame Impala has some fantastic psychedelic tracks that I worry he won't make many more of. Be Above It has to be on the strangest, most dissonant yet pleasurable tracks I've listened to. I feel bad when I listened to this on anything but the best headphones I have because I always want to appreciate the depth of this intro track.
      • Rigamortis by Kendrick Lamar
        • So much technical talent in this song. I don't know how Kendrick manages to breathe during some of the verses. I wish I could digest what he's saying throughout the song, but it's a bit too much at times. Controversially, my favorite song by Kendrick.

    • Makes you smile

      • Future Me Hates Me by The Beths
        • The catchiest song I've heard in years. It's got everything a good track in this genre has; perfectly executed. I can't find anything that I don't like about this band. Impossible not to sing along.
      • Reet Petite by Jackie Wilson
        • When I finally got around to listening to some Soul, Jackie Wilson is the one who grabbed my attention the most. The well-known singers from the at era as so talented, and I'm glad to take the time to go back and rediscover some of their work. I've heard Jackie Wilson was a fantastic live performer; I may need to see if I can dig up any videos of it, which may be tough given the time it would have produced.
      • Postman Song by Ratboys
        • A sweet, kinda silly song with some really lovable dialogue and passive advice from the singer. Ratboys are a personal favorite, and I'm so sad that I missed out on a concert they were supposed to have in April 2020.

    • Makes you laugh

      • Squad by Branchez and Big Wet
        • The most absurd song I know of. I cannot tell if it's a joke/parody song or not, but I like to find a way to play it whenever I DJ to see if people are listening. Big Wet and Branchez are some type of country rap, I guess, and I will forever choose to believe it was made to be as ironic as I think it is.
      • money machine by 100 gecs
        • Not a song I would play with DJing. Meme music at its finest. It makes no sense to me and maybe it's not supposed to, but listening to it makes me feel hip.

    That turned out to be really long, but was fun scouring through stuff I hadn't listened to in months or years. Neat discussion topic!

    9 votes

  12. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    guywithhair
    Link Parent
    I just got turned onto The Beths as well! I can't recall if that came from one of these threads or from reddit (probably mentioning their new album), but I've been listening to their discography...

    I just got turned onto The Beths as well! I can't recall if that came from one of these threads or from reddit (probably mentioning their new album), but I've been listening to their discography nonstop for the last couple of weeks.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on 'Bernie bros' and the debate about how to deal with the "dirtbag left" explained in ~misc

    guywithhair
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    Right, and it isn't always easy to spot. I'm curious how many people in the world are actively making comments in internet forums solely for the purpose of subtly soliciting products or ideas....

    Right, and it isn't always easy to spot. I'm curious how many people in the world are actively making comments in internet forums solely for the purpose of subtly soliciting products or ideas. It's a bit scary to think about how easily people can be influenced through the Internet, given that they're reading comments or chatting with people whose intentions they have no way of gauging.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on 'Bernie bros' and the debate about how to deal with the "dirtbag left" explained in ~misc

    guywithhair
    Link Parent
    Right, and I think I wasn't articulating well enough; I think the provocateurs are probably the main vehicle of all this, and that there are probably very few people who genuinely are that...

    Right, and I think I wasn't articulating well enough; I think the provocateurs are probably the main vehicle of all this, and that there are probably very few people who genuinely are that outraged. I like that you point out that there are two groups (provocateurs and trolls) that fan the flames. I have a feeling that dynamics between those two loosely coordinated groups has probably perpetuated this. Both groups are acting maliciously, it's just that one is for shits & gigs and the other is information warfare.

    Both are problematic. I would say that trolls are probably the easier to spot, because they're in it for the absurdity. Anyone who's looking at people's opinions online should try to be aware that there's no way to determine authenticity.

    4 votes

  15. Comment on 'Bernie bros' and the debate about how to deal with the "dirtbag left" explained in ~misc

    guywithhair
    Link Parent
    My immediate thought when I see mention of notably toxic supporters for anything political these days is that's it likely consists of a substantial number of trolls, particularly Russian. Seems...

    My immediate thought when I see mention of notably toxic supporters for anything political these days is that's it likely consists of a substantial number of trolls, particularly Russian. Seems that Russian trolls have written the book on creating a vocal minority to shift the overall perception of various demographics or groups. There's no reason this would be centered on one side of the aisle -- people on the left were just quicker to accept the fact that Russia had its hands where they shouldn't be.

    I feel like people should take internet comments less seriously. It baffles me that cable news frequently involves reading tweets and talking about internet outrage. Surely that's one of the many rules of the internet that "someone is always outraged", like Poe's Law, right?

    6 votes

  16. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    guywithhair
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    Beach Bunny has a debut album come out last week, and I'm a fan. I found them about a month ago (and I think mentioned in one of these friends), so I was pretty ecstatic that my...

    Beach Bunny has a debut album come out last week, and I'm a fan. I found them about a month ago (and I think mentioned in one of these friends), so I was pretty ecstatic that my flavor-of-the-month artist came out with something new that's genuinely good.

    It actually managed to grab my attention more than Tame Impala's new album. Haven't fully had a chance to absorb that one, but I've liked it on the first few listens. If it's anything like past albums, I'll probably be returning to it frequently.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    guywithhair
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    Been on a heavy indie rock/pop stint lately, especially listening to Beach Bunny. I'm finding myself continually drawn more towards music that feels genuine either from lyrics or structure - I...

    Been on a heavy indie rock/pop stint lately, especially listening to Beach Bunny. I'm finding myself continually drawn more towards music that feels genuine either from lyrics or structure - I guess that's just the particular artistic qualities that I find interesting at the moment.

    In a similar vein, I'm really looking forward to the Tame Impala album that's supposed to be released sometime this month. From the singles released so far, it seems like it'll be nice bridge between psychedelic and pop, which is a niche I'd love to see explored more. Hard to believe their last album was 2015.

    I'm also finding that some of Spotify's autogenerated playlists have become such a hodgepodge of conflicting genres that it's somewhat comical to me. I hardly ever use them, but a 'Morning Commute' playlist with dream pop/shoegaze, ghetto/tech house, and punk rock is probably the last thing I would ever listen to while half-awake on the way to work.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on How standardised are Z-Wave/ZigBee device APIs? Can I directly control off-the-shelf hardware? in ~comp

    guywithhair
    Link Parent
    InfluxDB is great! I'm on a team using it for some sensors out on a preserve doing environmental sensing, and it's really interesting how all the patterns change over weeks and months!

    InfluxDB is great! I'm on a team using it for some sensors out on a preserve doing environmental sensing, and it's really interesting how all the patterns change over weeks and months!

    2 votes

  19. Comment on Kendrick Lamar - Rigamortis (2011) in ~music

    guywithhair
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    I've always had a ton of respect for Kendrick. He's always had a refreshingly mature perspective in his music, on top of the musical talent. To Pimp a Butterfly is still probably one of my all...

    I've always had a ton of respect for Kendrick. He's always had a refreshingly mature perspective in his music, on top of the musical talent. To Pimp a Butterfly is still probably one of my all time favorite albums because of its depth, but that's probably also because it was the first Kenny album I heard.

    I find it interesting that he seems to avoid the spotlight in a lot of ways. For instance, nearly any song he's featured one will have a solid but short verse, so that he doesn't steal anyone's moment.

    1 vote

  20. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

    guywithhair
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    Just got sucked back into indie+surf rock obsession after finding Surfer Blood - Pythons. I find albums in this style that I like about once every 6 months or so; can't wait to play it to death...

    Just got sucked back into indie+surf rock obsession after finding Surfer Blood - Pythons. I find albums in this style that I like about once every 6 months or so; can't wait to play it to death involuntarily haha.

    I also revisited a middle school favorite, Rise Against, and I think I may be getting sucked back into that too.

    2 votes