heraplem's recent activity
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Comment on Types and other techniques as an accessibility tool for the ADHD brain - Michael Newton in ~comp
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Comment on Linux very close to enabling real-time "PREEMPT_RT" support in ~tech
heraplem LinkI had no idea that there were plans to mainline realtime support. Pretty cool.I had no idea that there were plans to mainline realtime support. Pretty cool.
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Comment on Star Trek Day 2024 offering free pilot episodes for almost all Star Trek series in ~tv
heraplem LinkI've only watched TOS, TNG, and DS9, but I'd say that the pilots of those series are on the whole not very good compared to other episodes. If they're trying to get new people interested, they...I've only watched TOS, TNG, and DS9, but I'd say that the pilots of those series are on the whole not very good compared to other episodes. If they're trying to get new people interested, they ought to have made some more classic episodes available.
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Comment on A critical hit: Dungeons and Dragons as a buff for autistic people in ~games.tabletop
heraplem LinkAs an autistic person with a deficit of creativity and a crippling inability to be expressive and spontaneous due to fears of being judged, my inability to play D&D comfortably is a real handicap.As an autistic person with a deficit of creativity and a crippling inability to be expressive and spontaneous due to fears of being judged, my inability to play D&D comfortably is a real handicap.
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Comment on Tildes growth in ~tildes
heraplem Link ParentI think many people had unrealistic expectations for what would happen when reddit "went to shit". The sad truth is that the people in charge of reddit probably have not made any catastrophic...I think many people had unrealistic expectations for what would happen when reddit "went to shit".
The sad truth is that the people in charge of reddit probably have not made any catastrophic mistakes. Everyone seems to have expected a Digg-esque exodus, partially because that was a salient reference point, and partially probably due to wishful thinking and confirmation bias. But turning reddit into a husk of its former self in order to increase monetization seems to be working out just fine.
This isn't the 00's Web any more. The average interaction is shallower, more fleeting, mediated by a smaller screen with a keyboard less well-suited for in-depth long-form discussion. The average attention span is probably shorter, too. And even though the userbase of the old Web is still around, there are so many new users, most of them less discerning and less interested in quality discussion. And they're where the money is. Well, them and LLM training data.
My guess: there won't be another reddit, at least not in terms of scale and ubiquity. That era is over. If we want a similar level of overall quality, we will have to be willing to try different paradigms, use smaller platforms.
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Comment on A symbol for the fediverse ⁂ in ~design
heraplem Link ParentCome now, we've seen how this goes. Threads is "good" right now because it needs to attract people. If it becomes popular enough, it will eventually put the squeeze on its users; if it doesn't, it...Meta makes Threads, an ad-free and very gently moderated Twitter clone with excellent feed controls, and adds Fediverse sharing as a token of good will, and half the Fediverse refuses to federate with it.
Come now, we've seen how this goes. Threads is "good" right now because it needs to attract people. If it becomes popular enough, it will eventually put the squeeze on its users; if it doesn't, it will shut down. This is the exactly what is meant by "enshittification."
(I suppose Threads could just stay "good" and serve as a source of LLM training data. Whether that truly makes it good is a question of perspective.)
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Comment on What advantages does Linux have over other operating systems? in ~tech
heraplem Link ParentI dunno. What do most people use PCs for these days other than Web-related tasks and video games? Web browsers on Linux work just as well as they do anywhere else. And Valve has been killing it...I dunno.
What do most people use PCs for these days other than Web-related tasks and video games?
Web browsers on Linux work just as well as they do anywhere else.
And Valve has been killing it with Proton.
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Comment on What advantages does Linux have over other operating systems? in ~tech
heraplem (edited )Link ParentIt's not recent. Linux has had this sort of reputation as long as I've been aware of it (since the mid-00s). If anything, the popular perception of Linux has become more nuanced over time. The...It's not recent. Linux has had this sort of reputation as long as I've been aware of it (since the mid-00s). If anything, the popular perception of Linux has become more nuanced over time.
The main problem with criticizing Linux is that the most important things that are dumb about Linux are just the things that are dumb about all mainstream operating systems, because mainstream operating systems are all fundamentally based on or inspired by UNIX, and UNIX was designed under the assumption that the entire world was a 70s mainframe. (And was designed before the field had agreed that sensible semantics were a good thing, actually.)
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Comment on “Something has gone seriously wrong,” dual-boot systems warn after Microsoft update in ~tech
heraplem Link ParentBack when I dual-booted, my solution was to password-protect the firmware. I found that that stopped Windows from messing with the boot configuration.I keep seeing people having problems with modern Windows messing up the Linux bootloader on updates.
Back when I dual-booted, my solution was to password-protect the firmware. I found that that stopped Windows from messing with the boot configuration.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of August 19 in ~news
heraplem Link ParentI wish he hadn't. Mainstream liberalism has a massive double standard around body shaming. Also, it's just cringe. There's a reason "orange man bad" is a right-wing meme.I wish he hadn't. Mainstream liberalism has a massive double standard around body shaming.
Also, it's just cringe. There's a reason "orange man bad" is a right-wing meme.
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Comment on Which content-recommending algorithms are actually good? in ~tech
heraplem (edited )LinkSteam actually has a (comparatively) amazing recommendation tool, but it's not heavily promoted: the Steam Interactive Recommender. On default settings, it behaves like a typical recommendation...Steam regularly tries to interest me in the most insipid games based on superficial commonalities to what's already in my library.
Steam actually has a (comparatively) amazing recommendation tool, but it's not heavily promoted: the Steam Interactive Recommender. On default settings, it behaves like a typical recommendation algorithm, but you can tweak it to recommend highly niche or older games. (I've don't know for sure what "niche" actually means here; I figure it probably reduces the weight of "general popularity" in the calculation, tailoring recommendations toward stuff that you specifically might like.)
In absolute terms, it's not much, but as someone who is interested in weird ideas and not so much bland polished stuff, the "niche" option in particular is very useful for me.
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Comment on Topless men: should they be banned if they’re not at the pool or the beach? in ~life.men
heraplem Link ParentMuch historical progress has consisted in questioning and tearing down bad social norms. Then maybe it doesn't, actually?Much historical progress has consisted in questioning and tearing down bad social norms.
Social norms are supposed to keep societies functional. I can't explain why being topless helps with that
Then maybe it doesn't, actually?
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Comment on I spent a week with Black Republicans in ~misc
heraplem (edited )Link ParentSame old story, really. This probably describes the majority of Republican voters. We can say that they're voting against their own interests, but the Democrats over the past three decades have...Hayes uncovered old-school appeals to rugged individualism (with elements of historical revisionism), traditional anti-abortion viewpoints, and a rejection of government interventions.
Same old story, really. This probably describes the majority of Republican voters.
We can say that they're voting against their own interests, but the Democrats over the past three decades have failed to present a sufficiently compelling alternative: "vote for us and we won't make things worse" is the best they've been able to do. Part of that is down to Republican obstructionism, but part of it is just plain neoliberal myopia. The Biden administration has started to move things in the right direction, but has been frankly terrible at advertising that fact. (Biden even acknowledged it in his most recent interview: "The biggest mistake we made, we didn't put up signs saying, 'Joe did it'!") We can only hope that subsequent administrations will be emboldened to go further, and that we're not in a "too little, too late" scenario.
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Comment on GitLab is reportedly up for sale in ~tech
heraplem (edited )Link ParentI think this will do what you want for the "beginning of line" case: (defun smart-beginning-of-line () (interactive) (let ((start (point))) (beginning-of-visual-line) (when (equal start (point))...I cannot seem to replicate this “smart movement” of home/end in emacs.
I think this will do what you want for the "beginning of line" case:
(defun smart-beginning-of-line () (interactive) (let ((start (point))) (beginning-of-visual-line) (when (equal start (point)) (beginning-of-line))))
This absolutely clicks with me. I've always thought that my interest in type theory ultimately stemmed from my tendency to make dumb mistakes, and my interest in abstractions and generalizations stemmed from my inability to keep track of details.