imperialismus's recent activity
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Comment on Indecision: Get a camera despite having a phone in ~tech
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Comment on Indecision: Get a camera despite having a phone in ~tech
imperialismus Link ParentI would strongly recommend not listening to Ken Rockwell. The guy is extremely opinionated, and his opinions are frequently controversial among serious and professional photographers. For good...Don't shoot RAW. It's pointless and will just add hours to your workflow.
I would strongly recommend not listening to Ken Rockwell. The guy is extremely opinionated, and his opinions are frequently controversial among serious and professional photographers. For good reason. This is one of them.
RAW isn't going to add hours to your workflow, unless your workflow is very inefficent to begin with. You don't batch process hundreds of photos, you pick the best ones, make any necessary adjustments, and then convert those few RAWs into JPGs or TIFFs or whatever other format. Would you print 200 photos from a single photo session? Send your family a folder of 200 images of the same event? Probably not, at least if you're a semi-serious photographer. Processing a single RAW image into JPG or TIFF takes just a few seconds on my mid range PC. It was manageable even on a 2010 Macbook (not even a pro). Unless you save up months' worth of photos before processing them, it's unlikely you'll add more than 5-10 minutes at most.
JPGs have less dynamic range than old school negative film. There are scenes that literally can't be accurately captured in JPG, but can in RAW. You could trust your camera's JPEG algorithm, but then again, you could trust your phone's computational photography too. If you're serious enough to own a dedicated interchangeable-lens camera in the year2025, you probably care enough to want the extra flexibility.
You say:
I like the restrictions it places on me, same as a prime lens does - when I'm taking pictures it makes me spend time thinking about composition rather than post-processing and composition is everything.
But that's the opposite of what RAW does! RAW gives you more slack when it comes to technical choices like exposure and color balance, which means you can focus more on artistic choices like composition. If you want to override your JPG's default settings, you will suffer a loss in image quality. A RAW file is way more flexible. It allows you to focus on the things that you must get right in the moment, like the exact camera angle and the exact moment of pressing the shutter, while things like color balance and exposure have more leeway to be modified in post. Meanwhile, you can also just let Photoshop or Lightroom do their thing and not worry about it, for the cost of 5-10 seconds extra processing time per image.
Post-processing isn't something you should be thinking about in the moment of taking a photo, unless it's a very special scenario in which you plan to use certain post processing techniques to achieve a certain effect that can't otherwise be achieved (e.g. multi-shot panorama or HDR). And contrary to what you said, RAW actually allows you to think less about post processing in the moment of making the photo, because you have more freedom to change things (or not change things) in post, versus "locking in" a JPG.
Another benefit is time: modern software can do amazing things with old RAW files that neither camera hardware at the time of capture, nor modern software operating on old JPGs can.
I'm not the kind of photographer to frequently make extensive edits in post. I prefer to do most things that can be done in camera, in camera, and have a lot of experience with analog photography. But I still shoot RAW all the time.
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Comment on ‘Taylor Swift: Showgirl’ at $33m an awesome anomaly for album pic launch; Dwayne Johnson sees lowest opening ever with ‘The Smashing Machine’ at $6m in ~movies
imperialismus Link ParentI can't get over how unlike himself Dwayne Johnson looks in that movie. I'm a big fan of old school MMA, so I'll watch this film, but probably not until it's streaming somewhere. I think that's a...I can't get over how unlike himself Dwayne Johnson looks in that movie.
I'm a big fan of old school MMA, so I'll watch this film, but probably not until it's streaming somewhere. I think that's a fairly narrow demographic though. MMA didn't really explode in popularity (outside Japan) until like 10 years after Mark Kerr's prime. It's the reason he went to Japan in the first place. Wonder what they think about the movie over there.
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Comment on Elon Musk plans to take on Wikipedia with 'Grokipedia' in ~tech
imperialismus Link ParentWikipedia articles are licensed under the CC BY-SA license, which (not a lawyer) appears to be compatible with what he's suggesting to do, provided there is a link to the original page, a clear...Wikipedia articles are licensed under the CC BY-SA license, which (not a lawyer) appears to be compatible with what he's suggesting to do, provided there is a link to the original page, a clear indication that the original has been modified, and that the content is re-licensed under the same conditions as the original.
The license wasn't made with generative AI in mind, but the idea of basing a competing encyclopedia on modified versions of Wikipedia articles isn't inherently against the spirit of the project nor the letter of the license, provided it's done in the right way. In fact, Wikimedia Enterprise offers for-pay APIs to make it easier for corporations to re-use their content, but the for pay bit is explicitly not about paying for the right to reuse the content. It's for accessing specific APIs to make it easier to extract, work with and keep up with changes in Wikimedia content, as well as customer support for those APIs and services. The content itself is free, and Wikipedia explicitly tells corporate users not to ask them for permission to reproduce content, as that right is not Wikipedia's (it's covered by the license and the content belongs to the individual contributors, from a copyright standpoint Wikimedia owns almost none of its own content).
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Comment on Am I the only who finds raw photography souless? in ~arts
imperialismus LinkI think you framed the question a bit confusingly, and people get stuck on debating "RAW" which is standard for most professional photographers, when what I think you're trying to say is that you...I think you framed the question a bit confusingly, and people get stuck on debating "RAW" which is standard for most professional photographers, when what I think you're trying to say is that you dislike a certain "perfect" aesthetic, which is reminiscent of commercials. I think most people would be happy if their baby photos came out looking "like a Pampers commercial" because that's a metaphorically (and often literally) airbrushed version of reality. They don't want real, they want something that looks perfect in the way that parents view their children as perfect angels. But if you don't want that, there are surely photographers that could accomodate that, but as others have mentioned, that needs to be communicated.
Most people don't know what they want or can't express it, so any sort of "art made on demand" like commercial portraiture involves a lot of guesswork. But to a certain extent I can see what you're getting at. For example, modern lenses are ultra sharp, to the point of sometimes being too revealing when used for things like portraiture. They're made that way because (presumably, I'm not an optics designer) it's easier and cheaper to make high quality optics now, and also, they need to keep up with ever increasing resolution. But I know there's been a trend of people using things like "black mist" filters on modern lenses, which create a softer look. And of course, even in the past, people were using tricks like shooting through semi-transparent gauze or applying vaseline to a filter in front of the lens to create the effect of smoothing out skin in a time before Photoshop and digital editing made all that easy to do in post.
I can sort of understand what you're getting at, but I think if you want "less perfect" photos, you need to give your photographer references. Portrait photographers know what most people want, and know that most people aren't capable of verbalizing it, so they develop a style that satisfies most clients. But there are definitely ones out there that have more unique and less "lifestyle advertisement" like styles, they might just not be your average commercial portrait photographer. And I'm sure even an average commercial photographer could at least partially accomodate your requests if you actually give references and examples of what it is you want.
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Comment on Sweden's employment agency has been tracking the online locations of thousands of citizens claiming unemployment benefits in an effort to crack down on welfare fraud in ~tech
imperialismus LinkI wonder if they've cleared this with EU law. Norway had a big scandal relating to basically the same issue. The EU has something called the "principle of exportability" which means welfare...I wonder if they've cleared this with EU law. Norway had a big scandal relating to basically the same issue. The EU has something called the "principle of exportability" which means welfare benefits can generally be retained even when living in a different member state. I'm not a lawyer, but the Norway case is strikingly similar to a layman and many lawyers were involved in getting that one wrong.
Norway isn't a member of the EU but is heavily integrated into it through EFTA/the EEA, and I believe the specific laws they ran afoul of here were general EU laws, not specific to the EFTA-EU relationship.
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Comment on Dwayne Johnson uncontrollably sobs as ‘The Smashing Machine’ gets fifteen-minute Venice standing ovation and generates Oscar buzz in ~movies
imperialismus Link ParentIt's definitely performative, but it's just a weird custom at certain film festivals. Media usually report on the length of these standing clap-alongs and use it to predict which films will have...It's definitely performative, but it's just a weird custom at certain film festivals. Media usually report on the length of these standing clap-alongs and use it to predict which films will have success in awards season. And those predictions tend to not be far off, because these viewings are full of industry insiders and critics, the kinds of people who vote for awards. I don't see how it's self-congratulatory though. While some parts of the audience will be people involved in the production of the film, the majority will be critics, media, other film industry people. They're not clapping for themselves.
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Comment on Should C be mandatory learning for career developers? in ~comp
imperialismus Link ParentAre you interested in it from a formal math perspective, or from an "expanding my computer science fundamentals" angle? For the former I can't help, but for the latter, I reccomend the classic...Are you interested in it from a formal math perspective, or from an "expanding my computer science fundamentals" angle? For the former I can't help, but for the latter, I reccomend the classic SICP. It only explicitly mentions lambda calculus a handful of times, but it will teach you pretty much everything you need to know about it from a programmer's perspective.
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Comment on In the far north of Sweden, locals and tourists alike chow down on Arctic cheesesteaks – hoagie rolls piled high with moose and reindeer meat are inspired by Philadelphia in ~food
imperialismus LinkI haven't visited this particular food truck, but I've had the "reindeer kebabs" they sell some places in Northern Sweden. Made with thinly sliced suovas (cold-smoked reindeer) served in pita...I haven't visited this particular food truck, but I've had the "reindeer kebabs" they sell some places in Northern Sweden. Made with thinly sliced suovas (cold-smoked reindeer) served in pita bread with veggies and sauce. It's quite good. I can often find smoked reindeer in the frozen meats section of my local grocery store, and I'd probably cook with it more if it wasn't so expensive.
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Comment on I had an idea for a Crusader Kings, but about rich families in Victoria-Modern Era. What could go wrong? in ~games
imperialismus LinkGood luck! It's a huge project you're taking on, but I hope it works out. I want to point you in the direction of a game called Espiocracy, if you're not aware of it. It's a Paradox-like grand...Good luck! It's a huge project you're taking on, but I hope it works out. I want to point you in the direction of a game called Espiocracy, if you're not aware of it. It's a Paradox-like grand strategy game being made by a solo dev in Godot. The developer posts yearly updates on the r/Godot subreddit with some technical tips. It looks like the game is slated for release this year, but it also puts into perspective how much work this is: it's taken over four years.
But it shows that it can be done. The dev said they were a web developer with no game dev experience prior to this project, and also said that aside from a few art assets that were contracted out, almost all the work was done by this one person. It's probably the closest thing you'll find to your project, and I'm sure there's a lot of useful things you can take from it.
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Comment on I asked Michelin chefs how they cook ramen in ~food
imperialismus LinkJust gonna drop this here since it's the same idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW62RWXMlTc I love this guy's accent. I've never heard a Korean-Italian speak English before but somehow it's...Just gonna drop this here since it's the same idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW62RWXMlTc I love this guy's accent. I've never heard a Korean-Italian speak English before but somehow it's exactly what I expected. I also like how simple it is, without any fancy ingredients.
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Comment on Bitter rivals Malmö FF and FC Copenhagen set for Champions League showdown – no love lost between clubs separated by a bridge in ~sports.football
imperialismus LinkWhy did you change the name of the Danish club in the headline? They're called F.C. København, or F.C. Copenhagen in English, or even FCK for short, but it makes no sense to translate the name of...Why did you change the name of the Danish club in the headline? They're called F.C. København, or F.C. Copenhagen in English, or even FCK for short, but it makes no sense to translate the name of a Danish club into Swedish on an English-speaking website.
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Comment on Berry is a ultra-lightweight embedded scripting language in ~comp
imperialismus Link ParentI wonder if anyone is using it for anything. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, but there are a lot of personal programming languages out there that were made because one person for...I wonder if anyone is using it for anything. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, but there are a lot of personal programming languages out there that were made because one person for whatever personal reason felt like it, not because it necessarily filled any particularly useful niche or solved a pressing issue in the industry. I've made multiple toy languages myself, and while this seems more mature than anything I've ever made, the motivations seem similar? Just some personal hobby project that you might as well open source in case someone else finds it useful. There aren't any references to any other projects using this language on the website or on github. Smaller programming languages that aren't known in the industry are usually quite eager to advertise any serious project that uses their language.
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Comment on The International MSI League of Legends 2025 tournament check in! in ~games
imperialismus Link ParentI don't play League but I randomly stumbled on the stream and watched for a bit. I have to disagree. League is way too complex to really enjoy without a good understanding of the game. It has,...As far as e-sports go I think that League is one of the more fun ones to watch even when you don't what's happening.
I don't play League but I randomly stumbled on the stream and watched for a bit. I have to disagree. League is way too complex to really enjoy without a good understanding of the game. It has, what, 170 characters or something? I watched a game and I could understand the basic flow of which team was winning based on the commentary and watching health bars tick down or gold leads tick up, but beyond that, I didn't understand anything, and that becomes very alienating very quickly.
There are some games that somewhat work as spectator sports even if you don't play the game. I used to watch Starcraft 2 but never played it. I also think Counter-Strike is probably one of the easiest FPS titles to understand because it's so simple. But a game like Dota or League with 100+ characters with multiple unique abilities? It's way too complex to really appreciate beyond "ooh" and "ahh". Like, I can get hyped at a caster's hype, but that only goes so far when I can't appreciate even the basic mechanics of how someone is winning or losing.
Anyway, not to piss on anybody's parade. I'm sure if you do understand it, it's really fun and engaging, and League has such a large player base that they don't necessarily need to attract people outside the player base to have a thriving esport. Just a perspective from someone who doesn't play MOBA games, but enjoys esports and occasionally tries to get into them as a spectator, but usually just bounces off due to the complexity involved.
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Comment on Can AI-generated photos be art? in ~arts
imperialismus Link ParentNo. 100% my own words.No. 100% my own words.
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Comment on Can AI-generated photos be art? in ~arts
imperialismus LinkAs an art photographer (not in a professional capacity, but professionally trained), I naturally have an opinion on this. It is, after all, one of the few fields in which I actually somewhat know...- Exemplary
As an art photographer (not in a professional capacity, but professionally trained), I naturally have an opinion on this. It is, after all, one of the few fields in which I actually somewhat know wtf I'm talking about. Which is not to say that my opinion is authoritative, but this is a field which I've engaged with for the better part of two decades now, and I'm very familiar with its history as well.
My basic opinion is that AI "art photography" can be art, but it's not photography. Even 3D rendering has more in common with photography, because with modern physically based rendering techniques, you can fiddle around with a virtual camera that behaves like a camera and renders light bouncing off objects in an environment in a manner resembling a camera, even if the environment and objects are entirely digital. But that's not really a disqualification of the (potential) value of AI art resembling photography. It simply means that, although we may consider it using some of the techniques and theories relating to photography as art, the process by which it's created is so fundamentally different that we have to consider it a separate art form, just like cinema and photography are related but different mediums.
What really bothers me is the obsession with redefining art to mean "good art", just like "literature" is often synonymous with "great literature". To me, it hollows out the meaning of art to say that only art which rises to a certain level of subjectively assigned artistic merit qualifies. Children make art all the time. Is it good art? Usually not. It has sentimental value to the people who are close to the child, friends and family, but it's not the kind of thing that rises to significance for people who have no relation to the artist. I don't think it's elitist to say that a stick figure drawing of Mommy and Daddy created by a five-year-old is deeply meaningful to the parents, but has no great value outside of that narrow context.
Art isn't just what you like or approve of. There can be such a thing as bad art, or uninteresting art, or derivative art. To declare that art isn't art unless it's both interesting and truly original ignores pretty much the entire history of art, going back to the earliest cave paintings and Venus figurines and passing through all the way to the modern day. Most art isn't groundbreaking. Most art is aesthetically flawed, shallow, or derivative of other art in some way. It can still have value, because it isn't a binary. It isn't either a Da Vinci or van Gogh masterpiece or literal trash; there's a lot of room in between.
Let me give an example of what I personally consider bad, or at least uninteresting and derivative, art. Comedian is an artwork by Maurizio Cattelan. It consists of an ordinary banana duct taped to a wall. It brought a lot of controversy because it sold for millions. As a piece of conceptual art, it isn't about the actual banana or the actual duct tape or even the wall, all of which are replacable. The buyer bought the right to tape any banana to any wall and say it was a work called Comedian by Cattelan. Now, why do I consider this uninteresting and derivative?
In 1917, Marcel Duchamp exhibited his famous work Fountain, which was an ordinary urinal only modified by the addition of a signature, the pseudonym R. Mutt. I'm sure most of you are familiar with it. The work was one of the first so-called readymades, which is the general term for works of art that consist of mostly or entirely unmodified ordinary objects that were not made with the intention of being art, but are presented and exhibited as art in art spaces. Duchamp's Fountain was, at the time, revolutionary. It caused a huge debate about the nature of art, and today, the result of that debate is that works like Comedian are considered art by the art establishment. The art lies not in traditional craft, not in meticulous sculpting, painting, or even photographing. It lies in the concept itself and the provocation and debate it inspires.
Comedian is just a rerun of this concept. It was interesting 100 years ago, because it brought with it new ideas. It has been repeated numerous times since, with all sorts of readymade objects. It's derivative and brings nothing new conceptually, and in terms of aesthetics and craftmanship it's obviously, like all readymades, not exactly impressive (but that was never the point).
Comedian is obviously a satirical work, as hinted in the title. Cattelan isn't a talentless hack. He's made many more traditional pieces of art, albeit with odd and irreverent subjects, such as a sculpture of the pope hit by a meteorite. This is how he was able to sell a banana duct-taped to a wall for millions of dollars. But this particular work is entirely conceptual, and to put it bluntly, the concept is old news. If anything, the social engineering required to sell the work is the real art piece.
Still, even though I think this piece of art is unoriginal and not that interesting, from the perspective of someone who's familiar with the art world, it created a lot of controversy among people outside the art world, which was the point. As such, it's not entirely valueless. It's uninteresting to me as an artist because I've seen it a thousand times before in various guises. It's "not art" and a disgrace to the general public, but that ironically makes it really interesting, a real conversation starter piece.
This is a huge tangent to the topic of AI art, but my point is that the definition of art is very expansive. I can accept Comedian as Arttm (R), but still think it's ultimately derivative and uninspired, or as the kids would say these days, slop.
I don't think Duchamp's work was slop, however. At the time, it genuinely represented something new, which has inspired thousands of artists worldwide. It introduced a view of art as something which was picked out deliberately and presented as art, rather than something that was created using many years of practice in a traditional craft such as painting or sculpting. This has great parallels to photography. Photography is the art of picking out a particular view of the world, during a particular time frame. There is, of course, a lot of photography that's staged, but my favorite kind and one that is very much acknowledged in the art world is the documentary or candid approach, where little to no intervention is performed by the photographer. They choose when, and from where, and how to capture a moment, but the moment itself is not created by the photographer, and in fact, in this kind of art photography, the deliberate creation of a "photographable moment" would diminish it.
AI art is similar in that it's largely an exercise in picking and choosing. The actual act of creation is largely out of the artist's hands. Prompts steer the gen AI, so in that sense it's more akin to staged photography. But if I were to go to an industrial location I'm unfamiliar with and look for some cool industrial machine or structure to photograph, is that fundamentally different from asking an AI to generate images of industrial machines and structures, then picking the best one? In many ways, of course it is. It's based in actual reality, not machine dreams. But in other ways, it's remarkably similar. The artist's hand is involved in the picking out of, and choosing how to present, an object or situation that wasn't created or manipulated by the artist or intended to be art.
In my mind, the interesting thing to consider is how gen AI is used in art, rather than simply that it was used.
I really appreciate traditional craftmanship. I've enjoyed working with old analog cameras even in the age of digital photography. The more cumbersome process places limitations which are often necessary to create interesting art. If you can easily shoot one hundred frames of the same scene, it's easy to be sloppy and end up with none of them being just right. If you can only shoot one, there's a huge risk involved, but it certainly means you'll have to be damn careful and deliberate when you do it. I don't want traditional art to die, and as a documentary-leaning photographer, I really appreciate the deep connection between the medium and reality. It would be a sad day if all we had was AI generated art.
But that doesn't mean there's no place for some of it.
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Comment on 'Kung Fury 2': ten-minute sizzle reel leaked in ~movies
imperialismus LinkI only discovered the original short film recently and I don't know how I missed out on it the first time around.I only discovered the original short film recently and I don't know how I missed out on it the first time around.
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Comment on Europa Universalis V officially announced (no release date yet) in ~games
imperialismus LinkThe way the game is shaping up reminds me a lot of the mod MEIOU and Taxes. That mod always had terrible performance and frequent crashes when I tried it, and the interface was extremely clunky,...The way the game is shaping up reminds me a lot of the mod MEIOU and Taxes. That mod always had terrible performance and frequent crashes when I tried it, and the interface was extremely clunky, both of which likely because they were trying to do something far beyond what EU4's engine and modding support could handle. But I was always intrigued by the idea of it: more focus on population, estate management, logistics, and generally building up your country. Whenever I tried to do a "tall" run I would just get bored and go to war in vanilla EU4, because everything in that game feels like it's just based on planning and executing one war after another. Clicking a development button every once in a while doesn't feel like you're meaningfully developing your country.
But at the same time, they actually let you control armies and it seems like the war system is better than ever now, which was one of the things that put me off Victoria 3. You can still map paint, it will just take more work, and I was never the kind of player to go for world conquests anyway.
I'm also excited to see what modders can do with it. I presume the same UI modding tools that exist in CK3 are also available in this game (haven't verified that but it would be dumb not to do that when you have the technology and these games have always thrived on mods).
I haven't kept up with all the dev diaries, but I'm excited to see some actual gameplay from various content creators now. I haven't played EU4 in a couple of years, but I used to really enjoy the game, and the newer Paradox titles haven't scratched the same itch.
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Comment on Jet Lag: Schengen Showdown | Trailer in ~hobbies
imperialismus Link ParentEpisode 6 It is a nice spot, and it's right outside the train station. The plaza they walked across to get there used to be an open-air drug market. The drug addicts were moved elsewhere around...Episode 6
The final challenge was really nice though. I kinda wanna do that with someone now. Really pretty spot too
It is a nice spot, and it's right outside the train station. The plaza they walked across to get there used to be an open-air drug market. The drug addicts were moved elsewhere around the time the Opera opened. The world really has a sense of irony.
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Comment on Non-American, English language news sources in ~news
imperialismus LinkI haven't been a regular reader in quite some years, so I don't know if it's still the case, but at least back in the day, The Economist was excellent for global news. They cover a lot of stuff...I haven't been a regular reader in quite some years, so I don't know if it's still the case, but at least back in the day, The Economist was excellent for global news. They cover a lot of stuff that you would never find in any other English language media if you weren't specifically searching for it. For example, reporting on issues in Africa that aren't the same ~5 ongoing conflicts or poverty, which don't get me wrong are important, but it's a whole ass continent that you rarely hear anything about except the same handful of stories about human misery. And they're also good with smaller countries in Europe and Asia that rarely get much attention in US media.
Their editorial stance is very much in favor of free trade and economic liberalism, but not really right-leaning on social issues, and most independent sources regard them as being reputable and not very biased.
I'm a fairly serious photographer, and very fond of dedicated cameras, but: No. I wouldn't recommend a dedicated camera just to preserve memories, if you don't have at least a moderate interest in photography for the sake of photography. Phone cameras these days are good enough to preserve most memories. There's an old adage among photographers, "f/8 and be there", meaning, technical details are unimportant compared to simply being in the right place at the right time and pushing down the shutter button. A phone is a lot more likely to be with you at the right moment. I'd rather invest in a newer phone with a better camera system, if the intent wasn't to take on photography as a serious hobby for the sake of photography, but rather, mostly to preserve moments and memories.