johnaj's recent activity

  1. Comment on Gifted helmer Hlynur Pálmason interrogates the role of religion in Iceland's past – but it's really colonialism that's at question in his new film 'Godland' in ~movies

    johnaj
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    Hasn't Iceland been Christian since around the year 1000?

    sent to bring Christianity to its heathen inhabitants

    Hasn't Iceland been Christian since around the year 1000?

    3 votes

  2. Comment on What's something that you feel is unfairly criticized? in ~talk

    johnaj
    Link Parent
    My problem with articificial sweetener, at least for soda, is that it gives me the sensation of sugar without the corresponding energy. When I drink it, I feel great at first, as though my body...

    My problem with articificial sweetener, at least for soda, is that it gives me the sensation of sugar without the corresponding energy. When I drink it, I feel great at first, as though my body thinks it's received energy from the sweetener, but after half an hour I feel weak and exhausted. So to me it seems like a case of you can't have your cake and eat it too.

    3 votes

  3. Comment on Vihreä liitto become first party in the Finnish Parliament to call for legalisation of cannabis – initiative approved at party conference by narrowest possible majority 183-181 in ~news

    johnaj
    Link Parent
    Interesting. If this is true, cannabis seems more popular in Finland than in Sweden. In university circles here, it's not something you really talk about, and my impression is that it is not very...

    Most university students openly admit to having at least tried weed.

    Interesting. If this is true, cannabis seems more popular in Finland than in Sweden. In university circles here, it's not something you really talk about, and my impression is that it is not very common.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on Where do you go for humor? in ~life

    johnaj
    Link Parent
    As someone who is learning Dutch, what does "ihe" mean?

    As someone who is learning Dutch, what does "ihe" mean?

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Positive Youtube channels? in ~tech

    johnaj
    Link
    My girlfriend likes Tier Zoo, a channel that talks about evolutionary biology/zoology in video game terms. It's a bit similar to /r/outside/, but much more educational and focused on evolution...

    My girlfriend likes Tier Zoo, a channel that talks about evolutionary biology/zoology in video game terms. It's a bit similar to /r/outside/, but much more educational and focused on evolution specifically. I like the Raptor Let's Play.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on What are your thoughts on cigars? Or the other little rituals of life? in ~talk

    johnaj
    Link
    I have a similar approach to tobacco, though I don't really like cigars. I prefer unfiltered Camel cigarettes (there is a huge difference in taste between filtered and unfiltered cigarettes)....

    I have a similar approach to tobacco, though I don't really like cigars. I prefer unfiltered Camel cigarettes (there is a huge difference in taste between filtered and unfiltered cigarettes). Cigarettes have a bad reputation, and a large part of that is deserved, but it's largely the fault of cigarette companies and capitalism in general. In its original essence, a cigarette is something like a smaller, more convenient cigar.

    I certainly understand why people can be skeptical towards tobacco in general and cigarettes specifically, but I have personally have never experienced anything like an addiction. Everything in moderation... It's really the same as with coffee: you can treat it either like a luxury or like a drug.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk

    johnaj
    Link Parent
    Interestingly, the same capitalization exists in historical Swedish, but of the pronoun meaning "you (plural)": "I". At some point, people started to capitalize this word. One possible explanation...

    Interestingly, the same capitalization exists in historical Swedish, but of the pronoun meaning "you (plural)": "I". At some point, people started to capitalize this word. One possible explanation might just be that it was also used, as in English, meaning "you (singular)", as a polite alternative to "du" (thou), and the capitalization was also a sign of politeness. But you see the capitalization even when it is not polite and not singular. Another potential reason is that Swedish already has a word called "i", meaning "in(side)".

    But I think it might just be that a single "i" looks a bit jarring. Not jarring enough to justify capitalizing a preposition, which would be rather odd, but perhaps jarring enough to justify capitalizing a personal pronoun, a type of word that already has a history of being capitalized out of politeness.

    The Swedish "I" was gradually replaced in the written language by "ni", uncapitalized.

    As for your suggestion, I don't think there's a connection between the historical capitalization of proper nouns and the capitalization of "I", as it seems to me they have rather different causes, but I might be incorrect.

  9. Comment on What's your computer/PC like? in ~tech

    johnaj
    Link
    My main computer is custom-built. I've changed some parts recently, such as the graphics card, but generally it is unchanged since 2012. Here is a summary: Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K 3,4 GHz...

    My main computer is custom-built. I've changed some parts recently, such as the graphics card, but generally it is unchanged since 2012. Here is a summary:

    • Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K 3,4 GHz
    • Graphics card: GTX 750 Ti
    • Storage: 1 TB hard drive, 128 GB solid-state drive
    • Memory: 16 GB
    • Operating system: currently Windows XP
    • Keyboard: IBM Model M, Swedish layout
    • Mouse: Some old ball mouse by Logitech
    • Monitor: IBM G96, built late 1990s to early 2000s

    Monitor

    I chose the GTX 750 Ti specifically because it supports VGA, which my monitor requires. I use a CRT monitor because, for me, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks:

    • Has multiple "native" resolutions. I usually use 1024x768. (Sometimes 1600x1200, though it is not quite as crystal clear.)
    • Great color rendering, blacks so black that you'd think the monitor was turned off.
    • Supports frame rates higher than 60 Hz, good for playing video games. I usually use about 80 Hz.

    I cannot stress enough how great it is to be able to choose between multiple resolutions, especially for my eyesight.

    Operating system

    I originally used Windows 7 on the computer and later upgraded to Windows 10. But using Windows 10 just annoys and frankly depresses me. It is remarkable how low Microsoft has fallen as a consumer-oriented company. For the last year, I've used Windows XP on it. Generally, it is a joy to use. It's without security updates since 2019, but still works fine if you are careful and know what you're doing. The only drawback is that the 32-bit version can't use more than 2 GB of RAM. I might switch to the 64-bit version soon, or upgrade to Vista or 7.

    2 votes

  10. Comment on What do you carry with you every day (excluding keys, wallet, and phone)? in ~talk

    johnaj
    Link
    Every day I carry in my pocket (if I'm wearing jeans, then the small pocket) a USB stick, which I basically use as a replacement for cloud sync. On most of my personal computers, I have a folder...

    Every day I carry in my pocket (if I'm wearing jeans, then the small pocket) a USB stick, which I basically use as a replacement for cloud sync.

    On most of my personal computers, I have a folder called Sync which I synchronize with a Sync folder on the USB drive. I usually use Microsoft's SyncToy program for this, although I'm looking for something that can constantly watch a directory for changes and queue transfers until the USB drive is inserted; might have to write that program myself.

    But otherwise, it works really well: in terms of storage, you get 16, 32, whatever gigabytes (there are even flash drives with one terabyte of storage!) for a one time fee, and you never need an internet connection. You can access to your files on any computer that has a USB port.

    Only drawback might be FAT32, which has a max file size of 4 gigabytes. But I suppose you could also use NTFS, seeing as how it's reasonably supported by most systems today.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Replacing YouTube & Invidious in ~comp

    johnaj
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Thank you so much for your tip -- CloudTube looks absolutely wonderful! It seems that it depends on the YouTube API, which is both a blessing and a curse, I guess.

    Thank you so much for your tip -- CloudTube looks absolutely wonderful! It seems that it depends on the YouTube API, which is both a blessing and a curse, I guess.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Replacing YouTube & Invidious in ~comp

    johnaj
    Link Parent
    Hm. The great thing about Invidious was that was so accessible. It was a simple website that supported basically every operating system. Here is a screenshot of Invidious in Internet Explorer 6....

    Hm. The great thing about Invidious was that was so accessible. It was a simple website that supported basically every operating system. Here is a screenshot of Invidious in Internet Explorer 6. It's not pretty, but that's just a matter of the default stylesheet. The website works. You can browse channels and search for videos. Of course you can't play videos in the browser, but that's was never Invidious' flagship feature either way. I find videos through Invidious, but almost always stream them via youtube-dl.

    In relation to this, I'm a bit skeptical towards Freetube. In its current form, it's an Electron desktop program, which means its availability across operating systems is strongly narrowed. And a PWA often just means "works with the latest version of Google Chrome"...

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Replacing YouTube & Invidious in ~comp

    johnaj
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    This is a good attempt, but I think it will be hard to replace Invidious, if it doesn't find a maintainer. Invidious provided an interface to YouTube that was both fast and graphical. That is hard...

    This is a good attempt, but I think it will be hard to replace Invidious, if it doesn't find a maintainer. Invidious provided an interface to YouTube that was both fast and graphical. That is hard to emulate with youtube-dl.

    2 votes