kenc's recent activity

  1. Comment on Beating every possible game of Pokémon Platinum at the same time in ~games

    kenc
    Link
    All the techniques shared to sync and desync the games are incredible, but memory mail is absolutely genius. I would love to learn about all the others that didn't manage to go into the video due...

    All the techniques shared to sync and desync the games are incredible, but memory mail is absolutely genius. I would love to learn about all the others that didn't manage to go into the video due to time.

    3 votes

  2. Comment on Time as a grid in ~tech

    kenc
    Link
    Thought this was pretty cool, so I took a shot at a simple implementation in the terminal. I also added a stopwatch mode but the milliseconds zooming by gave me a headache lol

    Thought this was pretty cool, so I took a shot at a simple implementation in the terminal. I also added a stopwatch mode but the milliseconds zooming by gave me a headache lol

    7 votes

  3. Comment on There will be blood in ~enviro

    kenc
    Link
    From the article,

    From the article,

    “When we humans have unleashed a new species on an unsuspecting fauna, when we have transformed ecosystems so that previous balances become undone, how do we fix the problem?” Warwick asks. “Should we fix the problem? Should we play god, or should nature be left to take its own course?”

    9 votes

  5. Comment on "Privacy-Preserving" Attribution: Mozilla disappoints us yet again in ~tech

    kenc
    Link
    The link shows how to disable PPA via the UI, but if you're looking to disable it in about:config, set dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled to false. Or add this to your user.js:...

    The link shows how to disable PPA via the UI, but if you're looking to disable it in about:config, set dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled to false.

    Or add this to your user.js:

    user_pref("dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled", false);
    16 votes

  6. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    kenc
    Link
    Completed 2 books recently, and started on a third. I finished reading Radicalized by Cory Doctorow. It's a collection of four short stories about future dystopias. They all felt very Black...

    Completed 2 books recently, and started on a third.

    I finished reading Radicalized by Cory Doctorow. It's a collection of four short stories about future dystopias. They all felt very Black Mirror-esque, and I can definitely see the first story, "Radicalized Bread", being very plausible in our near-future. I did enjoy reading it, but man was it depressing.

    For a more fun read, I moved on to System Collapse by Martha Wells (of the Murderbot Diaries series). I've read and loved all the previous novels and novellas, and while this book doesn't beat some of my personal favourites (the first 3 novellas), I definitely welcome more adventures of Murderbot and friends.

    Finally, in an effort to explore other genres that are not sci-fi, I started Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. It came highly recommended from a friend and is about an elderly lady and an octopus. I'm only about 10% in so there's not much to say, but have been enjoying it so far.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Best foreign films and TV shows? in ~tv

    kenc
    (edited )
    Link
    Drive My Car - Japanese emotional drama film based on the Murakami short story of the same name. The Night Eats the World - French zombie film with a focus on a lone survivor. It has mixed...

    Drive My Car - Japanese emotional drama film based on the Murakami short story of the same name.

    The Night Eats the World - French zombie film with a focus on a lone survivor. It has mixed reviews, but I found it to be an interesting take on the zombie genre.

    Kingdom - South Korean zombie series set in 16th century Korea. Another interesting take on the zombie genre in a historical setting, highly recommended.

    What Did You Eat Yesterday? - Japanese LGBTQ+ slice of life series that focuses on the relationship of a middle-aged gay couple in Tokyo. It's adapted from a manga series of the same name. It's very cute and centred around the couple making home-cooked meals for each other to show their love.

    10 votes

  9. Comment on Time to delete your Glassdoor account and data in ~tech

    kenc
    Link
    After I posted this, I went ahead to delete my account since I wasn't really using it anyway. Just cleaning up my digital footprint and all. This morning, I was greeted with the email "Your...

    After I posted this, I went ahead to delete my account since I wasn't really using it anyway. Just cleaning up my digital footprint and all.

    This morning, I was greeted with the email "Your Glassdoor Personal Data Has Been Deleted", which is all good, except this second paragraph:

    Please note, however, that despite your request to delete data, we reserve the right to keep any information in our archives that we deem necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and exercise the right of freedom of expression and information. We will also keep a record of your request for legal and compliance purposes.

    which doesn't really instill any confidence that my data is really deleted. I don't delete many accounts so I don't know if this is common practice for other sites and I don't know if they are just obligated to include this for legal purposes.

    31 votes

  10. Comment on Time to delete your Glassdoor account and data in ~tech

    kenc
    Link Parent
    As far as I'm aware, there is no identity verification process on Glassdoor so anyone could create a spoof account or give a fake identity. As with all anonymous review sites, this depends on the...

    As far as I'm aware, there is no identity verification process on Glassdoor so anyone could create a spoof account or give a fake identity.

    As with all anonymous review sites, this depends on the good will of their users. Its possible that people are leaving fake reviews or leaving reviews with fake identities. I could even see some organizations creating fake accounts to boost themselves or forcing their employees to leave positive reviews. This is all just speculation but I could see it being a problem, which might be one of the reasons Glassdoor is trying to mandate a real name now.

    Don't get me wrong - its a terrible solution since its the antithesis to the entire premise of their site, even if they claim that giving your real name has no effect on the identity of your reviews.

    15 votes

  11. Comment on Time to delete your Glassdoor account and data in ~tech

    kenc
    Link
    I personally don't have an issue with including my real name, but the fact that an employee updated the profile with their real name and location (which they didn't consent to sharing on their...

    The TL;DR is: Glassdoor now requires your real name and will add it to older accounts without your consent if they learn it, and your only option is to delete your account. They do not care that this puts people at risk with their employers. They do not care that this seems to run counter to their own data-privacy policies.
    ...
    After I responded to that support email last week, I found that they had updated my profile to add my real name and location, the name pulled from the email From line I didn't think to cloak because who does that?

    I personally don't have an issue with including my real name, but the fact that an employee updated the profile with their real name and location (which they didn't consent to sharing on their profile) after replying to a support email is just really scummy.

    I went to check my Glassdoor account and sure enough, you can't edit or remove your name anymore without sending in a request.

    If you're looking to delete your Glassdoor account, check out justdeleteme.xyz for instructions.

    65 votes

  13. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    kenc
    Link Parent
    Unfortunately, my ISP has CGNAT which I believe does not work with DDNS :(

    Unfortunately, my ISP has CGNAT which I believe does not work with DDNS :(

  14. Comment on How user groups made software reuse a reality in ~comp

    kenc
    Link
    A history of how reusable software was distributed in physical catalogues before modern repositories like PyPI and NPM existed.

    A history of how reusable software was distributed in physical catalogues before modern repositories like PyPI and NPM existed.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    kenc
    Link
    Setting up a WireGuard VPN network to access my home LAN with my phone/laptop when I'm out of the house. Because I don't have a static IP, I set up a hub and spoke configuration with a VPS to...

    Setting up a WireGuard VPN network to access my home LAN with my phone/laptop when I'm out of the house. Because I don't have a static IP, I set up a hub and spoke configuration with a VPS to forward all traffic to my Raspberry Pi at home.

    So far, what I have is this and it's all working well. Each client has two tunnels - the aforementioned tunnel to the VPS and another tunnel to Mullvad. However, what I really want is to effectively "combine" the two tunnels into one, so I don't have to switch between networks when I want to access my home LAN.

    I believe the latter setup is possible, but it's so much more complex for me that I'll have to do a lot of reading up on iptables and routing in the weekend...

    2 votes

  18. Comment on #! Useful use of cat(1) in ~comp

  19. Comment on How I taught the Iliad to Chinese teenagers in ~books

    kenc
    Link
    This is a long (and interesting) read, but some context from the introduction: and some highlights: I'm sorry but I'm not sure whether this should go in ~books or ~humanities or some other group.

    This is a long (and interesting) read, but some context from the introduction:

    Several years ago I had the chance to lead two seminars with a group of high-performing Chinese high school seniors. Each seminar had between 20-35 kids; each of these students was a graduating senior enrolled in the international department of a prestigious high school in Beijing.

    [...]

    Half of the seminar’s time, however, was spent on one work: The Iliad. When the seminar was over, many students reported to me that reading and discussing this one book was the highlight of the three years they spent in high school. This reading was popular enough that a small group of students who had taken the other seminar asked me to teach the Iliad section of the class to them privately over the summer.

    and some highlights:

    Why, my Chinese students asked, will we read this? Because you need to prepare for American university classes, I replied. But more importantly: because this book might just change your life! I said this without apology or awkwardness. I believed it! Ultimately, if a great work of history and literature does not have the potential to change a student’s life, to shape their character or transform their worldview, there is no point in teaching it! Most students believe this themselves. They can tell whether you believe the books you are assigning are that important. If you do not believe the works you are assigning matter, students will not think they matter either. I presented the Iliad as a meditation on universal problems of the human condition. My students read it as such.

    Most students hunger for work that has real meaning. If they must study, they would prefer to study something that matters. They want to matter themselves. That is the second key to reaching cynical teenagers: they must be treated like men and women whose decisions and opinions matter. I was eager to learn from their observations and opinions. I genuinely believe I have as much to learn from my classes as they do from me. I was insistent that the books we read had great moral significance, but it was not my part to force ‘morals of the story’ down my student’s throats. Teenagers rarely respond well to blunt didactics. My role was to provide sufficient historical or literary background so that students could understand works like the Iliad, and then push them to wrestle with the questions these texts posed. The conclusions they developed were their own. Students were eager to tell me of these conclusions because they believed (rightly) that I valued their insights and experiences.

    I'm sorry but I'm not sure whether this should go in ~books or ~humanities or some other group.

    12 votes