kovboydan's recent activity
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Comment on TV series suggestions in ~tv
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Comment on Requesting your thoughts that may help me decide between moving to Chicago or Portland (Oregon)? in ~life
kovboydan Link ParentWhere? That gravel parking lot north of the mall and east of IKEA?Where? That gravel parking lot north of the mall and east of IKEA?
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Comment on Requesting your thoughts that may help me decide between moving to Chicago or Portland (Oregon)? in ~life
kovboydan Link ParentMinneapolis/Saint Paul is basically Edmonton with a slightly smaller ridiculously big mall.Minneapolis/Saint Paul is basically Edmonton with a slightly smaller ridiculously big mall.
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Comment on I think Tildes moderators and admins may need to make a decision regarding how to handle Harry Potter related posts in ~tildes
kovboydan LinkTildes topics are rooms reserved for discussing a thing. Top level comments are magic tables within those rooms that grow to accommodate as many participants as needed based on interest in...Tildes topics are rooms reserved for discussing a thing.
Top level comments are magic tables within those rooms that grow to accommodate as many participants as needed based on interest in discussing a particular aspect of thing.
If someone walks into the room but doesn’t like the aspects of thing being discussed at any existing table, they make a new table.
If someone doesn’t like the conversations at a particular table, they ignore the conversation at that other table.
Everything is fine. Unless the people sitting at a particular table have a food fight, throw drinks at each other, start shouting (not just the standard everyone talks louder in rooms with many people and it’s annoying because if we all kept speaking quietly it wouldn’t get loud thing), etc.
Tildes works like that. But even better than the magical “real life” analogy.
Because we have filters to ignore “rooms,” we won’t even see them when walking down the hall.
Because we have tags, we can do a “hey, could you bring the volume down a bit please” thing without actually engaging with people and it eventually pushes those conversations further away into a corner of the room.
There’s no decision to be made here. If you like discussing Harry Potter (a thing), remember there might be a table discussing its author (an aspect of thing). Don’t walk into those rooms, ignore that table, or use the site features to push that table into the corner.
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Comment on Olympic committee announces a broad ban on transgender athletes and athletes with differences in sex development in Women’s events (gifted link) in ~lgbt
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Comment on Everyone but US President Donald Trump understands what he’s done - allied leaders know that any positive gesture they make will count for nothing in ~society
kovboydan Link ParentHalf of them are dullards and half of them are not. Rubio and Vance are not. Hegseth and Duffy are. Individuals are individuals and should be evaluated thusly, even cabinet member in this...Half of them are dullards and half of them are not. Rubio and Vance are not. Hegseth and Duffy are. Individuals are individuals and should be evaluated thusly, even cabinet member in this administration.
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Comment on Interesting material types for fantasy resources/macguffins other than crystals or metals? in ~creative
kovboydan Link ParentThat’s sort of what Warehouse 13 did. It was just random items that happened to be magic because they were the random thing that was used during some random historical reference and therefore had...That’s sort of what Warehouse 13 did. It was just random items that happened to be magic because they were the random thing that was used during some random historical reference and therefore had some whacky magic ability.
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Comment on Thinking of getting Proton and using it as my day-to-day email, but I have concerns in ~tech
kovboydan LinkPay for Proton for the VPN and get email with aliases, a password manager, and cloud storage “for free.” (1) Yeah, for 99.9% of the emails you’d send and receive there’s no difference. (2) I feel...Pay for Proton for the VPN and get email with aliases, a password manager, and cloud storage “for free.”
(1) Yeah, for 99.9% of the emails you’d send and receive there’s no difference.
(2) I feel like you’re over thinking it, maybe, but yeah if you’re like the dude in Georgia it’s a speed bump.
(3) That site might have whatever data they collect but Google doesn’t have all of it, in theory anyway. Or Microsoft. Or whoever else is providing free email at a volume that matters? And you’d be browsing using the VPN and private mode in Firefox with JavaScript disabled and and and…
(4) Yeah, realistically you’d want to sign up for everything again. But you’d be using that VPN and browsing in private mode and and and… -
Comment on "People are turning themselves into lab rats" – the injectable peptides craze sweeping the US in ~health
kovboydan Link ParentProPublica is still around so it’s not completely dead, just sort of dead-ish?ProPublica is still around so it’s not completely dead, just sort of dead-ish?
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Comment on I made a word association game - Noun Sense in ~games
kovboydan Link ParentFWIW nigh isn’t a noun, so that isn’t adjective-noun pair.FWIW nigh isn’t a noun, so that isn’t adjective-noun pair.
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Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music
kovboydan Link ParentFirst one isn’t a mode of 4; it’s bimodal at 3 and 4. The second one is a mode of 3. The ratings of songs on albums isn’t likely to be normally distributed so a mode would probably be a better...First one isn’t a mode of 4; it’s bimodal at 3 and 4. The second one is a mode of 3.
The ratings of songs on albums isn’t likely to be normally distributed so a mode would probably be a better reflection of what the “average” is than a mean or median. If there isn’t a single mode, I think swapping to mean and rounding is the simplest solution. That would make both examples a 3 fwiw.
Good luck however you decide to do it!
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Comment on I tried ranking my albums out of five stars - I think I've gotten it wrong. Thoughts? in ~music
kovboydan Link ParentCould you use the mode by default instead of the mean? Maybe revert to using mean for any bimodal or multimodal albums?Could you use the mode by default instead of the mean? Maybe revert to using mean for any bimodal or multimodal albums?
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Comment on What is your top, unknown, non fiction recommendation ? in ~books
kovboydan LinkFarming the cutover: a social history of Northern Wisconsin, 1900-1940Farming the cutover: a social history of Northern Wisconsin, 1900-1940
After northern Wisconsin was cleared by commercial loggers early in the twentieth century, enthusiastic promoters and optimistic settlers envisioned transforming this "cutover" into a land of yeoman farmers. Here thousands of families—mostly immigrants or second-generation Americans—sought to recreate old worlds and build new farms on land that would come to be considered agriculturally worthless. In the end, they succumbed not to drought or soil depletion but to social and political pressures from those who looked askance at their way of life.
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Comment on What I dislike the most about the US in ~society
kovboydan LinkThis isn’t the focus of your post, but since it was written I want to address it (without taking a position on it). America is a representative democracy and the government’s actions do represent...This isn’t the focus of your post, but since it was written I want to address it (without taking a position on it).
America is a representative democracy and the government’s actions do represent the will of the people. Setting aside everything we could say about gerrymandering, Citizens United, ballot access, etc: a majority of American neighbors - in the broadest sense - voted for this or couldn’t be bothered to vote against it.
Alternatively, it’s not a representative democracy.
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Comment on Apple announces Macbook Neo, a new budget Mac in ~tech
kovboydan Link ParentStill not great at €577 ($670) - pretending VAT doesn’t exist - which is about the most anyone would pay inclusive of sales tax in the US. But I don’t think it’s that much different than iPhones...Einschließlich MwSt. und ges. Gebühren i. H. v. ca. 123,00 €.
Still not great at €577 ($670) - pretending VAT doesn’t exist - which is about the most anyone would pay inclusive of sales tax in the US.
But I don’t think it’s that much different than iPhones would be to purchase in Germany vs the US; somewhere around ~25% more expensive to purchase if you’re comparing with a state’s sales tax included?
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Comment on What are you no longer a fan of? in ~talk
kovboydan Link ParentI had friends that liked it but never managed to get into it myself. Other than Fullmetal Alchemist, the only two shows I can remember watching and thinking they were decent are Gurren Lagann and...I had friends that liked it but never managed to get into it myself. Other than Fullmetal Alchemist, the only two shows I can remember watching and thinking they were decent are Gurren Lagann and Gun x Sword. But I can’t recall the plots and have no idea how they’d hold up now.
Shoutout to DB / DBZ for the lolz watch.
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Comment on What are you no longer a fan of? in ~talk
kovboydan (edited )Link ParentDo you play guitar lefty, know how to do 5x or 7x rubiks cubes, and have bad allergies that cause nasal congestion all the time? Edit: Asking because your story sounds so familiar.Do you play guitar lefty, know how to do 5x or 7x rubiks cubes, and have bad allergies that cause nasal congestion all the time?
Edit: Asking because your story sounds so familiar.
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Comment on Gas prices soar as QatarEnergy halts LNG production after Iran attacks in ~finance
kovboydan LinkIt certainly is fortuitous that those coal plants in the US were ordered to continue operating.It certainly is fortuitous that those coal plants in the US were ordered to continue operating.
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Comment on Device that can extract 1,000 liters of clean water a day from desert air revealed by 2025 Nobel Prize winner in ~enviro
kovboydan LinkScience improving things we’ve done, or known how to do but not as well, in one form or another for generations is fun to read about. Assuming it works and is commercially viable, I wonder if it...Science improving things we’ve done, or known how to do but not as well, in one form or another for generations is fun to read about.
Assuming it works and is commercially viable, I wonder if it could be used in a desperate effort to keep farming in places we probably shouldn’t have been. And then I imagine all sorts of neat externalities like a rain shadow but instead of being caused by a mountain it’s caused by Sietch Tabr’s wind trap.
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Comment on A rant about how devices handle users with language backgrounds other than English in ~tech
kovboydan Link ParentEnglish, Turkish, Spanish, and German are supported so I’d never paid attention to what languages aren’t supported. If you need support for Hungarian or Finnish you would be out of luck and need...English, Turkish, Spanish, and German are supported so I’d never paid attention to what languages aren’t supported. If you need support for Hungarian or Finnish you would be out of luck and need to manually swap it seems.
It’s a good show. It’s also one of the better unfinished “books to shows” because they didn’t change that much. So if you’re short on time but want to know how it ends you can jump into the books without too much trouble.