lexabear's recent activity

  1. Comment on Goodbye, floppies - San Francisco pays Hitachi $212 million to remove 5.25-inch disks from its light rail service in ~tech

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    If the lines started being in service in 1998, then construction took years before that, and the design took years before that. The 5.25" floppies might have been designed into it in the 80s.

    If the lines started being in service in 1998, then construction took years before that, and the design took years before that. The 5.25" floppies might have been designed into it in the 80s.

    8 votes

  2. Comment on Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence—experts want it to stop in ~health

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    Radiation exposure is a downside. Yes, it's not very much radiation exposure, but it's still some - so if there's no upside to go along with it, doing a procedure that is only downside, even if it...

    and have essentially no downside

    Radiation exposure is a downside. Yes, it's not very much radiation exposure, but it's still some - so if there's no upside to go along with it, doing a procedure that is only downside, even if it is minimal downside, is unethical.

    Radiation exposure is not the only downside. Overtreatment based on false positives is another downside. This can be a real issue, and is the reason we don't just do whole population screenings for every disease we know about.

    Like yeah it probably could be done less, but the last thing I want is insurance having any more say in my health.

    This is a false dichotomy. Everyone in this discussion seems to be jumping straight to the idea that insurance not paying for it is the only way to lower the rates of use. Strong evidence-based guidelines from a professional group, and then dentists actually following those guidelines, is another non-insurance-based way to get the industry to conform to best practices. This is how much of medicine works already - for instance, the guidelines for mammography changing to start at age 40 after lots of back-and-forth about whether it was useful or not.

    12 votes

  3. Comment on In need of new bedding in ~life.style

    lexabear
    Link
    When I needed new sheets with deep pockets (to fit a fairly tall mattress + topper), I was frustrated that basically every sheet set says it has deep pockets, and had no way to figure out which...

    When I needed new sheets with deep pockets (to fit a fairly tall mattress + topper), I was frustrated that basically every sheet set says it has deep pockets, and had no way to figure out which ones were true. I found the reviews at https://www.mattressclarity.com/ helpful because they gave actual measurements, and was able to use their reviews to find a brand that was inexpensive but comfy and actually stays on my mattress.

    Their other sheet reviews may be helpful as well. I only paid attention to their Deep Pocket page, but they have lists for a few different aspects.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Learned a life-changing tip about human psychology - Any others? in ~talk

    lexabear
    Link
    Learn about the Fundamental Attribution Error. When someone else makes a mistake, humans tend to ascribe an internal issue of the person as the cause. (Person A was late to the meeting. They're...

    Learn about the Fundamental Attribution Error. When someone else makes a mistake, humans tend to ascribe an internal issue of the person as the cause. (Person A was late to the meeting. They're disrespectful of other people's time/lazy/uncaring.) When they themselves make a mistake, humans tend to ascribe an external problem as the cause. (I was late to a meeting. Traffic was really bad.)

    Monitor your own thinking for this problem. Yes, sometimes the causes of other people's mistakes are internal, but not always. Sometimes the cause of your mistake is external, but not always.

    I have to admit that once, I was driving home and really, really had to poop. I made a left on red in order to get home sooner, because it was a 20-seconds-makes-a-difference level. (Traffic was clear and it was safe, but absolutely not something I would do normally.) Most people seeing this would assume that I was just an asshole who didn't care about traffic laws.

    I use this knowledge to make sure I am not making assumptions about the cause of other people's behavior. It not only helps me be less judgemental, but also lowers my blood pressure when driving, because instead of assuming that everyone who does something wrong is an asshole with no regard for safety, and get all angry about it, I can think that maybe they just really need to poop.

    23 votes

  5. Comment on Looking for adventure(-ish) games to play alongside my 8 years old in ~games

    lexabear
    Link
    Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is a cute game where you take photos of animals and defeat an evil land developer. He could take front seat on this one.

    Alba: A Wildlife Adventure is a cute game where you take photos of animals and defeat an evil land developer. He could take front seat on this one.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on The biggest band in America in 2024 is … Creedence Clearwater Revival in ~music

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    Wasn't that kind of the whole point of the article? That there wasn't a modern re-popularity of it based on a soundtrack or meme (unlike Kate Bush, for instance), but just a staying power.

    Wasn't that kind of the whole point of the article? That there wasn't a modern re-popularity of it based on a soundtrack or meme (unlike Kate Bush, for instance), but just a staying power.

    6 votes

  7. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    lexabear
    Link
    The past week I've fallen into the Once Human rabbithole. It's a recently released survival-crafting-light horror MMO, which is usually the sort of thing I wouldn't like, but it's actually pretty...

    The past week I've fallen into the Once Human rabbithole. It's a recently released survival-crafting-light horror MMO, which is usually the sort of thing I wouldn't like, but it's actually pretty good.

    It's free to play, but is actually free to play, with only cosmetics in the mtx shop. It doesn't gate gameplay with long timers that you can pay money to shorten or do other standard tricks. I really appreciate this, because I hate how money twists game design into "make it annoying enough so that people pay money to actually play the game".

    Other good things:

    • The art direction is fantastic. The music is great. Enemy design is great and really creative (an urban horror aesthetic). I've fought monsters who are (twisted versions of) street lights, umbrellas, light bulbs, and more.
    • The gameplay loop is basic but well done: explore the area you're in, gather resources, confront the area boss, unlock the next area, repeat. You can build a base and find formulas while you're searching for resources that allow you to build decorative things.
    • The friend/Hive system works really well to allow your friends to use your base (with permissions that you can set and change at any time).

    Bad things:

    • The UI sucks donkey balls. There are fifteen million menus. About a thousand of them give various rewards, but you have to check each one to hit the 'claim' button (gotta keep that dopamine drip going). I've literally forgotten how to get to specific menu screens that I know I saw some time and it had challenges to complete for rewards but the menu system was so confusing that I couldn't find it again.
    • The enemy AI is stuck to "potato" setting and they often just stand there and let you murder them. This first season is described as "easy" so there's the possibility that later seasons will be harder?
    • Getting some base parts to build correctly is a giant PITA. Roofs and stairways in particular want to snap everywhere except where you want it to go, or sometimes inexplicably can't be built there at all for no apparent reason.
    • The way servers are capped, if you start playing, and then later your friend starts playing, it's highly likely that your server is 'full' and not allowing new players. So you can't play together with your friends. The devs have received a lot of feedback on the issue and are looking at ways to change this, but no specific solution/timeframe has been announced yet.

    I've been playing a looot over the past few days while I've had some time off and will most likely finish out the season over the next few weeks. It remains to be seen if it will hold me into the next season - it depends how different it is. I'm not sure I want to redo a lot of grind, but I'm also not sure that I don't....

  8. Comment on 'I want her to worry about who’s waiting on the corner’: How one man uses Facebook to frighten his children’s mother and why police do nothing in ~life

    lexabear
    Link
    Well clearly then people should never suffer any repercussions of their own actions, if it hurts their business. If you use an account both for business and for illegal activities, it should never...

    Meta responded by suspending all accounts connected to Berkley, which he says has hurt his business.

    Well clearly then people should never suffer any repercussions of their own actions, if it hurts their business. If you use an account both for business and for illegal activities, it should never ever be closed, because then it would hurt your business.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on The Washington Ballet's hardest dance moves in ~arts

    lexabear
    Link
    Every time I see a video like this I am re-amazed at how athletic ballet really is. Just look at their legs! Pure iron.

    Every time I see a video like this I am re-amazed at how athletic ballet really is. Just look at their legs! Pure iron.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on What was it like choosing your own name? in ~lgbt

  11. Comment on What did you do to "prepare" for your marriage? in ~life

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    Thanks for waiting for ~2 weeks for it! I need to check Tildes more regularly.

    Thanks for waiting for ~2 weeks for it! I need to check Tildes more regularly.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on What did you do to "prepare" for your marriage? in ~life

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    You've covered the giant ones, but there are others too. You're lucky that your health insurances allow non-married partners. That's uncommon since same-sex marriage was legalized. Health...

    You've covered the giant ones, but there are others too.

    You're lucky that your health insurances allow non-married partners. That's uncommon since same-sex marriage was legalized. Health insurance and joint taxes are huge benefits that most people need to be married for.

    There are a zillion smaller issues that are covered in innumerable laws that carve out protections for marriage that don't apply to long-term-committed-partnerships. Examples:

    • social security benefits
    • inheritance taxes
    • standing to sue for wrongful death
    • can't be compelled to testify against each other in court
    • assumed paternity
    • leave benefits (many employer policies or state laws allow sick or bereavement leave for kin)

    Something like court testimony or bereavement leave is usually not the reason most people decide to get married. Many laws aren't needed as long as everything is going well. It's the protections that kick in when shit hits the fan that are the important ones.

    Again, this is not to say that anybody should get married if they're not really into the idea. Just to say that it's more than a piece of paper. I also want to explicitly state that I am describing an is and not an ought - certainly, as our society marries less and relies on long-term partnerships more, we should redraw the line of who counts as "an important person in someone's life", or even take romantic-partnership-with-a-single-other-person out of it and allow anyone to designate anyone else as a "co-householder". But while we have the laws that we currently have, marriage is important for legal reasons.

    4 votes

  13. Comment on What did you do to "prepare" for your marriage? in ~life

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    I disagree fully. "Fully committed with no escape hatch" is only one way to see marriage, and if that's the way you prefer your relationships, that's fine. It's exactly the opposite for me: one of...

    I disagree fully. "Fully committed with no escape hatch" is only one way to see marriage, and if that's the way you prefer your relationships, that's fine. It's exactly the opposite for me: one of the things that helped me decide to get married was knowing that there was an escape route if the relationship no longer worked out. I don't know that I would ever get married in a state where divorce wasn't available.

    For the same reason, I have no tattoos. There is nothing that I love so much that I'm absolutely certain I would still want it on my skin when I'm 90. If there were a machine that easily and totally got rid of tattoos, then I would get a tattoo.

    Even with a prenup, divorce isn't easy. I've had friends who have gone through amicable divorces where they worked everything out as quickly as possible, and the process still sucks. There's no reason to intentionally make it suck more.

    6 votes

  14. Comment on What did you do to "prepare" for your marriage? in ~life

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    Make sure that you have considered all the legal protections that marriage offers. You can absolutely be married without having a wedding if the party doesn't appeal to you. I am also...

    Make sure that you have considered all the legal protections that marriage offers. You can absolutely be married without having a wedding if the party doesn't appeal to you. I am also non-religious and didn't want a wedding, but got married for many boring legal reasons.

    9 votes

  15. Comment on Word processing like it's 1993 in ~tech

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    Monkey Island included a "wheel o pirates" - a disc with a spinner where you combined upper/lower pirate faces to get the key to run the game. Physical DRM was both great when themed like that but...

    Monkey Island included a "wheel o pirates" - a disc with a spinner where you combined upper/lower pirate faces to get the key to run the game. Physical DRM was both great when themed like that but also a PITA, and lord help you if you lost the doohickey.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on The Steam Winter Sale has begun (Dec 21st - Jan 4th) in ~games

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    I loved West of Loathing. If you like it, Shadows of Loathing is more of the same in a different setting.

    I loved West of Loathing. If you like it, Shadows of Loathing is more of the same in a different setting.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Recommendations for medical history in ~humanities.history

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    Bedside Rounds (http://bedside-rounds.org/) is another great medical history podcast.

    Bedside Rounds (http://bedside-rounds.org/) is another great medical history podcast.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on Someone registered their phone subscription using my email in ~tech

    lexabear
    Link
    Once, a camgirl used my email address to register for some site that handled subscriptions/registration. I started getting a few emails with the subscriber's financial details (name, phone, credit...

    Once, a camgirl used my email address to register for some site that handled subscriptions/registration. I started getting a few emails with the subscriber's financial details (name, phone, credit card info). I emailed the customer service for the site and their tepid response was basically "we'll ask her to change it".

    Surprise, she didn't, and after I got another email (a bit later; it seemed like she wasn't doing huge business) I did the "executive carpet bomb" telling the high-ups that they were sending people's financial info to some rando and their customer service didn't think it was a big deal. And this site was in an EU country, so GDPR was a huge issue.

    Executive response was an immediate "We will get this taken care of." and I never got another email.

  19. Comment on How many of you wouldn't be alive if it weren't for modern medicine? in ~talk

    lexabear
    Link
    I have asthma. I enjoy breathing. These things are incompatible without modern medicine.

    I have asthma. I enjoy breathing. These things are incompatible without modern medicine.

  20. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~health.mental

    lexabear
    Link Parent
    Search for "(your area name) harm reduction" and see what orgs are working in that area.

    Search for "(your area name) harm reduction" and see what orgs are working in that area.

    6 votes