nacho's recent activity
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Comment on Study shock! AI hinders productivity and makes working worse. in ~tech
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Comment on Brazilian rancher ordered to pay $50m for damage to Amazon in ~enviro
nacho Link ParentI don't follow? Reforestation works. It just takes a lot of years to have things return, sometimes decades or longer. What am I missing?I don't follow?
Reforestation works. It just takes a lot of years to have things return, sometimes decades or longer.
What am I missing?
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Comment on Study shock! AI hinders productivity and makes working worse. in ~tech
nacho Link ParentLLMs as writing tools and aids in summarizing/going through large amounts of text are incredible, extremely time-saving and close to error-free. It's prompting that people can't do right. If you...LLMs as writing tools and aids in summarizing/going through large amounts of text are incredible, extremely time-saving and close to error-free.
It's prompting that people can't do right. If you ask an LLM to output parts of a text, what page numbers to find things you're looking for, or provide references for their assertions and the like, you have extremely powerful tools. You can easily verify that the output is sound, or evaluate whether or not to spend time on something yourself.
LLMs are hugely useful to a ton of different groups, but for language-related things, not for all sorts of other tasks where the hallucination issues etc. make themselves prominent.
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Comment on Top-flight match in Norway abandoned when fans staged protest against the use of video assistant referees by throwing fishcakes, tennis balls and smoke bombs on the pitch in ~sports.football
nacho LinkWhy fishcakes? Hilariously, Norwegian media are reporting (using anonymous sources) that there was a middle school-esque plan that cooked up the use of fishcakes in the protest: How to create...Why fishcakes?
Hilariously, Norwegian media are reporting (using anonymous sources) that there was a middle school-esque plan that cooked up the use of fishcakes in the protest:
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How to create noise and difficulties with protests using something permitted in the stands?
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Why not try to attract seagulls, usually found in the area around the stadium?
And so all these hardcore fans bought and cooked fish cakes to attract seagulls. The only issue was that they didn't show up. Foiled again!
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Comment on US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election in ~news
nacho Link ParentExactly this. Many said he was too old 4 years ago, and the line was that the Democrats would have plenty of time to build national profiles who could take over and energize the party. Everyone...Exactly this.
Many said he was too old 4 years ago, and the line was that the Democrats would have plenty of time to build national profiles who could take over and energize the party.
Everyone saw this coming and the folks in the positions just.... didn't do anything?
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Comment on US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election in ~news
nacho Link ParentAlso: campaigning to reach women. If the Democrats pull a rabbit out of the hat and manage to make the election about the issues, they'll win. I don't see how they could possibly manage that...Also: campaigning to reach women.
If the Democrats pull a rabbit out of the hat and manage to make the election about the issues, they'll win. I don't see how they could possibly manage that though
That's how Trump'll show he's completely unfit. He never could discuss policy and his policy is losing. As you say, if he can't ramble, he's entirely lost.
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Comment on US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election in ~news
nacho Link ParentHe pretty much did in a follow-up message:He pretty much did in a follow-up message:
My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best
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Comment on US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election in ~news
nacho Link ParentIn this situation? Possibly. The own goal was the Democrats ending in this situation, especially after fumbling in very much the same way with Hillary to get Trump elected in the first place. DNC...In this situation? Possibly.
The own goal was the Democrats ending in this situation, especially after fumbling in very much the same way with Hillary to get Trump elected in the first place.
DNC doing DNC things. Hopefully there are consequences this time around. When you do the same thing twice due to hubris, you have to learn.
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Comment on US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election in ~news
nacho Link ParentI will be extremely surprised if the election wasn't just given to the Republicans. The whole idea of the primary system and dates is so that whoever becomes the candidate has an actual chance of...I will be extremely surprised if the election wasn't just given to the Republicans.
The whole idea of the primary system and dates is so that whoever becomes the candidate has an actual chance of running a campaign. This is just too late.
(Yes, the Democrats didn't run a real primary. That's their fault, but everyone pays.)
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Comment on How to get into photography? in ~hobbies
nacho Link ParentBlack and white images are just extremely, incredibly much harder to get right than color pictures. Aficionados will disagree with me here, but most people alive today won't get the same emotional...Black and white images are just extremely, incredibly much harder to get right than color pictures.
Aficionados will disagree with me here, but most people alive today won't get the same emotional responses as with color images when they view things that are black and white.
Black and white images portray very strong emotions to most people today. That means the emotional range you can convey become pretty limited.
Black and white pictures generally need to be composed with a lot more focus on a single subject matter because they're way more difficult to balance as they just have less information. They require a clarity of image that is hard.
All this makes black and white images great to learn from if you're getting advanced: Otherwise most will end up frustrated with images either because they can't enjoy them for themselves because they don't turn out as the photographer wanted.
Or they end up frustrated as others don't respond as strongly/well to great black and white images and just a mobile snap of their cute pet/relative whatever.
My experience is that people will almost always be more satisfied with the color versions of their pictures before grayscaling them. If you shoot black and white, you don't have the option and decades in the future you won't remember the colors and you're left with lesser memories that don't let you remember the smells, fellings, sounds etc. the same way because you memory just isn't refreshed as strongly.
Again, photography is mostly about preference. Black and white could be totally right for you.
Just like you say, for many people it's good to know why so many get frustrated with black and white so one makes a conscious choice.
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Comment on Do you get bored? in ~talk
nacho LinkI cherish getting bored. It means I'm done processing the thoughts in my head sufficiently. I deliberately will drive without listening to something. I will go for a run without listening to...I cherish getting bored. It means I'm done processing the thoughts in my head sufficiently.
I deliberately will drive without listening to something. I will go for a run without listening to something, or work out without doing something, I'll do chores and else at the same time.
I don't want to lose the ability to do one thing at a time, to concentrate on one thing for a long period of time.
It's not often I get bored, because I can still entertain myself without outside stimulus. I don't always need to be entertained.
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Comment on How to get into photography? in ~hobbies
nacho Link ParentThese are great! You're off to an awesome start! You'll do excellently with the Minolta 75-300. Now I wouldn't worry about gear unless you want to delve deep and spend a lot more money sometime in...These are great! You're off to an awesome start! You'll do excellently with the Minolta 75-300. Now I wouldn't worry about gear unless you want to delve deep and spend a lot more money sometime in the future.
I've seen the raw, unedited photorolls of several professional photographers. When shooting manually, they all also have lots of pictures that are out of focus. It depends on shooting style, but some have way more shots out of focus than in focus.
The key is just to shoot a ton. If the light is not so bright, I'd recommend checking the screen and zooming in to see if you're in focus right then and there. If that's not possible due to glare, take some you think are in focus and some slightly out of focus in each direction.
With a lens adapter, you lose some light that never reaches the camera sensor (Simplified: all your pictures risk becoming darker). That doesn't matter much in most settings, but it means that you'll generally have to lighten up most of your shots when you edit them.
To me, I think several of your shots would pop even more if they were brighter (slightly more exposure).
You've nailed close-ups and shots with the subject in the center of the image. I especially like the picture of the heron(?) in the nest. It feels more lively because of lines in the picture:
- The bird looks into the frame drawing attention toward the other birds.
- The beak points inwards
- The line from the left nest edge goes straight through the upright bird
Playing around with not everything being in the center (at least after you've cropped the images later) could be one direction to experiment further in.
Other than that, find subject matters you want to shoot and just keep doing what you're doing!
You might not want to share them online, but the pictures I think most people cherish are ones with the people in their lives in various ways.You could also try landscapes or cityscapes if that's something you've got an interest in. You're nailing animals. That's a lot of fun! You also learn a ton from them because they move and don't always do what one expects. Photographer beware!
Images with a foreground, middle ground and background can often feel more "complete" in a way. It's also a lot harder because they involve moving your feet more around to line those three elements up in your composition as you want them.
For the pictures of the dog laying down, I think I would have moved the camera even closer to the ground (if the subject wasn't about to run away after I'd ensured I had at least some shots on the memory card). That way you'd be even more on the dog's level, which gives a different feel to the image. We generally always get close to things if we're on their eye-level rather than looking slightly up at or down at.
This way the grass would take up more of the lower portion of the picture, the dog would take up more of the middle third and you'd have more control of whether you wanted the flowers, fence, bushes or sky in what parts of the background of the image.
Nothing in photography follows set rules. Like with your duck: Slightly looking down at it doesn't make it feel any less personal. It also looks by the upper right hand corner like if you'd moved the camera even further down, the background could have become pretty dark. Here you also just have to snap when the subject is as emotive as it is. A great result in any case!
All these last things are a matter of opinion and choices to make! You do you. Again, photographers will disagree on almost everything because they have different visions, different theories, strategies and processes of shooting. I've tried to generalize some things that probably work for most and shouldn't be very controversial.
Just do what you want, and ask/search/look up whatever you want to do more with or that you don't feel you're getting quite right. Looking at pictures can give inspiration (just stay away from black and white). Some websites/blogs etc. also have "photo challenges" of various sorts to try to guide experimentation. Some folks love that, others don't enjoy it. Looking through and getting more photographic input can lead to inspiration or kill it, depending.
If you keep clicking that shutter button and editing the images after, you're going to keep having fun!
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Comment on Joe Biden's path to US re-election has all but vanished (gifted link) in ~misc
nacho Link ParentNPR suggests otherwise today: See other thread I'm always skeptical of polling. The amount of corrections needed are so large it's getting very finicky. Polls far out from actual elections also...NPR suggests otherwise today: See other thread
I'm always skeptical of polling. The amount of corrections needed are so large it's getting very finicky. Polls far out from actual elections also have limited value as so many voters say they decide to vote and who to vote for very close to election day.
There's a whole lot of time for politics before the 5th of November.
Giving up now is certainly not what any party should do. What's the line for best results come election day? I don't know. Loads of internal party strife while Trump gets to sit and do nothing surely isn't ideal in any case.
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Comment on A philosophical commentary on the ethics of prisons in ~humanities
nacho LinkPhilosophically, I don't think Rawls got it right, but I also don't think he got it wrong: It's not so much: There could be no just society if lawbreakers were allowed to go unpunished, he argued,...Philosophically, I don't think Rawls got it right, but I also don't think he got it wrong:
It's not so much:
- There could be no just society if lawbreakers were allowed to go unpunished, he argued, since it is a prerequisite of a just society that every citizen should be held responsible for their conduct.
As it is:
- There could be no just society if lawbreakers were allowed to go unpunished, since it is a prerequisite of a functioning society that society punishes those who break its norms to decentivize that norm-breaking (and so society dispences justice, not individuals who take matters into their own hands).
In that way, punishment for crime becomes not so much about punishment as deterrence.
But punishment is still about deterrence: if those who have had their loved one murdered do not feel retribution, what are the moral consequences for how they should act? What moral calculus should they run to see whether they should take things into their own hands?
I completely agree with many of the aims of the prison abolition movement, but abolishing prison as punishment is wrong.
Yes, society has failed those who're most typically the ones that are incarcerated for crimes. A number of people who have the exact same upbringings do not resort to crime.
Society has strong moral responsibilities for addressing crime from all different facets: to compensate those who're harmed by crime, to hold criminals to account, to protect society from future crime, to treat those who're judged to punishment fairly.
Part of that last bit concerns what should happen during punishment: Incarceration, the loss of freedom in itself is a strong punishment. There are many situations where force is not justified. Force can clearly be justified in cases of criminal incarceration, also to force those who don't want to change the course of their lives to do so:
- Forced decoupling from social environments that hurt them
- Forced mental treatment
- Forced removal from alcohol/drugs/other addictions
- Forced education or other skill training that is rehabilitation.
For many, prison that demands participation in rehabilitation programs will be way more invasive and punishing than the incarceration many parts of the prison abolition movement wants to get rid of. The case for rehabilitation to reduce recidivism, for the sake of society and those who struggle in their own lives seems compelling. Morally speaking, not just in terms of social economy or other civics.
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Comment on How to get into photography? in ~hobbies
nacho Link ParentI think that's exactly right. Anyone can take spectacular photos with a modern phone. They way to do it is to click the button to take many pictures, and to position yourself so those pictures are...Would it be fair to say that for a complete amateur (me), learning composition basics is step one (i.e. no amount of technique will correct bad composition)?
I think that's exactly right. Anyone can take spectacular photos with a modern phone.
They way to do it is to click the button to take many pictures, and to position yourself so those pictures are interesting. The only other thing that matters is getting what you're taking a picture of in focus.
That doesn't mean using the zoom, it means walking to the right spot to take the picture, bending my knees, raising and lowering my hands etc. It means getting eye-height with that toddler you want to take a picture of, walking ten paces forwards so the house and view in the background are right.
Then the other main thing to get interesting pictures is adjusting the pictures in software afterwards. Cropping them, adjusting them if one didn't hold the camera/phone completely level etc. Adjusting light/shade/colors/contrast if you're getting fancy.
All other bells and whistles, techniques etc. that the algorithms in digital cameras don't automatically solve for you, are for later.
The hard part of photography is seeing what's worth taking a picture of and how to get the most out of that situation (hence all the tips in the comment above).
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Comment on How to get into photography? in ~hobbies
nacho LinkBased on your level of experience, I'm going to recommend exactly the opposite of what people are saying in this thread. Most photo recommendations are simply way too advanced and involved for...- Exemplary
Based on your level of experience, I'm going to recommend exactly the opposite of what people are saying in this thread. Most photo recommendations are simply way too advanced and involved for what people starting out actually need.
- Just shoot on automatic. That's more than good enough with any camera that's better than a smart phone. The cameras do the work for almost everyone.
If you end up loving photography as a hobby, you can always dig way, way deeper. Learn the stuff about the camera you need to solve tasks you want to solve with specific shots you want to take. Don't start out being a tech nerd; your interest will die quickly. With good modern mirrorless cameras, plenty of professional photographers shoot action settings where lighting/directions etc. change on automatic. They use autofocus-modes. That's how you get the best pictures when the motif is there for a fraction o fa setting. Always shooting on manual, or some select mode is a form of snobbery. Exceptions are when conditions are difficult and you need to instruct the camera on what expression you want: Do you want something super sharp, blurry, a dark silhouette or a sky/background that's all white, or something in between.
- Don't shoot raw. If you absolutely want raw files to process later, then be sure you have jpegs so you get images out of your shoots with minimal effort. That's the only way to learn quickly.
Again, if you end up delving deep into photography, you'll get to a point where you need raw files to get every detail and dream out of each shot. Starting out, lightroom or any other processor program will be more than good enough for you.
Again, the idea starting out is getting great images you can share and be proud of, not to get stuck in a processing time-sink.
- Just take a ton of pictures. Every time you shoot, go far, go close, look at angles, look at background. Every setting you're in, you should be taking 50+ different pictures starting out so you get the hang of things.
It's by taking and looking at pictures you learn, not by sitting down to learn about apertures, iso, manual settings etc. That's a distraction for all settings where anything is moving (and pretty much all settings with motion are going to be more interesting than just landscapes/still settings anyway).
Having an eye for what's worth taking a picture of and not is everything.
- Focus entirely on getting the subject matter in your shots in focus. That's all that matters. That and not having massively over-exposed or under-exposed pictures. Your automatic settings will take care of that last part.
Then branch out and look at composition: What is going to be in the background of your shot. How d you want to place the subject, the foreground, the background. The easiest way of doing that is looking at pictures you've taken and seeing what you regret not doing when you were shooting. That and just looking at a ton of pictures online different places. That's how you learn composition: Not by reading or looking at some course.
- Get a superzoom-lens. Something cheap. Here's a list of options. Ask for help if you don't know what you need.
You want a single lens that lets you take a ton of different pictures, something that's flexible. You don't need to worry too much about how much light they take in: starting out difficult environments aren't where you'll be shooting anyway.
Start stupid simple. See if photography is something for you. Get results you can share and be happy about.
Then learn different things, features, theory etc. one by one when you actually need them.
Photography is littered with people who have super strong opinions about things that don't matter in the large scheme of things. They'll present as facts things that are matters of opinion. They'll say their way is the only way. They'll spend hours and hours and hours and not have a single picture to show for it because the hobby is the gear, not taking pictures.
You find what photography should be for you, what parts of it you enjoy. To do that, you need to just start taking a lot of pictures and seeing what part entices you.
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Comment on Norwegian and or European salary expectations? in ~life
nacho Link ParentLinked-in is prevalent in some sectors, including tech and start-ups. A high proportion of jobs in the Norwegian private sector are never listed anywhere and require networking. By far the two...Linked-in is prevalent in some sectors, including tech and start-ups. A high proportion of jobs in the Norwegian private sector are never listed anywhere and require networking.
By far the two largest recruitment sites are the government-run Nav.no job listings: https://arbeidsplassen.nav.no/stillinger
And the finn.no job listings (this site also has a close on monopoly for house listings): https://www.finn.no/job/browse.html
Recruiting agencies and headhunting firms are extremely hit and miss due to the network-based nature of recruitment in the country. I'd say that's a huge waste of your time, considering your situation and field.
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Comment on Julian Assange has reached a plea deal with the US, allowing him to go free in ~news
nacho Link ParentAt first, Wikileaks did good things. Then they did many, many bad things over many years. see this thread for more I think the largest loss in all of this is that we don't get to see evidence in...At first, Wikileaks did good things. Then they did many, many bad things over many years. see this thread for more
I think the largest loss in all of this is that we don't get to see evidence in court. Was Assange unfairly hounded? Dunno. He'll keep claiming it for sure.
What was Assange guilty of? What specifics did the case concern? Was this an attack on the press? Dunno. We'll never know since it isn't going to court.
Snowden and Assange have clearly, clearly served Russian interests (just ignore anyone who says otherwise. They're gaslighting you or haven't been paying attention). Have they been manipulated or been useful idiots, or have they actually been spies? That's a lot harder to get substantive about.
It'd be strange not to build animosity to the US when you're at the wrong end of the US apparatus and big stick.
All in all, the compromise here seems pretty reasonable. Assange has had a large part of his life ruined in what amounts to incarceration/punishment in one form or another.
It's hard to tell who's getting a good deal or not though.
For those who sincerely believe a spy who's endangered assets and thousands of people by doxxing them for no reason, I totally understand drawing different conclusions and being upset.
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Comment on I will fucking piledrive you if you mention AI again in ~comp
nacho Link ParentI make a point of not using AI-tooling to write in my personal life. In the "use it or lose it"-perspective, I think it's important to retain practice with how to write, proof read, organize...I make a point of not using AI-tooling to write in my personal life. In the "use it or lose it"-perspective, I think it's important to retain practice with how to write, proof read, organize thoughts and so on. Writing is an important tool for reflecting, learning and developing thoughts fully that meander around inside the mind, but may not be caught or stand up when you try to spell them out.
You're also totally right though: If I were to use a general assistant, the experience would be bad.
I could use company software, but it's not specifically trained for this type of content, so it'd be way worse than it is for work-related stuff. I'm sure it'd still be very useful, particularly linking up sources and documents relating to this topic, news articles and so on, but also to cut down the length of prose substantially.
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Comment on I will fucking piledrive you if you mention AI again in ~comp
nacho Link ParentYou're totally right. Again, because of competitive advantages, few companies are being loud and proud about this. Companies like IBM have lots and lots of agreements where they support these...You're totally right.
Again, because of competitive advantages, few companies are being loud and proud about this.
Companies like IBM have lots and lots of agreements where they support these types of pragmatic, practical initiatives with individual companies. Just as one example.
All the hype and attention is going to the bells and whistles, not the huge, boring changes that are affecting millions of workers.
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