papasquat's recent activity
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Comment on Guitar Center institutes 72-hour waiting period [Satire] in ~life
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Comment on US President Donald Trump isn't building a ballroom in ~society
papasquat Link ParentPhysical proximity to a data center is basically irrelevant. The whole point of data centers is that they're places that information is processed. Information is very easy to move long distances....Physical proximity to a data center is basically irrelevant. The whole point of data centers is that they're places that information is processed. Information is very easy to move long distances. There's no reason why a data center in VA or Maryland wouldnt be able to be every bit as connected to the president as one 150 feet underneath him.
It's a really nonsensical place to build one.
Upgrading and enhancing a command bunker? Sure. Building a massive data center? Pretty silly.
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Comment on Star Wars shake-up: Kathleen Kennedy steps down as George Lucas protégé Dave Filoni, exec Lynwen Brennan take over Lucasfilm in ~movies
papasquat Link ParentI meannnnn... Technically they already did that. It was called Deep Space Nine and it was incredible. The main issue is that Alex Kurtzman doesn't have a shred of the talent that Ronald D Moore does.I meannnnn... Technically they already did that. It was called Deep Space Nine and it was incredible.
The main issue is that Alex Kurtzman doesn't have a shred of the talent that Ronald D Moore does.
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Comment on Star Wars shake-up: Kathleen Kennedy steps down as George Lucas protégé Dave Filoni, exec Lynwen Brennan take over Lucasfilm in ~movies
papasquat Link ParentOn the one hand, sure, Star Wars takes place in a big galaxy with lots of other things going on. On the other hand though, so does literally every other piece of fiction. You could make a Star...On the one hand, sure, Star Wars takes place in a big galaxy with lots of other things going on. On the other hand though, so does literally every other piece of fiction.
You could make a Star Wars movie that takes place on some planet that doesn't know about space travel or light sabers, and they just drive cars to work and it's about some guy's struggling with his marriage or something, but why would you? What would be the point of that being a Star Wars movie?
You could make a Jurassic Park movie that's just a spy thriller about genetic research that Biosyn is doing, and it takes place in the Jurassic Park universe. What would be the point though? Everyone would just say "why is this a Jurassic Park movie if there aren't any dinosaurs".
Jurassic Park is about dinosaurs in a similar way that star wars is about light sabers and space battles. It's in the title.The whole reason the IP is valuable and identifiable is because of light sabers, Darth Vader, x-wings, Jedi, and so on. If you're not including those things, is it really a star wars movie? Or is it just some random sci fi movie with Star wars slapped on the title?
From an artistic perspective, if you're going to make a movie that doesn't have to do with any of the things above, why even call that movie star wars, and not just make a different movie? The setting isn't interesting or unique because it takes place in space and people have laser guns. There are literally tens of thousands of settings like that.
It's interesting, at least in theory, because of the Star Wars stuff.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentI would say compared to the northeast, yes. Compared to a lot of places I've been internationally? Probably not. Living in southern Italy would make me lose my mind, because based on what I saw...Is tardiness generally very well tolerated in southern culture?
I would say compared to the northeast, yes. Compared to a lot of places I've been internationally? Probably not. Living in southern Italy would make me lose my mind, because based on what I saw when I was there, everyone apparently uses clocks as subtle suggestions.
If you're late to a meeting in the south for most places, no one is really going to mind, they'll just shoot the shit for a few minutes. If you do it every single meeting, they might start getting annoyed.
I was a business partner with a guy I knew down here for a few years, and I had to bow out because I couldn't deal with the way he handled customers. He'd miss a call or a meeting or forget to get back to people, and it would be like "oh that's Jim though, he's cool. We go way back, not a big deal".
Even if it was true in some cases it drove me up the wall.
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Comment on Why we are excited about confessions in ~tech
papasquat LinkIt's interesting to me that this research is so high level (from an abstraction standpoint) that it feels more like psychology than information science. Like, the "research" here doesnt consist of...It's interesting to me that this research is so high level (from an abstraction standpoint) that it feels more like psychology than information science.
Like, the "research" here doesnt consist of mathematical proofs or fundemental information theory conjectures, but of trying different techniques that wouldn't be too unfamiliar to a psychotherapist to elicit a machine to not lie.
I wonder if psychology proper eventually has a bleed over into AI research one day. The types of "minds" you're dealing with are very fundementaly different, but the techniques being used are more or less cognitive behavior therapy for machines.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentTerms of service are rarely going to let a company sue a user for damages. They're usually more like just policy acknowledgement to shield the company from being sued for deleting someone's...Terms of service are rarely going to let a company sue a user for damages. They're usually more like just policy acknowledgement to shield the company from being sued for deleting someone's account.
I don't know of any current legal mechanism that would prevent a company from deleting your account on your platform though.
Suppose GrapheneOS manages to create a perfect iOS sandbox to run iOS apps alongside Android apps. Would Apple be able to shift the entirety of their ecosystem quickly enough and frequently enough to keep ahead of it without fracturing their app store advantage
I think they would, yeah. They have the advantage of the fact that they control both the service and the endpoints. They can rapidly push changes to obfuscate the communication between both, and it becomes more or less seamless to the users. They just get an OS update pushed to them.
I think it's pretty telling that no third parties have been able to create a perfect ios sandbox as of yet, despite there being a strong financial incentive to do so.
The third parties are stuck reverse engineering the new protocol changes which takes a while, and in the mean time, all of the users of the third party apps are dead in the water.
It was a lot more feasible in the 90s and early 2000s when strong encryption and mature obfuscation techniques were less proliferated.
Making a third party app used to be as simple as sniffing the traffic from a client and then building a piece of software to emulate that traffic.
Big tech companies have a lot more tools in their toolbox to lock their services down now though.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentEh, yeah it would be a little strange if a friend gave me money for something like that. I've taken friends out to dinner as a thank you for stuff, but generally they just know that I'd do the...Eh, yeah it would be a little strange if a friend gave me money for something like that. I've taken friends out to dinner as a thank you for stuff, but generally they just know that I'd do the same for them if they ask, so we don't worry about balancing anything out.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentIf it was your friend you were doing a favor for, yeah, it would be weird in the US to leave you money. You weren't this lady's friend though. You were her customer, and she asked you to do work...If it was your friend you were doing a favor for, yeah, it would be weird in the US to leave you money.
You weren't this lady's friend though. You were her customer, and she asked you to do work for her. It was already transactional, since you're already paying her to stay at her house.
I understand completely why she did it. She felt that because of her own poor planning, she had to impose herself to ask a paying customer to do something for her. She would have felt guilty if she didn't compensate you, because in her mind she thought you might have felt a little put on by her asking you to do free work for her. The money is a way for her to acknowledge that she imposed a little by asking you, and to make up for it.
Totally within the realm of normalcy, at least in the US.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentI cannot STAND this fact about southern culture in the US. I don't mind striking up conversations. I like talking to strangers, it makes my day more interesting. I always say hi to people on the...It was considered perfectly normal to chatter the whole way to the front and then hold up a whole restaurant of people to chat with the clerk and then decide what you want.
I cannot STAND this fact about southern culture in the US. I don't mind striking up conversations. I like talking to strangers, it makes my day more interesting. I always say hi to people on the street, wave at people in my neighborhood, and exchange pleasantries in elevators. But good God when I want to just get some food on my lunch break and the person at the front of the line is just talking about the weather, or the football game or whatever, I want to just gouge my eyes out.
It's one of the things that my wife says came from growing up in NY. It wouldn't be uncommon at all up there for someone to shout "hey, you got people waiting here, let's go". It would be absolutely unheard of anywhere in the south though. No one would dare, and I definitely wouldn't either. It's a daily frustration for me though.
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Comment on What's a culture shock that you experienced? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentI don't know that southern hospitality is necessarily passive aggressive asshole. I think a lot of people in the south genuinely are very nice and interested in their neighbors. They can also be...I don't know that southern hospitality is necessarily passive aggressive asshole. I think a lot of people in the south genuinely are very nice and interested in their neighbors.
They can also be very judgemental, but that's true anywhere.
I grew up in New York and moved to the south as a teenager, and I haven't seen a major difference in how judgemental, mean, racist, or close minded the sort of stereotypical salt of the earth types with thick accents from both areas are.
The major difference to me is that the typical guy like that from New York is a lot louder about it. Most of the good ol boys from the south I've been around will be polite to strangers, call them ma'am/sir, and not instigate conflict. The guys like that from New York... Not so much.
Even a lot of my friends that still live in NY will say stuff in public to random strangers where I'm like "what the fuck is wrong with you? Someone is going to actually pull out a gun and kill you one day".
Both groups can and do strike up conversations with strangers all the time though, and constantly make little "five minute friends" from waiting in line or whatever.
I haven't spent much time on the west coast so maybe it's not quite like that there.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentWell... not really. It's not enough to legalize interoperability (afiak, it's not currently illegal in most places, if you could figure out how, there's no real legal mechanism for WhatsApp to...Well... not really. It's not enough to legalize interoperability (afiak, it's not currently illegal in most places, if you could figure out how, there's no real legal mechanism for WhatsApp to stop you from interacting with their API).
You'd have to mandate interoperability. There are technical barriers to interacting with an API that a company doesn't want you to interact with.
There are authentication mechanisms built into all of these apps that make it very difficult or impossible to use them outside of that app. Once a particular method is found, it's also not too difficult for the company to change the API and their clients simultaneously to stop it. So it's and endless game of wack a mole that becomes a horrible experience for the third party app users.
Using a third party app also violates their terms of service, so even if you do figure out how to reverse engineer it, you're risking your account being banned by doing so. That's not a legal mechanism, that's the company actively tamping down on uncontrolled usage.
The only way you prevent that is by forcing companies to interoperate, and punishing the ones that seek to make it difficult.
Easier said than done and there's a lot of political lobbying that you'd have to overcome from big tech companies to make it happen.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentI originally was jealous that other countries used third party messengers for everything while the defacto standard in the US was still SMS. The more I think about it, the more I actually would...I originally was jealous that other countries used third party messengers for everything while the defacto standard in the US was still SMS. The more I think about it, the more I actually would rather just use SMS (or RCS, where supported) than be forced by social pressure to put a meta app on my phone.
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Comment on Is it possible to live without WhatsApp? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentIt's really annoying to me whenever some sort of institution forces the usage of a proprietary product on my personal devices. SMS or email doesn't bother me since it's a standard that any vendor...It's really annoying to me whenever some sort of institution forces the usage of a proprietary product on my personal devices.
SMS or email doesn't bother me since it's a standard that any vendor can interact with, and I can use the SMS or email client of my choice, but forcing me to use whatsapp to do business with you feels cheap and unprofessional on top of being annoying.
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Comment on Scott Adams dead: Dilbert creator was 68 in ~comics
papasquat Link ParentDumb stuff like prioritizing things that make money right now versus things that may help your small slice of the pie long term. Or enabling some new AI tool that hasn't been properly vetted, or...Dumb stuff like prioritizing things that make money right now versus things that may help your small slice of the pie long term. Or enabling some new AI tool that hasn't been properly vetted, or shifting priorities in a project last minute.
An example from my job recently is that we were evaluating new vulnerability management tools recently. The engineer in charge of evaluating them liked this very big, fancy, expensive option that would do a great job and make our life a lot easier. When we got the quote, it so massively expensive that it would have been one of the most expensive pieces of software my organization buys. The proposal predictably got shot down.
The engineer raged about it, shouting and whining about how the organization doesn't take security seriously, and how are we supposed to protect the environment with substandard tools, and how management is so short sighted.
We have a limited budget to get a lot of things achieved though, so even though that's not the decision I wanted, I still understand it and it makes sense. We have servers to buy, firewalls to license, other security software we need to pay for, developers that need to be paid and on and on and on. Yes, vulnerability management is important, but so are about a thousand other things. It's very common that engineers can't, or more likely refuse to see outside of their very limited silo and understand that their organization exists to make money or achieve some goal that isn't "create the most efficient motor of all time" or "have an impenetrable network" or whatever else it was they were hired to do.
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Comment on Scott Adams dead: Dilbert creator was 68 in ~comics
papasquat Link ParentDilbert was alright, and I really identified with it as a teen and a young working adult. It represents the attitudes and ideas of a lot of people, especially young people working in STEM fields...- Exemplary
Dilbert was alright, and I really identified with it as a teen and a young working adult. It represents the attitudes and ideas of a lot of people, especially young people working in STEM fields have.
As I got older and more exposed to the reality of the reasons behind a lot of management decisions, the comics started seeming a bit sillier, short sighted, and ignorant at times.
There's definitely a type of person in most offices that strongly identifies with Dilbert. They're usually male, usually engineers or programmers or some other technical role, and they usually think they're the smartest person in the room despite any evidence to the contrary. They usually have opinions that basically boil down to "all of my bosses are idiots with no common sense, and if they let me run this company we wouldn't have to do any of this dumb stuff". They also have no real interest in learning any of the reasons behind why they're being told to do the dumb stuff.
As I've gotten more experience, I've become less and less patient with people like that, and think back to when I was a person like that at times and cringe a bit.
Reading Dilbert nowadays makes me feel many of the same emotions.
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Comment on Concerning YouTube short I came across in ~society
papasquat LinkMy first instinct is: are all of the commenters on that video being fooled by AI, or are you? That is, how many of those comments represent real people, and how many of them are just bots farming...My first instinct is: are all of the commenters on that video being fooled by AI, or are you?
That is, how many of those comments represent real people, and how many of them are just bots farming engagement?
It's nearly impossible to tell, and the kind of person willing to post blatant lies in an attempt to mislead people for money is exactly the kind of person to also pump their engagement with bot farms.
That's not to say this stuff isn't concerning, but the entire Internet is rapidly becoming a series of bots interacting with each other.
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Comment on What’s a point that you think many people missed? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentThis really pissed me off about the Wolf of Wallstreet. People are always very quick to defend Scorsase for glamorizing Jordan Belfort's crimes with "yeah but in the end he got divorced and went...This really pissed me off about the Wolf of Wallstreet. People are always very quick to defend Scorsase for glamorizing Jordan Belfort's crimes with "yeah but in the end he got divorced and went to jail and lost everything".
Yeah, in the last 15 minutes of a 3 hour movie that just spent most of the time hammering us over the head with how cool and badass belfort is and how fun his life is.
And now, Jordan Belfort gets to capitalize on his fame from the movie to pull in 80k speaking fees and run new scams while showing no real accountability or remorse while being idolized by a new generation of omega pilled hustle culture wannabees.
Way to go everyone!
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Comment on ‘Sell America’ returns to Wall Street after Donald Trump ups the ante against Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve in ~society
papasquat LinkThe crazy thing is that Powell's term ends in four months. This isn't even about applying political pressure to get him to follow the President's will. It's just vindictiveness for being unwilling...The crazy thing is that Powell's term ends in four months. This isn't even about applying political pressure to get him to follow the President's will.
It's just vindictiveness for being unwilling to bend the knee.
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Comment on What’s a point that you think many people missed? in ~talk
Those laws were written when lutes were state of the art technology that armies used to rock out with though! Now, the government has access to massive line array amps and high powered real time audio processors. We need access to fat amps and nasty distortion pedals to prevent government tyranny.