papasquat's recent activity
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Comment on The tech baron seeking to “ethnically cleanse” San Francisco in ~life
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Comment on Reddit, AI spam bots explore new ways to show ads in your feed in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentI've often thought that just including an extra surcharge onto internet service that then gets distributed to website owners via some metrics that are somewhat resistant to being gamed (page views...I've often thought that just including an extra surcharge onto internet service that then gets distributed to website owners via some metrics that are somewhat resistant to being gamed (page views is the obvious, but really really bad one that comes to mind) would be a much better way of handling the problem.
I really can't stand advertising and the incentives it causes, but the internet being free really causes a lot of free rider problems for websites who operate as a business and post content that's expensive to produce.
It's one of the quirks of how internet culture came into being that the vast majority of people are not at all willing to directly pay for content of any kind on the internet, while at the same time being completely fine with paying for a book, movie, or video game. I don't think there's a really great way to change that culture; sites that operate on a subscription model generally don't do well, no matter how good their content is.
A toll to get into the Internet that then gets distributed based on how useful the sites are to people is the best way I can think of solving it.
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Comment on Reddit, AI spam bots explore new ways to show ads in your feed in ~tech
papasquat LinkIt's really disgusting to see once organic spaces that persued profit only to a minimal amount to cover their overhead turned into horrible characatures of themselves via pure, blatant greed....It's really disgusting to see once organic spaces that persued profit only to a minimal amount to cover their overhead turned into horrible characatures of themselves via pure, blatant greed. Reddits only goal for the last few years seems to have been making as much money as humanly possible at all costs.
It used to provide a real service to its users, but now it's just an engine to give its shareholders as much profit as possible by extracting as much residual goodwill as possible from the work of hundreds of millions of users posting useful information for free.
There's nothing unique about reddit as a platform that makes its userbase any more lucrative to advertisers, save for the fact that it didn't used to be a place designed to appeal to advertisers. Once more people realize that it is, just like every other large online platform, all of that goodwill will dry up, and reddit will no longer feel like a trusted place to get information for most people. At that point it will cease being a lucrative place for advertisers, and they'll leave. Then what will the site have left? We're just watching slow motion website suicide.
I hate how virtually the entire Internet has become this. It makes me really sad and diminishes my faith in the average human.
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentI don't know why it would have access to US government officials data. It's already banned on US government phones. And yeah, maybe it is tied to a foreign influence operation, but the US is...I don't know why it would have access to US government officials data. It's already banned on US government phones.
And yeah, maybe it is tied to a foreign influence operation, but the US is ostensibly a free country, and that means that its people are generally allowed to use products made by whoever they want. We don't block rt.com to prevent Americans from being influenced by dangerous Russian ideas, we don't stop people from watching Al Jazeera to prevent Quatari influence in the US, and we shouldn't block free citizens from using an app they choose to engage with. It's a dangerous path to go down when US approved media and platforms are the only ones Americans are legally allowed to interact with, with nebulous security concerns and hypotheticals as justifications. I think most lawmakers would agree on the face with that statement.
On the other hand though, the US gov is not exactly shy about protectionism when it comes to China. We already have heavy tarriffs on many Chinese imports. It's not a coincidence that China's one major export that can't effectively be tariffed is instead functionally banned.
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Comment on US Congress approves bill banning TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells platform in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentThat's a much more convoluted view than what's really happening. As the poster below notes, this bill has broad bipartisan support, Zuck isn't really a conservative, and Google, a company that...That's a much more convoluted view than what's really happening. As the poster below notes, this bill has broad bipartisan support, Zuck isn't really a conservative, and Google, a company that most people regard as left of center, owns one of the major competitors to tiktok.
The real reason is just good old fashioned protectionism. US companies don't want domestic dollars going to foreign platforms, and they've spent a ton of money to try to get the US government to step in on behalf of their profits, which they've done. No one with deep pockets is going to stand up for tiktok except bytedance, and because bytedance can't vote and is legally severely limited in how much they can influence American politics, this is the result.
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Comment on Instagram's Nudify [non-consensual fake nude photo generator] ads in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentThis is genuinely one of those things that makes me feel like I'm from another planet, or have some sort of mental illness or something, because I genuinely cannot empathize with people who feel...This is genuinely one of those things that makes me feel like I'm from another planet, or have some sort of mental illness or something, because I genuinely cannot empathize with people who feel that having AI generated naked images of them is somehow violating.
Maybe it's because I'm a man? At the same time, I've had women who were interested me to who I wasn't interested in. If I found out they downloaded an Instagram picture of me, generated a nude image, and used that for sexual gratification, it wouldn't bother me even slightly. It feels exactly the same to me as if someone was fantasizing about me without the aid of technology. If that photo actually got out, maybe it would be very slightly embarrassing if some amount of people assumed it was real, but at this point, most people are aware that AI image generation tools like this exist, so that potential number gets lower every month.
I know a lot of people say this is a gross violation using the strongest possible wording, but I honestly feel like I'm taking crazy pills here, because I'd rather have someone generate a private AI nude of me than basically any minor inconvenience. Stubbing my toe, dropping my phone, forgetting to plan dinner, or having someone cut me off on the road would all bother me more.
Maybe it would be different if I were an attractive woman, and was constantly objectified? I don't know, it's hard to put myself in that state of mind.
I feel like I'm the only one I ever hear with this position and it's starting to make me feel like there's actually something wrong with me.
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Comment on The troubling trend in teenage sex (it's strangulation) (gifted link) in ~life
papasquat Link ParentI had a very frustrating conversation with my brother in law who is a classic, if not somewhat more moderate fox news conservative and his wife, my sister, who is a left leaning liberal. He...I had a very frustrating conversation with my brother in law who is a classic, if not somewhat more moderate fox news conservative and his wife, my sister, who is a left leaning liberal. He absolutely does not want their daughter to have any sex education, and she obviously does.
His mindset was just so alien to me. His argument was that they should just let her "be a kid", instead of ruining some sort of imagined innocence by teaching her that sex exists. It's so odd to me to make that stand about sex, and not say, argue to keep stoves as special and mysterious by not telling her that they can be dangerous and not to touch them.
People have a lot of personal hangups about sex and it manifests in ways like this, where things related to sex, including very real dangers can't be addressed without somehow ruining a child. It just makes no sense to me, and unlike most viewpoints, I can't see the other positions point of view on it. Maybe that comes from the bias of being raised by parents who were very open and candid about sex from as early as I can remember though.
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Comment on Ryan Gosling movie 'Project Hail Mary' set for Spring 2026 in ~movies
papasquat Link ParentHonestly the flashback stuff and the spoilers for a major plot point in the book whole plot point of the main character being a complete coward were the weakest parts of the entire book for me. I...Honestly the flashback stuff and the
were the weakest parts of the entire book for me. I wouldn't mind it being totally cut to be honest.spoilers for a major plot point in the book
whole plot point of the main character being a complete coward -
Comment on I just switched to an iPhone, what should I do to make the most of this change? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentI wish you good luck. I was a lifelong android user that didn't dislike the platform, just decided to try something new because I wanted a small phone, and ended up with an iPhone 12 mini 3 years...I wish you good luck. I was a lifelong android user that didn't dislike the platform, just decided to try something new because I wanted a small phone, and ended up with an iPhone 12 mini 3 years ago.
That phone ended up just frustrating the hell out of me. I've realized after many, many attempts with their products, that I'm just not built for the apple product mindset. Their products are all very, very opinionated, and getting them to do anything outside of that opinion is always just so frustrating.
They make some very good software, and probably the best consumer grade computing hardware in the world, but if you want to use any of it in a way that they have not explicitly deemed the apple way of doing things, then you're going to just be fighting with the phone.
My advice would just be to not bother. If you don't like the way certain things work on the phone, just deal with it. Spending time and energy trying to hack around and fix it isn't going to be worth it. If you don't like too many of those things, you might be like me, and not be an apple person.
Personally I got a Pixel 8 pro a few months ago, and coming back to Android has made me really appreciate the platform a lot more. I hope you end up enjoying the phone though!
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Comment on I just switched to an iPhone, what should I do to make the most of this change? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentFor me, the smart watch idea has always seemed like a way to get even more invasive notifications to now to be attached to your body. I absolutely detest notifications. They're a good idea; let...For me, the smart watch idea has always seemed like a way to get even more invasive notifications to now to be attached to your body.
I absolutely detest notifications. They're a good idea; let you become aware of time sensitive, useful information all in one place. The problem is that they've been abused so horribly by sleezy marketing types over the years that the sound of a notification bell or my phone vibrating now just annoys me.
I generally want to know when a friend or family member texts me. What I don't want to know is when a new Amazon prime show comes out, when something is on sale, a random news article that some app somehow decided I really need to see right now, or worst of all that "we haven't heard from you in a while, is there anything we can do to help?".
I find that unless they're carefully managed, notifications from my phone just absolutely drive me up the wall; and they do need to be carefully managed. An app that I may want one kind of rare notifications from will frequently update, either reset all of its notification preferences, or add new notification types that I'm automatically opted in for.
Worst of all are apps that have a "mute notifications for one month" feature as the default.
One of the few points of solace I have is that if I don't want to be bothered, I just throw my phone in a drawer and forget about it. I have an analog watch that I can use to see what time it is, and I can happily go live my life without this stupid thing in my pocket trying to extract every bit of my attention from me.
The main draw of a smart watch seems to be more, and better access to those notifications, which for the life of me I can't understand why anyone would want. It's pretty close to my personal idea of hell.
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Comment on Have you had a life-altering change in who you are? in ~talk
papasquat Link ParentEven though I've been an atheist for as long as I can remember, I still had inklings of this idea for quite a while, and it's not an uncommon idea. One of the things that broke me out of it was...better to believe in god and find out that he doesn't exist than to not believe and find out that he does"
Even though I've been an atheist for as long as I can remember, I still had inklings of this idea for quite a while, and it's not an uncommon idea. One of the things that broke me out of it was realizing the fact that even if there were a god, the Christian depiction of god would be just as likely to exist as anyone else's, so believing in the Christian god isn't really hedging your bets at all. In fact, it could turn out that the real God hates, and is offended by the concept of the Christian god, and punishes anyone who believes in that concept, while being ok with atheists, since it's a rational belief from our point of view. Wholely possible, and just as likely as a Christian god who punishes you for not believing in him.
You could spend a bunch of time trying to wargame this, but in my opinion it's better to just go with the evidence.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
papasquat Link ParentYeah, I've noticed the same thing myself in so many situations. I went through a period where because of personal circumstances, I was quite depressed for a really long time. I was somewhat...Yeah, I've noticed the same thing myself in so many situations. I went through a period where because of personal circumstances, I was quite depressed for a really long time. I was somewhat suicidal, which is unlike me, and I didn't know how to deal with it. One of the things I tried was hanging out in subreddits for depression. I thought hearing the experiences of people who were going through what I was going through might help.
It didn't. At all. It made it far worse. It took my view of the world as a hopeless, hostile, miserable place and validated it.
I've since put those days long behind me and am doing much better now, but I notice the same phenomenon all over the place. People who like to complain a lot end up making themselves miserable in order to have something to complain about. Teams at work with one person who is constantly cynical and griping soon poison the whole team.
I've come to view the practice of complaining as somewhat poisonous, not cathartic. I don't think the wider population on the Internet largely see it that way though.
In many ways this seems to be a generational divide. My parents generation are much more likely to see it the way I mostly do nowadays; life sucks a lot of the time. It does for everyone. There's no need to tell everyone about it, they already know. Keep your head down, get your work done, and grab joy where you can.
Many people my age or younger tend to see things differently. They see complaining as a righteous expression of anger that will lead to meaningful change by the powers that be, or at least some sort of catharsis. That idea is very, very prevalent on social media. The /r/antiwork crowd, discussions about working from home on tiktok, virtually any discussion about the struggles of life are just full of people screaming into the void, and I think it's rarely ever helpful for the people hearing it, but especially for the people shouting it.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
papasquat Link ParentYou're weirdly framing this as an argument between trans people and people with a religious affiliation and then using an appeal to the majority to justify it. First, way, way more people than...You're weirdly framing this as an argument between trans people and people with a religious affiliation and then using an appeal to the majority to justify it.
First, way, way more people than just trans people themselves think that it's perfectly ok to be trans, and that they should have the same rights as someone born in their gender.
Secondly, not every religious person thinks that trans people shouldn't have equal rights. In fact, it's a really strange belief to even try to justify with religion, given the fact that none the holy texts of any major religion has any restrictions whatsoever about being trans.So more realistically, your question would be more like "in a room full of 1000 Canadians, does it make sense for 900 of them who believe that trans people should have equal rights to tell the other 100 that their beliefs are irrational?"
Even then, the premise is still an appeal to the majority. Those 100 people are wrong, not because they're a minority, but because their beliefs truly are irrational.
Someone's gender identity is their own decision, does not directly impact anyone but them, and is frankly none of anyones business except their own. They deserve equal rights, including the right to express their gender, entirely and solely because they are human beings, just like anyone else.
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Comment on How can I completely and permanently remove the ability to access the internet from a Debian derivative? in ~tech
papasquat Link ParentYeah, I mean it's a computer. You can get internet access on any x86 machine somehow. Software is completely out of the question, because you could just install a new OS as long as you have access...Yeah, I mean it's a computer. You can get internet access on any x86 machine somehow. Software is completely out of the question, because you could just install a new OS as long as you have access to the hardware. The only thing I could think of would be to physically damage all external interfaces. Even then though, you could still solder leads to your USB bus and plug in an external network card.
I don't really think it's even possible to do what the OP is asking.
You can certainly make it very hard for a computer to access the internet, but it's never going to be impossible. There will always be a way to modify it to get a network connection as long as the machine is functional. -
Comment on Swedish company Scout Park has launched a mobile app where you can tip off wrongly parked cars to traffic wardens to earn money in ~transport
papasquat Link ParentAgreed on some level, I think parking fines should definitely be much higher if there's a safety risk. I don't think that they shouldn't exist for things like letting a meter run out though. If...Agreed on some level, I think parking fines should definitely be much higher if there's a safety risk. I don't think that they shouldn't exist for things like letting a meter run out though. If there's no penalty for not paying for parking, then why pay for parking?
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Comment on Swedish company Scout Park has launched a mobile app where you can tip off wrongly parked cars to traffic wardens to earn money in ~transport
papasquat Link ParentThere's no threat of imprisonment. We don't do debtors prisons anymore. There's no situation by which failing to pay a parking fine will result in you being imprisoned. Your fine will go to...There's no threat of imprisonment. We don't do debtors prisons anymore. There's no situation by which failing to pay a parking fine will result in you being imprisoned. Your fine will go to collections, your driver's license may be suspended, your car's registration will be cancelled, and your car may even be impounded, but no one is sending you to prison for being illegally parked.
This isn't a bad faith argument, you're just very, very much stretching the concept of violence to include things like losing property or privileges. -
Comment on Swedish company Scout Park has launched a mobile app where you can tip off wrongly parked cars to traffic wardens to earn money in ~transport
papasquat (edited )Link ParentThe violent act would be the enforcement of resisting someone executing a legal order in the service of public safety then though, no? If someone parks their care in my driveway, ask them to move...The violent act would be the enforcement of resisting someone executing a legal order in the service of public safety then though, no?
If someone parks their care in my driveway, ask them to move it, that act isn't violent, or even implying violence, despite the fact that if they continually refuse, I'll call a tow truck to eventually remove the car. Only if the person who owns that car tries to use violence to stop that from happening will violence be returned. It's not the act of me calling the tow truck that made the situation violent. It's the choice of the person who owned that car to use violence that did.
If the standard for "implying violence" means any action that could conceivably result in violence no matter who initiates it, then literally every choice someone makes on a day to day basis implies violence. Kids going to school imply violence because school shootings happen. Working in a mine implies violence because another country might invade yours for those resources and so on.
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Comment on Swedish company Scout Park has launched a mobile app where you can tip off wrongly parked cars to traffic wardens to earn money in ~transport
papasquat Link ParentIt's not presumed to be open. There are almost always very clear markings on illegal parking places. To be fair, I don't think that illegally parking is violence in any way, but getting a fine for...It's not presumed to be open. There are almost always very clear markings on illegal parking places. To be fair, I don't think that illegally parking is violence in any way, but getting a fine for breaking the law definitely isn't.
Also, I don't even see how it implies violence. If you get a fine, you just have to pay some money. That's not violent. Even if you don't pay, you'll just incur interest, and eventually lose your license or have your vehicle's registration cancelled. No one is going to be sent to your house to beat you up or anything.
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Comment on Swedish company Scout Park has launched a mobile app where you can tip off wrongly parked cars to traffic wardens to earn money in ~transport
papasquat Link ParentI've heard the use of the word violence stretched pretty far, but being ticketed by mail for a traffic violation couldn't possibly meet any definition of it in my eyes. Someone causing an injury...I've heard the use of the word violence stretched pretty far, but being ticketed by mail for a traffic violation couldn't possibly meet any definition of it in my eyes. Someone causing an injury to a cyclist, or causing a death because of a blocked fire hydrant could.
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Comment on Swedish company Scout Park has launched a mobile app where you can tip off wrongly parked cars to traffic wardens to earn money in ~transport
papasquat Link ParentNew york city tried passing a similar bill a couple of years ago. As far as I saw, most people were pretty positive on it. Being stranded because someone illegally double parked, having your...New york city tried passing a similar bill a couple of years ago. As far as I saw, most people were pretty positive on it. Being stranded because someone illegally double parked, having your garbage not picked up because someone is blocking the spot for a garbage truck to pull up into, or losing an apartment or even worse, a loved one because fire apparatus can't get close enough to a building are all annoying to horrifying. I think people should be scared to park illegally.
This is what I really detest about technology, the industry I begrudgingly work in.
It's absolutely packed to the brim with people that think that because they know javascript better than 99.99999% of the population, that extends to their competence at everything. Political science, farming, automobiles, manufacturing, race relations, journalism, you name it. There's a certain breed of tech bros that assume that because most people think python is hard, and they're good at it, that must extrapolate to everything else actually being easy, and the only reason we haven't solved every other problem is because all of the super smart geniuses are too busy making face filters for instagram or whatever. They assume they can just hop into an industry and "disrupt" it because they know so much better than the people who have spent their entire lives doing those things.
The fact is that most fields are hard. The reason they have unsolved problems are because those problems are hard, not because the people working in them aren't talented. There's nothing special about programming that makes it particularly difficult. Traffic engineering, solving income inequality, environmental science, accounting, you name it are all equally difficult and require just as much talent in order to solve the issues involved with them.
The main difference is that while most plumbers will freely admit that they're in way over their heads when it comes to say; psychology, this breed of tech bro will, without knowing the first thing about the field, immediately think "The people doing this work are just idiots unlike me. Let me apply technology to this and I'll have all the major issues solved within a year".