rich_27's recent activity

  1. Comment on “This technology disrupts [...] Democratic—voters, [and] increases the economic power of [...] male, working-class voters” in ~society

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    I don't, unfortunately. I had a look, followed the link through to the tweet with the video, couldn't find an explanation. I was surprised the article didn't mention it

    I don't, unfortunately. I had a look, followed the link through to the tweet with the video, couldn't find an explanation. I was surprised the article didn't mention it

    1 vote

  2. Comment on “This technology disrupts [...] Democratic—voters, [and] increases the economic power of [...] male, working-class voters” in ~society

    rich_27
    Link
    Full quote wouldn't fit in the title, here it is: Societally we need to figure out how we handle direct, open undermining of democracy. To me, this feels like someone announcing they are going to...

    Full quote wouldn't fit in the title, here it is:

    “This technology disrupts humanities-trained—largely Democratic—voters, and makes their economic power less. And increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working-class, often male, working-class voters,” Karp said in a CNBC interview Thursday. “And so these disruptions are gonna disrupt every aspect of our society. And to make this work, we have to come to an agreement of what it is we’re going to do with the technology; how are we gonna explain to people who are likely gonna have less good, and less interesting jobs.”

    Societally we need to figure out how we handle direct, open undermining of democracy. To me, this feels like someone announcing they are going to rob a bank and sharing a detailed plan on how to do so. I can't quite wrap my head around how we face this kind of thing given technology is putting the power to directly adjust the balance of power in the hands of an individual.

    This undermines the core of our society; how do we continue to have functional democracy? How do you think we should handle this societally? I imagine Karp is primarily focussed on influencing American politics here, but I think this is a worldwide issue.

    21 votes

  4. Comment on Hisense TVs show ads during normal operation in ~tech

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    Huh, why does an Albania tunnel prevent ads?

    Huh, why does an Albania tunnel prevent ads?

  5. Comment on ‘I took two bites and had to spit it out’: US candy makers are phasing out real cocoa in chocolate in some products in ~food

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    I couldn't believe that I could get Ritter Sport (mostly chocolate) cheaper than Cadbury's (mostly not) in the supermarket a while back. How on earth can they justify stuffing their product with...

    I couldn't believe that I could get Ritter Sport (mostly chocolate) cheaper than Cadbury's (mostly not) in the supermarket a while back. How on earth can they justify stuffing their product with so much crap when it's more expensive than good chocolate??

    3 votes

  6. Comment on ‘I took two bites and had to spit it out’: US candy makers are phasing out real cocoa in chocolate in some products in ~food

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    Small aside: Nocoa is so much better a name than ChoViva! Such a shame they changed it!

    Small aside: Nocoa is so much better a name than ChoViva! Such a shame they changed it!

    1 vote

  7. Comment on Parseword - a delightfully complex word game from Wordle’s creator in ~games

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    Would you say it's particularly representative of cryptic crosswords? Some discussion in the other comments is about its merit as a cryptic crossword training tool, and I was wondering what your...

    Would you say it's particularly representative of cryptic crosswords? Some discussion in the other comments is about its merit as a cryptic crossword training tool, and I was wondering what your thoughts on that were?

    3 votes

  8. Comment on AI was eroding trust in my classroom — so I got rid of typed papers and bought my students notebooks instead in ~life

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    That's great advise, I really like it. Thanks for sharing!

    That's great advise, I really like it. Thanks for sharing!

    3 votes

  9. Comment on AI was eroding trust in my classroom — so I got rid of typed papers and bought my students notebooks instead in ~life

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    One of the things I took from the article was that it creates a far higher barrier to entry to student's replacing study/learning with the use of AI or hired paper writers (where the student...

    One of the things I took from the article was that it creates a far higher barrier to entry to student's replacing study/learning with the use of AI or hired paper writers (where the student trying to read and understand the output; removing themself from the loop). It is a LOT harder to procure a paper and then copy it out than it is to print off a procured paper, and I suspect that would change whether it is "worth it" to a lot of could go either way students.

    5 votes

  10. Comment on AI was eroding trust in my classroom — so I got rid of typed papers and bought my students notebooks instead in ~life

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    Something like a Remarkable tablet would work great, provided you could disable file hosting service integration or lock them to a university owned account. Something with a physical keyboard...

    Something like a Remarkable tablet would work great, provided you could disable file hosting service integration or lock them to a university owned account. Something with a physical keyboard would be much better for students that struggle with handwriting though

    3 votes

  11. Comment on Untangling the connection between dopamine and ADHD in ~science

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    They seemed to be referring to dopamine misconceptions as a layman misunderstanding rather than academic, or so it seemed to read to me.

    They seemed to be referring to dopamine misconceptions as a layman misunderstanding rather than academic, or so it seemed to read to me.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on Six months with Zen Browser in ~tech

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    I'd suggest not trying to ship over, but instead keep your existing browser and just port stuff across as you use it; I initially tried to bring all of my existing open stuff in and it was a nasty...

    I'd suggest not trying to ship over, but instead keep your existing browser and just port stuff across as you use it; I initially tried to bring all of my existing open stuff in and it was a nasty experience.

    Two browsers during a transition period could be a bit of a pain, but if your experience is anything like mine the benefits of Zen will massively outweigh the cost of the friction of changing and you'll quickly only want to use Zen.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on The future of AI in ~tech

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I had a similar "hmm, really?" moment around a similar point in the article. The author explored what the combinations of those terms mean, and makes sweeping, unqualified assumptions in...

    Yeah, I had a similar "hmm, really?" moment around a similar point in the article. The author explored what the combinations of those terms mean, and makes sweeping, unqualified assumptions in doing so. To take an example, they state:

    If you want it to be safe and trusted, it never lies, and you can verify it never lies – it can’t be very capable. You’ve built a reliable idiot.

    Why does the author assume that something that can't lie can't be capable? That seems completely unfounded to me, deception is not a prerequisite for capability or usefulness in my book.

    6 votes

  14. Comment on Six months with Zen Browser in ~tech

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    Yep, full access to Firefox dev tools. I was doing some fairly intense UserScript injection (Tampermonkey and the like) around the time I switched from firefox and didn't really notice a change in...

    Yep, full access to Firefox dev tools. I was doing some fairly intense UserScript injection (Tampermonkey and the like) around the time I switched from firefox and didn't really notice a change in capability.

    I'm afraid I can't comment on userChrome.css, I haven't heard of that before, but I know that it has Zen mods, which are kind of like browser extensions but exclusively CSS. Unfortunately I can't seem to find any information on the inner workings and limitations of mods at the moment, but you can see some of the stuff people have made here: https://zen-browser.app/mods/

    2 votes

  15. Comment on The ethics of buying, playing military, war or games inspired by them? in ~games

    rich_27
    Link
    I'm wondering if games would pay licencing fees to military contractors or not. I couldn't see anything in the thread that considered that; I wouldn't be surprised if military contractors had...

    I'm wondering if games would pay licencing fees to military contractors or not. I couldn't see anything in the thread that considered that; I wouldn't be surprised if military contractors had enough incentive to collaborate just from military games helping to skew public opinion towards war being okay/good and therefore growing their market.

  16. Comment on Apple announces Macbook Neo, a new budget Mac in ~tech

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    This looks like a cool concept, but it's pretty aggressively monetised. Maybe it's just me, but I got a pretty big ick from the pricing structure with free tier being easy to start using but...

    This looks like a cool concept, but it's pretty aggressively monetised. Maybe it's just me, but I got a pretty big ick from the pricing structure with free tier being easy to start using but limited when you want it to be functional, alongside having an attention grabbing, slick marketed ad before the product seems ready to use.

    I hope you don't mind the pretty direct feedback, I'm not trying to be a dick, just thought you might appreciate hearing how your thing comes across.

    I'm sure a pretty big part of it will be that I'm just not the target demographic

  17. Comment on Six months with Zen Browser in ~tech

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    Yeah, I've found a similar thing with workspaces. I set up a few different ones but I rarely if ever actually switch between them, I find I mostly just work from my general one and use folders...

    Yeah, I've found a similar thing with workspaces. I set up a few different ones but I rarely if ever actually switch between them, I find I mostly just work from my general one and use folders instead.

    I'm someone who needs things visible or I forget about them, and so tab folders work a lot better for me than bookmarks, I've found

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Six months with Zen Browser in ~tech

    rich_27
    Link
    Deep in a conversation about tabs, I replied detailing some of the stuff I really love about Zen browser, a browser built on Firefox all about helping declutter your internet experience. I've been...

    Deep in a conversation about tabs, I replied detailing some of the stuff I really love about Zen browser, a browser built on Firefox all about helping declutter your internet experience. I've been using it for about six months and love it; as someone with ADHD and a whole host of executive dysfunction it really helps in tools to avoid spiraling into 100+ tab balls of doom. I figured others might not have heard of it or might be interested in hearing from someone who's used it, so I figured I'd share it.

    I'd be interested to hear about your experiences with Zen or other browsers.

    8 votes

  20. Comment on Apple announces Macbook Neo, a new budget Mac in ~tech

    rich_27
    Link Parent
    That sounds a lot like how I used to be! I remember the hell of having 4 Firefox windows open (general stuff, 50+ YouTube videos, puzzles, and work stuff) and trying not to lose any of them. One...

    That sounds a lot like how I used to be! I remember the hell of having 4 Firefox windows open (general stuff, 50+ YouTube videos, puzzles, and work stuff) and trying not to lose any of them.

    One thing I found about six months ago was Zen browser, I'd strongly recommend it. It's really effective for helping manage a lot of the stuff executive dysfunction makes so difficult, in my experience. It's Firefox under the hood, reskinned with the core idea being that you have one window that's stateful and easy to organise. It's got:

    • pinned tabs, which are tabs that can be reset to go back to the pinned page, great for sites like tildes that you want to keep but where you sometimes get lost in a thread and want to just jump back to the homepage
    • workspaces, which are like different contexts you can switch between with their own tabs and pinned tabs
    • essentials, which are like super pins that sit at the top of the vertical tab bar as little icons and are always there
    • tab folders, collapsible sections great for grouping similar tabs and keeping them visible but out of the way
    • glance, which lets you open links in a modal over the existing page that is easily discarded or expanded to a full tab
    • amazing split support, allowing you to arrange and rearrange multiple pages across the screen
    • multiple views into the same window; a new feature that lets you open multiple copies of the same window that you can have pointed to different tabs - this is amazing!

    My recommendation would be to give it a go and try it as it comes out of the box to start. It is configurable, but it does not work well if you aren't bought in to the philosophy of a clean, managed browsing experience - keep your existing browser and just port stuff across as you use it; I initially tried to bring all of my existing open stuff in and it was a nasty experience. My internet browsing experience has massively improved since I started doing stuff it's way and it would take a lot for me to want to go back now!

    The one annoying thing is that it can't play DRM content at the moment (still in early-ish development and doesn't have the right accreditation), so I keep Firefox around in case I want to pull up Netflix or the like on my PC.

    Sorry for the sales pitch! I get excited to share things like this that have really benefitted me!

    7 votes