rich_27's recent activity
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Comment on Why contacting customer service might not be best in ~life
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Comment on Why contacting customer service might not be best in ~life
rich_27 Link ParentThe thing is, I think it's fine if companies don't plan for contingency (within reason), but then they've got to accept the cost of making it right if they've decided not to plan. They can't have...The thing is, I think it's fine if companies don't plan for contingency (within reason), but then they've got to accept the cost of making it right if they've decided not to plan. They can't have their cake and eat it too: it's not reasonable to save money by not mitigating risk and then also save money by passing all the consequences on to the consumer. We need to hold companies to a higher standard than that, because they won't hold themselves to it given profit is their only motivation (seemingly these days, broadly speaking).
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Comment on Why contacting customer service might not be best in ~life
rich_27 Link ParentThis does not seem to hold true for the customer service I've interacted with! I find these days that most T1 support does everything in their power to keep from passing you to someone else. The...Ruriko: Clearly they cannot lie at scale.
This does not seem to hold true for the customer service I've interacted with!
Every group passes you to another group.
I find these days that most T1 support does everything in their power to keep from passing you to someone else. The common line is "no one has any way to solve this", which patently isn't true (even if you had to escalate all the way to C?O, they almost always have the discretion to make stuff right), and I've even experienced being 'transferred' resulting in being hung up on - multiple times.
The new meta for customer service seems to be stall/stonewall until the customer gives up/gets frustrated/has more important things to do and goes away, at least with big companies.
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Comment on DEI isn't dead: New research finds most companies still back workplace inclusion in ~finance
rich_27 Link ParentI imagine at the end of the day businesses care about generating value, and if some part of the population has been previously overlooked because of held biases, then there is probably an...I imagine at the end of the day businesses care about generating value, and if some part of the population has been previously overlooked because of held biases, then there is probably an undervalued source of value there to be tapped. That and giving it a name or political bias doesn't change the fact that having a diverse set of perspectives and experiences helps companies to avoid alienating potential customers.
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Comment on I am a transwoman, I am in the closet and I am not coming out in ~lgbt
rich_27 Link ParentMy main takeaway was that the author has a great way with words and manages to convey so much emotion through their prose. I don't know, it didn't read to me as a problem that necessarily did or...My main takeaway was that the author has a great way with words and manages to convey so much emotion through their prose. I don't know, it didn't read to me as a problem that necessarily did or didn't need fixing, just the author venting some of their feelings whilst advocating for treating others with compassion whether they hold our beliefs or not, and for reflecting on the views we hold rather than repeating them without contemplation because they feel warm and comfy.
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Comment on I am a transwoman, I am in the closet and I am not coming out in ~lgbt
rich_27 Link ParentThank you for commenting on it. I'd not read it before and I found it moving and full of humanity, one of the best and most engaging things I've read in a while. It really surprises me reading...Thank you for commenting on it. I'd not read it before and I found it moving and full of humanity, one of the best and most engaging things I've read in a while.
It really surprises me reading some of the other comments from when the article was originally posted about people getting a very-derisive-towards-feminists tone from it. I didn't get that from it at all, I found that the author was preaching kindness and thinking critically about the views we hold rather than parroting them because they feel good - I think that's such a wise lesson, whether you're a ciswoman feminist, whether you're a misogynistic man, an inadvertently patriarchal person, or whether the places in your life this may be applicable have nothing to do with gender whatsoever!
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Comment on Claude Code is the ceiling on vibe-coded software in ~tech
rich_27 LinkThe author writes with such authority, but doesn't evidence his claims or provide any credentials. Anyone can make assumptions about what might be happening behind closed doors, that doesn't mean...The author writes with such authority, but doesn't evidence his claims or provide any credentials. Anyone can make assumptions about what might be happening behind closed doors, that doesn't mean there is value to doing so.
Also, he seems to be under the impression that the interface for Claude is the primary product. Is it not the models themselves that are the product and the interface is just the packaging? At the end of the day, I'd have thought it's the performance of the models that keep people coming back, not whether or not the UI is as polished as possible.
Maybe I'm missing something, but this really seemed like an opinion piece framed as a factual damning enditement of the AI industry.
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Comment on There is no reason to buy another PlayStation or Xbox in ~games
rich_27 Link ParentYeah, I completely agree with the downtime thing, I hadn't considered that aspect when I wrote my comment. I think it highlights a really interesting point though, I remember Wind Waker feeling...Yeah, I completely agree with the downtime thing, I hadn't considered that aspect when I wrote my comment. I think it highlights a really interesting point though, I remember Wind Waker feeling great in even in the downtime; great music, so much personality and soul in the boat and the environment, it felt like you were a pirate captain sailing the almighty ocean; for me, Breath of the Wild did not have the magic in the downtime, it was often running or climbing through similar terrain, fighting the same monsters in different locations, trying to do that all whilst fighting the entropy of weapon degradation and food supply issues, etc. The world felt crafted in Wind Waker, in Breath of the Wild it felt like setpiece carefully and lovingly crafted bits placed into a vast, repetitive world.
Perhaps this is hugely influenced by my ages and outlook on life when I played both games, I don't know! Perhaps I remember Wind Waker as being far better than it actually was and Breath of the Wild I remember as worse than it was!
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
rich_27 Link ParentThis is the kind of experience that has me really hesitant about getting used to AI use. Subsidisation will only last so long. Also, I'd be interested to know, do you think you have generated $400...This is the kind of experience that has me really hesitant about getting used to AI use. Subsidisation will only last so long. Also, I'd be interested to know, do you think you have generated $400 of value in output between them? If you'd know what you would get out of it, would you have spent $400 to get it?
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Comment on Why does WhatsApp drain so much phone battery? in ~tech
rich_27 Link ParentA number of years ago there was that big movement to drop WhatsApp and use Signal instead, and I jumped ship and told everyone important to me in my life they can contact me on Signal if they want...A number of years ago there was that big movement to drop WhatsApp and use Signal instead, and I jumped ship and told everyone important to me in my life they can contact me on Signal if they want to stay connected. I had two big group chats with lots of friends in, one successfully moved to Signal, the other stayed on WhatsApp. Overall, boycotting WhatsApp, which I did for 3-5 years, mainly resulted in me losing touch with a lot of people rather than meaningfully contributing to a platform exodus. I've now started using WhatsApp more again as I want to talk to people who only have it.
We had our shot at moving platform and - in my life at least - apathy won.
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Comment on There is no reason to buy another PlayStation or Xbox in ~games
rich_27 (edited )LinkPersonally, I think it's not about the hardware, it's about the slow death of high quality media (games, much like movies and TV). I cannot remember the last time I bought a game and enjoyed it in...Personally, I think it's not about the hardware, it's about the slow death of high quality media (games, much like movies and TV). I cannot remember the last time I bought a game and enjoyed it in the way I enjoyed Wind Waker or other games from my childhood.
I mainly game on PC so the vast majority of my experience of modern games is the Steam store, but there is so much bloat of low quality games to sift through to find anything worth putting my time into.
The reason I loved games like Wind Waker was because it was a really enjoyable, tight narrative experience. Every part of that game was designed to be fun, and the game as a whole was designed as a cohesive experience that taught you how to play as you went, keeping things interesting at every turn. Even looking at Breath of the Wild, so much of that game was endless "content" (shrines, korok seeds, equipment attrition and replacement) that - for me - did not make for fun gameplay. I use the comparison because it's one of the few examples of games I can directly compare with something from the same series I played decades before.
I think the quality of top end games has nosedived, from what I can see, because big studios chase profits so hard they kill authorship of games, much like other forms of media. I think if console producers want future generations of consoles to be successful, they need to cultivate high quality game producers, i.e. either in house or external game designers who are given the scope to produce really high quality games without the imperative to stuff more "content" in to the game to increase the "value" of the game (I think it has the opposite effect) and without insane deadlines that rush so many games and don't give them the space to be perfected.
Much like the movie industry has slowly killed itself by putting out so many terribly written milquetoast films in an attempt to appeal to the broadest audience possible (Marvel, for instance) or TV which now excels at writing a great first season or concept and nosedives the quality as soon as the title sees any form of success as studios run headfirst into a wall trying to cash grab, I see games as having been choked of quality because quality is expensive and requires talented people be given the scope to make great art, something that does not fit nicely with businesses driving growth.
I think the people who excel at running profitable companies also have little overlap with people that are able to make high quality art. If you treat the production of art as solely a profit making machine and try and run production like a business, you will not get art and you will contribute to the death of your industry.
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Comment on There is no reason to buy another PlayStation or Xbox in ~games
rich_27 Link ParentI think that's quite an out of date view now. My perspective is that malware stopped really being a problem around 10 years ago. As far as my experience has gone, operating systems now come with...I think that's quite an out of date view now. My perspective is that malware stopped really being a problem around 10 years ago. As far as my experience has gone, operating systems now come with excellent threat protection (Microsoft Defender and equivalents), and I can't remember the last time I had to deal with a virus or any kind of malware.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
rich_27 Link ParentIt was so ridiculous I just found it kind of funny, it didn't really colour the enjoyment of the show for meIt was so ridiculous I just found it kind of funny, it didn't really colour the enjoyment of the show for me
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
rich_27 (edited )LinkI watched High School of the Dead over the last few days. It's famous as one of the animes with the most egregious fan service in it, and I was curious about just how egregious it was after seeing...I watched High School of the Dead over the last few days. It's famous as one of the animes with the most egregious fan service in it, and I was curious about just how egregious it was after seeing a gif on the /r/MenDrawingWomen subreddit.
I tell you what, I was not expecting such a well written show! The plot was compelling, the characters deep and nuanced, and - for me at least - the egregious fan service was one of the least notable bits of the show. The only issue is, this only lasted about half of the first (and only) season. The quality drops off a cliff on the latter half, with the characters seeming almost like caricatures of themselves, uninteresting story, and huge plot jumps - I think skipping parts of the manga - that left me confused as to what on earth was going on.
It's such a shame, because the early writing was so good. Even with gratuitous fan service, the characters felt empowered, with strongly written women who actually pass the Bechdel test. It was just so surprising seeing that disappear in the second half.
Edit: Oh, and the best thing about the show? It has an unreasonably good opening theme that slaps way harder than it has any right to! https://youtu.be/8_Lim5nmkXQ
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
rich_27 LinkI've been playing Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise on my DS the past couple of days, it's been really fun!I've been playing Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise on my DS the past couple of days, it's been really fun!
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Comment on Are there any video games that are/were popular in your country, that the rest of the world hardly knows about? in ~games
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Comment on The Swedish-based “W” platform is the latest in a series of new social media sites vying to replace US Big Tech companies in ~tech
rich_27 Link ParentI'm really surprised that no governments are going: we should form a non-profit social media company (as far as I know). It seems obvious to me that the really destructive part of social media is...I'm really surprised that no governments are going: we should form a non-profit social media company (as far as I know). It seems obvious to me that the really destructive part of social media is driven by the profit motivation:
- Profit motivation directly drives companies to make as much revenue as possible
- This necessitates pushing advertising as much as possible (in all the examples I know of)
- This leads to companies maximising view time and engagement
- Causing race to the bottom slop content, controversy to drive engagement, actively fueling addiction, etc.
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Comment on Friday Facts #443 - More planet deliveries in ~games
rich_27 LinkI really enjoyed this one, lots of looks at cool art processesI really enjoyed this one, lots of looks at cool art processes
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Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative
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Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative
rich_27 LinkI made a terrarium! It took me a couple of hours, I build it with vague reference to Hello Tiny World by Ben Newell using a kit I got for Christmas I didn't read up on proper design of a terrarium...It took me a couple of hours, I build it with vague reference to Hello Tiny World by Ben Newell using a kit I got for Christmas
I didn't read up on proper design of a terrarium or balancing the ecosystem, so it's a gamble as to whether it survives, thrives, or dies, but I figured it was better to make it without reading up on it than the kit continuing to sit on the shelf indefinitely!
Yeah, I don't get why we've developed this culture of (non-company) people shifting all the blame onto individuals, while giving corporations a free pass on being super shitty. The general vibe these days seems to be "well the company needs to consider their bottom line"; why is it reasonable for a company to consider their bottom line at the exclusion of all else but not an individual? Why should an individual not skip practicing good forestry/retrofitting to save time/effort/money but corporations get to go "plannings expensive, screw the consequences"?