safari's recent activity

  1. Comment on YouTube is testing a three-strikes policy for ad blocking in ~tech

    safari
    Link Parent
    Unfortunately, obscure indie games aren't known for their advertising budgets.

    Unfortunately, obscure indie games aren't known for their advertising budgets.

  2. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~comp

    safari
    Link Parent
    Rendering here refers to more of a process of converting one thing into another, not graphical rendering.

    Rendering here refers to more of a process of converting one thing into another, not graphical rendering.

  3. Comment on Folding at Home: Team Tildes information in ~comp

    safari
    Link Parent
    If they use electric heating. If they use gas or other heating, it may be less cost efficient.

    If they use electric heating. If they use gas or other heating, it may be less cost efficient.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Apple announces new MacBook Air and iPad Pro in ~tech

    safari
    Link Parent
    I just bought a 2TB Sabrent Rocket for £250. According to benchmarks, it comes very close to the 970 EVO, according to reviews I've seen.

    I just bought a 2TB Sabrent Rocket for £250. According to benchmarks, it comes very close to the 970 EVO, according to reviews I've seen.

    7 votes

  5. Comment on Your thoughts regarding the media coverage? in ~health

    safari
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    If you switch to log view, Japan does appear to be roughly exponential. It just has a much lower growth factor than... basically every other country I can think of. Even South Korea has that same...

    If you switch to log view, Japan does appear to be roughly exponential. It just has a much lower growth factor than... basically every other country I can think of. Even South Korea has that same high growth rate until it plateaus.

    Edit: Our World In Data has a (very) similar visualisation here.

    2 votes

  6. Comment on Saving Grace, featuring Robert Plant and Suzi Dian, cancels Faroe Islands festival set due to country's whaling operation in ~music

    safari
    Link
    Disclaimer: I'm half Faroese so I may be biased on this one. I found it refreshing that the article didn't rush to condemn the practice, as some other articles I saw online did. Grindadráp is easy...

    Disclaimer: I'm half Faroese so I may be biased on this one.

    I found it refreshing that the article didn't rush to condemn the practice, as some other articles I saw online did. Grindadráp is easy to turn people against, with the striking appearance of the bloody water, most people's total obliviousness to (or wilful ignorance of) the realities of meat production, and the fact that people categorise whales as "intelligent" instead of "food".

    There have been studies done that demonstrate that last part. Here's an abstract of one:

    Many people like eating meat, but most are reluctant to harm things that have minds. The current three studies show that this dissonance motivates people to deny minds to animals. Study 1 demonstrates that animals considered appropriate for human consumption are ascribed diminished mental capacities. Study 2 shows that meat eaters are motivated to deny minds to food animals when they are reminded of the link between meat and animal suffering. Finally, Study 3 provides direct support for our dissonance hypothesis, showing that expectations regarding the immediate consumption of meat increase mind denial. Moreover, this mind denial in turn reduces negative affect associated with dissonance. The findings highlight the role of dissonance reduction in facilitating the practice of meat eating and protecting cultural commitments.

    People also bring up sustainability, but the magnitude of the killing is quite small in comparison to the population size, and as is pointed out in the article:

    According to IUCN Red List, Grindadráp is a sustainable practice as the long-finned pilot whale is not an endangered species.

    Another point which is often ignored is that this is not a commercial operation, people from the communities involved have the meat divided evenly amongst themselves, and is preserved to be eaten over the following months, maybe more.

    I'd write more but it's late, so in case someone wants to read more I'll leave what appears to be a well researched post that I just came across while looking for some more concrete information. I think I've read it before, and it covers the practice pretty well as well as the problem with boycotts like the above.

    1 vote

  7. Comment on A massive amount of iconic works will enter the public domain on New Year’s Eve in ~arts

    safari
    Link Parent
    The problem with posting someone's music on YouTube is if it's a substitute for the original work. In other words, even though you may not be making money from it, I have less incentive to buy a...

    The problem with posting someone's music on YouTube is if it's a substitute for the original work. In other words, even though you may not be making money from it, I have less incentive to buy a song if it's readily available on YouTube. (Most of the artists who I listen to do post their music on YouTube, but that's their choice, and often they do make money from it.)

    Exposure is only valuable to the artist (monetarily) if it is converted to purchases (or the modern alternative, paid streaming) of their work. As an artist can put their work on YouTube and include purchase links etc. very easily, if they haven't, that might well indicate that they don't want to. They have the right to choose how to expose people to their work, that's pretty much the definition of copyright.

    Of course, I'm a hypocrite here because I've listened to music on YouTube uploaded by a third party many times. However, I do see why that could potentially harm a content creator.

    I would be very interested to hear a counterargument that addresses the above point.

    1 vote

  8. Comment on This is a popular question on askreddit, but since Tildes is a slightly different beast I am curious: Have you ever encountered a ghost or UFO before (or something similarly spooky/inexplicable)? in ~talk

    safari
    Link Parent
    Hmm. Maybe something like a stray drop of glowstick liquid? That's the first thing that comes to mind that could do something like that.

    Hmm. Maybe something like a stray drop of glowstick liquid? That's the first thing that comes to mind that could do something like that.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - time to slow down a bit and figure some things out in ~tildes.official

    safari
    Link Parent
    Another one worth considering IMO is ~cartoons or ~tv.cartoons. I don't know if you'd want a ~tv.liveaction too, probably not. For myself, I like the idea because of the "bubble up" idea that's...

    Another one worth considering IMO is ~cartoons or ~tv.cartoons. I don't know if you'd want a ~tv.liveaction too, probably not. For myself, I like the idea because of the "bubble up" idea that's been discussed – I can read the subgroups for things I watch, but also see popular posts from others. It does highlight the potential need for looking into spoiler tagging, though, because you can't expect users viewing e.g. ~cartoons (or ~tv) to be caught up on every show.

  10. Comment on Can we get a ∼enviro in ~tildes

    safari
    Link Parent
    Fair enough, I just read that comment actually. And I know it's hard to keep track with all these threads, but this one is about the possibility of ~enviro.

    Fair enough, I just read that comment actually.

    And I know it's hard to keep track with all these threads, but this one is about the possibility of ~enviro.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Can we get a ∼enviro in ~tildes

    safari
    Link
    Would it make sense to put that under the (previously suggested) ~lifestyle?

    Would it make sense to put that under the (previously suggested) ~lifestyle?

  12. Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - time to slow down a bit and figure some things out in ~tildes.official

    safari
    Link Parent
    I believe you just linked to this thread. This is the thread I think you intended to link.

    I believe you just linked to this thread. This is the thread I think you intended to link.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on The future of moderation on Tildes in ~tildes

    safari
    Link Parent
    You mention Condorcet - what type would you use? What about using range voting? From the article:

    You mention Condorcet - what type would you use? What about using range voting? From the article:

    Range voting satisfies the Condorcet criterion as long as voters score candidates in the head-to-head elections as they do in the full election.

    2 votes

  14. Comment on Let's talk about jobs. Are you just working a day-to-day or have you found your calling? in ~talk

    safari
    Link Parent
    It is! It's not as academic a role as me and my ego expected to have after graduating university, but I do get to work on technically challenging things, and enjoy it immensely. In fact, I have...

    It is! It's not as academic a role as me and my ego expected to have after graduating university, but I do get to work on technically challenging things, and enjoy it immensely.

    In fact, I have the same "problem" as someone who replied above: when I take holidays, I miss it. I've ended up not taking even a quarter of my holiday time this year so far, so I need to make sure to do that too.

    Thanks for taking the time to reply to people here.

    2 votes

  15. Comment on Let's talk about jobs. Are you just working a day-to-day or have you found your calling? in ~talk

    safari
    Link
    So I left university (CS) after two failed attempts at a first year. I didn't get on with it at all. However, I was fortunate to be considered by a company nearby despite the situation. I now work...

    So I left university (CS) after two failed attempts at a first year. I didn't get on with it at all. However, I was fortunate to be considered by a company nearby despite the situation.

    I now work at a fairly modern company on a greenfield project, building a web portal for cloud services.

    I enjoy the work a lot. I get to go to work at the same time every day. I get to work on a single thing all day many days, and if I do have to context switch, it's because I'm working with colleagues. There's a big focus on team members complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses, meaning I'm not on my own – we all support each other. I'm socialising with colleagues, who have fairly similar interests and who I can speak with on a technical level. I get home, and I have no homework or essays to write, and I am earning money that allows me to afford some fun hobbies too.

    The company makes a real effort to improve employee happiness: monthly (or even more frequently) social events, ability to work remotely sometimes, various benefits, taking feedback seriously.

    All in all, I'm incredibly happy about my situation, compared to where I was two years ago. I'm grateful to the people who helped me succeed despite my falling off the normal academic path, and who supported me on the way.

    I have a feeling that staying here indefinitely won't be possible, and probably won't be helping my career. However, given how well it's working, I don't want to leave any time soon.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - time to slow down a bit and figure some things out in ~tildes.official

    safari
    Link Parent
    There's already a link, it's the # at the end of the line I believe. That should go to the correct point in the thread.

    There's already a link, it's the # at the end of the line I believe. That should go to the correct point in the thread.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Total people viewing X in ~tildes

    safari
    Link Parent
    Actually, there are ways of doing it without storing user details at all. Funnily enough, it's what they do at reddit. (They use it for scalability, of course.) Essentially, it counts the hashes...

    Actually, there are ways of doing it without storing user details at all. Funnily enough, it's what they do at reddit. (They use it for scalability, of course.)

    Essentially, it counts the hashes of the information instead of the information itself, and then doesn't even store the hashes. However, it never counts the same thing more than once. I started writing an explanation of the details of how it works, but it's all been explained much better at redis's creator's site. He starts with a pretty layman explanation, and then goes into more detail if you're interested.

    2 votes

  18. Comment on Daily Tildes discussion - why should we allow (or not allow) fluff content? in ~tildes.official

    safari
    Link Parent
    I think the number of users who are interested in fluff content vastly outweigh those who may be malicious. Also, while the site is designed to penalise those who act in bad faith, it's difficult...

    if it can't handle an influx of users interested in low-effort content, how will it be able to handle users that participate in actively malicious content?

    I think the number of users who are interested in fluff content vastly outweigh those who may be malicious. Also, while the site is designed to penalise those who act in bad faith, it's difficult to know how it would react to a significant influx of good-faith, fluff-favouring, fast-voting users. If the site were vote-sorted by default, I'd be even more concerned.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on What if we got rid of votes entirely? in ~tildes

    safari
    Link Parent
    If people are online at the time of the reset, it could cause some significant fluctuations in activity around that time, especially if it happens at the same time for everyone.

    If people are online at the time of the reset, it could cause some significant fluctuations in activity around that time, especially if it happens at the same time for everyone.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on What if we got rid of votes entirely? in ~tildes

    safari
    Link Parent
    Out of curiosity, have you considered how that might work with the audit system? Presumably, an exemplary vote can be considered a "community leader" action of sorts, and as such, should the users...

    Out of curiosity, have you considered how that might work with the audit system? Presumably, an exemplary vote can be considered a "community leader" action of sorts, and as such, should the users who provided those votes be visible at any level?

    On one hand, if tagging and removal are audited, maybe promoting should be too. On the other, if people are confronting each other about why they thought something was worth promoting, that could foster a hivemind.

    1 vote