sharpstick's recent activity

  1. Comment on Album of the Week #9: The KLF - Chill Out in ~music

    sharpstick
    Link
    In my mind album was all ground work for Jimmy Cauty's work as part of The Orb. Specifically one of the most beautiful examples of this plunderphonics genre Little Fluffy Clouds....

    In my mind album was all ground work for Jimmy Cauty's work as part of The Orb.
    Specifically one of the most beautiful examples of this plunderphonics genre Little Fluffy Clouds.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Fluffy_Clouds

    2 votes

  2. Comment on Fact sheet: US President Joe Biden issues executive order on safe, secure, and trustworthy artificial intelligence in ~tech

    sharpstick
    Link Parent
    I've been using the Perplexity AI app for several months specifically because it lists its sources as part of its feedback and will often times include a intro sentence about how certain it can be...

    I've been using the Perplexity AI app for several months specifically because it lists its sources as part of its feedback and will often times include a intro sentence about how certain it can be about the answer it gives based on the data it can find. I have seen it become a lot more nuanced in its answers the more capable it becomes.

    4 votes

  3. Comment on “Going shopping” is dead: How stores sucked the fun out of an American pastime in ~finance

    sharpstick
    Link
    Two things that make me not want to shop at a store. Shelves/displays that are disorganized or outright trashed. The items are mixed up, knocked over and on the floor throughout the store....

    Two things that make me not want to shop at a store.

    1. Shelves/displays that are disorganized or outright trashed. The items are mixed up, knocked over and on the floor throughout the store.

    2. Constantly having to work my way around employees stocking the shelves. Boxes and carts in the aisles sometimes with someone actively stocking, sometimes not.

    You would think these things would be mutually exclusive but they are not. My decision to not shop at my local Target came when I could not find the item I wanted because the shelf was a complete mess and an employee was stocking items right next to it and they walked away leaving it a mess.

    If they don't care about their store why should I?

    A Pop Shelf opened next door and they are eating Target's lunch with friendly staff, organized product and pleasant atmosphere.

    39 votes

  4. Comment on What "lost" web page would you like to find again? in ~tech

    sharpstick
    Link
    There was a simple Web 1.0 site dedicated to the song "Being Boring" by the Petshop Boys. It was a deep dive into every bit of BTS and trivia you could imagine and methodically made the case for...

    There was a simple Web 1.0 site dedicated to the song "Being Boring" by the Petshop Boys. It was a deep dive into every bit of BTS and trivia you could imagine and methodically made the case for it being the perfect pop song. As a big fan of the song myself I enjoyed learning about it and following the link to all of the many different versions and covers of the song. From time to time I have made some attempts to find it but I think it is gone for good. I just remember the care and obvious love that went into making an entire site dedicated to one singular thing.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on What weird food combo did you not realise was weird? in ~food

    sharpstick
    Link Parent
    I just discovered ketchup and mustard flavored Doritos a few weeks ago. They are amazing! Especially when eaten together. I think they are only available for a limited time in my area, or else...

    I just discovered ketchup and mustard flavored Doritos a few weeks ago. They are amazing! Especially when eaten together. I think they are only available for a limited time in my area, or else they were so popular they sold out quickly. I hope they become a regular thing.

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Autistic adults: how do you stim/self-soothe in public? in ~talk

    sharpstick
    Link Parent
    That is so good to hear. I will let her know that this helped you. That will make her happy. :)

    That is so good to hear. I will let her know that this helped you. That will make her happy. :)

    3 votes

  7. Comment on Autistic adults: how do you stim/self-soothe in public? in ~talk

    sharpstick
    Link
    When my wife is particularly stressed in public and needs to stim, she will tap her fingers to her thumbs is a purposeful way like she is counting on her fingers. This seems to strike a balance...

    When my wife is particularly stressed in public and needs to stim, she will tap her fingers to her thumbs is a purposeful way like she is counting on her fingers. This seems to strike a balance between helping her stay calm and a somewhat socially acceptable repetitive action.

    18 votes

  8. Comment on Eastern philosophy says there's no "self". Science agrees in ~humanities

    sharpstick
    Link
    I know that people's have different experience with what is it like to be people, but I will recount my experience of being a person with a chatty brain. For me, part of maturing into adult hood...

    I know that people's have different experience with what is it like to be people, but I will recount my experience of being a person with a chatty brain.

    For me, part of maturing into adult hood was recognizing the story teller part of my brain, the one that produced random thoughts, and realize that that was not me, just my brain trying to make sense of the world. There is a big difference between not being able to stop a thought and taking it as reality. I am not my thoughts, I am the one who uses my mental processes to interrogate my thoughts, emotions and instincts against a set of morals, standards and accumulated knowledge to the best of my ability. This is not a perfect process by any means but I believe that this is what Descartes was referring to when he said "I think, therefore I am." He was not saying "I have random ideas and notions that flash through my brain, therefore I exist." The whole book is an interrogation of himself and his own ability to be certain of anything, including his own personhood. He eventually comes to a starting point in the fact that he is able to have this self-inquiry at all and be aware of it.This is what gives him a claim to existence as an entity separate from his base inputs and outputs. This is what he means by "thinking."

    The questions is not about what part of you is the storyteller, but what is the part of you that is hearing and believing those stories without question? This is where suffering come it, the unexamined life, the person who cannot or doesn't know how change their story about themselves when faces with facts and proof. This is where magical thinking comes from. I don't know that telling people that they don't exist is helpful in combating this in any way.

    9 votes

  9. Comment on Tildes and identity politics in ~tildes

    sharpstick
    Link
    As someone who has been here for a while I can say that one of the things I like most about Tildes is it general, low-key inclusiveness of a wide variety of identities. The term identity politics...

    As someone who has been here for a while I can say that one of the things I like most about Tildes is it general, low-key inclusiveness of a wide variety of identities. The term identity politics is a pre-loaded term that connotes a lot of unspoken assumptions and is often used as a conversation stopper / excuse to stop listening and respecting an individual's perspective. There are other way to explore and respect identity without bringing in the polarization of politics. Just because we may not have the latter does not mean we don't value the former.

    I think this respect is shown most in the fact that I see very little attempts to "win debates" here. Information and perspectives are presented and explored, questions may be asked and disagreements voiced, but readers are generally left to make up their own minds. We may not always get it right, but I think Tilde has a genuine desire to be a welcome and inclusive space where objective rationalism is but one of many ways to explore a topic, and when it is used, it is not weaponized to the degree that it can be in other forums.

    24 votes

  10. Comment on Food suggestions, dieting help in ~health

    sharpstick
    (edited )
    Link
    When I lost my first significant amount of weight here is what worked for me. Take what you can from it. I didn't do all of these at once but added them over time and as I found out what worked...

    When I lost my first significant amount of weight here is what worked for me. Take what you can from it.
    I didn't do all of these at once but added them over time and as I found out what worked for me.

    1. Gradually reduce the amount of sugar you take in to near none. Especially in drinks.
    2. Allow yourself to feel low levels of hunger for longer periods of time.
      Don't eat just because the clock says so.
      The less sugar you eat the easier this will be.
    3. Eat when you are truly hungry, before you become overly, irrationally hungry.
    4. Gradually reduce carbs to a modest level and increased the amount of protein and fiber.
    5. If you snack to keep your low-level hunger going, eat a small protein.
      Get rid of bad snack so they are not an option.
    6. You can count calories and tracking food but I tapered off as I started to find what worked.
    7. Track your weight second-thing every morning.
      This helped me understand my natural weight fluctuations and not get concerned over being a pound or two up for one or two days. Your looking for long-term trends and a sense of accomplishments. Putting together a string of 4 or 5 days where I did well made me less likely to want to break that trend.
    8. Get used to telling yourself "no" and listening to and obeying yourself. Small wins in this area lead to bigger wins like sticking to your plan in social settings. This is tough.
    9. Don't reward your dieting successes with food. You are not banking calories for later, you are eliminating them.
    10. Plan times when you can not follow the plan and relax the rules but no more than twice a month. Weekly is too often.

    Doing this I went from 240 to 170 over the time frame of about a year and a half. It was slooow going at first but eventually the weight started coming off and I hit weeks at a time when I plateaued but I stayed with it.

    I hope this helps. Good luck. You can do it.

    7 votes

  11. Comment on Megathread for news/updates/discussion about Musk's takeover of Twitter – Part 3 in ~tech

    sharpstick
    Link Parent
    I deleted mine a few months before Musk started showing interest in Twitter so that was not the motivation, but my mental well being was. I created an account early on, 2008 I think, so it was...

    I deleted mine a few months before Musk started showing interest in Twitter so that was not the motivation, but my mental well being was. I created an account early on, 2008 I think, so it was tough giving up my user name. But I've been feeling better and better about my decision over the last year/months.

    7 votes

  12. Comment on Five days in class with ChatGPT in ~tech

    sharpstick
    Link
    I think it is important to remember that this positive experience was in the context of computer literacy and coding. As quoted above, ChatGPT has significant weaknesses in other contexts. When I...

    Of course we also saw ChatGPT’s limitations this week. Hiromitsu Higashi, a thoughtful student with an exceptionally broad range, pointed out that the system is good at some things but not as good at others: it created fake names in literature reviews, and has no concept of accuracy. “... Don’t trust book recommendations. It will hallucinate. It will make mistakes...

    I think it is important to remember that this positive experience was in the context of computer literacy and coding. As quoted above, ChatGPT has significant weaknesses in other contexts. When I was researching a topic and asked some general questions about that topic and the people who had written about it, ChatGPT seemed fairly knowledgeable. But when I asked it to pull quotes from those works (written in the 1600, and in the public domain) it "hallucinated" and made up the quotes out of thin air, complete with the correct authors and book titles and a reasonable approximation of writing style. But when I went to verify the quotes and pull page numbers I found the fabrication.

    ChatGPT's confidence even when it is wrong, combined with human laziness/busyness are a bad combination. I think this limitations in ChatGPT can be corrected by forcing it to use an internal fact checker but as it stands right now it is a dangerously flawed tool because it can unwittingly trick us into trusting its output too much.

    I am fascinated by where this will take us I just want to make sure it is somewhere that we want to go.

    10 votes

  13. Comment on I'm back! in ~talk

    sharpstick
    Link
    The quality of topics and discussion here on Tildes is, for me, a complete replacement for the worsening signal to noise ratio on Reddit. Reddit has some good content, but was becoming harder to...

    The quality of topics and discussion here on Tildes is, for me, a complete replacement for the worsening signal to noise ratio on Reddit. Reddit has some good content, but was becoming harder to curate and sift through the drivel and distracting personalities in the comments. Every so often a combative or overly aggressive comment will pop up here and it reminds me of why I left Reddit.

    12 votes

  14. Comment on What are you working on right now? in ~talk

    sharpstick
    Link
    All of the graphics for a massive fund raising event. So many last minute changes and looming deadlines. But it will all be worth it when the student scholarships are funded.

    All of the graphics for a massive fund raising event. So many last minute changes and looming deadlines. But it will all be worth it when the student scholarships are funded.

    4 votes

  15. Comment on Netflix and the self-fulfilling cancellation loop in ~tv

    sharpstick
    Link Parent
    Yes, as consumers we can enjoy an incomplete show. But it is very difficult for a creator to be satisfied with an incomplete work. As Netflix gains a greater reputation for churning through and...

    Yes, as consumers we can enjoy an incomplete show. But it is very difficult for a creator to be satisfied with an incomplete work. As Netflix gains a greater reputation for churning through and abandoning creative material, those artist who want to have a decent chance of seeing their story arc completed are going to look elsewhere. Right now it is a very competitive market for creative as a means to an end for engagement, but soon this pattern of cancelation will back-fire and everyone from consumers to creatives will be wary of Netflix. They are mediating many different conversations between creatives and their audience and if they keep butting in an interrupting those conversations people will take them elsewhere.

    3 votes

  16. Comment on Inside Job creator confirms show has been cancelled by Netflix in ~tv

    sharpstick
    Link
    I am still upset about the cancelation of The OA. The first season especially was some of the best of its genre that I have ever seen and I still think about it. There, the seeds were planted for...

    I am still upset about the cancelation of The OA. The first season especially was some of the best of its genre that I have ever seen and I still think about it. There, the seeds were planted for the five season arc, but we never got to see them bloom. The canvas for larger projects like this are shrinking at Netflix. When even Ozark needs to contend with the possibility of being canceled it sends signals to creators just how big they can dream.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on Stop talking to each other and start buying things: Three decades of survival in the desert of social media in ~life

    sharpstick
    Link Parent
    I think this is a common phrase used when teaching martial arts. It was one of the first things that was taught to me when I briefly took a martial arts class in the mid 80's. It was used as a...

    I think this is a common phrase used when teaching martial arts. It was one of the first things that was taught to me when I briefly took a martial arts class in the mid 80's. It was used as a caution against getting too cocky about our new skills.

    3 votes

  18. Comment on What is your earliest memory of the internet? in ~tech

    sharpstick
    Link
    I had just started my career as a multimedia designer for a large company and we were excited that they were getting a T1 line run to the campus. If I remember correctly we were able to dial into...

    I had just started my career as a multimedia designer for a large company and we were excited that they were getting a T1 line run to the campus. If I remember correctly we were able to dial into their ISP from home, but that didn't last long. I got my first ISP access account (which I still have and use) and started teaching myself to code webpages in a text editor. I was so excited that a webpage design was not static like a printed page, but could be changed and improved as I learned more. I remember learning how to make and optimize animated gifs from videos. I remember BBEdit, Myrmidon, PageMill and then Dreamweaver. I remember feeling like I was part of this small community figuring out how the web would look and work.

    5 votes

  19. Comment on Why men are hard to help in ~life.men

    sharpstick
    Link
    Background info on the publication for context, possible agenda. AEI Board of Trustees

    Background info on the publication for context, possible agenda.

    National Affairs is a quarterly journal of essays about domestic policy, political economy, society, culture, and political thought. It aims to help Americans think a little more clearly about our public life, and rise a little more ably to the challenge of self-government. The journal makes its home at the American Enterprise Institute, and draws upon a broad, diverse array of authors from a range of backgrounds and points of view.

    AEI Board of Trustees

    11 votes

  20. Comment on Weekly megathread for news/updates/discussion of Russian invasion of Ukraine - October 6 in ~news