slade's recent activity
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Comment on Michelle Obama launches podcast with her brother Craig Robinson in ~life
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Comment on Ever wonder how a quartz-based oscillator works? in ~engineering
slade LinkI was randomly curious how quartz -based clocks worked and found this article that satisfied every bit of my curiosity. Most of this stuff is over my head but fun to read. Like the author, I also...I was randomly curious how quartz -based clocks worked and found this article that satisfied every bit of my curiosity. Most of this stuff is over my head but fun to read. Like the author, I also imagined a gem-like crystal inside every watch.
This is my first post on tildes so apologies if this is the wrong place for it.
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Ever wonder how a quartz-based oscillator works?
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Comment on Sleeping on the floor in ~life.home_improvement
slade Link ParentI'd add to EarlyWords that sleeping in the floor means having to get in the ground and up to your feet. That does require you to be a trained athlete but sometime who can't get up without brancing...I'd add to EarlyWords that sleeping in the floor means having to get in the ground and up to your feet. That does require you to be a trained athlete but sometime who can't get up without brancing themselves or getting winded would have a hard time asking with that every morning. Whereas hip height beds allow you to get in and out from standing height.
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Comment on Digg is relaunching under Kevin Rose and Alexis Ohanian in ~tech
slade Link ParentI believe in using AI for things like this. Having transparent and good faith AI contributors and UI elements that help to deescalate conflict could be huge. I'm not sure if that's what they're...I believe in using AI for things like this. Having transparent and good faith AI contributors and UI elements that help to deescalate conflict could be huge. I'm not sure if that's what they're thinking, but I'm intrigued to see more.
I'll laugh at the irony if everybody leaves reddit and goes back to digg.
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Comment on A Reykjavík building that houses a penis museum and an H&M is also the virtual home to an array of perpetrators of identity theft, ransomware and disinformation in ~tech
slade Link ParentLike the yellow pages is a provider of phones. (I'm dating myself)Like the yellow pages is a provider of phones. (I'm dating myself)
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Comment on Firefox's new Terms of Use grants Mozilla complete data "processing" rights of all user interactions in ~tech
slade Link ParentPrivacy is like a fire extinguisher. You need it, but you hope you never need to use it. But if you don't keep it up, it will result in catastrophic losses. It's a stretched analogy but it works.Privacy is like a fire extinguisher. You need it, but you hope you never need to use it. But if you don't keep it up, it will result in catastrophic losses. It's a stretched analogy but it works.
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Comment on Could AI lead to a revival of decorative beauty? in ~tech
slade Link ParentThe premise of this sentence is an economic one, but the conclusion you're drawing seems ethical (that's how I read "nothing wrong"). If fulfilling the demand through automated rehashing leads to...There's clearly a demand for this product, and their business is fulfilling it, there's nothing wrong with that.
The premise of this sentence is an economic one, but the conclusion you're drawing seems ethical (that's how I read "nothing wrong"). If fulfilling the demand through automated rehashing leads to an ultimate decline in the industry, I think there's at least room for discussing if there's something wrong with it.
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Comment on Just rewatched “Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart”, a five-episode series explaining thirty emotions in ~tv
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Comment on Just rewatched “Brené Brown: Atlas of the Heart”, a five-episode series explaining thirty emotions in ~tv
slade Link ParentPlus, I think it's impossible to live in a society and not learn empathy as part of the process. It's just that the lessons life teaches about empathy can at times be confusing. So without...Plus, I think it's impossible to live in a society and not learn empathy as part of the process. It's just that the lessons life teaches about empathy can at times be confusing. So without intentional and structured learning on the topic, people end up with a sense of ethics (whether they know that's what it's called or not) that has a lot of battle scars.
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Comment on Who are your favorite actors? in ~movies
slade LinkLot of people I would mention have been mentioned. I'll add Glenn Howerton (Dennis in Always Sunny in Philadelphia). He's not a proliferate actor, but I have a sense that he has phenomenal...Lot of people I would mention have been mentioned. I'll add Glenn Howerton (Dennis in Always Sunny in Philadelphia).
He's not a proliferate actor, but I have a sense that he has phenomenal untapped range. I spend a lot of time paying attention to how actors deliver. I feel like he is really good at every little body motion fitting the scene, in a way that see very few other other actors pull off.
I've seen him pull off everything from his famous mouth-frothing rage scenes to gentle to serious and all things between and orthogonal.
I think he'd be a perfect leading hero or villain. I'd put him in a lot of the same roles as Christian Bale.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
slade Link ParentI always have complicated feelings about things like this. On one hand, in our current paradigm, I want creators to be compensated with money for their work. On the other hand, the current...I always have complicated feelings about things like this. On one hand, in our current paradigm, I want creators to be compensated with money for their work. On the other hand, the current paradigm takes a willing producer and a willing consumer and injects a third party in the middle that nobody actually wants, and I'd like to see that torn down. And on one foot, while I want to reward creators, I'm grossed out that I have to do that by rewarding YouTube and trusting them to fairly pass along the value to the creator.
I've always thought that a public video hosting platform, with X bytes of content per citizen, would do much to upend the algorithm chasing YouTube brings about. If it's not out to make money, then there's no misanthropic "algorithm" that optimizes profit, just simple search. And it would only really incentive creators that do it for passion. I'd be giddy to only consume content from people who aren't trying to make money off of it.
Let's bring back public access for the internet age!
This is me musing about my own values and goofy ideas, so please don't take any of it as judgement against your project. What you did sounds like a really cool project.
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Comment on HP ditches mandatory fifteen-minute wait time policy due to 'feedback' in ~tech
slade Link ParentYou can have that wiggle room and high quality of life for employees without mandatory wait times by just staffing up. So you call and you immediately get somebody, but it can be somebody who is...You can have that wiggle room and high quality of life for employees without mandatory wait times by just staffing up. So you call and you immediately get somebody, but it can be somebody who is just coming off a rest period.
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Comment on Tildes worldbuilding thread in ~creative
slade (edited )LinkI have a story I've been kicking around since I was a teenager. I don't have the story, and maybe never will, but some day I'd like to turn it into a trilogy. The setting is a fantasy setting, but...I have a story I've been kicking around since I was a teenager. I don't have the story, and maybe never will, but some day I'd like to turn it into a trilogy.
The setting is a fantasy setting, but no magic (to start). In my universe, the concept of achieving full enlightenment and ascending to a state of both omniscience + omnipotence is real. The hand wavy part is that a natural condition for reaching that state is that you would not be someone who would use that omnipotence. Omnipotence is a side effect of enlightenment, and you only unlock the power when you're, at your core, someone who wouldn't use it.
It's a given that some unspecified number of people have ascended in this way, and the concept of "divine within" is central to many of the world's belief systems over thousands of years of civilizations that come and go.
The conflict comes when one character achieves enlightenment, but (hand wavy) stumbles at the critical threshold. He saw through the fabric of reality, the way the universe works, and for a moment he couldn't handle it. He reacts subconsciously, like a knee jerk, to quiet it all by splitting himself in two: one aspect is nearly "omnipotent". The other aspect is omniscient. He knows everything from the beginning up to the present, no exceptions. He also has a decent read on the future based on his complete knowledge of the present, nature, and being able to see through complex statistics. He doesn't see the future but makes highly educated guesses; his weakness here is around human behavior, which his time in isolation has left inaccessible to him. He's worse than median at predicting human behavior; it's like a blind spot for him.
They tried to coexist for a short time, power and knowledge, but it just didn't work. Everything the omnipotent aspect wanted to do, the omniscient half explained away as a bad idea. Power wanted to reshape his world, unknowingly clinging to his mortal past. Knowledge was ready to join the ethos and ascend, but knew he couldn't without Power rejoining them by choice.
Eventually fed up, his power aspect casts his knowledge aspect to a comfortable planet on the farthest reaches of the expanding universe. Impossibly far from anything the power aspect cared about.
The next millennia see him using his power to impact his world. He would be described as a benevolent but clumsy god. He gets over involved, he makes dumb mistakes, he hurts people. But that's not who he is, and he really does try his best. He seeks advice from his knowledge aspect and after scrutinizing it for ulterior motives, he takes it. He withdraws completely and gives the world magic: conveyed slices of his power given to specific humans (wizards) to be used for good.
The story I want to write begins when one wizard is doing research on teleportation. He doesn't get it, but in his research he is able to open unpredictable portals to random locations in the universe. He's opening portal after portal, recording stars and trying to make sense of the magic. On the umpteenth run of the experiment, until then only looking at dead surfaces of rocks in space, a portal opens to a shock: a verdant world with an old man sitting expectantly on a chair that is positioned as if it were waiting for the portal to appear.
This brings the knowledge aspect back to civilization. The story that unfolds would follow a band of protagonists that get sucked into this story without realizing what it is, and builds towards reunifying the two aspects.
I'm not actually sure how it would happen. The knowledge half would lie and conceal things that he knows would turn away people he needs. He's frail and old (however sharp and immortal) and relies on the support of others to get around the world. He is wildly eccentric since he's been isolated for so long, and the reader wouldn't know his true nature for a while into the story.
The happy ending would be the heroes reunifying the "god", but I'm not sure if he continues his x,000 years old ascension journey, or if it fails and he dies a mortal death.
The unhappy ending would be the omniscient aspect using the heroes to trick the omnipotent aspect into imprisoning himself forever. A torturous existence that never ends. I'm this ending, the knowledge aspect's motives were poisoned over time and he was seeking revenge, not enlightenment.
Inspirations include Ultima 7.2: Serpent Isle, and Lost.
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Comment on Tildes worldbuilding thread in ~creative
slade Link ParentThis is really interesting and compelling. I'm somewhat obsessed with cassette retrofuturism. Give me a bump textured, clunky, beige plastic terminal with lots of thick amber plastic components,...This is really interesting and compelling. I'm somewhat obsessed with cassette retrofuturism. Give me a bump textured, clunky, beige plastic terminal with lots of thick amber plastic components, and I'm transported to vibe country.
I agree that this setting is ripe for so many directions of storytelling. If we are a civilization hyper advancing in obviously catastrophic ways, it's a short leap to realize that our reality isn't actually very different. Microprocessors weren't handed to us, but we nonetheless created them before understanding how they would impact us anthropologically.
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Comment on What is your strangely specific phobia? in ~talk
slade Link ParentI can relate to this. I think being grossed out by touching dead things is probably just good evolution. But personally I'm specifically skeeved out by touching things that I didn't think were...I can relate to this. I think being grossed out by touching dead things is probably just good evolution. But personally I'm specifically skeeved out by touching things that I didn't think were dead. While living in Florida in a past life I saw what I naively thought was a sleeping anole hanging next to my door. I carefully poked him thinking to scare him off to somewhere safer and he fell off the wall, an empty husk of a corpse, and it messed me up for a bit.
Another instance that particularly triggered me is an early episode of South Park where Kenny gets bonked "unconscious", so the kids just drag him around waiting for him to wake up. Then as a post-climax gag Kenny's body starts randomly quivering and shaking before a bunch of rats burst from his now-empty abdominal cavity. Despite being a cartoon and a cheap gag, it just triggers a visceral disgust in me.
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Comment on Open to collaborate and draw something for you in ~creative
slade Link ParentThis is always interesting to me. I feel like very few artists have captured fictional aliens in a way that feels "realistic" to me. Which might be because the concept is fully elusive. But I'm...This is always interesting to me. I feel like very few artists have captured fictional aliens in a way that feels "realistic" to me. Which might be because the concept is fully elusive. But I'm always interested in takes that aren't slimy monsters or humans with prosthetics.
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Comment on What are your favorite books with an unreliable narrator? in ~books
slade LinkI'm not OP, but I can help. The "unbelievable narrator" is a storytelling technique. It spans genres, but works particular well for certain ones. The technique is when the author tells the story...I'm not OP, but I can help. The "unbelievable narrator" is a storytelling technique. It spans genres, but works particular well for certain ones.
The technique is when the author tells the story through a narrator (whether a character or a detached narrator) that isn't reliable. Imagine a story about somebody who is experiencing a psychotic break. We see through their eyes what is happening, but they aren't rational so what they (and we) see isn't what's actually happening in the story's universe.
A lot of times the unreliable narration isn't obvious until it builds into a reveal, where we find out that certain parts of the story were not what we were shown. Other times the author gives us hints through external events that the narrator's perspective is not clear, and it's more of a slow realization than a reveal.
There are a lot of good examples of it in popular films and books but I can't name any of them without spoiling them. I guess one good example, where the unreliability of the narrator is clear from the start, is Memento. Amazing movie narrated from the perspective of someone who only has short term memory and thus is unreliable even to himself.
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Comment on What did you do this week (and weekend)? in ~talk
slade LinkI pushed myself too hard working late to deliver some software while trying to be present for my four year old who was out of school this week. The work was delayed multiple times, but the delays...I pushed myself too hard working late to deliver some software while trying to be present for my four year old who was out of school this week. The work was delayed multiple times, but the delays were for his reasons that the planning just didn't catch. It felt like a big achievement, but was greatly undermined by news that my boss is stepping down. He was a game changer for our organization and validated a lot of my personal approach to software. So I'm pretty bummed and mostly hoping the company (a startup) is still healthy.
I took my guy skiing for the first time yesterday and he loved it. And took him climbing without an autobelay for the first time and he loved that too.
And I finally got a certificate of occupancy (8 months behind schedule) for a new home.
Big, rollercoaster of a week, and I didn't even think about it until this thread asked me to.
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Comment on What did you do this week (and weekend)? in ~talk
slade Link ParentMy guy is four and won't poop unless I'm hugging him while he pushes. Parenthood is a true blessing.My guy is four and won't poop unless I'm hugging him while he pushes. Parenthood is a true blessing.
It's apolitical if it's apolitical. Right?
Do you mean that it should be political by nature of who she is, that it implicitly is political by nature of who she is, or that it mostly likely will be by nature of who she is?