specwill's recent activity

  1. Comment on Short(er) easy reading fantasy series that isn't YA or Discworld in ~books

    specwill
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    Came looking for Rivers and Craft in the comments!

    Came looking for Rivers and Craft in the comments!

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Recommend your favorite incremental mobile games, please in ~games

    specwill
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    I'm sure the genre has developed since this one came out, but I loved Spaceplan. It's relatively short, with a narrative that ends, and the music is really excellent. I actually bought the soundtrack.

    I'm sure the genre has developed since this one came out, but I loved Spaceplan. It's relatively short, with a narrative that ends, and the music is really excellent. I actually bought the soundtrack.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on The highest-ranking penguin in the world, Sir Nils Olav III, has been promoted to Major General by the Norwegian King's Guard in ~life

    specwill
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    I dunno, this could be a polar-izing choice...

    I dunno, this could be a polar-izing choice...

    2 votes

  4. Comment on What have you been listening to this week? in ~music

  5. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~finance

    specwill
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    This Vox article is interesting because it contains a nugget about how managers report being under increased pressure to show productivity gains (as every company tries to squeeze more work out of...

    This Vox article is interesting because it contains a nugget about how managers report being under increased pressure to show productivity gains (as every company tries to squeeze more work out of fewer workers). But workers are already burning out, so basically managers are resorting to productivity theater to prove they (the managers) are doing their jobs. But that's suuuuuuuper hard to do remotely, and mostly requires really invasive monitoring. Getting people in the office makes it much easier for the managers to look like they're actually doing their jobs.

    (Which is not to say that the pressure to return to office coming from the owner class, as opposed to the middle manager class, isn't about protecting their and their friends' investments in property. Although I also think the owner class needs to feel like they own the people they pay for.)

    3 votes

  6. Comment on Three-year-old migrant dies during trip to Chicago on bus sponsored by Texas in ~news

    specwill
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    Abbott's body count keeps climbing, and no one seems inclined to do a damn thing.

    Abbott's body count keeps climbing, and no one seems inclined to do a damn thing.

    25 votes

  8. Comment on The United States can't build infrastructure. The reason: it refuses to learn from other countries. in ~transport

    specwill
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    I really liked this perspective. With my job, I'm very conscious of the impact of years of lobbying and spending by the automotive and related industries to weaken public transit and undermine its...

    I really liked this perspective. With my job, I'm very conscious of the impact of years of lobbying and spending by the automotive and related industries to weaken public transit and undermine its viability. I'm fascinated to hear these insights about our systemic resistance to learning from other countries that have such obviously more successful models. Thanks for sharing this.

    11 votes

  9. Comment on KKR to acquire Simon & Schuster from Paramount Global for $1.62 billion in ~books

    specwill
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    This is such unfortunate news. That the government blocked the sale of S&S to PRH to protect authors and readers, only to have it handed over to KKR to be Toys R' Used, just sucks Also, after that...

    This is such unfortunate news. That the government blocked the sale of S&S to PRH to protect authors and readers, only to have it handed over to KKR to be Toys R' Used, just sucks

    Also, after that recent story about KKR enshittifying Overdrive, I wonder how this all is going to play out for libraries.

    8 votes

  10. Comment on What happened to the light crime-comedy genre of the 2010s? in ~tv

    specwill
    Link Parent
    Makes me think of all the British cozy mysteries. Priest, grandma, whoever solving mysteries. But I can just imagine American execs being like, "how come this granny keeps finding corpses?" There...

    Makes me think of all the British cozy mysteries. Priest, grandma, whoever solving mysteries. But I can just imagine American execs being like, "how come this granny keeps finding corpses?"

    There have been shows that don't go the crime route, like The Finder, but I can remember so few and they all seem to fail.

    But thinking about it, seems like a lot of this has shifted to supernatural stuff. Cozy horror. SyFy has a lot of shows with that vibe.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on What happened to the light crime-comedy genre of the 2010s? in ~tv

    specwill
    Link Parent
    Brooklyn 99 also points to one of the reasons this kind of stuff has faltered with how they tried to cope with BLM. How much can we swallow a feel-good show about good cops after everything? For...

    Brooklyn 99 also points to one of the reasons this kind of stuff has faltered with how they tried to cope with BLM. How much can we swallow a feel-good show about good cops after everything?

    For sure the death of long seasons and other streaming and market changes contribute, but man, it's hard to watch a show where there are just a bunch of good cops doing good and making you feel warm and fuzzy about cops. A lot of shows I haven't rewatched, and a lot of shows I stopped watching, in 2014 after Garner and Rice and all the fallout. Just got worse after 2020.

    11 votes

  12. Comment on OpenAI's Altman launching a cryptocurrency with an eye-scanner gimmick. Does this impact how you feel about AI? in ~tech

    specwill
    Link Parent
    Yeah, this article covers a lot of interesting risks, but I'm not sure if it arrives at a real solution. And the idea that this kind of project would remain actually decentralized and not directly...

    Yeah, this article covers a lot of interesting risks, but I'm not sure if it arrives at a real solution. And the idea that this kind of project would remain actually decentralized and not directly in the control of a handful of big corporations or government, or both, seems vanishingly slim.

    This all seems eminently (and immanently) abusable...either you leave it open to faking, you exclude certain people, or you open it up to the same problems that make legislation like KOSA such a danger. Or all of the above at once.

    I'd way rather solve the problems this attempts to solve through legislation and enforcement on bad actors and platforms instead of placing the onus on the public to buy into another invasive system.

    1 vote

  13. Comment on OpenAI's Altman launching a cryptocurrency with an eye-scanner gimmick. Does this impact how you feel about AI? in ~tech

    specwill
    Link Parent
    As a lefty, my core issue with the notion of crypto as a currency alternative is more fundamental than my politics: cryptos are not currencies. And you can't convince me that it's a good idea to...

    As a lefty, my core issue with the notion of crypto as a currency alternative is more fundamental than my politics: cryptos are not currencies. And you can't convince me that it's a good idea to use asset tokens as a medium of exchange that, by their very design, funnel value up from new investors to established investors. I mean, good on ya for democratizing systems of wealth consolidation, but that's fundamentally a pyramid scheme.

    6 votes

  14. Comment on OpenAI's Altman launching a cryptocurrency with an eye-scanner gimmick. Does this impact how you feel about AI? in ~tech

    specwill
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    "Central to the effort is an eye-scanning physical “orb,” which Worldcoin’s founders say is necessary for a future in which distinguishing between humans and robots becomes increasingly...

    "Central to the effort is an eye-scanning physical “orb,” which Worldcoin’s founders say is necessary for a future in which distinguishing between humans and robots becomes increasingly challenging due to a surge in artificial intelligence technology. Once users have proven they are not robots, they can be issued one of the company’s tokens."

    With how scammy crypto has proven, this feels more like an effort to further boost the AI doomer hype (which is endlessly good for AI's market value) while cashing in on the attention he's getting. The whole thing reeks of a guy who's going to leave behind a lot of bagholders when he f*cks off to a private island.

    39 votes

  16. Comment on New US merger guidelines released this week - 60-day window for public comment in ~finance

    specwill
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    I left a comment in support, and invited people on other platforms to do the same. I get that working within the system is fraught, but I'm also not going to just cede the system entirely by...

    I left a comment in support, and invited people on other platforms to do the same. I get that working within the system is fraught, but I'm also not going to just cede the system entirely by abstaining.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Every time you click this link, it will send you to a random Web 1.0 website in ~tech

    specwill
    Link Parent
    And so many are snacks I just can't get!

    And so many are snacks I just can't get!

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Every time you click this link, it will send you to a random Web 1.0 website in ~tech

    specwill
    Link
    Thank you for giving me the gift of taquitos.net and its endless supply of snack reviews. Those are humans with a dream.

    Thank you for giving me the gift of taquitos.net and its endless supply of snack reviews. Those are humans with a dream.

    4 votes

  19. Comment on Concerns about new facial recognition software implemented by TSA at US airports in ~transport

    specwill
    Link Parent
    It's funny that ChatGPT both-sides the article when there's a preponderance of evidence the x-ray scanners are useless. Like, one study found they could be fooled by just not packing your...

    It's funny that ChatGPT both-sides the article when there's a preponderance of evidence the x-ray scanners are useless. Like, one study found they could be fooled by just not packing your explosives as a brick.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on Concerns about new facial recognition software implemented by TSA at US airports in ~transport

    specwill
    Link
    Remember when the TSA was like, "Let's expose a bunch of people to x-rays without considering the health implications from scanners that don't even do their job?" This is an agency that has...

    Remember when the TSA was like, "Let's expose a bunch of people to x-rays without considering the health implications from scanners that don't even do their job?"

    This is an agency that has accrued far more failures than successes trying to justify its budget and existence, conducting another experiment on the public regardless of its effects, effectiveness, or broader implications.

    6 votes