text_garden's recent activity
-
Comment on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and US influencers bash seed oils, baffling nutrition scientists in ~food
-
Comment on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and US influencers bash seed oils, baffling nutrition scientists in ~food
text_garden Link ParentIf you're rapidly gaining weight or rapidly want to lose weight, then yes, diet is probably the best way to address it. However, a lot of people have grown to the point of obesity by just slowly...Weight loss is dramatically more difficult through exercise than through diet.
If you're rapidly gaining weight or rapidly want to lose weight, then yes, diet is probably the best way to address it. However, a lot of people have grown to the point of obesity by just slowly gaining weight. I imagine those are many more than people who are suddenly rapidly gaining weight or those who have rapidly been gaining weight for a long time.
In that case, the difference between gaining, maintaining and losing weight isn't that big, and while a basic level of exercise might not account for much of your total energy expenditure, it might still represent a large chunk of that excess energy that causes obesity to sort of creep up on people in adulthood.
That basic level of exercise should probably be thought of as more of a proactive measure, though. If you've slowly gained weight over 20 years and realize one day that you are more fat than you'd like, you're not looking for solutions that allow you to maintain that weight or lose it over another 20 years, and dietary changes are again more effective if you rapidly want to lose weight. But the problem up until that point was never that you weren't rapidly losing weight, rather that you were slowly gaining it.
To this end, car oriented culture and the sedentary lifestyle it promotes should be considered a problem. I get the idea that there are places where walking or bicycling isn't a viable mode of transportation for anything but getting to your neighbor. Public infrastructure, city planning and the private market all have this in mind and exacerbate the problem in their response to it. That basic level of exercise then has to be an active choice rather than just being a natural side effect of doing things like getting to work, shopping for groceries, visiting friends and family etc.
-
Comment on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and US influencers bash seed oils, baffling nutrition scientists in ~food
text_garden Link ParentTo be perfectly fair, McDonalds would be near the bottom of the list of my options to get a salad. Although I'm not in America I imagine that this is less indicative of Americans not wanting to...McDonalds actually offered decent salads. But they stopped selling them due to... lack of demand.
To be perfectly fair, McDonalds would be near the bottom of the list of my options to get a salad. Although I'm not in America I imagine that this is less indicative of Americans not wanting to eat salad than it is of Americans not going to McDonalds to eat salad.
-
Comment on Repeatedly upvoting violent content on Reddit can now get you flagged in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentThey could do that, but it might have less of the intended effect than announcing it openly. Drawing parallels to penology, you can think of it as a kind of denunciation. The value of Reddit as...They could do that, but it might have less of the intended effect than announcing it openly. Drawing parallels to penology, you can think of it as a kind of denunciation. The value of Reddit as with other social networks lies almost entirely in the work of its users. People who upvote stuff like this probably represent a not insignificant chunk of the most active user base, and more heavy-handed moderation techniques might hurt Reddit's bottom line.
-
Comment on Spotify down? No, your Spotify mod was just blocked—here's why it won't work anymore. in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentYes, it's frequently a problem with fresh or obscure stuff I buy on Bandcamp, though those are usually tagged well enough that I can still use Picard just to organize them into the directory...Yes, it's frequently a problem with fresh or obscure stuff I buy on Bandcamp, though those are usually tagged well enough that I can still use Picard just to organize them into the directory structure I've set up without re-tagging anything.
-
Comment on Have you made a video game? Can I play it? in ~games
text_garden LinkAlmost finished with Acid Web, a straight forward arcade twin stick shooter oriented around combat puzzles, with a generative acid techno soundtrack. You can play the demo! The full release is...Almost finished with Acid Web, a straight forward arcade twin stick shooter oriented around combat puzzles, with a generative acid techno soundtrack. You can play the demo! The full release is scheduled for the beginning of April.
I've previously released Jupiter Sumo for the Atari 2600, a couple of smaller Pico-8 games and SNAKE SHOOT for the VIC-20 (which because of my gag is now listed in TOSEC as actually having been released in 1983, lol), but Acid Web is my first commercial game project.
-
Comment on Recommend me a racing/driving game on PC in ~games
text_garden LinkMore on the OutRun side of things: Slipstream. Not a very deep game but I had a ton of fun with it. It has the branching mechanic and sprite scaling/bendy road kind of graphics of OutRun.More on the OutRun side of things: Slipstream. Not a very deep game but I had a ton of fun with it. It has the branching mechanic and sprite scaling/bendy road kind of graphics of OutRun.
-
Comment on Spotify down? No, your Spotify mod was just blocked—here's why it won't work anymore. in ~tech
text_garden Link ParentI have a local library of music, organized using Picard. I sync it to my phone with rsync, where I play it back with VLC. For discovery beyond reading up on the musicians and labels I mostly use...I have a local library of music, organized using Picard. I sync it to my phone with rsync, where I play it back with VLC. For discovery beyond reading up on the musicians and labels I mostly use YouTube, which seems to have a good idea of what I like at this point. On the PC I use fzf for quick search in the library, which then launches Audacious.
I mostly listen to music release-by-release, but VLC ought to support most playlist formats.
-
Comment on What is a book that every 13-year-old boy should read? in ~books
text_garden LinkThe Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin. Kind of low fantasy coming-of-age? I never read these as a child, but as an adult I kept thinking they would leave a good impression on a teenager, and...The Earthsea books by Ursula K. Le Guin. Kind of low fantasy coming-of-age? I never read these as a child, but as an adult I kept thinking they would leave a good impression on a teenager, and deal with areas you've mentioned like confidence, development and ethics. Notably, the protagonists making mistakes our outright being wrong in their beliefs and learning from that is a recurring theme. I enjoyed them as an adult, too. The prose is simple but very effective.
-
Comment on Do you have a game that you love from “before your time?” in ~games
text_garden Link ParentDoom and Doom II still hold up for me because as much as there were a bunch of "Doom clones" with few exceptions they mostly really "cloned" its technical achievements. But Doom hasn't lasted this...Doom and Doom II still hold up for me because as much as there were a bunch of "Doom clones" with few exceptions they mostly really "cloned" its technical achievements. But Doom hasn't lasted this long for its technical achievements, which were surpassed in just a couple of years. It's just a really good game at its core, and there are very few games quite like it, mechanically.
-
Comment on People named "Null" are being punished by computers in the weirdest ways in ~comp
text_garden LinkI feel like this mischaracterizes the issue somewhat. The problem here isn't null references (the mistake that Tony Hoare regrets), but assigning special status to representable values of value...The origin of this coding blunder traces back six decades to a British computer scientist who first gave null its special reserved status. He obviously didn't take into account the 4,910th most common surname when he did so, and has regretted the move ever since, even calling it a "billion-dollar mistake."
I feel like this mischaracterizes the issue somewhat. The problem here isn't null references (the mistake that Tony Hoare regrets), but assigning special status to representable values of value types. A null reference in Algol sense isn't the same thing as a string value with the content "null" or any value at all. It really boils down to shoddy engineering; null was invented exactly so that you can have a reference value that represents nothing without having a special value type (as opposed to reference type) value that represents nothing.
Weak type systems e.g. of the "stringly typed" kind, awful engineering around things like building database queries, bad band-aid solutions to poor data or poor database schema, other "clever" representation solutions...these are the problems in question, not null.
Tony Hoare regrets null as it was implemented in Algol for its own qualities: the language doesn't force you to check whether references are null before you attempt to dereference them, and many still popular languages inherited this, resulting in the "billion-dollar mistake". It truly is a billlion-dollar mistake in its own right, and it has caused so many crashes and exceptions not to mention worse, more subtle bugs, but this issue in particular is caused by a whole different league of poor engineering you probably couldn't coax out of Tony Hoare at gunpoint.
-
Comment on Grammar errors that actually matter, or: the thread where we all become prescriptivists in ~humanities.languages
text_garden LinkAs well as I can understand something like "I could care less" as actually implying the opposite because I'm aware of the original idiom, and I can piece together what word was actually intended...As well as I can understand something like "I could care less" as actually implying the opposite because I'm aware of the original idiom, and I can piece together what word was actually intended with a homophone from the immediate context of the word, I don't think those errors should be considered as not mattering only because their intended meaning can be deduced somehow.
Those errors create friction and distraction. Time I spend playing piecing together what you meant to say on such a basic semantic level is time I don't spend evaluating the broader meaning of what you are saying, or at the very least time wasted.
It also colors the rest of my reading with a growing uncertainty whether the author is at all concerned with the meaning of the words they are using, or even with the sentiment they're trying to convey. This is of course a kind of unfair prejudice. I know that there are people who will struggle with written words in ways that cause errors like this no matter how clear their thoughts are. On an intellectual level, I can account for that and try to give a little extra energy where it's necessary for the message to be conveyed, but I won't pretend I can fully account for my subconscious view of the author and the ways in which that interacts with my understanding of the message.
-
Comment on Looking for low-precision, mouse-only Steam game recommendations in ~games
text_garden LinkI've had a lot of fun with Pawnbarian. I don't have a Steam Deck, but I imagine it would fit the bill with being turn based and playing out on a 5x5 board.I've had a lot of fun with Pawnbarian. I don't have a Steam Deck, but I imagine it would fit the bill with being turn based and playing out on a 5x5 board.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden Link ParentThanks! Poor planning mostly :D Initially I'd imagined very simple requirements. Subroutines, commands to spawn enemies, to wait for the specified amount of time and to wait for you to destroy all...- Exemplary
Thanks!
What made you decide to write your own?
Poor planning mostly :D
Initially I'd imagined very simple requirements. Subroutines, commands to spawn enemies, to wait for the specified amount of time and to wait for you to destroy all the enemies. Didn't need much of a compiler for that, it resembled a stripped down BASIC more than anything. Then after a while I added a basic looping construct to avoid repetition when I realized that would be a pain in the ass. Eventually I added global variables and expressions because I realized it would still be a pain in the ass to do things like drawing geometric patterns of enemies and parameterizing things via global variables. So I added local variables and function parameters to the subroutines, so I could factor some of that out into functions.
In hindsight, maybe I could have solved all this with coroutines in Lua, but I'm happy that I didn't for a few reasons. It's been a nice learning experience figuring these things out, and my language has no dynamic allocation during run-time, which is somewhat reassuring for a game.
-
Comment on Are modern iPhones unusable without a case? in ~comp
text_garden LinkI have a 12 Mini. I used it with a case for a while but removed it a year ago. My only real gripes with the form factor are the notch and the fact that the camera juts out about 2 mm outside the...I have a 12 Mini. I used it with a case for a while but removed it a year ago. My only real gripes with the form factor are the notch and the fact that the camera juts out about 2 mm outside the rest of the phone. The latter seems stupidly designed to me, and in a way that definitely makes more sense if you have a case, but overall I prefer the smaller profile without it.
-
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
text_garden LinkI'm at the final stages of my commercial game project, Acid Web. I'm mostly making levels at this point, in a home grown scripting language. Trying to write five sufficiently unique and...I'm at the final stages of my commercial game project, Acid Web. I'm mostly making levels at this point, in a home grown scripting language. Trying to write five sufficiently unique and challenging levels a day is already tough after five days. The levels are short, though, and it's easy enough at this point to factor code into reusable subroutines, after adding looping, conditional branching, local variables and expressions. I never intended for it to be a full-fledged scripting environment, but after successively realizing how much of a pain in the ass I could save myself by adding feature after feature to the language I'm at the point where a more rational choice might have been to use Lua.
I've been procrastrinating a lot, though. Mainly through:
- https://github.com/boomlinde/music, a set of JACK Audio Connection Kit utilities. It includes a phase distortion synthesizer, a drum synth, pattern-based automatic signal routing, a MIDI SMF parser/player and a libmt32emu frontend among other things. These work seamlessly on my Pipewire setup thanks to its JACK compatibility layer. I've made a couple of demos, of the SMF player and the phase distortion synth. It's written in Zig, so if you are interested in that you should definitely check the repository out.
- Porting my Atari 2600 game Jupiter Sumo to the C64. It's a kind of Jupiter Lander-meets-pool two-player duel game if that makes any remote sense. It's going well, but has been stagnant for a while now. I will add more different arena layouts compared to the Atari version.
- Adding features to my PETSCII editor petshop. It can now export png images using an stb library, and also load custom character sets.
-
Comment on I want to finally understand how to compile in C well, any resource recommendations? in ~comp
text_garden LinkThe core functionality of make is simple and very general, extending beyond C and software development: given a target file, its prerequisite files and a recipe that generates the target, it runs...The core functionality of
makeis simple and very general, extending beyond C and software development: given a target file, its prerequisite files and a recipe that generates the target, it runs the command only if any of the prerequisite files are newer than the target. Rules can be dependent: if the target of one rule is a prerequisite of another rule, it'll evaluate the former rule first.For make, I like the Introduction to Makefiles in the GNU Make manual.
For the compiler front-end, there are a lot of flags and options for more or less obscure use cases, so it really depends on what you do. The GCC manual provides a helpful summary. Most importantly I think, you pass
-cto tell the frontend to compile the given source files into an object file without linking it. You pass-owith a name to specify an output name. I usually pass-Wall -O3when compiling to enable all warnings and a high degree of optimization respectively. For linking to system libraries I usepkg-configto generate the appropriate flags to the linker and compiler.So for a simple single-file C application, in the shell I might invoke
cc -Wall -O3 $(pkg-config --cflags libpcap) -c application.o application.c # compile into object file cc application.o $(pkg-config --libs libpcap) -o application # link into executable.The corresponding Makefile might be something like
application: application.o cc -Wall -O3 $(shell pkg-config --cflags libpcap) -c application.o application.c application.o: application.c application.h cc application.o $(shell pkg-config --libs libpcap) -o applicationor, because GNU make has pre-defined implicit rules for these things based on a set of variables
CFLAGS += -Wall -O3 $(shell pkg-config --cflags libpcap) LDLIBS += $(shell pkg-config --libs libpcap) application: application.o application.o: application.c application.hNote that the Makefile only really shines when you are linking multiple independent object files. Then, if you have specified the dependencies correctly, it'll only recompile the objects to which the dependencies have changed, and relink, saving you a whole lot of compilation of source files that haven't changed.
-
Comment on Facing egg shortage, some Americans turn to backyard chickens in ~food
text_garden Link ParentI met a couple that kept a chicken in a coop in their backyard. Because it was bred to lay eggs often, it needed calcium supplements in its food, or it would start laying soft eggs, which is...I met a couple that kept a chicken in a coop in their backyard. Because it was bred to lay eggs often, it needed calcium supplements in its food, or it would start laying soft eggs, which is harmful to them.
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
text_garden LinkOverwhelmingly, Hexcells Infinite. It generates a kind of puzzle that's somewhat like Minesweeper on a hex grid, but makes sure that you can arrive at the solution to each puzzle without guessing....Overwhelmingly, Hexcells Infinite. It generates a kind of puzzle that's somewhat like Minesweeper on a hex grid, but makes sure that you can arrive at the solution to each puzzle without guessing. Good DOS attack on the mind (as I heard someone describe Sudoku once).
I also played through all the official Half-Life series. Neither of them have aged particularly well IMO, but I also binged on them so that probably colors my perception a bit.
Other than that, I finished Overload, played a lot of Desecrators and Mechwarrior 5. I can't recommend both Desecrators and Overload highly enough (and I think I already mentioned them in an earlier thread like this). It's hard to contend with FPS games where you are basically stuck walking along a plane now. Once you've felt spherestrafing, circlestrafing just doesn't cut it :D
-
Comment on In Norway, children walk to school aged six, or even travel across the country. Why do these kids have so much independence, while other countries are so risk-averse? in ~life
text_garden Link ParentIs that really the case or hyperbole? I am not familiar with Polish law.Now you'd have your children taken away by social workers for leaving a 10 year olds home alone while you're at work, meanwhile this was a norm not so long time ago.
Is that really the case or hyperbole? I am not familiar with Polish law.
That is true whether the deficit is caused by a dietary change or increased physical activity, but exercise and even basic levels of physical activity actually tend to suppress hunger through a variety of mechanisms.
Regardless of these nuances, the fact remains that if your surplus is small you can lose weight without dietary change through exercise.
It's pointless to debate what exactly constitutes "slow" and "rapid" other than to recognize that some people gain weight much faster than others and will have a calorie surplus that can't easily be offset through exercise, for reasons unrelated to something being wrong with their bodies. That's the degree to which the difference between rapid and slow has any bearing on my argument.
I'm not saying that. My reply doesn't pertain at all to what anyone should do except to consider a culture that promotes not using your body as a problem.