thecakeisalime's recent activity
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Comment on Tildes Survey #6: Vote for the next four surveys we do! in ~talk
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Comment on Signal, NordVPN, Proton to leave Canada over C-22 in ~society
thecakeisalime Link ParentI've worked internal tech support for a large company. There were people, seemingly weekly, who would forget their passwords and need them reset. And with the ubiquity of password managers, that...I've worked internal tech support for a large company. There were people, seemingly weekly, who would forget their passwords and need them reset.
And with the ubiquity of password managers, that just opens a whole new can of worms. If the police can compel my Tildes password, but I need to unlock my password manager to give it to them, does that give them the right to all of my other passwords (similar to if I had an already unlocked phone)?
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Comment on Signal, NordVPN, Proton to leave Canada over C-22 in ~society
thecakeisalime Link ParentMost of those have very little to do with our online presence, and none of them are solved by C-22 or any other privacy destroying bill. Almost all of your examples are just politicians and rich...Most of those have very little to do with our online presence, and none of them are solved by C-22 or any other privacy destroying bill.
Almost all of your examples are just politicians and rich people getting away with crimes right in front of us because the police and judges refuse to do anything about it. They're not being ignored for lack of evidence; they're being ignored because laws don't apply to the rich and powerful (see: the Epstein Files, the Panama Papers, or even pre-internet stuff like the Catholic Church and Jimmy Saville).
Crime networks propping up human rights-abusing authoritarian states?
I want to call this one out as being especially ironic. You do understand what this bill is doing, right?
The government can't stop people from encrypting things. They can give people an extra hoop to jump through, but the actual criminals are probably already jumping through multiple hoops to encrypt their stuff, and this law will do nothing to prevent that (because it's literally impossible to prevent). The only thing this does is weaken privacy for people who aren't jumping through those extra hoops.
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Comment on Signal, NordVPN, Proton to leave Canada over C-22 in ~society
thecakeisalime Link ParentWhat happens when you can't remember your password? Do you just go to jail for the rest of your life? We've all heard about the people who've forgotten their bitcoin passwords worth millions of...What happens when you can't remember your password? Do you just go to jail for the rest of your life?
We've all heard about the people who've forgotten their bitcoin passwords worth millions of dollars, so it's clear that it does happen sometimes.
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Comment on Signal, NordVPN, Proton to leave Canada over C-22 in ~society
thecakeisalime Link ParentThat's not at all evident to me. What's wrong with the internet right now that makes it so essential to monitor everyone's activities?Doing nothing is not an alternative, as is evident today
That's not at all evident to me. What's wrong with the internet right now that makes it so essential to monitor everyone's activities?
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Comment on Tildes Gardening Group: Week 18/5/26 in ~hobbies
thecakeisalime LinkSpent the long weekend tidying/weeding the garden beds and planting vegetables. The local squirrel population didn't dig anything up overnight, which I hope is a good sign.Spent the long weekend tidying/weeding the garden beds and planting vegetables. The local squirrel population didn't dig anything up overnight, which I hope is a good sign.
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Comment on From neat lawns to wild havens: how No Mow May is transforming England’s gardens in ~enviro
thecakeisalime Link ParentDandelions are not a great source of nutrition for bees. Probably better than monoculture lawns, but pretty much everything is. If you can re-wild your lawn with native plants and flowers, that's...Dandelions are not a great source of nutrition for bees. Probably better than monoculture lawns, but pretty much everything is.
If you can re-wild your lawn with native plants and flowers, that's certainly a much better option.
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Comment on Reddit reports 69% jump in revenue, topping analyst estimates in ~tech
thecakeisalime Link ParentA lot of stock prices drop from the IPO price. Going by this site (I don't know how complete or accurate this information is), 160 companies are down from their 2025 IPO price, and 123 are up....A lot of stock prices drop from the IPO price. Going by this site (I don't know how complete or accurate this information is), 160 companies are down from their 2025 IPO price, and 123 are up. With some rough calculations, if you invested the same amount in each company's IPO and held through today, you'd have a total ~8% return, which isn't awful, but it's slightly below average, and a lot below the actual returns from the past year. You're also taking a huge risk to do this, since many of these companies have seen huge swings in price.
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
thecakeisalime LinkIn the final stretches of Memory of Light (the final book in the Wheel of Time series). I'm about a quarter of the way through Chapter 37, which my Kindle has estimated will take me about 4 hours...In the final stretches of Memory of Light (the final book in the Wheel of Time series). I'm about a quarter of the way through Chapter 37, which my Kindle has estimated will take me about 4 hours to read. This chapter is longer than many books.
While I appreciate Robert Jordan for the world and characters that he created, I'm much happier with Brandon Sanderson's writing in these last few books. I probably wouldn't have finished reading the series if Robert Jordan had written it through to the end. There was just too much repetition and unnecessary descriptions for my taste.
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Comment on Very Important People: Boris Tarshkokan in ~tv
thecakeisalime Link ParentI think there's only a couple episodes of Play it by Ear that I enjoyed more than the Game Changer episode. There's only two seasons, and it's worth watching if you enjoy that niche. I didn't...I think there's only a couple episodes of Play it by Ear that I enjoyed more than the Game Changer episode. There's only two seasons, and it's worth watching if you enjoy that niche. I didn't dislike any episodes, but there's definitely a few weaker episodes.
Zach and Jess also have a musical improv podcast that I haven't listened to yet, but it's supposed to be quite good as well.
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Comment on Income tax will be dead within five years as AI jobs crisis grows, says Monzo founder in ~tech
thecakeisalime LinkTaxing compute seems to be the next big craze, and it really just seems like another attempt to add complexity and loopholes and avoid taxing corporations properly. If a corporation is selling...Taxing compute seems to be the next big craze, and it really just seems like another attempt to add complexity and loopholes and avoid taxing corporations properly.
If a corporation is selling compute, or selling widgets, it doesn't really make a difference - money is money, so you can tax both corporations. If a company replaces all their workers with AI robots, you don't need to tax the robots, just tax the corporation on their newly created profits.
Any policy that doesn't just tax the profit of a corporation is leaving itself open to abuse.
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Comment on How are we all feeling about piracy these days? in ~movies
thecakeisalime Link ParentInstead of that, you can usually just email one of the authors and they'll be more than happy to send you a copy. They don't get anything when you pay publishers to access their papers, so they...There is this very weird forum-like website where you can request papers with a bounty of "points", and you get some points by clicking a button each day (enough for 3 or so papers) . I would have to dig through my bookmarks to remember the name. I only really need it for papers that are both paywalled and don't have a preprint available now
Instead of that, you can usually just email one of the authors and they'll be more than happy to send you a copy. They don't get anything when you pay publishers to access their papers, so they don't care. They're usually just excited that someone's interested in their work.
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Comment on Am I German or autistic? in ~health.mental
thecakeisalime Link ParentI'm 60% German and 56% autistic. Beneath the result it says "Scores are independent — they don't need to add up to 100%" which bothers both the German and autistic sides of me.I'm 60% German and 56% autistic. Beneath the result it says "Scores are independent — they don't need to add up to 100%" which bothers both the German and autistic sides of me.
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Comment on Competence is lonely. Nobody talks about why. in ~health.mental
thecakeisalime Link ParentYeah, this seems like it's focused on people whose whole social lives revolve around their workplace, which is unhealthy whether you're competent or not. At my last job, I was the competent one,...Yeah, this seems like it's focused on people whose whole social lives revolve around their workplace, which is unhealthy whether you're competent or not.
At my last job, I was the competent one, and while that meant I kept getting interrupted to answer questions, I never would have called myself "lonely", because, frankly, I will never care about my colleagues in that way. And at 5 pm, I'd leave, and not have to think about them until I got to work again the next day. For those people who don't always clock out at 5, or don't have other adult relationships outside of work, I can see how this could be lonely. But the problem isn't competence - it's the fact that meeting people and making friendships as an adult is hard. Incompetent people might be able to make friends at work (I guess that's the implication of the article), but I suspect they're just surface level friendships of convenience that would fall apart pretty quickly if one person got a new job.
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Comment on Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor in ~tech
thecakeisalime Link ParentIt sounds a lot like "I had too much clutter so I burned down my house and now I'm living in my car". Yeah, it works, I guess. But the problem isn't the big monitor. It's that he's using it to...It sounds a lot like "I had too much clutter so I burned down my house and now I'm living in my car".
Yeah, it works, I guess. But the problem isn't the big monitor. It's that he's using it to watch YouTube videos while working. Surely there's a better way to improve focus (and if there is, I'd appreciate tips).
Like, it's great that this works for this guy. But in my experience, this is just treating a symptom and not the cause. You can still distract yourself with your cellphone or any number of other things.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~life
thecakeisalime Link ParentYes, it's mostly this. Because imagine the alternative. You agree to hang out with your friends without asking your wife first, and your wife agrees to hang out with her friends without asking you...If my wife asks me for something the default is "yes, let's see if that's possible".
Yes, it's mostly this.
Because imagine the alternative. You agree to hang out with your friends without asking your wife first, and your wife agrees to hang out with her friends without asking you first. You guys get home and tell each other your plans, and... oops! Who's going to watch the kids tonight? Now one of you has to cancel, and it looks way worse than just saying you have to check in with your spouse before committing to something.
It's not that I can't take time for myself, or that my wife shouldn't take time for herself, but if it's something out of the norm, we just need to make sure we're not placing an undue burden on each other, and also that we're not making conflicting plans.
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Comment on You can finally change the goofy Gmail address you chose years ago in ~tech
thecakeisalime Link ParentGoogle is deprecating the POP3 "pull" access, but you can still forward from one account to the other, and then use the "send as" feature, which is essentially what you want to do here anyway I think.Google is deprecating the POP3 "pull" access, but you can still forward from one account to the other, and then use the "send as" feature, which is essentially what you want to do here anyway I think.
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Comment on Can we talk about rice cookers? in ~food
thecakeisalime LinkI don't own an instant pot, but I do own a rice cooker. I mainly just use it for rice, but I also use it for quinoa and steaming vegetables and dumplings. Mostly, it's nice to throw some rice and...I don't own an instant pot, but I do own a rice cooker. I mainly just use it for rice, but I also use it for quinoa and steaming vegetables and dumplings. Mostly, it's nice to throw some rice and water in there, and be able to walk away and focus on something else.
If you're not getting an instant pot like everyone else has recommended, I suggest you just start with a cheap $15-20 rice cooker from Walmart. You'll either use it a lot, in which case, you can buy a better one or just keep using that. Or you'll find that it doesn't upgrade your workflow enough be worth the counterspace and then you'll be glad you only spent $20 on it.
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Comment on Ottawa's big bet on world's largest cricket farm ran into a simple problem: the 'yuck factor' in ~food
thecakeisalime Link ParentNo, I'm not celiac. In the bread I made, it didn't entirely replace the flour, it was added into the flour mixture, so it wouldn't be safe for celiacs. It tastes mildly nutty and a little earthy....No, I'm not celiac. In the bread I made, it didn't entirely replace the flour, it was added into the flour mixture, so it wouldn't be safe for celiacs. It tastes mildly nutty and a little earthy. Somewhat similar to whole wheat flour, maybe with a bit stronger flavour. The texture (in bread) was closer to how rye flour acts, because crickets don't have any gluten. My recipe was just a normal sourdough loaf, but using about 20% cricket flour and 80% white flour. I don't think you could do a 100% cricket flour loaf that didn't just turn into a brick, but if it were a lot cheaper, I'd give it a try. I'd definitely make more cricket/wheat bread if cricket flour were cheaper, but until then, I think it was mostly just a novelty.
I mostly just enjoy experimenting with different flours, and also like the idea of replacing some of my animal protein intake with something other than beans. Beans are fine, but I do really enjoy making and eating bread, so if bread can cover two macronutrients, all the better!
If a recipe asks for whole wheat flour, it might be a suitable replacement (as long as you account for the lack of gluten). It might work in a more savoury cookie, or maybe a spiced cookie where the spices are really strong, but I feel like if it was just replacing white flour in a chocolate chip cookie recipe, it might dominate the flavour profile.
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Comment on Ottawa's big bet on world's largest cricket farm ran into a simple problem: the 'yuck factor' in ~food
thecakeisalime LinkThe headline and most of the article kinda hide the real issue, which only gets one paragraph of coverage: It wasn't that people weren't buying their cricket products - they weren't selling...The headline and most of the article kinda hide the real issue, which only gets one paragraph of coverage:
Court documents show the London facility never came close to operating as planned. A system that worked at a small scale in Texas struggled to translate to Ontario, where differences in environment, ongoing design changes and problems with equipment all contributed to underperformance.
It wasn't that people weren't buying their cricket products - they weren't selling anything at all.
Unlike everyone else here, I was actually pretty excited to see this happening. I hoped it would bring down the price of cricket flour. But as far as I could tell, this facility never produced anything that was available for the consumer market. I don't know if they sold to other companies and it was distributed under a different name, but I tried to find products from this facility while it was open, and couldn't. So it didn't really matter whether it was too expensive - they weren't selling anything anyway.
And yeah, beans are a great source for protein. But chickpea flour makes me really gassy. Another alternative isn't a bad thing, as long as it can reach a reasonable price point.
Some surveys have 5 options, from strongly disagree to strongly agree. That might work here. Or a sliding range (or similar) from strongly prefer over to strongly prefer under, with "don't care" being right in the middle.