V17's recent activity
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Comment on How Bill Gates is reframing the climate change debate in ~enviro
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Comment on How Bill Gates is reframing the climate change debate in ~enviro
V17 (edited )Link ParentHis note doesn't read to me like he focuses on just economic growth in general. He still seems to want to focus on things that have the biggest impact on quality of life. I see the motivation as...My criticism of economic growth as a metric is that this is a very zoomed-out way of thinking. Some kinds of economic growth are surely more valuable than other kinds, and GNP doesn't make distinctions.
His note doesn't read to me like he focuses on just economic growth in general. He still seems to want to focus on things that have the biggest impact on quality of life.
I see the motivation as twofold:
- The problem with climate change mitigation is that the further you want to push it, the more expensive each bit gets. It gets incredibly expensive and inefficient. However programs for adaptation to climate change tend to be quite effective, whether in terms or lives or dollars saved per dollar invested. Therefore it seems like a good idea to cut the most expensive and least efficient ways of climate change mitigation and use the money for adaptation instead.
- Full on mitigation is politically untenable because of the huge costs and negative effects on economy, global competitiveness etc., and it's also often seen as unfair to third world countries. So focusing on creating more positive and visible outcomes and helping poor countries makes the whole effort more realistically viable.
edit: One more reason that I think is implied but not explicitly named in the article. Focusing on economically helping poor undeveloped countries is also very advantageous because you attack multiple targets: economical development reduces mortality, reduces overpopulation, reduces large scale migration, in some situations reduces violent conflict etc., on top of possibly reducing environmental impacts. Whereas green programs in developed countries focusing on one goal, while great in some situations, are often inefficient and notoriously full of negative side effects. The probability of fucking things up is way smaller when focusing on helping the poorest.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
V17 Link ParentProbably both. Sony mostly makes relatively low budget things where economy of scale helps a lot. With high end products with high margins and high marketing budgets economy of scale matters less,...Is Sony, Sony because they make superior products at a cheaper price and are thus able to afford ubiquitous advertising? Or is Sony, Sony because they advertise so much so everyone knows about them and just defaults to buying Sony when faced with a decision?
Probably both. Sony mostly makes relatively low budget things where economy of scale helps a lot. With high end products with high margins and high marketing budgets economy of scale matters less, so it's different.
Maybe when you're going around to shops demoing your speakers, they'd be more willing to take a risk with an unknown player with a better product because their customers won't just go into a store and say "I want the sonys".
Yes, this is a valid observation, but it shows how the the reality is always more complicated than the ideals: we specifically tried to avoid hifi shops because they just don't work very well.
The people working there are in general not very competent because they're "educated" from materials given to them by the manufacturers, which tend to be borderline false advertising, and have no actual knowledge in the field of sound reproduction that is actually relatively well studied and scientific. So they make bad recommendations and don't really know or sometimes even want to know (the real issue) how to sell a product that does some things differently than most of the market and looks differently from most of the market.
So we tried to work around this by marketing direct to customers and to interior designers, which also allowed us to reduce margins and in turn the final price. Reaching interior designers is just slightly possible using word of mouth, cold calling etc. (but isn't that also intrusive marketing?), but reaching customers directly, which is the main thing that allowed us to just offer them a better deal than most, would not be possible.
I think another problem with the whole idea is that all the "no marketing" solutions I can imagine, in a fictional world where huge multinational brands do not already dominate, would drastically reduce reach of everything and make the economy more local.
This would significantly reduce efficiency of everything, reduce competition, and it would also basically lower the maximum winning amount in the gample that is entrepreneurship, but without reducing the responsibilities. All of those things would be quite bad for the economy.
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Comment on Good News - A thread and a challenge in ~news
V17 Link ParentI haven't had time to read up on it more, but I assume it's something specialized like AlphaFold.I haven't had time to read up on it more, but I assume it's something specialized like AlphaFold.
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Comment on Good News - A thread and a challenge in ~news
V17 LinkA new hair loss drug is in the works, in macaques (who apparently experience balding like humans do) it can not slow down but reverse balding and even greying of hair. This may seem like a minor...A new hair loss drug is in the works, in macaques (who apparently experience balding like humans do) it can not slow down but reverse balding and even greying of hair.
This may seem like a minor thing for a "good news" thread, though I think even that on its own is pretty great. However, what is great news is that it's a novel drug that was developed with the help of AI and the process was dramatically cheap and fast:
ABS-201 will enter clinical trials in Australia this December; they will be overseen by Rodney Sinclair, MD, a dermatologist and expert in hair loss. According to McClain, ABS-201 developed in record time. Getting a drug into clinical trials typically takes around five years and as much as $100 million, whereas the new injectable took just 24 months to develop at a cost of $15 million.
This I see as great news for drug development in general.
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Comment on Gimp Tutorial for Idiot? in ~comp
V17 (edited )Link ParentA bit late here, but some time ago I found an offline version of Photopea on Github, in an Electron wrapper I guess. No idea if everything works or how recent the version is, but if you do like it...A bit late here, but some time ago I found an offline version of Photopea on Github, in an Electron wrapper I guess. No idea if everything works or how recent the version is, but if you do like it it's worth trying. I don't have the link but iirc there was more than one.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
V17 Link ParentI don't even think this is a subway take, this is just clearly all truth. Apart from non-profits not nearly always doing good and sometimes screwing the market by subsidizing their budgets from...I don't even think this is a subway take, this is just clearly all truth. Apart from non-profits not nearly always doing good and sometimes screwing the market by subsidizing their budgets from tax money, the non-profits that are actually doing good (like well functioning homeless shelters) often use that sense of moral superiority or just the feeling of doing good and serving society to overwork and underpay their employees.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
V17 Link ParentThis happens in Czechia as well. IIRC in small towns it used to sometimes be like that even on weekends with low traffic, but that's probably gone now as car ownership rose rapidly. In cities many...This happens in Czechia as well. IIRC in small towns it used to sometimes be like that even on weekends with low traffic, but that's probably gone now as car ownership rose rapidly. In cities many traffic lights work 24/7, but you still do commonly see ones that get turned off around midnight.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
V17 Link ParentFrom my experience of occassionally selling stuff I made, like ceramics, and founding and for a relatively short time running a startup building and selling designer hi-fi loudspeakers with a...A lot of people say that lots of business models just wouldn't work without them. To that, I say that if your company supplies a product that no one finds valuable enough to actually bother to pay for, then what does that say about your product?
From my experience of occassionally selling stuff I made, like ceramics, and founding and for a relatively short time running a startup building and selling designer hi-fi loudspeakers with a friend, creating a valuable product that your customers like is the easy part, the difficult part is letting at least a small part of your target group know that your product even exists.
That said, I also hate advertising. I think it's morally fine to deface and damage in any way all intrusive advertising in public. But banning marketing would damage the small and little known products much more than it would damage the big corporations that piss us off the most. I don't have a solution for that better than regulating advertisements in public, which some countries and cities do better than others.
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Comment on Looking for a beginner turntable and near field speaker in ~hobbies
V17 Link Parent100% yes. As redwall_hp says the DAC quality matters, but more theoretically than practically, DACs have mostly been a solved issue on a casual listening level for some time now. Ignore the...I assume the player matters less than with vinyl.
100% yes. As redwall_hp says the DAC quality matters, but more theoretically than practically, DACs have mostly been a solved issue on a casual listening level for some time now. Ignore the amplifier thing, pretty much no hifi CD players contain an amplifier and the Kali/JBL speakers are active, meaning they have their own built-in amps.
Can't really give any specific recommendation either because I just use a computer with a cheap external sound card for music. I would probably just purchase an external USB drive for it these days if I wanted to listen to CDs.
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Comment on Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than five billion sea stars in ~enviro
V17 Link ParentDue to AI summaries by Google (which are sometimes idiotic, but people still use them and they're only going to get better if Google wants it) and people using various AI chatbots as search...Soon all the articles will just be AI slop with maximum ad impressions, something akin to 'Ow my balls'
Due to AI summaries by Google (which are sometimes idiotic, but people still use them and they're only going to get better if Google wants it) and people using various AI chatbots as search engines these types of websites are 100% going to become less profitable, not more. There has already been a significant reduction of traffic coming from google over most of the internet. If you're a legitimate service that people want to use, you can try supplementing the loss of revenue from non-ad sources, but if ads and clickbait are all you are, you are already starting to get screwed.
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Comment on Scientists say they have solved the mystery of what killed more than five billion sea stars in ~enviro
V17 Link ParentI think it's just a matter of time and it's going to be one of the positive sides to AI adoption. Editor-checked clickable AI summaries without clickbait are getting more and more popular and what...I wish news would stop with clickbait titles.
I think it's just a matter of time and it's going to be one of the positive sides to AI adoption. Editor-checked clickable AI summaries without clickbait are getting more and more popular and what I've seen so far works really well.
The downside will be more paywalls, but that is inevitable if we want to move away from ad-supported news and everything negative that this approach brings, and specifically with high quality reporting I don't even think it's a negative.
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Comment on Looking for a beginner turntable and near field speaker in ~hobbies
V17 LinkWell, this is a bit of an unwanted answer, but I think it's worth it to pay, well, about twice that for speakers, because for that you can often get JBL LSR305 or Kali LP-6 (usually more expensive...Well, this is a bit of an unwanted answer, but I think it's worth it to pay, well, about twice that for speakers, because for that you can often get JBL LSR305 or Kali LP-6 (usually more expensive but better), which are the cheapest speakers that I know of which get close to truly hi-fi sound, something that is frankly amazing at this price point and was not nearly possible 20 years ago.
I believe it's worth it to save a bit more and wait for black friday sales because the difference in quality that you get from that in this budget category really is rather large. The Kali speakers especially are something you'd likely happily keep even if you win the lottery, become an audiophile and buy 10k € speakers for your living room.
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Comment on Forgot Chrome's unusable, any recommendations? in ~tech
V17 Link ParentI think youtube may be either gradually rolling out or AB testing various features that cripple adblocks. The only problem I have is that sometimes videos take about 10 seconds to start loading...I think youtube may be either gradually rolling out or AB testing various features that cripple adblocks. The only problem I have is that sometimes videos take about 10 seconds to start loading initially, but some other people either do not have this issue or have worse issues.
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Comment on Introducing Beads: A coding agent memory system in ~comp
V17 LinkFor those who have never heard about Steve Yegge, he's the dude who wrote a rant about how bad Google+ is (remember it? the Facebook alternative), while working at Google, posted it on Google Plus...For those who have never heard about Steve Yegge, he's the dude who wrote a rant about how bad Google+ is (remember it? the Facebook alternative), while working at Google, posted it on Google Plus and accidentally made it public.
He also made a multiplatform (PC/Android/iOS) niche online RPG called Wyvern as a long term hobby project (been in development for probably 15 years in total), which is sadly currently dead because it's really hard to market a project like this. It's heavily inspired by oldschool MUDs and traditional roguelikes and at one point it was one of my favorite games ever, a brilliant piece of work full of personality.
Apart from that he's also had a very successful career doing more normal things. Anecdotally some of my friends who I consider the most competent and also most well earning developers in my circles have been using voice driven agents as well in recent months, with great success. So I am inclined to give weight to Yegge's optimism.
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Comment on Why cassette tapes are coming back in ~music
V17 Link ParentIIRC this is not the case with the vinyl that we've used for decades. It's probably still going to make some sound, just like when you put a sewing needle into the bottom of a paper/plastic cup...If you have the right hardware, you can hear the music from vinyl without using electricity.
IIRC this is not the case with the vinyl that we've used for decades. It's probably still going to make some sound, just like when you put a sewing needle into the bottom of a paper/plastic cup and run it along the groove, but I believe these gramphones were only used for old shellac records in which the grooves were cut differently.
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Comment on Indecision: Get a camera despite having a phone in ~tech
V17 Link ParentJust today I discovered RapidRAW. I haven't tested it yet, but supposedly it's great and inspired by Lightroom.Just today I discovered RapidRAW. I haven't tested it yet, but supposedly it's great and inspired by Lightroom.
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Comment on The Oatmeal: A cartoonist's review of AI art in ~comics
V17 Link ParentI don't agree with all of your points because firstly I'm a fan of gatekeeping, surely the problem of "now the internet is going to be flooded with an order of magnitude more shitty content" is...I don't agree with all of your points because firstly I'm a fan of gatekeeping, surely the problem of "now the internet is going to be flooded with an order of magnitude more shitty content" is real and already happening, and secondly "it's capitalism's fault" usually just means "it's the fault of human nature" and even if it doesn't it might as well because it describes something that's very unlikely to change.
But the main point is spot on. You don't even need to spend the effort to train models on your art, even just using less mainstream models than the ChatGPT tool with default settings in a smart way can create an endless supply of inspiration that you can use in your own work. One thing that LLMs and image generation models seem to have in common is that they work well as hypothesis machines basically, creating really interesting fragments of things when used well. I used to make strange liminal style (but not stereotypical backrooms etc.), weird architecture 3D renders for fun and I have used AI this way. One thing that I struggled with was to add some organic looking dust, grime and other things that would make the scene look worn and abandoned. Turns out you can use directed AI inpainting for that and selectively blend it with the original render.
And AI can be wielded by artists to create actual novel art like this music video that wouldn't be realistically (even if the limitation might only be budget) possible otherwise. I certainly did not feel any disappointment when watching it.
That said, I think the issue of not differentiating between "art" and just "imagery" or "content", where the origin really doesn't matter much, as mentioned in the current top comment here, is a bigger flaw with his take.
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Comment on Indecision: Get a camera despite having a phone in ~tech
V17 Link ParentOther people already replied, but whatever, you asked me so I'm going to give you my opinion as well. I completely disagree with the "Don't shoot RAW" article, on the contrary as an amateur...Other people already replied, but whatever, you asked me so I'm going to give you my opinion as well. I completely disagree with the "Don't shoot RAW" article, on the contrary as an amateur shooting RAWs and learning the depth of what I can create using it is what made photography fun for me. But I mainly shoot landscapes which rely more on postprocessing, for your purpose it's less necessary.
Basically with digital cameras RAW is the default, and jpeg mode tries to "develop" the raws automatically. Modern cameras do that really well. "Developing" a RAW is necessary because by default, in the data you get straight from the image sensor, there's no reference of what neutral white is, the difference between the darkest tones and the lightest tones is higher than what a display (or a printed photo) can show, so it needs to be squashed using various algorithms, some mathemagic is being done with colors etc. So an actual viewable image must be created using software, either automatically using a processing chip in the camera, or semi automatically using a computer program that you can influence.
All cameras can save both jpegs and RAWs at the same time, so you can decide to only do some post work on one or a few select photos and the rest leave as jpegs that are likely going to be good enough.
The most popular program for that is Adobe Lightroom, and as much as I dislike Adobe I think it's rather good. Other options exist, I like DxO, and Affinity Photo is not bad these days either (it's a full fledged Photoshop alternative that can also develop RAWs, though not to the very maximum of their potential like say DxO).
Usually when you just load the RAW photo into an application like Lightroom you get something that looks similar to what you would get as a jpeg straight out of camera, but you can decide to tweak it and significantly change it, with much more freedom than you get from a jpeg. The downside is that until you get skilled at it, it can take a lot of time to do this even for just a few pictures.
Personally I wouldn't recommend the open source variants, Darktable and Rawtherapee, to a layman unless you enjoy learning complicated technical things - they're powerful but needlessly complicated with bad interfaces imo. I like Filmulator, which is also free and it simulates film-style photography, but I'm not sure how well supported it is, it hasn't received an update in several years. It's different from other apps in how it works, so reading the manual is required, but it's relatively short and the overall concept is quite simple.
Personally I like realistic solutions the most. The chance that competitiveness between world's superpowers is going to end within the timeframe talked about here is tiny. And even with all the criticisms that I have for the west led by the US I greatly prefer a world led by the west to a world led by China because the west decided it doesn't want to be a superpower anymore. Global socialism is a pipe dream.