vaddi's recent activity

  1. Comment on The big misconception about electricity in ~science

    vaddi
    Link
    Sometimes I wonder if there really is a benefit of lying to students when trying to teach them methods on how to compute results. I don't remember someone telling me "So, in reality this doesn't...

    Sometimes I wonder if there really is a benefit of lying to students when trying to teach them methods on how to compute results. I don't remember someone telling me "So, in reality this doesn't really work like this, but lets assume that it does for now." when I was learning this stuff.

    3 votes

  2. Comment on Tab viewer/organizer? in ~tech

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    Thanks for this.

    If you're a little more technically adept, TabFS is quite fantastic.

    Thanks for this.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Listen to old podcasts on a modern release schedule in ~tech

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    TIL. It's subreddits like that one that still make me enjoy reddit.

    TIL. It's subreddits like that one that still make me enjoy reddit.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Cryptocurrency is an abject disaster in ~finance

    vaddi
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Just to clarify, regarding Matrix I wasn't talking about a specific blog post. The type of language and tone that I was describing was mainly used on his now defunct mastodon (which he stated...

    My favorite part of that post about instant messaging

    Just to clarify, regarding Matrix I wasn't talking about a specific blog post. The type of language and tone that I was describing was mainly used on his now defunct mastodon (which he stated being for shitposting though), hackernews and lobsters when engaging with other people.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Cryptocurrency is an abject disaster in ~finance

    vaddi
    (edited )
    Link
    This is the part of the post that I find more valuable. I've been following him for sometime now, and while I share many of his views and can understand the reasoning behind the ones I don't...

    This rant has been a long time coming and is probably one of the most justified expressions of anger I've written for this blog yet. However, it will probably be the last one.

    I realize that my blog has been a source of a lot of negativity in the past, and I regret how harsh I've been with some of the projects I've criticised. I will make my arguments by example going forward: if I think we can do better, I'll do it better, instead of criticising those who are just earnestly trying their best.

    Thanks for reading 🙂 Let's keep making the software world a better place.

    This is the part of the post that I find more valuable. I've been following him for sometime now, and while I share many of his views and can understand the reasoning behind the ones I don't completely agree with, it is clear that a lot of people dismiss stuff that he says because of his tone and overall style. Personally I find it unfortunate because he often makes intelligent remarks and tries to push the use of technology in directions that benefits users and communities.

    The issues used to start when he was not able to suppress his high standards (maybe utopian) when discussing other projects in public, and in my opinion ended up hurting the scene more than making it better.

    An example of it is when discussing the Matrix open standard and communication protocol.
    If you read his blog he clearly hates stuff like WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, or any proprietary stuff for that matter. He personally uses and likes IRC. He is also a proponent FOSS contributor and promoter.
    However he used to heavily criticize Matrix because he finds that the protocol is too complicated and the code quality does not live up to his standards (he also hates the fact that you can enter IRC channels through Matrix and spam IRC because Matrix allows sending stuff that IRC is not capable of handling). The problem is that the way he used to share his view regarding this topic, because it was inflammatory, ended up dividing people instead of making people gather and try to improve Matrix, a FOSS project. One can argue that the tech is over complicated, but it is the best that we have right now (for the use case that the general public cares about, having a FOSS Slack clone) . So what is the point of being negative about it and making other people feel negative too, while probably making the developers sad (some of whom contribute in their free time)?

    Now he has a company and isn't just a guy with public projects. I've seen many people on hackernews and lobste.rs write that they don't want to use his stuff mainly because of his aggressiveness, which is a shame because he produces good stuff.

    I'm glad he is trying to change his ways.

    10 votes

  6. Comment on The unparalleled genius of John von Neumann in ~science

    vaddi
    (edited )
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    I really enjoy reading about von Neumann, even though it makes me feel like an insignificant particle in time and space.

    I really enjoy reading about von Neumann, even though it makes me feel like an insignificant particle in time and space.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on Dota 2 introduces many new features and systems to help new players, and makes smurfing a bannable offense in ~games

    vaddi
    (edited )
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    It sure took them time to start taking the future of this game seriously. Dota has tremendous lore material, I remember spending some of time reading the Archronicus (Dota 2, source 1 version)...

    It sure took them time to start taking the future of this game seriously. Dota has tremendous lore material, I remember spending some of time reading the Archronicus (Dota 2, source 1 version) which had a mysterious vibe to it, each characters' lore and item descriptions. More recently they stopped caring so much for this stuff (sadly), as new items were added with almost zero lore.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on Ryo Fukui - Scenery (1976) in ~music

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    I thought I was the only one :P

    I thought I was the only one :P

  9. Comment on <deleted topic> in ~games

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    Thanks, the video in your first link is brilliant.

    Thanks, the video in your first link is brilliant.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Signal's server repo hasn't been updated since April 2020 in ~tech

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    Never tried the Andorid version, how is the battery consumption?

    Never tried the Andorid version, how is the battery consumption?

  11. Comment on Signal's server repo hasn't been updated since April 2020 in ~tech

    vaddi
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    FluffyChat is very pretty and has a better designed UI compared to Element, but it is very slow, when running on a browser it makes my laptop's fans work at maximum speed, loading old messages is...

    FluffyChat is very pretty and has a better designed UI compared to Element, but it is very slow, when running on a browser it makes my laptop's fans work at maximum speed, loading old messages is very slow, and scrolling any element of the UI feels extremely sluggish. I never tried SchildiChat.

  12. Comment on Signal's server repo hasn't been updated since April 2020 in ~tech

    vaddi
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Oh ok, I got it. But I don't agree as I don't think that it has to be one of those options. They could simply not care enough to bother and have the repository up to date. They might think that it...

    Oh ok, I got it. But I don't agree as I don't think that it has to be one of those options. They could simply not care enough to bother and have the repository up to date. They might think that it doesn't benefit them directly so they don't do it. So it doesn't have to necessarily be malice or on purpose for some hidden reason.
    However from the user's perspective transparency is one characteristic that you would expect from a institution that claims to be on the "users' side". In the end, there is always trust involved, but some actions make it easier or harder to trust.

    Edit: changed "in the limit" to "in the end", turns out that the former makes no sense in English.

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Signal's server repo hasn't been updated since April 2020 in ~tech

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    I didn't understand this last sentence, sorry. From which party do you mean "ill will"?

    I didn't understand this last sentence, sorry. From which party do you mean "ill will"?

    2 votes

  14. Comment on Signal's server repo hasn't been updated since April 2020 in ~tech

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    From my point of view, since other projects do it with less or even no money it is not a smart use of those resources. And the result is people starting to complain for not being able to...

    Sure they can. The amount of money they have has no bearing on whether or not paying someone to deal with the community is a smart use of those resources.

    From my point of view, since other projects do it with less or even no money it is not a smart use of those resources. And the result is people starting to complain for not being able to scrutinize the code.

    Have they not? Is the lack of a current update to a single repo evidence that they haven't fulfilled the moral obligation to at least try and honor it?

    That is downplaying it a bit. Server side code is the most important repository, since it is what tells you as a user of what they are keeping about you. We already have the ( as far as I know currently impossible to solve) issue of not being able to surely know which version of a piece of software is running on the other party's computer. Not having access to the most recent code being developed is total lack of transparency.

    3 votes

  15. Comment on Signal's server repo hasn't been updated since April 2020 in ~tech

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    Honestly I think that compared to most FOSS projects, when it comes to money, Signal can't complain about not being able to do things due to the lack of resources as they got 50M from the Whatsapp...

    I can't blame Signal for not actively communicating with the "FOSS community" as that takes time, money,

    Honestly I think that compared to most FOSS projects, when it comes to money, Signal can't complain about not being able to do things due to the lack of resources as they got 50M from the Whatsapp founder some years ago. Moreover, from the moment they start accepting donations, with this:

    The team at Signal is committed to the mission of developing open source privacy technology that protects free expression and enables secure global communication.

    as the webpage's opening statement, they have the moral obligation to at least try and honor it.

    8 votes

  16. Comment on Signal's server repo hasn't been updated since April 2020 in ~tech

    vaddi
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    @Deimos, the link to a comment in a deleted topic doesn't seem to be working, it takes me to the topic instead. Is this a bug? Sorry if I'm not supposed to ask about this stuff here as opposed to...

    @Deimos, the link to a comment in a deleted topic doesn't seem to be working, it takes me to the topic instead. Is this a bug?

    Sorry if I'm not supposed to ask about this stuff here as opposed to opening an issue on Gitlab.

    3 votes

  17. Comment on Signal's server repo hasn't been updated since April 2020 in ~tech

    vaddi
    (edited )
    Link
    I don't use or recommend signal because of stuff like this. They want to have the benefits of being (called) FOSS without enforcing FOSS practices around their code. That is why I'm hoping for the...

    I don't use or recommend signal because of stuff like this. They want to have the benefits of being (called) FOSS without enforcing FOSS practices around their code. That is why I'm hoping for the Matrix protocol to succeed. The original group behind Matrix are really bad at branding (Riot, Element, even Matrix, what is it with all this weird names? I don't get it and I've ranted about this before), but one thing that I believe they are doing correctly from a FOSS perspective is being transparent. They have weekly podcasts to inform about the status of the project, they have a blog, they have a specification, they allow for multiple front-ends to coexist (even though all of them suck at the time of writing), all of their repositories seem to be public and up to date, the head of New Vector can be found multiple times answering people on Hacker News. It is really unfortunate that matrix based chats are still too complicated for average people to use (I've also mentioned my concerns about this before and while progress has been made it is still nowhere near enough).

    19 votes

  18. Comment on Does anyone else struggle with existential thoughts? in ~talk

    vaddi
    (edited )
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    While I can't say that I've studied or even read about philosophical ideas such as nihilism and existentialism in depth (sometimes I like to read Wikipedia pages about this stuff, but that is...

    While I can't say that I've studied or even read about philosophical ideas such as nihilism and existentialism in depth (sometimes I like to read Wikipedia pages about this stuff, but that is about it), I can say that I personally believe that life is absurd and devoid of meaning. However I got to the conclusion that simply believing such thing does not bring me any benefit, and as a in someways minimalist I like to only keep stuff that has purpose or is somehow useful to me, be it physical objects or even ideas/concepts. In fact it can even get in the way and negatively impact your well being and daily comfort (and I really do like to feel comfortable).
    So I kinda try to use this idea in a conscious way when I need it, like a special ability that you only use sometimes in a video game.

    For instance I have some goals in mind, stuff that I want to do, not because I think they are worth or meaningful but simply because I want to do them. Stuff that we want to do more often than not depend on other people too. So when working towards those goals I try to drop my beliefs, put them on pause, and adjust as much as I can to the people around me so that I can help them help me. But I can also use my beliefs in the other way, when I'm feeling too stressed about something I try to remind myself that none of this really matters. In the grand scheme of things we are nothing, so why should I be stressing about stuff?

    Regarding free will, we do what society wants us to do. That is basically it. It is up to us to try and personalize our life as much as we can, but the majority of it is dependent on where, when and with whom we live. But we get to be able to personalize it a bit :)

    1 vote

  19. Comment on Silicon Valley’s safe space: Slate Star Codex was a window into the psyche of many tech leaders building our collective future. Then it disappeared. in ~tech

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    Is this a Californian/Bay Area only thing, or has it expanded? I'm asking because I find it funny that a group of people, from a small point on the globe, hanging out and talking online made it to...

    There are also real-world meetups and social gatherings. I haven't made it to any of them yet.

    Is this a Californian/Bay Area only thing, or has it expanded?
    I'm asking because I find it funny that a group of people, from a small point on the globe, hanging out and talking online made it to the news, where they are depicted as some sort of Masonry. The first time I encountered a thread about this topic I got the idea that this was some cult level stuff that I should avoid.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on Silicon Valley’s safe space: Slate Star Codex was a window into the psyche of many tech leaders building our collective future. Then it disappeared. in ~tech

    vaddi
    Link Parent
    So SSC is basically a personal blog and a community of readers and commenters? And LessWrong is a forum for like minded people where anyone can post? It amazes me how such small internet...

    So SSC is basically a personal blog and a community of readers and commenters? And LessWrong is a forum for like minded people where anyone can post? It amazes me how such small internet communities can create so much drama irl. And even more so, how can a community grow around a single blogger.

    6 votes