zestier's recent activity
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Comment on The Buff Scammer, isolation, and the male loneliness epidemic in ~life.men
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Comment on Looking for some cat advice in ~life.pets
zestier (edited )Link ParentOn preventing scratches, something my household started doing after our baby was born was to effectively just blunt the tips of our cats nails using a pet nail grinder. As long as we stay on top...On preventing scratches, something my household started doing after our baby was born was to effectively just blunt the tips of our cats nails using a pet nail grinder. As long as we stay on top of it this has been entirely effective for us in eliminating scratches. Admittedly his scratch attempts in normal life are exceedingly rare though. Much more common, at least prior to this, was getting scratched by non-extended swipes (like the nails just being long enough that pawing led to scratching).
Our cat can be very fighty to the extent that our vet is unwilling to see him without sedation, but he still does pretty well with a grinder. I think it's because the grinder doesn't have any startling moments like clippers do, but who really knows what he's thinking. The downside of this approach is that he's now worse at removing the blunted nail sheaths himself so we'll occasionally need to fix a few for him. This only really occurs though because we grind off so little.
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Comment on Are touchscreens in cars dangerous? in ~transport
zestier (edited )Link ParentI don't expect our regulators to do much of anything useful, but I'd love it if we banned these "autopilots" in consumer cars. It's so dangerous to knowingly put in systems that are good enough...I don't expect our regulators to do much of anything useful, but I'd love it if we banned these "autopilots" in consumer cars. It's so dangerous to knowingly put in systems that are good enough that people stop paying attention without being all the way to the point that people actually don't need to pay attention.
And not only do people just stop paying attention because they've been lucky enough so far, realistically the human intervention will often be dangerously late anyway. Even if you're paying perfect attention as your car approaches a dangerous scenario you're trained to think "the car's probably got it" until it's too late.
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Comment on Dark patterns killed my wife's Windows 11 installation in ~tech
zestier (edited )Link ParentWhile I fully understand this is technically true, there's a huge gulf between tons of money and technical expertise and a case like this comparatively simple privilege escalation. To use a...While I fully understand this is technically true, there's a huge gulf between tons of money and technical expertise and a case like this comparatively simple privilege escalation. To use a somewhat famous counter example: iPhone encryption. Law enforcement having an iPhone in their possession doesn't prevent it from being exceptionally difficult to unlock.
I realize it's not the exact same, but I also think it's a bit extreme to act like they needn't bother to do better just because physical access is available. They could at least do better than being able to just rename a file by mounting the drive externally. It seems like they aren't even bothering to do signature checks on the tools that can be run without access.
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Comment on Dark patterns killed my wife's Windows 11 installation in ~tech
zestier Link ParentI suspect the question could be rephrased as asking why this known privilege escalation exploit still exists.I suspect the question could be rephrased as asking why this known privilege escalation exploit still exists.
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Comment on Why do some gamers invert their controls? Scientists now have answers, but they’re not what you think. in ~games
zestier (edited )Link ParentIt reminds me enough of other physical systems where you push something around in a disconnected viewpoint, like aligning a page on a projector or moving a slide in a microscope, that it felt...It reminds me enough of other physical systems where you push something around in a disconnected viewpoint, like aligning a page on a projector or moving a slide in a microscope, that it felt intuitive enough for me. I may have had issue if it was further physically disconnected, but on a laptop in particular it behaves the same as if you imagine there's a big long sheet of paper inside the whole laptop (stretching under both the screen and keyboard) but you only have a small area you can use to push it around. My guess is that it would've felt way weirder if I just plugged a touchpad into a desktop though.
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Comment on Why do some gamers invert their controls? Scientists now have answers, but they’re not what you think. in ~games
zestier Link ParentWhen I was using a Mac laptop for work I was driven absolutely nuts by this. Or more specifically that I couldn't find any way to set the scroll behavior by input device type. On the touch pad it...When I was using a Mac laptop for work I was driven absolutely nuts by this. Or more specifically that I couldn't find any way to set the scroll behavior by input device type. On the touch pad it made sense that it behaved like a touch screen in that it dragging down scrolled up. My issue was that if I plugged in a mouse and was using the scroll wheel it then felt completely unnatural.
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Comment on What's a setting that you'd recommend? in ~tech
zestier (edited )Link ParentControversial opinions incoming! XML is best off staying in its death bed and YAML can go lay down beside it. TOML is is a good configuration language though. XML sucks for a few reasons. Only...Controversial opinions incoming!
XML is best off staying in its death bed and YAML can go lay down beside it. TOML is is a good configuration language though.
XML sucks for a few reasons. Only really having strings sucks, but isn't a huge deal. Having both attributes and tags is a nightmare though. Having no concept of arrays is also just needlessly miserable. Just off the top of my head the most recent non-HTML XML API I've used, one that is somewhat popular and officially technically related to RSS, uses an insane mix of things that never would've happened if the spec was JSON. Stuff like "arrays" of items where each item is its own duplicate of the same tag and within them often contain data duplicated between attributes and tags and within some of those are more "arrays" of comma separated values. Like WTF is
<example:attr name="language" value="English" />and how are you supposed to know that the value is actually a CSV array that this time only has one entry? XML not giving an answer to "how do you set foo.bar = [1,2,3]" is the source of too many nonsensical XML specs. XML would be drastically improved if attributes didn't exist and if it had some syntax to represent when something is meant to be treated as an array.YAML sucks for different reasons. YAML's main problem is supporting unquoted strings. It also has some features that are too fancy for its own good, like references. YAML does have a good spec buried in it, but a ton of features need to be deleted until it's just easier-to-read JSON with comments.
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Comment on Your phone already has social credit. We just lie about it. in ~finance
zestier (edited )Link ParentThen that's just the same system as elsewhere? Like if you want to use a Lime bike in the US then when you turn it in you get a charge based on how long you had it. Lime already knows if your...Then that's just the same system as elsewhere? Like if you want to use a Lime bike in the US then when you turn it in you get a charge based on how long you had it. Lime already knows if your account is in good standing.
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Comment on Your phone already has social credit. We just lie about it. in ~finance
zestier (edited )Link ParentThis seems like mostly a non-issue elsewhere even without a social credit score. As long as you know who had it you can seek remedy anyway. Most extreme case is to pursue legal action, but...This seems like mostly a non-issue elsewhere even without a social credit score. As long as you know who had it you can seek remedy anyway. Most extreme case is to pursue legal action, but generally this is solved in a much simpler way: make you keep a valid payment method on file and charge it for incidentals.
There are other problems with that, like that it generally means further entrenching the position of the big credit card companies and can be discriminatory toward those that would have trouble getting financial credit, but those can and should be fixed in ways that have nothing to do with state-run social credit systems.
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Comment on Your phone already has social credit. We just lie about it. in ~finance
zestier Link ParentI do not understand this perspective. Credit scores are not a social score so factoring in such social factors would be odd. The only thing the score is intended to convey is if someone will pay...I do not understand this perspective. Credit scores are not a social score so factoring in such social factors would be odd. The only thing the score is intended to convey is if someone will pay their bills. It would be quite odd to me if we built a system that was designed to give people bills they can't or won't pay.
There's an argument to be made that interest rates on various loan types, such as credit cards, are allowed to be too high, but that's not really related to credit scores.
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Comment on My guess and opinion on the common blockers to Linux adoption in ~tech
zestier (edited )Link ParentMy favorite part of that kind of huffiness is that someone truly pedantic can point out that they were getting huffy over correctness while being wrong. Asking what flavors are supported is a...My favorite part of that kind of huffiness is that someone truly pedantic can point out that they were getting huffy over correctness while being wrong. Asking what flavors are supported is a legitimate question distinct from which distros are supported. As an example, Kubuntu is a flavor not a distro and in some edge cases (ex. target software works correctly under KDE but not under Gnome) this distinction is important.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
zestier Link ParentThe main story of Bleach, the first 200 something episodes, holds up through most of it if you're into shonen tropes and fight scenes. I can't say it does character development that well,...The main story of Bleach, the first 200 something episodes, holds up through most of it if you're into shonen tropes and fight scenes. I can't say it does character development that well, particularly for anyone that isn't Ichigo, but at it's heart it's about the fights and generally those at least are fun. The stuff after the main story is quite a bit weaker in my opinion, but it takes over 200 episodes for that to happen.
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Comment on What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga) in ~anime
zestier Link ParentAre you asking seriously if it holds up or is that rhetorical? I watched all of it, including the newer stuff, recently-ish (for how long it is I'm counting the last 2ish years as recent). I could...Are you asking seriously if it holds up or is that rhetorical? I watched all of it, including the newer stuff, recently-ish (for how long it is I'm counting the last 2ish years as recent). I could attempt to answer that if you want a serious answer, but I'm bad at identifying where people were being rhetorical and want discover the answer themselves and don't want to accidentally provide unsolicited information.
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Comment on Is America ready for Japanese-style 7-Elevens? in ~finance
zestier (edited )Link ParentMy suspicion is that their best bet is to shed the old American convenience store staples entirely. It's definitely a risk for the main offerings to be unfamiliar, but the main offerings currently...My suspicion is that their best bet is to shed the old American convenience store staples entirely. It's definitely a risk for the main offerings to be unfamiliar, but the main offerings currently have a stigma of low quality. I think there's a risk that not cutting the stuff that people associate as low quality can cause that association to infect the new products even if the new products are better.
As a personal example, if I go into my local 7-11 after this revamp and see heat lamped pizza and roller hotdogs I'm not going to have any interest in checking out any of their new food options because they've already telegraphed to me that their acceptable level of quality is lower than I'm seeking.
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Comment on Commentary: prepare to say a frond farewell to Los Angeles’ palm trees in ~enviro
zestier Link ParentI think it was to say that if people had a line item on their local taxes (property taxes maybe?) that looked like "$XX.XX to water Y trees in public spaces within Z distance from property" then...I think it was to say that if people had a line item on their local taxes (property taxes maybe?) that looked like "$XX.XX to water Y trees in public spaces within Z distance from property" then people would be telling their city council to just stop watering the trees lining their local street because they don't want to pay for it. This is unlike cases like golf courses that are businesses that generally need to use water and as a part of running said business. So not saying that no one would ever want to pay to water a plant, but that people may be less interested in footing the bill for the common space waterings if it was more apparent what they cost.
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Comment on Is the concept of debate completely useless? in ~talk
zestier (edited )LinkThis question reminded me of this video I saw recently that has a lot of relevant discussion by someone far deeper into debate than I've ever been: https://youtube.com/watch?v=e--spu93GVc. It's...This question reminded me of this video I saw recently that has a lot of relevant discussion by someone far deeper into debate than I've ever been: https://youtube.com/watch?v=e--spu93GVc. It's about organized debate not ad-hoc forum debate, but it felt very relevant to the question of value of debate. I will say the video is a bit too long for the points he's making though.
The video is by someone that is an atheist that used to debate Christian apologists, but now says that was a mistake and he won't be doing that going forward. From memory his reasons why are that it gives the opposing view an air of legitimacy, that it doesn't change any minds, and it felt morally bad because his presence was inadvertently giving support to the opposition.
He talks a lot about his personal experience in this field. One thing that stood out was that the opposition didn't really care if they "lost" because they were getting eyes and a platform that made the points seem even worth debate. By debating things on the same stage it gives the impression that both the sides are worth equal consideration.
One example more famous than himself that he uses is the Bill Nye debate. Just about everyone agrees that Nye "won", but the Christian organizers never needed to win. They got something like 15 million dollars in donations to build the Ark Encounter anyway. It gave them visibility and a perceived attack on their beliefs to rally behind while also visually legitimizing themselves by putting religious belief and scientific evidence on the same stage.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
zestier (edited )Link ParentOn double damage, I think it has a lot of problems that they boxed themselves into with a few other decisions. Wanting it to be harder but the only lever being to double incoming damage is a...On double damage, I think it has a lot of problems that they boxed themselves into with a few other decisions. Wanting it to be harder but the only lever being to double incoming damage is a rather blunt instrument that limited their ability to fine-tune difficulty.
It also doesn't meld well with the new healing system. When you get hit in chunks of 40% and heal in chunks of 60% you either need to waste thread or wait to heal until you're one hit from death. Though in my opinion the biggest issue is that it causes poor messaging. To pick a random example: falling objects. If someone were to make a quiz of the various falling objects and ask how much damage you'd take from each I'd wager that there would be a lot of wrong answers. This wasn't an issue in HK because the answer was almost always 1 (none that aren't even come to mind, but there could be some I'm not remembering right now).
Overall I don't think that using HKs mask system with no modifications is the best for Silksong, but it does work. I do think it would've been better served by having some adjustments to better fit Silksong though.
For pogoing I used something different than your spoiler, but the problem does eventually have solutions. I do wonder why they made the default one be so rough though.
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Comment on Silksong’s real final boss: The translator who broke his NDA and wrote like a dead poet in ~games
zestier Link ParentI wonder how difficult it would be to create an automation tool that identities the level of creative freedom between a piece of source text and the translation. Obviously there should be some,...I wonder how difficult it would be to create an automation tool that identities the level of creative freedom between a piece of source text and the translation. Obviously there should be some, localization is more complicated than just translating words, but it should obviously only drift so far.
I'd imagine there's a better way, but off the top of my head I'd think that some well-formed prompts and existing AI could get pretty close without even building anything particularly complicated.
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Comment on Home network help part 2, SSH and Server in ~comp
zestier (edited )LinkI don't know exactly what you want to achieve long-term, but since you already have your own domain name and are on Cloudflare you could use a tunnel rather than fiddling with port forwarding and...I don't know exactly what you want to achieve long-term, but since you already have your own domain name and are on Cloudflare you could use a tunnel rather than fiddling with port forwarding and potentially fighting with dynamic IPs. Is it absolutely best practice? Maybe not, but it should be easy to set up and easy to replace later if you desire to do so.
With tunnels Cloudflare takes over the TLS termination. Whether this is good or bad depends on if you care that Cloudflare has terminated TLS in their edge servers. You don't need to do any of the cert stuff with Cloudflare tunnels because they do it all on their edge servers. I haven't verified, but my recollection is that they then re-encrypt so that all in-flight traffic is encrypted.
As for visual ssh I've got nothing. I personally avoid ever trying to ssh visual applications because it's not fun. The only exception is that if the visual application is really just a web app because using a local browser connected to the remote server is easy.
While it is directly a rather small harm, I think it is indirectly a rather large harm that has been a substantial cause of the current political landscape. We shouldn't be surprised that many find something like "you're not bad and it's just the evil woke left telling you that you are" to be an appealing position. Some of us are okay with paying this price, but enough aren't and telling them they need to anyway seems to be rather counterproductive in practice.
I suppose this is true of many small harms that can be politicized. Tell everyone "you must all absorb this minor inconvenience for the greater good" and the vote so very often lands in favor of preventing the minor inconvenience rather than the promoting the greater good.