theragu40

@theragu40@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Heat-pump water heaters are a winner for the climate — and your wallet⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m so confused. Whose dishwashers are you talking about? I’m in the US, you’re describing every dishwasher I’ve ever had, except that we always hook it up to the hot water line. Our unit takes very little water, it takes hours to run a load due to efficiency features. It has a heating element inside to take whatever water it gets and keep it hot for the cycle.

  I don’t really see why it’s any less efficient to use the hot water we are already heating with our water heater (which heats much more efficiently than a small electric heater would). The water originally arrives to my house cold, it has to be heated one way or another. My dishwasher is less than 10 feet away from my water heater, water is not losing appreciable heat on the way to the dishwasher.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Heat-pump water heaters are a winner for the climate — and your wallet⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Up to* $2k. Just for the sake of clarity.

  The tax credit 30% of the total project price, up to $2k. If the HPWH is over double the cost of NG, you’re still paying quite a bit more even with the tax credit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The pirates are back - Anew study from the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) suggest that online piracy has increased for the first time in years. In fact, piracy rates have bee...⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve just started dipping my toes back into the waters again too, also after many years of downloading absolutely nothing. It’s a combo of things prompting me.

  First, costs have gotten out of control and prices just keep creeping up. This is happening at the same time as content libraries per service dwindle. I make more money than I used to, yet it feels like it goes not nearly as far these days with prices of everything skyrocketing.

  Second, it’s becoming a bigger and bigger pain in the ass to find things. Part of the issue for me is interfaces (though I can get around that, generally). Part is content shuffling from one service to the next. But a big issue is all the trash content companies like Netflix are shitting out to pad their libraries. You have to wade through oceans of garbage to find a single thing worth your time. This experience is exactly why I dropped traditional cable years ago! I hate endless filler trash. I don’t want the illusion of a large library to make it seem like I’m getting value. I just want actual good content.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The pirates are back - Anew study from the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) suggest that online piracy has increased for the first time in years. In fact, piracy rates have bee...⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I totally get wanting to play the game when it’s fresh. You miss out on being part of the buzz of a new game if you wait to play it. Every gaming site is full of memes about a new game for the first few months after release and it’s definitely part of the experience to be on the “in” side of that.

  With that said, I just pick and choose which games matter to me for that nowadays, and I commit myself to actually beating the games I buy (assuming I don’t hate them). Committing to beating them before buying a new game has really cut back on my buying of new games only to have it languish in my backlog and see price drops before I ever play it.

  This way I do get to be part of that community for the games that really matter to me, but I also am not just buying everything out there at full price.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify re-invented the radio⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Fully agree with you on artists not getting their fair share, and I would argue that the issue is sadly endemic across the entire music industry and was that way long before streaming services even existed. Spotify is merely the most visible representation of a long festering issue that spans generations.

  I can only speak for myself but I do actually still buy CDs for bands I really like. I will also occasionally buy merch or go to shows. Some of these bands I very certainly would never have discovered without Spotify (or a service like it).

  Ultimately I agree that I’d like people to understand their options. I think the biggest likely barrier is convenience. I have a NAS server, and a virtual host set up that runs a Linux server with Plex on it, and I have that open so I can use Plexamp to play live albums or any other stuff I own that isn’t on Spotify. But like… That’s a massive barrier to entry to simply create something close to the experience Spotify offers out of the box. And it’s definitely not as polished. I do it because I’m a hobbyist, but most people aren’t like that. So then if you want to buy music individually, you’re stuck listening to actual physical CDs, or ripping them and loading them on your phone or mp3 player. Old school cool for sure, but new school convenience is sure hard to beat once you’ve had a taste.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Spotify re-invented the radio⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  This is your rationale and that is ok for you. Ownership is important to you. That is ok. But people who make the point you are making never understand the point those of us who like Spotify are making.

  We do not care that we don’t own anything after paying. I am not paying to own it. Never felt like I was, never felt like I needed to. In fact, it’s almost a perk that I don’t because then I am not sitting amidst towers of CDs (something that was definitely possible if I had continued my pre-spotify trajectory). Anyway, I pay for access. No more, no less. I pay for access to Spotify’s library, which is many orders of magnitude larger than anything I could ever hope to amass myself, even if I was pirating shit.

  I want to listen to whatever I want, whenever I want, instantly. I don’t want to go pirate it, I don’t want to go find it at a store, if someone suggests me a song or album or artist I want to go listen to it right now. Spotify enables that. I have discovered so much music I would absolutely never have tried without Spotify.

  And again, I am 100% comfortable paying for access to something not owned by me. I’m a member at our local zoo. I don’t expect to own the animals, I pay to just to get in. I’m a member at our museum. I don’t feel like I should own the artifacts, I pay for the privilege of seeing them. I am a member at a community pool. I don’t own the water, I pay to get in, and have someone else handle all the hassle of maintaining that pool.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If you could play one game for the first time all over again, what would it be?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Came here to say this one. It’s been ~30 years and there still isn’t another game that quite hits in the same way. The perfect combination of jrpg, weirdness, emotion, humor, horror/dread, and lightheartedness. Earthbound has it all.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google has sent internet into ‘spiral of decline’, claims DeepMind co-founder⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  If we are trying to dig into the root cause? Then yes, honestly. It is Google. And don’t call them the “search engine guys”, that’s not what they are about. They are the “mass aggregation and correlation of user data guys”. Search has been a means to an end for Google for a very long time.

  All those other things didn’t exist when google was developing their model. Google paved the way for the internet no longer being free, but being “free” with payment rendered in the form of user data. That in turn directly led to all those other evils you referred to. It is not an exaggeration to imply that Google is ultimately at fault for the way the internet functions today.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft May Owe $28.9 Billion in Back Taxes to the IRS⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s already been a new flavor of coke developed and allegedly chosen by AI. If that’s not some kind of singularity moment, I don’t know what is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unreal Engine 5.3 Matrix Demo with High Quality Reflections⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  From a pure graphical fidelity point we’re there now.

  From an animation standpoint we are light years away. The absolute best animations or facial expression renders I have seen are nowhere near good enough to actually pass for real. And honestly I am not sure I’ve even seen meaningful improvement in this area in a long time. Even in this demo videos the cars don’t look quite right as they move, and cars are much easier than people, or the way cloth moves when on someone who is moving.

  I’d like to think this is the next big focus for graphics, but animations are a lot harder to get right than pure visual fidelity. I hope studios start focusing on it because it will take take us to that next step.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are good places to frequently check / 'be' on the internet besides lemmy / reddit / social media?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Anything at all!

  Yes… Welcome!

  The only limit is yourself!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dad level: 100⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  First, sure. It could be that. My opinion is that it’s awfully likely that a photo in this format was not a paparazzo. And if it was a random neighbor it’s pretty rude of them, too.

  Second, the title of the post had zero indication that this would be a photo taken from the bushes of a celebrity and his child. Comments here in the form of “engagement” are doing absolutely nothing for the person who took the picture. I’m certain the person who made the meme didn’t pay for the shot.

  There are lots of groups out there who could use random people on the internet defending them. Paparazzi are absolutely not in that category. They are terrible people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New Study: 54% of American Adults Read Below 6th Grade-Levels⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I found this hilarious to read.

  Take it from another would-be English major who found a career in IT infrastructure. We are the ones with the problem over-explaining things because we value having a full information set over being concise. The thing is I agree with you that people are overly terse, or maybe more directly people are unable to process long blocks of information. It’s frustrating, because I would rather have it all in one place to reference back to.

  But I’ve found the flip side of that is that in my efforts to ensure there is no possible way to misconstrue my communication, I lose everyone in its length. Yes it would be nice if everyone was able to digest what amounts to a technical manual-cum-email so they have a full understanding. But the reality is that the vast majority of people cannot. They simply shut down and stop reading. Therefore it is my responsibility to adjust my delivery to be most effective for the intended audience. This includes fewer words, more direct points, and less supporting details unless asked for more.

  I guess my point is, I see myself in your comment. And I wanted to share that I used to feel that way but time has softened my outlook and opened me to the idea that I’m definitely complicit in the overall lack of understanding by failing to account for my audience.

  Look at that, there I go rambling again!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Dad level: 100⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Seriously, this.

  All I could think of was wow, this poor little girl can’t even have a normal childhood experience trick or treating with her dad because some fuck head paparazzo is chasing them around snapping pictures of them. That’s so sleazy and shitty. She didn’t ask for this. She just wants to be with her dad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mmm. Tuna Dog.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  This has to be a new meme format. It’s too good not to be.

  Image

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨My 3D printed kitchen bags drawer⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I like to do this but it’s much cheaper to buy bags in the giant packs. Those don’t fit in my drawer because they aren’t the normal size/shape. Or sometimes if I mix/match brands the boxes don’t fit together in the drawer. Uncommon, but happens.

  Not saying this is 100% needed, but it’s not without use.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Coca-Cola's New AI-Generated Soda Flavor Falls Flat⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  That is my assumption as well. That’s kind of the trend with most new flavors of soda it seems. Very few actually stick. This one is just so much more obnoxious in origin than most that I want it to die quicker lol.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Coca-Cola's New AI-Generated Soda Flavor Falls Flat⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I was really hoping this was an article with early sales numbers showing it’s a flop. I already assumed it was going to taste bad, that feels like a given to me. I want it to be a failure in sales so this kind of thing stops happening.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Running AI is so expensive that Amazon will probably charge you to use Alexa in future, says outgoing exec⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know if you’re in IT at all, but the really crazy thing is that as half baked as Alexa stuff feels…a ton of AWS’s offerings feel the exact same way. Their marketing material is great, and I do believe their engineers are passionate and have the right intentions. But none of it feels “finished”. It all feels like an elaborate beta test. Things don’t work, documentation is out of date or just plain wrong, it’s impossible to get actual expert support from Amazon directly.

  AWS is their biggest money maker and even that is a cobbled together, confusing pile half the time. Sometimes feels like everything is a house of cards.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Running AI is so expensive that Amazon will probably charge you to use Alexa in future, says outgoing exec⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  This is the killer for all this shit right now as far as I’m concerned. All of it lives squarely in “huh…neat” territory. I have yet to see anything I felt was truly necessary. Until that happens, paying is a non starter for me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm so glad I waited nearly 3 years to play Cyberpunk 2077, but I dread the fact that this is our new normal⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s an interesting comparison to Deus Ex. I hadn’t thought of that but I agree. It’s definitely got that feel, it’s just much more shallow. Good call.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm so glad I waited nearly 3 years to play Cyberpunk 2077, but I dread the fact that this is our new normal⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Nonetheless, it didn’t really feel finished, y’know? That part wore on me, and I think is what undermined my enjoyment the most. It really was released too early.

  The performance issues seem to be what every article and blog post focuses on because it’s the easy thing to talk about, but I think this right here is what the actual biggest issue was and the real reason people shat on the game.

  I didn’t hate it by any means. And I, like you, ran it without issue. I just sort of lost interest because it was janky and super unpolished. Like I was playing an early access game. It wasn’t big bugs as in the game breaking and not running. It was just lots of little annoyance that felt unfinished or half conceived, or like they didn’t undergo full play testing.

  The massive performance issues experienced by some just compounded those issues that existed even when it did run perfectly well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm so glad I waited nearly 3 years to play Cyberpunk 2077, but I dread the fact that this is our new normal⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  The issue was that there were multiple huge problems with the game spread across various platforms that created a big shit storm of negativity.

  • It was straight up broken for many console players.
  • Some PC players had performance issues.
  • For those who had no issues actually running it (like me), the game still had floaty controls and weightless guns. NPCs and vehicles that popped in and out at odd times. Dialog that clipped or played over each other. Completely broken police/wanted system. Confusing and largely ineffectual skill tree.
  • Once you got beyond those issues with game polish, then you were dealing with it not really being the deep scifi RPG they promised, but more of a shooter with RPG elements.

  So you’ve got potential issues from multiple angles, and it just all compounded on itself. For me, I just got bored of dealing with it after like 10 hours. It was janky and that combined with it being nothing like what they hyped it up as just sorta killed it for me even though it ran with no issues.

  With that said, I played for an hour or two after the update and my first impressions are a ton better and it seems like they have really fixed a lot of things. I’m excited to come back to it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm so glad I waited nearly 3 years to play Cyberpunk 2077, but I dread the fact that this is our new normal⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Pretty simple root cause analysis to conclude that the game’s brokenness was the ultimate reason though. Like, why was the game being massively refunded?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there any way to open a pop can stealthily?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Do this, but also cover the whole operation with a towel. Not quite stealth maybe but it’s about the best you can do.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why We’re Pulling Our Recommendation of Wyze Security Cameras⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I happily subscribe to the New York Times. I feel it’s important to support a major source of actual quality journalism and content.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Elon Musk Says He Might Put X/Twitter Behind A Paywall⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I think a lot of people forget that Bill Gates was on a similar (if less public) fuck face path as Musk is on now. His complete turn toward philanthropism is pretty incredible.

  I’m not saying he hasn’t done awful things, I’m not saying he hasn’t crushed the little guy, I’m not even saying at a basic level he’s a good person. But he’s used his incredible wealth to do a lot of good in the world, and with incredibly flippant monsters like Musk showing us the alternative I feel like it’s worth re-acknowledging.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨US authorities ask locals for help in finding missing F-35 jet — Authorities say they are searching for the $80m jet around two lakes in the state of South Carolina⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  What is this, a Zelda side quest? Lol. I’d love to help you find the princess but I’m just so broken up over this missing F-35. If you can help me find it, I think I’ll be able to remember where I saw her last. There might also be 20 rupees in it for ya. Thanks!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New Vaccine Can Completely Reverse Autoimmune Diseases Like Multiple Sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes, and Crohn’s Disease⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Treatment. The word they are looking for is treatment.

  I swear to god these research firms absolutely need to get ahead of how they refer to this shit publicly. People are way too dumb to just speak literally.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Fully Charged in Just 6 Minutes – Groundbreaking Technique Could Revolutionize EV Charging⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  The barrier to adoption is so often outlet scenarios though.

  A vehicle is a huge purchase. For many it’s the largest purchase they will make. For everyone else it’s the second largest, behind their home.

  It doesn’t matter if the average buyer isn’t likely to take longer trips frequently. What does matter is that those outlet scenarios can be conceivably accomplished without significant hassle. And before you say that’s not reasonable, consider that it doesn’t matter that it isn’t reasonable.

  People base their purchase decisions on unreasonable factors all the time. How else do we explain how many trucks are on the road?

  It does not matter that current charging methods cover 99% of scenarios for 99% of people. The glare of that 1% will shine a light brighter than the positives from the standpoint of widespread adoption. And from that perspective, news of a solution to slower charging is a very good thing.