Deestan
@Deestan@lemmy.world
- Comment on I hear a lot of "ACAB", why don't I hear "APAB"? (P as in Politician) 9 hours ago:
It is a sentiment that separates politics from the people.
I believe/hope it is not a popular term because enough people believe it’s bad for democracy.
Depoliticaztion of the populace is what allows governments like Russia’s to happen.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 day ago:
Desktop computer: Installing a keylogger, for example, is cheap and require skills like “can purchase a cheap and simple technical part” and “can plug in a USB”, which are skills you can assume a CS student will possess.
Laptop: Same, but have to open the laptop and install a less standard straightforward loggrr on the internal cable. This require more effort and patience.
Phone: I have no idea, and I am a computer scientist who spends time thinking about this. I mean, all phones can be opened with corresponding equipment, and the touch screen is connected to the internal computer with a cable, but they differ in details per model and the space to work with is tiny. The research investment is significant and model dependent. Meaning, the effort cost is quite high and they’d need extremely strong motivation.
- Comment on Are Voice Assistants Becoming Family Members? 3 days ago:
A family member with no inherent moral compass or empathy, whose eyes, ears, thoughts and agency belong to teams of trained profit-seekers in a different country.
I disapprove of this humanization of software.
- Comment on Operation Narnia: Iran’s nuclear scientists reportedly killed simultaneously using special weapon 3 days ago:
It got more legal a few years ago, I think. Not explicitly “made legal”, but the legal foundations have been eroded. I.e. if you can expect to get away with something it is legal in a very real sense.
It’s always been practically legal for empires like the US, Russia, China to commit any atrocities in weak countries, More and more countries are seeing how much they can get away with.
Netanyahu tested the limits and saw there were none.
- Comment on A woman tried to call her mom in Iran. A robotic voice answered the phone 3 days ago:
During the invasion of Berlin in 1945, the overwhelmed German command trying to map out the Russian advance had to resort to just calling businesses or homes of people living in areas they were uncertain about.
If most people in a district did not pick up the phone, or someone did pick up and swore in Russian, they marked it on the map as invaded.
Different worlds of course, but the point is that civilian phones have intelligence value.
It could bake sense as a super creepy tactical choice by Iran to deny intelligence gathering from abroad.
- Comment on How not to lose your job to AI 3 days ago:
I feel that this article is based on beliefs that are optimism rather tham empiricism, and trains of thought driven way into highly simplified territory.
Basically like the Lesswrong, self-proclaimed “longtermists” and Zizians crowds.
Illustrative example: Categorizing nannies under “human touch strongly preferred - perhaps as a luxury”. This assumes automation is not only possible to a degree way beyond what we see signs of, but that the service itself isn’t inherently human.
- Comment on How is spontaneous betting (as portrayed by comics and movies) supposed to work? 4 days ago:
A bookie is needed. Betting requires odds and bookeeping, plus a prize pool guarantor.
The movies either leave the bookie out of shot for dramatic brevity, or, equally likely, have no idea how betting works but just copy other movies.
- Comment on What's the best way to respond to a family member who says the COVID vaccines are being used to depopulate? 4 days ago:
Their bullshit causes a risk that someone else hesitate or pass on vaccination. You did an attempt at convincing. The responsible alternative is to make them feel uncomfortable bringing up the subject.
- Comment on What's the best way to respond to a family member who says the COVID vaccines are being used to depopulate? 4 days ago:
A pregnancy is not a person to count. That’s anti-abortion rhetoric.
- Comment on Odds of rolling a 7 with a weighted die 5 days ago:
That just sounds confusing. You’re putting me off murder now.
- Comment on Odds of rolling a 7 with a weighted die 5 days ago:
Ah, so the chance of rolling a 7 changes to 1/20?
- Comment on Odds of rolling a 7 with a weighted die 5 days ago:
Your question is already answered correctly, so I’m just chiming in with thoughts on a similar situation :)
If you weigh both dice, it gets interesting again.
The obvious is to make one die roll always 3 and the other always 4, and get 1/1 chance of 7 but that’s boring and you’ll only get a few throws in before you’re obviously cheating.
Dice are arranged so that opposite sides always add up to 7, meaning you can get 1,2,3 around one corner and 4,5,6 around the opposite corner. So if you weigh opposite corners on each die, you get a 1/3 chance of rolling a 7 by varying combinatons. You might get away with a few more rolls like that.
- Comment on What is your age range for dating? 🤔 😮 6 days ago:
That is a strange way to say she’s 57…
But anyway! Range varies wildly with age. 6 years is something you at least ponder at age 25, but will feel like “same age” around 50.
My feeling based on what people seem to at least not care to even gossip lightly about: max 1 year at age 15. 5 years at 40. 10 years at age 60+.
Wider ranges are not problematic, but gets into at least “interesting to talk about”. E.g. “They are 33 and 40! Huh! Good for them.”
- Comment on Why do websites now prefer IP-based geolocation rather than the `Accept-Language` HTTP header? 1 week ago:
It’s also such an broken idea that I can only imagine it comes from american tech bros who have a childish view of the world.
“Yes this area is germany people in germany speak german so websites must german problem solved”
No:
- I am Norwegian. I sometimes gasp TRAVEL. Taking a train through Germany to get to France doesn’t mean I want Google to go all “Dieses Suchenwiegenflassen gewürst fleinmescht bitte” at me when I search for pictures of cute cats.
- Some countries have multiple official languages.
- Some people technically in Norway living close to the border just speak swedish.
- Expats.
- I don’t want badly translated websites in Norwegian. Just give me English. Microsoft Bing for years had a setting that when translated back to English said “Number of results: Car”.
- Comment on “Production” to describe multiplication? 2 weeks ago:
I am a bit confused here, because what you describe is what is currently happening. :)
A multiplication of any number of factors is a product.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
Your fanfic of people’s inner dialogue may not be canon
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
Depends? You can also copy a book exactly (i.e. word for word, not photocopying), and digital media also deteriorates.
Digital media deteriorates faster in cold storage than a physical book, but is easier to copy.
Properly stored: CDs die anywhere between 10 and 30 years. Some flash drives last 10. Magnetic storage 10-20 years. Books hunders of years.
I’d say physical books are safer against deterioration because it can handle a few generations of “forgetting about it” while a physical copy needs regular backup maintenance.
- Comment on SteamOS finally released by Valve 4 weeks ago:
Lack of official support for a lot of devices does not make it “not released”.
I can get it right now and install it on an AMD 'puter. I expect to manually install some drivers at least to get it fully working, but since the base OS is Arch, that’s pretty explored territory.
- Comment on Why do so many piece of Hardware come with windows only software requiring admin right for installation 4 weeks ago:
This saves me from accidentally installing a rootkit or other software.
This sentence surprised me a bit. When and how often do you run that risk?
- Comment on [deleted] 4 weeks ago:
These days I see it used in a derogatory way to describe countries and their culture more than the genetics of the people living in them.
E.g. even though I am genetically identical to white Texans, I’d happily call Texas uncivilized because it lets assholes with guns override government.
- Comment on Is there a community dedicated for serious discussion? 5 weeks ago:
You make it, and now it’s a somewhat safe place for people to form discussions that validate pedophilia. Several discussions now are adjacent to that topic, via adoption discussion, sneakernet dissemination, countries with lax laws, discussions around age of consent, definitions of nudity, what is considered public spaces for photography…
At some point it is no longer pure philosophical discussions in neutral faith, but a breeding ground for pure shit. How do you determine if that point is reached? How do you decide where the line goes? How do you adjust the rules to adjust for this?
The above is not hypothetical. It specifically has ruined a few online spaces. Other topics like the Trump cult has a different pattern.
- Comment on Is there a community dedicated for serious discussion? 5 weeks ago:
Each type of topic needs a different style, tolerance and shape of moderation for this, so it’s more effective to look for this per topic instead of a general solution.
E.g. transgender discussion has different problems than russian aggression discussion, and are solved by very different types of moderation.
Discussing which language should take precedence in schools, in countries with multiple official languages, needs a wildly different set of rules, moderation, tolerances and even moderator knowledge.
- Comment on If the entirety of the internet was a simulation how would prove it? 5 weeks ago:
It provably isn’t, so I’d have to lean on dishonest proof. My contenders are:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettle_logic Tim Bernes Lee said the internet was’t actually feasible. They just theorized the concept. Also, the initial darpanet servers that supposedly turned into the internet were shut down in 1965. Network cables would actually melt if they transferred data on internet scale.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition Need proof? The internet’s most prominent facet is MMOs: Simulated worlds.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_projection_fallacy It’s just pixels moving on my screen, people. It’s not real in any real sense. The computer is making all the words show up on my screen by following its internal machinery.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_by_assertion It is a simulation. The internet is clearly a simulation. Everyone says it’s a simulation. The intetnet is a simulation.
- Comment on Selling BTC or not..? 1 month ago:
Well, those are toy amounts and not investment amounts, so this is more of a question of whether you want to keep some BTC for fun, or selling it off and focus on other hobbies.
Unless you want to play around trading the BTC on exchanges in the near future, I’d say just sell off.
- Comment on what are your thoughts on Bidirectional brain-computer interfaces ? 1 month ago:
It can’t exist meaningfully in a world of patents, trade secrets, vendor lock-ins and closed source.
I’m not installing something that I can’t inspect, modify or service anywhere I please.
- Comment on Derek Smart unveils ACE Platform, a multi-blockchain ‘virtual town hall of engagement opportunities’ | Massively Overpowered 1 month ago:
Remember that we are not players in Web3 games. We are mobs to be farmed.
“Web3 Gaming” is gaming played by speculators and investors.
The products they create are disposable tools used to manipulate and farm regular gamers for cash.
- Comment on Games on my PC start stuttering pretty badly when they aren't the active window for a while. Have to close the game and restart to resolve the stuttering issue. What exactly is causing this? 1 month ago:
Sounds like your computer has a bit lower RAM than it needs, in which case it “swaps”.
This means taking some memory that’s not been used for a while and writing it to disk, and using the now free RAM for what you are currently doing.
When starting a game, it likely swaps out browser memory to make room for the game. It loads all it needs into RAM to make the game run smooth.
When tabbing out of the game, it swaps game memory to disk and swaps in browser memory.
When going back to the game, it will swap game memory back in in bits and pieces. Turn around, the game needs to draw that door texture. That needs to be swapped back into RAM from disk. Slight stutter, then normal. Walk a bit further, it needs to play footstep sounds. Those needs to be fetched back in from disk. And so on.
Writing/reading from a HDD makes noise and vibration, since it’s internally a core of spinning disks with several small motors moving back and forth.
An SSD has no moving parts and will not make noise. Stutters will be shorter, but still happen.
Adding more RAM will reduce or remove the need to swap to disk in the first place, and is the most useful upgrade to alleviate the issue.
- Comment on Game design question : how to make a "trapped" player character? 1 month ago:
What sort of game genre do you have experience making? Finding something within what you are able to do is important.
- Comment on 'Make America Greay Again': are MAGA monarchists? 1 month ago:
They are talking like they want to / believe they have an Elective Monarchy:
- The Elected Leader is the State and can not be restrained by any officials, government branch, or law
- The Elected Leader’s actions are legitimate because the elected leader made them
- Comment on Cities Skylines 2, Kerbal Space 2, Planet Coaster 2, Frostpunk 2... What Went Wrong? 1 month ago:
In order:
- Overscoped
- Wrong people in charge on all levels
- Unfocused
- This turned out ok?