Acamon
@Acamon@lemmy.world
- Comment on Google To Subscribe To Your Emails To Find Content For Your Search Listings. 11 hours ago:
I travel a lot, and spend time in a lot of random places, stay with friends and such like. My job means that I can set my own schedule most of the time, but sometimes I need to respond to something pretty urgently. So, there’s been plenty of times when I’ve been travelling light and suddenly been asked to pull a bunch of data from a spreadsheet and write some quick report on it, so usually I just ask whoever I’m with if I can use their pc for an hour and get it out the way.
It’s certainly possible do it all on a phone, but it’s much quicker and more pleasant to just use a proper keyboard and screen. And there have been times (like after a ill-advised encounter with a fountain in Rome) when my phone is temporarily out of action, so if I need to deal with travel arrangements on a public computer it might involve accessing my emails.
- Comment on Circuit tracing LLMs reveal some bizarre reasoning processes 18 hours ago:
Yeah, I didn’t find it particularly bizarre. Both are very natural ways to process verbal information. Anyone who’s ever tried to do arithmetic in a new language knows that we don’t just abstractly do math, a big part is that we know that seven plus eight is fifteen. That’s why they used to teach multiplication tables by rote. It would be lot more bizarre if an llm had independently devised a reliable mathematical algorithm.
- Comment on Google To Subscribe To Your Emails To Find Content For Your Search Listings. 18 hours ago:
Using email clients is fine on my primary devices, but I often have to use email on other people’s computers. I don’t really want to go back to carrying a usb of portable apps again. And some public computers have usb drive access disabled, understandably.
- Submitted 1 day ago to technology@lemmy.world | 3 comments
- Comment on Google To Subscribe To Your Emails To Find Content For Your Search Listings. 1 day ago:
Anyone got a any opinions (or a link to a review) of the different options? Proton and tuta come up, are there others worth considering?
I understand that I’ll probably need to pay (otherwise I’m the product) and encryption / security is good, but the thing that keeps with Gmail (apart from inertia) is that it feels quick and easy to use. My only real experience of non Gmail sites over the last two decades have been terrible but mandatory work webmail systems that are slow, clunky and look a decade out of date. Or Hotmail, which sucks for a variety of reasons.
- Comment on Should a movie released in 1995 be considered an "old" movie? 1 day ago:
Based on when I was young, I basically thought of anything from before I was born as “old”. Not consciously, just that everything from “my” decade seemed modern, and everything else was old.
Even now, movies from 20+ years ago look old, even though I remember them being super new when they came out. The Matrix had aged pretty well, but it defintely looks old. I thought LOTR was timeless, but I rewatched it recently and did start to feel it was showing it’s age (but none the worse for it!).
- Comment on If most of us believe what we're told, if we are obedient that way, and keep an eye on our possibly-deviant neighbors, and those neighbors know that they are being watched, that's good enough. 2 days ago:
I’m very close to blocking this account. I think I might have a lot of sympathy for OPs positions, but it’s impossible to know, because they never legitimately make an argument or point. Just pseudoedgy shit like this “showerthought”.
@rainrain@sh.itjust.works, if you actually want people to engage with you (instead of downvoting most of your posts into oblivion) attempt to have a mature conversation. Something like:
“Do you think that society is increasingly supportive of surveillance, and that online spaces have normalised judging other people and reinforcing norms without really understanding them as individuals.”
or "all public discussions must balance freedom of expression and maintaining a meaningful discourse. Do you think the pendulum has swung to far in the direction of censorship? If so, how can we allow more varied perspectives while still maintaining a space where sane people want to spend time? "
When you sound like a dumb edgy teen, or a lazy troll, most people are not going to engage positively. If you actually care about these issues your doing a fuckin awful job of promoting your position. Show that you understand the issue, and the pov of the other side, and then discuss what needs to change. If you’re just a troll, then at least mix it up a little. Severely lacking in teh lulz.
- Comment on Since militaries are authoritarian, even in democratic countries; What would a military of a stateless/anarchist society look like? 4 days ago:
As far as I understand it, most anarchists are opposed to unjust / unjustified / unnecessary hierarchies. There’s many advantages to having managers, team leaders, captains, etc. because it can be helpful to have someone coordinated actions between a larger group.
What anarchists would seek to avoid would be structures where power starts to consolidate around people beyond what’s needed. It’s good to have a leader for quick decisions in the heat of battle, or other emergency, but that person doesn’t need to decide everything outside of battle, because there’s time to have a more democratic or consensual decision making process. They also don’t need to be given more money, or not be accountable and replaceable by their squad.
- Comment on With the current state of the news, April's fools aren't fun anymore because they can't be distinguished as easily as before 4 days ago:
Yeah, I think the mean prank vibe sucks (obvs, ymmv) but the ‘fake news’ aspect was a positive. Like the original and sadly long lost art of og trolling, the purpose was to remind everyone that you cannot believe everything you read, and you should not suddly react to something just because you read it in a newspaper. If it sounds wild or incendiary, maybe check a couple of other sources before passing it on to friends and looking like a ‘fool’.
Unfortunately, we’ve past the stage where gentle friendly reminders of media literacy are likely to help. Most of us are all too aware we live in an age of misinformation (but don’t agree on what is ‘fake’) so it’s no longer funny.
- Comment on Are old people usually attracted to other old people? 2 weeks ago:
I’ve always been attracted to folks with cute & youthful vibe. But when I was a teen that was pretty restricted to other teens, even the ‘young looking’ twenty year olds who were playing high-school students on TV obviously looked older and therefore less attractive to me.
But now I’m in my 40s my range of who looks youthful and hot is much wider. Now I find 20s hotter than teens, 30s can look pretty youthful, and I’m not super attracted to older people, but I find them less gross because I’m used to what older bodies look like (I have one!). And since physical attractiveness is just one part of overall attraction, I’d probably find a cute & 39 person more overall attractive than cute & 19, just because my experience is that most 39 year olds are funnier and more socially skilled than teenagers.
I can’t imagine every finding a 70 year old hotter on a physical level to 20 year old. But I can imagine being so content and in love with my elderly partner that I didn’t care that much.
- Comment on The human hand is incredibly good at seeing what's inside your pocket 4 weeks ago:
Can confirm. Licked the outside of a subway cart once. Truly horrific.
- Comment on Please tell me I'm not going nuts 4 weeks ago:
Yeah, I think this is a naive and hopeful as the maga types thinking Trump is a genius playing 4d chess.
- Comment on When people in constitutional monarchies pledge loyalty to the monarch, is it actually for real, or just symbolic / a pro-forma thing? 4 weeks ago:
I think “according to the law” is doing a lot of heavy lifting. That is the part that really makes it an oath to the ‘constitution’ of the UK. You are pledging alligence to the figurehead of the government, to obey them/the government, as long as they/the government are acting legally. If the government does something illegal, or asks you to do something illegal, you should not obey them.
I’m British, and not a fan of the monarchy (especially Charles) but I think that we can see the advantages of having a head of state who has very little power to fuck things up, and that isn’t a position that outside
forcesbillionaires can buy their way into, but has the power to remove a Prime Minister if they tried to do something unconstitutional.The idea of checks and balances in the US didn’t seem to plan for a bad president being elected with enough support in the house and Senate that he becomes pretty much untouchable (especially after a first term stacking the SC).
- Comment on Is cops being evil/lazy/incompetent a USA specific thing, or is it the same everywhere in the world? 4 weeks ago:
I’m defintely not a fan of cops, but in Scotland I never thought of them as evil/lazy/incompetent. They’re still the arm of state control, and have been used to break strikes and stuff, but there is at least a vibe of policing by consent. There are plenty of cases of individual cops who were psychos, and the institution defintely defaults to ‘protecting it’s own’ which is a fucking terrible attitude and in my mind makes all cops culpable for the crimes of the “bad apples”. So I’m still acab overall.
But most of my interactions with the police have been pretty decent, and that includes being questioned as a suspect (for something that I may not have been innocent of…) They don’t ‘solve’ many petty crimes like burglary that actual effect normal people but they are generally university educated and properly trained.
I now live in France, where the police are none of those things. I’ve only heard bad things about them ranging from patronising and incompetent to raping student protesters in the back of the police van. I would never ask a French cop for help, but unless I was high or carrying something illegal, i wouldn’t be worried about talking to a Scottish policeman.
- Comment on At what point in the friendship does dating become awkward? 4 weeks ago:
I think any good relationship will make you friends, and it isn’t awkward, it’s great! But having been married a while, it is something you need to work at. With a long term partner they can end up in a bunch of different types of relationships with you - as well as friend, romantic parter and lover, they might be the equivalent of business parter, or boss/employee (for various household and family chores / projects) and learning how to do all those things well, and without ruining the other parts of the relationship can be challenge.
But if the balance is just between ‘friend’ and ‘gf’, I’d say the trick is knowing when to prioritise one over the over. There are times I’m horny and want to take things in that direction, but I realise my partner would rather have a cup of tea and complain about work. Equally, we might be getting intimate, and I’m tempted to make some dumb joke, because it’s funny and that’s what I do with a friend, so I have to weigh up my priorities (mostly sex wins, but sometimes I say the dumb thing and we both have a big laugh and then make dinner.)
- Comment on What’s the difference between pansexuality and bisexuality? 4 weeks ago:
Echoing other lemmings, there’s basically no difference. There js a certain niche who seem to think that pansexual is more trans inclusive, but that attitude doesn’t align with almost all bisexuals opinions on the matter, or with the history of how the bisexual community has been accepting and collaborating with the trans community since pretty much the birth of both communities.
The delightful verilybitchie, who is both bisexual and trans, has a bunch of good video on the history of bisexuality, trans stuff, and biphobia*. They are defintely worth watching!
- it’s pretty hard to hear ‘bisexuals exclude trans people’ and not feel like that’s an example of biphobia.
- Comment on [deleted] 5 weeks ago:
That finding is pretty mind blowing!
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
Totally. And eventually people get to the age where “embarrassing” medical stuff is so common that it doesn’t even raise an eyebrow. Just be matter of fact about it, if you don’t act like it’s embarrassing then they won’t either.
- Comment on How important is flirting within the dating scene? 1 month ago:
There’s a difference between ‘faking’ / trying to become something you’re not and improving your communication style /skills. You’re meeting women, not flirting, and not progressing into the kinds of relationships you want. You don’t need to start ‘flirting’ (whatever that means to you), but maybe you can change what’s happening after meeting people. I assume your speaking with people you find attractive? How do you build a connection with them? How are you letting them know you’re interested in taking things further?
There’s a big difference from A) meeting women, being pleasant, and hoping that one of them asks you out, and B) meeting women, having some friendly conversations, then asking if they want to start dating. Those are extremes, but the space in the middle can all be considered forms of flirting.
Flirting doesnt need to be some special way of making eye contact, or lame pick up lines. Having fun, making jokes and being silly can be flirting. Asking someone politely if they’d like to get coffee some time can be flirting. Flirting is just the process of letting the other person know that you’re interested in them in a romantic / sexual way, and good flirting is letting them know that in a way that doesn’t make them uncomfortable and makes it easy for them to respond without making things awkward for either of you.
- Comment on Do you feel like you've reached the end of what the world has to offer? 1 month ago:
One one level, obviously you can never experience everything, the world is fricking massive and ever-changing. But you can feel like you’ve seen and done everything that interests you, and find it hard to remain curious and develop new interests. There have been times that I think the only interests and goals that will ever feel relevant to me are ones that I’ve had since I was a kid. But even “eating yummy food, playing games and reading fantasy books” is more than enough to fill my entire life.
When I’ve been lucky enough to have the time, I’ve filled many hours, day after day, cooking delicious meals and trying new things in the kitchen, and the list of things I want to try expands just as fast as I tick them off. Similarly, although I’ve read countless fantasy novels over the decades I’ve only just got round to reading classics like Conan and Elric, and there’s so much more out there - and people write more books every year!
But there are times when I can’t face new challenges, and I retreat to the easy comfort of things I know. This can be reassuring and restful, but if I get to the stage where I’m sick of watching the same show I’ve seen so many times, then I know it’s time for me to start pushing myself to try new things and develop new tastes (even if it’s just subvarieties of things I already like). And if I don’t feel up to that, it means I need to get some support and help to improve my mood and clear my thinking.
- Comment on If I’m mostly attracted to men, is it «wrong» to consider myself pan? 1 month ago:
I agree with most of the other comments that labels aren’t really important. But if you do want to think about and describe your sexuality for whatever purpose, go for it. And as a lifelong bisexual, self doubt is a common enough trope in bi/pansexual communities to get it’s own label, ‘bi imposter syndrome’. Some bi (or pan, I see the difference as mostly stylistic) people are equally attracted to all genders, some have a significant tendency one way or another, and some think they have a preference and then it switches, and sometimes switches back again and again. I’ve been in a relationship with the same guy for so long now, I sometimes wonder ‘am I really bi? Am I just pretending? Maybe I just didn’t know what I wanted when I was young, and now I can admit I’m just gay’. But then I speak to some girl, or see a hottie on TV, and realise I’m defitnely sexually attracted to them.
If bi is so broad to include anyone who has ever had, or could have, sexual attraction to anyone who wasn’t their traditional hetero gender, is there any point in the label? Isn’t almost everyone bi? Sure! I kinda think everyone is kinda bi on some level. But it’s also about what purpose a label serves. If someone described themselves as ‘pan’, I would assume they woukd open-minded and nonjudgemental about people of different sexualites and genders. I wouldn’t assume they’d automatically be attracted to everyone they met, even straight men aren’t attracted to every woman. I use to avoid calling myself gay, because I’m bi, but I realised that insisting on that was sometimes kinda homophobic, and as someone married to another man, I have a lot in common with lots of gay folks. But I also sometimes refer to myself as a “straight white man” when talking about privilege, because most acquaintances don’t think of me as gay so I’ve never experienced much discrimination on that front, and don’t feel I can claim to speak as a ‘minority’.
- Comment on Will online only "Device Activation" become the norm for every device in the future? / Will everything require an app in the future? 1 month ago:
Anyone got good suggestions for affordable cameras that don’t require an app?
- Comment on What's the deal with male loneliness? 2 months ago:
I think the reason for down votes is that the comment suggests that issues with dating are the reason for male loneliness, when most people in the thread would argue that believing that ‘a romantic partner is the only acceptable source of meaningful emotional connection available to men’ is a big part of male loneliness.
- Comment on We like music because our brains crave pattern recognition. 2 months ago:
For a long time lots of European music was mostly thorough-composed, where there was little to no repitition. Madrigals (the popular music of the renaissance) were mostly like this, the melody would follow it’s own journey with no chorus / verse or other repetitive structure. I might be remembering wrong, but I think it was early baroque and Monteverdi’s Orfeo that popularised repeating structures, and turns out people love them. If you back and listen to some madrigals, it’s a very different approach to music. (also, there was folks music and all sorts of other traditions, which used more repeating patterns, that seem more familiar to us.)
- Comment on If "more money=more problems," why doesn't "no money=no problems"? 3 months ago:
Because that’s the logical fallacy of Denying the Antecedent . If “it’s raining” then “the sidewalk is wet”. Knowing that it’s raining tells us something about the sidewalk, it’s not dry, it’s wet. And knowing the sidewalk is dry tells us something, it can’t be raining (because if it was, the sidewalk would be wet).
But knowing “it is not raining” doesn’t tell us about the sidewalk (it could be dry, it could be wet, maybe it rained earlier, maybe a dog peed on it). And similarly knowing the sidewalk is wet doesn’t tell us anything about the rain.
So even if “mo money causes mo problems” all that tells us is that someone with mo money will not be problem free. People with no money might also have mo problems, the syllogism doesn’t tell us about that.
- Comment on flouride 4 months ago:
Talking about the ocean is odd, but there are towns in the UK (and most countries I’d assume?) where the natural level of fluoride is higher than the concentration they aim for when adding fluoride. I think that’s a pretty good argument for it being safe - the people of Hartlepool have been drinking fluoride rich water for 13 centuries and don’t have any noticeable issues compared to the rest OF County Durham.
- Comment on What has Critical Theory actually achieved? 4 months ago:
I’m mot sure I understand what kind of answer you are looking for. What did the Whig historiography achieve? Or the Great Man theory? Isn’t Critical Theory an academic approach that allows people in the humanities a different theoretical framework to approach the problems of culture, history, literature, etc? It’s been pretty successful in that, and while I believe that academic scholarship has some influence on world affairs, it’s generally the political zetgeist exerts more pressure on academic thinking than the other way around…
- Comment on Do the ultra-rich consume popular media? 4 months ago:
The Queen apparently watched the amazing 80s Flash Gordon movie every Christmas. And it’s about overthrowing a tyrannical monarch…
- Comment on Phonebooks 6 months ago:
Original SEO
- Comment on Most file types are just a renamed .zip 6 months ago:
I think ‘most’ is hyperbole for dramatic effect / increased engagement. “more files than you might think are actually following the zip file structure” isn’t as punchy.