AFKBRBChocolate
@AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca
- Comment on Banana 3 days ago:
The one that no longer exists where banana flavoured candy derives its flavor from.
That’s actually a myth. See Wikipedia.
The Gros Michel has a higher concentration of isoamyl acetate, the ester commonly used for “banana” food flavoring, than the Cavendish.[12] This higher concentration is responsible for the myth that banana flavoring was based on the Gros Michel, but artificial banana flavor was not based on any specific cultivar.
- Comment on Converted school bus turned into mobile retro computing museum — historic array includes Sinclair (Timex) ZX Spectrum 48K and Commodore 64 2 weeks ago:
I still have my Timex Sinclair.
- Comment on those of you with good skills to defuse a tense situation at the workplace, what advice can you give me? 2 weeks ago:
Your friend was feeling attacked, and you walking away made her feel abandoned and unsupported. She just wants to know that you have her back. Yes, standing beside her to help show a united front would do that some.
Usually to defuse a situation like that, I would try to understand what Karen was actually upset about, and let her know she’s being heard (which is, ultimately, what she probably wants), but also let her know she’s taking it out on someone who doesn’t deserve it. Saying “calm down” is just going to piss her off. Saying “Hey, I understand you’re upset, and I would be too, but the staff here has no ability to schedule your father for surgery when there aren’t any doctors, and you’re yelling at the wrong person” might.
- Comment on Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites are falling to Earth at an alarming rate 2 weeks ago:
I’m going to guess that “alarming rate” is something similar to the rate they were put up there.
- Comment on What possible evolutionary advantage is offered by my ears suddenly sprouting tons of hair? 2 weeks ago:
I should have included those things an individual does to help their direct offspring - those also help you pass along your genes. Whether it’s nurturing your young, or dying and letting them feed off your corpse, anything you do to help them survive can be part of natural selection too. Don’t those things increases the likelihood of that trait being found in the population. Ear hair isn’t one of those things.
- Comment on What possible evolutionary advantage is offered by my ears suddenly sprouting tons of hair? 2 weeks ago:
I’d bet you’re right.
- Comment on What possible evolutionary advantage is offered by my ears suddenly sprouting tons of hair? 2 weeks ago:
I’m not a geneticist or anthropologist, but apparently that’s a debated, not proven mechanism. The theory being that natural selection works not just on individuals, but on societies. So if older members of a society are more inclined to help take care of the young, that society is more likely to survive, so that trait is more likely to get passed along and become more common in the population. That mechanism would only apply to social/pack animals (like humans), so wouldn’t apply to, say, turtles.
But it’s hard to argue that ear hair in old men helps their society thrive. More likely, it’s just one more trait that is a result of aging and not selected for, like grey hair or wrinkles.
- Comment on What possible evolutionary advantage is offered by my ears suddenly sprouting tons of hair? 2 weeks ago:
Natural selection works when you have a trait that makes you more successful at living long enough to pass along your genes or at attracting a mate to pass them along with. Your offspring are more likely to inherit that trait and so they’re more likely to pass along their genes as well, so the trait is more prevalent in the population. Conversely, if you have a trait that makes it harder for you to live, you’re less likely to pass along your genes, and so that trait is more likely to be less present in the population. If you have a trait that doesn’t impact your ability to live long enough to pass along your genes or attract a mate, it has no impact on natural selection.
So if you have a trait that only appears after you’re past the baby making stage, it’s not playing into natural selection. By definition, that trait didn’t help you survive or attract a mate or whatever before having kids and passing it along. It just happens, like lots of other traits.
- Comment on What possible evolutionary advantage is offered by my ears suddenly sprouting tons of hair? 2 weeks ago:
I remember in college, there was a human sexuality class that used what was essentially porn, but with really old people, to reduce the number of people who took the class to watch porn.
- Comment on What possible evolutionary advantage is offered by my ears suddenly sprouting tons of hair? 2 weeks ago:
Unlikely that anything happening when your old is selected for - you’ve already passed on your genes if you’re going to and nothing is helping you do it more.
- Comment on How do I make pictures less blinding if I prefer dark apps? 3 weeks ago:
Have you tried the bluelight filter most screens have?
- Comment on Ants Trapped For Years in a Soviet Nuclear Bunker Survived in The Most Horrifying Way 3 weeks ago:
You needn’t eat the leg, Thompson.
- Comment on Deaf people get to avoid a lot of arguments 5 weeks ago:
We laughed our asses off (which he couldn’t hear), but also tried to make the stern, scolding face when he was looking. He was such a good boy.
- Comment on Deaf people get to avoid a lot of arguments 5 weeks ago:
We had a dog that was born deaf, so we taught him with hand signals instead of voice commands. Was completely fine, except when he was doing something he knew he shouldn’t, he’d turn away from you so you couldn’t scold him. But he’d also get curious about whether you caught him doing it, so he’d sneak a look over his shoulder, and then you could scold him and he’d stop.
- Comment on Is the amount of Lemmy activity declining? 5 weeks ago:
Oh, I’m with you, and I don’t need or want the endless growth thing. I was on Reddit a long time, and saw the good and bad of the huge user base.
But it’s kind of like when you have a favorite neighborhood restaurant: you don’t want it to get so successful that it’s always crowded and you can’t get a table, but you also want it to do well enough that it stays in business. If the Lemmy use base declines too much, there won’t be a reason for people to come here and we’ll lose our little corner of the Internet.
- Comment on Mark Zuckererg Demos New Facebook AI And It Couldn’t Have Gone Worse 5 weeks ago:
I honestly never look at the AI results because they’re so flawed so often. I don’t have an awful lot of problems finding answers to things with a standard search and then scrolling past any sources that are often crap. Worth noting, by the way, that search results, especially Google’s, were way more accurate several years ago, before there were so many sponsored results and they had agendas to push. So technologically, it’s a fixable situation, it’s just the enshitificaiton problem.
- Comment on Mark Zuckererg Demos New Facebook AI And It Couldn’t Have Gone Worse 5 weeks ago:
I’m an old fart - I got my degree in CS in 1985, and I’ve been paying attention to the predictions and advancements in AI for a very long time. I have at least as much issue with the way people think and talk about it as the author, but probably less of an issue with it being called AI. Remember that for decades, the informal working definition of AI was “A computer doing anything that usually requires a human.” So for ages, they said we’d have AI if a computer could read a page of printed text out loud in English. That seemed almost unattainable when it was first talked about, but now it’s so trivial that no one would consider it AI.
People have tried to make definitions that are crisper than that, but few if any of those definitions requires anything we’d call “thinking.” The frustrating thing is that the general public talks all the time about AI as if it’s conscious . Even when we’re talking about its flaws, we use words like “hallucinating,” which is something only thinking beings can do.
To me, LLMs are the worst things because to so many people they seem like the are (or could be) thinking entities. They respond to questions in a lifelike manner and can construct (extrapolate?) somewhat novel responses. But they’re also the least useful to us as a society. I’m much more interested in the Machine Learning applications for distilling gobs of data to develop new medicines or identify critical items in images that humans don’t have the mental bandwidth for. But LLMs get all the press.
- Comment on "See you soon" feels like a curse coming from the guy at Lowe's 2 months ago:
I think that’s normally the garage…
- Comment on Is the amount of Lemmy activity declining? 2 months ago:
Good point. Also worth noting that, since Lemmy isn’t owned by a company trying to make a profit, there’s no incentive to put up with outrageous jerks who drive up engagement.
- Comment on Is the amount of Lemmy activity declining? 2 months ago:
Sorry to hear your experience was so bad, but welcome back.
The situation with bots and trolls on Reddit is horrific. Do you remember that time a few years back when Russia disconnected their whole country from the Internet? That day there was a dramatic decrease in assholes and trolls. Like, night and day, it was unmistakeable and widely commented on.
So hopefully Lemmy doesn’t catch on so will that those folks come here in force, too. For now at least, it’s much better.
- Comment on Is the amount of Lemmy activity declining? 2 months ago:
The world is a pretty depressing place lately.
- Comment on Is the amount of Lemmy activity declining? 2 months ago:
Yeah, it is that. I’m way left leaning, but I actually wish Lemmy was more of a cross section. I’m not sorry to see the total assholes on the far right not here (or not very vocal), but I don’t prefer an echo chamber.
- Comment on "See you soon" feels like a curse coming from the guy at Lowe's 2 months ago:
I get no joy from DIY projects for that reason. And you forgot that halfway through it turns out you need to buy a special tool.
- Comment on Is the amount of Lemmy activity declining? 2 months ago:
Well, welcome aboard! It’s pretty good here. Fewer bots, fewer trolls, more civil conversation. I hope it works for you.
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
I don’t think it’s weird, but your whole situation is pretty unusual, so I wouldn’t let “weird” become an obstacle for you. Some things are going to be weird no matter what you do, so just roll with it. You’ve said you and your brother have a good relationship, so why not just explain to him what’s going on with you and ask if he could include you at least sometimes? Not too much to lose by talking about it.
It sounds like a lot for you to deal with. I hope you’re doing better now and can find your way back to a life you feel satisfied with.
- Comment on Is the amount of Lemmy activity declining? 2 months ago:
!
It’s funny though, because someone else said activity spikes in the summer because kids are out of school.
- Comment on "See you soon" feels like a curse coming from the guy at Lowe's 2 months ago:
Spoken like someone on automatic.
- Comment on "See you soon" feels like a curse coming from the guy at Lowe's 2 months ago:
Sure, watching the self-checkout to make sure no one is stealing anything.
- Comment on "See you soon" feels like a curse coming from the guy at Lowe's 2 months ago:
Yep, my experience a few hours ago.
- Comment on Is the amount of Lemmy activity declining? 2 months ago:
I feel the same way. I was a CS major in the early 80s. I watched the internet become something amazing, and then I watched it rot. Heartbreaking.