scratchee

@scratchee@feddit.uk

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Let me at 'em!!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  How big was that knife originally?!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Campaigners tie baby slings to statues in call for better UK paternity leave⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  We’ve already lucked into a solution to the population boom, the numbers will level off around 19 billion. Given how intractable population control is, we’re very lucky we’ve found this without some dystopian shitshow.

  In the developed world we are approaching the opposite problem, we’re currently dependant on immigration to maintain our societies, but as the rest of the world stops growing we’ll have more trouble getting that immigration and won’t have the local young population to care for our elderly.

  Given that we should be trying to figure out how to encourage a sustainable population whilst we still have time to do so. If we can choose between 1.9->2.2 children per couple as needed then we’ll be in a healthy position to slowly reduce the population to a comfortable level.

  Right now our natural population decline in the developed world is too fast, probably because our society has made being a parent quite an individual burden. Of course, totally moving the costs to a societal model would be a disaster, but presumably there’s a middle ground where people are comfortable keeping the society going at a healthy rate.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Protection zones around abortion clinics in place by October⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s exactly the answer given to you above - the line is murky and grey, there is no clear point that everyone agrees is the right point.

  In such a circumstance, the right answer is open to interpretation, and the right solution for a society is to accept that the best person to make that decision is the person involved.

  If you want my answer, it’s when brain cells develop enough to start looking like a functioning brain (somewhere around 16-20 weeks). Before that it’s just a brain dead mass of cells regardless of how it looks.

  Clearly you have a different moment, and that’s fine, but you don’t get to ignore that the issue is open to interpretation. Otoh, I admit that both sides are guilty of trying to railroad a “simple” interpretation as the only right answer, it’s always tempting to force a simple answer and declare the problem solved, it’s harder to let people decide for themselves what the right answer is, but that’s the right thing to do when we as a society cannot reach a consensus, and we certainly don’t seem to have a consensus on this one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK's first 'teacherless' AI classroom set to open in London⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, it sounds like a normal lesson plan with ai fairy dust sprinkled on top as a marketing gimmick.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluetooth 6.0 adds centimeter-level accuracy for device tracking — upgraded version also improves device pairing⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m no audiophile either, I don’t care what profile it’s in in normal mode, but everything is instantly a disaster in headset mode.

  I know AirPods have some non standard support to escape the Bluetooth mess on apple hardware.

  I want a headset that works on windows, my phone, and mac, which means I’m stuck with standard support, which basically means I’m stuffed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluetooth 6.0 adds centimeter-level accuracy for device tracking — upgraded version also improves device pairing⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sorry for linking to the alien, but see this discussion: reddit.com/…/bluetooth_headset_goes_to_low_audio_…

  As I understand it, standard Bluetooth cannot support quality audio and microphone.

  That said, lots of phones and headsets secretly support non standard profiles if you use the right hardware together, but at that point you can’t know if you’re going to get quality with your setup unless someone’s tested it thoroughly and half the time reviewers are either deaf or lying

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluetooth 6.0 adds centimeter-level accuracy for device tracking — upgraded version also improves device pairing⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I just want a headset that doesn’t descend into hissing at me in mono over a crackly 1940s phoneline whenever I dare to use the microphone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can you trust Valve? Honest criticism of Steam.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I trust Valve to be lazy and swim in their sea of profits rather than go searching for more.

  They have thus far avoided serious levels of enshittification because they don’t seem motivated in maximising immediate profits and killing their golden goose.

  The day they get replaced by a competitive non-monopoly is the day it becomes a race for the bottom, who can invent the most predatory way to drain profits from users? Nobody else will be able to compete, so they’ll all be copying each other on their way down.

  Streaming services all over again.

  Not all monopolies are bad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨No one’s ready for this: Our basic assumptions about photos capturing reality are about to go up in smoke.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I disagree, they are not talking about the online low trust sources that will indeed undergo massive changes, they’re talking about organisations with chains of trust, and they make a compelling case that they won’t be affected as much.

  Not that you’re wrong either, but your points don’t really apply to their scenario. People who built their career in photography will have t more to lose, and more opportunity to be discovered, so they really don’t want to play silly games when a single proven fake would end their career for good. It’ll happen no doubt, but it’ll be rare and big news, a great embarrassment for everyone involved.

  Online discourse, random photos from events, anything without that chain of trust (or where the “chain of trust” is built by people who don’t actually care), that’s where this is a game changer.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Today's featured article on Wikipedia: Outer Wilds⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  On the one hand, if you don’t enjoy the game that’s fine. It’s a masterpiece, but that doesn’t magically mean that everyone will enjoy it.

  That said, if you want to enjoy it more, focus on one thing per loop, everything is designed to be completable in a single loop, (or maybe a few for the more complicated puzzles if you get stuck). And if something is frustrating, do something else.

  Things really go wrong if you keep smashing your head against a brick wall or if you keep jumping around and never manage to finish anything.

  We’re trained to think of death as a major failure by other games, it’s not in this one, it’s just jumping back home, repairing the ship, and starting from a central location and a known state.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Switzerland mandates government agencies use open-source software and disclose the source code of software developed by or for the public sector unless third-party rights or security concerns apply⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Soon: “Open source software or pirated copies of photoshop only”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tesla Steers Onto Train Tracks It Apparently Mistook for a Road, Police Warn⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Reasoning is obviously useful, not convinced it’s required to be a good driver. In fact most driving decisions must be done rapidly, I doubt humans can be described as “reasoning” when we’re just reacting to events. Decisions that take long enough could be handed to a human (“should we rush for the ferry, or divert for the bridge?”). It’s only the middling bit between where we will maintain this big advantage (“that truck ahead is bouncing around, I don’t like how the load is secured so I’m going to back off”). that’s a big advantage, but how much of our time is spent with our minds fully focused and engaged anyway? Once we’re on autopilot, is there much reasoning going on?

  Not that I think this will be quick, I expect at least another couple of decades before self driving cars can even start to compete with us outside of specific curated situations. And once they do they’ll continue to fuck up royally whenever the situation is weird and outside their training, causing big news stories. The key question will be whether they can compete with humans on average by outperforming us in quick responses and in consistently not getting distracted/tired/drunk.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tesla Steers Onto Train Tracks It Apparently Mistook for a Road, Police Warn⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They don’t have to be any good, they just have to be significantly better than humans. Right now they’re… probably about average, there’s plenty of drunk or stupid humans bringing the average down.

  It’s true that isn’t good enough, unlike humans, self driving cars are will be judged together, so people will focus on their dumbest antics, but once their average is significantly better than human average, that will start to overrule the individual examples.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Let's address the significant issue confronting the nation today.. Which Mr/Mrs Men are you?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I got “little miss naughty”. I am a man in my mid 30s, I never do pranks, I don’t go out of my way to cause trouble.

  How can it see parts of my soul that I thought were lost?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rover⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I always liked the extended version: extended version with distant future where we see it again

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨natural sciences be like⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hay-fever and melanomas: no, the beauty is not for you

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AMD stops certifying monitors, TVs under 144 Hz for FreeSync⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If anything 60hz monitors benefit far more. Variable refreshes becomes a nonissue if your refresh rate is high enough that just waiting for the next frame isn’t too long. The case that benefits the most is when a game is running just below 60 fps on a 60hz screen and missing frames regularly, causing lots of stutter where it has to wait for 16ms. It’s a much smaller issue at 144hz since a delay of 7ms is relatively subtle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨People are worried that AI will take everyone’s jobs. We’ve been here before.⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Tldr: in this “revolution” we get to play the part of the horses from the Industrial Revolution.

  The last revolution made more and better jobs for horses at the start. Then it made less and zero jobs for horses. This one could be the same for humans.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do I stop hating children?⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  As dumb as this comment is, you’ve just guaranteed that I’ll never forget the name of this problem, so thanks for that

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In some fantasy settings, etymologists might be way OP or constantly at risk of hurting themselves⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Or maybe etymology is strongly discouraged amongst wizards, because spells work on the belief of the caster and any etymological knowledge could ruin a perfectly good spell. Every now and again a good spell-caster’s career is ruined because they sat near the wrong nerd at a bar and now can’t forget that in the original Morrispanian the word all their fire spells start with meant “tepid”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there a “proper“ way to say “6:05 AM”?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I agree with you and Alexa, but you can always say “five past six” to avoid the [zer]o if it’s bothering you.

  I remember on a German exchange at school the German student could not handle “oh” sounds in phone numbers at all. So it might be tricky for non native speakers (though I think they made more of a fuss from anger at how stupid English is than out of genuine confusion…)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Attempted right-wing takeover of National Trust backed by Nigel Farage fails!⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I heard that woke figures in key positions meet at their secret woke clubhouse where they discuss their woke evil plans on controlling the world and making everyone woke.

  Honestly I want to start the secret society of woke, not because I expect it to get a single influential member, but because just existing will make every right wing nutter blame every single thing on the secret woke society 😄

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, especially right now. To be fair that’s mostly because solar is doing great as far as scale goes right now. Nuclear has near zero scale and lost all experience, so it’s more expensive than ever.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨JAPANESE KNOTWEED⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well there’s the native birch forests, which get outcompeted. But given the vikings killed them off it’s mostly just the opportunity cost of planting pine over birch. There was a bit of both, so it’s not all or nothing of course

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨JAPANESE KNOTWEED⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Try doing that in Iceland. They’re both very aware and conflicted about invasive species up there. Lupin is invasive and covering the country and also building soil from nothing, Pine trees are invasive and the quickest way to get treecover that is desperately needed.

  Makes for weird discussions, I guess Iceland is such and extreme case that nobody really knows if they should be saving the ecosystem it had managed to scratch together before we turned up or if they should be trying to rush a healthier ecosystem with imports (Iceland was pretty thin and fragile even before humans and we wrecked what little there was)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Literally every industry starts that way. Start small and scale up. Nuclear’s special because we did it once and then almost completely stopped building them globally for so long that the capability faded away.

  The tech shifted in the meantime, so even the knowledge that was preserved is for designs we wouldn’t want to build today.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yup, it’s hard to predict what the mix will look like, but 100% solar would be a very costly solution for sure.

  I used to be very pro nuclear, and I still think it could have been a big piece of the puzzle, but I do worry we’ve missed the boat, it could’ve been the first wave of decarbonisation 20 (or more) years ago, I’m not sure how well it can compete growing from almost nothing now with the renewables eating all the easy money. nuclear plants need to run 100% to be successful, and renewables have dropped a bomb on the concept of baseline demand. Maybe as we kill gas we’ll have to start giving massive bonuses to on demand power that isn’t pumping co2, but the absolute lid on that market is the price of storage, which is high enough now, but will drop, it’s unclear how long the gap for nuclear will exist there.

  Certainly willing to be wrong though, there’s lots of unknowns with nuclear, quite possibly it could be multiple times cheaper if only we’d invest into it properly.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, one justification I’d heard was that it was a cheap and low risk way to revive the industry enough for bigger projects, but I’m not sure that’s particularly compelling.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m certainly not arguing nuclear is a panacea that everyone in all the governments have somehow missed (even ignoring the risks mentioned its only a potential fit for a relatively thin slice of the grid these days).

  The point I’m making is that currently there are energy production needs we effectively can’t fulfil with renewables because the costs would be impractical. Some of those do fit nuclear better currently. Nobody really cares about that though for 2 reasons: 1. There’s plenty of opportunities that renewables still can fill and 2. The cost of storage is projected to drop a lot over time, which should fill in the gaps and squeeze out many of the last opportunities for nuclear.

  Quite possibly by the end the remaining slice where nuclear could fit will be so thin it can’t actually sustain an industry (and given the industry has been half dead for decades, it’d take a big win to justify reviving it), so yeah, at the moment it looks like lots of risks and questionable rewards. Nonetheless the current prices aren’t really the problem, it’s just that things are risky, and projected to get worse over time, so why invest?

  Ironically it’s not that different to the fossil fuel industry, just with a lot less existing infrastructure.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  If it was a matter of half the price then nuclear would be the clear winner. Paying double to get stable power rather than variable power is currently a clear win.

  Nuclear has a lot of baggage on top of being more costly (eg public fears, taking a lot longer to get running, building up big debts before producing anything, and having a higher cost risk due to such limited recent production), if it was just a simple “pay twice the price and you never need to worry about the grid scale storage” then nuclear would be everywhere.