Zink
@Zink@programming.dev
- Comment on With how the republican party works in 10 years the presidential candidate will be an open pedophile and they will say they defeated wokeness. 2 hours ago:
The Democrats really suck. Our FPTP 2-party system is really some bullshit. However, it is really difficult for me to buy into the validity of the slippery slope you are describing when the people around me keep voting for the option that is #1 worst by a whole fucking lot.
And the further that #1 worst keeps surging and lapping #2 on the evil-dex, the further their psycho supporters seem to like it! We’ll see if the pedo shit can finally reverse that.
This would be a different conversation if we’d elected democrats over and over to avoid republicans and somehow still got dragged to the right. At the end of the Obama administration, for instance, there was the concern of the bait and switch.
But no. He gets impeached a couple times for betraying the US in different ways after being openly terrible for years, and dozens of millions of people still turn out to vote for him. He tries some light coup and all the daily otherwise career ending craziness, and they turn out to vote for him AGAIN in HIGHER numbers.
The fact that the democrats are the good cop capitalists to the republicans’ bad cop capitalists is definitely a problem, yes. Any of us who get to vote in the US should be keenly aware of that. And there are multiple things we can try to fix in parallel. But sometimes you have to fix things sequentially too.
- Comment on DIY E-Reader Folds Open Like A Book (Diptyx) 5 hours ago:
I can imagine a future device with an e-ink page that’s so thin and flexible that it looks and feels like a paper book with magic changing text. I don’t know how many consumers would pay a premium for that, but I would definitely buy my wife one.
- Comment on DIY E-Reader Folds Open Like A Book (Diptyx) 5 hours ago:
I’m just here to point out that the fact you genuinely care about your carbon footprint probably puts you ahead of 80% of the population, and the fact that it has materially affected your device choices probably puts you ahead of 80% of the remainder.
There’s definitely a unique satisfaction that comes from filling tech needs with hardware that already exists, and which does a great job at it too.
That goes across hobbies and mediums too. I just finished a big outdoor carpentry project where I was able to find perfect long-term uses for pieces of wood from The Initial Build in the construction of The New Hotness.
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 5 days ago:
Ah, my mistake. Thanks!
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 5 days ago:
He’s already in 3rd grade and they haven’t even covered ESD precautions yet!!
Like I’m gonna let those grubby mitts touch an actual stick of ram or GPU in the year 2025, lol.
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 6 days ago:
I got caught up on that too.
I don’t do anything with yarn, but will sometimes use fabric to make puppets and other toys with my kid.
Even buying the cheapest fabric from the lowest priced outlets (cheaper than even the random alphabet soup brands on amazon) in bulk, it adds up so fast when you’re actually creating things!
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 6 days ago:
I’d say spending SOME money and time on your most fulfilling hobbies is damn near a necessity for a healthy existence.
And yeah sure, plenty of people don’t do that, and plenty of people literally cannot afford to do that here in my dear old US of A.
But you know what else I see a lot of people doing in the US? Fighting mental illness and talking ever more openly about the need for revolution and violence.
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 6 days ago:
You could fit so many more birdies into a medium format sensor!
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 6 days ago:
I’m not doing much photography now but I was way into it a decade ago. I did it professionally on the side, which helped justify some of my nice full-frame gear. It’s nice when taking photos at a dimly lit wedding reception.
Your mention of Gear Aquisition Syndrome followed by a picture of a motherfucking peregine falcon in flight still took my breath away for a second there!
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 6 days ago:
I barely spent any money on my hobbies this year. I’m not some kind of sucker!
I merely spent thousands of dollars on materials and tools to build the supporting infrastructure for them!
I also have some very expensive computer parts waiting to be assembled. But they aren’t for any hobby of mine! They’re for the kid so we can play stuff without him using a computer twice as old as he is. 😉
- Comment on Tesla Robotaxis Are Crashing More Than 12 Times as Frequently as Human Drivers 6 days ago:
I think that’s still a valid argument since perfection will probably never happen.
For me it’s more like, remember when the expectation was that Tesla would ever produce a version that didn’t suck ass?
- Comment on Attitudes 1 week ago:
Getting laid off during COVID was like a preview of retirement, on top of other benefits like showing how little of my personal identity was tied to my job and how little I actually care about it. “Career line go up forever” was one of many things I was SUPPOSED to care about, but did not ACTUALLY care about. And that helped me fast-forward figuring out what does matter to me.
It was amazing.
The “I’ll work forever” badge of honor garbage is just one of the many ways people get conditioned to go against their own best interests to help out the rich/political people that really matter. (/s and barf)
- Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories 1 week ago:
Yeah, there’s some real truth to that, not gonna argue at all. With my ADHD and weak appetite I’ll just forget to eat, or not want to eat in the first place.
But even with whatever I enjoy in moderation whether it’s due to the excellent food or the environment (thinking holiday family dinners this time of year) or both, I don’t look at it like an escape. It’s just a nice enhancement to your day that engages your senses. In that way I think of the occasional amazing meal the same way I think of the occasional spirited drive home on a twisty road in beautiful weather with all the windows down.
However, I do want to acknowledge that we are all different and have to figure out what works for our particular brain given our experiences and environment. Food might just never be a contributor for you. And it’s not a huge one for me either, but over the past few years I’ve learned to value and hold on to any little incremental positive life improvements I run into.
- Comment on The AI Backlash Is Here: Why Backlash Against Gemini, Sora, ChatGPT Is Spreading in 2025 - Newsweek 1 week ago:
Yeah, LLMs are interesting tech products to play with and find some niche uses for.
But for the love of god they are not “prop up the entire stock market and numerous multi-trillion-dollar companies indefinitely” good!
- Comment on The AI Backlash Is Here: Why Backlash Against Gemini, Sora, ChatGPT Is Spreading in 2025 - Newsweek 1 week ago:
This is one reason I’m so glad we devs can install linux at work. I have LibreOffice installed sure, but if I need to use the Microsoft Office suite for some reason, it all works great as webpages in librewolf!
- Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories 1 week ago:
Nah I don’t think that’s the alternative. It’s not about dedicating your life to it. It’s about allowing yourself some nice experiences to enhance your daily life even though you have very important bills to pay and can’t just buy whatever food you want.
I didn’t even comment because I’m some kind of cooking or dining enthusiast. It was more about the general attitude (which I very much grew up with) essentially that it is silly and self-indulgent to stop and smell the roses when there’s money to be made or work to be done. Basically the conservative culture where being a good human means being a productive boot-licking worker bee and not getting into all that touchy-feely human stuff.
- Comment on Fair's fair. 1 week ago:
Invoicing intensifies
- Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories 1 week ago:
I used to think that way in general, and personally I am still a bit like that. It’s just one piece of figuring out how to get my brain & body to cooperate with me.
But something I have learned, for me at least, is that leaning into things that engage a variety of your senses in a positive way is often a good thing. And even better if it leads to good interactions with other people that matter to you (insert boo-hiss from my introverted recluse AuDHD side).
I think in the US especially, we often treat food as a necessary evil rather than just a necessity. People don’t have time to waste on preparing healthy food and then eating it with their family. They need to focus on the “important things” like putting in long hours at the office so that they can afford to drive a BMW home instead of some pleb Honda shit. They’ll just grab some fast food or something in a box that will fill stomachs provide some macros to sustain life in the near term, and everything will be just fine.
- Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories 1 week ago:
Some people just do not think about cultures outside their own. Like, at all.
Hey that IS my American culture!
- Comment on Typical monopoly people 1 week ago:
Seriously!
We have a third grader, and he’s pretty good at reading. Recently he has been arguing with us about the pronunciation of some new words from his homework.
The problem is, his arguments are sound! He’s accurately following the rules he learned for sounding out words.
When this has come up in the past, all I’ve been able to do is acknowledge his argument and explain to him how English has all kinds of weird rules and exceptions, and it’s the kind of thing you remember with experience using the words. Like, there is no new rule to learn, and you don’t have to freak out about remembering all these exceptions. It will just come with time. (Because we all know there’s nothing that kids like more than olds telling them to just wait or give it time, lol)
- Comment on It just keeps getting worse - Firefox to "evolve into a modern AI browser" 1 week ago:
They can do that because Firefox is open source. If Mozilla disappeared and funding was sent to one of the forks instead, they could hire more developers and maintain it directly. Maybe even hire some of Mozilla’s best engineers.
- Comment on Fair's fair. 1 week ago:
I used to say this kind of thing when I was an angry young conservative because I assumed the culture I grew up in had a shred of good faith in its arguments and actions.
The individuals can certainly mean well at times, but they are fed insidious lies that are made to sound good on the surface.
30 years ago I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you because I knew many people are stupid.
Today I would wholeheartedly disagree with you because I know many people are evil.
- Comment on Fair's fair. 1 week ago:
John Deere has entered the farm
- Comment on 1 week ago:
I appreciate your concern for the quality of your contributions, and I think this place has a higher proportion of that type of user than just about any other platform.
This place is small and it’s generally friendly and inclusive. Most comments won’t get any replies, but the ones that do will generally be constructive. The users here are into the whole idea of the social contract and that we can have something nice if we are just excellent to one another.
I repeatedly say “generally” because this is an open platform and assholes are allowed to join. The assholes can even have their own instance dedicated to asshole topics! But fortunately the instances and communities are generally moderated by actual decent humans who are much like the users!
So let that knowledge help you comment more, not less! Even if you get no comments and like 5 upvotes, it actually feels like something of value even if it’s just a nod from a few decent people.
- Comment on U.S. Pedestrian Deaths Up 77% Since 2009 & The Auto Industry Knew It Would Happen 1 week ago:
Yeah there is a real trend in conservative culture (at least where I grew up) that fits right in with the rest of the anti-intellectualism. And it’s not taught explicitly but it permeates social interactions.
I’m trying to decide how to describe it… Basically, you look down on people who are trying to improve themselves.
- Comment on U.S. Pedestrian Deaths Up 77% Since 2009 & The Auto Industry Knew It Would Happen 2 weeks ago:
Very much true in my specific limited experience.
I live in a nice little town here in the US, and I’m a well educated middle aged white guy. It’s safe to say that I get to see a pretty nice version of America even as horrible shit is happening all over the place.
I’ve gotten to spend a few weeks in Sweden of all places over the past few years. Plus I got to see the insides of some airports in other places luke Belgium and Germany.
There’s just something different in the air over there, in a good way. I thought of it as a kind of dignity that came from respect for others as well as oneself, but I like how you call it social cohesiveness.
I think some of the details around food and drink showed it best, and they make good examples because they apply to a mix of the general public.
The food itself is obviously much better over there. Even things like the hotel breakfast or the cafeteria at a workplace had a huge variety of fresh, real foods as opposed to ultraprocessed manufactured branded products.
But the dishes and utensils were some of the most interesting to me as an american. In places like an office cafe at work, or a local restaurant, or I think even an airport, they would have actual GLASSES, plates, and silverware. And on top of that, you would often return your dishes to the kitchen or even put them directly on to the dish washer rack waiting for you.
This breaks my american mind. Fragile non-disposable cups in a public place? Other than coffee mugs on people’s desks or restaurant glasses being dropped off and picked up with at your table, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that within these borders. If you could use glasses and silverware in public places here, I can’t decide what would happen first: somebody would get cut on one of the immediately broken glasses, or so much of the stuff would get stolen that they’d close it down.
I like to call out their bathrooms too. The way we do it over here is big men’s and women’s restrooms with next to no privacy (it’s one big room with flimsy floating dividers forming the toilet stalls) and stupid culture wars about who should and should not get their genitals inspected or whatever. Over there it’s just several individual doors, each with a small bathroom. Much better privacy, no fodder for the bigots, and much better utilization of the resources.
- Comment on U.S. Pedestrian Deaths Up 77% Since 2009 & The Auto Industry Knew It Would Happen 2 weeks ago:
American here living in a car-only area.
I didn’t even raise an eyebrow at that previous comment. Sure most drivers are fine, but there are plenty of people who make me wonder what the hell combination of these issues (and others) is going on with them.
The most common example I get to see is the people speeding through the elementary school parking lot in their luxury SUVs. I especially love it when they start a phone call as they start driving, after they just finished standing around, collecting their kid, and walking back to the parking lot.
- Comment on Looks Like We Can Finally Kiss the Metaverse Goodbye 2 weeks ago:
I recall thinking Zuckerberg had copied the google/alphabet change from several years prior. And naming this meta-business-entity was super easy with his metaverse obsession, lol.
- Comment on My Religion 2 weeks ago:
I was never a coffee drinker for unrelated reasons, and also never acquired the taste for it even though the smell is generally nice.
But now I’m in my 40s and have multiple medical conditions (i.e., more than just the AuDHD, lol) that are treated with stimulants, so I will usually supplement my adderall with a cup of coffee in the morning and one at lunch time.
The nice thing is that I don’t have decades of tolerance and habit around the stuff, so it is still nice and potent. Instead of adding a bunch of junk to it, I just let it cool off then drink it quickly or add a chocolate protein shake to it for a few breakfast calories if I didn’t eat.
Plus even though I don’t like the taste I think the coffee at work is decent because it’s a machine that grinds whole beans, and the operations manager for our location fills the hopper with the beans himself. Some Starbucks somebody gave me recently tasted rotten in comparison. And that’s not “mischievous child” rotten, that’s carcass rotten.
- Comment on Study reveals that dark web users show significantly higher levels of depression, paranoia, suicidal thoughts, self-injury, and digital self-harm compared to surface web users 2 weeks ago:
I wonder if this is less of a link between those things and the dark web, and more of a link between the mental issues and being beyond terminally online and over-informed about all the most horrible shit out there.