gramie
@gramie@lemmy.ca
- Comment on Got electrocuted today 4 weeks ago:
You see, there’s different kinds of dead: there’s sort of dead, mostly dead, and all dead. – Miracle Max
- Comment on Japan prosecutor bows in apology to former death row inmate 4 weeks ago:
And that’s why this prosecutor is making the apology. Everyone knows that he had nothing to do with the original verdict and sentencing, so he looks noble and there is no one alive to actually take the blame.
They acknowledge that the system is flawed, but no one has to do anything about it.
- Comment on Four tourists die after suspected tainted alcohol poisoning in Laos 5 weeks ago:
I didn’t see any mention of Laotians being affected. Was this restricted only to tourists at a bar, or did only the tourist deaths matter for the new cycle?
- Comment on Is the Wii good? 5 weeks ago:
I got a Wii with the Wii Fit balance board for my dad to work on his balance and coordination as he aged. He never really got into it, but I think that could be an absolutely killer “game” for elderly people.
- Comment on Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy Infintiy 1 month ago:
But given infinite time, could OP spell “infinity” correctly?
- Comment on Using AI generated code will make you a bad programmer. 2 months ago:
I have done pair programming with a junior partner, and I found it extremely beneficial. Taking the time to talk out my ideas and logic invariably helped make them clearer in my mind and realize pitfalls much sooner than I otherwise would have.
I had to explain things clearly and logically, and he was bright enough to ask good questions and point out typos as I was coding.
- Comment on SMTP provider 2 months ago:
I use Brevo as well. Free tier: 300 emails per day.
Very happy with them.
- Comment on DEF CON 32 - Disenshittify or die! How hackers can seize the means of computation - Cory Doctorow 3 months ago:
A lot of his science fiction writing is available with a Creative Commons license, meaning that you can download and read it for free. I really enjoy his quirky, sardonic style.
craphound.com/tag/creative-commons/
Gets you to a page where you can download.
- Comment on I'm the developer of WalkScape, the RuneScape inspired fitness MMORPG where you progress by walking IRL. We're now accepting more people to the Closed Beta! 3 months ago:
I’ve been using this for about 3 months. I would estimate that my dog walks are now about twice as long as they used to be. I don’t really enjoy walking, but this gives me just enough incentive to do it everyday and, if I feel like taking a shortcut, taking the long way instead.
- Comment on What's the oldest game anyone here has played in 2024? 4 months ago:
I have the set of Infocom text adventure games. I think the earliest ones came out in about 1981 or 82. I still fire one up now and then for a nostalgia hit. I bought a few when they came out, but couldn’t afford more.
You can play some of them online, in your browser. Of course there are thousands of text adventure games (a.k.a. interactive fiction) available for free. Definitely worth checking out! And look at Inform, a language and IDE for creating these games by using more or less standard English.
To protect against piracy, most of these games required physical objects that were included in the game box. They are known as feelies. There are plenty of places on the web where you can find all the feelings you need.
- Comment on Does anyone else feel like fireworks are a complete waste of money and a ridiculous amount of unnecessary Pollution? 5 months ago:
Are you saying “Whatabout…”?
- Comment on Does anyone else feel like fireworks are a complete waste of money and a ridiculous amount of unnecessary Pollution? 5 months ago:
instead of death
Unless you count birds that abandon their nests, and other animals that flee their homes. Or the heavy metals and other chemicals that are added to the environment. Or the significant increases in particulate matter in the air.
- Comment on Why not serve fried chicken on Juneteenth? How is it different from serving corned beef on St. Patrick’s day? 6 months ago:
Corned beef seems to have originated in Ireland and Scotland, but was commonly used throughout the British Empire for the past 400 years. I assume the cooking and salting process makes it last much longer without going bad, which would make sense for long voyages.
- Comment on France mobilises police to regain control of New Caledonia airport road 7 months ago:
Is it strategically important? They have a very small military presence there (less than 2000 normally), no Naval Base, and the nickel mines are in the process of shutting down and leaving, partially because of severe problems obtaining adequate electric power.
I’m also unsure why non-native people who have lived on New Caledonia for more than 10 years should be excluded from having a say in the government of the island, given that most of them are French and the island did not choose independence.
I can understand why the Kanaks do want keep the control they have, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they should.
- Comment on France mobilises police to regain control of New Caledonia airport road 7 months ago:
You should be aware that the people who have been rioting and burning are French citizens, but they are actually the local people of New Caledonia, known as Kanaks. There have been three referenda to decide whether the island should declare independence from France, all of which failed. The separatists, after losing three times, have been trained and assisted by Azerbaijan, who are angry at France’s support of Armenia.
Source: I have a family member on New Caledonia.
- Comment on Australians stranded in New Caledonia 'running out of food' amid civil unrest 7 months ago:
I have a family member in New Caledonia. He said that things have settled down somewhat. He also sent an interesting article describing how Azerbaijan is using unrest in the Pacific to punish France for supporting Armenia in a territorial dispute. The article said that the leaders of the violence in New Caledonia were trained by Azerbaijani security forces.
- Comment on After announcing increased prices, Spotify to Pay Songwriters About $150 Million Less Next Year 7 months ago:
I think that you are off by about an order of magnitude. Spotify pays $0.003 per stream, and title apparently pays $0.01 -0.05.
- Comment on With two Boeing whistleblowers dead in one month, either Boeing is actively killing them, or there are enough whistleblowers that this rate of death is not statistically significant 7 months ago:
Or, as The Onion reports, Boeing intentionally hires employees with suicidal tendencies.
- Comment on Calculus made easy 7 months ago:
- Comment on Calculus made easy 7 months ago:
This exact explanation is in the book: calculusmadeeasy.org/4.html
- Comment on Calculus made easy 7 months ago:
I also studied chemical engineering, and throughout high school and university that was exactly it. Calculus was a kind of magic, and you just had to learn all the spells.
With this book I finally understood why the derivative of x^2 is 2x.
- Comment on Calculus made easy 7 months ago:
The online version can be found at calculusmadeeasy.org
35 years after graduating from engineering school, this book helped me finally understand why calculus works, instead of just learning how to mechanically apply it.
- Comment on When did breasts become a thing that needed to be concealed in public and why? 8 months ago:
But this ignores all the cultures where women’s breasts are not considered sexually. I lived in Africa, and it was actually a big adjustment for me, even though the local people’s attitudes were changing due to Western media. 25 years of Canadian upbringing made it hard not to look when women or teenage girls took off their shirts. But that was my problem, not theirs.
And not just Africa. In rural Japan japan, before WWII, women were often topless.
- Comment on First game you played 10 months ago:
Original pong, at the Toronto international boat Show, probably in about 1977.
- Comment on Ultraviolet light can kill almost all the viruses in a room. Why isn’t it everywhere? 11 months ago:
I could see UV light also causing plastics to oxidize and become brittle much faster, because they might not be made for that kind of exposure. So using UV light might mean having to replace a lot of plastic things too.
- Comment on Why do some websites have a "Continue Reading" button? 11 months ago:
page load
It would be fine if they only loaded a partial page so that it will render in my browser quicker.
However, what usually happens is that the entire page loads, then an overlay pops up to get me to register or pay, or whatever.
Being a web developer, it’s not hard for me to inspect the page and remove the overlay so I can read everything, but it is an annoyance.
- Comment on Duolingo lays off 10% of contract workers, partly due to AI 11 months ago:
I strongly recommend [Language Transfer ](language transfer.org). The best language course I have ever done, and I have done many (I speak five languages, at varying levels of fluency).
They have an app, that is simple, streamlined, and very functional.
The app also has also an Introduction to Music Theory course which people say is very, very good.
- Comment on The lamest countries 11 months ago:
Do you have something to back this up? That wasn’t the feeling I had during the seven years I lived in Japan. There was something of a victim mentality, but it wasn’t as militant as you are making out.
- Comment on Headphones are a crutch 1 year ago:
My son, who is an aspiring composer, can do this. It blows my mind, and makes me think of the scene in Amadeus where Salieri is reading the score and hearing it play in his head.
- Comment on YSK that chiropractors are not medical doctors and "Systematic reviews... have found no evidence that chiropractic manipulation is effective" 1 year ago:
In Germany, if you are a medical doctor with a PhD, you are addressed as Herr Doctor Doctor.