lvxferre

@lvxferre@mander.xyz

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Science Behind Aquafaba Meringues | Working toward a more stable meringue made from the liquid in a can of chickpeas⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It would be interesting to see the tests being repeated with citric acid, as it has also good stabilising properties (not just because it’s acid; the anion is a good ligand). Plus I wonder if lime juice won’t help even further to get rid of the beany taste.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  righteous crusade […] moral outrage… [diabolical] …

  Now you’re just putting words in my mouth.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Google is dictating “This is how it’s referred to by one of the two countries encompassing the gulf”.

  It’s also dictating that one name should be seen as as valid as the other. When it’s simply not the case.

  it’s not like they’re some malevolent actor trying to get one over on the righteous hero either.

  They’re doing this because money. And it’s still the wrong thing, regardless of “malevolence” or not.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Elsewhere it’s referred to either Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America) or Gulf of America (Gulf of Mexico).

  Except that people don’t call it “Gulf of America” in those other places, even if Google is going out of its way to list it as if they did. Google is dictating “you should consider this a valid alternate name for the gulf”, and Sheinbaum is fighting against it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mexican President Threatens to Sue Google Over 'Gulf of America' Label on Maps.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Nah, Sheinbaum is in the right here.

  It is not about controlling a language, but barring the attempts of someone else (Google Inc.) to control how multiple languages refer to international waters.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google is on the Wrong Side of History.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  To be more specific, Google is destroying value to generate profit.

  Google’s value comes from people using it, relying on it, and not opposing it too much when Google wants to do something. For that you need trust; and while well-informed people already didn’t trust Google to die properly, now even the general public is catching up.

  And, sure, making weapons is damn profitable! Except that Google’s participation relies on its "A"I models. And you’re going to have a hard time training those models once everyone and their dog runs tools like Nepenthes and Nightshade, designed to screw up with your bot training.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[Veritasium] Why Super Glue Is Perfect For Gluing Skin (26:20)⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Lots of surprisingly useful practical info there, for a Veritasium video*:

  • sand surfaces to make superglue stick better
  • water triggers gluing (more specifically, the polymerisation that glues things together)
  • acetone is your best bet to remove super glue

  I also checked ethyl acetate; local nail polishers are based on that, since acetone has controlled sales (in most Brazilian states you can buy it but there’s some bureaucracy involved). Ethyl acetate seems to be okay to remove it, but inferior to acetone.

  *I’m not saying his vids are bad, far from that - they’re good. However they’re mostly focused on theoretical explanation, not practical stuff.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump says new US sovereign wealth fund could purchase TikTok⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not. I don’t pay taxes to USA. I’m mostly watching this roll out while eating popcorn.

  Locally [Brazil] speaking, if the United-Statian government bought TikTok, I wonder what the judiciary would do, given that it blocked Twitter for a month.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump says new US sovereign wealth fund could purchase TikTok⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund and suggested that it could be used to purchase TikTok. […] Trump has said previously it could be funded by “tariffs and other intelligent things,” per Reuters.

  So. Taxpayers pay taxes → taxes go to fund → taxes are used to buy TikTok, probably at inflated prices (like Musk buying Twitter). And likely with the same type of censorship coming from the alleged “free speech warriors”.

  …aren’t those same guys who babble all the time about “free market”?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Chatbot Software Begins to Face Fundamental Limitations.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s relevant to note that this sort of inferential logic is essential to language; we [humans] use this all the time, and we expect each other to use it. It is a necessary part for a language model; otherwise you have a grammar bot instead.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is This How Reddit Ends?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No tweaks whatsoever, I simply copypasted the output:

  Image Image

  I’m actually glad that those things are desecrating Reddit’s dead body (the site died a long time ago). It tastes like karma (as the religious concept, not as the punctuation thing).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is This How Reddit Ends?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I asked GPT-4o mini to generate two AITA posts. They’re undistinguishable from the bullshit typically posted there!

  AITA for not inviting my sister to my wedding after she made a big deal about my engagement?

  Hi Reddit, I (28F) recently got engaged to my fiancé (30M), and while I’m over the moon, my excitement has been somewhat overshadowed by my sister (32F). When I shared the news with my family, I expected everyone to be happy for us, but my sister reacted very differently. Instead of congratulating us, she made a huge scene, saying that I was rushing into things and that I should be focusing on my career instead of getting married. She went on to criticize my fiancé, saying he wasn’t good enough for me and that I could do better. It was really hurtful, especially coming from someone I’ve always looked up to. After that, I decided to keep my engagement low-key and not share too many details with her. I thought maybe she just needed time to process the news. However, she continued to make snide comments whenever we spoke, and it felt like she was trying to undermine my happiness. Fast forward to now, I’m in the midst of planning my wedding, and I’ve decided not to invite her. I feel like her negativity would only bring me down on what should be one of the happiest days of my life. My parents are upset with my decision and think I should at least give her a chance to be there, but I just can’t shake the feeling that she doesn’t deserve to be part of this celebration. AITA for not inviting my sister to my wedding?

  AITA for refusing to babysit my sister's kids after she constantly criticizes my parenting choices?

  Hi Reddit, I (30F) have a sister (28F) who has two kids, ages 4 and 6. I love my niece and nephew, and I’ve always been happy to help out when my sister needs a babysitter. However, over the past year, she has become increasingly critical of my parenting choices, even though I don’t have kids of my own. Whenever I share my thoughts on parenting or how I plan to raise my future kids, she often dismisses my opinions and tells me I’m wrong. She frequently compares my hypothetical parenting style to hers, saying things like, “You’ll see how hard it is when you actually have kids,” or “That’s not how you should do it.” It’s frustrating because I’m just trying to have a conversation, and I feel like she’s belittling my perspective. Recently, she asked me to babysit her kids for a weekend while she and her husband go on a trip. I initially agreed, but then I started to think about how she’s treated me lately. I decided to decline the offer, explaining that I didn’t feel comfortable babysitting when she constantly criticizes my views on parenting. Now, she’s upset with me and has told our parents that I’m being selfish and unsupportive. They think I should just suck it up and help her out, but I feel like I’m standing up for myself. AITA for refusing to babysit my sister’s kids because of her constant criticism?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Meta warns that it will fire leakers in leaked memo⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If your employees feel such a urge to leak info into the public, and such info causes such a negative ruckus against your corporation, “perhaps” it’s because the employees recognise that the corporation is against the overall best interests of society and, even if they can’t simply quit, still want to do something about it?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Put your thinking cap on for Fallacy Quiz a game that will test your reasoning skills⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Sounds like a cool premise for an educative game. I hope that it’s fun too, but usually you play this sort of game to learn, not to say “OMG I HAD A BLAST YESTERDAY PLAYING IT!”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Facebook flags Linux topics as 'cybersecurity threats' — posts and users being blocked⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve seen a lot of people trying to guess if this was the result of some AI mod false positive or intentional. Well, it doesn’t really matter here, because:

  1. Meta is in a position that it should be held responsible for what it promotes vs. what it silences. “We HaD GoOd InTeNsHunS” my arse, go pave Hell with them.
  2. Meta apparently is a-OK removing protections against hate speech, because some dictator of some taco country demanded. But apparently the system (be it surplus value-based or slop-based) still works for other stuff?

  I think that society as a whole should fight back against this shit. Since everyone and their dog is blocking Twitter now, perhaps Faecesbook + Threats + Instaslop should be the next?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Elon Musk email to X staff: ‘we’re barely breaking even’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Nah.

  I’m saying that they should be blamed for condoning Nazism; not that they are themselves Nazi. The difference is important here because one does not automatically mean the other.

  Also, the ones that are validating people to join the alt right are the people already in the alt right. Not the ones saying “you muppet you’re helping those fuckers by staying in this shithole”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Elon Musk email to X staff: ‘we’re barely breaking even’⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Start associating the site with Nazism, and the people still using the site as condoning Nazism.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nintendo omits original Donkey Kong Country Returns team from the remaster’s credits⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s less vague than it looks like - they’re restricting credits to people actively involved in the development process of the specific game, with no regards to the others, even if without those others the game wouldn’t exist. It’s feigned politeness at its finest.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Zimbabwe abolishes the death penalty⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s great news.

  Don’t get me wrong; I know that some people would make the world better if they were killed. However it’s irreversible, and making sure that you’re condemning only the right people is bound to be expensive.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Magnus Carlsen: Chess champion quits FIDE tournament after being told to change jeans⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Note: since I don’t watch basketball or baseball, I had to dig for further info. As such take what I say with a grain of salt.

  …they sound equally as silly and arbitrary as FIDE’s dress code. In special, apparently the NBA dress code (outside the game) was created to target hip hop clothing, associating it with crime; this is clearly prejudice.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Magnus Carlsen: Chess champion quits FIDE tournament after being told to change jeans⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Relevant links:

  • FIDE statement regarding Magnus Carlsen’s dress code breach
  • Statement by FIDE President on dress-code rules for Rapid and Blitz Championships
  • FIDE dress code

  Emphasis on the third link, on what’s not allowed: sneakers, jeans, t-shirts. Under the claim that it’s “to maintain the high standards of the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships”… yeah, nah, non sequitur.

  And more importantly it shows that the dress code in question is NOT about decency, or preventing cheating, or not distracting other players; it’s all about “if you dress casually we’re going to be assumptive trash and assume that you don’t take the competition seriously.” No wonders Carlsen walked away from it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Copyright Industry Wants To Apply Automated Blocking To The Internet’s Core Routers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  If Anatel is granted this “right” you can be bloody sure that it’d abuse it, because it’s basically a mafia branch of the government created to defend the interests of local large telecommunication businesses - the same ones that got wrecked by the internet itself making them compete with media from the whole world.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Zelensky condemns Russian 'inhumane' Christmas attack on energy grid⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Transliteration is always a mess. Specially when it’s the romanisation of vowels and semivowels - as Latin used the same ⟨V⟩ for /w ʊ u:/, and ⟨I⟩ for /j ɪ i:/, but then a lot of languages using the Latin alphabet solved the issue in different ways.

  There is also some debate as to whether using the double “y” is an act of defiance against the Russians by Zelensky.

  I’d say that it’s less about defiance and more about highlighting Ukrainian identity.

  The trick here is that you can transliterate ⟨-ий⟩ as ⟨-yy⟩, but only if it’s from Ukrainian. In Russian that ⟨и⟩ is typically transliterated as ⟨i⟩, so you’d end with ⟨-iy⟩.

  Additionally it seems customary to clip some East Slavic names using ⟨-ий⟩ to be transliterated by just ⟨-y⟩; you see this for example for Trotsky (Троцкий).

  [In the meantime the scientific transliteration - prescribing ⟨j⟩ - cries in a corner.]

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Little Rocket Lab is a Factorio and Stardew Valley mashup about building a rocketship in a cute town⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Factorio and Stardew Valley mashup

  Okay. Sign me up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pokémon Go Players Have Unwittingly Trained AI to Navigate the World⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ll copypaste an interesting comment here:

  [Stephen Smith] This article is a great example of a trend I don’t think companies realize they’ve started yet: They have killed the golden goose of user-generated content for short-term profit. // Who would willingly contribute to a modern-day YouTube, Reddit, StackOverflow, or Twitter knowing that they are just feeding the robots that will one day replace them?

  You don’t even need robots replacing humans, or people believing so. All you need is people feeling that you’re profiting at their expense.

  ---

  Also obligatory “If you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do the majority of women still take their partner's last name?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  At least for my ex-fiancée it was about the link between husband and wife, plus tradition. It was basically “I’m married, you see?”. Just like a ring.

  (We talked a fair bit about this stuff, as back then I was planning to add my maternal surname to my legal name. She was OK taking either surname.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mastodon Says App Downloads Up 47% on iOS Amid Twitter Exodus⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s good news. Odds are that some of those people will rebound back to closed media platforms; but the ones who stay help Mastodon and the Fediverse to grow.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky, the Fediverse, and the future of social media⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m almost sure.

  Your typical instance only defeds another as a last case scenario, due to deep divergences or because of blatantly shitty admin or user behaviour. But, past that, they’re still willing to let some shit to go through - because if you defederate too many other instances, with no good reason, you’re only hurting yourself.

  That’s simply not enough to create those “corners”. Specially when all this “nerds vs. normies*” thing is all about depth - for example the normie wants some privacy, but the nerd goes all in, but they still care about the same resources.

  *I hate this word but it’s convenient here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky, the Fediverse, and the future of social media⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I get what you say, and I agree; but when it comes to the average user I wonder if they’ll even get it. They don’t think on the grounds of a “protocol” or a “platform”, it used to be “site” and now “app”. They do it even with email, of all things, even if it’s one of the oldest cross-platform protocols out there!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bluesky, the Fediverse, and the future of social media⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They tolerate each other enough to get each into a corner and not interact much.

  And yet that is not what we see in the Fediverse. Those “corners” don’t exist here.