SoleInvictus
@SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone
- Comment on In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud 2 days ago:
You’re saying you can tell the difference between 320 kbps and FLAC?
- Comment on In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud 2 days ago:
Anecdotal, but… I’ve been a musician for 36 years and have fantastic hearing not just for my age but for any age. I know, I have to get it quantitatively tested twice a year!
I can’t tell the difference at all between FLAC and 320 kbps from the same source. I can tell a difference between FLAC and 128 kbps, but it’s not huge. It sounds a bit dull, but I have to be looking for the difference and comparing the two. If you just gave me one or the other with no reference, I might suspect the 128 if it was a simple recording of a single instrument or a song I’m intimately familiar with, and even then I wouldn’t be sure of it. It just sometimes “feels” weird.
So I converted over 4 terabytes of my music stash to 320 kbps and cut the total space into less than 2. Feels good.
- Comment on Dr. Oz pushes AI avatars as a fix for rural health care. Not so fast, critics say 3 days ago:
I’ll give AI this much credit. I have a rare disease that took me nearly two decades to get diagnosed. I saw over 20 doctors during that time, most of which had no idea while the rest misdiagnosed me.
I had a little intro script I wrote that explained my symptoms to keep it consistent. My roommate is a big AI proponent while I’m AI critical. At his suggestion, I signed up for a free trial for his favorite and gave it my little intro script. It processed for a few seconds, then spit out the correct diagnosis and subtype, then started asking if I had symptoms for a related comorbidity, which I do. That would have saved me 22 years of pain and confusion. WTF.
I’ve had a related chronic injury for this entire time that even my condition-aware doctors have been baffled by. I explained it in detail and AI barfed out its best guess. I worked with it until I had a possible rehab program, which is actually working.
So now I’m AI ambivalent. I strongly believe humans are at best passable doctors, but that the breadth of information for even one discipline is already more than most humans can properly understand and utilize. That’s how you end up with orthopedists that just specialize in one joint or dermatologists who concentrate on just a few conditions - there’s just too much knowledge for one person to handle all of it and that knowledge continues to grow. As medical science becomes even more advanced, I think practitioners will have to lean on technology in some form as the practice of medicine further outstrips human capabilities.
- Comment on In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud 4 days ago:
I couldn’t agree more. I got interest in higher-end audio equipment when I was younger, so I went to a local audio shop to test out some Grado headphones. They had a display of different headphones all hooked up to the “same” audio source.
60x vs 80x sounded identical. 60x to 125x, the latter had a bit more bass. 125x to 325x, the latter had a lot more bass and the clarity was a bit better. Then I plugged the 60x into the same connection they had the 325x in. Suddenly the 60x sounded damn similar. Not quite as good, but the 60x was 1/3 the cost and the 325x sure as hell didn’t sound 3x better. They just had the EQ set better for it.
- Comment on 'What a great way to kill your community': Discord users are furious about its new age verification checks — and are now hunting for alternatives 1 week ago:
I can’t help but see their comment as a joke. One can only hope
- Comment on The radical woke subliminal message in Bad Bunny's halftime performance 1 week ago:
Emotional ambivalence isn’t only normal, it’s healthy. I love my partner for being my friend and supporter, but have also felt genuine hatred due to them not doing the work necessary to be a good spouse, leading to us separating.
The trauma bond is a bit different, though. It’s unhealthy ambivalence, where even the positive feelings are ultimately rooted in strongly negative behavior. I had one with my father, so I get it.
- Comment on Nvidia might not have any new gaming GPUs in 2026 — and could be 'slashing production' of existing GeForce models 1 week ago:
“Remain in your cube - The Freedom Force is en route to administer freedom reeducation. Please be sure to provide proof of medical insurance.”
- Comment on YSK that radishes are fucking amazing. They improve heart health and are full of Sulforaphene, a powerful anti-cancer substance. They contain almost no calories 1 week ago:
You’re fine! I had to ask myself why I cared so much, and it’s because I love radishes but they also wreck my guts. I have no problem eating them cooked, though the spicy/snappy flavor goes away because that’s the sulforaphane/phene.
It’s yet another vegetable humans love because of the thing it makes to keep animals from eating it. We’re culinary masochists.
- Comment on YSK that radishes are fucking amazing. They improve heart health and are full of Sulforaphene, a powerful anti-cancer substance. They contain almost no calories 1 week ago:
Sulforaphane is heat labile, so cooking breaks some of it down. Broccoli and cabbage are fairly low in it, while Brussels sprouts and radishes are quite high. Radishes also have high amounts of sulforaphene, a related compound with similar properties. So it might be cooked vs raw, quantity consumed, -phane vs -phane/-phene, or something else entirely.
Only the R-isomer is found in any appreciable amount in nature, so it’s probably not that unless you’re eating research radishes.
- Comment on Nvidia might not have any new gaming GPUs in 2026 — and could be 'slashing production' of existing GeForce models 1 week ago:
Fuck, you almost sold me on GeForce Now. Owning is still a better value proposition for me because I get my games at… steep discounts.
- Comment on YSK that radishes are fucking amazing. They improve heart health and are full of Sulforaphene, a powerful anti-cancer substance. They contain almost no calories 1 week ago:
It’s likely the sulforaphane, the compound that doesn’t actually fight cancer at all. Similar to the sulfur containing compounds in onions, it’s an irritant created when radish tissue is damaged to repel pests. In mammals, it irritates the lining of the digestive tract and causes the lower esophageal sphincter, which normally keeps stomach acid from refluxing, to relax.
- Comment on Nvidia might not have any new gaming GPUs in 2026 — and could be 'slashing production' of existing GeForce models 1 week ago:
But wait! They can pay for remote computing time for a fraction of the cost! Each month. Forever.
I fully expect personal computers to be phased out in favor of a remote-access, subscription model. AI popping would leave these big data centers with massive computational power available for use, plus it’s the easiest way to track literally everything you do on your system.
- Comment on Consumer hardware is no longer a priority for manufacturers 1 week ago:
I had no idea! I worked IT in the early 2000s and I absolutely hated Dell computers. Nothing broke faster and more often than the Dell desktops.
- Comment on Consumer hardware is no longer a priority for manufacturers 1 week ago:
Maybe we need a small, private company to come along and start making good consumer hardware.
I’ve always wanted to start a business like this. “Generic Brand” household goods. Not fancy, just solidly functional base models but with modular upgradability. Wish you bought the WiFi capable washer? Buy the module for $30. Everything would be fully user serviceable and upgradable (within reason), so parts sales ensure sustained income once market saturation is reached.
- Comment on Rent is theft 1 week ago:
You make a really good point, thank you.
Honest question because I just don’t know - would those same financial and temporal costs (mentioned in another comment) still be as high in a functional, fair system?
- Comment on Rent is theft 2 weeks ago:
Easy - do it 1970s style. You own a home but pay less than half of what you do now. The extra savings go toward home maintenance and lifestyle improvement.
- Comment on The TV industry finally concedes that the future may not be in 8K 2 weeks ago:
Same, I have a 55" OLED and I game in 1080p. 4K looks a bit crisper, but my video card doesn’t like me when we do that.
- Comment on Truth hurts! 3 weeks ago:
Good question. Slender is a better term. Their skeletal structure is horizontally compact, more so than a Border Collie. Scientists can estimate musculature based on the size and shape of attachment points, but it’s all speculative.
- Comment on Truth hurts! 3 weeks ago:
Plus they were much smaller than depicted in movies. They are estimated to have weighed about 15 kg and were about 2m long, but over half of that was tail. A Border Collie has about the same body length and a much thicker build.
They were long, skinny murder turkeys.
- Comment on You don't say. 3 weeks ago:
Can confirm. I was given it to help with a medication known for spiking anxiety during the initial doses. Not only did my anxiety not increase, I was better able to do things I was usually reluctant to do because of stress or anxiety. It’s like I just didn’t care as much.
The major downside for me was lower blood pressure than normal, so I got dizzy easily if I stood up too fast.
- Comment on Lab anxiety 3 weeks ago:
Same. I’ve used tens of thousands of pipette tips. I can’t imagine what my lifetime plastic consumption is like compared to your average person. I’m guessing I’m like a small neighborhood.
- Comment on Annual merit increase 4 weeks ago:
I worked for a call center as a stop gap when I was younger. The economy had shit itself and while this company was doing great, it was looking to save money because they knew they could squeeze desperate people. Annual raises were coming up. They were based on a system heavily influenced by disciplinary action, so many of my coworkers started getting verbal and written warnings for ridiculous things.
I finally got written up for not pulling up a reference before telling a customer about a past event. I didn’t pull the reference up because I already had it and other common topics open for easy access, which my supervisor told us to do.
I disputed the write-up but the department manager denied it as “the information could have changed between calls, so you should have looked it up through our knowledge base”. I asked how the past could have changed and was told it doesn’t matter: it’s policy. I asked to see the policy. The goalposts immediately changed: “disciplinary action is at management’s discretion and this was a serious error in judgment”. I told them that I was shocked anyone could say that and still expect to be taken seriously, even by themselves, and refused to sign my write-up. I was pulled into the HR manager’s office and given a “Final Warning” write-up for my attitude and not signing my initial write-up. I signed that one and got on a PIP, so they were happy.
Annual reviews were that week. I had extraordinary performance stats but got a $0.04 per hour annual raise - $83.20 per year! I walked out once I got a new job.
I just checked: my old manager is now a “boss babe” who sells essential oils and scented candles for MLMs. Sometimes a life well lived really is the best revenge.
- Comment on Valid Theory: Scientists Are Actually Wizards 4 weeks ago:
I’m even the kind in your picture!
- Comment on dating 4 weeks ago:
I agree, you just should tell people first! Unsolicited story time:
We had been dating for a few weeks. She was smart, nice, and very fun. I really liked her and had decided to consider getting serious. I thought she had ghosted me for our dinner date, though, so I had left and was feeling sad. She called over an hour later to apologize profusely and beg me to come back, saying she’d explain and buy everything that night as apology.
What she didn’t mention was that she was going to alternate between incoherent rambling and staring, silent and unresponsive, into one corner of the cafe’s ceiling. I had no idea what was going on. I got ahold of her roommate, who said she had eaten a bunch of shrooms and walked to her friend’s house. I left after he arrived and I learned he was her roommate… and her boyfriend. Fun.
I went full no contact. Years later, we worked together briefly in graduate school, where she pretended not to know me despite having already told our lab mates we used to be friends. Super awkward, maybe mental problems.
- Comment on Valid Theory: Scientists Are Actually Wizards 4 weeks ago:
I am one, and it’s the closest you can get to being a wizard. You use the in-depth knowledge and tools of your domain to do things the general population often doesn’t fully understand and can’t do well themselves, if at all.
Sounds like wizards to me.
- Comment on dating 4 weeks ago:
I had a formula: “Hi!”, my real first name, a brief mention and open-ended question about something I found interesting on their profile, then closing with something like “Online dating can be a lot. I’d love to hear from you, but only when you’re ready. No pressure. I hope you have a great day.”
So about four sentences. It took me like two minutes. I got about 1 response in 10 instead of over 1:30 that way, at least from women. Success!
I then proceeded to have all of the worst dates I’ve ever been on. One person showed up on shrooms, a woman interrogated me about marriage and children within ten minutes of meeting, another seemed to be fabricating their entire life story on the spot… and more! There were good dates too, but soooo much bad.
- Comment on Hooded Horse ban AI-generated art in their games: "all this thing has done is made our lives more difficult" 5 weeks ago:
I had never heard about temp tracks, but this makes so much sense. That’s a powerful homogenizing force.
- Comment on Ubisoft Closes Canadian Studio After It Unionizes 5 weeks ago:
But what does it say?
- Comment on What common American habits do people find quietly annoying? 1 month ago:
I can tell you, I’m a real molecular/microbiologist!
Tl;Dr: It’s mostly bunk.
Most of these services don’t analyze your entire genome*, but instead just regions of genes, looking for something called SNPs: single nucleotide polymorphisms. DNA is composed of four nucleobases, commonly represented by their initials: T and A, C and G. A SNP is a spot on a gene where there’s some variability in these, e.g., a C or A or even a T instead of a common G.
Through whole genome sequencing and statistical analysis, these companies were able to identify frequency trends in SNPs according to where the person lives and their self-reported ancestry. Now they use a cheaper, less comprehensive (but still fairly accurate) process to look for the SNPs that data suggests are most strongly correlated with different regions/ancestries and dole out your supposed ancestry.
There are problems.
Conclusions are only as good as your data, and the data are often based strongly on self-reporting, which is usually pretty inaccurate.
SNPs aren’t static - every child has some, about 20 to 60, that their parents don’t have. Many detrimental SNPs can lead to death, so most that persist have no effect, though some are weakly detrimental or, even more rarely, beneficial. That means there’s a limited pool of viable options, so your kid might have spontaneously developed a few strongly associated with a region they’re not at all connected to. You have a few too, as does your coparent and all of your parents. Through a couple of generations of new SNPs, a person’s ancestry results can shift. Through random chance and no new SNPs, one might inherit a combination of SNPs commonly seen in other regions, simply through the right combination of ancestors not at all from that area.
Some SNPs are better than others. Those on what are called “highly conserved” genes, i.e., fuck this gene up at all and you die, tend to be less common and more stable. If a defined group has an unusual SNP or SNPs on these regions, it’s a far better indicator of relatedness than a SNP on a gene for something like vitamin C synthesis, which we have but the process is broken so it doesn’t matter if we break it more.
In summary, these services are built on data of varying quality (shitty data) and moving targets of variable utility (shitty targets).
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
*If you can swing it, genome sequencing and analysis can be really interesting and useful for healthcare decisions. You can learn a lot about how you, specifically, work, and we’re learning more all the time.
Just be sure to get sufficient sequencing coverage, at least 30x if you want “good enough”, 100x or more if it’s medically vital and/or you’re looking for rare genes. 1x is fairly worthless, paying for it is a waste of money.
- Comment on What common American habits do people find quietly annoying? 1 month ago:
I also find it maddening, not only because it’s silly, but because the analysis is largely crap anyhow.
My mother’s family touted their “Irish heritage for three generations”, then quickly shut up when their genome analysis “proved” they were instead largely English. I’ve had to point out Ireland and England’s relative positions and ask them if they thought anyone in our ancestry might have ever moved from island to island. Maybe consider that they were from somewhere else in Europe even earlier? Now they’re “Irish” again.
Point entirely missed, JFC. They were Irish, their ancestors were maybe English, and way back, their ancestors were definitely African, but I don’t see them getting into African cultural heritage. Thankfully.
You’re United Statesians. I get the draw, they’re looking for genuine but effort-free connection, identity, and belonging in a country whose dominant culture is homogenization, commoditization, and exploitation, but their search for culture through tenuous connections to long-dead ancestors instead of family, friends, and neighbors is just as hollow and unfulfilling.
Don’t obsess about great³-Grandpa Pádraig’s life harvesting peat from the bogs; he’s long dead and probably would have hated you. Embrace what and where you are and utilize and improve what you actually have.