zlatiah

@zlatiah@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If I snapped you back in time 650 years right this very second, how would you use your current knowledge to succeed?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Try to use some type of boiling water technique to invent drinkable sanitary drinking water that doesn’t get me drunk (might not be necessary in some parts of Asia)

  Most parts of the world that is not North America: try to convince some wealthy persons and bar owners to sponsor me to getting a bunch of bread molds and rats/mice, possibly even pigs, to conduct antibiotics and vaccine research, otherwise I might die from random sources…

  Not sure if I could reasonably do those given my limited biology knowledge, but I guess they are worth trying. Besides that I’d just try to be less blunt/offensive so I don’t get sent to jail and try to live my best life I guess

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Linux help and actual pros and cons⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  1. See other recommendations for gaming-specific distros as I’m not familiar with them… Overall, most “beginner-friendly” distros (Fedora, Mint, …) that are not named Ubuntu are good. Ubuntu is not bad per-se: they just have their own ways of doing certain things that are counter-intuitive. Also don’t follow the memes and use Arch Linux or something (Arch is good, but not-beginner-friendly)

  2. Some multi-player games have anti-cheats that straight-up won’t work on linux, so if you play any large online-based games it might help to check their linux support first. Otherwise, there are unique examples like Skyrim that are very hard to mod on linux, but most mainstream games should work either out-of-the-box or with very minor tinkering. Unless if you’re into some weird esoteric retro games like me… if so then good luck learning WINE lol

  3. As long as you follow 1 you should be fine. In my opinion most beginner linux distros are more intuitive than Windows so…

  4. I’m not sure if it is a good idea to dual boot unless you are reasonably familiar with computers… as dual booting can be finicky and sometimes Windows can just eat the linux partition. But I think it is doable? Again I don’t recommend dual-booting so…

  5. IMO the biggest decision most beginners have to make is between Gnome/KDE (two of the most popular desktop environments), not between distros. Try to see which one clicks with you more! Also make sure to back up data before switching. Good luck!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who can I ask or where can I find help in moving to a new country?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I think the best fit would be an immigration lawyer? Those ppl are incredibly expensive (probably in the $1000s to begin with) and are country-specific, so mostly only ppl who have difficult cases do that…

  Can try to search the subreddits r/iwantout and r/immigration first, they have lots of good resources and past posts. Also can try expat.com

  Also don’t make my mistake… finding a job in a foreign country is incredibly hard, even with a doctorate. So it helps to cast a wide net and/or get a job offer first before making further plans

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unlike in movies, most smart people aren't good in chess.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  So… disclaimer first! I have played chess but only a year or so; I got into chess during the pandemic and had a peak ELO of ~1600+ on chess.com and 1900+ on Lichess; probably translates to a classical ELO of ~1200 (competition is tough in classical…). Obviously I’m not remotely a good player, but I can hold my ground. I also had to do a neuropsych evaluation recently for mental health reasons, so I spent the last month of my free time looking into research of intelligence (g factor, IQ tests, the disturbing history, etc…) for my own curiosity. So I might have a bit of knowledge on this… but:

  For the most part chess is its own unique skills and is unrelated to “smartness”. Nevertheless, I think chess might be related to probably just one or two specific narrow fields of intelligence. Being good at chess requires one to be knowledgeable of various chess openings (memorization, working memory), extremely strong pattern recognition (Magnus Carlsen is really good at this; AlphaZero was literally all pattern recognition due to the way it works), and being able to see 5, 10, or even 15 steps ahead and consider all the rational options (again, working memory)

  I just took the WAIS-V test two weeks ago for my psych eval, and they do indeed test for working memory and pattern recognition in specific sub-tasks. However the difference is… IQ tests are meant to be practiced as they measure a type of “potential” if you may, but chess is all about what you actually play on the board. Sure maybe if ppl were literally just given the rules and had no prior exposure then a smarter person might spot a forced checkmate faster, but ppl do pratice for the game… In fact, the advice people used to give to get better at chess is… to do more puzzles

  Sooo… methinks an intelligent person might have a slight edge training themselves to do the above, but there is probably otherwise very little association. After a certain point intelligence itself probably has no influence on chess performance whatsoever, and realistically it’s more about “grit”, or how much time/effort someone puts into the game

  Aaand… case in point. Apparently Kasparov went through a 3-day intensive test, but had a really “spiky” profile that is more commonly seen in neurodivergent individuals; scored really high on some categories and abysmally low on others. I saw this random Reddit post which says that Carlsen scored 115(+1SD) on AGCT (a fairly quick and accurate online test). Nakamura allegedly got 102 on Mensa Norway’s trial test, which is not as accurate as AGCT but should be fairly good too

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Who would win in a fight, a Gorilla or a Bear of equal weight?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Bear, but I think it’s because gorillas are known to be peaceful and will probably run away from conflict

  If it is a fight to the death… Idk I think with how physics works it might be quite even?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Should visitors to a country (tourist / visa-holders / people staying temporarily) have the right to criticize the government? When should an immigrant have the right to criticize the government?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  My interpretation is that visitors don’t have specific rights to criticize a government per-se. However! In most non-authoritarian countries, everyone has the unequivocal rights to criticize a government as long as they are not intending on disobeying other harassment/discrimination laws, regardless of their status. Since visitors are also included in “everyone”, they can criticize a government too

  Of course this only applies to non-authoritarian countries. Authoritarian countries don’t have that right even for their citizens, so visitors are not excluded either

  (I hate where this train of thought is going but whatever…)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some say they own or have bought something that they technically haven't (e.g. domain names, expensive things, etc.)?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I just thought it’s more of an issue of language/expression than anything… Methinks the concept of “leasing/renting” for an indefinite amount of time might be quite new in human history, so maybe we just don’t have a better word for it

  Case in point… From a pure technical standpoint, I thought a game I purchased on Steam or an audiobook from Amazon is technically “leased indefinitely with no additional fees”, but doesn’t the lack of additional fees make it equivalent to owning something?

  And as otherwise pointed out, under capitalist systems you can literally own a home, but would still have to pay taxes to pay for maintenance of publicly shared resources… so at what time should we call it “leased” instead

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm leaving the US for good, anything I should do before I leave?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It seems that a lot of scientist jobs are advertised on EURAXESS (sometimes mandated by law). There are also research topic-specific job boards… for example Nature Jobs advertises all sorts of positions across the world, although most are in China (since they are desperate for talent). Also by “scientist” I’m referring to anything PhD student-level and above, so yeah. I think Sweden is the country I know which has both reasonable research quality while still being a bit desperate on looking for more applicants

  If that’s not possible: a lot of countries have their own job board too, but most of them require knowledge of the local language… (again, scientists kind-of get a pass on this due to English being the lingua franca)

  Some companies do international transfer too… like how Denmark is known for pharmaceuticals, so maybe someone working for Novo Nordisk could theoretically ask for that? Although I assume those jobs would be very competitive now…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm leaving the US for good, anything I should do before I leave?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Unironically… I’ve basically hinted at everyone I know on ways to apply for EU-based science jobs if they are interested (surprisingly… a lot of ppl are not)

  I’m still being optimistic though, really hope the US can somehow pull out a miracle

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm leaving the US for good, anything I should do before I leave?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I… don’t quite feel comfortable the full details, but F-1; I have submitted a green card application too but no way it’s gonna pass now. I might find an opportunity to write about it a bit more in the future

• I'm leaving the US for good, anything I should do before I leave?
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• Is there still a reliable way to read old Twitter threads in 2025?
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• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Which game is it?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:
  Get ready for Autistic infodump

  Osu (stylized as osu!) is a rhythm game… Developed by an Australian group, wiki says it first released in 2007. Probably by far the most popular rhythm game out there, and probably the only one that can rival DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and DDR-clones/lookalikes. And unlike DDR which requires a ridiculously expensive setup (a reliable DDR pad would cost close to $1k and is extremely loud) or being a regular at your local Japanese arcade to play, osu can be played by anyone with a PC, a mouse/trackpad, and a lot of hopes & dreams Osu was inspired by the Nintendo Ouendan series on the NDS; in that game you use the little pen provided by NDS to click circles/drag sliders/etc on the bottom screen; obviously works well with the NDS form factor. The osu team decided to translate this into PC gameplay where you need to control stuff with keyboard/mouse… and somehow it worked quite well! Since osu is completely free (I believe it is still very much free-to-play, no idea how they monetize), relatively accessible (see counter-example of DDR above), and is a legitimate & very serious rhythm game, I think it quickly gained a sizable and very passionate player base. And unlike lots of other rhythm games where the charts are curated by a company, osu’s charts are created by players & “peer-reviewed” by mods, so there are a LOT of charts, basically any anime/game-related song you could think of is in the game as an approved chart, which further helps grow the popularity. Needless to say it just kept growing from there… I think even back when it was the 2010s and I was playing the game actively, there were already a bunch of community groups, and ppl literally had names for different play styles. I think my style of primarily using mouse but mashing keyboard Z/X key for combos was called the Seiiryu (blue dragon) style or something… I forgot sorry As for the gameplay itself… Osu’s gameplay is actually quite unique in terms of rhythm games especially back then. Back then the gold standard of rhythm games I believe are DDR and IIDX, both of which are vertical fixed-screen drop-down notes where you have to time the fixed buttons to the notes. Osu on the other hand has dynamic notes where circles fly all over the screen. However, this also means that at higher level gameplay, osu relies less on your “sense of rhythm” and more on… precise mouse movements, almost like an FPS. I think nowadays games like maimai/WACCA/Chrono Circle might be similar to osu’s playstyle. They did add more game modes though; they have a taiko clone, a “catch the fruit” game which is even more unique than their base game, and a djmax/iidx clone. And… yeah. In short I think osu could be seen as the gateway drug into rhythm games due to it being free, having charts for just about any song you could think of, and having a passionate community. Now that you’ve sunk yourself in the rabbit hole, grab your wallet and pay for that $1000 DDR setup you have always wanted, $2000 maimai ADX controller setup, and mortgage on the suburban single-family home to play it in so you don’t get complaints from neighbors. You know you want it. Do it. DO IT (/s obviously) ___

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How would you do this Technically?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In response, the guidelines regulate the labeling of AI-generated online content throughout its production and dissemination processes, requiring providers to add visible marks to their content in appropriate locations.

  My understanding is that this is meant more as a set of legal guidelines… I’m not a legal scholar, but since China has a history of enforcing certain information-related laws I’d assume they can “legally” enforce it

  On the technical side… there is a subfield of LLM research that focuses on “watermarking” or ensuring that LLM-generated outputs can be clearly identified, so I guess in theory it might be enforceable

  In practice as to whether it will actually be ensured… who knows (facepalm

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Which game is it?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Growing up playing osu! forever scarred my taste in music. Now I have a $300 SDVX controller at home and I need help

  Also honorable mention for the 500+ hrs I have in Skyrim (with additional difficulty mods), Slay the Spire, Binding of Issac, …

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Realistically, how feasible is it to 100% boycott a massive corporation (such as Amazon) for an extended period of time?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  They don’t. Let’s just say that I chose the closest vet to where I live for convenience & I just needed someone to issue them travel certificates in a few months, but they are themselves a VC-owned nightmare… I’m moving out of the US in a few months and will likely change their diets anyways. I’m trying to find better alternatives as well

• Realistically, how feasible is it to 100% boycott a massive corporation (such as Amazon) for an extended period of time?
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• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some of the things someone permanently relocating away from the US should be aware of?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  So I have a bit of a unique case… I’m a researcher, and academia is kind-of known for hiring people across the world & are very willing to sponsor visas as long as someone has a PhD. I genuinely wouldn’t have been able to find a regular job in EU, and that is not even considering the language barriers… I’d love to know this topic better as well.

• What are some of the things someone permanently relocating away from the US should be aware of?
  Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨70⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In light of recent events, here's OpenStreetMap editors discussing naming of the Gulf of Mexico⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Frankly I agree. From my personal experience, every single native Chicagoan has been calling that particular building “Sears Tower”. Even though the name has been officially changed for more than 15 years by this point…

  And I thin OSM actually handled this quite well! The original Sears Tower name is still available as an “alt_name” tag on OSM as well, I just double-checked and yep it’s still searchable on the map

• In light of recent events, here's OpenStreetMap editors discussing naming of the Gulf of Mexicocommunity.openstreetmap.org ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨100⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Le Chat: A faster European alternative to American AI⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Interesting… A coworker of mine previously worked on a fintech project that needed to use open models. Apparently their team found the Llama models to be much better than anything Mistral had at the time… I’m hoping Mistral’s new model (the one featured in the news article) is better. Not sure if Le Chat is open weights like the Mistral/Mixtral lines though…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what if another country staged a coup in the US and deposed trump?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Considering how powerful the US has in terms of geographical advantage and military prowess, I’d be horrified if any entity is capable of staging a coup in the US… Maaaybe if a few countries somehow convince Canada/Mexico. But all-things considered it certainly seems like a self-coup is much more likely for the US

• Le Chat: A faster European alternative to American AIwww.digit.in ↗
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• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's something that you find unintentionally scary/creepy but isn't?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I was somewhat scared of driving after dark because it always felt like there’s a ghost watching me from the backseats…

  (Used to live at a place where you have to drive to even get groceries)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I… kinda fit the bill. Most proud moment was getting the highest grade in my class for Organic Chemistry (believe it was 107/100 or something… we had extra credits since the course was too damn hard) while barely studying, because the chemical structures/concepts made natural sense to me and I kinda liked the class

  Used to think I’m really smart. Later on I realize I probably have hyperlexia from my ASD diagnosis so… I still studied, just that it seemed to have taken much less time for me than most others

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What do you think of anarchism?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
  • What led to the Haymarket Massacre, which might have been the main catalyst behind the 8-hour workday… So I cannot hate it out of principle
  • Seems reasonable but I don’t know how to actually implement it
  • For some reason is more associated with Anarcho-Capitalism rather than the other variants, which I thought was… Interesting
• Every Author as First Authorarxiv.org ↗
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• Disease: /LOSSlemmy.world ↗
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• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it okay to take drugs to make yourself a better person? Does it make a difference if "better" is mental or if it's physical?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I… think this question is a bit more complicated for this community. Following are only my personal opinion

  Prescribed medication? I think so, I’d rather be physically and mentally healthy rather than have the other alternative. And usually medication (even ones with noted negative effects) are meant do do more good than harm so…

  Recreational drugs… the line between this and the above is surprisingly not as clear-cut as it seems. I believe there are active lines of study of using various psychedelic compounds to treat mental disorders or other conditions… Personally I would take medically prescribed psychedelics if I am 1) under medical supervision and 2) based on evidence it would help my mental health (maybe that’s the answer to the question?)

  Hard drugs: I don’t see how they can make anyone a better person, and no