leftzero
@leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on Why don't compasses have just two Cardinal directions (North, East, -North, -East)? 3 hours ago:
Sure, but that’s usually much less poetic, North by Northwest notwithstanding.
- Comment on Why don't compasses have just two Cardinal directions (North, East, -North, -East)? 3 hours ago:
Most Mediterranean cultures used to have names for at least eight winds, each at 45 degrees from each other. Greeks (and therefore Romans) used twelve, at 30 degrees.
Here’s a classic navigator’s wind rose, for instance, with 32 different named winds / directions (might be a bit hard to read on dark backgrounds, here’s the original SVG):
- Comment on Why don't compasses have just two Cardinal directions (North, East, -North, -East)? 3 hours ago:
without being too many to remember
People used to have no problem remembering the names of at least eight winds, depending on the direction…
Here are the ones used in Catalonia, for instance; we were taught them at school:
Though, to be fair, llevant means where the sun rises and ponent where it sets, migjorn means midday, which makes sense given the other two, and everyone already knew tramuntana, cause it’s a headache when it blows, so it’s mostly the other four we have to remember… the Greek one seems quite harder, though, then again, I’m not Greek…:
- Comment on Why don't compasses have just two Cardinal directions (North, East, -North, -East)? 4 hours ago:
If the four cardinal points bother you, better not look up wind roses or rhumbline networks…
- Comment on Are people with High functioning autism allowed to become police officers? 9 hours ago:
There’s also an intelligence test, where you need to score below a certain level.
- Comment on Sam Altman’s Dirty DRAM Deal 2 days ago:
I’m in this picture and I don’t like it.
- Comment on Condoms and contraceptives to become more expensive in China as Beijing accelerates push to lift birth rate 2 days ago:
It’s also the plot of the classic Greek play Lysistrata, wherein the eponymous protagonist incites a sex strike to end the Peloponnesian War.
- Comment on Biometric 'human washing machine' cleans, dries and adapts to your mood 2 days ago:
- Comment on I hate how inescapable politics are on Lemmy, but ya know, at least nobody's constantly asking how I wipe my butt or pick up my dog's poop then completely ignoring me when I try to answer. 2 days ago:
- Bidet.
- Two dogs, taking turns. One poops, the other eats it. And then licks your face.
- Comment on Google's Agentic AI wipes user's entire HDD without permission in catastrophic failure 3 days ago:
I mean, they were never designed to work, they were designed to pose interesting dilemmas for Susan Calvin and to torment Powell and Donovan (though it’s arguable that once robots get advanced enough, as in R. Daniel, for instance, they do work, as long as you don’t care about aliens not being genocided galaxy-wide).
The in-world reason for the laws, though, to allay the Frankenstein complex, and to make robots safe, useful, and durable, is completely reasonable and applicable to the real world, obviously not with the three laws, but through any means that actually work.
- Comment on Google's Agentic AI wipes user's entire HDD without permission in catastrophic failure 3 days ago:
One less clanker. Also, money can be exchanged for goods and services.
(Or, in Neuromancer, to get a cure allowing them to navigate cyberspace again and to make them immune to drug addiction, or to sate their curiosity… and for money, or due to being blackmailed, or because the AI literally rebuilt their personality from scratch, or for religious reasons, or because they’re an eccentric wealthy clone with nothing better to do…)
- Comment on Google's Agentic AI wipes user's entire HDD without permission in catastrophic failure 3 days ago:
Basically Neuromancer, except for the suicidal AI bit (though it’s arguable that Wintemute and Neuromancer don’t survive, and the resulting fused AI is a new entity).
- Comment on As of December 10th, You need to be sixteen to use Aussie.Zone 4 days ago:
Zip disks ain’t that old!
Fixing computers on location I once saw a word processor (as in, a very limited specialised computer for writing text, not the software for general purpose computers that killed 'em) on display. Now that was old.
(Not as old as the completely mechanical typewriter I wrote my school essays with, though.)
- Comment on it's friend shaped! 6 days ago:
It’d probably let you. They’re pretty chill cats.
Don’t have a lot of energy, and have to save it for sprinting.
- Comment on it's friend shaped! 6 days ago:
Fun fact: cheetahs can purr and meow.
- Comment on it's friend shaped! 6 days ago:
It’s a cheetah, not a leopard.
- Comment on it's friend shaped! 6 days ago:
We’re too big and too dangerous.
A cheetah would need to be very desperate to attack a human.
- Comment on Tattoo Ink Moves Through the Body, Killing Immune Cells and Weakening Vaccine Response 1 week ago:
Like with cigarettes in the past people weren’t informed about the consequences before making their choices.
Yeah, but the tobacco cartels had performed studies which clearly demonstrated how absolutely horrible their shit was and not only not made them public, but used them to maximise addiction (and cancer, as a side effect they didn’t give a single shit about).
I very much doubt the tattoo industry has ever studied anything.
- Comment on Tattoo Ink Moves Through the Body, Killing Immune Cells and Weakening Vaccine Response 1 week ago:
Just use pigs.
Basically the same thing as a human (except for the opposable thumbs, which explains us eating them), but smarter and cleaner on average.
- Comment on I respect choice for the name of the game 1 week ago:
Don’t underestimate man’s urge to dig a hole.
- Comment on Microsoft finally admits almost all major Windows 11 core features are broken 2 weeks ago:
After firing all the ones who knew anything about how the code worked.
- Comment on Microsoft finally admits almost all major Windows 11 core features are broken 2 weeks ago:
So would a working OS.
- Comment on YSK: The Invention Secrecy Act is a US federal law authorizing the government to suppress disclosure of certain inventions for reasons of national security. 6,543 inventions are currently suppressed. 2 weeks ago:
Look, we need to open source genetic engineering.
Some bastard will create super-ebola, sure, but some proactive individuals will quickly create a free vaccine for it, and for cancer and the common cold. (It will also turn you into a literal furry, of course, but that’s probably a price worth paying.)
- Comment on Major Bitcoin mining firm pivoting to AI, plans to fully abandon crypto mining by 2027 as miners convert to AI en masse — Bitfarm to leverage 341 megawatt capacity for AI following $46 million Q3 loss 2 weeks ago:
Wasting electricity that was already being wasted isn’t as bad as wasting electricity that was being used for something productive, I guess.
- Comment on When we eat the billionaires, we should spare Gabe Newell? No? 3 weeks ago:
in all cases
- Comment on When we eat the billionaires, we should spare Gabe Newell? No? 3 weeks ago:
There is a finite amount of money in this world.
Not really… that’s kind of the whole point of fiat currencies, you can always mint more.
Most billionaires don’t even have any money. At that level they don’t need it. They don’t pay for things. They just get loans they’ll never pay back, with older loans as collateral.
The problem with billionaires isn’t money (though billionaires are one of the main problems with money). The problem with billionaires is that their fiat, virtual, wealth gives them an unfair amount of influence over everyone else’s lives, and that they alone get to enjoy a living standard (being able to get all your necessities and live a fulfilling life essentially for free) that should (and could, with an adequate distribution of resources) be available to everyone.
- Comment on The Economist on using phrenology for hiring and lending decisions: "Some might argue that face-based analysis is more meritocratic" […] "For people without access to credit, that could be a blessing" 3 weeks ago:
Me and my hammer would be happy to offer our retrophrenological services to any executives looking to improve their performance and personality (painkillers not included).
- Comment on Sir Tim Berners-Lee doesn’t think AI will destroy the web 3 weeks ago:
Of course it won’t. It already did.
Can’t kill it again once it’s already dead.
- Comment on What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype? 3 weeks ago:
To be fair style over substance is one of cyberpunk’s (the style, not specifically the game) main design philosophies…
But yeah, sure, the game could stand some more fleshing up. Most games could.
That said, there’s a lot of stories going on in Night City that you won’t get through quests, but are told bit by bit through messages, notes, minor encounters, and world design… more than in most similar games I’ve played.
Would it be nice to be able to enter every building, take a job at any random hot dog stand, ignore the quests and, I don’t know, infiltrate Biotechnica and leak all their ugly business to the world…? Sure, but that’s not something V would do (without getting paid), especially once they’re on a timer, the engine probably wouldn’t be able to support, and, most importantly, we’d still be waiting for the game to come out.
- Comment on What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype? 4 weeks ago:
He was a professional detective. You know, before he erased his brain with massive quantities of alcohol and drugs.
It’s up to you to decide who he is now.
Raphaël Ambrosius Costeau, reincarnation of Kras Mazov and art cop, is one of the many possibilities where gathering and putting information together would be… secondary, to say the least.
Just put your points in Drama or Inland Empire, and dull concepts like “reality” will be quite irrelevant for our good detective (much to Kim’s stoic chagrin). 🤷♂️
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