oatscoop
@oatscoop@midwest.social
- Comment on I'm Tired of Pretending Tech is Making the World Better 3 days ago:
Technology has never been the problem: there’s nothing wrong with genetic engineering, AI, etc. The can (and have) been used for good.
The problem has always been the “greed is good” sociopaths using it for evil.
- Comment on Good afternoon I choose thoughts you've never had before. 6 days ago:
Noodles are composed mostly of starches and heat causes gelatinization, which gives noodles their texture and holds them together. Without heat water just causes them to break back down into wet flour.
- Comment on YSK: Gas stoves cause cancer 1 week ago:
In places where natural gas is cheap and electricity is expensive cost is a factor
- Comment on LG monitor asking about ad tracking preferences 4 months ago:
Hands you a random laptop.
“The thing doesn’t work.”
Refuses to elaborate and leave.
- Comment on LG monitor asking about ad tracking preferences 4 months ago:
I bought an LG microwave a few months ago to replace a dead 10 year old Sharp. My favorite “features”:
- The sticker on the door stating that by using the microwave I agree to LG’s TOS.
- The single 4 minutes and 30 seconds of use I got out of it before the magnetron broke.
When I returned it they customer service person asked if I wanted it serviced under warranty – hilarious. Bought a Panasonic instead.
- Comment on The Conspiracy Unmasked 5 months ago:
Fully automated luxury gay space communism.
- Comment on YSK: You don't own your Kindle e-books. 5 months ago:
I just use my kindle as intended: using Calibre’s “email” button to load 100% legally obtained books via it’s _______@kindle.com address.
- Comment on Microsoft inks deal to restart Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to fuel its voracious AI ambitions 5 months ago:
There are jobs where it’s not feasible or practical to pay an actual human to do.
Human translators exist and are far superior to machine translators. Do you hire one every time you need something translated in a casual setting, or do you use something Google translate? LLMs are the reason modern machine translation is is infinitely better than it was a few years ago.
- Comment on Microsoft inks deal to restart Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to fuel its voracious AI ambitions 5 months ago:
One of the major problems with LLMs is it’s a “boom”. People are rightfully soured on them as a concept because jackasses trying to make money lie about their capabilities and utility – never mind the ethics of obtaining the datasets used to train them.
They’re absolutely limited, flawed, and there are better solutions for most problems … but beyond the bullshit LLMs are a useful tool for some jobs and they’re not going away.
- Comment on Texas State Police Gear Up for Massive Expansion of Surveillance Tech 6 months ago:
How dare people cope with something horrible by making jokes. Everyone knows it’s impossible to make those jokes while simultaneously being horrified by and pushing back against the thing they’re joking about.
- Comment on I've heard it clears up again after the first wave of divorces 6 months ago:
Getting older, with an established career makes spontaneity harder as it is. Add kids to the mix and it’s pretty much impossible.
I … don’t want that. I like making last minutes plans, 1-2 week long trips, etc. The most limiting factor for me is dropping off my cat at one of my many friends/family members that can watch it (and I reciprocate with their pets).
If I’m going to date it’s going to be with someone with a compatible lifestyle. I’m not a homebody, and I wouldn’t date someone that by choice or necessity is.
- Comment on Oldest computer 7 months ago:
“Computer” is literally anything that performs computations – it even used to be a job title: “one that computes”.
“Mechanical Computers” were almost exclusively limited in what they could compute.
- Comment on I will not be taking questions. 8 months ago:
Various other things like leaves, rags, sponges, or leftover paper. Failing that a bare hand works: manners dictating you wash it after.
Some cultural hangups on the left hand being “unclean” stem from those cultures using that hand for hygienic reasons.
- Comment on Funny, those guys don't usually agree on that much 9 months ago:
- Comment on Dating app Bumble will no longer require women to make the first move | CNN Business 10 months ago:
… oh, the animal.
Nevermind.
- Comment on Dating app Bumble will no longer require women to make the first move | CNN Business 10 months ago:
I don’t get it: the bear just makes more sense. Despite their intimidating appearance most are gentle creatures. Their fur and mass can provide warmth, and if you’re injured they can easily carry you out of the woods.
If you pick “random man” you might get a twink and I feel like they’re more of a liability in a survival situation.
- Comment on Xbox Console Sales Are Tanking 10 months ago:
I’m with you on that. What makes the Steam Deck so appealing is it’s a handheld PC.
- Comment on FCC restores net neutrality rules that ban blocking and throttling in 3-2 vote 10 months ago:
As someone 10 minutes outside of a major city, my (slow, unreliable, expensive) options are:
- Cellular
- Satellite
- Fixed wireless
Americans are entirely at the whim of ISPs and what areas they determine are worth investing infrastructure in.
- Comment on [deleted] 10 months ago:
I’d suggest a cheap used or spare laptop/desktop with a beginner friendly distro like Linux Mint Cinnamon to learn on. Just use it for casual stuff – you’ll pick up what you need to learn as you go.
That way if something breaks or you don’t know how to do something while you’re learning you’re not “stuck”.
- Comment on Eww, Copilot AI might auto-launch with Windows 11 soon 10 months ago:
You made me realize I haven’t fired up my Windows 11 machine in a while, so I went to check it – even re-enabling the copilot toggle … which weirdly did nothing. Then I remembered I had lobotomized all the AI and assistant “features” a while ago.
I’m a little disappointed: I wanted to ask Copilot “How do I purge you from my machine?”
- Comment on unsure why we are surprised lol 10 months ago:
If you had actually read the Wikipedia article:
In 1973, a federal district court in Arizona decided that the act was unconstitutional, and Arizona could not keep the party off the ballot in the 1972 general election (Blawis v. Bolin). In 1961, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the act did not bar the party from participating in New York’s unemployment insurance system (Communist Party v. Catherwood).
So yes, the law passed during the the McCarthy era … and was afterwards declared unconstitutional.
- Comment on The United States of America, but for Trans People 11 months ago:
Oh, I thought it was because I’m familiar with LDS teachings, culture, and the churches sordid (and recent) history.
- Comment on iPod with custom shell, new screen, 512gb SSD, and a 30 day battery 11 months ago:
I’ve seen a few open hardware projects for “dumb” MP3 players over the years. I found this article on the Tangara project and am tempted to build one.
- Comment on The United States of America, but for Trans People 11 months ago:
Mormons tend to be nice … to your face. As soon as you leave they’re likely to act like you’d expect followers of an extremely socially conservative, regressive, patriarchal religion would.
- Comment on The United States of America, but for Trans People 11 months ago:
AZ always struck me as “the retirement state for new agers and hippies”.
- Comment on Roku explores taking over HDMI feeds with ads 11 months ago:
Blocking it would require a screwdriver and a razor blade to cut some traces on the cellular modem.
- Comment on Best printer 2024: a humorous critique of the Google search engine and printer enshittification 11 months ago:
the only good reason to own a printer is photo/art prints
… how do you read your emails without a printer?
- Comment on Why don't we hear more about the 2017 Las Vegas shooting? It was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, we never found a motive, and it seems no one ever mentions it. 11 months ago:
Not really.
“We don’t have anything definitive and we can only speculate, which we’re not going to do.”
- Comment on Now that search engines suck, people will start to bookmark again. 11 months ago:
I fucking hate the death of keyboard shortcuts and not being able to reliably tab through fields. Particularly in UIs designed for data entry.
- Comment on Now that search engines suck, people will start to bookmark again. 11 months ago:
It’s the Yelp review, duh.
