Wimopy

@Wimopy@feddit.uk

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘No Palantir’ motion passes as Lambeth joins growing revolt against NHS data deal⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I was talking about this same idea with a friend recently. We have orgs like GCHQ and there’s plenty of cybersecurity and data talent in the UK. The government could make our own actual, secure systems. Provide setup and support for non-gov entities in the UK if they want to have government-approved security for a fee if we need the funding.

  Plenty of options for the details in terms of finances, open-sourcing, letting (vetted) private healthcare users connect, etc.

  There’s no need to always put things out for private companies to make.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨John Cleese urges St Andrews students not to elect Q Manivannan as rector⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t want to put words in their mouth or explain away what they said, so I will quote Wikipedia:

  They said that their reference to the demonisation of rape concerned stereotypes surrounding perpetrators, arguing that rapists did not necessarily conform to a particular image and that such stereotypes could prevent victims from being believed, going on to explain that their reference to a spectrum concerned what they regarded as narrow legal and societal definitions of rape and sexual violence.

  Which is based on a Telegraph article:

  “The point I made about demonisation was that not all rapists fit a stereotype, and that all kinds of men can and do commit it.

  “The vast majority of sexual violence is from men who the victims know personally. Victims should be believed regardless of who the perpetrator was, and rapists should be punished in the strongest terms.

  “When talking about a spectrum I was making the point that laws often take a narrow definition of what rape and sexual violence is, which often allows it to continue without consequence. A full viewing of the interview clarifies this.

  “In a country where rape has the lowest conviction rates of any crime, and reoffending continues, this is an urgent and important conversation we need to have in Scotland. Any suggestion that my statements minimise or excuse rape or sexual assault are deeply false and misleading.”

  My personal impression would be this is getting at things like marital rape, but it’s not clarified further here, and I don’t have time to watch a full interview.

  At face value though, all I get from this is they didn’t mean anything malicious and they are definitely not a rape apologist, which is what a lot of the discourse around the topic seems to suggest.

  As a side note: they are non-binary and use they/them pronouns.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨John Cleese urges St Andrews students not to elect Q Manivannan as rector⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Ok, that’s my bad. Commenting after being unable to sleep much overnight leads to mistakes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨John Cleese urges St Andrews students not to elect Q Manivannan as rector⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The Edinburgh-based former writer and academic said there was a “myth of the monster rapist” and “a demonisation of rape in the sense of it is a spectrum”.

  They continued: “It is a spectrum, none of which is any less or worse, but it is a spectrum of things that constitute one homogenised word ‘rape’”.

  Manivannan went on to argue that the idea of a rapist as a “big burly man” was understandably a source of fear.

  But the MSP told Rajasekaran that “any individual is capable of rape, including yourself and me, and I think that scary thought is the hardest to contend with”.

  Source: BBC

  Delicate topic that requires more careful wording, but to me it doesn’t sound like they were intending to downplay anything. That is also the claim made later during their apology.

  I wonder if John Cleese - who has in the past few years gone down the rabbit hole of becoming a pretty hardcore right-winger and JK Rowling/transphobe supporter, - might be a bit prejudiced against Manivannan. I also wonder why his recent history is not brought up in the article. Why is he even relevant to rector proceedings in a Scottish university?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨AI chatbots could help safely diagnose patients ahead of GP visits, study finds⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Accuracy reached 75 per cent when considering the chatbot’s top three suggestions, while none of the conversations triggered safety stops.

  I mean I know doctors make mistakes too, but 75% if you get 3 guesses seems quite lacking. Especially if you then need to confirm with a doctor anyway.

  And yeah, the hallucination part is insane and surely unacceptable.

  Not to mention I’d need to read the study but I wonder what the cases and symptoms were, and if doctors ended up agreeing with the top 3 due to having read the transcripts beforehand. And we also know even experts can be fooled into thinking someone else is an expert if they talk well (see: Dr Fox effect, and related studies).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Greens’ ‘Zionism is racism’ worse than anything under Corbyn, antisemitism tsar warns⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Man, I’m quite entertained here. Didn’t even address the main points of my reply.

  But yes, your own source states he did not profit from them. It’s unclear, but the implication seems to be that information comes from the records and not Ali’s own claims. In which case, yeah, there are some severe issues with tax evasion if you’re correct and he’s actually profiting lmao.

  You still haven’t said what my takeaway from this should be either. Representation of different views is good, and is often why the US has a VP from a different slant of the party than the President. Seems like that’d be fine within a British party too.

  Anyway, I agree with one point: this discussion has gone on too long without actually getting anywhere. I’m sure we’ll re-read this under another post some other day, and maybe actually end up gaining some sort of understanding from each other.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Greens’ ‘Zionism is racism’ worse than anything under Corbyn, antisemitism tsar warns⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I still don’t get what your angle is here. All I get from this at best is they might not be perfect or monolithic. I don’t see why either case would be a deal-breaker. Those would be unreasonable expectations. And so I don’t care.

  But okay, let me address the specific point you’re making. I’ll even make a concession: let’s say they were letting for profit and living purely as a landlord (patently false, even from just your quotes): what matters from a leader and representative is that they can put their own interests aside and work for the wants and needs of the people they represent. And I see no reason as of yet to say they wouldn’t be able to do that. They could be completely ready to give up their property. If not, then it’s a problem and needs to be addressed, but that’s not an issue at present.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Greens’ ‘Zionism is racism’ worse than anything under Corbyn, antisemitism tsar warns⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  So… What is this meant to be pointing out? That not every member is perfect, and therefore neither is the party? I don’t give a shit. I’m not even sure I agree on their phrasing of the policy that is being discussed in this thread. Expecting perfection is just stupid though. Overall, they align with my values and seem to intend to move things in a way that I think is good, and are also backing that notion up to a degree. That makes them a better party than the alternatives in my eyes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Greens’ ‘Zionism is racism’ worse than anything under Corbyn, antisemitism tsar warns⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I think it’s appropriately bold. Right-wingers will find fault anyway. People are tired of politicians being cautious and diplomatic all the time, and if you want that you still have Lib Dem and Labour. Meanwhile I’ve seen people say the Greens are just idealists who talk big, but they finally have a chance to show they walk the walk.

  Reform is big despite multiple scandals, racism, etc. I think it’s fine to say “look, if you want someone similarly bold, but on the left side of the spectrum: Green can be that”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Eton parents’ revolt reflects growing anxieties over classroom tech⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Privileged or not they’re still kids who are ending up with mental health problems due to the actions of their school. You can still have empathy for children despite where they happened to be born and what choices their parents made for them.

  Not to mention the article is clearly stating this situation is happening outside of Eton with the more general child population with no recourse. Unfortunately, we currently live in a situation where wealthy and influential parents are the ones who can get psychologists and journalists to take note of problems, but that is not the fault of 13 year olds.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Far-right activist Daniel Thomas slashes dinghy in Channel with blade while rescue worker onboard⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So vandalising a plane is terrorism, but I’m guessing direct action that seeks to use fear to stop the actions of certain civilian groups isn’t?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bernie Sanders proposes 20 year prison sentence for AI devs who plow ahead with Artificial Superintelligence plans - penalty on par with illegally developing rogue nuclear weapons⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Very silly considering such a thing is nowhere close in reality. But that’s what the tech bros promise so we might as well hold them to the consequences of their words.

  …and to be fair having preemptive legislation is good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨UK universities face ‘financial crisis’ amid collapse in international students⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They could have also worked on a solution to make Home students less of a financial issue. Or figure out a setup where it’s not the nationality/residential status of a student that matters for funding.

  The UK has (/had) a huge lead in research and education. That shouldn’t be beholden to appealing to foreign interests. In fact it should be a way to attract talents away from other countries or to at least influence their thinking. I hate thinking of education in that way, but that’s the political reality.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon orders a martini⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  In all fairness it seems like it would work. Being a complete background character doesn’t get you close to anyone, and might even be suspicious. Meanwhile a weird order is a conversation starter, and why would a spy be drawing attention to themselves like that?

  Plus it does paint a sort of nouveau riche character, explaining how they might fit in a posh area while not being recognised: they’re new and they just made it to those circles. They’re someone who might not be committed to any specific factions or could potentially be more easily manipulated.

  It’s a good persona to approach and be approached while explaining away any oddities. Yeah, it’s also a suspicious position, but that’s where you trust your agency to have the background checks pass.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Greens demand political donation cap to end political grifting⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Got any evidence to back that up?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Greens demand political donation cap to end political grifting⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh yeah, we definitely want to be buddies with Russia. Fuck off with that. Won’t address that any further.

  Moving past that: lots of things you could say about the Greens, but they’ve been vocal about their ideals and are seemingly committed. That includes being pro-Palestine and trying to help the working class and other minorities. Now that might change in the realities of governance, but writing them off as equivalent to Labour is pessimistic to an unwarranted degree.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Where is the “Steam states” part of this? This looks to be a specific game’s EULA, it even mentions Klei specifically.

  To be clear I don’t disagree that Steam has the ability (physically and legally) to remove access to games, I’m just confused about what the picture is showing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Civil servants paid to play Grand Theft Auto with public⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh how horrible, civil servants trying to reach out to people through familiar and comforting media.

  And holy shit, the Telegraph still presents GTA as some sort of ultraviolent game that idolises crime? I thought we’d have moved past that by now, but I guess their readers haven’t been exposed to pop culture in decades then. Better not watch John Wick guys, you might be tempted to become hitmen for a crime family.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Capcom says shifting from auteur-driven development to team-led development is what transformed the company and allowed flagship IPs to survive for so long - AUTOMATON WEST⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well that’s a pretty extreme statement. I’ll admit World and Wilds are obviously different from the older games in some ways, but how is Wilds “garbage beyond belief”?

  I’m genuinely curious, because so far I’ve seen quite a few people here claim it is somehow awful, but no one says why. Most of the negative reviews I’ve seen before have been about performance. I’ve also seen a few mention the game being too easy, but the end game has been spicy enough after they released some new monsters. I could see complaints about content initially, but it’s not like Tri had many large monsters on release either in comparison, it’s always the expansion that brings in a bunch more.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Capcom says shifting from auteur-driven development to team-led development is what transformed the company and allowed flagship IPs to survive for so long - AUTOMATON WEST⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That, and it had significant performance issues for many people, along with some texture glitches. That’s why I added that little parenthetical bit about the games not being perfect on launch. World was a big shift and also had some launch issues.

  I would say that’s not down to some “design by committee” art/design choice though. I’d very much agree with issues around Capcom’s monetisation (character edit vouchers, a million cosmetic packs) and their launch model (e.g.: wait another year and have all those title updates already in). But I disagree with them being pure cash grabs that are somehow artistically stunted by some corporate process to some major degree.

  Maybe they should bring back the mandatory “gather 20 mushrooms” quest though for completeness I guess.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Capcom says shifting from auteur-driven development to team-led development is what transformed the company and allowed flagship IPs to survive for so long - AUTOMATON WEST⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  See, this would resonate more of the recent Resident Evils and Monster Hunters weren’t, as they seemed to be, also loved by old fans.

  I’m specifically a Monster Hunter fan since Tri, and I think World, Rise, and Wilds have all been fantastic entries that took the DNA of the franchise and allowed it to evolve. World and Wilds have moved the franchise to finally being able to show it takes place in a real living, breathing world. To me that shows the artistic vision is very much there.

  I’m not saying the games are perfect (especially on launch) or there aren’t changes people (including myself) will disagree with, but there’s no way I’d call them “barely purchase-worthy”. Especially not because of artistic constraints (and I’m very much including game design in that).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨One in five girls say they experienced harassment before age 12⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Don’t worry, I’m sure being harsher on trans and gender-nonconforming people will improve the situation! That will definitely help with girls and women feeling like they have to dress and act in certain ways to avoid unwanted behaviour!

  Fuck’s sake this sucks. I hope Labour’s plan actually addresses some of the issues raised, but I do genuinely worry any gains will be offset by all the other negative trends in the country right now… And that’s before considering Reform potentially gaining power. Urgh.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ELI5: How does Frame Generation even work?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Since it’s ELI5 I’ll keep it very simple. It’s not like I know the exact mechanics anyway. No guarantee of pedantic correctness. I’m sure if I get anything overly wrong then someone who wouldn’t comment otherwise will correct me (please and thank you).

  Let’s start from interpolation. It’s a simple maths idea: inter for between, poles for points. Let’s say you have two points. You could draw a line between them, take the middle point of that line. You’ve now introduced a new point.

  This concept is used a lot in physics or maths in general. Let’s say you are writing down the speed of a car over time. You have 1 speed value per second. But you’re interested in the speed at 23.33 seconds for some reason.

  Now you have a few options:

  • You could take the speeds at 23 and 24 seconds and just the same as before: draw an imaginary straight line between them, and read what speed that is at for 23.33.
  • You could also look at how the speed changed from 22 to 23 instead, especially if you didn’t have the 24s time written down.
  • You could look at more of the speed values and try to figure out how the car’s speed changes over time, since it’s unlikely to be linear. That gets you to more complex forms of interpolation. That’s what’s used to find a more descriptive equation of motion for objects.

  That may have been a bit of a tangent, but it does get us back to frame generation. We are interpolating where each pixel is between frames. Or perhaps even saying: okay, this visual object moved from X to Y, what happened between them?

  The key part is: graphics already have this information. It would be wasteful to re-render an entire scene every frame, so you just look at what needs updating and how. But that means you know what happens one frame to the next. So now you just take that information and do some simple maths to figure out the in-between step, and show that to the user as well.

  Performance-wise it’s not costly. The tough calculation is the update from frame to frame. It does take a bit of time though, introducing some tiny lag in your display.

  Of course the actual frame gen algorithms can take a lot more data into account, but the simple idea is: between Point X and point Y there exists a point A which we can calculate relatively cheaply and display first.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Concerns over £166k cost of rehoming bats in Gloucestershire⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah yes, the £166k out of £320m for road upgrades is the issue. Nah, fuck you. If we “have to” displace wildlife we might as well take some fucking responsibility. I can see a Reform member might not understand that concept.

  And let’s not pretend they’d actually spend it on social care, education, or whatever else they want to point towards.

  Not sure why this is worth entertaining with a news article.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do people are so fine with Warframe monetization methods?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Been a while since I played, but I didn’t even reach 1k hours and was trading stuff much earlier than that. In 850h I think I bought plat once, and made it to 21 (iirc) mastery total, with a dozen or two frames and weapons in store. The only thing I spent plat on is either intermediate currency for trading, or more slots (which you still get plenty of for free from events and such).

  The game involves a lot of grinding to begin with, but you can easily farm a bit to find something to sell for plat.

  Also Reddit misled you a bit. The game throws 50 and 75% off plat fairly regularly at you.

  Especially about the competitive thing though: I’ve never had that thought. I’ve never seen it as competitive to begin with, even in a friendly way. And afaict, there’s nothing you could do with money that would give you too much of an advantage. Maybe skip a bit of the grind, but a lot comes from mastery levels, build synergies, and knowing how to play your frame right… And even then outside of Steel Path and other endgame-ish content you can easily nuke an entire level with minimal effort.

  All that said: yeah, it’s a free to play game and it has a few features that will make you want to spend money. You can absolutely not spend a single cent and achieve whatever you want though, which is why people praise it. It just means playing the game more, so the question really becomes whether you enjoy the gameplay loop to begin with and how much time you’re willing to spend.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘Hostile’ anti-trans environment in UK deterring trans people from healthcare⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Awful. Especially the stats about GPs not providing proper care, and trans people not wanting to go to A&E out of fear of discrimination.

  And to be fair I do know people who have/are coming to terms with being trans but not willing to approach their GP.

  Recently seeing a (very feminine) trans woman having to use the men’s bathroom was also just an upsetting reminder of the legal and political state of things. It’s very understandable that they’re worried.

  The lack of empathy towards trans people is staggering. Honestly, towards people in general too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨British children are growing taller but not for the right reasons⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s right there in the article, first paragraph:

  Being overweight or obese causes hormonal changes, which accelerate children’s development. Obese children grow faster, so they tend to be taller than their healthy-weight peers. But obese children have a greater risk of disease in later life, including diabetes and heart disease.

  Without further research on my end what this means to me is “poor children are more likely to be obese and reach their, presumably shorter, adult height earlier in their childhood”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨GPs to get £3,000 bonus to maximise weight loss drug prescriptions⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: "Weight loss drugs can be a real game changer for those who need them. I’m determined that access should be based on need, not ability to pay.

  What a novel idea. I wonder if this could be applied to other drugs and treatments. I don’t know, something else that maybe has to do with not being in the right body for you. Or maybe mental health conditions.

  This currently benefitting one company also really doesn’t help me not be cynical.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Unrealistic⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Just to nerd out a bit: I think this is justified. He has nanomachines, son. His eyesight is probably perfect, but he adopts a different persona most of the time. He’s a puppeteer and a politician most of the time.

  This is when he gets his actual boss theme lyrics too and he finally treats you as an actual fight. No more metal gear, no more speeches. You get the treatment of an equal rival.

  Or: Rising Revengeance might like symbolism, but it prefers the subtlety of a giant boulder and memes, and him taking off his glasses just fits the rule of cool.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reform UK politicians should be barred from speaking on campus, say 35% of students⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It sounds like they asked about specific parties being banned. 16% even said Labour…

  Without seeing the full survey it’s hard to gauge, but seems like it might’ve been odd phrasing.

  Disregarding that, I think I agree with the majority here. Reform are, sadly, a legitimate political party in the UK, who even have seats in Parliament. I don’t feel we should be targeting individual political parties with freedom of speech restrictions, at least not on a national level. Students and staff getting their universities to bar them would be fine. Perhaps an odd distinction, but I think it’s an important one.