ilinamorato

@ilinamorato@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is a federated alternative to Wikipedia?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Facebook (centralized) is ground for fake and hateful news, while the Fediverse (decentralized) brings meaningful diversity and insightfulness.

  That’s because Facebook has discovered that fake and hateful news gets lots of clicks and engagement, and boosts their bottom line. Wikipedia has no such profit motive, nor does federated social media. It’s the economics that make them different, not the server paradigm.

  More information also means quicker double-checking for what is true, regardless of political spectrum

  Is…this your first day on the Internet? That is almost never how it works. You get one side posting sourced, verifiable, provable information at best. At worst, both sides are posting cherry-picked half-stories that agree with their preconceived ideas. In the end, no one changes their minds, but the people who are willing to stay and post about it for longer are the ones who are seen later on as the “winners.”

  Truth is a constructed entity.

  I’m reminded of a line from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: “Archaeology is the search for fact, not truth. If it’s truth you’re interested in, Dr. Tyree’s philosophy class is right down the hall.”

  Similarly, encyclopedias are not where to go for truth. They’re where to go for fact, and fact isn’t decided by consensus.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is a federated alternative to Wikipedia?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s not two different opinions, though. You just posted two accurate facts. An accurate Wikipedia will post both of them, and it has nothing to do with any individual’s opinion on Process A being a ploy by Big Pharma or Process B being a liberal psyop. An accurate Wikipedia will also not post about either being the “best.” That’s not its job.

  Your bamboo scaffolding example is actually a good one, but not in your favor. Bamboo scaffolding is a great option in places where bamboo grows naturally. In other parts of the world where bamboo is less common, metal scaffolding is usually a more economic choice. Neither is “better,” and encyclopedias should not suggest that one or the other is.

  This whole thing is why the Wikipedia “opinion” editor tag exists. Its whole point is to mark places where an article needs editing because the content is subjective or not supported by verifiable fact.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨THE NEXT CLANKER BETTER DO MY GODDAMN DISHES⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Not entirely sure why that doesn’t feel like a robot to me. Hm.

  Maybe it’s because washing machines existed before electricity. I don’t think there are any gas-powered dishwashers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨THE NEXT CLANKER BETTER DO MY GODDAMN DISHES⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  AI’s water usage is a pretty well-known problem with the industry.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨THE NEXT CLANKER BETTER DO MY GODDAMN DISHES⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They chose literally the only widely-available home robot. 😆

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is This Social Media?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Interesting question on the fediverse. I tend to think that redditlikes aren’t, while twitterlikes are; so what does it mean if they’re federated? Does it depend on how you access the content?

  Maybe it’s a spectrum. Bulletin board forums are on one side, then Stack Overflow, then redditlikes, then twitterlikes, then Instagram-like image sharing, then Facebook on the far other side.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do I beat the roaches in this house?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So, I think this story has two parts to it: one from years ago, wherein he moved into a place with his girlfriend and his best friend; and another from today, wherein he moved into a place with his wife. Unclear if it’s the same person as the girlfriend from before.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are your favorite Star Trek books?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I really like the Department of Temporal Investigations book “Watching the Clock.” Very clever time travel story.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Modern Windows in a nutshell⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Whoooaaaaa I heard the next update is gonna be HUGE

  The leaks say they’re adding millidays and a whole new second

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox Is Investing In AI For Their Next Gen Console⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Theoretically, I think AI used to generate content within parameters would be pretty interesting; like procedural generation, but more so. NPCs could have more realistic, fully-voiced conversations with you and with one another that reflect the state of the world and actions you performed; landscapes and creatures could be more realistic and fantastical; side quests could be generated within some parameters to fit your play style or your character’s build; faraway locations that aren’t a part of the main storyline could be generated as you explore them rather than built by the developer. It could be used to make a world feel more expansive, but also more personalized, while simultaneously freeing up developers from the pain of crunch.

  In reality, I don’t think that modern LLMs or diffusion models are well-suited to such a thing, and AAA companies are more likely to use it for more efficient microtransaction monetization and cutting development jobs anyway.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How would one exit a black hole?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Actually, it may be that it quite literally can’t take any time inside a singularity! As you approach a singularity, the spacetime curve representing the passage of time approaches zero, meaning that from your perspective, the universe outside the event horizon moves more and more impossibly fast, and from an outside perspective, you move more and more slowly until your motion appears to stop entirely.

  At the singularity, our understanding of spacetime basically just shrugs in an infinite manner, puts on its hat, and clocks out for the day. It may be that, for the singularity, the entirety of time between the collapse of the star that formed the black hole and the eventual evaporation of the black hole due to Hawking radiation are compressed into a single instant, and no time at all passes for it.

  So you might not need any books at all, because by the time you reach the singularity (which wouldn’t take a particularly long subjective time), it may well be the end of the universe. Hope you paid the meter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How would one exit a black hole?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, the end of it is, at least.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Star Trek: Lower Decks Wins Two Hugo Awards, Celebrating Series Finale and 'Warp Your Own Way' Graphic Novel⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Also, the big surprise about, uh…who is… talking to Mariner…is absolutely incredible. Just a complete mind-bender.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Star Trek: Lower Decks Wins Two Hugo Awards, Celebrating Series Finale and 'Warp Your Own Way' Graphic Novel⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Definitely read it. Don’t read anything about it. Just read it. It’s very good, but you could very easily get spoiled about a major part of it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨California is debating whether or not to remove the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. During the public hearing, a politician was driving his car⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, the more I think about it, the less I think they should get rid of the lane. If anyone at all relies on it, it’s worth the lane.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨California is debating whether or not to remove the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. During the public hearing, a politician was driving his car⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That is incredibly frustrating.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨California is debating whether or not to remove the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. During the public hearing, a politician was driving his car⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Five miles. Dang, I hadn’t processed that. Even at highway speeds, that bridge would take more than five minutes to cross; if you’re a strong cyclist, you could do it in, what, 30 minutes?

  Still, you’re right. The next closest way for a bike to get around would be something like 20+ miles out of your way in one direction or the other, it looks like. So it would turn any hour-long errands you might be able to run by bicycle into day trips of 4-8 hours.

  I dunno. Tough choice.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨California is debating whether or not to remove the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. During the public hearing, a politician was driving his car⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  America-good, not Europe-good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨California is debating whether or not to remove the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. During the public hearing, a politician was driving his car⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I believe the Bay Area has pretty good transit, but I don’t know the specifics at this location. The bus is probably more theoretically efficient, but I would wonder about usage in this case. I believe it’s slightly too suburban for light rail.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨California is debating whether or not to remove the bike lane on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. During the public hearing, a politician was driving his car⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s a well-known fallacy in urbanism that bike lanes “see almost zero use.” Bikes have much less visual weight than a car, so one driver in a lane will look like a lane being used while one bicyclist in a lane will look like the same lane being “half-used.” In addition, bike lanes are much more efficient at keeping travelers moving at a constant rate so that they don’t bunch up, meaning that a busy road with backed-up traffic will look like it’s getting more use when what’s actually happening is that the bike lane is just moving travelers more efficiently.

  Furthermore, the “induced demand” phenomenon means that adding capacity actually doesn’t reduce traffic, at least not in the long term. We have decades of data proving it. The amount of cars that the lane can accommodate will invariably be taken up by people taking that route who had previously taken a different route. The only way to reduce traffic for a given route is to either create more routes or remove traffic from the road. Bike lanes do both.

  In reality, for most routes, if you compare the number of people being moved on the bike lane, you’ll often find that it equals or even exceeds the number of people being moved on the car lane immediately adjacent to it. More importantly, they also tend to reduce the number of drivers on the same route and nearby routes as they encourage travelers who would ordinarily be afraid of biking to ditch the car.

  I can’t speak to that specific bike lane, of course, but in general the argument that “it’s not doing anything!” is a fallacy, and replacing the bike lane with a motor vehicle travel lane would almost certainly result in worse traffic, not better.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Periodic reminder to get your library cards and fill out museum surveys.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I hope so, but it’s such a lame one. Just incoherent. Maybe someone prompted an AI to post troll comments, and it’s just doin’ its best.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Periodic reminder to get your library cards and fill out museum surveys.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  there could be a little bit of bias involved

  Absolutely. Even putting aside the possibilities for regional and temporal bias, they’re a literary society; they’re quite likely to strongly play up some minor noise in both directions–either to paint themselves as a dying breed in need of saving, or as an ascendant force worth watching. They’re very unlikely to have no opinion one way or the other.

  Interesting that Pratchett sold well but Adams didn’t. I can kind of see Martin, since that was right after the TV show shambled to a halt ignobly, but Pratchett and Adams feel like they’re cut from the same cloth, particularly as far as people who would enjoy their work go. Maybe there was a bump associated with the Good Omens show?

  Anyway. I appreciate your gracefulness. I try intentionally to not be that kind of guy online, so it stung particularly because I felt like I was betraying myself. Don’t get on social media on a bad day, kids.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Periodic reminder to get your library cards and fill out museum surveys.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Same. I think sales figures for new works could provide a partial picture, but not anything definitive. The only thing I found in my short research (I like doing big research binges, but don’t have time for it today) was this article, which is far from a mic-drop but it sure is interesting.

  I just like to discuss things.

  Same. Sorry for jumping down your throat earlier. I assumed a tone of you that you weren’t using.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Periodic reminder to get your library cards and fill out museum surveys.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  So I’m just… politely disagreeing with you.

  Honestly…this is the first time in a decade or more that I’ve actually believed anyone online who said something like that. Hey, you’re cool. I like this sort of disagreement.

  Anyway, that’s the way I see it and unless we get facts on the table from somewhere, I don’t see how we could agree in this.

  “We face each other as God intended. Sportsmanlike. No bad faith arguments, no logical fallacies…fact against fact alone.”

  “You mean…you’ll put down your anecdotal data and I’ll put down my cherry-picked personal experiences and we’ll try and convince each other of our points like civilized people?”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Periodic reminder to get your library cards and fill out museum surveys.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I know that some people value physical media. But most don’t. Most people value convenience.

  I’m not talking about “everyone in the world,” I’m talking about “more people than ten years ago.”

  I recognize that the internet is allergic to context and nuance, but seriously.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, I mean, it’s not the end of the world if the coverage doesn’t happen, but it still sucks for the people who are still there. It would be nice to not have to deal with that, and ADP has the ability to help but chooses not to.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Periodic reminder to get your library cards and fill out museum surveys.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Walk into any music store. Or bookstore. Or a Half Price Books, which sells both. People are sick of paying for the capricious hands of streaming to tell them what they’re allowed to watch or read or listen to on any given day.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Easy to say if you’re not the one burning. I’ve been there.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Periodic reminder to get your library cards and fill out museum surveys.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I refuse to believe that this is not a really weak troll.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Periodic reminder to get your library cards and fill out museum surveys.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Physical media is coming back because owning is better than licensing.