DomeGuy
@DomeGuy@lemmy.world
- Comment on Does anyone else feel like "analog" stuff is more "tangible"? 2 days ago:
OneDrive is absurdly easy to not use. I feel confident saying that if you can’t figure out how to save an MS word file to a non-onedrive folder you should definitely leave it on. A single backup on a cloud service with a local cache is better than a single backup on one physical drive that will eventually fail.
If it’s important, you want at least three backups in two different formats with one physically removed from the others. A copy you save to a thumb stick, a copy you save to OneDrive, and one you print out. (Or, conversely, the physical copy you bought, one electronic copy local, and one copy of that electronic version saved to iCloud or what have you.)
- Comment on How long would it take a black Hole to fully absorb a person from event horizon to center of the earth style? 2 days ago:
Not a physicist – they know the math.
Just a sci-fi enthusiast who got really annoyed by a trilogy that didn’t understand what the “delta” in “delta-v” meant and so the space ships spent a lot of time getting to a very high orbital speed before each fight.
- Comment on How long would it take a black Hole to fully absorb a person from event horizon to center of the earth style? 2 days ago:
Time dilation is your subjective acceleration veering into more “time” than “space”.
If you somehow were in a flat universe with parallel velocity to an object several light-years away, and somehow managed to accelerate towards it at 1 g, you’d impact at the time on your watch that pure Newtonian physics says you would.
The subjective clocks of the place you’re hitting would measure your travel time as a lot longer, however. But it wouldnt be infinite at all – a relatively small multiple of “several” years, in fact.
(Before the relativistic impact recused both you and them to an energetic plasma, that is.)
- Comment on Can someone please ELI5 the legal issue with genericized trademarks? 5 days ago:
A trademark is a distinct way to refer to a business. The whole set of legal rights and privileges that this weird form of intellectual property gets are to make sure that when somebody talks about " dome guys tacos" they’re definitely talking about my tacos and not yours or some other persons.
If I let dumb guys tacos become a generic term that I don’t say hey, that’s not talking about my tacos anymore. Don’t do that then I’ve let my trademark become generic. This is unlikely to happen to actual tacos but if I had come up with a brand new pseudo taco dish and I called it the DCT, and then every Mexican restaurant in the country copied it and also called it the DCT, then the idea has become genericized and I can’t. Then at the end of it start trying to collect money from other people for calling the thing I invented and failed to produce by the name that has been attached to it.
This is of course entirely apart from the menu of how to create a DCT, we should be covered by copyright, or the specific set of instructions on how to create a DCT, which hypothetically I could get a patent on. (Although I don’t think they award patents for food.)
- Comment on In the sub 'nonpolitical_comics' there is no underscore between non and political. 1 week ago:
Most things someone sees as infuriating will have an explanation that makes sense. This does not make them non-infuriating.
Like beauty, infuriation is in the eye of the inflamed.
- Comment on I’m not saying that I agree with right- or center-wing views, and I do condemn transphobia. However, do you think there should be a distinction between critiquing beliefs held by transgender people, and engaging in transphobia? 2 weeks ago:
Your analogy is more telling than you think it is, and argues rather strongly against the idea that right wing transphobia has worthwhile points.
Yes, the (non) existence of God Almighty is both philosophically and scientifically unfalsifiable. But we don’t as societies use this to assert that every last person who proclaims a faith is telling an intentional lie about belonging to a religion
Gender is not like whether or not God exists, but is instead like what church you attend.
- Comment on Why do Interstate highways exits post the nearby jail/prison/detention center? 2 weeks ago:
Yes, because you despite not being OP proclaimed that warning off hitchhikers was the “right answer”
- Comment on Why do Interstate highways exits post the nearby jail/prison/detention center? 2 weeks ago:
Not a bot, just a guy whose been on the internet for years. Which means that, yes, I presume some people are ignorant of facts. (And that others are fucking stupid.)
@OP posted about “exit signs”, which is not what your sign shows. Which is why I described the ones I did.
Why did you assume that the black-on-white public safety signs like what you posted were what they meant by “exit sign”?
- Comment on Why do Interstate highways exits post the nearby jail/prison/detention center? 2 weeks ago:
Road signs are like zip codes : they aren’t assigned based on desirability but volume of need.
While more Americans visit a library or courthouse than visit a prison, such places are almost always highly local. If you or your loved ones are sent to prison, it’s probably going to be somewhere you aren’t familiar with.
And don’t discount that a lot of prisons were built as "job providers* in rural communities, so there are a considerable amount of employees that have to locate the place.
(If you want to be depressed about the American prison industrial complex, look up the statewide budgets for the departments of incarceration and contrast them with highway construction or education )
- Comment on Why do Interstate highways exits post the nearby jail/prison/detention center? 2 weeks ago:
The typically white-on-green signs shown near US interstate exits are navigational aids, not public safety messages.
If the local prison is on the exit, it’s just the single most notable landmark.
- Comment on What are some cool infections? 4 weeks ago:
Honestly, WoT balefire scarring would be epic as fuck. You had a foot replaced when you were young by a wizard,.and in the future the jerk gets balefire’d so hard that his entire lifespan back to when you got your foot replaced is undone.
The charactes’s foot appears as a ghostly flicking outline, like the false light if you stare at something too bright for too long. It can make a few marks, but is not solid enough to support the character.
This could just be a clever detail, or it could be a setup for an epic campaign.
- Comment on What unique thing bothers you about politics in general? 4 weeks ago:
This is a consequence of America wanting to pretend that the rest of the government has to be funded in accordance with the constitutional guard against a standing army.
The only thing that Congress does that has a constituonal time limit is fund the army.
- Comment on Windows copying Mac feature, but only in certain apps 4 weeks ago:
Not to question anybody shitting on windows ME, but keyboard-only navigation is a core windows feature, since it’s a consequence of accessibility
No extra software needed; installing the power toys just makes it easier and a little more discoverable.
- Comment on Windows copying Mac feature, but only in certain apps 4 weeks ago:
I wonder if this is a holdover from when you could navigate windows completely without a mouse using only the keyboard and shortcuts.
You can absolutely still do that now. At worst, you install power toys and use the accessibility option to move the mouse with arrow keys.
- Comment on [deleted] 5 weeks ago:
Why should abelsim be given latitude that we wouldn’t extend to racism, sexism, or anti-Semitism?
My opinion is that embarrassed bigotry in private is still bigotry. It’s good that those with such feelings recognize the harm that they bring (or at least the public shaming that they can suffer), but it makes for a simpler life to just excise such hatreds whenever you can.
- Comment on Sooo... This is happening on Imgur 5 weeks ago:
The same folks sending “the left are subhuman!” to the right aren’t also sending “the right are Nazis!” to the left. That would be a duplicate signal and inefficient.
Instead, they’re sending “both sides suck” to the middle.
- Comment on Sooo... This is happening on Imgur 5 weeks ago:
Because right-wing propaganda is “become Nazis, the left are all sub-humans” and the left wing propaganda is “what the fuck, the right are all Nazis!?”
It’s hard to spot propaganda when it’s just the truth spoken loudly.
- Comment on Is there a mechanism in the USA to undo presidential pardons years later if political corruption has been proven as motivation to give these pardons? 1 month ago:
Go read the actual text of the US Constitution . The answer is a quirky technical “well, theoretically yes but practically no.”
constitution.congress.gov/browse/…/clause-1/
The President … shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
That last emphasized line means that if the US Congress were to impeach and remove a president for bribery or a criminal conspiracy, they could also negate any pardons given to POTUS’s collaborators.
Of course, since no US President has ever been removed from office by congress’s impeachment power, and it’s uncertain if a post-term impeachment and conviction would itself pass the inevitable SCOTUS appeal, this is even less likely than the US Congress awarding a no-majoroty electoral collage vote to the other major party.
- Comment on Splitting Hairs, Splitting Atoms 1 month ago:
I’m glad you took it in the spirit it was intended. (Slightly chiding, but well-meaning.)
I think it can be really hard to not pass on our bad habits to our kids. Mine have a room just as messy as mine ever was, and they’re at least as bad at doing their homework as I ever was.
Good job so far!
- Comment on Splitting Hairs, Splitting Atoms 1 month ago:
But neither wants to eat them.
Respectfully, if neither of your children have a vegetable* dish they will eat as a snack you haven’t exposed them to a wide enough array of vegetables and vegetables preparation methods.
Don’t be afraid to add salt, roast instead of boil, or just experiment with things you haven’t tried.
(*: And “vegetable” here is strictly in a culinary context, excluding grains and near-grains like potatoes and including savory sead-bearing plant-parts like cucumbers. But if they don’t even like a form of potato or a grain, you may have a eating disorder on your hand…)
- Comment on How much money's out there? 1 month ago:
Value for resources is also highly subjective.
If I have zero water and $50, but you have 50 waters and $0, I would value one of your waters more than one of my dollars and you would value one of my dollars more than one of your waters. And so we would trade, and both be happier for it.
- Comment on what would happen? 1 month ago:
Excluding clone-troopers and only in live acted Star Wars, Stormtroopers (sometime from off screen) have hit:
- All kinds of rebels on various planets in "Andor"
- A whole bunch of rebels in "rogue one"
- A bunch of rebels on the Tantive IV
- Leia (with a stunner) on the Tantive IV
- All those poor Jaws, plus Luke’s family.
- The hull of the millennium falcon (to no effect)
- A bunch of rebels on Hoth
- C-3P0 in cloud city
- Luke’s lightsaber blade in cloud city
- Leia on endor’s forest moon
- R2D2 on endor’s forest moon
- At least a few ewoks on endor’s forest moon.
- Din Djarin’s beskar armor
- A bunch of other mandaloroans and extras
- Some of those turtle-riding aliens in a distant galaxy in "Asoka"
- A bunch of innocent villagers on Jaku
- Poe’s parked X-wing (to great effect!)
- Poe in the arm
- Rei’s lightsaber blade a bunch of times
- The hull of the millennium falcon (again, to no effect)
I think stormtroopers are more effective than Klingons, federation red-shirts, or the borg.
- Comment on Why do cops and soldiers get more media attention than the average citizen? 1 month ago:
Because the killings are targeted actions that are arguably justifiable in the face of tyrannical action.
If a story broke about a criminal gang who all wore identifiable colors and claimed the right to stop anyone you saw and bully them to the point of death, you’d demand that effective (violent) action be taken to stop them. But because the gang is “the police” and nominally controlled by elected officials and the courts, there is a public policy reason to treat both their misbehavior and the public reactions thereto as something categorically different.
(I’d be all in for abolishing police costumes and requiring them to act only within the bounds of permissable behavior for the rest of us, FWIW )
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
So, you’re a (1) university student (2) in a fraternity who encountered a fellow student (a) who is verbally and emotionally abusing an intimate partner.
(1+2)*A = you are a member of two distinct organizations which have some form of code of conduct, and have at.the very least an ethical responsibility to inform about the presumable violation of said codes of conduct.
Do not begin an intimate relationship with either “Beth” or “Ben”. Especially not out of anger.
Your fraternity and university both should have someone you can talk to about reporting unethical actions, who can refer you to people far more knowledgeable about the rules, responsibilities, and laws that apply to you than pseudo-anonymous strangers on the internet ever could.
- Comment on People who trade their time for money without saving up to buy back their freedom and time should be called voluntary slaves, not employees 1 month ago:
“slave” means someone who cannot choose to stop working for another. If you can seek alternate employment or even just choose to stop working there, you’re not a slave.
It’s common practice to use the noun in a poetic sense, such as “wage slave” or “corporate slave”, but such usage doesn’t rise to expanding the definition of the word.
- Comment on Why is ethanol so tasty? 1 month ago:
Potable Alcohol is tasty for much the same reason fat and carbs are tasty – it’s calorically dense.
It’s also habit forming, much like caffeine or nicotine or THC,.in that it causes a temporary but enjoyable alteration of our neurochemistry.
(It can also be addictive like nicotine, in that regular use can lead to illness-like withdrawal symptoms.)
And, it’s also a solvent with distinct properties to water, allowing for preparations with distinctly different tastes from other foods. Which makes alcohol also slightly like salt or spices, in that it changes how other foods taste.
- Comment on Does it get windy in New York City? 2 months ago:
Yes, it absolutely gets windy in NYC.
Remember that Manhattan is laid out in a very regular grid. This is equally useful if you are a poetic zepher of wind or a becaped superhero, as these long passages make it really easy to (traffic allowing) rush forward at full speed and little chance of hitting a wall.
- Comment on How much more progressive are European views as compared to progressives in America? 2 months ago:
Political parties are creations of the electoral and governmental systems in the nations they exist in
“Most European nations” is an imprecise way of saying “dominant parlimentary unicameral legislatures”. To use the UK as an example, all sovereign power is asserted by the lower democratically elected chamber of parliment. Neither the house of lords nor the king counter the assembled majority of parliment,.who from its own members appoint those who direct the government day to day. While there is a sub-national distinction, these are essentially creations of parliment and have no inherent power on their own.
Since the only thing that matters in national UK politics is parliament, all of the political energy is focused there.
In the United States this is not at all the case… national power is split as I described before, and a similar pattern repeats at the state level with distinct difectly-elected legislators and executives. The national government was historically a creation of the states, and each state has substantial ability to act in defiance of congress’s preferences.
Since there are so many different things that matter, the value of a third or fourth party is dramatically reduced. When minor parties start to win elections on their own, the major parties either adapt or die quickly. (I have remarked elsewhere that in American politics “there is no prize for second place”, and a worthwhile collolary here would be “and there are so many games to play.”)
You are technically correct in that if God came down and reworked all of the USA into distinct european-style nations with separate languages we would likely have similar party arrangements, with both the Democrats and the Republicans splitting into multiple parties. But if God also remade Europe into a single USA-style mega-nation made up of states with similar governments who shared a single first-language, European parties would likely congeal until there are only two.
As a practical matter, of course, neither is not a useful observations. And simplified observations of the differences between “Europe” and the USA like “the USA is far to the right of Europe” were part of what led the UK to devolve into a place where you can be threatened to silence for accurately describing a rich transphobe.
- Comment on How much more progressive are European views as compared to progressives in America? 2 months ago:
Your analysis completely ignores the impact of the US Senate’s wonky “cloture” rule, which is a compromise from the prior practice of the US Senate filibuster.
As depicted in way too many movies, the filibuster let any single senator (or small team or senators) essentially veto any piece of legislation by putting the whole thing to a halt. The modern rule instead (in essence) requires any act.of Congress to clear a 60% vote threshold in the Senate.
There hasn’t been a time in my entire life when the modern democratic party held the presidency, a majority in the house, and 3/5ths of the Senate. (Clinton had a party with segregation-era racists still in power; Obama had “blue dogs” who were nearly Republican, and Biden had a coal baron and a green party scam artist in the Senate )
- Comment on [deleted] 2 months ago:
GoG actually implements something the rich tool* behind steam once said: “piracy is a customer service issue.”
Broadly speaking, folk only private games for three reasons: either the DRM limits how they can play their game, they don’t want to make such a purchase sight unseen, or they haven’t the funds to purchase the games they want.
There’s very little that will turn the third type into paying customers, but the first and second can be converted by some combination of.the straight removal of DRM and a generous return policy.
It’s also worth noting that pirates of all three groups will on occasion make a game purchase, due to a desire to support an especially liked game or studio or behavior.