troyunrau

@troyunrau@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Humans included*⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  We can’t even agree on the definition of life (within the context of the search for life). Largely we’ve settled on: whatever definition helps win grants!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Free Spot!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Land whale. My new favourite phrase

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Meta Deletes Trans and Nonbinary Messenger Themes [404 Media]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  It begins. Fascism requires enemies within and without.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Lost Art of Fancy PC Game Installers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  A 32 but integer can store a number up to four billion. If measuring RAM size in integer bytes, 32GB would be 0 bytes, because that integer would wrap around four times.

  Assuming windows, if you right click on the executable, you may be able to choose to run it in a compatibility mode of some sort (like XP mode or something) in which case it should report smaller memory to the game, probably.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is there any (single player playable) game under $10 or equivalent which has made you point any go "ha" or given you an equivalent feeling because it was that enjoyable for every moment you played it?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Only games I’ve passed 100 hours on:

  Pokemon (multiple versions)

  No Man’s Sky

  Many Paradox games: CK2, CK2, EU4, Stellaris

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 15th⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No Man’s Sky. Again. It keeps sucking me back in.

  EU4 with Anbennar mod – update just released with a bunch of new stuff.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨MMO interplanetary crafting adventure SpaceCraft from Shiro Games (Northgard, Wartales) announced⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, the trailer makes it feel like a cross between NMS and Factorio or something. No indication of actual gameplay loop. Cautiously optimistic.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Survival game The Long Dark gets a big update with a deep Safehouse Customization system⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I know one of the developers on this game. They would call me to ask about the science of Aurora Borealis while working on the game, and other similar things. They decided that they were going to reject some of the science in favour of gameplay, and fair enough. The game is quite good.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I will admit I had a nerdgasm at the portable pilet mini consoles from soulscircuit⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  This is how I imagined “decks” when reading old cyberpunk (Snowcrash, etc.)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Scientists suck at naming and abbreviating stuff⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Definitely absurd. But if you were a sci fi author trying to make a consistent world building thing, it would actually be a useful video.

  … I see you Neal Stephenson, hiding behind the couch.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  He doesn’t. He is lower density after transformation. Basically inflated. Also, he doubles as a life raft.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ambition⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Because no one does any actual engineering in space. At best you’re a technician running other people’s projects; at worst, you have to MacGyver something. But every ISS crew needs a medical specialist on it, and a backup specialist in case they need to work on their medical specialist. So it gives you the highest odds.

  Now if you wanted to work at JPL designing probes, that’s a different story. But you’re not going to space.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ambition⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Spain is part of the ESA. If you have citizenship there, there’s a nearly-zero (but not actually zero) possibility of getting into their astronaut selection class. But more likely SpaceX starts taking passengers and the whole question is moot.

  I decided that my own path was also unlikely, but I chose a field of study that would take me to some pretty fun places on Earth. Can’t explore Mars, so might as well do the high arctic, the Atacama desert, etc. :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ambition⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Not true, really, presuming we’re talking about “working for a space agency” versus “becoming an astronaut”. There are at least 100x more opportunities if you’re willing to sit in a desk and review regulations for a living – but at a space agency.

  Really, the minimum barrier is being good enough to get into a STEM focused undergrad program, and qualifying for student loans. Assuming you make it through and are smart enough, grad school is typically wholly funded by the universities (or their funding agencies). Which means the barrier of requiring wealth was already passed.

  Source: I made it to grad school and I am from a farming family that went bankrupt when I was a teenager.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YEET⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think melting is the issue here. I think it literally disintegrates at those speeds. Like, this is Mass Effect mass driver level of impact with the atmosphere.

  For reference, RICK ROBINSON’S FIRST LAW OF SPACE COMBAT: “An object impacting at 3 km/sec delivers kinetic energy equal to its mass in TNT.”

  Assuming the lid is travelling 55km/s, it’s well beyond that point. The atmosphere it’s travelling through is basically a solid at that speed. Even if it isn’t heating due to the friction (and waiting for heat flow), it is heating due to the compressive force of being slammed into the atmosphere. It’s very likely the whole thing vaporized.

  But I could be wrong, and some alien SOB is going to have a bad day when the manhole cover slams into their ship in interstellar space.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Cats are Healers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  You can’t tell me what to — oh, a pretty cat!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨SHINY⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Nature is lit

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ambition⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Hijacking.

  I actually went through the Canadian Space Agency’s astronaut application a few years ago. Made it through the initial screening and into medical certifications. Got downselected where there were about 300 candidates remaining for two positions. But I got to see a little of the process. Here are some specifics items to add to the list, some of which will be relevant if you’re trying to support your child in their dreams (and have the resources to do it).

  (1) 20/20 vision. They were allowing people who had laser surgery to correct to 20/20, or people who could be corrected. (2) Be a pilot of any kind whatsoever – even a crop duster – but ideally military. Kids can do air cadets, or take gliding lessons or similar.
  (3) Have SCUBA certifications.
  (4) Have radio certifications (even HAM radio works, but more advanced is better).
  (5) Speak at least one other language that is used in one of the world’s space agencies – two are better. Russian and Japanese/French would be a good choice. Russian may fall down the list of relevance soon.
  (6) Have experience in an “operational environment” – basically, are you going to go crazy cooped up in the space station with only a few people for months? For kids this might mean backcountry camping trips. For adults, this often means being deployed somewhere, in a military or similar context.
  (7) Have a medical degree, preferentially, but any STEM Ph.D. will probably work. This means making sure you select courses in school that lead that direction.

  I went to grad school for planetary science – naively thinking that I could outcompete all the people dreaming of the same thing. Make sure you have a fallback plan – something you can pivot to – when it doesn’t pan out :)

  That said, all of this may become entirely irrelevant very quickly if Starship starts ferrying a hundred people to space every day.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨alpha⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Damn, too early of a release eh?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ugh i wish⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  What about milk intended for me? I mean, my mom may have trouble producing at her age, but…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Baldur's Gate 3 is expanding yet again with 12 new subclasses, including drunk monks, teleporting beekeepers and shadow sorcerors⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  “Last patch, we promise”… a few months later, more unexpected updates…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Reddit overtakes X in popularity of social media platforms in UK⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, it’s a marginal improvement I guess.

  Lemmy won’t be too ten probably for a decade or more.

  Social media platforms suffer from chicken and egg problems – need an audience to draw the content creators, and need content creators to draw an audience. If we get enough content, the network effects may allow it to grow.

  But that isn’t just bots posting shit with no user interaction either. How many Lemmy communities start and die on the vine due to no interaction?

  Anyway, I keep coming back to both Reddit and Lemmy, but I try to only post new content on Lemmy, and make an effort to engage :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨CENSORED!!!!!!!!!!1⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Wut?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Not all PDFs are documents; some are apps! Insurance company sent me a form to sign as a PDF with JavaScript. Is it a tracker?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Your assertion that the document is malicious without any evidence is what I’m concerned about.

  At some point you have to decide to trust someone. The comment above gave you reason to trust that the document was in a standard, non-malicious format. But you outright rejected their advice in a hostile tone. You base your hostility on a youtube video.

  You should read the essay “on trusting trust” and then make a decision on whether you are going to participate in digital society or live under a bridge with a tinfoil hat.

  In Canada, and elsewhere, insurance companies know everything about you before you even apply, and it’s likely true elsewhere too. Even if they don’t have personally identifiable information, you’ll be in a data bucket with your neighbours, with risk profiles based on neighbourhood, items being insuring, claim rates for people with similar profiles, etc. Very likely every interaction you have with them has been going into a LLM even prior to the advent of ChatGPT, and they will have scored those interactions against a model.

  The personally identifiable information has largely been anonymized in these models. In Canada, for example, there are regulatory bodies like OSFI that they have to report to, and get audited by, to ensure the data is being used in compliance with regulations. Each company will have a compliance department tasked with making sure they’re adhering.

  But what you will end up doing instead is triggering fraudulent behaviour flags. There’s something called “address fraud”, where people go out of their way to disguise their location, because some lower risk address has better rates or whatever. When you do everything you can to scrub your location, this itself is a signal that you are operating as a highly paranoid individual and that might put you in a bucket. If you want to be the most invisible to them, you want to act like you’re in the median of all categories. Because any outlying behaviours further fingerprint you.

  Source: I have a direct connection to advanced analytics within insurance industry (one degree of separation).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Not all PDFs are documents; some are apps! Insurance company sent me a form to sign as a PDF with JavaScript. Is it a tracker?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Wow, your paranoia is dialed up to 11.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Daydream Commute⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Fingers

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If Trump wins the election thru fraud how can the democrats refute it and prove they won? Or will it just be like another Jan 6 and four years of whining like Trump?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The premise here is that Trump loses but refuses to back down, attempting to forcibly claim victory. If Trump legitimately wins, there is a different path. Then…

  Assuming multiple systematic failures occur simultaneously, including any of: actual voter fraud, fraudulent electors, congress refusing to certify, a captured supreme court acting in favour of Trump, or actual insurrection on or before Jan 6th.

  I actually expect the US Military to step in. Every member is sworn to uphold the constitution. But if the constitution has been discarded, then I’d expect them to step in to restore it.

  Failing that, the US likely fractures and we leave the Republic phase.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alan Wake 2 still hasn't quite made its money back, according to Remedy's latest financials⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Considering how well received this game was, perhaps it is more about marketing or misunderstanding the genre appeal?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Candy is distributed boo-nomially⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Needs imaginary component

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Stop whining. Do it yourself.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Counterpoint: Sometimes you can kickstart a community that you want to see just by consistently posting content. !science_memes@mander.xyz is my favourite example – it was essentially one person who created that entire community (and it’s since been diversifying somewhat – at least there’s traction in the comments).

  But to reinforce your point: I did !spacemusic@lemmy.ca and tried to do the same thing, but it sort of petered out. But it’s way way more niche.

  Rome wasn’t built in a day. Just engage with the content you like and build some places for content you’d like to see.