zephr_c
@zephr_c@lemm.ee
- Comment on Does enshitification happen because companies are publicly-traded? 2 weeks ago:
Oh, also, it’s a common misconception that publicly-traded companies are required to maximize profits. They can have whatever goals their shareholders want. It’s just that the way modern publicly-traded companies work, most of their shareholders are people quickly buying and trading shares based on who they think will earn them the most money this month, so that sort of inevitably becomes the goal of any publicly-traded company.
- Comment on Does enshitification happen because companies are publicly-traded? 2 weeks ago:
It’s not really direct cause and effect, but yeah. The incentives for a publicly-traded company make enshitification far more appealing then it would be for most other organizations.
- Comment on This manhole placement is more than mildly infuriating 2 weeks ago:
I’m pretty sure the reason is that the hole isn’t deep enough for it to matter. That’s nowhere near big enough to be a manhole.
- Comment on This manhole placement is more than mildly infuriating 2 weeks ago:
If that were an actual manhole you’d be right, but its obviously not.
- Comment on Surveilling Alone: In the U.S., home security cameras are booming in an era of rising crime and declining trust. But they’re driving neighbors further apart. 4 weeks ago:
I mean technically yes? There’s kind of a post pandemic return to normal still going on, and before that there were consistent record low crime rates for the first half of the 10s, so they’re not that low, but they’re still pretty low. Nowhere near as bad as the terrifying dark ages of the 90s.
- Comment on 3 days 🤯 5 weeks ago:
Yeah, and none of them can actually design bridges. Some of them can be useful tools for engineers to use while designing bridges, but this isn’t tech bro fantasy land. You’re gonna need some engineers. That’s gonna take more than a day.
- Comment on 3 days 🤯 5 weeks ago:
Engineers using a specialized AI to make a design slightly lighter and then using a 3D printer to print that design isn’t a 3D printer using AI.
- Comment on 3 days 🤯 5 weeks ago:
Did you actually even read the article you linked? It’s about a type of generative AI that’s slightly better than humans at finding the most efficient way of providing structural strength with minimal material. If you think that’s all there is to designing a bridge I can only hope you aren’t allowed anywhere near a bridge I need to drive across.
- Comment on 3 days 🤯 5 weeks ago:
So uh… how exactly does a 3D printer use AI? Is the AI running the stepper motors? Or is this person actually suggesting that an AI could design a bridge? Because, uh, no. No it can’t. Maybe someday in the distant future, but large language models aren’t structural engineers. Those aren’t even remotely the same thing.
- Comment on There used to be whole forests like this in the Pacific Northwest 5 weeks ago:
AI, shit. Potayto, potahto.
- Comment on Handy temperature conversion scale. 1 month ago:
How is changing a number fudging the science? Dude just liked powers of 2 so he set arbitrary things to be slightly different numbers. Heck, even Celsius is pretty arbitrary. The triple point of Hydrogen Hydroxide isn’t actually some magical mystical temperature that’s more important than all other temperatures, and the boiling point of one particular chemical at our best estimate of the average atmospheric pressure on the surface of this one particular rock is almost completely meaningless.
- Comment on Yeah UPS, that's proof 1 month ago:
No, your employer doesn’t want people to learn what they’re really like, which is exactly why you should make it public.
- Comment on Don't eat that 1 month ago:
Heh. If you think I care what they call me you are sorely mistaken. If someone wants to ask real questions and learn something I’ll be happy to answer them. If they just want to spout fascist talking points and side with fascists I’m going to call them fascist. Because they are fascist. There is no point in engaging with them beyond that. You will accomplish nothing.
- Comment on Don't eat that 1 month ago:
Sadly there is mountains of ever fence that you can’t. Studies consistently show that trying to rationally argue someone out of a belief just makes them even more defensive of it.
- Comment on Don't eat that 1 month ago:
Wow, that was the longest and most pretentious “nuh-uh” I’ve ever seen. You realize that we are specifically talking about people who support fascists, right? If you think you can rationally talk someone out of any belief, let alone one as irrational as fascism, then I’d love to see you try. It’d be funny.
- Comment on Don't eat that 1 month ago:
When someone supports fascist regimes and spouts fascist talking points they are what they are, no matter what they like to call themselves. The Nazis called themselves socialist, too.
- Comment on Sounds like a good plan to me 2 months ago:
Funnily enough making the day the same length as the Moon’s orbit is enough to stop the Moon from drifting away by itself. It’s actually the tidal forces caused by that mismatch that are causing the Moon to slowly drift away.
Another fun fact: The Earth’s day is getting slower due to those forces faster than the Moon is drifting away. Given enough time the Earth would end up tidally locked to the Moon and the Moon would stop drifting away on its own. Of course, they’ll both be consumed by the Sun long before that would happen, but I think it’s kinda interesting anyway.
- Comment on Would Nuclear Weapons be as destructive in ship to ship space combat, as they are on the ground in an atmosphere? 3 months ago:
A shockwave can travel along the solid structure itself as the medium. Any ship that is actually directly hit would be vaporized. It’s just the whole point of nuke is not needing a direct hit. I doubt any realistic space vessel with anything even remotely similar to plausible near future technology could survive a direct hit from even a moderately sized conventional explosive.
- Comment on Okay Sweetheart 3 months ago:
Gas stoves aren’t very dangerous in that particular way. They’re still burning hydrocarbons in your house. Air quality in houses with gas stoves is much worse, and that comes with health problems.
- Comment on What is the likely outcome of the presidential immunity argument currently being used in courts? 3 months ago:
If Trump won, it would mean Joe Biden could declare himself president for life, since his presidential immunity would protect him from any consequences of ignoring elections.
- Comment on Burgers 4 months ago:
I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be grill’d. I still have no idea what that is though. That is basically the most generic name for a hamburger possible.
- Comment on When a place is called " Heights", what does "heights" mean/refer to? 5 months ago:
That’s certainly where it comes from. It’s not always actually true though. Sometimes someone just liked the name and didn’t even think about what it meant.
It’s like the name Lakeview. I’ve been to more than just a couple places named Lakeview something or another. Streets, towns, apartment complexes. The only thing they all had in common is that not a single one of them had a view of a lake.
- Comment on How are 144hz screen possible? 5 months ago:
Old reel projectors actually flashed their light at 72Hz. They had to turn off the light to move the reel to the next slide so you couln’t see the pictures moving up off the screen, and human eyes are better at spotting quickly flashing lights than they are at spotting microstuttery motion, so flashing the bulb once per frame at 24Hz in a dark room was headache inducing. The solution they came up with was just to flash the bulb 3 times per frame, which is 72Hz.
- Comment on People downvoting a post for a support group. 7 months ago:
I mean, it’s at +4 and 83% upvotes. That’s just 5 upvotes and 1 downvote. There’s always that one guy.
- Comment on Soaking in the worst air quality in the world 8 months ago:
I’m glad I don’t live in central Washington anymore. I still remember a few years back I was stopped at a sign and the smoke was so thick I could watch the dark red sun setting behind the even thicker smoke to west at 4 in the afternoon. It was surreal.
- Comment on [deleted] 8 months ago:
Depends on the place and time. Everything before the invention of modern firearms didn’t all have the same rules and norms. Spears are just a dramatically better battlefield weapon than swords though, while also being cheaper, and bows are better than spears. There were times and places where it was illegal for most peasants to own a sword, and it did even occasionally happen that they were levied without being allowed to carry one, but that was pretty rare. In fact, in some places men were required by law to own one in case they were levied. By the time swords were widely outlawed professional armies and mercenaries were starting to be more common, and those were absolutely allowed to have swords.
It did happen more in Japan, but even a halfway functional sword was crazy expensive in Japan. Their iron just isn’t good for making cheap swords.
- Comment on [deleted] 8 months ago:
That’s one of the things I meant by ending up in a melee unexpectedly. Presumably most people aren’t going around doing things they know will end up with them needing a weapon for self defense. It happens, but it’s not usually plan A. You are right though. That was a reason to have a sword. The theme is that swords were good when you needed something you could carry without it getting too much in the way. That’s what they’re good for. If you expected to be fighting you’d bring something better.
- Comment on [deleted] 8 months ago:
I mean, arguing over the best sword is a silly thing to do anyway. Swords are sidearms. People carried them around in case their actual useful weapon broke, or for some reason they ended up fighting in a melee unexpectedly. Could be you were ambushed, could be you’re an archer that got caught in the fighting. Point is, if you’re in a sword fight something has already gone very wrong. Spending a bunch of money on a fancy high quality sword is a thing only rich people did, not soldiers, which is why fancy swords became associated with status in the first place.
- Comment on Every time i have to use windows again my IQ slips a point or two 8 months ago:
Linux does exactly what you tell it to. If all your experience is with systems designed by engineers trying to guess what you really want, that can be confusing and intimidating.