adespoton

@adespoton@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Even if we found a feasible way through physics to travel through time, wouldn't it still be impossible due to the evolution of bacteria and our immune systems?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I highly recommend reading Connie Willis’ The Domesday Book

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨should the BBQ cover be put back on after every use ... or just once at the end of BBQ season⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Just like many people keep their cars parked outside, but the outside is protected better if it is usually stored under cover. The trick is to get a cover that doesn’t trap moisture inside.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Not to get into a debate. If God is so omnipotent and above humans why does he or she have emotions? Like smiting or being upset or wrath?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, the obvious answer is: if God is so much greater than humans, how would we know? If you’re talking about the Hebrew god from the Christian Bible / Jewish Scriptures, you’re seeing the depiction of God as told through the lens of humans, who often try to be telling other humans about god using the limited vocabulary and imagery available.

  God is depicted as being powerful enough that a human not being fully aligned with God but being in God’s presence would lead to annihilation, just like a human approaching the sun would be destroyed — not because the sun was angry, just because of its nature compared to ours.

  On the flip side of that, for the biblical God, humans are made in God’s image, which means the species as a whole would reflect God’s character (including the bit about wanting to be the ones fully in control).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When did the world change to the so called hashtag? When I was younger it was only the pound sign. So hashtag Taylor Swift still reads in my mind pound Taylor Swift?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s the same with flats being ♭ and not b. Mostly an engraving choice.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If I submit a question to /nostupidquestions/ and I get downvoted does that mean my question was actually stupid or is it a paradox?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  A question can be both not stupid and not appropriate.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  To be fair, the FSF is partially incorrect; a government can indeed craft their copyright laws such that OnlyOffice’s license restrictions are valid. However, to my knowledge, no government has done so to date, so the FSF is correct in practice; the extra restrictions in the repository violate international copyright laws.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When did the world change to the so called hashtag? When I was younger it was only the pound sign. So hashtag Taylor Swift still reads in my mind pound Taylor Swift?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In music, # denotes a sharp key or note and b denotes a flat key or note — this is Italian notation.

  Traditionally in English, the # symbol was called the hash, because it looked like the end of a cooking implement used to hash vegetables (nowadays everyone would say mash instead).

  In US typewriters, there was no £ symbol, so # was used to denote british pounds instead.

  When the telephone button pad was created, there was room for two more symbols and tones, so the creators took the asterisk and hash from the typewriter and added them as extra signals.

  When Twitter needed a way to denote a tagged word in a tweet, they decided to use the hash symbol.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The World Is Basically Begging for Another iPod⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Really? There’s something appealing to me about decoupling my cellular modem from my phone; I used an iPod Touch instead of a smartphone for years (with Wifi and VoIP).

  At this point I have zero interest in a dedicated audio player.

  And if I wanted one… my watch holds more MP3s than the original iPod did. I can just play music from my watch.

  Or my graphing calculator.

  Or, for that matter, my over the ear headphones which have a microSD slot.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is putting black beans in my chili a bad idea?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I find that with black beans, I need to add a bit more acid/spice to gat a good balance

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨is it normal for parents to act nice one minute and rude the next?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I knew someone who was like this; eventually they discovered lawyers, and all their relationships fell apart, including their marriage. They seemed to think that punishing someone by suing them (even if they lost — it was always their lawyers fault then) was a way of resolving their relational difficulties.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨which job should i work? tutor or barista?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Personally, I did both — service jobs are generally part time, so you can use connections with teachers, family and friends to start up some tutoring, while also picking up shifts where you can.

  I got to know the special education staff in my school district, and they connected me with kids on the spectrum who needed assistance that required someone who understood how they thought. Between the two, I made enough to get by while going to school.

  I found Indeed and LinkedIn worked for keeping an eye on what was available and what people said they were looking for, but every job I’ve ever got was due to a personal connection.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How come on TV I can Oh God with no censor. I can say dammit and no censor. But if I put them both together and say GodDammit one of the words will be censored?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Let’s play a word game. You can say “kill” and “all Christians” on TV, but put the two together and you’re likely going to be censored for inciting violence.

  Words have meanings and so do sentences.

  “Oh, God” when taken literally just means that you’re appealing to some more powerful being to sort out what you’ve witnessed.

  “Damn it” means that you want ”it” to go to hell and stay there, with no chance for salvation.

  “God damn it” means you’re calling on a specific interpretation of a deity that is associated with damning things to do so on your request.

  And that’s all stuff that’s OK to say if you mean it. The blasphemy comes in when you say it without actually believing or wanting such a thing to happen, but just use the phrase as an outburst of frustration.

  Kind of like shouting “bomb” in an airport. If you really believe there is one, you’re going to want to do it; otherwise, you’re going to get in a heap of trouble precisely because those in charge don’t want the word to lose its meaning in that context, because then people won’t respond properly when it’s said in earnest.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do some people with college degrees and an education, still act so fucking stupid?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Higher learning teaches students how to think critically (or develop a very good short term memory).

  But it doesn’t necessarily teach students TO think critically.

  They’re taught the tools they can use, but using those tools takes effort and causes discomfort. So most people choose to use them as little as possible.

  So, the main difference is: people (speaking generally) who have some post-high school education have developed the tools to approach a topic in an intelligent manner. This means that, given enough effort, you can help them understand a topic. Without that toolkit, trying to show them how something is more likely true based on evidence is often pointless. But having that toolkit isn’t going to make them automatically come to evidence-based conclusions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Best or Worst case scenario how do you see the Lugi Mangionne case playing out? What do you think about him now being a millionare ?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  What do you think about him now being a millionaire?

  Not much. I’m a millionaire and so is everyone on my street, and on all the adjacent streets. A million dollars doesn’t go as far as it did 60 years ago.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some good apps/older versions of apps to install on a jailbroken iPad 1?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You should install an eBook reader like MegaReader; if you run your own Calibre server, it does a good job of reading books.

  Realistically, there’s not going to be much you can do with an iPad 1.

  An iPad 2, on the other hand, is still a very functional jailbroken device. SNES and older emulators work great, it can play streaming videos, works with various ePub and PDF readers, and handle email and site-specific web browsing (including Lemmy).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are there different region codes for discs? (DVD & Blu Ray)⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The other answers are missing out on the key reason: licensing.

  Copyright law differs between regions, and so different groups need to be paid when the video is “sold” to a customer. Before the early 2000s, this was even more the case than it is today; the US hadn’t yet tied its own definition of copyright to all its trade agreements.

  End result? Selling a US DVD in Japan would have been illegal; not because of the region restrictions but because the people who had to be paid to play it in that region hadn’t been paid so the DVD was effectively a bootleg.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Not really; turns out a bit different every time.

  But an easy cheat is Everest brand; it makes a good base you can add chili powders, turmeric, cardamom and cumin to taste to tweak it how you want it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s dal or dhal depending on where you’re from.

  It basically means “pulse stew.” Technically you could make it with split peas or edamame instead of lentils — or kidney beans, brown beans or black eyed peas.

  Just like garam masala translates to “hot spice mix”. Every area has its own version and it’s up to you to find the blend you like.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I do a dhal in the slow cooker at least once a week. Once you mix yourself a decent garam masala, it doesn’t really matter what else you add beyond the lentils. I usually toss in a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato paste; then some chicken breasts or some ground beef, or sometimes keep it vegan.

  Adjust to taste, and it’s a meal that takes 5 minutes to prep in the morning for a delicious dinner ready to serve in the evening.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨From Zip To Nought: The Rise And Fall Of Iomega⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Despite the fact that click death was avoidable with a simple bracket OR an updated driver AND only affected their very first product, I won’t really miss them.

  If Jazz drives had been their first product and at a reasonable price point, things probably would’ve gone differently for them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Okay... so how do depressed people even have relationships? Did they get depresion after they already got into the relationship or did they actually went dating while having depression?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Depression is a clinical chemical state; people respond to it in many different ways; some respond by chasing dopamine highs.

  Many socially active people are actually depressed, and the activity is their way of attempting to deal with it.

  Many introverted people aren’t depressed at all, and enjoy their own company more than that of others.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Someone has publicly leaked an exploit kit that can hack millions of iPhones⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It appears to be related to exploit code that was sold by a US contractor to a Russian group; the exploits it uses are all patched on recent OS versions, but older versions of iOS 17 and 18 are vulnerable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has the scientific community ever reconciled with the fact global warming is going to happen and there is no stopping it?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  They said your statement was incorrect; either there’s a way to salvage the planet in a habitable form, or there isn’t — but “indistinguishable from magic” doesn’t come into it.

  Personally, I think energy is only a portion of the problem space; we need to slow climate change enough that humanity can continue to adapt with it.

  After all, we survived multiple ice ages; will the climate destroy our technological advances, or will those advances enable us to adapt to a changing world?

  The world is likely highly overpopulated at the present, but we can lose a significant chunk of humanity and still preserve the body of knowledge and many of the technologies that we currently enjoy.

  Collapses are inevitable, but total collapse is still avoidable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Has the scientific community ever reconciled with the fact global warming is going to happen and there is no stopping it?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Mitigation is always possible. If we don’t do it intentionally, eventually the climate will force our hand. This will result in billions of human deaths, extinction of many organisms, and massive destruction of the current global ecology, but it will happen.

  Remember, the Sahara wasn’t always a desert, and North America was more than once covered in ice.

  We’re likely to die off due to poisoning the environment long before the climate makes a significant dent in our 8bn population.

  We’re not going to escape sea level rise or some places becoming uninhabitable, nor a redistribution of water and total destruction of all weather models. But we can slow the changes to the point where we can adapt faster than the climate changes… and the more we mitigate, the more lives we save along the way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows 11 is finally getting a movable taskbar⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I bet it moves to Windows 10.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨As a Chinese American, if I wanna travel internationally, is it better to just say I'm American, or pretend to be a Chinese National (to hide from Anti-American sentinments)?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  As a Canadian… Americans pretend to be Canadians abroad all the time. As a result, everyone thinks I’m American at first, until they realize I behave differently.

  I can usually spot the American in a crowd, no matter their skin colour. It’s generally in the worldview they project.

  I can also usually spot the Chinese in the crowd for the same reason.

  Unless you can fake the “We’re the best” attitude instead of the “nobody’s better than I can be” attitude, I wouldn’t try to fake being Chinese in many places. You’ll just come off as fake.

  Better to just be yourself and hold the views and attitudes you actually hold. If you’re worried about how others will receive that, just be more private with the personal information you share.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why are people so rude on Reddit compared to the Fediverse?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Reddit is big enough that it’s a microcosm of humanity. The Fediverse hasn’t reached that level yet.

  When I was on Reddit, most of the subreddits I hung out on were small, supportive, and friendly. A few I monitored weren’t — on purpose, so I could see what was going on in other places.

  Funny thing is, for the most part, I’ve found matches for all those subreddits on Lemmy communities— although I had to browse through a bunch of hosting services to build up the same level of diversity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If a US bank only insures your money up to 250k does that mean I have to visit four different back to have a million dollars insured?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Most people who put more than 250k in a single bank in a single account type won’t be using the bank’s insurance for protection.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is LM Studio's GUI safe despite being closed source?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Unless that’s backed up by a wireshark session demonstrating no data sent, or a reversing analysis that shows a lack of capability in the software, the policy is just words.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Explain it like I'm 5: Why is everyone on speakerphone in public?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  For me, speakerphone goes on temporarily if I need multiple people to be able to both listen and speak to an existing conversation.

  Otherwise, they join the call on their own devices.

  I find holding a phone up to my cheek really annoying though; I could see secondary exceptions for people with wireless headphones whose batteries had just died.