cynar

@cynar@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Amazon's previous VP of Prime Gaming said they "tried everything" to disrupt Steam⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s more than just pushing for support. They have made a lot of windows only games just work on Linux.

  They’ve changed it from “need to release and support Linux” to “zero effort other than not actively fuck up the compatibility layer”. In user land, it’s the same thing. For developers it’s a vast difference.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Entropy? Never heard of it.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  You also need to sustain 5 atm, with no leaks for years. Where is it being stored, and who’s paying for the maintenance? All it would take would be a bit of civil unrest, or corruption, and the work could be undone in mass.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel my life is empty. Is there any way to stop this?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s mostly a non issue in my group. Our ages run from late teens to OAP. I often don’t even notice ages. I just talk to them as a person with a shared interest.

  It does help that at least half of us are neurodiverse. Most awkwardness doesn’t even get noticed by either side. Enthusiasm covers a lot of sins!

  I mostly judge people by skill level in the subject. If they are knowledgeable, I’m happy to pick their brain for info. It doesn’t matter if they are 20 years older or younger. Conversely, if they are new, I try and share the lessons and tricks I’ve picked up.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel my life is empty. Is there any way to stop this?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve seen this more than a few times, as well as felt it myself. It’s a particular form of situational depression.

  In short, the solution is to “find your tribe”.

  Your problem is 2 fold.

  • Humans are a social animal. We need a group to socialise with, to be stable and happy. The requirements vary, but it’s almost always non-zero. The lack of meaningful contact sends us into a downward spiral.

  • 99% of people are boring to you. This is actually completely fine and reasonable. Unfortunately the 1% that aren’t boring to you tend to be hard to find. Even worse, weirder people tend to mask. They pretend to be normal and boring to fit in.

  The goal, therefore, is to find what 1% you need and where they congregate, with their masks down. They are out there, you just need to find them. You do this by trying new hobbies and activities. Most won’t hit the mark, but some will resonate with you. It’s OK to try a lot of things before you find it.

  For me, it was a makerspace. I actually ended up founding one, since there wasn’t one locally. I’ve seen a number of other people come along and discover there really is a group of weirdos that they fit into that aren’t boring. They, in turn, add their brand of weirdness to the group and make it better for all involved.

  Without knowing more about you, I can’t point you in the right direction. I can say they are out there. You just need to find them.

  Go find your tribe.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Entropy? Never heard of it.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  It would, but it takes more energy that gets produced total. You’re spending 300wKh to make 220kWh of electricity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Entropy? Never heard of it.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  And how do you plan to keep it liquefied, on a large scale, for 100s of years? It’s currently done using pressure vessels amd chillers, that require maintenance etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨why do people say annoying/rude stuff and then tell you “it was a joke!”⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Nope.

  It’s down to you to either read the room correctly or apologise for getting it wrong. You just don’t get judged too harshly for the first offence.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Entropy? Never heard of it.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  There are 3 use cases I’ve seen.

  • Making fossil fuel power stations “clean”.

  • CO2 recovery for long term storage.

  • CO2 for industrial use.

  It’s no good for the first, due to energy consumption. This is the main use I’ve seen it talked up for, as something that can be retrofitted to power plants.

  It’s poor for the second, since the result is a gas (hard to store long term). We would want it as a solid or liquid product, which this doesn’t do.

  The last has limited requirements. We only need so much CO2.

  The only large scale use case I can see for this is as part of a carbon capture system. Capture and then react to solidify the carbon. However, plants are already extremely good at this, and can do it directly from atmospheric air, using sunlight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Entropy? Never heard of it.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  Just checked the numbers, for those interested.

  A gas power plant produces around. 200-300kWh per tonne of CO2.

  Capture costs 300-900kWh per tonne captured.

  So this is basically non viable using fossil fuel as the power. If you aren’t, then storage of that power is likely a lot better.

  It’s also worth noting that it is still CO2 gas. Long term containment of a gas is far harder than a liquid or solid.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨why do people say annoying/rude stuff and then tell you “it was a joke!”⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The difference between a joke and bullying is entirely down to the victim. They are allowed to be as sensitive as they want. “Its just a joke” tries to turn it back on them. The only reasonable response is along the lines of "I intended it as a joke, but obviously screwed up. I’m sorry. "

  The only grey area are those who are happy to dish it out, but not receive. You should expect people to wind you up to the same level you wind them/others to.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Driver caught doing 122mph on 30mph road as UK’s shocking speed records revealed⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  We got stuck in a weird halfway point between imperial and metric. We are mostly metric, with a few holdovers. Road speeds being the biggest one.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Seasonal depression⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In basic terms. Humans have a hibernation instinct, from somewhere in our past. When the days start to get short, and we get less sunlight, our brain tries to kick this in. It makes us want to be lethargic and sleep a lot. Unfortunately, modern life isn’t conducive to this. When you push past it, the effects are very similar to depression.

  Different people are affected to different degrees. Some are downright miserable, others unaffected. It’s also possible to treat it. Sun lamps can trick the brain into thinking it’s not winter, as vitamin D. The effectiveness of this can vary, however, and it doesn’t compete with the real sun jumpstarting your brain back to full functionality.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨To whomever invented LED bus advertisements: I despise you.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I fully agree, there’s some stupid ones out there. But they are actually less common than you initially think.

  I spend far too long going up and down the motorways. I get bored and start comparing the various problematic cars. Most lack the nice clean cut off line, or it’s set so high as to be invisible. I’ve rarely been dazzled by cars with a properly set beam dip. It’s either high beams, or messed up beam dip.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨To whomever invented LED bus advertisements: I despise you.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s still a problem, but it’s not a new one. There’s always been the issue that lights bright enough to see ahead reliably are also bright enough to dazzle. It’s also a lot easier to cope with a quick flash, however, rather than continuous glare.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨To whomever invented LED bus advertisements: I despise you.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The issue with a lot of LED lights isn’t brightness, its beam dip. The light should be angled downwards so it never shines into the oncoming traffic.

  Unfortunately, a lot of retrofitted brighter bulbs don’t play nicely with the beam dips. Car companies also err towards helping their diver, rather than the oncoming ones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨To whomever invented LED bus advertisements: I despise you.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It looks like a UK bus. If you want to help make the bus company’s life miserable there is a useful trick. This is the sort of thing a lot of parish council members will get disproportionately angry about. They also tend to have far less to do than higher bits of government. They also know a lot more about the inner workings of local government, and who’s ear to burn about it. A politely written letter (or a few from several people) can get them up in arms about it.

  Once you set that in motion, wait a week or 2, then also contact the local papers about it. I’ve seen them roll with far smaller stories than this.

  Neither group has much/any hard power, but the soft power of the NIMBY croud can be extremely effective against public facing companies.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do so many UK electrical sockets have an on/off switch next to them?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In our defence, most of that is legacy from the post war rebuild (copper shortages etc). The modern regs are comparable or better than a lot of places.

  There’s enough of the dodgy stuff around that it needs to be accounted for, but it’s being phased out as new stuff it built or renovated.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do so many UK electrical sockets have an on/off switch next to them?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Some of our sockets now have interlock type slats. Not only do you need to insert the earth pin first, but you also have to insert the live and neutral together. Now, even if you wedge the earth open, you still can’t insert a fork into the live.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to wake up during nightmares?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve got 1 dream check, that’s fairly reliable, when I need it. I check my back pocket for “heavy weapons”. Basically, think cartoon “hammer space”. It’s an almost unnoticeable check when awake, that doesn’t do anything. In a dream state however, an ak47, or a bazooka is to hand.

  This is particularly effective against nightmares. My subconscious happily accepts that I can pull whatever cartoon doodad I need out of my back pocket. This let’s me jam nightmares. I’ve not had one since I trained myself to do this a couple of decades back.

  The 1 trick to note, you need to “believe” on some level that it will work. It’s akin to accepting a film. You know they are just actors and CGI, but you accept it as real. This belief gives it power in your dreams.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What is the origin of aliens looking like humans? Why and when did it become the norm?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s interesting to look at what is actually required to be a technological species (assuming they develop it themselves).

  • Dextrus Manipulators. To make technology, you need something to manipulate the world reliably. Hands are the most obvious method, but not the only ones. Octopus tenticles could also likely fill the roll.

  • Social groups and communication. Developments are useless, if they can’t be passed on to the next generation, or shared around. Technology requires building on the work of others.

  • Brain development. There needs to be something to drive early brain development. With humans, it was likely sexual preferences. It could otherwise become a chicken and the egg type problem.

  • Generalist. A specialist species will tend to lean into their strengths. There’s far less need for intelligence when you have big claws, or heavy armour already. This also applies to size. Too big, or too small tends to specialise in a why the precludes other developments.

  There are several species on earth that hit some of these points, but not all. E.g. Dolphins hit all but the manipulator issue. Octopus are completely solitary. Many mammals hit all but brain development, and crabs overspecialise.

  I could easily see a small tweak leading to a radically non human technological intelligence. That is also based only on what has already developed and stabilised in the earth’s biome. The cambrian explosion showed that far more body forms are at least viable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Desks⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They almost stopped using helmets again, too. The number of head injuries skyrocketed. Thankfully, someone pointed out to command that the helmets weren’t causing the injuries, but converting fatalities into injuries. They hadn’t been recording head injuries on corpses.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  There are use cases where long passwords could be problematic. 64 would be long enough for most purposes, but short enough not to cause issues for things like microcontrollers.

  It should be paired with a strongly recommended larger value, however.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Do you think being left-handed gives any unique qualities or advantages compares to other right handed?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  From memory, we are statistically more likely to be geniuses. Unfortunately we are also equally as more likely to be clinically insane.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨KFC drops pledge to stop using ‘Frankenchickens’ in the UK⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You joke, but this was legitimate concerns raised in many places, when slavery was abolished. It was often phased out slowly to allow businesses to adapt.

  It’s at least better than nothing, but far from perfect.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why does it seem most people, mainly conservatives, against Trans people? Unless I am wrong I never heard of one shooting up a school church or whatever. The ones I have met have been pretty cool.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  They came for the trans ~~and I did nothing, because I am not trans ~~ and I fought back where I could. Because fuck that shit, we know there this dance will end otherwise!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where can I buy a mosquito laser system?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Most of the problem with lasers come from focusing them. The eye is incredibly good at it. This means even a small laser pen can reach MW/m^2 ranges by the time it hits the retina.

  IR is a different story (at longer wavelengths). Without the ability to see it, our eye will not attempt to focus on it. Also, our eyes lenses are not particularly transparent to it. 3rd, the ultra short pulses mean that there is no time to focus.

  As for the mosquito, the laser is tuned to a frequency that is strongly absorbed by their wings. Given their size and how delicate their wings are, a tiny amount of energy can cause significant damage. Conversely, the same energy on our eye will just cause a slight amount of heating. The bulk mass of the eye will absorb this fine, with no damage

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Where can I buy a mosquito laser system?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It used a microphone of IR laser. Your eye couldn’t see it, nor focus it properly. However, it had just enough power to overheat and damage the mosquito wings.

  I believe the issue was with the targeting. It could don’t, but not cheap enough for the mass deployment they intended. Mosquito nets were far more effective, once cost was accounted for.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon questions our energy sector⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The problem is that nuclear reactors can’t be built fast. We’ve also lost a lot of the expertise to age and retirement.

  Nuclear should have been a major factor in dealing with climate change. Unfortunately, we no longer have time for it to take up the slack. It will need to catch up with other renewable energy sources, we can’t wait for it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon questions our energy sector⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Particularly since coal power stations emit FAR more radioactive material, routinely, than most nuclear “leaks”.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Are disabled people and the elderly going to survive another Trump presidency?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The Germans kept careful documentation. The allies also photographed the hell out of it, and protected those records. They knew future generations (us) wouldn’t believe how evil “normal” people could get. So made sure to collect plenty of evidence.