jj4211
@jj4211@lemmy.world
- Comment on I Got This Right, Right? 1 day ago:
Think that’s a fair assessment. On the one hand we are more connected than ever and sentiment travels fast and echo chambers let dangerous extremist thought fester. On the other hand, Germans were experiencing just a much worse actual living situation.
- Comment on I Got This Right, Right? 1 day ago:
I’d even say all indications are that his leanings don’t matter in the specifics of this event.
It’s probably more informative that folks can credibly have theories for either leaning to lead to this event. Lots of reasons that could believably drive any political leaning over the edge if they are close.
- Comment on I Got This Right, Right? 1 day ago:
I will point out one thing that should be obvious, the shooter was only 22. So it’s possible he doesn’t have a very baked and stable political ideology. I knew a hard core outwardly homophobic conservative at 17 who came out as gay and did theater by 20. I knew a fairly liberal person when she was about 18 that over the years got to a place where she publicly praised Trump and called COVID a hoax and the vaccine a conspiracy. No idea how that happened, even as I saw it first hand.
Given the situation, it is at least clear he was unhinged if he would get to this point, either way. I would have hoped this would be a lesson for people that people get dangerously moved by angry rhetoric, but a lot of folks are ramping up rhetoric instead.
- Comment on Happy Birthday! 5 days ago:
Right, but it says “Mario”, and that was not the first game that featured the character.
- Comment on Posting for the "Now guys he was MURDERED! Don't celebrate!" Crowd 5 days ago:
Of all the people I was worried about materially contributing to the mess, Charlie Kirk was pretty low on the list.
He said vile stuff, but he was not himself a wielder of power. His rhetoric and words had power, he did not. His death in this manner has given strength to that rhetoric and those words without removing any of his meaningful influence to the system.
Better that these folks suffer the fear of what they court, to have their own MAGA fanatics turn against them with violence that scares them, but leaves them largely intact to have them retreat from their position without becoming martyrs.
Now if some folks actively wielding the power in harmful ways meet some ends, I might have a little less mixed feelings about it.
I will confess to perhaps not celebrating, but appreciating the connection between his sociopathic stance on gun deaths and he himself joining a group he himself said we shouldn’t be so concerned about.
- Comment on Posting for the "Now guys he was MURDERED! Don't celebrate!" Crowd 5 days ago:
Yeah, worried about this and the punishment doesn’t fit the crime, and too much room for his death to be weaponized, like you say.
Would have much rather him taken a few to the vest from a handgun from a pissed off obviously MAGA person. Give him some pain and a good scare to have him realize personally just how risky the hornet’s nest is that he is stirring. Something that might be a close enough call for others to see without becoming a rallying cry and a clear link to the violence of the rhetoric without a chance to blame ‘the other’.
- Comment on Posting for the "Now guys he was MURDERED! Don't celebrate!" Crowd 6 days ago:
I will have empathy
How dare you dishonor his memory.
- Comment on DEI, more like DIED 6 days ago:
Yeah, without knowing context, you might think it’s someone admitting that we need gun control, but no, his point was that we shouldn’t care about the gun deaths so much…
- Comment on Related: https://lemmy.wtf/comment/16937362 1 week ago:
To be fair, he probably was constantly being cursed/hexed by someone or another.
- Comment on A conundrum 1 week ago:
So back when I rented, it was only two landlords and only three years and it was fine, so I was spared the slumlord experience. In fact, my second landlords were a very nice couple, and when I got laid off they actually waived that months rent to help me get sorted.
However those slumlords do exist, trying to evict in face of rent controls, being stingy with maintenance. They however still may be cheaper than a 30 year mortgage, especially if they have no tenant. A tenant might face an aggressive rate hike with the landlord betting they don’t want to move out, losing the price advantage relatively quickly. Ultimately if a residence is empty, the owner is aware the tenants are likely cross shopping properties they could mortgage instead, so they have to be somewhat competitive then. So they are very happy when the real estate market holes prices because they can extract higher rents from the property they aren’t having to buy in current market conditions. They aren’t saints and may treat their tenants like crap, but they are subject to price competition, depending on the market they are in.
- Comment on Time to bash Americans again 1 week ago:
Maybe they needed the more affordable healthcare?
- Comment on A conundrum 1 week ago:
If the landlord has a 10-year mortgage they just took out, the rental market wouldn’t cover that, because that landlord is competing with comparable properties that didn’t choose that amount. They are also competing with people that bought the property a decade ago and don’t have the same mortgage burden. They are also competing with some that even considers their accumulation of equity a component of their wealth and wouldn’t mind being mildly underwater early in their loan for the long term advantage.
At least in my area, the way the real estate market has worked out is that renting is about 10-15% lower than monthly expense for a 30-year purchase after 20% downpayment. If the real estate bubble pops, that will probably flip back around, but for now, the renters are getting a discount for short term, which in my opinion is the way it should be, renters getting a bit of a break for their equity disadvantage. In a sane market, the renter gets a cheaper payment that makes financial sense for 2-3 years in a property rather than being forced to rent by an owner class making new ownership impossible.
- Comment on A conundrum 1 week ago:
I think the point is that properties on market are, as a rule, not very recently purchased with a 30-year mortgage. So the monthly cost now required to cover the owners costs may be based on financial conditions from 6 years ago. If the rental market has a lot of properties that have been held a while but house values have rocketed, then you have a critical mass of owners willing and ready to out-compete brand new mortgage rates even if they ignore their equity advantage.
In my area, that’s what we see, real estate prices are dramatically up as are interest rates, so mortgage cost to acquire is a fair amount above the going rate to rent comparable properties. Someone getting a 30 year mortgage to rent out a property would be underwater for very many years in the current market conditions around my area, as they have to compete with more aggressive owners that have had their properties for many years.
- Comment on A conundrum 1 week ago:
Actually, not necessarily.
In my local market, a house that would be about $2700/month in mortgage/insurance/taxes on a 30 year term after a huge downpayment would rent for about $2400/month right now.
There are some owners that in fact do count the equity, so they are willing to buy higher and be upside down compared to what a mortgage could be. The recognize the rent is only part of the income, that the property value going up is a potential gain to cash in that’s worth a few hundred a month to ‘deposit’.
Especially if the owners can pay cash and not incur the interest associated with a mortgage. It’s a bit of an odd choice right now as just letting the cash sit in a savings account offers competitive ROI with the current interest rates, but you’ve got a lot of property bought under previous conditions.
This only holds for relatively short term though, you’d expect rent hikes to go to $3000/month within a time period where that ownership monthly payment might only go up to $2800/month due to taxes and insurance rates. So 10 years into living somewhere you are now paying more to rent it than you would be if you had purchased comparable, even ignoring the equity part of the equation. If you include equity, then you better be planning to get out in 2 or 3 years at the most if you are embarking on renting, otherwise it’s much much better to buy even with higher mortgage payment, since you can cash in on the equity if you need to, eventually.
I’d say this is a relatively sane fiscal model of renting, that you need to give the renters a discount reflecting their lack of equity. I’m kind of glad to see rental rates being below mortgage rates in my area right now. That said, it wasn’t too long ago that rental rates in my area were higher than what mortgage could be, but large companies bought up housing stock and made it supremely difficult to actually buy as a private party. With the interest rates jacked up, those companies are cooling it a bit since they don’t have access to ‘free money’ anymore.
- Comment on A conundrum 1 week ago:
While renting in some markets can be cheaper than typical mortgage for comparable homes, the amount indicated seems a bit insane.
So either he is in a crazy real estate market, or there’s some additional context that makes it a poor comparison (going from renting in Virgina to Mortgage in San Francisco, going from a 1500 qt ft townhouse to a 3000 sq ft detached house with a quarter acre of land, or going for a 10-year mortgage). Or he’s just making it up or exaggerating because it’s the internet.
Interestingly enough that $4500 is pretty much exactly what it would be with 20% down on a $500,000 house for a 10-year mortgage. Of course, I’d expect such a house to rent for about $2700 rather than $1900. I could easily imagine he was renting a 2000 square foot 3 bedroom for $1900 and moving to what seems ‘slightly better’ 3000 square foot 3 bedroom with an extra special room or something, seeing that the 10-year mortgage is much cheaper in the long haul and going for it despite the huge monthly payment in the short term.
- Comment on Reddit lost it 1 week ago:
Probably why when Microsoft wanted to take another go at a “smart assistant”, they went with Cortana…
- Comment on A conundrum 1 week ago:
It depends on the market. Around here is similar, the market rental rate for a house is lower than what even the most lowest realistic monthly mortgage payment would be, but only by about 10% or so. I don’t know if you also dramatically upgraded your home quality.
Not too long ago around here it was the same as the post, renting higher than mortgage.
Even then over long term, the mortgage would make sense, since you can sell and get back some of the money and your principal and interest won’t magically get bigger because of market conditions.
In a sane world renting should be a touch cheaper than mortgage over the first few years, with tenants that only plan to be there 2 or three years. The owner gets a little income while taxes and insurance get paid and their asset maintained, and the tenant gets an easier and cheaper house to move in and out of for a short term living arrangement. Problem being when the market is upside down and when tenants are stuck never being able to build equity.
- Comment on How long do we have before PCs get locked bootloaders and corporations ban installation of "non-approved" software? (for context: Google is restricting sideloading worldwide on Android ETA 2027) 2 weeks ago:
Not the consumers so much as a ton of businesses that would have their whole IT broken.
Microsoft has really really wanted this to happen, but their attempts have failed to get traction, because it breaks just so many applications. The only reason people use windows is compatibility with all their apps, a move that breaks all the apps just doesn’t work.
Different with Android and iPhone where they managed to define the default position as app store and didn’t have to contend with “legacy”.
- Comment on How long do we have before PCs get locked bootloaders and corporations ban installation of "non-approved" software? (for context: Google is restricting sideloading worldwide on Android ETA 2027) 2 weeks ago:
Microsoft tried to get things going that way with “s”, but it didn’t take
- Comment on And so it begins 2 weeks ago:
Yeah, I was struck by how… pronounced that feature was…
Almost never see a cloud looking like something and the one time it looked strikingly like something, it had to be that…
- Comment on And so it begins 2 weeks ago:
I took a pic the other day…
- Comment on (Rant) Don't buy Rockstar games. 2 weeks ago:
Look at the timestamps, the conversation is from top to bottom. So technically I guess he tried to answer, but he probably missed the answer and instead had a tone that happened to match exactly how a scammy email would sound.
If legitimate, it’s probably better that they didn’t get to successfully automating spamming the support system. Nothing screams legitimate requests like bot spamming… Don’t know the tone of his follow ups, but best to take a breath and reset their tone and try again, asking what other details aside from nickname can be used, given their steam access.
- Comment on WATER! 2 weeks ago:
I’d add it depends also on your field. If you spend a lot of time assembling technically bespoke solutions, but they are broadly consistent with a lot of popular projects, then it can cut through a lot in short order. When I come to a segment like that, LLM tends to go a lot further.
But if you are doing something because you can’t find anything vaguely like what you want to do, it tends to only be able to hit like 3 or so lines of useful material a minority of the time. And the bad suggestions can be annoying. Less outright dangerous after you get used to being skeptical by default, but still annoying as it insists on re emphasizing a bad suggestion.
So I can see where it can be super useful, and also how it can seem more trouble than it is worth.
Claude and GPT have been my current experience. The best improvement I’ve seen is for the suggestions getting shorter. Used to have like 3 maybe useful lines bundled with a further dozen lines of not what I wanted. Now the first three lines might be similar, but it’s less likely to suggest a big chunk of code.
Was helping someone the other day and the comic felt pretty accurate. It did exactly the opposite of what the user prompted for. Even after coaxing it to be in the general ballpark, it has about half the generated code being unrelated to the requested task, with side effects that would have seemed functional unless you paid attention and noticed that throughout would have been about 70% lower than you should expect. Was a significant risk as the user was in over their head and unable to understand the suggestions they needed to review, as they were working in a pretty jargon heavy ecosystem (not the AI fault, they had to invoke standard libraries that had incomprehensible jargon heavy syntax)
- Comment on WATER! 2 weeks ago:
It’s sometimes useful, often obnoxious, sometimes both.
It tends to shine on very blatantly obvious boilerplate stuff that is super easy, but tedious. You can be sloppy with your input and it will fix it up to be reasonable. Even then you’ve got to be careful, as sometimes what seems blatantly obvious still gets screwed up in weird ways. Even with mistakes, it’s sometimes easier to edit that going from scratch.
Using an enabled editor that looks at your activity and suggests little snippets is useful, but can be really annoying when it gets particularly insistent on a bad suggestion and keeps nagging you with “hey look at this, you want to do this right?”
Overall it’s merely mildly useful to me, as my career has been significantly about minimizing boilerplate with decent success. However for a lot of developers, there’s a ton of stupid boilerplate, owing to language design, obnoxiously verbose things, and inscrutable library documentation. I think that’s why some developers are scratching their heads wondering what the supposed big deal is and why some think it’s an amazing technology that has largely eliminated the need for them to manually code.
- Comment on Uhm 3 weeks ago:
Even this one?
Image - Comment on Uhm 3 weeks ago:
Ok
Image - Comment on LPT: Go get a shot, now. 3 weeks ago:
I’m old enough that the vaccine was unavailable, so I got the illness and at least one scar, but my kid was vaccinated and all my peers’ kids are vaccinated so they just won’t know what it’s like.
Seems like some countries think it’s better to keep it around to keep previously sickened people exposed to keep their immune system active to mitigate shingles, but seems like the data in the ‘vaccinate most of the kids’ countries have shown that this doesn’t actually matter, so we might see more countries embrace vaccinating against it.
- Comment on LPT: Go get a shot, now. 3 weeks ago:
The NIH director was appointed by Trump, which came with a pretty strong anti-mask, anti-vaxx, and general ‘covid was a hoax’ sort of baggage, so he is unfortunately not that credible.
There is a study that correlates to the ages he specifies, but the conclusion is that the risks inflicted by the vaccine were still lower than the risks of COVID itself even for that age group, but no matter how they sliced it the risks either way for the age group was minimal, neither the vaccinne nor COVID were too risky overall. Pre-vaccine chicken pox was deadlier to kids than COVID was to that age group, and we didn’t consider that to be particularly risky, mostly worth vaccinating due to heading off the chances for shingles later.
- Comment on LPT: Go get a shot, now. 3 weeks ago:
In the age group most at risk of COVID-19 vaccine myocarditis (12–29 years), for every 100 000 vaccinated, compared to about four more cases of myocarditis we have 56 fewer hospitalizations, 13.8 admissions to intensive care and 0.6 fewer deaths. Several studies have shown that post vaccine myocarditis/pericarditis are generally short-lasting phenomena with favourable clinically course.
The paper recognizes a 0.004% increase in mild short term myocarditis, with about a 0.05% decrease in hospitalization, 0.014% decrease in intensive care needs, and a 0.0006% decreased chance of death from COVID.
Of course, all this suggests that in that age range, it’s messing with all very low percentages, so it’s pretty much a wash whether they vaccinate or not, statistically speaking. But the vaccine risk is not ‘much higher’ and the severity of the risk is generally low, and seemingly still technically lower risk than COVID itself, but the risk for any of it is kind of down in the noise.
- Comment on LPT: Go get a shot, now. 3 weeks ago:
It doesn’t “prevent” but it strongly mitigates how infectious you become and for how long.
