MrVilliam

@MrVilliam@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨At what point do you stop calling the years "two thousand and X" and start calling them "twenty X"?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I was gonna say most of this. I would just add that now, when referring to a year between 2001 and 2009, I just say “oh [number]”. So I’d say “Did Batman Begins come out in '05 or '06?”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Withdrawal is going to make people go mad⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Well boy howdy, it turns out we already been done doin that there part about criminalizing and incarcerating them black people just out of sheer racism. You’re telling me that there could’ve been a profit motive to it this whole time too?

  jk, private contracted prisons were already profiting deeply off of that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Withdrawal is going to make people go mad⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  That can’t be right. Corn can’t be only 85% of our food.

  But seriously, there’s so much goddamn corn. Our meat is fed corn. Our processed foods and drinks are pumped full of corn. Even our fucking cars eat corn. We’re up to our fucking ears in ears of corn.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel you, green guy.⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Sharply agreed. My wife and I both work a lot and don’t have kids or even any pets (yet) and it’s insane to think that there was a time just a short while ago that one person with a high school diploma could work 40 hour weeks and it would cover a mortgage, two cars, multiple kids, and still have money for savings and modest vacations. DINK couples in their 30s like us are finally catching up to the average 20 somethings with a few kids of 40 years ago.

  Shit has changed. And as a result, I think that pro-choice should mean much more than just access to contraception and abortion. Pro-choice should mean that it’s possible to choose to have children too, as in childcare and diapers and everything shouldn’t be so prohibitively expensive that only the top 10% earners should have the flexibility for a pregnancy to be a blessing and not a life-shattering burden. If conservatives want babies to be born, they’re going about it all wrong.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The starting salary for a new American Airlines flight attendant is low enough to qualify for food stamps in some states⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m a power plant operator. Most of my coworkers have chugged the Kool aid in terms of hating unions. We’re well paid but the benefits aren’t good and the schedule is life-wrecking for the average person. Bad unions exist, but I think that they don’t understand the core concept of the power behind collective bargaining. I’ve seen one person get fired in the 3 years I’ve been here, so jobs are generally secure, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to gain from unionizing.

  They also very much eat up the culture war slop and aren’t particularly literate. They’re “common sense” forward, which means they don’t understand things like tax brackets or geopolitics, but they’re very upset about them.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨McDonald's is getting rid of self-serve drinks and some locations may charge for refills⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Sounds like you should be looking for suggestions for places to get fucked in the ears then.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨McDonald's is getting rid of self-serve drinks and some locations may charge for refills⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Now that fast food is no longer cheaper than a sit-down restaurant, it just means that fast food has no use case anymore. You’re better off picking up a grab&go type thing from the grocery store. Fast food used to be cheaper, more consistent, and faster, but with the concession that the quality wasn’t great. Now it’s expensive, it completely sucks in unpredictable ways, and it isn’t actually that fast. It’s like the industry only exists for people who are on a road trip and also want to punish themselves for some reason.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The starting salary for a new American Airlines flight attendant is low enough to qualify for food stamps in some states⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s less “we let this happen” and more “we were duped into fighting against our comrades over crumbs instead of banding together to ensure our right to more than just crumbs in the first place.” The 1% benefits from every culture war that sows division amongst us. We’re too busy and distracted to organize or build guillotines.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Masahiro Sakurai refused to add Dolby Surround to a Kirby game because players had to sit through the logo⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  PSA: On PS5, after launching your game, hit the PS button. If there are activities, you can probably hit square to resume. This speeds through all the startup wankery and the main menu straight to loading your save. It rarely saves time, but it means you can launch your game and walk away to get a glass of water or whatever. I enjoy it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I was reminded of this after my phone autocorrected "honestly" into Throckmorton.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  But he wasn’t a throck.

  He was a Throck_morton._

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ghost of Tsushima Director's Cut - Launch Trailer | PC Games⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  For any confused time travelers, no, Sony doesn’t own countries yet. Disney isn’t even there yet. We’re still a couple of years away from that, I’m guessing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Y'all want a shitpost?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  ARRROOOOOOOOO, MFERS!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Count Binface Celebrates beating Britain First⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  pretends

  SHUN THE NON-BELIEVER

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tell me what it smells like in the comments!⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not just Thor, but Chris Hemsworth as Thor. My immediate assumption was that this was one of those foreign knockoff products that blatantly uses unlicensed shit to sell garbage.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We can do all three things at once⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Source for profitability of nuclear over time

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We can do all three things at once⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Idk much about that in particular but I can speculate based on what I know about the power industry and business in general. I think larger modular clusters (10-30) would be more common just because of the infrastructure needed. Sure, we might see instances of 1-3 units here and there, but I imagine that if a company is already going to the trouble of buying a plot of land and building a switchyard, getting water access and RO-EDI tech for it, cooling water of whatever type, n+1 redundancy on all equipment, radioactive waste management including on-site storage of spent fuel, etc while also welcoming the NRC and FERC and whoever else to scrutinize, it makes the most sense to have several units making money power. Like anything else, upping the scale makes the cost per instance go down. Nuclear in the US has a fuckload of red tape and permitting and oversight that cost a lot of money to stay on top of. There could be good applications for small clusters like closer to urban, more densely populated areas where land is expensive and the power needs are the immediate vicinity. Or in developing areas that don’t have much power demand, at least not yet. There’s no good reason why a small cluster couldn’t replace the remaining coal plants. It’s also completely feasible to throw some up at military bases or large university campuses for training and their own power needs. Big power will want to squeeze as many into as small of a space with as little maintenance requirement as they can get away with because everything they do is in the name of maximizing profits for shareholders. But for nationalized power like in France, it kinda doesn’t make sense to build anything else right now.

  Maybe the best part of SMR tech as I understand it is that somebody could get the land and permits and infrastructure set up for the end goal but just build a small percentage of the reactors at first, and then scale up later. This is cheaper to start, faster to build, and is a perfect proof of concept strategy to get investors excited at funding the bulk of the project.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We can do all three things at once⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ll be a source. I worked at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in MD for over 10 years. Because of the trend of shutting down nuclear, I shifted over to operating a combined cycle power plant. Calvert with 2 units did about 1800MW combined, base loaded 24/7 except for outages, and those were staggered so that when one went down for maintenance and refueling, the other unit was still throwing 900MW to the grid. My current plant has 2 gas engine turbines and 1 STG, and on a good day when we’re fully up 2x1 with ducts in, we can hit about 800MW when it’s called for. Balls to the wall in perfect conditions on a plant that’s not even ten years old, we can’t do half of what Calvert was doing and they’ve been operating since the 70s.

  Imagine what modern nuclear tech could do. We should’ve been a step ahead of everybody with this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨We can do all three things at once⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I would. ROI takes longer, but they’re super fucking profitable as soon as they turn a profit at all. They’re generally base loaded 24/7 except for about 3-4 weeks per year for refueling outage. I’m 35, so assume 10 years to build and another 10 years before it starts profiting. I’m retired at 55. Sounds pretty good to me.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Not happening, dude⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Idk if this is something that would be legal in every state, but most shooting ranges I’ve seen have firearm rentals. This typically helps them to sell guns because you can see how they feel, but there’s no obligation to purchase. They also might let you rent stuff that you couldn’t legally purchase without crazy licensing, like fully automatic machine guns.

  I have a friend who doesn’t think it’s a good idea for himself to own a gun for similar reasons. Others here seem to be alluding to that being a huge issue, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. It’s weird to assume that the people who don’t want you own guns must have mental health issues. The data is clear that owning a gun makes a person significantly more likely to be harmed by a gun, whether it’s self-inflicted, an accident, a robbery gone wrong, or any number of other events. If you feel like your health and safety are at risk because of anxiety or depression or anything like that, I hope you’re able to help yourself by even just chatting with somebody who is qualified to help you, maybe getting some medication and lifestyle tips also. I found that I had a vitamin D deficiency, and just taking a standard supplement every day has had a big positive impact on my mood and attitude. Like, I still feel helpless in a shitty world that we as a species are actively making worse every single day, but now I know that that’s a problem that’s way too big for li’l ol’ me to solve. But what I can do is take a few minutes to type something to an internet stranger to tell them that they matter and that they are worth the effort of helping. You matter and you’re worth the effort of helping. Even if you don’t think it’s particularly dire, check in with yourself. Therapy is not for emergencies, so don’t wait until it’s an emergency to talk to somebody.

  <3

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It helps to set your preferred age range from 18-110 for full coverage⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is the truth. Focus on yourself for now. Learn things, get good at stuff, advance your career, understand different perspectives, cook and eat healthy food that tastes good. Be somebody you really want to spend time with. A significant chunk of this is just you being confident and comfortable in who you are. Then people (including women) will be interested in spending time with you.

  It helps to not be broke or ugly, but dressing well and washing yourself and smelling pleasant can get you pretty far.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Sega Dreamcast⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The CD and 32X were effectively just life support to keep the Genesis alive while Nintendo put out a whole new generation of console. Sega could’ve leapfrogged Nintendo’s SNES if their follow-up to the 16-bit cartridge based Genesis and competitor to the 16-bit cartridge based SNES had been the 32-bit disc based Saturn, but in 1993 instead of 1994-95. “Nintendo just caught up to what we’re leaving behind.” Video game history would be incredibly different. Nintendo would’ve maybe lost a significant amount of market share to Sega. Sony might’ve stayed out of it or at least would’ve had real disc competition. Sega might’ve stayed in the hardware game, which maybe would’ve kept Microsoft from entering since there’s no vacuum to fill. This might’ve affected PC gaming too since devs could basically double dip their work to put out very similar games on both PC and Xbox.

  Sega CD was successful in that it kept Sega players from jumping over to buying a SNES. Idk how that worked though because an entire SNES was cheaper than the Sega CD add-on. They could only sell games to people who had already bought a Genesis AND shelled out a SNES and a half worth to keep it relevant. If you didn’t own a Genesis or a SNES and you’re at Circuit City or whatever looking at them, it’s kinda hard to not choose the SNES. Genesis was $150 while the SNES was $200, sure, but the SNES was new and polished while the Genesis was already 2 years old AND they felt the need to release a $300 add-on to keep up with the SNES. So if you’re trying to get your money’s worth, you could either spend $300 on a SNES and a couple of games, or you could spend about the same for an older console and maybe one or two extra games, or you could dump $450 (equivalent to $1,019 in 2024) and still not have any games. So how in the fuck did the Sega CD succeed? Sega was just really good at marketing, I guess.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Sega Dreamcast⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This is a pretty solid summary. Part of why they didn’t make their money back on software was because of how easy it was to copy and share. It didn’t help that they had alienated so many 3rd party devs by prematurely abandoning platforms so many times. They stuck with the Genesis for a long time, trickled out 32X and CD add-ons and only put out a handful of games for those, released and immediately ditched the Saturn, and then didn’t go as all in on the Dreamcast as they probably should’ve. At least they knew to cancel the Neptune, which was just gonna be a standalone 32X.

  They should’ve not done the CD and 32X and instead dumped those resources into getting the Saturn out like a year earlier. Then they could’ve taken their time building that library, and then go all in on the Dreamcast, bringing lots of 3rd party support that happily made money off of betting on the Saturn. But hindsight is 20/20.