vonbaronhans
@vonbaronhans@midwest.social
- Comment on The inarguable case for banning social media for teens 2 weeks ago:
Man, I still really struggle to understand how we can reliably age-gate anything on the Internet without sacrificing privacy for everyone.
IRL you can just show your govt issued ID, but there’s virtually zero privacy risk doing so. Bouncers don’t register ID scans, typically, and they’re just one person. The govt doesn’t know you went to that club or drank at that one bar, unless they’re actively surveilling you.
But if I needed to identify myself as an adult online, simply by virtue of how digital systems work, that probably requires checking against a govt database, and that database will keep logs, and now Trump knows I went to Pornhub, and likely also exactly what I watched or searched for.
Maybe I’m dumb, but I really don’t know any way around this sort of thing.
- Comment on The inarguable case for banning social media for teens 2 weeks ago:
I remember reading a Haidt article for an ethics class in grad school. The analysis felt… underwhelming? It’s been too long to remember the article, but I think it was something about the “morality” of conservatives being not worse but different than liberals (limited to the US, iirc). I just remember reading it and going… yeah conservative morality functions differently. It’s also just demonstrably worse, though, even based on what the article was focusing on?
That class was weird though. Mostly just a bunch of folks going,“yeah well this is what I care about” and disagreeing with each other with seemingly no intention whatsoever to try and evaluate or engage with one another.
- Comment on Discord confirms it's moving toward 'becoming a public company' as it hires a former Activision executive as its new CEO 2 weeks ago:
Has Discord really done Step Two? I’m not saying they haven’t tried to drive out competition, mind you, I’m just unaware of any attempts to do so. Unlike Facebook or Google or Apple who have long, stories histories of driving out or purchasing any competition they could.
Regardless, every other part is true. My friend group uses Discord all the time, for its initial intended purpose - quickly and easily hanging out with friends with chat and voice and sometimes video. Bunch of us even have Nitro.
Despite being relatively early adopters and genuinely enjoying Discord, we’re all very wary and actively seeking alternatives for when it inevitably becomes unbearable to use.
- Comment on Jack Dorsey would like to ‘delete all IP law’. 4 weeks ago:
I’m not saying I’m against getting rid of IP law, writ large, but I gotta agree the only reason a billionaire would say so right now is to remove legal barriers to training data for their AI models.
- Comment on Nintendo confirms $90 price for full Breath of the Wild experience on Switch 2 4 weeks ago:
Existing owners can upgrade to the Switch 2 version for $10, gaining better framerates, higher resolutions, and HDR support.
I didn’t realize they had this option. As far as legal routes go, that’s not terrible (assuming there’s no weird downside, like no longer being able to play the original on the switch 1). Free would be better, of course, but $10 certainly beats paying $90 just to play the improved version on switch 2.
- Comment on Anon orders food 5 weeks ago:
They’re rare, but they do exist.
- Comment on Anon orders food 5 weeks ago:
I get compliments on my hugs on the reg. Well, less regularly as I get older and meet new people less often, but still. Being a good hugger is somehow a weirdly rare skill?
- Comment on Nintendo is Bringing Us Kicking and Screaming Into the $80 Game Era with the Switch 2 5 weeks ago:
Beats me! But I’m unbothered, so no worries.
- Comment on MMX: Corrupted - Cyber Lab 5 weeks ago:
High skill ceiling?
More like a high skill floor! Good Lord, I don’t think I’d ever be able to beat that level without cheats, lol.
- Comment on Nintendo is Bringing Us Kicking and Screaming Into the $80 Game Era with the Switch 2 5 weeks ago:
I’m weirdly okay with this?
I get most of my gaming on the cheap on PC, so I feel fine splurging for the occasional Nintendo title.
But as with all things, no reason to buy something you don’t want to pay for. If enough people can’t or won’t pay $80, then so be it.
- Comment on Why does it seem like many Americans have an arrogant personality trait? 2 months ago:
I’d like to add some nuance to your observation.
We Americans, most of us anyway, went to public school. And in our history classes, we teach what has been called the “Standard American History Myth” by YouTube channel Knowing Better in their video on American Neo-slavery.
In short, America is founded on many ideals (freedom, liberty, etc), and we generally write our histories as if we have always believed in and acted according to those beliefs (with slavery being a “failure to live up to those ideals”). That’s the simple history we teach our kids here, it’s what we grow up believing, and the only people who ever really learn anything different had nontraditional learning opportunities (e.g. local experts in black history, American Indian history, etc), studied history at a university, or nowadays maybe learned from social media (like the above Knowing Better channel).
Manifest Destiny is a big example. We teach that America believed in their divinely inspired right to the American continent, from sea to shining sea. We do mention the Trail of Tears, but it’s taught as a brute fact at best, and as punishment for standing against America at worst. There’s no emotional processing that we did a bad thing and that we shouldn’t do that thing anymore. Most Americans would do it all again given the opportunity.
And that’s the big thing. We just… simply don’t have any sort of national level conscience. If we did something bad to someone, no we didn’t, and if we did, they deserved it.
I only really came to grips with America’s dark side in grad school by reading, listening, and watching interviews with black people who protested Jim Crowe and Asian Americans who told their experiences living in concentration camps (euphemistically “internment camps”) during WW2.
That, I think, is the biggest problem in the American psyche. Not only have we “never done anything wrong, really” but we’re also pumped up on religious symbolism (we’re a beacon on a hill, a light into the world, etc).
“Divinely inspired” crybully, basically. There’s a reason Trump resonates so strongly here. He’s the embodiment of “I am the best, I never did anything wrong, and fuck you for trying to insinuate otherwise, you ungrateful traitor.”
- Comment on Chat, is this true? 2 months ago:
At this point, I don’t know if America can heal with Mt Rushmore still there. I’m not saying we would blow it up, but I do think it might be good if it was blown up.
- Comment on HELP! How do I help educate my son about his body when I know nothing about boys?? 2 months ago:
Do you think “frank” means “without nuance or care for how what I’m saying could be misconstrued as bigotry”?
Like, literally the only change I know I’d like to see is “there are some women who” and like… that’s hardly an imposition, y’know? Definitely not a “40 page essay” either.
- Comment on HELP! How do I help educate my son about his body when I know nothing about boys?? 2 months ago:
Weirdos end up on Lemmy. Many of us are a splendidly wonderful, if pedantic, sort.
And then there’s the weirdos that… aren’t that. The ones who never built social skills or the ability to look at the world from beyond their own limited experiences. The ones who extrapolate with reckless abandon, usually in the traditional directions of punching down.
I’m sorry if they or someone they know got baby-trapped, but that is DEFINITELY not the usual nor should it be phrased like it is.
- Comment on anti-evolutionism 2 months ago:
Oof. Yeah they’ll get ya like that. I’m certainly not immune.
- Comment on anti-evolutionism 2 months ago:
So, I gave this a cursory read.
The discussion of essentialism mostly makes sense, if a few weird red flags scattered throughout. But I was curious at what point it would be turned into, as promised in the intro, that essentialism is a fundamental flaw of “wokeism”, and apparently specifically Critical Race Theory.
And uh. That connection was poorly made, in my humble opinion. It’s a lot of philosophical history and bluster to then just sort of… miss the point and mischaracterize the quotes being put on the table.
My apologies, I would be more specific and pointed in my critique here, but I’m on mobile and I usually need a better setup (e.g. on PC) to lay out these thoughts with more precision.
- Comment on Is it a pattern that every time a movie, show or animation that doesn't have a white person as the protagonist is attacked by right-wingers? 2 months ago:
As an aging anime fan… I tend to agree with Miyazaki’s take that anime is made by weird people for weird people.
Sometimes being a bit of an outcast gives you perspective and you take that and make someone great.
Sometimes it turns you into an incel who creates characters that totally aren’t pedophile bait, no sir, they’re 2000 years old! They just so happen to have the body of an 8 yr old.
The conservative anti-woke scum of the Internet who love anime can’t tell the difference between the two. It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad.
- Comment on Why We Love to Get Lost in Games: The Enduring Appeal of Metroidvanias 2 months ago:
I think I’d put it this way - I like adventuring, exploring, and finding my way through an immersive world. I don’t like when I can’t seem to stumble into the exact right clue or secret passage or interactable and waste up to possibly hours scouring the same locations over and over.
That said, metroidvanias are my favorite videogame genre. I just had to accept that it’s okay to look up a guide or wiki before I get fully tilted.
- Comment on How does this pic show that Elon Musk doesnt know SQL? 2 months ago:
Well, I think this is twice in the same thread where my intuition was considerably off base. Lesson learned, I suppose.
- Comment on How does this pic show that Elon Musk doesnt know SQL? 2 months ago:
Just read that, and it says they’ve only issued 453 million numbers so far. Huh. I really thought it would’ve been a lot more than that.
- Comment on How does this pic show that Elon Musk doesnt know SQL? 2 months ago:
We have 350 million people in this country literally right now. I don’t think “350 million born since 1933” makes sense. There gotta be a lot of churn just from early deaths alone.
- Comment on How does this pic show that Elon Musk doesnt know SQL? 2 months ago:
We have over 300 million people in the US right now. Social security started in the US in 1935 with just over 127 million people then.
Yeah, we probably have gone through 999 million options by now.
- Comment on what if another country staged a coup in the US and deposed trump? 2 months ago:
Well, I think we’d have to give some of the Eastern seaboard to the UK. But some goes to France, some to Spain. And tbh a lot could be reallocated back to American Indian groups and councils. Oh, and a bunch would go back to Mexico, too.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 months ago:
I think the care for being not identified and covering one’s tracks provided in the above comment is a pretty obvious indicator for why their comment history is scrubbed lol.
- Comment on womp womp 3 months ago:
That is a much more succinct way of putting it without any real loss of accuracy.
- Comment on womp womp 3 months ago:
I’m no expert on the topic, but Nature is an exception rather than the rule, given its history and prestige.
Academic journals were around well before the Internet. Real capital investment was required to review applications, provide editing advice, typesetting, printing, and distribution. All of those are still things, now with additional online publishing, which also has its own technology costs.
What’s wild and out of whack, of course, is that peer reviewers generally aren’t paid, submitters pay to get published, and readers also pay for access. Other than the relatively minimal office staff to keep things running, there’s very little overhead. So why is it so damn expensive?
I think the answer is that they can get away with it. You can publish in an open source journal for free, of course, but there may or may not be quality control. Plus, it’s an attention economy. If you publish in Science or Nature, you’re almost certainly getting prestige that can turbo boost your career because that many people will see and likely cite your work.
And on and on it goes. I think we would pretty strong regulations to stop this system.
- Comment on Elder Scrolls creator Ted Peterson is “glad that people are wanting to break away from” watered-down RPGs as he works on an epic Daggerfall successor 3 months ago:
I think JRPGs do focus on choice, but usually more in terms of the gameplay and deep combat systems with weird synergies to discover. Story-wise… yeah definitely more linear.
- Comment on If you shop by unit prices, double check the math! 3 months ago:
I don’t know what peanut butter is like in other countries. In Japan it was very different, a lot sweeter.
What’s yours like? Have you ever been able to compare it to something like JIF?
- Comment on Knowing less about AI makes people more open to having it in their lives – new research 3 months ago:
Here’s an important bit from the actual journal article abstract
This lower literacy-greater receptivity link is not explained by differences in perceptions of AI’s capability, ethicality, or feared impact on humanity. Instead, this link occurs because people with lower AI literacy are more likely to perceive AI as magical and experience feelings of awe in the face of AI’s execution of tasks that seem to require uniquely human attributes.
It then goes on to say you should target ads for AI to people who don’t know anytime about AI, since they’ll see it as magical and buy in. Kinda gross, if you ask me.
- Comment on TikTok users particularly susceptible to Russian and Chinese misinformation, study finds 3 months ago:
Comparisons to users on other social media networks would be useful, yeah.