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@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Hamartiogonic

@[email protected]

Who reads this anyway? Nobody, that’s who. I could write just about anything here, and it wouldn’t make a difference. As a matter of fact, I’m kinda curious to find out how much text can you dump in here. If you’re like really verbose, you could go on and on about any pointless…[no more than this]

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HP customers claim firmware update rendered third-party ink verboten | Then the company cranked up the price of cartridges, complaint alleges (www.theregister.com)

HP customers claim firmware update rendered third-party ink verboten | Then the company cranked up the price of cartridges, complaint alleges::Then the company cranked up the price of cartridges, complaint alleges

Hamartiogonic ,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Normally, words hang out in larger groups called sentences or clauses. Words are social, so they like to stick together and form social bonds and hierarchies.

However, some words don’t have anyone to hang out with, and they’re called lone words.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Who needs a two-party system, when all you need is one. It’s working pretty well in China, Cuba and North Korea.

/s just in case…

Hamartiogonic ,
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Care to elaborate that bit about capitalism?

As a non-American, I’ve been struggling to understand how Americans use these terms. Sure, I’ve seen plenty of “capitalism good, socialism bad” rhetoric, but what do people actually mean when they use them? Your example was particularly interesting, because it sounds like you’re implying that Trump promised capitalism, but failed to deliver.

Hamartiogonic ,
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TIL: I must be a communist/socialist/leftist/whatever for supporting FOSS. What’s next? Marxism/Leninism? Or maybe I missed that stop, while riding the communism train. Then again, I’m already on Lemmy, so I must be into ML as well, right?

Hamartiogonic ,
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Yep. This is the way, but it won’t stop other people from labeling you regardless.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Just because an idea is labeled as socialist/capitalist or whatever, doesn’t inherently make it good or bad. People like to label things to simplify complicated topics, but that shortcut isn’t always worth it. Nowadays, I hear a lot of talk about this or that being socialist/communist thing as if that makes it automatically bad. Somehow, I get the feeling that most of those people are Americans. If that’s actually true, it would make a lot of sense.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Yes, that’s the fascinating thing. Using labeling as a mental shortcut for understanding the world is really useful, but it comes with a price tag.

It’s basically the same problem we have when labeling thins as “religion” or “some other stuff”. We might want to call something a religion, but it doesn’t quite match. We might want to label something else a non-religion, but it meets all the criteria. Those labels aren’t neutral either, so using them comes with some baggage.

Same thing with FOSS. If we label it a socialist concept, that label comes with some unfortunate connotations… Well, at least if you’re in a country where socialism is frowned upon.

Hamartiogonic ,
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So, that’s where Finnish borrowed that word… like so many other words too. Perhaps calling it borrowing isn’t entirely fair, since this thing has been going on for so long and it’s been really extensive. Sort of like the way the British Museum “borrowed” a significant part of their collection from somewhere else.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Or viking style pillage and plunder accompanied by burning the monastery and stabbing the priest.

Hamartiogonic ,
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You’ve taken some right steps, but there’s still s long way to go. Various industries, companies and individuals do what makes economic sense to them. Governments decide what makes sense and what doesn’t, but you can influence that by voting.

For example, many industries have used coal and gas, because it made economic sense at the time. Now that emissions trading is in place, using polluting energy sources is less and less appealing. The same sort of shift should take place in other areas as well, and politics is the way to get there. Climate change isn’t a technological problem as much as it’s a political one.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Alternatively, you can walk to the coca cola shelf, pick up a 250 ml glass bottle and pay about 6.3 €/l. You know, there are really expensive specialty coffee beans that produce a drinkable liquid that costs less than that.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Yep. That’s about the usual price range I was thinking of. However, you can easily go over that with Jamaica Blue mountain (190 €/kg) and a high dose (70 g/l). The price of that liquid would be about 15 €/l, which is incidentally in the wine territory.

Hamartiogonic ,
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One of the early utopias was that people would no longer debate about things because the internet would bring people together and provide them with information about anything and everything… well then algorithms and social media happened, and now we’re stuck with echo chambers of anti-vaxxers and flat earthers.

Other than that, it’s been nice in many ways nobody could have anticipated back then.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Long ago, I saw a documentary series about dictators, and it had some interesting things to say about the source of inspiration Hitler had. You see, Benito Mussolini transformed Italy and wrote the book on how to build a fascist country. Hitler took those ideas and started applying them on a larger scale.

Hamartiogonic ,
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That title is actually on Wikipedia too, so it’s seems like an established translation. I think this is where Snoke (in Force Awakens) got his title.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Here’s my favorite part.

“In addition, the conversions were sometimes not even self-consistent and applied completely arbitrary. The 3½-inch floppy disk for example, which was marketed as “1.44 MB”, was actually not 1.44 MB and also not 1.44 MiB. The size of the double-sided, high-density 3½-inch floppy was 512 bytes per sector, 18 sectors per track, 160 tracks, that’s 512×18×16 = 1’474’560 bytes. To get to “1.44” you must first divide 1’474’560 by 1024 (“bEcAuSE BiNaRY obviously”) to get 1440 and then divide by 1000 for perfect inconsistency, because dividing by 1024 again would get you an ugly number and we definitely don’t want that. We finally end up with “1.44”. Now let’s add “MB” because why the heck not. We already abused those units so much it’s not like they still mean anything and it’s “close enough” anyways. By the way, that “close enough” excuse never “worked when I was in school but what would I know compared to the computer “scientists” back then.

When things get that messy, numbers don’t even mean anything any more. Might as well just label the products using entirely qualitative terms like “big” or “bigger”.

"If you tell a lie big enough and tell it frequently enough, people will eventually come to believe it". What is an example of this happening today?

I would really rather that these were actual examples, and not conspiracy theories. We all have our own unsubstantiated ideas about what shadowy no-gooders are doing, but I’d rather hear about things that are actually happening.

Hamartiogonic ,
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I’ve never met anyone who believed that. Is that one of the odd things about America you can’t learn simply by watching superhero movies?

Hamartiogonic ,
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What about the news article about the AI-generated comments about AI-generated images? Surely we can’t stop there.

Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them (www.404media.co)

In one of the coolest and more outrageous repair stories in quite some time, three white-hat hackers helped a regional rail company in southwest Poland unbrick a train that had been artificially rendered inoperable by the train’s manufacturer after an independent maintenance company worked on it. The train’s manufacturer is...

Hamartiogonic ,
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Trump and the whole Brexit circus have set a very high bar, but somehow someone still manages to produce quality comedy.

Hamartiogonic ,
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If the manufacturer can stop your trains, then obviously anyone with the necessary hacking skills can do it too. Certain governments might be very interested in tampering with the logistics of another country.

what is a skill you wish you had, and why?

Ok, I might as well go first: I wish I could draw. Not at the level where I could make photorealistic portraits, but I’ve always been envious of those who are able to scetch something together in a few minutes that perfectly captures what they want to convey. Sometimes words aren’t enough to express what I want to say, and...

Hamartiogonic ,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Being able to detect logical fallacies will help a lot, but it’s not a perfect solution either. If an argument follows a flawed logic, it might also have factual issues as well. The thing is, there are exceptions.

Some people actually have something factual to say, but they mess up the wording and end up saying something paradoxical. Someone trained in detecting logical fallacies might dismiss the argument as complete nonsense, even though the core of the argument was true.

Also, the reverse is true. If you know what you’re doing, you can craft a beautiful and logical argument that isn’t actually grounded in reality. Someone not trained to wield this sword, may be defenseless against it.

These kinds of arguing tools are definitely useful, but they don’t always lead to the right answer. Mistakes happen on both sides of the debate.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Here’s another quick tip to get anyone started: Find some code written by someone else, and modify it.

Depending on the language, you might be able to just read what it says and experiment with what happens when you change some details here and there. If the code does something that you’re interested in, you’ll also have the motivation to spend a few hours tweaking the code, or even reading the documentation.

Also, nowadays you can ask GPT what different parts of the code does. You can drill down with follow up questions until you understand how a specific detail works in the language you’re working with.

Hamartiogonic ,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

Here’s what changed my handwriting: turning it into a hobby

At school, writing stuff all the time was more like a job, so naturally I wasn’t really that interested in it. However when you don’t have to write a ton of stuff every day, you can approach it form a different angle. Go to the library and find a book about calligraphy. Pick a style you find interesting, and start practicing.

Motivation is key. Don’t write stuff you hate in a style you despise. That’s just basically a long way to say: school. Let’s say you fall in love with textura quadrata, so you start practicing that style instead of cursive. Eventually you’ll try italic, humanist, uncial and other styles too. Then you’ll start writing longer things; not just shopping lists, but journaling too. After a while, you start to notice that your handwriting has improved.

BTW don’t go with a dip pen at first. Instead, get a Pilot Parallel Pen, because it’s good for for most styles. Once you’re familiar with a specific writing style, you can start learning how to manage the ink flow of a dip pen, because that’s a completely different ball game.

Hamartiogonic ,
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English is such as mess that you actually have spelling contests to prove it. Try that with most other languages, and it’s going to be exciting for all the first graders who just learned the alphabet. Anyone older than that will be bored to death in the contest.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Yeah, me too. I was like: “dude, you just listen to the sounds, convert them to letters and you’re done. Why is everyone so excited about someone having learned the alphabet. That’s literally first grader stuff.”

Then I realized how bad it really is in English.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Title suggestion: Minnie and the Invasive Kraken

Hamartiogonic ,
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This is the raw material real toilet paper is made of. Similarly, you could also buy sewing thread to make your own rope. Not the most practical idea really, but it is possible.

Hamartiogonic ,
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If those numbers are real, that means that going with the cheap paper ends up being 50% more expensive in the long run.

Hamartiogonic ,
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We use ions for a bunch of stuff like Li-ion batteries and various other chemical engineering marvels on a daily basis. I wonder how new is the idea of ions anyway?

Wikipedia has this to say: “Svante Arrhenius put forth, in his 1884 dissertation, the explanation of the fact that solid crystalline salts dissociate into paired charged particles when dissolved, for which he would win the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Arrhenius’ explanation was that in forming a solution, the salt dissociates into Faraday’s ions, he proposed that ions formed even in the absence of an electric current.”

We’ve built so much on top an idea that’s only about 139 years old. Before that, it must have been pretty difficult or even impossible to explain large parts of chemistry we use every day.

I wonder how would you imagine the future of chemistry in the early 1800s? Could you imagine that nowadays we leach gold from a mineral that doesn’t even look golden at all? Could you imagine that we can pull aluminium from rocks that don’t even look metallic in any way? Could you imagine that we use it to build all sorts of things like cans, door frames and airplanes? What about surface coating of materials to give them corrosion resistance, different colors or scratch resistance. In the past 139 years we’ve done all sorts of absolutely wild things with ions.

If you start studying chemistry in 2023 you’ll probably hear about ions during the first lecture and later you’ll build all sorts of wonderful things on that bit of information.

Hamartiogonic ,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

The thing is, we don’t know is the speed limit is a hard problem.

Maybe will struggle with it for centuries or maybe we’ll find a way to avoid the problem within the next 130 years. Maybe we’ll find a way to bend space so that you don’t really need to travel very fast. Maybe wormholes become a viable option. Maybe we’ll build hyperspace gates or something like that.

Or maybe none of that is viable and a thousand years later we’re still struggling with the speed of light wishing there was a way around it.

At some point, microbes and immunology were a complete mystery. People dying after surgery was a hard problem and nobody knew how to fix that. Turns it, all you need is ethanol and penicillin, but we couldn’t even imagine it at the time.

Hamartiogonic ,
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A bit like Lemmy, but worse in every way.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Normally people pay to see the circus, but you could just sneak in though. It’s not exactly stalling, so what do you call that? The circus is still there, but you didn’t pay for it.

If lots of people start doing that, the circus probably won’t have enough money to keep on performing. Maybe they’ll get rid of the more expensive bits and just keep the cheaper ones in the future.

Hamartiogonic ,
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If that was a normal purchase, then that’s clearly theft.

If it was art leasing, there’s probably a long contract with details about a situation like this. No matter what the contract says, the local law might still disagree with that, so it can get complicated. The art company might be violating their own contract, although it is unlikely. The company might be within the rights outlined in the contract, but they might still be breaking the law. You need a lawyer to figure it out.

Hamartiogonic ,
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I agree that the analogy isn’t perfect. As you pointed out, people sneaking in are taking space from people who would be willing pay for the service.

If you could somehow sneak into Netflix and take some of their bandwidth or their ability to provide the service to paying customers, then the analogy would work. In reality though, people pirate Netflix shows and movies by torrenting, and that has no impact on Netflix’s bandwidth.

The way I see it, circus and digital videos are a service. You are supposed to pay for both, but you can easily see both of them for free. Comparing these two with stealing just doesn’t work IMO.

You could also compare it with watching a football match from the other side of the fence. Although, in reality, you wouldn’t get a very good view of the game, whereas torrenting movies gives you a great view. Interestingly, the football example doesn’t involve trespassing, but you still get to enjoy a part of the service. All analogies break at some point.

Hamartiogonic ,
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The world is full of bad contracts. It’s truly sad that we decided to accept them without making numerous alterations here and there.

Hamartiogonic ,
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More people should let the service provider know that their contract sucks and that they refuse to pay for the service under the proposed conditions. Most people don’t even read the contract, so I don’t think the situation is going to improve any time soon.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Please elaborate.

Hamartiogonic ,
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They should try making only 100 shirts instead of 1000 where 900 end up not selling fast enough.

Hamartiogonic ,
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There are always a few people willing to pay a crazy price for some crazy nonsense garbage. I think it’s ok to make few shirts like that, but you have to make sure you actually sell all of them. Better not manufacture more than you can sell.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Some times it’s difficult to tell if a person like that is serious or just seriously trolling you. However, I have met people who say some of the wildest things about wikipedia, vaccines, police, governments etc. and they seemed very serious to me.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Chemists and microbiologists are worried about obscure little things you and I haven’t even heads of. But, oh boy are those things nasty. You know, nightmare stuff like acid that slips through your skin and eats your bones or breathing a single spore that is enough to kill you. Such delightful people to have lunch with.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Better not look it up on wikipedia. That place has all sorts of things from black powder to nitroglycerin too. Who knows, you could become a chemist if you read too much wikipedia.

Hamartiogonic ,
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Three are also tests where you are expected to think like the person who made the test to figure or what the “correct” answer us. It’s not really correct, but it is the one that gets you the points.

Also some IQ question have several correct answers, but only one of them gives you the points. Super annoying. If you’re creative and smart enough to come up with a logically consistent answer you’re still not guaranteed to get the “correct” answer.

Hamartiogonic ,
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This graph begs to differ.

Thomas 🔭✨ (@[email protected]) 23andMe just sent out an email trying to trick customers into accepting a TOS change that will prevent you from suing them after they literally lost your genome (hachyderm.io)

23andMe just sent out an email trying to trick customers into accepting a TOS change that will prevent you from suing them after they literally lost your genome ro thieves....

Hamartiogonic ,
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My ISP, phone company, bank, insurance company and everyone else send me TOS related messages from time to time. Usually, the message is something along the lines of: “We’re altering the deal. Pray we don’t alter it any further”

It doesn’t seem fair to me, but since everyone is doing it, there probably isn’t a law against it.

Hamartiogonic ,
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There’s no place like 127.0.0.1

Hamartiogonic ,
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Repeat the word “computer” a finite number of times. Something like 10^128-1 times should be enough. Ready, set, go!

Hamartiogonic ,
@Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz avatar

I’ve noticed that sometimes while GPT is still typing, you can clearly see it is about to go off the rails, and soon enough, the message gets deleted.

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