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Pheonixdown

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Recommendation Algorithms & Advertising - Where do you draw the line?

I think recommendation algorithms and advertising are separate things, however think with defaults and when it comes to what specific data is collected, where do you draw the line? Absolutely no recommendations at all based on an algorithm? Would you say using your ‘like’ history to recommend you more videos is okay? What...

Pheonixdown ,

For something I’m paying for, I want no ads, recommended or otherwise.

For something I get for free, if it’s easily skippable/ignorable, I don’t really care, I’ll skip it or mute the tab or whatever. If I can’t, I’d rather have a like sniper level targeted ad (use all the data!), really try to show me something I’ll care about (there was some like 10 minutes ad about the science behing glass by one of the guys from MythBusters, I watched the whole ad, it was great). The demographic level targeted ads are my 2nd least favorite, mostly because it feels like I usually need to suffer through what is a targeted ad but if they bothered to exclude some of the audience based on some data points (looking at you luxury car ads, it’s just never going to happen), they’d know I’m a bad target, I’d rather some generic add over those. My least favorite ad though, when I get an ad in a language I don’t even understand, like at least match my primary language, wasting everyone’s time…

Man survives being lost in California mountains for 10 days by eating berries (www.theguardian.com)

As McClish told it, the 34-year-old outdoors enthusiast from Boulder Creek, California, lost his bearings after beginning his hike the morning of 11 June. He had not informed anyone else of his plans, so it would not be until the afternoon of Thursday, 20 June, that the unkempt-looking hiker was found at the bottom of a remote...

Pheonixdown ,

I’m thinking either he used it as a canteen to carry more water further, or as a rain barrel to capture it, not just as a cup to drink from at places where water was readily available.

Pheonixdown ,

There are women who intentionally choose to be a single parent. Like they’re single, they get a sperm donor, have a kid. It’s not some insane thing. Kids should have a supportive and caring environment, whomever raises them. Not every kid with a single caregiver is neglected, nor is every kid with 2 or more caregivers properly cared for.

Pheonixdown ,

Americans use any/all of bedrooms/bathrooms/square footage/lot size

Pheonixdown ,

maybe they can create some category that makes it clear that it’s folk medicine.

We call folk medicine that’s proven to work “medicine”.

Pheonixdown ,

They’re giving Ukraine $50B, as a loan. They’re repaying the loan at a rate of $3B/yr using the seized interest payments.

Pheonixdown ,

You’d limit Ultimate Beneficial Ownership of the properties, not direct ownership.

I’d probably do something like: No individual or private entity may have Direct, Indirect or Ultimate Beneficial Ownership exceeding or of multiple of any of X(2-5?) Single Family properties, Y(2-3?) low density Multi-tenant properties, or Z(1-2?) high density Multi-tenant properties. Excluding the first wholely and solely owner occupied property. Excluding Ultimate Beneficial Ownership of less than A(.01-5?)% of a property. Excluding Ownership less than B(30-180?) days. Failure to comply results in forfeiture of newer ownership to REGULATOR-TBD until compliance is met. Multi-tenant properties have C (5-10?) residences

IANAL, probably some other loopholes that need closing. But the intent would be to limit consolidated ownership of many properties. But not impact several of the more reasonable ownership structures, nor impact churn of properties. The regulator would sell whatever extra it gets to fund housing programs.

Pheonixdown ,

Yeah, I feel like it’s one of those situations where you try to think of what would be a size that should be more than enough and then double it (or use the whole canvas if it isn’t as big as that).

Hamas launches rocket attack towards Tel Aviv area (www.bbc.com)

Hamas says it has launched a rocket attack towards the Tel Aviv area in central Israel for the first time in nearly four months. At least eight rockets were launched from the Rafah area in southern Gaza and several were intercepted, the Israeli military says. No injuries have been reported.

Pheonixdown ,

“always” might be a bit of a strong word when referring to ownership of basically any part of that region.

Pheonixdown ,

For my $, Wendy’s is winning the value competition. Their value deals are cheap and decent, their reward system is better, their online deals are better. Subjectively, I like the taste better, so that’s nice too.

BK and McD offer better deals at volume than for a single person meal, but even then it’s not better than Wendy’s. Single person it’s just not even a contest.

It's out now! The prologue for my solo project, a roguelike tower defense, is live. Check it out. (store.steampowered.com)

About the game: A tower defense action roguelike where you control a single tower to fight against hordes of aliens coming from all directions. Pick your tower, equip up to 4 skills, and choose from a variety of traits and items to craft powerful builds that lead you to victory....

Pheonixdown ,

Played a couple runs. Definitely seems up my alley.

Feedback:

  1. Idk why, but when cursoring UI menus, it just ticks from where I cursored to the top like I’m holding an up arrow. Happens in Menus, Stats, Level ups and Shop. Clicking works fine, just really couldn’t read any stat descriptions.
  2. When teasing the locked towers/skills, when you obscure the text with the X of locks, it’s hard for me to read and get excited about getting access to that thing. Maybe move the lock indicator somewhere there isn’t text (top right?).
  3. This is maybe more fundamental, and idk how it fits with your vision, but scroll wheeling between skills feels clunky, could it maybe be key based (either as well or in addition), think that’d feel snappier to me.
Pheonixdown ,
  1. PC, other than M/KB, I have a Razer Tartarus.
  2. I was using the scroll wheel, might have missed the cue to use keys, that’d fix it for me.
Pheonixdown ,

Yep, UI mouseover is fine with it unplugged, issue returns when replugged.

Pheonixdown ,

Any new purchasers (I am one) are also probably waiting for the mid-generation update coming later this year.

Pheonixdown ,

Gotta crank up that dystopia meter.

This is slowly moving toward having Content On Demand. Imagine being able to prompt your content app for a movie/series you want to watch, and it just makes it and streams it to you.

Pheonixdown ,

It certainly doesn’t hurt, but she won based on it being an illegal form of discrimination causing some form of harm, a non-discriminatory policy might be viewed differently.

Pheonixdown ,

ADA covers a bit of that already, and can already be effectively welded against return to office policies, but they are individual specific exceptions to a global policy. This was targeted illegal discrimination.

Admit it: ‘Artificial general intelligence’ may already be obsolete, Expecting OpenAI’s GPT and other large language models to beat humans at thinking like a human might be missing the point. (www.fastcompany.com)

Elon Musk filed a lawsuit in San Francisco’s Superior Court accusing OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, of betraying the startup’s initial commitment to openness, the betterment of society, and lack of profit as a motive. Among other things, Musk’s 35-page complaint argues that OpenAI has violated its original deal to share...

Pheonixdown ,

Other people had the capability to do what Copernicus did, but lacked desire/resources. A LLM will never have the capability for a novel idea.

Pheonixdown ,

If by AI, you mean the things people are making today and calling AI, no, they’re all basically powerful regression algorithms. They can be strong tools for people to use to solve complex problems. Anything a program does will be based on what it was programmed to do, at best it will find novel things based on being programmed to look for novel things randomly and people will test and confirm those guesses. They already kind of do this for some medical purposes. Is trying an uncountably large number of randomized guesses and giving a probability for success based on historical data intelligent?

Could a true AI exist like we see in SciFi, maybe?

Pheonixdown ,

Holy shit, what a “HR” style take. People want improved cash to effort ratios, far and away above anything in this article. More cash, more or better benefits, more time off, more efficient work with the same output expectations, WFH, shorter days, shorter weeks. But all that costs the company, so instead we get these stupid things that largely cause even more wasted time at work, causing more effort to get your same output and getting an even lower value of what people care about.

janbartosik , to gaming
@janbartosik@witter.cz avatar

A coop PvE game for two dads and three sons?
A shooter, preferably. Any recommendations, guys? The youngest lad is 10, so as little violence as possible. Thanks 😉

@gaming

Pheonixdown ,

Palworld, rent a dedicated server, anyone can hop in or out as necessary. Guns, legally(?) distinct from pokemon monsters to catch. Cartoon violence. Tons of fun to be had.

Pheonixdown ,

It’s not the customer’s responsibility to try to figure out why and make some determination if the too good to be true deal is real. If it gave it out for a penny, is that too much of a deal? What about half price? 1 penny discount? Where’s the line?

Regardless, I could see someone designing it as a feature because “nobody would ever swipe their card twice normally”.

Pheonixdown ,

I’d like to see a lawyer who would argue that “any reasonable person living and functioning in society could conceivable construe that them taking 28 000 dollars worth of gas was definitely the system working as designed, and they were at no point aware that they were doing anything illlegal.”

“There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.”

“I thought I’d won some kind of free gas contest, why else would my card give free gas?”

People can honestly be idiots as you pointed out.

The business holds all the cards when it comes to asking for and accepting payment. If they failed to do that in the way they wanted, it’s on them.

Ugh, really? In software development, or in developing anything that involves an end-user, such things are taken into consideration. Especially when there’s payment cards involved.

Thanks for the good laugh, this indicates way more faith in business side middle managers than is due. They ask for dumb shit all the time and make the devs do it. While I can’t rule out it being some kind of coding defect, because those also happen all the time, there’s definitely a non-zero probability that someone asked for it to work this way because it was convenient to operate or cheap to implement. Companies involved in payment processing are far from infallible, they just eat their mistakes and make the customer whole most of the time. I’ve worked at 2 different large banks, shit is held together with duct tape, prayers and throwing money at it some of the time.

Pheonixdown ,

That’s some wild nuclear fear mongering. Globally, there’ve been less than 10 incidents ever on the scale you’re talking about, and most of those are from the early days of the tech and the only recent one of note was due to weather patterns which wouldn’t be a thing on the moon. And you jump to what if it happens on the moon dozens of times?

Conservative Christian women in red states are rising up to defend IVF (www.washingtonpost.com)

“They were attacking my faith. It bothered me to the core,” said Sara, a Southern Baptist who identifies as pro-life. “Because I had never viewed [IVF] as wrong, as anything other than beautiful and bringing another life into the world. … I’ve actually had a lot of friends pray for me and encourage me and help me along...

Pheonixdown ,

Feels like an old variant on the trolley problem.

I’d guess their view is something like, with an abortion, if you don’t, there’s a baby, but with an unimplanted embryo, if you do nothing there’s no baby. Essentially absolving people for not taking an action, even though the outcome is the same as those they condemn when an action is taken in a similar situation. But it’s also weird and telling how they’re now arguing that just having more babies be born is some kind of implicit positive.

Pheonixdown ,

I pretty much only use the apps if I can.

There’s basically always some deal I can save a few bucks on. Easy to see any new menu items ahead of time. Coordinate the whole family order with all the customizations. Easier communication at the order box. There’s also usually some built-in rewards program.

Pheonixdown ,

My data has some value, but I can’t sell it, might as well get something for it. Using apps, I get like $200+/yr.

Pheonixdown ,

Different apps are paying different parts of that, I’m sure to each it’s worth far less than that for them to sell.

But that’s all more than the $0 I could get for it by trying to prevent anyone from having it.

Damn near everything they can get from my phone can be sourced from any number of places anyway, my data is so everywhere it’s worthless. I’m sure over 100 companies have a record with my name, address, phone number, at least 1 of my like 6 emails. Google probably knows it all and sells it anyway.

Sure a dedicated malicious actor could be an annoying problem, but they’re not likely to be really helped by any data these companies are getting.

Otherwise, I’m more likely to get targeted advertising than anything else, and if I’m going to get advertised to, I’d rather it be for something someone who’s paying for it thinks I’d want, rather than purely random stuff.

andrew , to news
@andrew@andrew.masto.host avatar

FDA Approves First Medication to Help Reduce Allergic Reactions to Multiple Foods After Accidental Exposure

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-medication-help-reduce-allergic-reactions-multiple-foods-after-accidental

@news

Pheonixdown ,

Glad they’re working on stuff like this, but it seems generally less effective than I’ve heard OIT is supposed to be, but I wonder if there’s any combination that is more effective or safe.

What games do you recommend for my girlfriend?

My girlfriend has never really gamed. But she’s now forced to move less than she would like to (health problem) and she’s getting bored. I was thinking of introducing her to a game or two that we could play together. She’s not the real action game type, and seeing as she has no experience with controller/mouse and keyboard...

Pheonixdown ,

Turned based on pausable stuff can reduce stress by allowing for thoughtfulness, and even single player games can be done together through strategizing, while also not requiring the 2nd person if they aren’t available. To that end, I’m going to recommend Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons or Broken Age. Then probably some kind of tactical game, Darkest Dungeon, Loop Hero or Shadowrun. After that, maybe some kind of management game, Cities: Skylines, SimCity, Stardew Valley, Humankind or Against the Storm. If you want to go deeper, Crusader Kings, Dyson Sphere Program or Wartales.

Real-time games that require using multiple sticks/buttons/aiming+moving at once are inherently more difficult to start without the muscle memory, so I’d look to build that up with games that have simpler controls starting with Vampire Survivors or Brotato. Then I’d probably do some kind of non-shooter first or third person game, thinking of Escape Academy, Firewatch or Superliminal, Amnesia (maybe). Then a combat first/third person game Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield (Campaign), Mass Effect. Then maybe something that’s got combat plus extra stuff, Atomic Heart, Deep Rock Galactic, Dead Space (maybe), Doom, Prey, Wo Long, Remnant. After that is really PvP stuff.

If you just want more readably accessible stuff, A Short Hike, Disneyland Adventures, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled, The Walking Dead from Telltale (maybe).

I also pulled every game on this list off of Xbox Game Pass, so that might be a good way to try a bunch of different games for cheaper.

Pheonixdown ,

I managed to get one of the “desktop replacement” laptops before they got sold to Dell, and that fucker was a solid brick shithouse, lasted like 7 years before functional issues. Heat was definitely a problem, couldn’t rest my left hand on the keyboard (above the GPU) after a couple hours and could probably sit outside in a blizzard without pants comfortably. Miss that bad boy… Shame Dell ruined them.

Couple suing Google Maps after it sent them to a notorious crime hotspot where they were brutally attacked and robbed at gunpoint (www.the-express.com)

Couple suing Google Maps after it sent them to a notorious crime hotspot where they were brutally attacked and robbed at gunpoint::A Los Angeles couple filed a lawsuit against Google Maps for allegedly navigating them to a notorious South African crime neighborhood where tourists are left ‘injured, maimed or dead.’

Pheonixdown ,

It’s not a coincidence, nobody wants to live near an airport let alone an international one, the noise level is insane. My grandparent’s house is less than a half mile from the edge of one, and even with soundproofing, the dishes still set to rattling far too often. The airport was basically forced to buy out like half the neighborhood because it was so bad.

Pheonixdown ,

Satoru Iwata and the Wii U is the single instance I can think of.

Pheonixdown ,

While that’s part of it, it’s definitely not “just” that.

Sadly, part of it is that the game has released in a fairly stable/polished state, which is considered a positive in the world of broken releases. The multiplayer also just works with little issue as opposed to some problems of yesteryear.

There’s also a perhaps surprising pent up demand for good co-op PvE focused games. They blow-up hard but tend to fade out depending on gameplay quality. Part of this is the streamer effect, streamers like to play group games with other streamers because it helps cross-pollinate their audiences. Sales are also improved due to group/peer-pressure, if someone can pull in their friend group, that’s a lot of sale multiplication.

I also think that the developers tried to make a game that’s fun. A lot of decisions seem to have followed the rule of cool for this type of game e.g. pal mounts, firearms, catching people, automation of survival elements via slavery.

It also manages to have both a clear and guided progression system while maintaining the freedom for the player to just fuck off and do whatever they want while still at least partially progressing.

My only honest gripes with the game are how world saves are handled (they should use the Grounded system in addition to having dedicated servers) and that I for some reason can’t find the exit button on the title screen so to quit I need to alt-f4, for the rare times I need it.

Pheonixdown ,

If only the US Treasury had some sort of process to gift money to the US government, since 1843, that can be easily googled in like three words.

deleted_by_moderator

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    Pheonixdown ,

    Your account can only have 1 person per server/world and it is only for that world.

    You can create/join multiple worlds, each has its own independent progress.

    So for example, if everyone in a family of 4 wanted to play but only one account, they each could play independently on different worlds using the same account, but could never join each other’s worlds with any character other than the first made on that world.

    Pheonixdown ,

    Been thinking on this, I believe that if you family share the game on steam, each steam account could independently access the same dedicated or community servers, but local worlds will still only be accessible by the creator as they are the only one who can host their world. You may be able copy the world files between the different folders though.

    Supermarket responds after Reddit user’s warning about self-checkout overcharge — ‘Was annoyed that the total amount due on my supermarket purchase did not equate to the individual items I purchased.’ (7news.com.au)

    Supermarket responds after Reddit user’s warning about self-checkout overcharge — ‘Was annoyed that the total amount due on my supermarket purchase did not equate to the individual items I purchased.’::‘Was annoyed that the amount due on my Woolies purchase did not equate to the individual items I purchased.’

    Pheonixdown ,

    Nah, this wasn’t an issue with the scanner, it’s an issue with the core design of the software. For whatever reason, it uses different value fields when determining the price to display for an item and the price used in the total, that means this problem can occur for any number of items and the only way to detect it is to manually total the receipt. It’s a fundamental problem with the software and their pricing change control process and a good PSA, the negative headline draws better attention than the positive, which is that anyone could be charged incorrectly. That the store was able to fix it is also good to include, but it is an expected responsibility of the store to do so, not some positive spin.

    Pheonixdown ,

    That looks awful.

    If you want an actual egro vertical mouse, don’t buy a gimmick. I’ve got both wired and wireless zelotes vertical mice from Amazon, would recommend.

    Pheonixdown ,

    FFX Blitzball is the mini-game that I sunk the most time into by far (100+ hours), and always had fun.

    Gwent from Witcher 3 kind of goes without saying, the framework is so good it’s spawned 3 full games that I can think of.

    Best Hacking mini-game goes to the newer Deux Ex games, quick, the right amount of challenge but if you didn’t like it you could basically never do it.

    Best lockpicking I’m going to give to Starfield. Literally the only part of the game I actually enjoyed, each is a great little puzzle.

    Pheonixdown ,

    Back in my teens one summer, I was playing Resident Evil Code Veronica by day at my friend’s house and Doom 3 alone in my basement at night, got about halfway through both but quit because of the constant nightmares. Lost to the psychological damage I guess.

    Pheonixdown ,

    Each part of Prime just keeps getting shittier and shittier, this could definitely be a straw that broke the camel’s back situation. Shipping stopped being 2-days every time during the pandemic, returns used to allow for pick up at your house are now drop off at a store. Music catalog is being slowly locked behind Unlimited, and now it’s all station-ified so you can’t even listen to what you want.

    Pheonixdown ,

    To quote my best friend, “If I’m going to spend hours staring at an ass, it might as well be a girl’s ass.”

    Pheonixdown ,

    Nah, they just don’t make sense for people with the way amortization works. It’s not like doubling the length of the mortgage halves the payment. At 7% interest, for example as it’s sort of close to the current average, changing a 30 year mortgage to a 100 year mortgage is about a 12.24% reduction in the monthly payment.

    Pheonixdown ,

    They said if you’re buying solely based bubble color then it’s based on peer pressure, there of course are other valid reasons for someone to choose one and there are also other bad reasons.

    Emails Reveal How a Hospital Bowed to Political Pressure to Stop Treating Trans Teens (www.propublica.org)

    The Medical University of South Carolina initially said it wouldn’t be affected by a law banning use of state funds for treatment “furthering the gender transition” of children under 16. Months later, it cut off that care to all trans minors....

    Pheonixdown ,

    How do you propose doing research other than through informed consent from willing volunteers? Let alone that this whole chain of events even stemmed from a research paper! How are they supposed to do the research you said they need to do, when they’re actively punished for doing it?

    Pheonixdown ,

    Dvorak?

    Pheonixdown ,

    Have you considered switching to pickup when you can? pick what you want from the comfort of your home, drive to the store at the designated time, an employee has picked all your goods and it is brought out to you. Same price for you, more labor for the company to pay for.

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