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dejected_warp_core

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dejected_warp_core ,

I’ve seen this kind of thing too many times to count. First it was in high school, then the workplace.

  1. Person notices there is no explicit rule for a thing, or maybe there’s a loophole somewhere
  2. Does the thing
  3. Annoys someone
  4. Now there’s a rule for the thing

Some people just want to push the envelope. Other times, people can have a poor grasp of social norms, or they simply don’t respect others. But on the other side of the coin, people get annoyed for good and bad reasons; sometimes, no reason at all.

Bottom line: it’s a mess, so we get rules. But nobody wants to spend time writing these things and enforcing them, so there’s usually a reason/person/event why they’re there.

dejected_warp_core ,

Company: Provides amenities and services that would (technically) allow a person to live on premises. Pays you enough to retire early if you didn’t have to bother with rent or a mortgage.

Also company: “We can’t hire you without a permanent residential address.”

I also worked at multiple places that had fully decked out break-rooms: free food, game consoles, VR, and 60-inch TVs. Everyone was afraid to use them for fear of looking like they were screwing around. Except the interns. They used the hell out of that stuff.

dejected_warp_core ,

I am not a lawyer.

I did some rapid web searches to dig in here because I was curious about how this might be abused. It turns out that is better worded than it would at first appear. I think the trick here is it depends on whose definition of “depressant, stimulant, narcotic” you go by.

For example, the CDC considers caffeine a stimulant, but the FDA says it’s a “food additive”. So there’s no FDA schedule for caffeine, which means you also can’t get a prescription for caffeine pills, nor pay for them through insurance. But that also means it’s arguably not a drug or “stimulant” under this definition.

Meanwhile, alcohol labeling is handled by the FDA, but it looks like everything about the substance itself falls under the ATF (it’s in the name after all). The ATF seems to take great care to not categorize alcohol as a depressant and goes out of its way to never call alcohol a “drug” (example). And, as it turns out, (Federally) alcohol is not a controlled substance.

dejected_warp_core ,

Hate that my government is apparently dead set on all of us driving massive trucks and SUVs spending thousands to money lenders, auto manufacturers, and dealerships over realist vehicles.

Doubly so if those parties are campaign contributors. Always follow the money.

dejected_warp_core ,

I’ll preface this by saying this shady shit gets all my hate.

It’s tempting to opt for telematics/black box insurance because of the initial cheaper prices but the privacy violations and potential downsides make it not worth it.

The overall problem here is that human psychology tends to frame this difference as a loss not a gain. Given the choice, people will see the cheaper option as the baseline, and then ask “can I afford to pay more for privacy?” instead of affirming “my privacy is not worth this discount.”

Also, those of us that have paid for insurance without such a “discount”, are likely keenly aware of the difference. For new drivers, from now to here on out, the lack of past experience presents a new baseline where this awfulness is normalized. Competition between insurance providers won’t help us here since the “privacy free” option is still profitable and is enticing for new customers (read: younger, poorer). So it’ll take some kind of law, collective action, or government intervention to make this go away.

Have fun fighting with your insurance to get them to remove anything from your record. […] If I had spyware insurance they would’ve dinged me for it.

I think this is the bigger problem. If someone has the data an insurance company wants, you probably agreed to an EULA or signed something that makes their ownership, and its sale, legal. With the “yeah go ahead and use my data” option on the table, the machinery to do this without your knowledge is already in place. All the insurance provider has to do is buy the data from someone else. When the price is right, 1st party spyware isn’t required at all.

dejected_warp_core , (edited )

Never understood the appeal honestly.

Same here. I spent about 30 minutes trying to play one (DoTA I think?) and figured out:

  • Each hero has a zillion upgrades and abilities
  • Each hero is basically on their own roguelite style upgrade path
  • The game has a dozen or more such heroes
  • icons and text too small to play on livingroom TV, controller play out of the question
  • at mercy of online match-making algorithm if I’m not in a league/clan/whatever

From this I could deduce:

  • There’s no way in hell this is perfectly balanced - too many variables, it may as well be MttG
  • Going to take 20 or more hours to dial in a personal play style
  • Going to take probably 50-100 to develop a play style that can adapt to most situations
  • League play will probably kick my ass, requiring another 50-100 hours of practice/training
  • Causal play is out; likely can’t pick up and play immediately due to lobby, variable match times

I’m not knocking the genre as a whole, but this is not for me. It’s too far outside my typical mode of gaming and is likely to just frustrate me more than anything else. I’m familiar with hard to play online games like Quake, TF2, and even Soldat. But those have small power systems that, even with gross imbalances, were still playable because there were usually only one or two scenarios you couldn’t overcome. Adding more on every axis just sounds like a wildly unbalanced system where the skill curve isn’t steep enough, costing a lot of time invested in bad strategies before you figure it all out.

dejected_warp_core ,

Yes. Not enough daydreaming about winning arguments, mixed with intrusive thoughts and general self-loathing.

dejected_warp_core ,

Kinda? I figured that there’s some portion of the population that’s not smart - bell-curve statistical distribution and all that. But I always thought that the problem was education, or rather, access to a good^1^ education and all the socio-economic and political boundaries around that.

To be blunt: modest to insanely powerful people have something invested in keeping such barriers high, and it’s worrysome.

  1. Good = a program that teaches critical thinking and has access to liberal arts, trades, traditional arts, libraries, and information technology.
dejected_warp_core ,

Lower Decks, per usual, had the best take on this trope.

in the in-universe parody show “Wormhole X-treme”

That whole episode was such a gift.

dejected_warp_core , (edited )

I mean, it’s what you’d expect from older gen X-ers, which isn’t a bad thing. That one song sounds a lot like R.E.M., and the more popular tracks on the channel have a real post-punk vibe overall. The older stuff up there reminds me of… Tom Petty? Overall, easy listening rock.

Edit: I don’t know what I expected. Freakin’ Keanu is in the band. Of course it’s wholesome.

dejected_warp_core , (edited )

That’s basically the Atkins diet (Keto) without enough nutrition. It’ll function like a very short, very uncomfortable, malnourished crash diet.

You’ll spend the first two weeks craving carbs and sugars like your life depends on it. It’s awful. After that “break in” period, the cravings mostly go away.

But that’s not all. So much as lick a piece of candy or chew on some bread, and you’ll get a large dopamine rush followed by carb-craving mode again. If sheer willpower and deferred rewards are at all a problem for you, this might feel like one of the hardest things you’ve ever tried to do.

Edit: now that I remember, my grandma tried a “cottage cheese and grapefruit” fad/crash diet back in the 80’s. Turns out that one has been doing the rounds for almost a century. IIRC, it doesn’t work since it’s easy to underestimate how insanely difficult this is to do.

dejected_warp_core ,

I feel you. Hard cheese, bacon, and pickled eggs were my go-to. Anything with strong flavors. I did that for about a year and then stopped once I hit my weight goal.

In the middle of all that, I noticed that vegetables started to taste sweet as they do contain small amounts of sugar. Especially cabbage. I kind of miss that.

A workaround I employed was to eat lots of kimchi. Fermented foods like that contain sugar alcohols which taste sweet(ish), but are not digestible as such.

dejected_warp_core ,

I agree on those stats. Don’t forget: Atkins himself died from heart disease. But hey, at least you have the pics to prove it.

Were it me, the potential for humor would be impossible to ignore:

Me: “This diet is miserable, don’t do this.”

Also me: shows pics looking more shredded that a bowl of mini-wheats

dejected_warp_core ,

That’s awesome. Glad that’s working for you! If you have any tips on building willpower for the rest of us, please share, and thank you.

dejected_warp_core ,

I forgot about the smells. My sense of smell shifted to be way more sensitive to sugars and starches too - it was tough.

I didn’t bother trying to track fat intake and wound up losing 2+ lbs a month that way; not bragging, but my goal wasn’t all that big. I probably could have done things faster by cutting more fat, but it was already hard enough.

I was educated by another user on how the process actually works.

Fascinating, isn’t it? It’s like each of us is just full of survival mechanisms.

dejected_warp_core ,

Raw is great, but it still requires some prep. Grated raw and mixed with olive oil, with some black pepper, and salt, makes a wonderful dip/spread on toasted bread.

dejected_warp_core ,

Computer, set a sexy course for the sexiest year…

dejected_warp_core ,

No, but it’s actually pretty close.

Cars: 40,990 people The agency estimates that 40,990 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2023, a decrease of about 3.6% as compared to 42,514 fatalities reported to have occurred in 2022. The fourth quarter of 2023 represents the seventh consecutive quarterly decline in fatalities beginning with the second quarter of 2022.Apr 1, 2024

NHTSA Releases 2022 Traffic Deaths, 2023 Early Estimates

Guns: 42,967 people In 2023, 42,967 people died in the United States from gun related injuries. Between 2010 and 2020, gun-related deaths rose by roughly 43%. Every day, on average, at least 327 people are shot across the US, including roughly. 115,552 are shot.Feb 14, 2024

Nearly 43000 died from gun violence in 2023: How to tell the …

dejected_warp_core ,

Announcing the Kame House Island Ultramarathon: Sponsored by Hetap.

dejected_warp_core ,

Also: civilian GPS is not super accurate. Or maybe our runner got board and started hopping fences Ferris Bueller style?

dejected_warp_core ,

Wouldn’t we all?

dejected_warp_core , (edited )

I’m one of these people. I can smell an apartment roach infestation from the front door, every time.

And yes, restaurants always get the “sniff check” before we sit down. No-go odors are:

  • bleach
  • pine-sol (amonia)
  • heavy perfume (think “Glade plugin-in”)
  • insects (roaches, etc)
  • pet odor (wet dog, litterbox)
  • sewage (usually a dry floor drain but that’s still not okay)
  • dingy carpet (think: “old movie theater”)

The first two are obvious attempts at covering up something worse with “clean” smells, and/or the staff has no idea what “clean” actually means. And they obviously don’t care what olfaction means to someone trying to enjoy a meal, which says heaps about what they think food service actually is. Everything else just speaks to the “I don’t care what you smell” part, or there’s something very wrong with how the kitchen is run. /rant

An example of a top-shelf dining odor experience? I once went to a Japanese restaurant at opening time. The only smell in the dining room was that of the specific kind of imported cedar in the cutting boards. This is traditionally cleaned with boiling hot water, and nothing else. This released a gentle woody and pine-y scent that just filled the space and invited the senses. I came hungry, but I sat down ravenous. The meal to follow was something I will never forget.

Edit: some clarification since this got some traction. I know that bleach and ammonia are s-tier disinfectants and absolutely necessary for food prep, health standards, and the rest. I use this stuff at home. My issue is with establishments that utterly fail at ventilating these odor and spoil the dining experience with strong chemical odors. Looking deeper I find very strong cleaning odors (long after opening hours) suspicious since it’s very easy to splash stuff around, giving the impression of cleanliness, but not actually clean anything. Strong chemical smells also make it impossible to detect sewage, rot, mold, soil, and other things that would easily flag a restaurant. I’d rather not take the chance.

dejected_warp_core ,

Did not know that was possible.

Same, but I’m starting to think you need a pretty sizable infestation in a nearby wall for this to be a thing.

dejected_warp_core ,

That’s entirely possible. The problem is that with chlorine or ammonia vapors savaging your nasal cavity, you’ll never really know.

I’ve tried to push through in these situations and it’s never good.

dejected_warp_core ,

Agreed! But “smells like cleanser” does not mean “is clean”. It jams up my radar (sense of smell) so it’s tough to figure out if anything else is up. I’d rather detect no off odors or cleansers at all to be sure.

dejected_warp_core ,

My favorite was the hostess who didn’t want to clean the bathroom so she would just fill the soap and and paper products and fill a spray bottle with Lysol that she would spray around to give the smell of a clean bathroom.

This is exactly the kind of BS I’m talking about. I once knew some pool lifeguards that had to rotate through bathroom cleaning duty. I overheard that their MO was to just get everything wet with a hose, splash pinesol on the floor, and call it a day.

dejected_warp_core ,

If it’s open, looks don’t matter. Also doesn’t matter if the drivers are trash, or if it runs zero games. It’s all fixable trash - that’s the point.

(Also, that’s not a GPU, but it’s the thought that counts)

dejected_warp_core ,

a lot of devs love watching stuff like speedrunning

True, but some of them hate it. But with the growing presence of speedrunning friendly features in new titles (looking at you, Supergiant), I think that’s becoming less of a problem.

Either way, these “devs watch” reaction videos are fantastic.

dejected_warp_core ,

Exactly. And while we’re educating the forum here, Wikipedia has the details on the loophole that circumvents this:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_show_loophole#Provenanc…

Sometimes referred to as the Brady bill loophole,[9] the Brady law loophole,[10] the gun law loophole,[11] or the private sale loophole,[12][13][14] the term refers to a perceived gap in laws that address what types of sales and transfers of firearms require records and or background checks, such as the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.[15] Private parties are not legally required by federal law to: ask for identification, complete any forms, or keep any sales records, as long as the sale is not made in interstate commerce (across state lines) and does not fall under purview of the National Firearms Act. In addition to federal legislation, firearm laws vary by state.[16]

I am not a lawyer. I do not sell firearms.

The gist I get is that this opens up enough loopholes to permit unlicensed mules/fences on either side of the transaction. Depending on what political leanings and circumstances are in play, this legal framework might actually encourage that behavior.

dejected_warp_core ,

Wait, Oreos are actually bad?

dejected_warp_core ,

Wait, what?

lead in fuel that airplanes are still allowed to use

Oh shit.

dejected_warp_core ,

To be fair, I think this is for gas engines and not jet engines. So big commercial airports, and the con chem trail generating traffic, are in the clear.

No, it’s just the smaller airports and tiny fields used for crop dusters. You know. The ones that are literally everywhere. :(

dejected_warp_core ,

Also AMA about soda dispensing at bars.

It’s been ages since I worked in a restaurant. IIRC, I never saw that place purge or clean the soda lines. And there was a LOT of plumbing between the fountains and the back where the syrup was kept.

At the risk of making everyone re-think ever eating out again: how often do establishments do that kind of maintenance? And is that within the recommended manufacturer interval?

dejected_warp_core ,

Same.

Wow, what a bro. Where was this guy when I was in school?

::re-reads comment and thread::

Oh. Yeah, that one’s on me. That makes a little more sense.

dejected_warp_core ,

Also that’s likely a team that doesn’t use a branching workflow, has poor review on merges, and/or using Git like it’s SVN.

dejected_warp_core ,

A times B times C equals X. If X is more than the cost of a failure or security breach, we don’t fix the software.

Are there a lot of these kinds of problems?

You wouldn’t believe.

Which Fortune 500 company do you work for?

A major one.

dejected_warp_core ,

Software maintenance was seen as a necessary evil.

The most important lesson I learned about the economics of software is that sourcecode is always accounted as a liability and not an asset. Accountants will never let you code your way into more value. Everything else you see stems from that truth.

dejected_warp_core ,

You say this, but then I used to read r/justrolledintotheshop. People outright fail at substituting engine oil for engine oil from time to time. The kind of person that would try applesauce probably wouldn’t be doing more self harm than otherwise.

dejected_warp_core ,

I wanna say someone did that, so yes? Also: window washer fluid, and the occasional transmission fluid chaser.

dejected_warp_core ,

So this is really more heeling than healing.

dejected_warp_core ,

Also: no loitering. Keep moving.

dejected_warp_core ,

Oh, it’s more disgusting than that. You can re-finance which brings your monthly payment lower than what you could possibly afford when buying the same house anew. Yeah, the 30-year horizon for paying off gets reset, but there are ways to work around that.

Back when I was renting the landlord offered a 3-year instead of a 1-year lease. I immediately asked “does that mean I get a discount on rent or lock-in a rate?” When they told me “no”, I asked “why would I do that?” Renters really have no such luxuries.

dejected_warp_core ,

After completing all these steps, the result was a little anticlimactic and disappointing. But still, I realized there was one thing left to do: taste it.

dejected_warp_core ,

I found that the clowning/assholery in Seinfeld was just too close to plausible to clock as humor most of the time, while picking on small and petty things; it’s a little too real. I don’t think that comes from conceit, but rather, a generation gap and all the insensitivity that comes with it. Just add a little casual violence and it’s peak boomer-era humor. That said, Seinfield was its best when the stories were less believable and cruel.

The other shows you cite put these humor beats way over the top which is far more paletteable, IMO.

dejected_warp_core ,

The problem is that requirements refinement has been unceremoniously dumped in your lap. The failure here is organizational; maybe you have a design person involved, maybe devs are expected to do this. Either way, your job now also includes communications.

One strategy I’ve used is to draw a low-fi example of what they’re going to get - Figma is great at this these days. Then I add it to the issue and push the whole thing back for early approval in order to suss out these finer points.

Not to come off as misanthropic here, but many people are hot garbage at describing what’s in their head. Most of the time, it’s all abstract concepts up there until you start asking the real questions. They really do need a whole-ass conversation to sharpen that mental image. Or in this case, what they want that feature to look like. Incidentally, this is also the reason why therapy is a thing, and why it takes people years to make sense of themselves, and that outcome is usually far more crucial than anything we’re doing at the keyboard.

dejected_warp_core ,

One nit: whatever IDE is displaying single-character surrogates for == and != needs to stop. In a world where one could literally type those Unicode symbols in, and break a build, I think everyone is better off seeing the actual syntax.

dejected_warp_core , (edited )

In a one-liner competition, sure.

In my codebase? I’d pull a “let’s linger after standup about your PR” and have the coder sweat through a 10 minute soapbox about nothing before laying down the law.

dejected_warp_core ,

Honestly I don’t mind the indentation since C isn’t going to give us many ways to address this with as little code.

That said, with compilers that are good at inlining trivial functions, I really do appreciate the “it does what it says on the tin” approach to using functions on things like this. Even if they’re only used once. Comments would help too.

The logic in these if statements is inscrutable on a cold read like this. To me, that’s a maintenance risk; imagine seeing a snippet this size on a PR. Having functions that name what the hell is going on could only help.

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