rm_dash_r_star @ rm_dash_r_star @lemm.ee

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Joined

2 yr. ago

Well I'm not wikipedia here, just going on things I've read in past. You can either believe it or not believe it, suit yourself.

In the pre-internet days it was a well known fact that major media outlets in the USA had federal officials on staff to put the kibosh on issues of national security. That criteria has since broadened. For anyone that still watches news media on TV they can see for themselves the stories that never get past the editorial desk.

I've read claims of the same federal scrutiny happening for large social media outlets. These are USA companies operating in the USA so they fall under jurisdiction. They're certainly not going to advertise that's the case. I don't doubt this is happening for a second and in their own best interest they keep it on the downlow.

I'm not sure I understand the comment. You meant 99% of those complaining are posting hostile shit? If so, it's the 1% that post intelligent and legitimate counter arguments we need to allow a voice. It's not uncommon for legislation to push through under the guise of some public benefit that further erodes our civil liberty. As US citizens we need to be vigilant about that kind of thing or we're just throwing our freedom away.

The problem with a battery is there's no known technology that can accept that much energy that quickly. Five gigajoules is a lot of energy, it would be a massive battery and would have to accept a full charge in a tiny fraction of a second.

It might be possible with a capacitor array. At a hundred megavolts a capacitor array would not have to be terribly large to store five gigajoules. The initial problem is insulation. With that kind of voltage everything would have to be housed in a vacuum since any exposure or contact could provide a path to ground. Then there's the amperage the capacitor has to handle in charging. A hundred thousand Amps over any conventional conductor is going to vaporize it. Maybe super conductors could be employed.

Say you get past those challenges and you have a capacitor array storing charge at a hundred megavolts. You have to convert it to useable voltage somehow. You need a step down converter that can handle voltage that high. Now you have a whole new set of electrical engineering obstacles.

It might be feasible without sci-fi technology, but then would it be worth the development and deployment cost.

I could have made that a lot longer, but I just wanted make a few points without creating a wall of text.

Of course there's garbage you don't want to see in a community. But the difference is there's an actual human being I entrust to the task of removing it (the moderator). If I don't like how a community is moderated, I can go to another community. Mods make these calls for the sake of quality and topicality of their particular community, not because of some ulterior motive.

This is in comparison to an institution of some kind using keyword algorithms to mindlessly remove intelligent discussion only because it may be against some kind of predetermined policy. The US government does this. They have official agents placed within the staff of major social media outlets for this purpose.

The only thing I said about Musk is that it's a positive he tried to reduce censorship. I never implied that he removed censorship altogether. Twitter is still guilty of curating content same as the others. However Threads has flat out stated a full tilt censorship agenda.

And keep AI the FUCK away from war.

Like SkyNet, they'll come to the conclusion it all has to go.

Threads is pretty blatant about censorship and sharing of user data. They use terms like "a friendly space" and "convenient" to sell it to users. So you're actually losing something by jumping ship from Twitter. The one positive for Musk era Twitter was an attempt to reduce censorship, but the crazy things the company did otherwise far outweigh it.

One of the shitty things profit driven social media sites do is curate content to create a more advertiser friendly space. It even extends to special interests and government interests. I mean what do you call that when public information is curated by the government. I sure as hell don't want my US government telling me what I can and can not discuss in a public venue.

In the USA there's a little thing called the first amendment. Granted these are companies and don't necessarily have to adhere to civil rights in the same way government agencies do, but in effect they're doing the same thing. The US government should absolutely not be coercing these US companies into censoring content, which they are.

It works great for that. It's also good in automotive for bulb sockets, I've used it for that as well. It's amazing actually, slop some in a socket and next time you pull a bulb it will still look brand new, even if not well protected as the case with antique cars. You would think it might interfere with electrical contact an Vaseline is completely non-conductive, it doesn't seem to at all. You can also use it on car battery terminals and it will completely stop any corrosion, however I actually use 90W gear oil on those since it attracts less dirt and works as well.

I have this thing about astronomy. Kind of a perspective thing of our place in the cosmos. I try to remember all the distances of planets from the sun and distances of moons from their planets. Also the diameters of solar objects. There's other factoids I try to remember about neighboring solar systems and galactic bodies. For example I remember the black hole at the center our galaxy is called Sagitarius A and its mass is 4M suns. The black hole at the center Andromeda our closest major galaxy at 2.5M light years is 25M suns. The black hole at the center M87, the closest active galaxy at 50M light years is 4B suns. I didn't look that stuff up so tell me if I didn't get it right.

It should get fixed in Memmy soon. Even on desktop browser they only starting with v0.18.0 of the web client.

That Eucerin makes really good stuff. They have a thick healing cream that's amazing, like supercharged moisturizer. I use it on my feet once in a while to avoid skin problems.

I use it to lubricate machine parts at times. Also good coating for rust protection like the sockets of outdoor bulbs or tools in storage. There's better products for skin protection. Years ago it was commonly used for infant diaper rash, but again there's better products for that now. I don't think I've ever used it on my body, it's made from petroleum so it's really just highly refined axle grease.

I just don't talk about it, my views are toward the end of the spectrum and definitely not inline with relatives. But then most of my views about controversial topics are. I'm just too old and cynical anymore. My wife and I are on the same page though, no problem there.

In the hippie days there was a cliché, "don't trust anyone over thirty." Now it's just, "don't trust anyone."

Same here, never had a Twitter account, never will.

Not the first or last time a call went out to accountability. Unfortunately progress marches ahead with little consideration. The people that should be accountable are not required to be accountable or do they have any motivation to be accountable. Visionaries are typically driven by obsession with little consideration for human cost.

I don't think the development of nuclear weapons has an exact parallel to the development of AI or technology in general, but there are some analogies.

What would have happened if all the the world's scientists were able to halt the project by saying, "wait we're not moving ahead until we can be sure of what the future looks like for a world with nuclear weapons." Turns out the Axis wasn't anywhere near a working nuclear bomb. The USSR had moles in the Manhattan project and stole the design verbatim. They would not have nuclear bombs either. WWII Americans would have landed on Japanese soil at the cost of a million American soldiers. The war would have drug on, but a win for America would have still happened. No nukes in the world yet, but eventually some country would have found a way to contract the science. We'd be in the same place now. The only difference is it would have happened later.

So proponents of AI can claim there's accountability, but for sure someone will develop technology regardless of it. Once it's done by one, it's done by all.

Would be pretty cool to harness that. An average lightning strike is around five gigajoules. That would be enough to power a typical home for three months. Problem is there's no way to store that much energy that quickly. It's like a hundred thousand Amps at at a hundred million Volts for a fraction of a second. The physics makes a storage medium very difficult if not impossible to engineer. Though if it were possible, you could harness lighting on demand, would be a perfectly planet friendly power source.

I've noticed that over the years without actually making a list like that. I don't know why the trend is moving to longer movies, I could guess. Maybe film makers are trying to give people more for their money with the high cost of theater tickets. Or maybe it's because more people watch from home where length is less of an issue. You don't have to watch a film in one sitting.

Keep in mind when movies are made there's a lot of footage that ends up on the cutting room floor. I've noticed these longer movies are more liberal with the editing. They have a good amount of footage that simply doesn't need to be there. Could be they're including less relevant scenes due to more relaxed requirements from producers.

I've always thought you could take a six hour mini-series and boil it down to a two hour movie. It's all a matter of editing and most of the time less is more.

Oh, the first time I saw a two part theatre release was Matrix 2. That made me so angry because they left it hanging like a serial TV episode. I went to the theatre for that one and paid the premium. I was really mad I paid my nickel and was left hanging like that. I still watched the the third release, but at home following the second one. By the time the third was out and came to DVD, I didn't remember the second. It was basically a five hour movie.

They made a funny joke about them in the movie Idiocracy, they thought they'd be around forever; Evolution of Fuddruckers

Google just stacks so many bodies it’s impossible for me to remember em all.

They do! It's really surprising a company that big throws so much shit at the wall.

Yeah phone apps are horrible, don't know about iOS since I've always used Android, but they're mostly bad. The apps geared to a company service are usually fine, but the rest are just ad support systems.

I actually don't use third party phone apps that much, but the times I have it's like an assault. You get a tenth of the screen for the actual function of the app with the rest of the screen gyrating ads. It's especially a problem for me because I'm old and can't see the screen that well. I don't know how people put up with it. I can't.

Depends on the monitor. It's pretty horrific on a 27" desktop monitor. On a phone it's probably good. Anyway, like I said I added an AA mod and it looks a lot better on the PC screen, still pretty crude though. I play a number of 2D games on my PC and Stardew Valley has outstandingly pixelated artwork in comparison. That's not to say I don't like the game, I like it a lot and have put a good number of hours into it.

Exactly, I'll be using a big monitor with an HTPC. These "smart" TVs are just horrific anymore with their ads and subs and everything else that's a money grab. I don't need any of that garbage.

Right now I have an older TV without a smart OS. It's hooked up to an AV amp and a couple TV boxes. I dread replacing my TV because of the crappy operating systems they all have now. I'll have to find a big monitor if I can even find something like that for a decent price, don't know, haven't looked.