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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • I hate that every known company has to suddenly exploit their “brand recognition” and expand into unrelated areas. It’s completely logical from a short-term-profits-from-uninterested-in-anything-besides-profits shareholders but destroys the value people ascribe to a certain brand in the long run. My favourite example: Marshall. They’ve been known for loud and DISTORTED guitar amplifiers for decades. They shaped the sound of so many famous bands. Their amps would last a lifetime and sound great! So someone thought "Hey let’s make shitty headphones and Bluetooth speakers that will - by nature - not be durable, will have to excell in an area that Marshall never was interested in: amplifiers that do not distort the source material and that sound neutral. They had to rely on completely new technology like Bluetooth (which changes it’s standard over time) or be dependent on shitty Internet companies like Spotify (who decide suddenly to brick devices by not supporting them anymore). It’s almost the complete opposite of everything Marshall stood for IMHO. The only thing they have in common is that they make sound. The effect is that people buy products that break, decay or deteriorate on timescales much much shorter than the original brand would be expected. The thing that Marshal will be known for in the future is these speakers or breaking headphones with OK-sound quality. But a few management people will have made a lot of money of course.







  • The big difference that I see is that they investes in people for a long while now. They did what they can so people can get a decent education. That’s also the reason why they don’t allow kids to use tiktok and so on - it’s hindering the next generation’s ability to think. They know that you need many intelligent people to drive whatever other innovation you want to have later. That’s why they’re pulling ahead so fast while we are collapsing. I am not even living in the US, but even here the education system is crumbling.

    The west has trapped itself in the thought of technology without people. The idea that few clever people can design perfect systems that drive everything for us. That we just need to support those few individuals to get maximum return. China is supporting the broad masses. It’s like creating a fertile soil.

    Who knows what all the asterisks are causing in the future. But at the moment it’s just no comparison. We’ve gone backwards, while they’re so far ahead we barely see them.


  • exocortex@discuss.tchncs.detoProgrammer Humor@programming.devRust
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    4 months ago

    I get the meme (though why was this single unstable point - imagemagick in the original xkcd - removed? To make the left side seem more stable clmpared to the original idea?), it might be trueish atm. But with rust I feel that a lot of projects that are rewritten in rust are quicker arriving at a “finished” (or almost finished) state where they are more or less just tools being used without much discussion anymore. I guess a lot of commonly used tools already use Rust in some way, but i rarely is an issue which makes this discussion-worthy or generates enough conflict in order to raise awareness outside.

    I have a hunch that open-source rust-devopment is less of a hassle as a lot of discussion about code or the quality therof is simply avoided by a stricter compiler. If the code committed compiles with rustc there’s less possibility of it breaking other things in the codebase or containing hidden dangers that need to be discussed. Overall less friction, less overhead and distruction from the actual coding.



  • That’s why there’s quant mechanics. The simulation can always invent invent thinga on the fly to reduce computational load. It’s like lazy execution when soneone’s looking i.e. me - let’s not kid ourselves: the simulation is only simulating my surroundings - of which all af you are part of. Yadda yadda, there’s only me.

    On another note: the simulation can also always rewritebparts of my brain and retroactively change stuff in my memory making me believe different things. So i could also be reprogrammed to believe I saw this or that insteas of




  • Captain Obvious would like to chime in: (sorry 😅)

    Every color that we see is created by different types of receptors being stimulated together. A linear combination of three of these types. Arguably there isn’t really a wavelength that only stimulates one type of receptor exclusively as their absorbtion areas overlap - so it isn’t even that precise to call one receptor the “green” receptor as it sees a continuum of wavelength (of which a lot are also detected by the (so-called) “red” receptor.

    It’s a little egg-and-hen-problem with the naming here.a way out of it would be to only speak about spectra if it’s in the physical realm and color of its in the percetral realm.


  • Das ist ein wichtiger Punkt.

    Der Vergleich mit Deutschland ist da schon echt krass. In Berlin hat mit zum großen Teil den Stimmen der Außenbezirke die CDU gewonnen und sofort angefangen Radweg-Projekte zu stoppen, bzw sogar zurückzubauen. Diese Radwege waren aber fast nur in den Innenbereichen, do wo die CDU keine Mehrheit hatte. Das ist unglaublich Rücksichtslos. Denn solche Radwege werden (bei uns) typischerweise nicht auf stadtebene geplant, sondern auf Bezirksebene. Das sind eher so pilotprojekte, die aufgrund von lokalen Initiativen entstehen. Die baut die CDU wieder ab mit der begründung, dass irgednwelche Außenbezirkler dafür gestimmt haben. Das isr absolut übergriffig.

    In Paris werden solche Radwege zum Glück nicht bezirksweise von irgdnwelchen Initiativen geplant, sondern direkt zentral. Dadurch konnten die auch so einen Fortschritt machen. Ich bin recht regelmäßig in Paris und diese Transformation ist großartig zu sehen. Vor 10 Jahren hatte ich um meinen einsam Fahrradfahrenden Freund dort große Angst. Jeden tag durch das Getümmel aggressiver Autos zu fahren schien selbstmörderisch. Dann wurden stück für stück Autoparkplätze durch Leihräder-Parkplätze ersetzt, wichtige Straßen für Autos gesperrt. Sehr radikal und gegen riesiges Geschrei wütender Leute. Aber es hat gewirkt und inzwischen fährt die halbe Stadt Rad.







  • I agree, but as long as we still have capitalism I support measures that at least slow down the destructiveness of capitalism. AI is like a new powertool in capitalism’s arsenal to dismantle our humanity. Sure we can use it for cool things as well. But right now it’s used mostly to automate stuff that makes us human - art, music and so on. Not useful stuff like loading the dishwasher for me. More like writing a letter for me to invite my friends to my birthday. Very cool. But maybe the work I put in doing this myself is making my friends feel appreciated?

    Edit: It’s also nice to at least have an app that takes this maximalist approach. Then people can choose. If they’re half-assing it there will be more and more ai-features creeping in over time. One compromise after the next until it’s like all the other apps. It’s also important to have such a maximalist stand in order to gauge the scale in a way.