htaunay's comments

its like how 30 years ago when people would numblessly flip through hundreds of cable channels for hours, but with endless tailored content and extra dopamine shots on top from social feedback

its very telling how, while youtube (classic) also has these same ingredients, the ux of looking through a menu is far less addicting than the slot machine mechanism from swiping up

Now I'm getting a nice "Bag Gateway" error message, but 5min ago it was returning an ugly lb generated 503

Apparently the whole scene was a single spline. Assuming it was indeed a single RT render take, its definitely a jaw dropping demo. Curious to learn if this turns out to be just vaporware or actually an epic redemption arc.

Many businesses already have WhatsApp as the exclusive channel of communication. So its either have a Meta account, or become locked out of a subset of services. Not to mention how many work/social groups use also WhatsApp exclusively. To try to force everyone to use something like Matrix is an herculean task, which also requires maintenance.

And then there are all the government/school/work/authentication apps that are mobile only and exclusive to iOS and Android.

IMO its impossible to walk away from it. The ship has sailed. It is possible to move away as far as you can and keep these accounts and their usage to a minimum, but its time consuming and has little rewards against many obstacles. Atm I'm willing to put in the effort but I also totally understand it not being a reasonable option for most.

Midjourney to me feels like bowling with bumpers

Sure, its very easy to get good results fast, but the tuning that avoids "uglier" images is the same that removes a lot of versatility compared to SD

Also controlnet is a killer feature

Yes, in theory around 40% -> 50%, with it fluctuating over time.

However in practice imported electronics tend to cost up to about 100% then their original price abroad for several reasons, usually but not exclusively related to difficulties in 3rd world countries e.g. bribes necessary to get the shipment, insurance over shipment theft, margin risk due to volatile forex, etc

For example, atm an iPhone 14 costs 800 USD in the US Apple Store and 7600 Brazilian Reais in the Brazilian one. With the current exchange rate at ~5.20, that's around 80% more. Not that bad actually, that ratio has been worse in the past.

In case you are into self-hosting, although Mealie's (https://mealie.io) main feature is recipes, it also has a meal planner.

Indeed, I stand corrected. Also, TIL that Dune and Dune II were both released in the same year (1992) by two different studios with different genres, with the latter eclipsing the former, despite the former apparently being quite good for what it aimed to be.

Technically it didn't, it was more of an RTS game while 4X tends to be more complex and last longer, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4X#Complexity

Although it was indeed a great game and am also looking forward to see how this turns out.

Travel less affordable to some, housing more affordable to others.

You mentioned Amsterdam as a location, but I didn't find anything in the "Disney Streaming Services" listings.

Am I missing something?

I find it useful for:

* Discoverability, in case you work in a company with thousands of repos

* Having discussions with multiple participants over a merge request

* Sometimes for communication its easier to provide a url pointing a given file/line, where someone can click and immediately see what you're talking about

This. Why on earth would an organization invest resources in a productivity tool which is by design optimized to make you procrastinate?

Agreed. If I understood correctly, the recent experiment possibly indicated that socio-economical factors can influence more the future "success" of a subject than other variables, e.g. delayed gratification.

The original experiment, by only containing children of the same socio-economical background isolated these variables, and achieved an orthogonal conclusion.

Don't really agree with most comments trashing this hypothetical deal, bringing up the Skype precedent.

Its been what, 2 years since the Linked-in and Xamarin acquisitions? Nothing seems to have changed. Microsoft just seems to know that the desktop is no longer the cash cow that it used to be, office still is but may not last long, so its a good idea to diversify its portfolio.

Satya is not Ballmer.

"Now, the good news here is that these problems aren’t necessarily rocket science."

"If you had asked me, when I got started with Facebook, if one of the central things I’d need to work on now is preventing governments from interfering in each other’s elections, there’s no way I thought that’s what I’d be doing"

These are just two examples, but quite a few quotes from this interview are verbatim from the CNN interview. Where has Mark been the last days? Probably rehearsing.

Why wouldn't it be?

It's faster than the tram; a bike is cheap and cycling is free; its way easier to park than a car; its healthy; there are cycle paths everywhere (inside and between cities); and everyone else does it, so you usually have company.

I agree.

However, not everyone is convinced of such faults. There is still a considerable part of the current political movements that still believe that: a) neoliberal democracy is perfect, and any failure is only the fault of who has failed; or b) communism is the perfect solution, and the failures of USSR, Cuba, N. Korea, etc were only caused due to capitalist interference.

For these convictions, a well developed critique has its merit, for it at least can question such certainties and unblock the way towards thinking of a better solution.

I like to compare Rand's work with Marx's.

When I read the "Communist Manifesto" and - part of - "The Capital", I was impressed by Marx's critique of capitalism. Most of his hypotheses (back from the 19th century) were eventually proved true, while seeming absolutely unthinkable at the time (e.g. the issue of over-production). However, his proposed solution - Communism - seemed naive and overly-optimistic, probably due to the outcomes we already are already aware of from such social experiment today. His critique was excellent, but his proposed solution weak, and dare I say almost a fairy-tale.

When reading Rand, her solution - Objectivism - seems also impracticable and overly-optimistic. I personally believe that he who disassociates his well being from the well being of his neighbor, has little understanding of how society behaves in the long term. However, her critique of Socialist policies is spot on, and almost eerie. I live in Brazil, and there are many moments of our current political catastrophe that seem to have come out of Atlas Shrugged, and therefore I cannot through away the authors entire work because of a broken solution, which is only part of both novels. The anticipation of such self-destructing forms of government with more than half a century in advance is a merit of Rand's.

Needless to say, it is always easier to criticize then to come up with a solution. In Ayn Rand's case, her critique is pertinent and time has in fact proved it to be well founded. Just please ignore her solution.

I can't recommend "Amusing Ourselves to Death" enough, especially in the light of the most recent election processes the world is witnessing. Neil Postman's thesis is both timely and - unfortunately - eerie.