Lurker > adjl

Fun realization: "Bluetooth 20 years ago" is how Wiimotes worked.

Dikitain posted...

It is the men on your mother's side (your uncles) who you take after as far as hair.

Not entirely true. Some baldness is X-linked, but it comes from quite a few different genes. Having bald maternal uncles/grandparents doesn't guarantee you'll be bald, nor does having maternal uncles/grandparents who aren't bald guarantee you won't be.

Lokarin posted...

actually, the image of the American family only lasted between 1940 and 1970, people only think it was a century long thing but people were still living in familial colonies and homesteads right up until the second world war

And much of the "American dream" of families living in their own suburban houses with white picket fences and manicured lawns was overwhelmingly a post-war thing, as car industry propaganda pushed that as being the ideal way to design cities. It is, of course, terribly silly to think of reliance on massive government subsidies to prop up unsustainable infrastructure as being symbolic of personal wealth and prosperity, but that's precisely what many people worldwide bought into, with devastating results. Some cities and countries saw where suburban sprawl was taking them and managed to turn things around, others have been more stubborn about it.

KJ_StErOiDs posted...

Whoever has the better deal when it's time for a new computer.

This. It also depends which performance bracket you're targeting and who's winning in that bracket at a given moment. Right now, I believe it breaks down that AMD's best for cheaper machines, Intel's better for mid-range, and then it's back to AMD for upper-end stuff (mostly for their X3D chips, which are particularly good at single-thread performance), but that flips around every generation.

keyblader1985 posted...

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. These companies know a thing or two because they've seen a thing or two.

Of course, there's also the fact that it's much easier to have multiple burger heights on a menu than multiple burger widths. To make a taller burger, you just stack more stuff on it. To make a wider one, you not only need a different-sized patty press, you need a different-sized bun, different-sized slices of cheese, and possibly a few other supplies in different sizes. Generally speaking, restaurants try to limit the number of ingredients they have that are unique to only a small number of dishes, since space is limited and it's easier to avoid spoilage when you have a smaller number of ingredients to consider.

See also: A&W's attempt to introduce a 1/3 pound burger failing because people thought McD's 1/4 pounder was bigger.

Every single time I see this topic in the list, "Look at my Horse" gets stuck in my head. Thanks for that.

I've seen estimates of the volume of gold in Smaug's hoard, and I don't think he even breaks the top 10. It says a lot that people writing billionaires in fiction can't even make them as wealthy as many real people because of how ludicrously implausible that real wealth is.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


When everybody else does something wrong, it's because the whole system is corrupt. When Trump does something wrong, it's because he's the country's saviour and has to stoop to such levels to fight against the corruption that would otherwise doom us all.

Never mind that "He's actually just doing this for his own benefit" is a significantly more plausible interpretation. They wanted a saviour, and he presented himself as one convincingly enough for them to latch on.

Revelation34 posted...

They don't consume energy because energy in that context is food.

What sets glucose apart from gasoline, that one can be called food and the other can't? What is "food" in the colloquial sense if not just repackaged sunlight?

Energy is energy. We get the vast majority of our energy in chemical form, but energy can be converted between different forms. There's no actual reason to think so narrowly about the concept of "energy" except to artificially narrow the definition of life to make sure machines can't qualify, and that just doesn't make logical sense.

Sufferedphoenix posted...

In my most recent job hunting experience a lot of places seem to like to contact you via email or text message too.

Which is why the attitude that homeless people shouldn't have phones is far too stupid to be as widespread as it is. Yes, phones are relatively expensive, but even with that in mind they're one of the single most cost-effective ways for somebody to get out of being homeless, and in fact are all but a mandatory prerequisite for it. Ready access to internet and phone service is crucial to secure employment, access important services, and network, in addition to being a considerable quality of life improvement thanks to all the free entertainment and social interaction it offers. For that matter, phones aren't really that expensive. Even a high-end one is going to cost less than a single month's rent in most places, so it's not like having enough money for a good phone would be enough to secure housing (not that I'd necessarily suggest buying a high-end phone as a homeless person, but it's still not going to make or break you).

Buddyblade posted...

I mean, it wouldn't need the same things as us (like oxygen, eating, a heartbeat, etc.) I'm not entirely sure one would fully understand what it means to be "alive" unless it had the exact same requirements as us.

Something doesn't have to have the same requirements as humans to be alive. The most commonly accepted criteria for life are the following:

• Characterized by order and structure (e.g. cells-->tissues-->organs)
• Ability to respond to the environment
• Ability to grow and change
• Ability to reproduce
• Ability to maintain a constant state (homeostasis)
• Requirement to consume energy
• Produces waste

Right now, the only thing really separating machines from life under those criteria are the growth and reproduction lines. Machines are ordered, they can respond to the environment, they can self-regulate to maintain suitable operating conditions (your computer turning up its fan under load to reduce its temperature being a clear example), they consume energy, and they can produce waste products (any exhaust system, for example). With the ability to modify themselves over time and self-replicate (both of which are theoretically possible), there isn't actually much room to say that such a machine isn't alive.

Metalsonic66 posted...

2 is much better than 1

I agree, but I also understand why some like 1 better. The writing is generally more subtle than 2 (still not a serious game, by any means, but not leaning into it quite as hard as 2 and especially later games did), slag as a mechanic isn't the most interesting (it basically amounts to "hit things with slag first, then with everything else," which is more involved than "just hit things with the element they're weak to," but not by enough to be really interesting), and the focus on target farming legendaries is a bit of a double-edged sword. I like being able to target farm so I can complete builds, but it does mean that just playing through the campaign, you very rarely see really exciting drops because they're so often outclassed by the occasional boss drop legendary you get that tides you over for the next 10-15 levels. It kind of takes the fun out of the "looter" part of the looter-shooter, and I get why people who like that "do the best you can with what you get" aspect don't like it as much as 1.

https://imgur.com/7wkXuvC

I guess it makes sense that that trend wouldn't apply in Arizona. I'm more used to thinking in terms of Canadian cities, where pools aren't unheard of, but also definitely aren't a top priority for many buyers because they're mostly useless for 2/3 of the year.

That's about where I've stood on everything after WoL since they came out. I kind of wanted to play them, but never enough to actually buy the games. And now I just categorically refuse to buy anything ABK produces, so it's a moot point.

GanonsSpirit posted...

It'll probably add a lot to the houses value, so it's probably worth it even beside her own use.

Below-ground pools typically lower property values, since they come with added insurance considerations and not everybody wants them enough to deal with that (and if they don't want them, getting rid of them is a pain). If you're building a pool, it's pretty much always going to be because you want a pool, not an investment or anything like that.

Lokarin posted...

Utah doubles down

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/utah-lawmaker-blames-diversity-baltimore-bridge-collapse-rcna145261

"It was our social media staff, we'd never say such things!"
*Doesn't indicate that social media staff have been fired*
*Doesn't delete posts*

That sign looks like it belongs on a Toys R Us.

Well then ignore me, I guess.

I believe Bombays have orange eyes, but I'm guessing there are more identifying criteria than just that.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

As opposed to most of the anti-Trump people online who seem to find it utterly impossible to ever shut the f*** up about Trump.

How often are you able to identify anti-Trump people online by any means other than them talking about that opinion? I know you know enough about the scientific method to recognize the obvious sampling bias you just described.

When my family cats were younger, they liked to sit on top of doors. It was quite the feat.

Colonel_Lingus posted...

Hope I get the chance to spend some quality time in your hole someday

At least wait until it gets wet.

Dikitain posted...

Huh, for some reason I thought Gearbox was already under Take Two. They publish so many of their games I am surprised they weren't.

I think you're thinking of 2K, not Take Two. I made the same mistake on the first pass.

JOExHIGASHI posted...

So we could be giving human rights to a glorified chatbot in the future

As I said, we can't even agree to give human rights to humans, so I don't think we'll be offering them (or a comparable suite of rights which we give a different name just for you Rev) to non-human entities any time soon. Conceptually, though, there's nothing differentiating a sufficiently-advanced AI from human consciousness.

Metalsonic66 posted...

Overblown

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4c02b14c.jpg

Is this a JoJo reference?

Used that like that, "DEI" just seems to mean "somebody who isn't white has a job and I don't like that," which is... yeah.

ParanoidObsessive posted...

For a second I thought I remembered something like this existing in a webcomic somewhere, but I think I was confusing two separate things in my head - the magic calculator-bracer the main character of Erfworld wears, and a pop-o-matic weapon in Problem Sleuth.

Well there we go, make a hybrid of the two, and you're golden. If you want to be really fancy, you can make multiple rows of pop-o-matics, each with different types of dice, so you can roll multiple dice of a given type as needed.

Practical? Of course not. But we're not here for practical. We're here for awesome.

ItIsSoOver posted...

When you were in school, how many fingers were you taught that people have?

I genuinely don't remember any specific lesson on the number of fingers people have. Not sure what kind of weird schools you were going to.

OhhhJa posted...

As far as we currently know, consciousness may be exclusive to carbon based lifeforms or it may not be.

I see no reason why it would be. The electrochemical potentials that make up our consciousness are generated primarily by sodium and potassium ions. The membranes across which they're generated, ion channels that generate them, and ligands/receptors that trigger their generation are all carbon-based, but they don't have to be. We've produced plenty of inorganic systems that receive, process, and respond to stimuli using electrical impulses. The only thing really separating those systems from our own system of doing the same thing is that we've got a more complex network.

Even looking more at naturally-occurring life, while carbon is certainly the most viable option for organic-like chemistry (it sits in a particular sweet spot as far as available bonds and bond strength goes, giving it a chemical versatility that no other element can match), there's no reason a similarly complex system couldn't arise using another element as the base. All that's fundamentally needed is ion exchange to create an electrochemical gradient, and no carbon is directly involved in that process.

https://imgur.com/4TtOOgg

MrMelodramatic posted...

It was something like this Japanese artist was nominated for x award in 2020

I considered Mitski but thought she was an American artist. Im not saying I was right, just that it could maybe be argued shes an American artist.

In that case, I agree that that's ambiguous. Just stating somebody's nationality generally suggests you're talking about how they identify now, not what their origins were.

If the question is asking where they came from, answering where they've done most of their work is incorrect.

https://imgur.com/gzpe78d

WindMouseHanpan posted...

It's just a computer in the end.

Every aspect of our consciousness boils down to a series of electrochemical reactions in the end. Is a computer really so different from us?

Revelation34 posted...

They can have AI rights but not human rights by the definition of the word human.

You'll notice I specifically used the phrase "afforded the same rights as any human" instead of "human rights." That was deliberate, in an effort to head off precisely that avenue of pedantry.

Revelation34 posted...

Why would an AI get human rights if they're not human?

What makes humans deserving of rights that aren't afforded to other entities?

https://imgur.com/LfQ7alp

EvilResident posted...

thats an easy disagree

It's maybe a bit harsher than it needs to be, but Mario 64's camera controls have definitely not aged well and quite severely hold the game back. The level design, platforming, and general movement are all still excellent (though Odyssey stomps all over it in terms of what an absolute joy it is to move Mario around in that one), and it's still certainly a fun game to play, but even Banjo Kazooie had dramatically improved camera controls just two years later. That's not strictly SM64's fault, it's just a consequence of being one of the first forays into 3D platforming ever: Mistakes were always going to be made, which everybody learned from as the genre moved forward.

It depends a lot on the specific game in question. Mario 64 has aged pretty poorly because we've come to expect so much more from 3D camera controls. OoT and MM have aged reasonably well in that the core mechanics of lock-on based combat haven't changed all that much since then, but exclusively controlling the camera with the Z button is definitely pretty dated and I'm definitely glad for the right stick in BotW/TotK, and a little more complexity in attack/defense options is nice. Starfox 64, however, is exactly as fun today as it was in 1997, simply because the conventions for rail shooters haven't particularly evolved since then.

Rasmoh posted...

Sure, some modicum of a black market would still exist, but it would be dramatically reduced and significantly less dangerous.

Yes, very much so.

captpackrat posted...

so it should be a very simple thing to upgrade.

At least, as simple as any other laptop upgrade would be. Modern laptops tend not to be the easiest to swap parts in, with many requiring you to remove the full keyboard assembly to access components. I miss the days of upgrading my 2007 laptop's RAM by just unscrewing one panel on the bottom and swapping in two new sticks. This laptop may not be as inaccessible as others, but without seeing a bottom view, I can't really tell.

But then also being very deeply concerned about antisemitism whenever the subject of Netenyahu being a genocidal maniac comes up, which is certainly a very interesting juxtaposition.

Count_Drachma posted...

I love that you still pretend to know history while making comments that directly refute you knowing any history, often within the same sentence.

It's been a while since we've seen Zeus whine about how Nazis are being treated unfairly. A part of me almost missed it.

There's a pretty strong case to be made that a sufficiently advanced AI should be treated as sentient and afforded the same rights as any human. I doubt that will ever actually happen, though, given how long it took humans to recognize other humans as deserving of human rights.

Oregon just decriminalized simple possession. That's notably different from legalizing and regulating drugs.

EchoBaz posted...

Wait! Is Count Zeus's alt?

Yep.

He probably doesn't actually mean anything, personally. He's just saying something vague and inflammatory and letting people fill in the blanks by interpreting it in whatever way best aligns with their views (whether that means crime, drugs, economic instability, racial purity, or anything else). It's a fairly common strategy he uses, allowing him to maintain plausible deniability whenever anyone accuses him of being bigoted, while still telling bigoted followers exactly what they want to hear so they rally behind him and vote for/pay him.

Count_Drachma posted...

The closer you get to perfect income/financial equality, the poorer societies tend to be. Likewise, as nations grow wealthier, inequality tends to increase.

Other way round, dude. If you're measuring a nation's wealth by its GDP, that's looking primarily at the performance of its wealthiest people and companies. That inherently means that as wealth inequality increases and more and more wealth gets tied up in the hands of billionaires who don't keep it liquid, GDP will go up. Conversely, GDP goes down when wealth inequality is lower and more regular people that keep a greater proportion of their assets liquid have a greater share of the pie.

"Wealth inequality is correlated with GDP" ignores the simple reality that GDP pretty much is wealth inequality. Focusing on GDP instead of personal purchasing power and other metrics that measure the economy in terms of everyone's quality of life only makes sense if you're looking for an opportunity to fellate a billionaire.