powersnail

no profile record

comments

เดือนที่แล้วdiscuss

Interesting, I have the exact opposite experience with flipping vs linking when it comes to books like _Pale Fire_. It's a lot more difficult for me to read the end notes on kindle, especially when it cross references more than one other end notes. Just couldn't keep my head straight as where I had been already. I had to buy a paper copy of _Pale Fire_ after fidgeting on my kindle (which I usually prefer) for a while, and I just kept two bookmarks (one in the poem section, one in the end notes section), and find other end notes ad hoc. The physicality of the pages helped me navigate back and forth.

3 เดือนที่ผ่านมาdiscuss

Maybe the developer was using Headspace as part of the test data and it bled into production?

It's hard to imagine what Headspace would like to achieve if this were an exploit executed by them. It's so salient, that it makes no sense to do on purpose. At least some portion of Apple employees and their families are going to be affected by this, and this would escalate to the legal department immediately.

My money is on Apple being the buggy one here.

5 เดือนที่ผ่านมาdiscuss

Whenever split keyboards come up, ulnar deviation is mentioned, and non-split keyboard users are depicted to be using the keyboard like this (image from the post):

https://www.justinmklam.com/posts/2026/02/beginners-guide-sp...

I don't know if it's just me, but I don't use the keyboard like that. I know the illustration is said to be exaggerated, but still. There is no need to squeeze your hands in front of the keyboard. Just naturally bring your hands in front of chest, the same as when you are reading a book or writing notes with a pen. No twisted wrists. No ulnar deviation. The idea that you can't do something with your hand in front of the center of your chest without hurting the wrists seem like a strange supposition.

Admittedly, I've never looked at a significant number of people typing on a non-split keyboard, so I don't have the data to refute the need of this invention. I just feel like the natural posture already doesn't have the problem of ulnar deviation.

7 เดือนที่ผ่านมาdiscuss

I was just on a short trip to Japan, and I find the replica food very intriguing. Take the experience with a large grain of salt of course, since it's just a few days worth of sightseeing.

What's particularly interesting, is that the replicas really do look like the actual food. Some replicas are so good, that I would not be able to tell that it is fake even by close inspection. One of the gyoza replica got the doughy body, the crispy bottom, and oily surface that is visually indistinguishable from a real one. Even the touch is somewhat real.

I'm not saying seeing those replicas gives me a better appetite; that's doubtful. I just appreciate the crafts.

The other side of the coin is that the actual food do look like the replica/photos, so it's not a bait-and-switch scheme. The people who prepare the dishes---be it a chef or a worker at a fast food chain---all seem quite accurate. Not that all dishes always look beautiful; but they do look consistent. Your plate of curry over rice might be plain, but it will look exactly the same as the previous order (and also as the photo), even if it is created entirely by hand. It's kinda amazing in its own right.

> Meanwhile, in restaurants without visual clues, you can only let your imagination go wild and guess what you're going to have. Once the plate is put in front of you, two surprises awaits you: does it looks like what you imagined and is it good? > > At least that's the experience I'm looking for in restaurants.

Well, you still retain the second part of the surprise: "is it good?". But yeah, it will ruin the first one, because of the accuracy. It's not something that particularly bothers me, but I can understand why you want to avoid the spoilers.

7 เดือนที่ผ่านมาdiscuss

Just curious, what algorithm is good for laying out images of arbitrary orientations, sizes, and aspect ratios? That seems like a pretty difficult problem. Some sort of variation of knapsack problem maybe?

8 เดือนที่ผ่านมาdiscuss

I could see a case where the core logic needs to be performant, but the UI does not. The front end could be some menus, displaying (not a giant amount of) data, and a progress bar, while the back end does heavy computing.

And furthermore, if you want fast code writing, you write in the language you already know. For some people, that is Rust.

8 เดือนที่ผ่านมาdiscuss

> in traditional rich desktop applications, I can't say I have ever missed the ability to select and copy text from the UI chrome

I forgot what desktop application it was, but there was a time that I repeatedly needed to copy texts from a dialog, which didn't support text selection. It frustrated me so much, that I put together a script to do OCR on the dialog.

Supporting complex data types for copy & paste is good; but it is almost trivial to also support plain text copying as a fallback when it already supports copying of other mimetypes. The problem is that some UI has no support of copying in any format at all.

10 เดือนที่ผ่านมาdiscuss

I sincerely hope that apple will consider making a phone with a worse camera that is flatter. As someone who rarely takes photos, and never photos of importance, the bump is just a dead weight to me. My dream phone has a body like iPhone 12 mini (which I currently use) without the protruding camera. As long as it runs all the common communication apps reliably, I'm happy. I'll pay $100 more than the standard body version even. But it doesn't seem like apple (or any notable phone brand) thinks this is worth doing.

It's the peril of being a niche customer. I can and have voted with my wallet, but it doesn't nudge the needle anyway.

3 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

Thanks!

3 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

This situation is somewhat confusing, as someone who doesn't have a RedHat subscription. Rocky and Alma claim that RH's new policy is a hindrance to the re-distribution of RH's code, while RH's staff claims that "Anyone is allowed to create an account, get GPL'ed code and redistribute that code as much as they want according to the license".

Some genuine questions:

1. If Bob doesn't currently have a RedHat subscription, does he have a way to obtain RHEL source code, legally, continuously, without the help of a current subscriber, and for free?

2. If Bob has a RedHat subscription, and has access to RHEL source code through the customer portal, is he free to continuously re-publish the source code else where? (in other words, facing no legal threat, and won't be cut off the subscription)

3. RH's staff mentioned "GPL'ed code", so it sort of implies the possibility that some other code are not GPL'ed, and might be subject to less favorable terms regarding redistribution. So, are all the code authored by RH and re-distributed by Rocky/Alma licensed with GPL? Or in other words, are there code whose re-distributability changes with the new policy of RedHat?

4 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

I find the differentiation to be rather circular in its logic. The authors chose to call it "profound boredom", grouped it with "normal boredom" (which is, in fact, just "boredom"), called the union of them "boredom", and thus boredom can be great for your creativity.

All this mental gymnastic to produce the attention grabbing headline that something bad can be good for you, when that something bad is actually something good, but rehashed into the category of something bad. Of course, that thing which is good for you has not changed; we always knew that if you spend time thinking deeply, you might gain some insights or ideas. It's just a shuffling of terminologies, which conveniently helps market their findings.

By the same thought process, a human being can have 8 limbs, because here are the "normal humans", and there we have Billy the Octopus, who we re-categorize as a "Octopusian human". So, it's safe to say that some human can have 8 limbs.

It's like the gerrymandering of definitions.

4 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

Perhaps this is due to my insufficient understanding of English, but "an abundance of uninterrupted time spent in relative solitude" doesn't sound like boredom to me, especially if the time is spent on active thinking.

If you are deeply engaged in musing, despite the solitary situation, you are not really bored, are you? At least I wouldn't call it being bored. You've got something to do, and you're well occupied by it. It's just thinking time to me. Such a situation I'd never characterize as boring (unless it lasts a ridiculous time, which reminds me of _Chess Story_).

What I think of as "boredom" is more like being in a sporadic lecture, doing assignments that are lengthy and thoughtless, being locked in a traffic jam, etc. Something that takes time, repulses attention, but has sufficient consequence that compels your concentration. And I don't think those are helpful in the profoundness of anything.

So, if the premise is "social media may prevent users from reaping creative rewards of time to profoundly think", I'd agree. But "profound boredom"? I just couldn't get behind this terminology.

4 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

People are usually focused on how the payment model changed, but in fact, the products themselves have changed as well. Cloud storage and synchronizing data across multiple devices are now the norm, which incur continuous costs. And I think this is not something that's shoved into the customers' throat. Synchronization is indeed a valuable feature for many users.

Some of the subscriptions are certainly silly, like subscription for car features.

At least in the world of computers, I don't find too many products which are unjustifiably subscription-based. Subscriptions are usually paired with some form of synchronization/storage. And if you don't want cloud storage (or if you have your own cloud external to the application, or if you want to self host), there are usually non-subscription or even free options. Bitwarden, libreoffice, gimp, inkscape, etc.

So, I'd say as someone who's not currently into car purchase, I'm relatively content with the subscription models in the tech world. The services I subscribe to really do need continuous maintenance, and I've never been forced to subscribe to something that I think should not have been a subscription.

Adobe, though, has never been affordable to hobbyists in my opinion. Now, at least you can use it for a month and turn off the subscription.

6 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

As a non-native speaker, it's definitely impossible for me to understand every detail of the conversations in The Wire. Especially the jokes.

But it's an interesting show anyway, even without the details.

6 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

So if the company does something unsavory, just walk away? Not even trying to change it first?

If you don’t like a policy, go live somewhere else?

If you find mold in a fruit, go shopping in a different place?

I mean, it’s a valid strategy. But obviously not the only valid one.

It’s not wrong to like the other aspects of the job and try to change the quality that they disagree with.

6 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

The thing is, it doesn’t even show me funny cat video anymore. It’s the same classical music video recommended over and over again.

To be honest, the more I think about it, the more I don’t know what money is YouTube trying to earn.

It’s probably just a dumb algorithm.

6 ปีที่แล้วdiscuss

Youtube's recommendation algorithm is just dumb, in my opinion.

At least half of the time on Youtube, I watch classical music, and you would think Youtube would recommend me some classical performances that I haven't yet seen.

Nope. It keeps feeding me exactly the same videos I've already watched, despite being basically the largest catalogue of classical music videos.

What's the point of a recommendation system if it doesn't even recommend new video of the same category I like? Might as well just shuffle my watching history.