baltakatei

joined 1 year ago
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Drive out enough librarians and eventually youʼll find yourself needing to drive 4 hours to get a tool pulled or a melanoma whacked off since good dentists and doctors usually want decent schools with libraries for their kids.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

<blink><marquee>Under construction!</marquee></blink>

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just, buy a new iPhone and Mac every two years.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Termux, rsync and SSH.

Worked okay until I got overzealous and killed my battery from leaving Termux on for convenience.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

The USB Type-C is useful for sharing files offline between smartphones while the USB Type-A is useful when you want to backup files to a PC at some point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The best tool to improve intelligence will be indistinguishable from a room that accelerates time within itself so that the outside world, and all its distractions, appears to slow to a crawl. See Age of Em (2016) by Robin Hanson.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

We could probably spin it around and give a tiny tax break for those who vote.

Now you’re talking!

Make tax refunds and all tax write-offs contingent on proving you voted. >:D

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

and then ends it, always leaving you wanting more

After several years of reading, I have realized that most of his books fall into the “Status Quo” genre, much like Marvel movies in which superheroes are cops that work to prevent relatable characters or governments from falling too out of sync with reality. The second their dystopian speculations start to imagine a society better off (due to redistribution of concentrated power or wealth), they immediately end.

Diamond Age (1994): corporations control society by controlling the centralized Feeds that supply matter compilers, justifying their monopoly by saying they keep society stable. MC publishes blueprints for compiling your own Feed. Story ends.

Anathem (2008): The government executes most scientists en masse and imprisons most survivors because technology was too disruptive 3000 years ago. A new global disaster forces the release of the scientists so they can wield ancient technology to solve the crisis. Story ends.

Cryptonomicon (1999) / The Great Simoleon Caper (1994): Some cryptographers think Bitcoin is a good idea even if it might topple governments. They publish it. Story ends.

Termination Shock (2021): Climate change can be solved by billionaires by getting governments addicted to shooting sulfur into the atmosphere. The story ends basically as soon as the operation begins.

Seveneves (2015): The moon blows up, forcing a crash course construction of a modern Noah's Ark in the form of a fleet of spaceships in low Earth orbit. Eccentric billionaires sacrifice themselves to make the project work to save seven genius women who rebuild society with eugenics and a racial caste system. They discover some pre-disaster survivors whose culture is incompatible with the new society. Talks begin for reïntegration. Story ends.

Fall (2019): People upload and emulate their brains into datacenter computers. The first rich people to upload themselves gain an enormous first mover advantage in the digital afterlife and control the minds of newcomers whose surviving families pay ludicrous amounts of money to keep the dead billionaire-controlled Bitworld running. The system keeps running smoothly until the admin with the credentials to shut everything down dies, is uploaded, defeats the incumbent dead billionaire, thus making the world more equitable. Story ends.

The closest thing to an exception I can find is Atmosphæra Incognita (2014; part of Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future), in which a billionaire fights environmental regulations and NIMBY pushback to build a 20-kilometer steel tower to reduce space launch costs by acting as scaffolding for a mass driver. Although the story portrays most people as against the construction of such an audacious structure, and although the main beneficiaries are corporations wealthy enough to purchase space on the tower to install equipment, if you weigh your definition of “society” towards billionaires and their company org charts, then the story is about breaking the Status Quo (of NIMBY California landowners).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago

Expected behavior: The file is not composed of null bytes.

Actual behavior; The file is composed entirely of null bytes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I agree, but Earth's solarpunk phase doesn't start for another few millennia. We're still in the era where factory farms still exist.

 

Title: Live Updates: Biden Drops Out of Presidential Race, Endorses Harris Dated: 2024-07-21. Added: 2024-07-21.

 

Dated: 2024-07-21. Added: 2024-07-21.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

RIP the animation. I feel sorry for the original author.

 

Dated: 2024-07-19. Added: 2024-07-19.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I am glad the author of the original light novel got their story animated. If this story had been published before either Overlord (2010) or Sword Art Online (2002), then the story would have been groundbreaking. However, the only main advantages this show has over other isekai is the lack of any spiciness, beyond the usual smattering of damsels in distress and a blushing pair of twins. Everyone seems chaste, honorable, and hard-working. No sign of any harem development in sight. There does not even seem to be any political antagonist or obvious grievances against the status quo. The most likely source of conflict seems to be MCʼs overpowered state, yet the author has made him successful in keeping that off the plot table for now. Instead of Overlord's murderous menagerie of a sexually frustrated succubus, underage loli vampire, skin-harvesting demon, etc., we have an elf maid, an elf, and a fox. Nothing complicated.

It feels like a television program designed by a public morals committee that I would show my conservative grandmother to fool her into allowing me to see more interesting shows.

Edit: dropped the series as of episode 8. Animation did not get better.

 

Dated: 2024-07-13. Added: 2024-07-13.

 

Dated: 2024-07-11. Added: 2024-07-11.

 

Dated: 2024-07-04. Added: 2024-07-09.

 

Dated: 2024-07-05. Added: 2024-07-07.

 

Dated: 2024-07-02. Added: 2024-07-02.

 

Dated: 2024-07-01. Added: 2024-07-02.

 

Dated: 2024-07-01. Added: 2024-07-01.

 

Dated: 2024-07-01. Added: 2024-07-01.

 

Dated: 2023-02-27. Added: 2024-07-01. I especially liked the Casino theme at 21m48s.

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