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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)D
Posts
20
Comments
394
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • There's something else that hasn't been mentioned yet: Video games in particular have been so detailed since the eight generation (XB1/PS4) that 1080p with its significant compression artifacts on YouTube swallows too many of those fine moving details, like foliage, sharp textures, lots of moving elements (like particles) and full-screen effects that modify nearly every pixel of every frame.

    And no, you will not get a less sharp image by downsampling 1440p or even 4K to 1080p, on the contrary. I would recommend you take a few comparison screenshots and see for yourself. I have a 1440p monitor and prefer 4K content - it definitely looks sharper, even down to fine-grain detail and I did the same when I had a 1200p screen, preferring 1440p content then (at least as soon as it was available - the early years were rough).

    If you are noticing high CPU usage at higher video resolutions, it's possible that your GPU is outdated and can't handle the latest codecs anymore - or that your operating system (since you're on Linux based on your comment history) doesn't have the right drivers to take advantage of the GPU's decoding ability and/or is struggling with certain codecs. Under normal circumstances, there should be absolutely no increased CPU usage at higher video resolutions.

  • These adjustments are mandatory in the EU. Keep in mind however that the intended use for this angle adjustment is for when the rear axle of your car is under full load and the headlight pointing upwards. You should not adjust the headlights otherwise. Especially at higher speeds, you need to be able to see far enough ahead in the dark.

  • I should have mentioned that these tokens are one time only.

  • That's just the reality of doing business on the Internet. This is by far the best way of doing it right now, not that this information appears to have made it down under so far.

    While Australia's new legislation is ham-fisted and poorly thought out, the intent isn't wrong and there's broad consensus for it (77% approval in Australia). We need to do something about the uncontrolled exploitation, manipulation and endangerment of minors by social media services. Corporations are clearly not interested in protecting them and parents are obviously incapable of it as well (although I could have told you the same thing 20 years ago). That's precisely the kind of issue where the government is supposed to step in with regulation of some sort.

  • There are existing systems that use a digital token created with the ID document. Only this token that confirms the user's age is sent to the social media site, which means its minimally privacy invasive. Unfortunately, it seems like nothing like this is planned to be used in Australia.

  • Unlike in the past, current-day teenagers are less technologically competent than older people. The vast majority will not be able to figure it out, especially those who were using TikTok as a search engine (I wish I was making this up).

  • Can we do the same with CEOs and politicians, please?

  • It's also worth noting that the German state of Lower Saxony is holding a significant portion of the group's shares (11.8% - but they have 20% of voting rights, granting them a blocking minority). This means that anything the company is doing is always under additional public scrutiny, at least within Germany.

  • The relevant patents expired a long time ago. MPEG codecs were not free and the research society did sue those who used them without acquiring licenses:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3#Licensing,_ownership,_and_legislation

    In response to these licensing costs, ogg Vorbis was developed as a free alternative. However, Fraunhofer also co-developed AAC, which is open source (although patents still protect it and require licensing for redistribution). You may have heard of it if you're into watching movies.

    Not that any of this matters, because as you can read in the excerpt above, Teuken-7B is released as both a research version and a version under the Apache 2.0 license, which permits commercial use and redistribution without any payments to the society.

  • That's not how autocratic regimes are operating. Small communities are never safe. In fact, they are convenient targets to make an example of.

    They can also be infiltrated with sockpuppets far more easily, like Russia has been doing for a long time now.

  • America didn't invent racial discrimination.

  • I get the feeling that you're cheating a little with this one. I mentioned it, because it exists in every economic system. "Supercharged by capitalism" is a cop out to preserve your hypothesis.

  • They defeated the Nazis, because 1) it's a huge land and the Nazis were stupid to underestimate its size and 2) because they got help of every kind from their Western allies, without which they would have not lasted a year. Don't get me wrong, some clever generals and industrial planners that were given more or less free reign by Stalin (provided he would be allowed to take credit) certainly contributed, as did millions of ordinary people who were caught between a rock and a hard place, but it was despite the system, not because of it; keep in mind that Stalin's purges did not stop in 1941 for example and continued on until his death. Here's a list of just American help (Britain and Canada also contributed):

    • 400,000 jeeps & trucks
    • 14,000 airplanes
    • 8,000 tractors
    • 13,000 tanks
    • 1.5 million blankets
    • 15 million pairs of army boots
    • 107,000 tons of cotton
    • 2.7 million tons of petrol products
    • 4.5 million tons of food

    Food is an interesting topic of its own. Spam (the canned meat) was such a vital ration for Soviet soldiers that they affectionately referred to it as the "second front". So much of this stuff was shipped over that it's still being found all over the territory of the former Soviet Union every once in a while.

    When the Soviets launched the first human into space, it was primarily because they snatched up more German scientists than everyone else taken together (because Nazi Germany was irrationally pumping more money into the V programs relative to their economy than the US invested into the atomic bomb - the winners of WW2 reaped the benefits of that gamble) and were far more reckless with human lives than the Americans. Not that they ever admitted as much - unlike for example the US, which just made the likes of von Braun Americans and gladly ignored their war crimes (the Soviets only did the latter with people they needed). The post-war recovery and ascend to superpower status would not have been possible without forced labor, both from their own people, ordinary people they abducted and worked to death, as well as the aforementioned highly qualified experts (that they also abducted). They didn't just catch rocket scientists, but experts in every field, dismantled entire factories and research complexes in the parts of Germany they had under control, rebuilding them brick by brick in their secret cities that still exist to this day. There were certainly bright minds using these human and other resources well, but they were always hampered by the Soviet system, its bureaucracy, irrationality, wastefulness and blatant disregard for even the most basic human decency. Some of the most brilliant Soviet scientists and engineers were forced to work in the Gulag for years, squandering their potential.

    Any successes certainly weren't due to the economic or political system, but despite of it, because the moment the short-term benefits from forced labor started to dry up, the descent into stagnation began. If this system was so brilliant, why did it never produce any results past the initial mass mobilization, conquering, theft and exploitation phase? Every single Communist nation went through this: Rapid growth industrial revolution style (with all of the same trappings as 19th century Britain, from smoke-filled cities to child labor), followed by the surprising realization that you cannot brute force progress in an autocratic system forever, because it's ideas that are ultimately worth the most - and ideas, independent thinking are dangerous, comrade. We cannot allow that! The party is always right, after all.

    If you're thinking I'm exaggerating with that last sentence, putting on a bad Hollywood parody of those noble Communists, I'll remind you that the East German communist party's official hymn had these exact lyrics.

  • Do you think you're getting anything close to reality from TikTok?

  • Okay, I'll bite: Racial discrimination.

  • Poor countries like Germany? Germany is perhaps the perfect example of the differences between the two systems and which one actually worked out better for its people.

  • Communism makes it so, in principle, you have no reason to overwork yourself

    In reality, people in Communist countries didn't give a crap about their work, because there were no actual incentives whatsoever, thinking for yourself was discouraged, showing initiative was heavily penalized, there was no competition to force anyone to improve what they were doing, there was barely any chance to advance (unless you were an apparatchik willing to literally go over bodies), no chance whatsoever to influence where the country as a whole or even your local community was heading towards. On top of that, you still had to overwork yourself if some fancy five year plan needed at least some real results to go with the made-up numbers (or at least pretend to be doing so, provided your country's ruling party has mellowed a little, shackled off Stalinism/Maoism, but not actually tackled the rampant corruption yet [none of them ever did]).

    The idea - in theory - was that e.g. a factory or farm was owned "by the people", but to the people themselves it just felt that they and their labor were being exploited by an overbearing state and its faceless bureaucrats, similar to how they were previously being exploited by capitalist or feudal owners of the means of production. Importantly however, there were barely any niches in this system, unlike in capitalist or feudal systems, for some equally determined and lucky individuals to build up something for themselves. The most you could actually hope for is retreat into the private sphere and be left alone there, even though you knew that there were at least some informers among your closest family members and friends.

    Seriously, have you ever actually seen footage from a factory in a Communist country? A few minutes of that should tell anyone what a terrible idea this whole thing is. Here's an example: https://youtu.be/emoF0EFxjjA?t=339 Compare this to a capitalist factory from the exact same time: https://youtu.be/cVabxDEJPgM It's not just the lack of modern tools and machinery, but also the organization, work ethos, even things as simple as making the workplace nicely lit, clean and safe.

    For each of the countless flaws of capitalism, Communism has ten more, usually far more serious ones too. From exploitation to environmental destruction, it was all worse. These issues remain unsolved equations to this day, because almost every one of them has as its defining variable humans, these greedy creatures who are simply not suitable creatures for this kind of system. Maybe capitalism works better, because it not only rewards this greed, but actually uses it as a mechanism to force the system and its participants to constantly reinvent themselves. Not always in good ways, perhaps not even most of the time, but at least there is change happening.

    I find it honestly perplexing that Communism is still being brought up by people who consider themselves smart as some kind of viable alternative, even though we've seen it fail again and again in the real world, every single time. It has never worked, ever. Yes, I'm sure they were all not real Communists. You would be one though if you were in charge though and because you would be, it would actually work this time. Maybe this time it can be actually done for real, with AI or quantum computers or something.

    If this comes off as a bit abrasive, I apologize. Not my intention and perhaps due to a particularly unpleasant interaction I've just had with another user on this site. It's mostly an expression of frustration in regards to anyone who is bringing Communism up in any context other than crimes against humanity.

  • Thanks for the laugh. Wait, you were serious?

  • There being a purpose to capitalism implies that there is some grand plan behind this system. There isn't.

    I think you are so terrified by the idea that the world and it's economic system are inherently chaotic that you are coming up with entirely irrational attempts at smart-sounding explanations like this one.

    This doesn't mean that there aren't elites exploiting their favorable position in the current system, including in times of crisis that they caused themselves.