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gerryflap

@ gerryflap @feddit.nl

Posts
8
Comments
575
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Do you pre-order digital games? If so, why?

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  • Never. Apart from the pre-order bonuses that I refuse to accept there's really no reason to. The game's still there after I have seen the reviews. I have fast internet and a fast SSD, so even if I could pre-download that would realistically only save me an hour or something even for the largest games.

  • How did a simple phone call become so problematic?

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  • Because we have more convenient methods. People have been shitting out in the open for a very long time but once the toilet came we (mostly) stopped doing so.

  • Has Github/Microsoft rolled back the master to main switch?

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  • Honestly I feel like people who had an issue with this were just as much making an issue out of nothing. I personally also think that "master" is just as much a normal and valid name as "main", and to me the rename kinda felt like performative bullshit. But at the same time it's just a name, if it makes people happy I don't really care either. Nowadays I tend to use main, but it's not something I really pay attention to.

  • Cute sheep I photographed today

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  • Haha thanks!

  • Do you buy your cameras and lenses second hand? Where?

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  • I bought my Canon EOS 40D via MPB and I liked their service, so no complaints there.

  • What is the weirdest PDF you have in your downloads?

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  • Nothing too weird. Multiple manuals of objects that I own, probably the weirdest of which is a German manual for my Canon EOS 300 (I'm not German). And some machine learning papers, among which a paper from 1987, by Quinlan & Rivest, about decision trees (which is older than I am).

    EDIT: Oh and another document older than me, a manual for the Minolta XG-9 that I'm lending from my dad.

  • How did a simple phone call become so problematic?

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  • Most people call me to get some information or to push some information to me. Unless they need the answer now I want a text message of some sort, not a call. I'm okay with people like my parents calling at a predetermined moment to catch up. But most people who want to call me want to do so at a moment when a text message would be hugely preferable, so I don't answer unless I get a reason (via text) why the call should happen now. In many cases this leads to the conversation going much more efficiently via text and allows me to actually defer it to when I have time or energy for it.

  • How did a simple phone call become so problematic?

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  • Texts are easy to forget and difficult to write? Disagree. Texts are easy to remember and can be viewed back at any time. Writing is a bit slower than speaking, but at least it allows you to think about what you're saying. There's definitely a place where speaking is preferable, but then it should be in person or via a laptop video/voice call so the quality is better and I can do other stuff.

  • How did a simple phone call become so problematic?

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  • Because it forces you to drop everything out of nowhere, losing all the focus you may have had. And then you might need to hold the phone, you need to find a place where you don't annoy everyone around you, and so you basically cannot look up anything.

    Text is much superior imo, and messages can be answered whenever convenient (depending on urgency). But even people talking in real life are much better than a call. You can see them coming, you keep your hands free and a can usually stay where you are, they're way better to understand than shitty call quality.

  • How did a simple phone call become so problematic?

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  • For me it's a few reasons:

    1. It demands my attention right here, right now
    2. I don't know that it's going to happen, I cannot prepare
    3. Usually during the call I'm forced to hold the phone, meaning I can't look stuff up or write stuff down easily
    4. I fidn listening way harder than reading, and the quality of calls doesn't help with that

    I much prefer text because it give some time to delay answering until it's convenient for me, look up answers to any questions I may have, and because I can re-read and think about stuff.

    Calling is like an interrupt forcing me to drop everything there and then and immediately provide an answer, messaging is something I poll every now and then when I'm not overloaded or focused so I can actually take the time to answer.

  • Nvidia falls 14% in premarket trading as China's DeepSeek triggers global tech sell-off

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  • I disagree. Under the right conditions (read: actual competition instead of unregulated monopolies) I think a capitalist system be able to stay ahead, though I think both systems could compete depending on how they're organized.

    But what I'm more interested in is you view that China is still Socialist/Communist. Isn't DeepSeek a private company trying to maximize profits for itself by innovating, instead of a public company funded by the people? I don't really know myself, but my perspective was that this was more of a capitalist vs capitalist situation. With one side (the US) kinda suffering from being so unregulated that innovation dies down.

  • Signal app: alternatief voor WhatsApp | Consumentenbond

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  • Ja lijkt me ook. Ik ben momenteel zelf vrij flexibel. Als iemand een nog veiligere app zou gebruiken dan zou ik ook die installeren. Zolang het maar geen Facebook messenger oid is, want dat vertrouw ik niet meer.

  • Deepseek when asked about sensitive topics

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  • Although censorship is obviously bad, I'm kinda intrigued by the way it's yapping against itself. Trying to weigh the very important goal of providing useful information against its "programming" telling it not to upset Winnie the Pooh. It's like a person mumbling "oh god oh fuck what do I do" to themselves when faced with a complex situation.

  • DLSS

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  • Just like DLSS can generate frames or pixels, it can generate a line that goes up too

  • Nvidia falls 14% in premarket trading as China's DeepSeek triggers global tech sell-off

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  • I'm so happy this happened. This is really a power move from China. The US was really riding the whole AI bubble. By "just" releasing a powerful open-source AI model they've fucked the not so open US AI companies. I'm not sure if this was planned from China or whether this is was really just a small company doing this because they wanted to, but either way this really damages the western economy. And its given western consumers a free alternative. A few million dollars invested (if we are to believe the cost figures) for a major disruption.

  • Signal app: alternatief voor WhatsApp | Consumentenbond

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  • Ik heb het wel eens geprobeerd, maar sommige mensen vinden het heel moeilijk/vervelend om iets anders dan WhatsApp te gebruiken blijkbaar. Ik prefereer veiligere services zoals Signal ook, maar ik heb inmiddels wel geleerd dat het ook heel vervelend is om absoluut te weigeren WhatsApp te gebruiken. Ik heb op de studie meerdere keren gehad dat mensen absoluut voet bij stuk houden, de één wilde absoluut geen WhatsApp en de andere weigerde Signal of Telegram te gebruiken omdat hij niet "al die apps op z'n telefoon wilde". Toen konden we dus gewoon niet efficiënt communiceren. Ik wilde ook liever geen WhatsApp, maar het is tenminste nog end2end encrypted.

  • Removed

    How much do you blame the people who voted for Trump or other fascists?

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  • The ceasefire happened before Trump took office

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    How much do you blame the people who voted for Trump or other fascists?

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  • Like what? Last thing I read he continued shipping heavy weapons that were previously banned from being shipped to Israel and some clown in his cabinet stated that Israël has some sort of holy right to the land. I'm not American and I don't approve of the democrats way handling it, but the republicans so far seem worse.

  • Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy

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  • Yeah I agree with this as well. It's not a binary view: either for or against capitalism. You can disapprove of everything happening in the US right now and still be for some form of capitalism.

    Most people I know think that the US has gone way too far with their strand of capitalism, and yet they almost range from the complete left-to-right in terms of Dutch politics. Only the very right wing people here think that the US is doing something good right now. The rest, from center-right (or even proper neoliberal) all the way to the commies see a system that is failing in some way.

    Yet on Lemmy this nuance seems completely lost sometimes. You're either a part of the capitalists/liberals and therefore approve of the oligarchy and dystopian capitalism in the US, or you join the radical "destroy capitalism" views. It's gotten better after the insane people from Hexbear left tho

  • Decentralized Social Media Is the Only Alternative to the Tech Oligarchy

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  • I don't have much time and energy for long discussions, but I just wanna share my feelings.

    I feel like people here see capitalism as a very black and white thing. Either it's there and corrupting everything or it's gone and everything is awesome. Personally I don't think that's the case. In my opinion there are some cases where the market can solve things more efficiently than a government institution, granted that this market is regulated and controlled by the government. I'm against unbounded capitalism like we see way too often nowadays.

    But here in western Europe, while certainly not perfect, the situation is way better than in the US. The government controls companies, gives them a slap on the wrist if they get too greedy. And while it still poisons a lot that it touches, the competitive aspect of it also makes sure that many inefficiencies are cut. In my opinion even we are not regulating it enough, and I do consider myself left-wing. But completely abolishing capitalism doesn't make sense to me either.

    I think some things are better left to the government, stuff like healthcare, public transport, utilities like water or maybe even energy. Other things are better left private (but regulated): restaurants, barbers, supermarkets, most product development like phones, cameras, cars, computers, etc. There's a huge grey area there that I don't really have an opinion on.

    But I don't see how a society without capitalism can provide stuff like decent smartphones, game consoles, restaurants, festivals, etc. These more "luxury" goods rely on competition to innovate and provide decent experiences, and here capitalism works better in my view.