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Comment · 1 month ago
Comment · 1 year ago
Eh, not nearly as thought-provoking as it thinks it is. The sections about the old Settings app and how making all of the icons gray was an improvement contradict the complaints made about the current versions.

The old single-view Settings app was more mobile-device like with all-or-nothing visual context, whereas the current Settings app with the sidebar and main display pane gives the user immediate understanding of where they are in the settings tree. It takes advantage of the larger display size of a desktop device.

The all-gray icons everywhere mirrors the same monochromatic issues of the current macOS version.

However, seeing all of the OS versions side-by-side made me realize that Catalina's visual design was probably my favorite, combining minimalistic visual flair and functionality while holding onto rich gradients and color palettes that made it easy to scan and find controls and actions.

Comment · 2 years ago
There's a difference between being unaware of something and actively denying it like the responses in this poll. It's good to also have knowledge of the events you called out, but I bet more people are aware of them than you're giving credit. A lot of Jews are pretty aware that the Nazi Holocaust targeted other groups of people as well, including Romani, Slavs, and the mentally handicapped.

By your logic, as long as a tragic historical event is referenced over and over again, it's ok for lots of people to doubt or play down its significance. Are you understanding of large numbers of people being against any of the recent black civil rights touch-points, since slavery, Jim Crow, and racism against blacks has been _the_ talking point and justification for contentious events in the US for the last 5 years?

It's fascinating that for the last couple of decades, Holocaust denialism was seen by US liberals as this inhuman and inexcusable philosophy. However, now that it's not just the "evil" right-wingers being called out for buying into it, a common and acceptable response has effectively become "eh, what do the Jews expect?" I'm not aligning with either political philosophy, just calling out the hypocrisy.

Comment · 2 years ago
Your theoretical examples imply that you think the age range called out in this article headline refers to children, when it's actually 18-29 year olds. These are legal adults that responded to this poll, not kids who may not have yet gone through the requisite history classes. Are you really using belief in the Easter Bunny as a "whatabout" argument to hand-wave away the significantly higher rate of Holocaust denialism among this age range?
Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 3 years ago
It's a really vague ask and the article doesn't explain the specifics of what constitutes "plastic surgery filters." Are you no longer allowed to have pics with those Snapchat-esque glowing faces or big eyes? Is the detection system able to differentiate between a filter and actual plastic surgery? It's also a bit of a can of worms if Meta no longer allows certain modifications to images of people on its platform "for the sake of the children."

Let's not pretend like young people chasing sex and beauty is some brand new concept only concocted in the last 15 years by the evil developers at Facebook.

Comment · 3 years ago
I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not.
Comment · 3 years ago
I think that's just being wise by broadening your horizons. You've already gotten the Army's take on this matter from your training.

After a decade of both civilian and Army experience, the one thing I can say the US military teaches better than any other organization is how to lead people. It has its share of leaders that fail upwards just like anywhere else, but on average the people in upper levels got there primarily on meritocracy. Your Soldiers are a big part of that, as they can actively prop you up if you do them right or bring you down should you fail them.

My napkin theory is that any profession which has a known risk of serious injury or death requires more competent leadership abilities in order to align an organization in the direction you want or need it to go (everything I've said here probably applies for first-responders as well). The fear and stress that comes with these kinds of jobs requires a certain finesse and connection from leaders with subordinates in order to convince them to put themselves in harms way for the sake of the "mission."

Comment · 3 years ago
Since getting into weed, it's surprised me how little the anxiety-inducing effects of psychedelics are brought up. I tried smoking non-medicinal weed for the first time recently and was not prepared for the massive panic attack that I had when taking what would be considered a typical dose of THC (10mg). Psychedelics cause a very different kind of loss of control from what you get on alcohol that my mind just does not seem capable of handling.

I've probed other people about the anxiety and fear I experienced, and have since learned that it's actually a fairly common feeling that even experienced users get. However, it's just considered part of the trip and requires experience to understand how to manage it. I wish I could reach a tolerance level that would allow me to have a more reliably enjoyable psychedelic experience, because I feel like I'm missing out on something that so many others seem to get positive results from.

Comment · 3 years ago
Psychopathy is a hell of a drug
Comment · 3 years ago
In theory, the idea of distributed, or at least decentralized online communities is something I like and want to see a return to. However, I think the folks championing this stuff need to set more realistic expectations.

Anyone whose spent awhile in a hobbyist forum or IRC network has likely experienced that they're just as, if not more prone to moderator drama than even Reddit. Wait until an admin rage-deletes a whole instance over an argument with someone or one community brigades/DOS's another and then you'll get to see the dark side of the "good ol'" community-run forum days.

Comment · 3 years ago
Seeing the original site design, which is considered "superior" by its users to the new one, makes me feel very out-of-touch with what many others consider good user experience design.

I find the original design hard to use. The post text is very small. There is no max width to the main content, which makes it difficult to keep track of where you are when text spans multiple lines. The links are on the far-side of the page from the posts/comments they relate to, without any horizontal spacing indicators, so it's very difficult to tell what lines up with what.

The only thing I like less in the redesign is that the sidebar sections are intermixed with banner ads, which makes them hard to find and get to. But overall, I found the new design a big improvement to the old one, which judging by the responses to this and the linked post, puts me in a small minority.

Comment · 3 years ago
I think the more click-baitey aspect of the article title is that they didn't specify that this occurred 60–80 years ago; it's phrased as if this test recently happened. The US defense agencies today sure aren't perfect, but they certainly aren't this reckless anymore. The fear during the first few decades of the Cold War instigated a lot of poor moral decisions by the US Government that can't just be extrapolated to the organization today.
Comment · 3 years ago
Spreadsheets get a bad rap, particularly from software developers. However, even as a dev myself, I've always found them to be surprisingly powerful and a great tool for people who can bridge their gap in coding skills using formulas to build data-driven declarative capabilities. It might not be as powerful or performant as SQL or Pandas, but it's rather impressive given that you can do it off-the-shelf within a widely-used application.

I've seen non-technical people build some really cool things off of the back of spreadsheet data using things like AppSheet and Google Looker Studio (not sure why they changed the name from Data Studio). And now with Excel adding a ChatGPT formula and Google Sheets adding their own AI-driven features, power and non-power users alike will be able to really up their capabilities using only plain-language queries without having to devise complex algorithms or formulas (I realize ChatGPT isn't flawless yet).

Comment · 3 years ago
We're under the FDIC threshold in our account at the moment, so we are just riding it out expecting to get fully recouped in case of bank insolvency. We're looking into additional lines of credit for the short-term in case we're locked out of our funds for an excessive length of time.

It sounds like it's too late to withdraw anyways, so all their customers can do at this point is exercise an emergency plan and line up options for short-term liquidity.

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