Recent submissions

Comment · 4 years ago
The font issue is so challenging. Even Chinese developers (who obviously don’t think ASCII is fine) sometimes won’t understand why using a Chinese font to render kanji is an issue.
Comment · 4 years ago
Mohammed bin Salman’s public position is that global warming is real and dangerous and he has pledged that Saudi Arabia will be carbon neutral by 2060. I think if you wanted to make a case that he’s a hypocrite, there’s ample evidence out there.

But then the real question is why hypocrisy is so bad. All of us are hypocrites in different ways, on different things. Why is being a hypocrite on climate change worse than being wilfully ignorant?

Comment · 4 years ago
I think a better analogy is the internet. Or phones. By any measure, either of those technologies have unleashed a torrent of scams and fraud, especially in the areas where they are largely unregulated.

Of course, I’d say the benefits of cryptocurrencies are far smaller than the benefits of the internet (it’s pretty hard to compete with connecting almost the entire world into a single instant global network for the first time). But some benefits do exist, and I feel like you’re being wilfully blind if you disagree with that.

Of course, you might feel that the downsides (massively) outweigh the upsides. And that’s fine. Others will disagree.

One thing I think we can all agree on is that crypto is at least decentralized and permissionless enough to not go away any time soon, no matter who wants it gone.

Comment · 4 years ago
I think Japan is my favourite country for road trips. So many stunning mountain and costal roads. And hotels and restaurants in rural areas often have amazing food. However, gasoline and toll roads are both quite expensive so that might be a consideration. I mostly avoid cities (if I want to go a city, I’ll go by train) so if you want to do that beware that parking can be a pain (and expensive).
Comment · 4 years ago
Visas will be your challenge. Unless you’re married to a Japanese person, it will be hard for you to get a work visa without being employed by a Japanese company. Any way to try to get around that is gonna be a lot of work (and a bit of money too).

However, if you wanted to take a 1 year sabbatical, you could get a job as an engineer with a Japanese company, work for a year, apply for fast track permanent residency at the end of that year (you’ll need to meet some education/income requirements), then go back to your old job remotely. There are software jobs that hire people who don’t speak Japanese.

Comment · 4 years ago
…you know China has satellites and stuff, right?
Comment · 4 years ago
I think it’s more than for some reason stories about Japan being super weird seem to be very popular in Western media.
Comment · 4 years ago
> How much that productivity has increased due to automatization of laborous tasks ?

For sure some of it. As well as education of the workforce and the changing nature of work.

Either way, the reality is that the benefits have largely gone to capital, rather than labor. And that’s just how the system works, which is why strong unions are important.

Comment · 4 years ago
Okay, but how do you propose the victims of Kiwifarms protect themselves from being kicked off the internet?

And remember we’re not talking about their physical ability to connect to the internet (after all, no one has deprived Kiwifarms of that), we’re talking about their ability to access their audience and use their current identity.

Comment · 4 years ago
But because of a vague memory about something you read sometime (which looks like it was wrong), the presence of short-haired elves breaks your immersion and damages your enjoyment of the show?
Comment · 4 years ago
Providing information about how to source drugs (and even encouraging people to take them) is not the same as drug trafficking. Erowid is not the Silk Road.

As for the second allegation, I haven’t seen any substantiation. But I do know that in some circles any discussion in any context (eg: school) about sexual identity with teenagers has come to be considered “grooming” so I’m a bit suspect about the choice of words.

Comment · 4 years ago
But if someone comes at you wanting to unplug you from the internet (in every meaningful sense), what possible recourse do you have? These are trolls, they don’t go away just because you ask nicely or try to ignore them.
Comment · 4 years ago
> "Doxxing" doesn't restrict someone else's free speech. It just discourages them from conducting speech under their public identity.

Isn’t this the exact same thing? Discouraging someone from conducting speech under their public identity is taking away their audience and community. It’s not removing their ability to speak, but it’s hard to see how it’s not restricting their free speech.

And in the exact same way, no one has removed the ability to speak of any KiwiFarms member (or indeed of their community as a whole). It’s simply been made harder for them to conduct their speech under their current public identity.

Comment · 4 years ago
I think it’s interesting that so many people see the danger in a Twitter “mob” effectively running Kiwifarms off the public, visible internet, without recognising that Kiwifarms themselves were a mob, with the precise goal of running people (including the recently targeted streamer) off the public visible internet too. The tactics were different, but the goal is effectively the same.

The key differences are Kiwifarms is targeting individuals personally. And that they’re doing it kind of randomly, for the lulz. Whereas their main opponents here are targeting a company/community, and acting in self-defence.

I know who I think is more worthy of protection.

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