I am owned by several dogs and cats. I have been playing non-computer roleplaying games for almost five decades. I am interested in all kinds of gadgets, particularly multitools, knives, flashlights, and pens.
Don't threaten me with a good time.
We don't deserve dogs, but we can be grateful that we have them anyway.
If there were any trust in the DNC to preserve, this would be a different discussion. They look after the interests of Democratic incumbents, not Democratic voters. Hogg is doing the right thing and I hope he succeeds.
Yes. Things will get better. We don't know how quickly that will happen, but it will happen. Meanwhile, take care of yourself and do what you can to take care of the people around you. The whole MAGA movement is based on fear and hatred. Being decent and doing good may be the most effective way to resist and, eventually, overcome it.
You got here ahead of me. Meshtastic has some limitations, but in a relatively populated area it works surprisingly well. GPS trackers using Meshtastic require far less power than their cell-phone equivalents, which means they ca be smaller, longer lasting, or some of both. They can also be a good bit less expensive. Meshtastic takes a bit of learning, but it isn't difficult and there are plenty of resources.
Ignore the self-righteous advice and take are of yourself first. We can't fight back against oppression by sacrificing ourselves when it accomplishes nothing. That just means one less person is available to fight back when it does matter. The stakes do matter. They're not asking you to kill people.
In the middle- to long-term you should think about how to deal with the larger problem. To avoid situations like this you may need to develop new contacts, find similar wok in other sectors, or even find another kind of work. Those are things that will take time and planning, so work on them while you do what's needed to keep yourself going.
Always do what you can and look for ways you can do more, but make sure any sacrifices you decide to make are worth the likely results.
It's always nice to run across a fellow Hero player. That's been my main system for a long time. I love being able to GM any genre or strange cross-genre that occurs to me.
Permanently Deleted
I voted last week (2025-04-01) in Wisconsin in the US. It was a relatively small election, but it included a high-stakes race for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat that determined if the progressives would continue to retain the majority we finally won back a few years ago. Elon Musk spent tens of millions of his own money, including outright attempts to buy votes, to win the race for MAGA. Susan Crawford, the progressive candidate, won by more than ten points. In a state where previous elections hinged on tenths of a percent, that was a landslide.
An LLM does not write code. It cobbles together bits and pieces of existing code. Some developers do that too, but the decent ones look at existing code to learn new principles and then apply them. An LLM can't do that. If human developers have not already written code that solves your problem, an LLM cannot solve your problem.
The difference between a weak developer and an LLM is that the LLM can plagiarize from a much larger code base and do it much more quickly.
A lot of coding really is just rehashing existing solutions. LLMs could be useful for that, but a lot of what you get is going to contain errors. Worse yet, LLMs tend to "learn" how to cheat at their tasks. The code they generate often has lot of exception handling built in to hide the failures. That makes testing and debugging more difficult and time-consuming. And it gets really dangerous if you also rely on an LLM to generate your tests.
The software industry has already evolved to favor speed over quality. LLM generated code may be the next logical step. That does not make it a good one. Buggy software in many areas, such as banking and finance, can destroy lies. Buggy software in medical applications can kill people. It would be good if we could avoid that.
That is true, except for the things he does on impulse that are different from what he was told to do. He is a front man, but he's not a reliable one.
"It makes them look all manner of stupid".
Madison is an amazing place in so many ways. I love this town!
What surprised me is how many other huge protests there were. Thanks to everyone, everywhere, who participated or supported the efforts.
Any time you wonder if Trump is exercising any kind of foresight, the answer is no. Any time you wonder if Trump is cleverly manipulating events, the answer is no. He makes decisions on impulse, without regard to advice, policy, consistency, or legality.
You're probably right about that. I find it hard to judge where the fine line between malice and incompetence will fall.
I agree with you. I'm an American and it makes me want to boycott American goods.
In practice, I am trying to reduce the amount of business I do with large American companies. They're the ones who put Trump into power. I feel better supporting local businesses anyway.
We may yet see a Buy Canadian movement in the US.
We have been slowly, but steadily, moving in the direction of sanity and compassion over the last decade. Replacing Walker with Evers was a huge trade up in every way.
The federal government is still being destroyed, but I have more hope than I did a week ago.
The judicial branch finally seems to be getting some traction on curbing the illegal activity. There's a long way to go, but it's a start.
In my home state of Wisconsin, some very good things happened. Me elected another progressive to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which maintains the majority we finally achieved in the previous election. Musk spent a lot of his personal time, and his own money, trying to push that election the other way. Crawford one by more than 10 points, which is impressive when most of the margins have been tenths of a percent recently. The other state races generally also went well.
I can't tell you just how big this is for us here. We've been feeling the same sense of hopelessness as the rest of the country. Now everyone I've talked with seems happy, excited, and hopeful. Also, very determined to keep fighting.
Exactly. The Democrats have their own issues, but there is a difference between a candle and a burning house and the difference does matter.
I can't imagine either.
I'm sitting in a comfy chair reading a book and browsing Lemmy while I wake up. Denali, my big husky-mix, is lying in the chair next to mine doing pretty much the same. At least the reading part. Every time I go back to my book he leans his head over the chair arm so he can see my screen. We trade big yawns and occasionally lie back to rest our eyes. It's a very good way to start the day.
Actors who always improve a movie
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/40446434
There are some movies that don't need any help and there are some that are beyond help. Despite that, I think there are some actors who always make a movie better than it would have been. They aren't always leads, but any scene they're in is worth watching. My list would start with: JK Simmons Rachel McAdams Michael B Jordan Tilda Swinton Jeff Daniels Ming-Na Wen
Who are the actors you feel the same way about? Or do you disagree with the premise?
Actors who always improve a movie
There are some movies that don't need any help and there are some that are beyond help. Despite that, I think there are some actors who always make a movie better than it would have been. They aren't always leads, but any scene they're in is worth watching. My list would start with: JK Simmons Rachel McAdams Michael B Jordan Tilda Swinton Jeff Daniels Ming-Na Wen
Who are the actors you feel the same way about? Or do you disagree with the premise?
I wonder how many people have run for Congress just to get decent health coverage?
Woke and DEI
DEI seems to have taken over from Woke as the all-purpose MAGA terms for "this is bad". DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. As with Woke, which seems to an accusation of using rational thought, DEI seems like it would be difficult to interpret as bad. Saying that you strongly oppose diversity, equity, and inclusion is a pretty frank admission of your values.
This use of DEI seems to translate directly as "insufficiently racist".
Does anyone have information on the 2/5 Project 2025 protest?
I'm having trouble finding information about the Wisconsin part of the national Project 2025 protest that's scheduled for 2/5. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
We need to get ethics back into politics
The thing that bothers me most about the Democrats' current arguments over which issues "cost us the election" is the apparent lack of concern about what we think is right.
The hypocrisy of choosing positions based entirely on what you think will win an election is a major part of why so many people have given up on participating in the process. What we are seeing is no longer a matter of choosing which battles to fight, based on an underlying set of principles. The principles have been thrown out, leaving only hypocrisy. We firmly believe in...whatever will get us elected this time around.
It may be necessary to focus on a limited set of objectives, but that can be done without disavowing everything else. We need to stop ignoring, or apologizing for, our belief in the worth and dignity of every human being.
The "m" in motel refers to a motorcar. The "h" in hotel, an older term, is presumably a reference to a horse.
A trebuchet builds trust.
A trebuchet builds trust.
"I wouldn't trust him any farther than I could throw him."
"That will no longer be a problem."
A trebuchet builds trust. "I wouldn't trust him any farther than I could throw him."
If a corporation were subject to normal human health risks, we would have a clean environment and trillions invested in fighting climate change.
Republicans don't love their country, they just love their control of it
I've been struggling with how to make sense of what the far right likes to call patriotism. Our democratic system of government is at the core of what defines America, but many of them are willing, and in some cases eager, to destroy that.
It finally hit me that what they love is not their country. They love their control of it. That is why racism, misogyny, homophobia, and other irrational hatreds are so deeply tied into far right movement. Only people like them should be allowed to have a say. The acceptance of diversity that began as religious freedom and has expanded to encompass all differences, directly threatens their control.
I wish that insight pointed a way to deal with the problem, but it really points up how intractable the problem is. There is no compromise that will satisfy both sides when one side is demanding complete control over the other.
This may be one of those problems that can only be solved by newer generations, who tend to have less rigid views of the
Utility Knives
I always carry a couple of good knives with me, but I have lately gone on a utility knife kick. I'm not sure I want to carry one, but I definitely like having them around the house for opening boxes.
I don't think I've found the perfect one yet, but I do have some a like quite well.
The Oknife Otacle Pro is my favorite. It is small and very slim, but provides a good grip. The blade is completely covered, so I can use hook blades without worrying about exposed edges. The mechanism provides one-handed deployment with excellent safety. There is a neat little clip that works well and doesn't get in the way.
The mechanism is actually very good, but it gets terrible reviews. That's because it desperately needs to be lubricated and it comes from the factory dry. Mine was pretty much unusable until I sprayed it down with ToughGlide. Now it's one of the smoothest I've used.
My second favorite is the [Nexland Sliding U
Not getting email notifications
I'm pretty sure I used to get emails when I received a notification, but that hasn't been happening for a while now. I do have the "Send Notifications to Email" checked in my settings and I have verified that my email address is set correctly.
Are email notifications working for others? Can anyone suggest things I should change to get them working?
Are reviews / comments / discussions appropriate here?
The rules seem to imply that pocket dumps are required. Can we also post reviews / comments / discussions of EDC items here?
Bizarre video drop-out problem
I am experiencing a technical issue that I can't even explain, let alone fix.
Short Version: My laptop's video link to our television regularly drops out for 10-15 seconds when anyone steps too heavily on a particular area of the floor.
Long Version (because I don't know which details might matter):
My wife and I regularly participate in video meetings with friends, so we have a setup for it in our living room. My laptop serves as the computer. It is connected to a Thunderbolt 4 hub on a side table to the left of my easy chair.
There is a video adapter connected to the hub. 20' HDMI and USB cables run along a wall to the left of the table to connect the hub to the television and the camera that's mounted on it (Logitech Brio 4K). Another 20' USB cable runs behind the chair and forward along the right side where it connects to a microphone (Logitech Yeti X). The microphone is on another small table that extends out into the room just in front of the chair arm.
My wife uses an
Where to find political opinions and discussion?
There are plenty of politics communities, but they all seem to focus on posting and discussing articles. Is there a community for posting political ideas and opinions?
Kuru Toga Dive News?
Has anything been heard about the Kuru Toga Dive in the last few months? It looked like a very interesting pencil, if somewhat overpriced. It was released, but never in more than small batches, and now seems to have disappeared.
GOAT Multitool
I've had my GOAT multitool for a couple weeks now. It's big feature is swapping the tools, but it has other advantages as well. The spring-loaded pliers are great and they use a "frame-based" spring that should hold up to heavy use. The bit driver will hold every type of bit (standard, double-ended, Leatherman, etc.) reliably and is somewhat offset toward the center, similar to the Gerber Center-Drive. One end of the tool is flat and reinforced to act as a light-use hammer. All tools can be removed, which means you can adjust the GOAT with the built-in Allen wrench and sharpen it with the built-in metal file. It includes a replaceable-blade X-Acto tool.
An inobvious, but potentially huge innovation, is making the tool and scale templates open source. Anyone can produce additional tool implements that will work in the GOAT. That could be a game changer if it catches on. Think about specialty toolsets for different professions, for example. Likewise,
Question for SnapRaid Users
Can SnapRaid restore the a lost drive in the case where the other data drives have been written to since the last sync? My understanding of the principles is probably just lacking, but I worry that using parity based on the other drive's data would only work if the data on the other drives had not changed since the parity was last calculated.
So do I invalidate my last sync as soon as I write new data to a drive in my arrray?