PlzGibHugs
- 8 Posts
- 26 Comments
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
World News@lemmy.world•A second Ebola treatment center is set ablaze in eastern Congo, with 18 suspected cases leavingEnglish
26·2 days agoFor transparency, I’m a second hand source, close to multiple people who lived across the region.
Generally, the region is both extremely distrustful of government and outsiders, as well as being extremely prone to superstition and magic thinking. Obviously, there is the spectre of colonialism, but more recently than this, governments in the region are generally corrupt, violent and unstable on a scale westerners would find unbelievable. For example, (if I remeber right) Nigeria recently issued new bills but then much of the money “”“disappeared”“” before reaching banks and other organizations. The president claimed snakes ate the money. More relevant to this, with the inconsistent enforcement of laws, doctors are often unreliable or outright dangerous, such as giving sugar pills instead of medication. I have no idea of the authenticity of this (which is part of the problem), but from my own circle, there were stories of patients of the last ebola outbreak taken for quarentine, and then left unattended to or without food and water. Given all this, its not suprising that they wouldn’t trust outsiders taking people away.
At the same time, there is an abundance of superstition and magical thinking. I’m not sure how much of this is cultural versus reglious versus trauma and oppression versus lack of education, but belief in conspiracies, witchcraft, demons/spirits, and other such stuff is widespread to the point where it make the American south look tame. This is fed into further by the same sorts of social media rumors and misinformation that have become popular globally, but with far more gulibility and far less ability to disprove them (due to lack of education, and lack of local resources).
Taken together, you have basically the perfect cultural environment for this sort of anti-science movement.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
Technology@lemmy.world•Flipper Unveils New Flipper One Modular Linux Cyberdeck: Flipper One hacking multitool offers 5G, Wi-Fi 6E and Linux on ARMEnglish
31·5 days agoAnd we all know how easy it is to buy an ARM board, install Linux and add all the ethernet ports one desires.
We do?
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Is chess the most frustrating game to lose in?English
4·5 days agoI’d say the worst are when…
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You outplayed your opponent, but still lost
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The opponent is toxic
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Your teammates are actively throwing
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You put a significant investment into the game
Of those, usually only the last is true of chess. I’d say most Esports titles are worse. Nothing is as bad as being locked in a game of CS or Dota for an hour with a griefer, while the game is clearly otherwise winnable, and the opponents spend the whole game gloating about how good they are.
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PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•Anyone else think this Ukraine photo looks AI generated?English
6·8 days agoNotably, this photo is listed as being in Russia, and the source is Moscow regional governor Andrei Vorobyov. The source isn’t a particularly reliable one, but I’m also not seeing any definitive evidence that the image isn’t real. Theres no weird alignment/disjointing of the bricks, no identifiable logical errors, and no watermarks. There are a bunch of elements that look weird, like how the bricks end on the second floor wall, whatever it is in the middle window, how the smoke curls very evenly around the roof piece, and the uniformity of the concrete rubble, but given the low resolution, none of this is clear enough to be definitive.
I also notably tried to track down the original copy, but it was in a telegram channel, not anything easy to verify.
I’d put the distinction around the same place as the distiction is between copyright infringement and transformative work. At a certain point, the AI output becomes less of a “piece” of the work and more of an ingredient unrecognizably blended, with a similar amount of care to any other element. For example, if a Vending machine asset is generated by AI, its slop. Add flavour text to it, and its still slop. Replace all the contents with theme-approprate contents, and and clean up the topology, and it finally starts to become distinct enough to (potentially) not be slop. Basically, it needs to be distinct enough to have a unique, human author and/or no longer fill the original “”“role”“”.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Gonna be straight forward, how is Donald Trump not considered a Global/Donestic Terrorist?English
101·8 days agoI mean, people do, although terrorist isn’t a super accurate label for him. Terrorist implies using violence to create terror for a political gain. Trump generally is more acting out of sheer stupidity and malice rather than for any deeper political agenda. Terms like violent madman, fascist, war criminal, murderer or wannabe dictator are more accurate.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What Lemmy/Piefed/Mbin clients do ya'll useEnglish
2·8 days agoBoost (for Piefed). I know its not free, but everything else is either missing too many features, or uses a UI style I don’t like.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•What is your favorite media villain?English
3·10 days agoWarhammer 40k has too many good options to list. The entire ork faction is great, although one of my personal favorites is Grizgutz, an ork who accidentally travelled back in time, and decided to kill himself to steal an extra copy of his favorite gun. The Necrons are also fun, for their unlimited capacity for arrogance and pettiness.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Is it true that asshole bad boys are generally more likable than other guys?English
381·10 days agoNo, altough they do tend to be good at picking out vulnerable people and manipulating them.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Why don't people complain about Gary Stus?English
142·10 days agoI think you’re misunderstanding the premise of a Mary Sue/Gary Stu character. A big part of definition is that they are almost entirely without flaw, and are generally (although not always) meant to be an author’s self-insert. Light and Tony Stark for example, are both intelligent but also stubborn, arogant, privileged assholes who are practically defined by their flaws. Superman could be considered a Gary Stu, esspecially in some of the earlier and simpler iterations but he’s honestly such a simple character in general that his lack of flaws doesn’t stand out.
The examples that do come to mind are Kirito from Sword Art Online, some versions of Batman, or Butcher from The Boys comics specifically. These are characters that are portrayed as unambiguously good, near perfect men who win every conflict are uniquely capable of solving every problem. Kirito is almost universally disliked, Batman depends a lot on the iteration but generally isn’t well-liked as a character, and I’ve heard nothing positive about The Boys comics (although its less popular in general).
As for why there is more criticism of Mary Sues, I think its not directly because people are harsher on female characters (not that they aren’t) so much as because they’re more common, esspecially in popular culture. Writing fiction is more cultural acceptable for young girls than young guys, so you end up with more amateur writers writing Mary Sues. In professional projects (notably often led by men due to industry sexism), it tends to be a matter of design-by-committee where they pick a man as a lead to match the male majority, and just throw in a token strong woman as an afterthought.
Now, not every character or show has to be relatable. Peter Parker works because he’s an everyman; however, the opposite can also be true, and people like fantasy escapism. That’s why soap operas about wealthy people or sitcoms about financially stable families are popular, because it’s a form of escapism this goes for Mary Sues and Gary Stus too.
I think a big distinction here is where the enjoyment comes from. You can have a story with a Mary Sue/Gary Stu that is still enjoyable, but generally that specific character adds nothing to the story themselves. For example, if you enjoy Sword Art Online, its for the setting, or the action, or the self-insert-fantasy. Its not for Kirito, and any time you put any focus on him, the story gets weaker. Compare that to, for example, Light, who has meaningful moral complexity despite his unmatched abilities, or Saitama, who despite his infinite power is made relatable through his struggles of daily life. The problem with Mary Sues/Gary Stus isn’t their power or self-insert nature, its the focus on a character who is flat, incapable of growth, and/or trivializes any plot.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•Be honest: Do you still use mainstream social media?English
1·12 days agoI never really clicked with other social media, but I still use Reddit a lot. The format is good (I’m here because its trying to build on that format) and it actually allows me to find content relevant to me, unlike most of the more algorithmic stuff.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Why do you post here or other social media?English
6·12 days agoThat part was to vent.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world•Why do you post here or other social media?English
81·12 days agoGenerally, I post either hoping to inform others, or be informed by others. Unfortunately, the lack of discussion/activity here is a pretty major disincentive to continue posting.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•who do you think are legendary lemmings?English
2·12 days agojorymo@lemmy.world, for their art.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•Unless patented, are we not in a situation in which all publicly accessible code can be laundered through LLMs? If I find a source available code, I can just launder it? English
1·15 days agoFrom my understanding, code is still covered by copyright. This means that copied code, even if run through an intermediary like an AI, is still copyright infringement. In the same way, even if an image generator recreates a character or movie frame, it isn’t made public domain (the default state of AI Output), its just that the AI ingringed on someone else’s copyright. If the code or image is then used, you can still be sued.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world•Unless patented, are we not in a situation in which all publicly accessible code can be laundered through LLMs? If I find a source available code, I can just launder it? English
51·15 days agoEven before getting into the copyrightability of code, at the very least, any LLM-produced parts are not copyrightable. They are public domain.
That said, if its a mix of LLM code and human code, things get pretty messy. From my understanding, if the human expanded on or modified AI code, its public domain. If they wrote a section fully independently, they absolutely own the copyright. If its an unclear mix, it would have to be proven on a case-by-case basis with the onus being on the AI user to provide solid evidence that the code copied isn’t AI generated.
What all these comments are missing is the browsing/discovery aspect. At least in my circles, thats the main (really, only) reason Spotify is used over traditional music stores or piracy. I appreciate that the video actually proposes a replacement for that in ListenBrainz. That said, given that the platform seems really niche, I have my doubts about how well it would work. For example, I have a friend who almost exclusively listens to non-western songs. Most other nerdier platforns offer nothing for this, and it seems like this would be the same.
Edit: Gave ListenBrainz a quick look. Looks like its not great, although not quite as bad as most other comparable stuff. Good enough for a normal, slightly nerdy westerner at least though.
PlzGibHugs@piefed.cato
Canada@lemmy.ca•Immigrant who pointed loaded gun in Calgary road rage incident won't face deportationEnglish
61·21 days agoWhile any sentence longer than six months behind bars would make Berhe “subject to an automatic removal order,” said the judge, “Immigration Canada does stay removal orders to enumerated countries that are in a state of war or otherwise subject to violence, danger, terrorism, etc.; currently, Ethiopia is one such country.”
The title is misleading clickbait. The real story is that this guy had not one, but two illegal firearms, both being kept unsecured, threatened someones life with one, fled from arrest, and then only got three years in jail.
Maybe its a bit of a cheat answer, but the only song the comes to mind is I Like Trains by LilDeuceDeuce and Tomska.







I’ve been slowly transitioning everything to Linux. I’ve been using Kubuntu so far, but have been encountering enough issues that I might have to go back and redo it with a new distro at some point.