Zagorath

Zagorath, 16 hours ago

Nobody is Al, this is just bad dictation software misunderstanding that you’re supposed to get Azure already.

Zagorath, 1 day ago

I had to read this like 3 times before I realised what it was saying.

Partly that’s on me and my sleep-deprived state. But partly…“overlooking” is not synonymous with “overseeing”. In fact in this case they’re almost antonyms. (Executives “overlooking” the film branch implies the film branch is actually really good, but the executives don’t acknowledge that.)

Zagorath, 1 day ago

Can’t believe that I actually believed David Littleproud when he said that the Coalition would be moving back to the “sensible center” after the election loss

It was always obvious that that wouldn’t happen. Logistically, how could it? All their more moderate members lost to even more moderate independents, or to the Greens. There’s no “moderate” remaining in the parliamentary Liberal Party.

Zagorath, 1 day ago

If they had any guts, Labor would use this relentlessly to paint Dutton as “soft on crime”.

Zagorath, 2 days ago

I think Mylio does this, even in its free version. I don’t think it’s FOSS though.

Zagorath, 2 days ago

Regarding those injured but not the man who sadly died (apparently of a heart attack): this is why they always tell you to keep your seatbelts on at all times while seated.

Zagorath, 2 days ago

Personally I don’t much care how it looks. In fact with bananas and apples in particular, I find the more “perfect” examples are often the least flavourful.

But I will avoid bruised product. If there are noticeable soft spots, it’s staying on the shelf.

Zagorath, 2 days ago

I think at this point he’s a dead man walking. They’re keeping him until the whole wave of criticism of the supermarkets duopoly has as abated, then they’ll dump him and say “look, we took action”.

Zagorath, 2 days ago

Right but my point was that for me it’s not just one that looks less-than-fantastic. It’s one that might even look better but actually is inferior. Bruises in fruit & veggies actually affect the flavour/texture of the food.

Zagorath, 2 days ago

Every other user on the road is forced to engage with it, including vulnerable users like cyclists and pedestrians. They didn’t agree to it. They weren’t asked if they’re okay with it.

And Tesla in particular, more than other self-driving ventures, has been incredibly reckless in what features they roll out and how easy they make it for their drivers to be unsafe while using it.

Zagorath, 2 days ago

I wish that were used. But instead we get this inverse, L/100 km.

Edit: after reading the article, apparently this is actually better. Even though km/L might seem easier to work with, it is misleading in terms of how you compare two vehicles.

Zagorath, 1 day ago

Holy shit. I remembered the original comic, but didn’t remember what the subject matter of it was. So if you hadn’t left this comment, I would have just gone on believing that the OP’s version was Randall’s version.

Zagorath, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago)

The mainstream media only covers … protests when someone does something particularly sensational, or when cops start getting rough with people.

We’ve had weeks and weeks of thousands of people peacefully marching in the street, and no significant media coverage. But as soon as someone connected to the movement swears at a cop or graffitis private property or whatever, you can bet the media will be all over it.

Jonathan Sriranganathan, talking about protests in the CBD.

Also, speaking of Jonno, he was apparently at UQ yesterday when this went down and posted live streams of it on FB. Will share the text accompanying the second stream below, because there’s a lot of detail to it.

Post one

Post two

Post 2 textUpdate: Things have calmed down since this video but I just want to clarify what’s happened… - two Palestinian-Australians climbed onto the roof of a research building and made speeches criticising UQ’s support for the weapons industry and the Israeli genocide - about 60 or 70 students, staff and alumni gathered on the ground to listen and show support - the university called the cops, and when the cops got up to the roof to talk to the two men, they willingly agreed to come down - but then, over the space of about 15 minutes, heaps more police arrived - 12 to 15 police vehicles and upwards of 30 cops - students contined chanting and expressing opposition to the arrests - as the two protesters were escorted (without resisting) towards the cop cars, protesters spilled onto the road and continued chanting - then without warning, police started pushing people from multiple directions - cops escalated the situation and used far more force than necessary to move the students off the road - one person was pepper-sprayed without warning, another person was pushed to the ground - no-one else was arrested though and I don’t believe anyone was injured beyond the pepper-spraying and possibly the guy who was pushed over This was by far the biggest police presence I’ve ever seen on campus, and a complete overreaction. It’s important to emphasise though that while the police presence was ridiculously over-the-top, there were no other repercussions (as far as I’m aware) for any other participants. So don’t let the excessive show of police force deter you from participating in and supporting future protests. The strength of the university’s response suggests to me that they are genuinely worried about the pressure the protests are putting on their relationship with the weapons industry. Liberation and justice won’t just happen automatically without people pushing for it.

(Personally, I read the posts but didn’t actually watch the videos.)

Zagorath, 3 days ago

The outcome of that lawsuit was that APIs are not copyrightable

Not quite. The ultimate decision was that APIs are copyrightable, but that Google’s use of the copyrighted material was Fair Use.

It would not be unreasonable to suppose that as a matter of precedent, any reimplantation of an API is likely to be Fair Use, but because Fair Use is such a case-by-case thing there may be wiggle room in that.

Zagorath, 3 days ago

You lefty’s

This bothers me more than any political disagreement ever will.

Zagorath, 3 days ago

I’m even willing to add “large amounts of water & a big ladder, or sick/injured people” to that list.

Zagorath, 4 days ago

Ah right, when I wrote that I hadn’t clicked through to the original post. Didn’t realise both the original and the x-post were by you.

should it mean something different

I guess that depends on what you think “should” be. The term “platonic love”, as it is currently popularly understood, refers to something really useful. I think there “should” be a word for that. It’s something that people need to refer to much more often than they need to refer to what Plato meant by the term.

I think the common phrase “platonic ideal” fits well with the original version of Platonic love. The platonic ideal of anything is it’s most perfect form, encompassing all that that thing is. The original Platonic love was the platonic ideal of love, at the top of the ladder above mere carnal attraction or romantic affection.

Zagorath, 4 days ago

But then for some reason, another company went back and restarted publishing the old lines

I think it was the same company. White Wolf published World of Darkness games using its Storyteller system from 1991 until 2004. They then made the move to Chronicles of Darkness (a retroactive title the only came about in 2015, until then they were also called World of Darkness officially, known to fans as “new World of Darkness”) in 2004. CoD changed some of the lore around and drastically cut back on how detailed and complex the metanarrative was.

CoD used their new “Storytelling” system, and did not perform very well commercially. Probably some fans didn’t like it much, but mainly they decided to stop selling in stores so there was no discoverability. During the CoD era, White Wolf still published some WoD material, such as the 20th anniversary editions.

The most important detail here though comes in 2015–2018. Up until this point White Wolf has been bought and sold a couple of times, most recently by CCP. In 2015 they are bought by Paradox Interactive. In 2018 they release VtM 5th edition. In response to allegations of some very problematic material in V5, Paradox dissolves White Wolf and brings WoD production into Paradox Interactive.

I think that only Vampire, Hunter, and Werewolf are currently supported in the latest edition of Storyteller, but I may have missed something.

It’s true that Onyx Path as a separate licensee has published books for White Wolf/CCP/Paradox. But they’ve done 20th Anniversary, CoD, and V5 stuff. The actual decision to go back to WoD was White Wolf/Paradox’s.

Zagorath, 4 days ago

So, my context here is that I’ve never played any WoD or CoD games. But a couple of years back I was almost part of a group that was going to play a V5 campaign before it fell through. (I forget the timeline…might even have been December 2019 or thereabouts…) So I bought and have read through the V5 Core Rulebook. I obviously don’t have earlier editions to compare it to, but I thought the system itself seemed really elegant. The kind of beautifully simple game design that first attracted me to D&D 5th edition. (Unfortunately having not played V5, I couldn’t say whether I would eventually get tired of that simplicity in the same way I got tired of D&D 5e.)

From what I understand, they seem to have changed the metanarrative quite a lot from previous editions. Seemingly for the worse, according to a lot of people who really liked the old lore. Which might mean it’s for the better (relative to old WoD) if you preferred CoD?

Zagorath, 4 days ago

The way it’s phrased in the quotes, this seems more like a reference to their ridiculous conspiracy theory that he won in 2020 and is thus technically the president today, rather than an assertion that he’ll run in 2028 even if he wins this year.

Zagorath, 3 days ago

this feels more like an attack on Gina

That’s 100% what it is, and why I shared it in !ausmemes and not as a serious call to action.

Zagorath, 3 days ago

Try to keep non de-sexed cat

I’mma stop you right there. No, don’t do that.

Zagorath, 4 days ago

for all of us non Brits

It’s funny you should say that. It’s American, as you’ve learnt. I’m neither American nor British, but to me the show does actually seem more similar to a format of show that’s very popular in Britain, but not so common in America. The panel show. Think QI, 8 Out of 10 Cats, or Would I Lie To You. Something that looks like a game show, but where the main purpose is really improv comedy and banter, more than actually winning the game.

The problem is for me, the episodes I’ve seen of After Midnight have just been much, much less funny than the typical WILTY or Cats does Countdown (and I don’t even particularly like Catsdown).