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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: August 8th, 2023

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  • I just received all the parts for the high end gaming PC I’m building for my son for xmas. And I’ll have some uses for it too.

    I didn’t really feel like I could delay it arbitrarily because teaching him real computer stuff (including games because I’m a fun dad) matters a lot more to me than however many hundreds of dollars I might have eventually saved.

    And man it HURT. The RAM isn’t anywhere near the most expensive part, but it somehow stings the most. I like to err on the high side with memory and have never regretted it. But, this 2025 build is going to have the same 32GB memory size as my 2018 build did, and the prices for the kits was very similar for both purchases.

    I’m tempted to splurge and swap for a 64GB kit before I start building, but it might be cheaper and easier to just wait a year. Or honestly never. The added memory would probably only help with my video editing, and that’s not a big part of my computer usage.










  • Ah yeah, the perfect gift for a little kid, something with non-deterministic behavior that they can’t make do the same crap over and over, lol.

    And yeah, the potential algorithm influenced flow of information into or out of the household is a big concern.

    But the saddest thought for me is toys like these taking the place of parent-child interaction in some of the most significant relationships in our lives (for those of us who have kids). I think we mostly all know that we mostly all spend too much time zoning out in front of screens. But I have really broken myself from constant phone + games + TV this year, and it makes it all the more apparent in those around me. (note that I still use phone/games/TV often, but I spend much more time on other tasks and hobbies)







  • That whole article reads like he was a reasonably intelligent person who was born into a christian family. So he’s been conditioned to automatically see homosexuality as bad, and been educated in writing eloquent arguments to support his position, but he’s just aware enough to not take a stand and actually say what he thinks because that would get him in trouble.

    Even just considering your snippet:

    I’m pretty sure there are genetic dispositions towards different kinds of sexual behaviors and patterns—just as there are genetic dispositions towards such things as alcoholism, racism, elitism, etc.

    This is just an opinion and the logic seems sensible. But why make the comparison to only negative traits and vices?

    A genetic predisposition towards homosexuality does not make homosexuality a ‘good’ or a ‘right,’ or even ‘okay’ for some people.

    Stating the obvious then referring to 3rd party opinions. Doesn’t seem to do much other than keep up the negative tone.

    Just as with every other human behavior, a wider worldview must be used to judge the righteousness of a human action or behavior—including acting on homosexual tendencies.

    Whoa, I agree! And using my view of the world and society at large I hereby judge that we need to lay the fuck off of people who act on their homosexual tendencies and focus on actual problems! I wonder if the author can say the same.

    Also, I just want to point out and give a “fuck that” to the heavy focus on “choosing” and “acting” rather than simply existing. In my experience that is a very common step in the short process of dehumanizing somebody and mentally writing off their concerns and rights.

    Dehumanizing somebody for a trait they were born with is obviously doable, but it is still a tougher sell for some people than dehumanizing a person for an intentional act. Even if that act didn’t hurt anybody or anything.

    I’ll leave the whole train of thought of “how can you punish people for acting like the thing they were born as” as an exercise for the reader.



  • When I look at this announcement, the hardware is very exciting, for sure. But it is Valve’s dedication to Linux that really has me smiling. I don’t see three hardware devices to buy. I see two big proclamations for which the hardware is the message:

    1. SteamOS on desktop! It seemed inevitable but it’s still great to see.

    2. STEAM VR USING LINUX AS ITS TARGET PLATFORM?!?!?

    I will grant that it’s very possible I buy all three pieces of the hardware, even though I like building my own PCs. I will also grant that Valve’s support for linux probably would not be what it is without the enshittification of Microsoft’s ecosystem. But in this world I’m gonna go ahead and accept the imperfect good news.