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antiverse

690 karma · joined April 22, 2022

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antiverse··on Smoking, alcohol and high BMI are leading risk factors for global cancer deaths
This thread is seriously bonkers.

When we were children, our elders were well aware of a link between alcohol and cancer (among other failures like cirrhosis) because their elderly friends would pass away from one or more of these. It was, albeit unscientifically, established that there does exist a strong enough correlation to warrant warning children about it. To this day, none of us needed a study for any of this. What happened?

To see HN stand up for Big Alcohol and twist this study with whataboutism and other nonsensical detractions is just plain morbid.

antiverse··on Ask HN: Are we building a tech dystopia?
> owned by an ever richer and smaller [...] elite

This has been the case for a very, very, very long time. You're old enough now to see it for what it is. There are things around the owners that you are not allowed to say, perpetuated by culture and society writ large. The only two kinds of people unwilling to admit to this are either paid shills, or useful idiots. Everyone else is mum on the subject but they can see the world is orchestrated by powerful individuals who are in lockstep. They know they own things, and they are all chummy about it. The pie is divided among them.

You can file anyone who says "You're just old" under the "useful idiot" category. Anyone who believes they are a temporarily embarrassed millionaire is equally useful.

For everyone else:

Stop:

1) Reading news. 2) Watching streaming services. 3) Watching porn.

All three are owned by the same group of people and are designed to control what you see and what you think.

Instead:

1) Read books. 2) Socialize with like-minded people. 3) Lift heavy weights. 4) Help others and being kind. 5) Seek out nature - swim in lakes, eat in the mountains, and learn the sounds of birds. 6) Learn useful knots.

Lastly:

7) Escape clown world.

antiverse··on Investing in Flow
Just flag it, it's not worth the effort to get into this. For anyone not aware of the context, look into the recent NIMBY bullshit by Andreessen.
antiverse··on Unity signs “multi-million dollar” contract to help U.S. government with defense
Exactly my point.
antiverse··on Unity signs “multi-million dollar” contract to help U.S. government with defense
I'm surprised this is coming to light now.

I evaluated their tech early on, and it struck me right away at how poorly thought out some decisions were. Very basic things, too. One distinct issue I remember is not having any sort of an "Application" object or app-state pipeline interface/object that I can place my non-component logic into, stuff like checking various timers, handling app-level event hooks, and so on. Turns out, people attach this sort of logic to the Camera component. How the fuck did you get to that point without thinking about any of this?

antiverse··on Arrest of suspected developer of Tornado Cash
>Are we now gonna start arresting all cryptographers?

There are more cryptogrifters than there are cryptographers.

antiverse··on U.S. annual inflation rate drops to 8.5%
> fewer streaming services

Pessimist's take: When thinking about what we trade our time for, TV shows (and films, to some degree) have always been to me an endless source of a time sink for relatively little return. Games, slightly better, more social in some ways, certainly more mentally engaging, but also parasitic of time. To concurrently pay for multiple streaming services is unfathomable to me, moreso right now where, as you point out, your expenses have ballooned and your salary can't keep up. You aren't the only one, and yet it's highly likely (anecdotal experience here) that your friends know more about the last season of a show than they know about how to prep for the looming days, as you are prepping. One would think there's better ways to have downtime than to tune out in front of a box, but these habits are difficult to break.

(Cue the "They'll tell you" jokes.)

antiverse··on Tell HN: Spotify Premium is full of Ads
I've cancelled my Spotify premium sub years ago because in truth they've always had ads: the Dashboard always had artists that I had zero interest in listening to, that were not part of or related in any way to the music in my library, and that big labels wanted to push my way. There was no way to turn this off, so after a month or so I just cancelled my sub.

So, Google-account-cancellation phobias aside, I went to Youtube Music where I still am. No bullshit.

antiverse··on Spinning Levers – How a Transmission Works (1936) [video]
No doubt then you're familiar with the Antikythera.

You would think that more people would put two and two together but what baffles me is the dissonance in people's minds of ancient civilizations - namely that they were oh so primitive, but at the same time there is this underlying current of, "how could they have possibly known this if they were so primitive?" with the discoveries we find that they have left behind - whether it be mechanical, architectural, agricultural, whatever.

I think over all they were not much worse off intellectually than we are, but they haven't yet discovered certain things - much as we have yet to discover certain things. For them, it was a mechanical age for a very long time and they've mastered that in much the same way that we are slowly beginning to master electronics and chemistry. We've had a very, very slow ascent towards electricity until it has become commonplace as it is today. I doubt the design of electrical components that we can easily plug in and out with a bit of molten lead/tin would, to them, be anything short of wizardry.

So don't be distraught by the otherness of it. It is quite a different way to look at problems that really tests our understanding of first principles of the natural world.

antiverse··on The hero's journey of getting laid off
@dang need the link fixed to this: https://backtohumanity.substack.com/p/getting-laid-off
antiverse··on Tell HN: Internet Archive is facing a Big 4 Publishers lawsuit
It's disappointing to hear, with the number of people here claiming how IA has run afoul of the copyright law, that it's an open-and-shut case and there is nothing more to discuss. I feel like the air of the hacker spirit on the website is greatly diminished when we take an ice-cold approach to a difficult problem like this.

I for one commend them for doing a noble thing in a very turbulent time. We didn't know how the pandemic was going to play out early on in 2020 and they went ahead to help out in any way they could. Perhaps the US Federal Government will give them some kind of an exemption (if such a thing exists). I'm sure they can find a case where their action is justified in the eyes of law.

antiverse··on It's all just an old videogame
I needed this today, and I'm sure I'm not the only one on HN. A sort of a lament for innocence and nostalgia. Thank you for sharing.
antiverse··on EA: The Human Story (2004)
Yup, this ties into the recent happenings with Unity and ironSource.
antiverse··on In esports media, layoff season is in full swing
Artosis, a well known SC2 commentator recently departed from South Korea to move to PEI, Canada. What's in PEI, you ask? I have no idea. Probably the real estate price is still somewhat reasonable (but even that is a big question mark right now). My guess is, he saw the writing on the wall and got out of there before it all comes crashing down.

If anything, the people situated over there are far more "in tune" with what is happening, and by the time we find out in the Western hemisphere, it has already occurred.

https://twitter.com/Artosis/status/1539757584600952833

antiverse··on How Duke Nukem II’s parallax scrolling worked
Semi-related; a fun bit of juicy drama is always par for HN: "Duke Nukem Stole Graphics from Turrican" - http://www.nemmelheim.de/turrican/news/duke/
antiverse··on Gamedevs not baking in monetization are “fucking idiots”, says Unity CEO
>Riccitiello: One thing I always find interesting is, anytime there is talk about the stock market and the future of recession, the one growth industry becomes pundits. People with something to say and not a lot of knowledge about what they’re talking about.

Yeah, that's HN in a nutshell.

antiverse··on Gamedevs not baking in monetization are “fucking idiots”, says Unity CEO
Just shows they're not a good culture fit.
antiverse··on Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time
This boils down to greed and selfishness, but people even on HN don't want to call spade a spade so they dance around it and give complex somersault answers because they are afraid/too socially conscious to speak the truth.
antiverse··on Where Are the Microelectronics Engineers?
Plot twist: the savvy entry-level web dev will relocate somewhere where COL is tiny compared to the West without even being asked.
antiverse··on Where Are the Microelectronics Engineers?
Would not surprise me that EE is also way more offputting it due to the amount of rigor, and dedicated practice required to get anywhere with it - just to graduate is a serious undertaking.

Contrast this with bootcamps and everything else that is involved when it comes to software jobs. I've seen many people weaseling through this. Maybe it's the same with EE to some degree, but I imagine these people get filtered out at a much greater pace than their SE/Web Dev counterparts.

antiverse··on Ask HN: Is attitude more important than knowledge?
For this particular flavor of success... luck plays a massive part, and anyone and everyone successful knows it, whether they admit it or not.

And being furious is not really a replacement for luck.

antiverse··on Arabs believe economy is weak under democracy
I think it would be wise for people to look at philosophers of old and see what kind of thoughts they penned on democratic governments/democratic rule. It's quite eye opening that a lot of the core issues have been contested for a very, very long time. Not everyone thought it was the greatest thing.
antiverse··on Basement Fertility
There's nothing really inherently racist about it, or bullshit. Mass immigration is a serious subject matter, one that deserves scrutiny and ruthless questioning. Avoiding the questions by calling it racist doesn't make it go away.

It's been around for a lot longer than 2010. It has been a popular subject matter in Europe for decades [1]. I guess someone just decided to finally put a more official, catchy title to it and publish books. Does this particular author have a racist tone? Perhaps they do. But ask an average European citizen back in late 80s, 90s and they'd tell you what's up without skipping a beat. It's something you can see from a mile away. Pleading ignorance won't help.

[1] Your media won't tell you this, so don't be surprised. Talk to a handful of locals to get a sample for how people really feel about things. It's a much better barometer than getting your news from something like Voice of America.

antiverse··on Basement Fertility
That distinction is not worth burying the comment. It was an earnest response, and a valid one at that.
antiverse··on Basement Fertility
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Replacement

>[...] is a white nationalist far-right conspiracy theory [...]

Native Americans would disagree.

antiverse··on Basement Fertility
Why is this comment downvoted? It's literally what goes through the minds of parents of newly weds and weds-to-be. Let's not beat around the bush and be upfront about it.
antiverse··on Three Arrows Capital has defaulted on a loan worth more than $670M
So you finally got to the root of human nature, you're clearly disappointed, and this is your response?
antiverse··on Three Arrows Capital has defaulted on a loan worth more than $670M
I don't believe whatever news are posted these days regarding crypto. After the whole gamestop charade of people cheering on the downfall of hedgefunds, it turns out they turned a healthy profit after all and none of what was originally claimed turned out to be true. Who the fuck knows who had a dog in that race to what extend and who was publishing so much misinformation. It even made it's way here, which is why I am writing this comment on HN. There's a slew of information that these articles omit/conceal that could completely change the narrative being portrayed.

There are too many misdirection plays here. People are being screwed, yes, but not the people you think (or in some cases "hope".)

antiverse··on Three Arrows Capital has defaulted on a loan worth more than $670M
Off topic, but that subreddit logo is patrician.
antiverse··on Hell is ourselves
I'll save you the trouble of reading, whatever this is. Here you go:

>But what is the psychological impact of a bespoke Internet, tailored to you, and one where it is increasingly difficult to outrun yourself? “Bespoke” sounds luxuriously considerate, but it also entails a kind of revelation. It comes from the older word bespeak, which refers to an indication or a piece of evidence. Sewn into the bespoke is the fabric of external judgments. In the tailor’s series of sartorial calculations and decisions, the wearer is shaped, a silhouette is cast.

Imagine seriously writing word salads and calling them articles. It's too disjointed with no coherent thesis to it, and just meanders for what is (i imagine) an attempt to fulfil a wordcount quota.

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