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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • I wish this were true! The problem with Linux is that it is constantly changing. I have been using it for 30 years and have built my own embedded distros from scratch. Yet every time I turn around there moving this setup file to another directory or changing out that language for a slightly incompatible newer version. Trying to configure and maintain a box is a constant battle.

    Windows is the polar opposite. The ui may have some annoying changes but under the hood it is frustratingly stable, often remaining unchanged for 20+ years (even the bugs live forever). Users crave simplicity and consistency. It is something Linux still needs to figure out.



  • Pure capitalism favors the wealthy and the unscrupulous. That is if there are no laws in place protecting peoples rights then the business owners have little incentive to treat there employees well (they will trade short term profits over long term stability.

    On the flip side a pure communist system favors the lazy since there is little to no reward for doing more than the minimum. That is to say the status quo is unchanging.

    This is why we have government, to correct the selfish nature of capitalism, while hopefully still retaining the innovation and drive that it produces (winner take all is a strong motivator).

    This only works in the long term if government is fair and balanced, looking out both for the interests of business and society (the poor, the environment, the common spaces, etc). And where an idea like socialism actually strikes a good balance between both extremes.

    The idea that the markets will sort themselves out is a fever dream thought up by the right. The markets will quickly consolidate into monopolies and then exploit there power. It is only fair competition that produces benefits. And that is an unstable balance that must be carefully maintained by outside forces (government).


  • I fully understand how scary it is to try to talk to someone in a language your just learning. I’m shy and hate talking period! But it is one of those things where you have to allow yourself to make a fool of yourself.

    Trust me, most people are very happy you are trying to learn there language and will be exited by anything you can produce. If you do find someone who is rude or offended by it, give them up as a bad job and shake it off. And never be embarrassed to say “I don’t understand”. We assume the people who know the answers are the smart ones, but the people who admit they still need to learn are in fact the geniuses.

    Besides, unless your using Google translate, then your English comprehension is plenty good enough. It is time to face your fears and make a fool of yourself. The rewards are worth it!


  • By this definition a how to book is intelligent.

    Classic programming is just a list of instructions (steps to take) that the computer follows exactly as written by the programmer. It can appear complex or magical, but we fully understand exactly what will happen in every instance. Nothing unexpected or new ever happens.

    AI as it is today mixes things up just a bit. We allow the computer to program itself by training it on lots of data while it builds up a neural network (think of it as a fancy decision tree) that it can then use to try and guess if the next data matches the training data. This is great, amazing at times, but in a lot of ways it is automated programming (auto classification) and not really intelligent in any sense of the word.

    The magic happens when computers can become intuitive and make a leap. Say we show it lots of apples and lots of tennis balls and tell it one is an apple and one is a tennis ball. Then we tell it an apple is a fruit and a tennis ball is a ball. Can we then show it a soccer ball or an orange and have it intuit that they are fruit or balls. This is the challenge, and we really don’t know how to get there yet, partly because we don’t know how we do it ourselves.


  • I agree with the first point completely. The apps are usually good for practicing vocabulary, but languages are dynamic, and change based on what was previously said. Talking to someone, anyone, is going to get you up and going a lot faster. Granted, finding someone willing to spend hours talking to you when your just learning can be hard. Look for apps that try to hook learners up.

    I’m not sure where you are, but try to find an English community. If your in an English speaking country that is basically any community. If your not then look around for where the English expats hang out. When I was in Cameroon we had an “american club” that everyone was a part of. Having a common interest helps a lot in motivating everyone to talk together.

    In a pinch you can force yourself to watch English television, possibly with subtitles. This helps your comprehension but lacks the back and forth of actually talking.



  • I know it is not your question but… Everyone says pockets for women’s fashion but that is not the most important. At least here in the US the most important is having proper sizes on clothes.

    For the most part men’s clothes let you pick things right. You know your waist and inseam for pants, and often have a proper size for shirts and collars.

    Women’s fashion often has no size other than the ambiguous s/m/l/xl indicator and teen/woman’s/plus often use the same tag to indicate wildly different sizes. On top of that, when close use a measurement it is not grounded in reality, so a 14 at one shop may be a 16 at another, and neither are a direct measure of your waist. Finally women’s pants only come in 3 lengths (petite, tall, or not specified) and it is difficult to find most combinations.

    The best thing we could do for fashion in any sex is to standardize sizes globally and make them all based on a tape measure measurement. That way you could buy 32x30 pants online knowing they will fit, no matter the brand.