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Vanth

@Vanth@reddthat.com

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Cops Used DNA to Predict a Suspect’s Face—and Tried to Run Facial Recognition on It (www.wired.com)

For facial recognition experts and privacy advocates, the East Bay detective’s request, while dystopian, was also entirely predictable. It emphasizes the ways that, without oversight, law enforcement is able to mix and match technologies in unintended ways, using untested algorithms to single out suspects based on unknowable...

Vanth,
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Pardon the YT link, I haven’t dove into peertube yet. Here’s a very timely case where a man was misidentified by facial recognition, imprisoned, where he was sexually assaulted.

youtu.be/Oe9xGX7lKZc?si=hppJaktpo82F5eD

And that’s just one specious technology, add in the very immature process of trying to guess what people look like based on DNA and it gets a big “No Thanks” from me. I don’t trust cops to put reasonable guardrails in place when their incentive structure is driving them to put people in prison as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

Vanth,
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Removing the stress of financial insecurity? Having enough income to seek professional and medical support? Of course it would help.

Vanth,
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If you think Microsoft has closed off Windows, what until you learn about Apple/Mac…

Vanth, (edited )
@Vanth@reddthat.com avatar

What do you do on your laptop? For example, engineering students and STEM hobbyists probably want Windows, maybe Linux depending on their interests, specced out to run CAD or whatever simulation software their major will dictate. Graphic artists and photographer hobbyists might want Mac.

Framework laptops can ship with Windows already installed. You can also install Windows or Linux yourself, but Linux is not required.

You mention you don’t know Linux, but how comfortable are you with hardware? Can you open your current laptop and add memory? Are you interested in upgrading your laptop hardware periodically or is it going to be a chore you avoid?

Your question on 8 vs 16GB memory should be driven by your use. Personally, 8gb isn’t enough for me anymore, it locks out a lot of newer games and programs that I want to use. Does your school recommend OS and specs for your major? Make sure those are met at a minimum.

Vanth,
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Australia is getting battered with storms rn with several people killed. Fights over tax cuts for the wealthy. Protests over Gaza and immigration policies. The largest specimen ever of the most venomous type of spider was found; it will now be used in a venom-milking program to help make antivenoms, because no matter what’s going on the tropes must be fulfilled.

Vanth,
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I cracked a joke that made a person laugh who is very difficult to make laugh. I’ve known them for nearly a decade and it was the first time I ever heard them laugh out loud.

Vanth,
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But women make up ~50% of the population and always did. Trans women do not and will never approach those %s.

If every single trans woman high school student suddenly wanted to play the same sport, there would still be schools with 0-1 trans women competing.

Vanth,
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I hope you are right. I am sure there are some Guardsmen who see themselves as Texas soldiers over US, and I am concerned that the number is growing. After all, someone voted in these state politicians who are laying deadly traps intending to kill brown people.

Vanth,
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Think beyond software/online privacy, don’t forget physical. If I’m sitting in an airport, who’s to say someone sitting next to me doesn’t see me type out a message about a bomb, they report me, and I’m getting dragged off the plane no matter what messaging app and encryption I’m using.

I will not be making jokes about bombs and planes in any format while I’m at the airport in public.

Vanth,
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statistically proven biological imperative drives us to procreate

Eh? Why does birth rate drop in countries with top economies versus those that don’t?

You wanting 6+ kids means nothing.

Vanth, (edited )
@Vanth@reddthat.com avatar

I want to live in a Star Trek Federation post-scarcity world. No need to work unless one wants to, no need for a salary. And that applies to everyone around me too.

Vanth,
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The size. Longer pianos, upright < baby grand < concert grand allow for longer strings and larger vibrating surfaces, meaning richer sounds and less opportunity for undesirable harmonics.

Grands also have more space for better mechanical apparatus from the keys to the hammers striking the strings.

And a grand having the cabinet with strings and sounding boards open to the audience sounds better than an upright sending sound into a wall.

Vanth, (edited )
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To replace Spotify for finding new music, I switched to subscribing to radio stations in a podcast app. Free. I can send donations directly to radio stations I like. I can add tracks, albums, or artists to a list to search out further and support them directly through media and merch purchases.

Plenty of combinations, I’m sure, but I use Podcast Addict; it has a section specifically for subscribing to radio stations. From there I’m subscribed to WFUV out of New York, WXRV out of Boston, WBRU out of Rhode Island, KZCR out of Minnesota, and a few others. It’s not as easy as searching a genre or song and getting a custom Spotify playlist instantly, but I have enjoyed finding DJs I like, tuning in when they’re on air, and effectively getting a recommendation song list from a knowledgeable person. And it isn’t even piracy.

I found radio station recommendations online and also by the search function in Podcast Addict that has some ability to search by genre.

If anyone else does similar and has radio stations recs, I would love to hear them.

Vanth,
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Yes, same on the explosion to mod queue. I modded a sub for a traditionally male-dominated hobby but we had a really positive environment (mostly) for the few women members and any who happened to pop their heads in with a newbie question.

That turned quick, and women were being flooded with “well if you don’t like it, you don’t belong here”, “you should carry a gun at all times to protect yourself or just stay home” victim blaming type stuff. One of many reasons I peaced out, as did so many of the long-time members (men and women) who no longer saw the community they had built.

Vanth,
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I don’t want to and have no reason to.

Vanth,
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Better than as a presidential candidate and now Trump acolyte.

He got credit for navigating the city post-9/11. Which, ok, I think just about any semi-talented politician with a PR team would come out of that wrapped in a patriotic halo effect.

He discouraged going after undocumented immigrant students in schools, but pushed broken window policing tactics that disproportionally affected the same undocumented immigrants and people of color.

He seemed ok with protections and benefits for domestic partnerships (this was before gay marriage was legal) but also pushed for a school voucher system that would build up private and religious schools that were very clear and open about discriminating against LGBT people.

He was undoubtedly corrupt. But no more corrupt than any predecessor. So mixed bag compared to his peers and bad compared to the sort of politician I wish could be elected in a place like NYC.

Vanth,
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I can’t claim to represent anyone other than myself. I use an RSS feeder for news, articles, and webcomics. I have some ebooks from the library downloaded. I have been playing an MMO phone game for the last ~year and check on that a couple times a day. Discord. Lemmy has replaced reddit for me but I don’t spend as much time on it as I used to on reddit.

Vanth,
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Our bodies need some trace metals, problem is it can’t differentiate between metals it needs and metals that will kill it. “Hell yeah, delicious zinc” as it noms down on lead instead of pooping it out.

Vanth,
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A relative gifted me a really ugly tree ornament. I don’t put up a Christmas tree and haven’t ever in my adult life. Relative knows this and delivered it alongside comments about me needing to get a tree and get more into the “religious” spirit of the holiday.

Normally I would at least look to donate or something I don’t want, but ugly, religious proselytizing junk goes in the trash.

Vanth,
@Vanth@reddthat.com avatar

Food poisoning. Getting to the end of the day hydrated is my only goal.

Vanth, (edited )
@Vanth@reddthat.com avatar

I asked my cousins who are in high school. They don’t seem to be fed as much moral panic bullshit as I was. People who smoke marijuana aren’t doomed to hell, drug users aren’t all “worthless” welfare drags. It goes hand in hand with the improved education they are getting on mental health and addiction.

The main scare push sounds to be around drugs of unknown provenance. Like, don’t take unknown pills offered to you at a party where you can be whisked away by a stranger once you drop unconscious. Or die a painful death due to dirty drugs cut with who knows what.

Their school has Narcan doses in the med station.

Our town used to have a needle program but current leadership tipped back more conservative and they got rid of those types of programs. My cousins think that’s bullshit; they are well aware of the low efficacy of abstinence-only programs.

I asked them if they knew about the old D.A.R.E. program of the 80s and 90s. One had a decent idea of what it was, the other thought it was a meme; she had only ever seen ~millenial-aged casual drug users wear D.A.R.E T-shirts so she thought the whole thing was meant to be ironic.

For context, I grew up in the Midwest, middle school and high school from the late 90s into the early 00s. The referenced cousins and I live in New England now.

Vanth,
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Around two years old, my mom fell and went into really early labor with my baby brother. Ambulance taking her away, lots of scared adults, I don’t have any other memories for a good two years after that one.

Vanth,
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I was gifted a fancy-schmancy whiskey aged in port wine casks. It’s delicious but I’m allergic to something in it. The warmth of the whiskey quickly turned into burning and itching.

Vanth,
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When to use “i.e.” versus “e.g.”. I have to think through the full Latin phrases every time.

Vanth,
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They killed 3rd party apps. Their official app was shit for normal user stuff and completely non-functional for moderator stuff.

I can’t even say “I left”. More like they removed my access.

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