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Zagorath

@Zagorath@aussie.zone

Formerly /u/Zagorath on the alien site.

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Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

To be fair, that at least is hypothetically possible. Working out someone’s age exactly purely based on their face is not even possible, so you can argue against it very easily from a purely technical standpoint.

Facial recognition with a database is quite good today, and will only get better. To argue against that you need to start getting into the privacy and ethical arguments.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

As an outside observer, UK politicians (even Conservatives) seem to tend to be a bit better at this sort of thing than American or Australian (“the laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia”) politicians. There’s a much stronger tendency for their back benchers to vote against the party line than we have, too, which is great for deliberative democracy.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

humans are better at vision at the moment

Eh, humans are better at certain kinds of vision—particularly on tasks that deal with non-white people where the AI was trained mostly on white people.

But things where the vision is looking at very fine detail, AI is very good at. Like determining if a patient has a disease based on a retinal scan or other medical imagery.

And I think it’s fair to say that, at least superficially, the problem in this thread seems like it might be more similar to those medical cases where an AI could do a really good job. The problem is that actually, no. There’s no known marker that could determine age with the level of accuracy that would be required for this task.

Zagorath,
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Is the Greek question mark a legal identifier for variable names?

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

Comments explain why, not what. Any comments that explain what a section of code is doing would probably be better off as separated methods.

Apart from basic documentation comments, like JavaDoc or C#'s XML documentation comments.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

There’s nothing limiting what a comment should be as far as I know.

Nothing technical, sure. Just good coding practices.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

To assist:

  • Lesbo: short for lesbian
  • Pish: an expression of frustration
  • Bangin’: hot
  • nd: and
  • ye: you
  • am no: I’m not
  • tae: to
  • yer: your
  • pal: friend
  • shag: have sex with
Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

Do Scottish people use “fit” like that? I know it’s used in England, particularly the north, but I don’t think I’ve seen it from Scotland. Probably says more about how much exposure I’ve had to Scottish culture though.

Zagorath,
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I could be wrong, but I thought the x at the end was just a cutesy sign-off. Like “xoxo” type of thing.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

Vale Andre Braugher.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

I could be wrong, but I believe that I’ve heard there’s more genetic diversity in sub-saharan Africa than pretty much anywhere else. Which kinda makes sense when you think about how that’s where Homo sapiens first evolved.

Zagorath,
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No need to talk about a background character with a few lines.

Uhh, Jar Jar has a pretty key role in Episode 3…

Zagorath,
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Machete order says you should skip 1 because it’s bad and allegedly doesn’t add anything to the story, particularly if you’re looking at 2 and 3 as providing more context around Luke’s story in the OT.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

Responding to your deleted comment, I’m genuinely not sure how Jar Jar’s role in the downfall of the Republic in Episode 3 is the joke being made by this comment. Sorry.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

Because my app shows it to me and I wanted to understand.

Zagorath, (edited )
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

From the perspective of someone just wanting an awesome time, I agree completely. Or from the perspective of a Star Wars fan who wants all the lore and extended material. And personally, I would never want to skip it, myself.

But the goal of the Machete cut is to take a look at the Original Trilogy and ask: how can we get the best narrative experience out of this? It’s ultimately about telling Luke Skywalker’s story, and providing context to enhance the experience of his narrative. You put 2 and 3 after 4 and 5 to avoid spoiling the reveal at the end of Empire. You use the extended 2-movie flashback as a way to explain who that ghost that appears at the end of 6 is, as well as to enhance the parallels between Luke’s and Anakin’s characters; namely Luke’s use of force choke on Jabba’s guards, and him telling Jabba “you underestimate my power”—the same line Anakin uses on Obi Wan in Revenge.

Essentially, we see Anakin’s story as a way to provide further context to Luke’s. Phantom doesn’t aid this at all. Neither Qui-Gon nor Maul appear in any later core film. Phantom only provides further context to Anakin’s story, without aiding in Luke’s. In the words of the Machete order’s original creator:

Some people claim that Episode I isn’t that bad, and shouldn’t be removed (again, it’s not that it’s bad, it’s that it’s not relevant to Luke’s journey in the way that Episode II and III are). Lots of people like the pod race or Darth Maul or Qui-Gon or they were born in 1992. Whatever your reason, if you want to watch Episode I I’d recommend doing so separately, sort of like an “Anthology” film. After all, Machete Order doesn’t interfere with canon, everything is canonically compatible with Episode I (or any later ones) because we’re not watching fan edits.

The original creation came along with a lengthy essay explaining why, pointing to some possible disadvantages, and addressing those. It then briefly went over their experience trying it with someone new to the franchise. Even if, like me, you actually ultimately disagree with the idea of Machete order, it is well worth the read, because the logic behind it is very well put together. Here’s a link.

(Incidentally, I always thought the name machete order came from how you’re chopping up the timeline. In fact, it’s because the former name of the author’s blog was “Absolutely No Machete Juggling”.)

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

I’ve spent most of the ~45 minutes since writing that last comment reading the machete order creator’s update post and the comments underneath it. And I just really wanted to highlight one particularly excellent comment from a user going by “amusingmurff”.

I didn’t know the “right” way was to skip TPM, and while I find a lot of your points valid for skipping it, I find it to be helpful to demonstrate how the Jedi Order failed. There are references to the Jedi prohibition against strong emotion in II and III, but it is in terms of how Anakin is failing to be a “proper” Jedi by his inability to let go of his emotions and attachments. Ep I shows that perhaps it is the Jedi Council, who only say “don’t feel anything, that way leads to the Dark Side!” that are mistaken. Is Anakin’s inability to let go of emotion/attachment at the core of his Fall? Yeah. But Luke succeeds in VI because he also fails to let go of attachment and sentiment - Vader is only redeemed and defeats Palapatine because Luke can’t let go of the affection he has for a family tie and the idea that his father still has some good. […] I find it a more compelling story if you see that it’s not really a tale of the beleaguered good guys (Jedi) who are outwitted by the evil, all powerful Emperor, but that they contributed to their own downfall and doomed the rest of the galaxy. That way, the OT heroes have to not only do away with the Empire, but probably do away with a lot of the forms of the old order, including the Jedi Code as it was

There’s some other good discussion in those comments, including a reply to that one, and I definitely recommend reading through it if this line of discussion is interesting to you.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

In thoroughly confused. They’re not even similar.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

It’s always weird to talk about indexes. Is the “first” element the one with index 0, or with index 1? You can make a good case for both.

Where Are All The Bicycles?? (startrek.website)

I have an issue in general with scifi totally ignoring the existence of bicycles, but star trek is particularly fun to think about since in so many situations beaming down in an away team with electric mountain bicycles would be incredibly useful in a basic utilitarian sense. Like shuttles, bicycles could be treated as...

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

Riker would be so good at Transition 1 if he did a triathlon.

Zagorath,
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I raise you the Mongol Empire.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

There are protections against false DMCA claims. I think a false DMCA claim is actually perjury.

The thing is though, the vast majority of claims on YouTube are not DMCA. YouTube has their own extra-legal system called Content ID. Where a DMCA claim carries the force of law and requires the allegedly infringing content be removed from the platform, claims under Content ID are essentially a contract with YouTube, and they give the claimant the choice of taking the video down, muting it (if the allegedly infringing content is audio), or monetising it and taking all the money for the claimant. They can also do different things by region, which is why at least historically a lot of videos were taken down in Germany but available elsewhere.

Zagorath,
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

Yes, and I own that copyright, because it’s my performance.

The claim wasn’t against the recording though. It was against the composition.

Zagorath, (edited )
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

That relies on their detection actually detecting the right piece.

I once recorded myself playing Beethoven’s “Pathetique” sonata, mvt 2. It gave me a strike for a recording of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” sonata, mvt 1.

edit: of course, in both cases, the thing is public domain, and no company has any right to claim copyright on it. The fact that YouTube lets them is fucking criminal. And it was the piece itself that copyright was being claimed on, not the recording.

Zagorath, (edited )
@Zagorath@aussie.zone avatar

I agree with the goal of this, but don’t necessarily agree with its specific assertions.

Like yes, 100% we would be way better off if companies would actively support emulation by selling super-cheap any games that they otherwise have no interest in anymore.

But actually, yes, I do enjoy paying $40 for the remake of an old classic, if it’s done well.

The Spyro remaster from a few years ago was extremely well-done and I loved being able to play a favourite from my childhood on my computer. It was exactly the same game, only with modernised graphics. Well worth it.

Even better, Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. It upgraded the graphics, but also added an enormous amount of new content and (most importantly) quality of life features, all done in consultation with the community that had been playing the original game for 20 years at the time DE came out. It would be best if you could still buy the original 1999 version for five bucks, but frankly I doubt many people would if you could, because the Definitive Edition was done so well.

It’s obviously different when there’s a remake that’s nothing but a cheap cash grab. Or when there hasn’t been any type of modern update. I wish, for example, it was easier for me to get my hands on a copy of Battle for Middle-Earth 2 to play with my friends. But the company that made it isn’t even allowed to continue selling it, for complicated licensing reasons. Because copyright law sucks.

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