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tal

@tal@lemmy.today

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tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

but no mortal can actually tell the difference between 255, 255, 255 and 255, 254, 255.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_banding

You can see some slight shifts even at 24-bit depth, if side-by-side. It produces a faint-but-visible banding.

Here’s an example (suggesting use of dithering to obscure it):

sean.cm/a/how-to-fix-banding-in-gradients

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Not really, but I don’t think it much matters.

If Trump hit upon a political strategy that is effective, then someone else will presumably use it, absent a change in the political environment.

tal,
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Not only were they a superpredator that preyed on apex predators, not only were they present in great numbers, but terrifyingly-enough, humans also worked together.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

It’s got a name that doesn’t intuitively indicate its role.

And it has a substantial population as the Fediverse goes.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Some that I use:

Dark Mode

I don’t like having a light screen.

  • Dark Reader. This does a pretty technically-impressive-to-me job of making reasonable dark versions of pages. It’s not perfect – there are a handful of sites that it needs to be toggled off for, makes something hard to read – but I’m amazed that it does the job it does.
  • Blank Dark Tab: Replace the new tab with a blank page matching Firefox’s built-in dark mode

Privacy/Anti-Tracking/Ad-blocking

Paywalls

Some paywalls can be bypassed.

Tweaking Frameworks

  • Stylus: Doesn’t do anything on its own, but permits collections of third-party themes to be applied to websites to fix annoyances.
  • Greasemonkey. This doesn’t do anything on its own, but it permits people to publish little modifications to be applied to webpages, permits for a lot of little scripts that fix annoyances on websites. There were a number of useful scripts that I used on Reddit.

Misc

  • Edit with Emacs. Permits opening the contents of a textarea in an external emacs instance. Nice for things like, say, writing a large lemmy post in Markdown. I vaguely recall that, at least some years back, there was a way to embed a version of vim in Firefox textareas, so if vim’s your cup of tea, that might be interesting, if it’s still around.
  • Instance Assistant for Lemmy and Kbin. A variety of quality-of-life fixes for lemmy and kbin. Lets one open a given lemmy/kbin post on their local instance if they wind up viewing a page on a remote instance.
  • Reddit Enhancement Suite. If you still use Reddit, this has an enormous collection of quality-of-life improvements for Reddit.

EDIT: I don’t know if this is the embedded vim that I recall, but Firenvim seems to do roughly the same thing, if not.

EDIT2: There’s also some “overlay remover” plugin that can bypass a number of obnoxious overlays that I use on my desktop, but I don’t have it installed on this machine. I think that it’s Behind the Overlay.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Also, in general, if you have legal residence long-term in a country, most countries do permit a route to obtain citizenship. Norway does appear to do this too (though it’s not a guaranteed right, and you need to learn Norwegian as part of that process). Thing is, I don’t know whether legal residence in Svalbard – which is a Norwegian territory, but not part of Norway proper – counts as legal residence in Norway for naturalization purposes, and I could very much believe that that is not the case.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_nationality_law

Foreigners may become Norwegian nationals by application after residing in the country for at least seven of the previous ten years, while holding a work or residence permit valid for at least one year. Applicants must be at least 12 years old, demonstrate proficiency in the Norwegian or Sami language (or alternatively complete 300 hours of Norwegian language courses), intend to reside in Norway permanently, pass a good character requirement, and not have a criminal record.[11]

Thinking of an analog, I know that in the US, American Samoa is unusual in that while it is a US territory, American Samoa wanted to run their own immigration policy (because there are people in (non-American) Samoa who they wanted to be able to move in). Both the US and American Samoa were willing for American Samoa to be a US territory, but the US wasn’t willing to have American Samoa just be a back door to general entry to the US if they had different immigration policy. Normally, in an American territory – like Puerto Rico, say – the residents are American citizens. However, because of this independent immigration policy that American Samoa runs, based on the arrangement that the US and American Samoa worked out, American Samoans are not actually American citizens – they are American nationals. While generally they can live and work in the rest of the US, just the fact that American Samoa is okay with someone moving to American Samoa and has the right to let people in as they choose doesn’t necessarily mean that the same person can use that status to just bounce from there to legal status in the rest of the US.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Norway has similar restrictions on people bouncing via legal residence in Svalbard to broader Norway, because the situations are somewhat-similar.

EDIT: Yup.

www.lifeinnorway.net/living-on-svalbard/

It’s also important to understand that time spent living in Svalbard does not count towards residence in Norway. That means that if you’ve lived in Svalbard for two years, those two years will not count towards a permanent residence application in Norway.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Hmm. Though that being said, global warming will cause glaciers to retreat, so it’ll probably be more-ice-free in the future than it is now.

googles

And it looks like Svalbard, in particular, is warming up quickly.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63387233

Experts from the Norwegian Polar Institute are among those who calculate it is heating six times faster than the global average.

The consensus is that the temperature in Svalbard has jumped 4C in the past 50 years.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Well, “liveable” is going to be somewhat-subjective.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_border

Examples of open borders

Svalbard

Uniquely, the Norwegian special territory of Svalbard is an entirely visa-free zone. No person requires a visa or residence permit and anyone may live and work in Svalbard indefinitely, regardless of citizenship. The Svalbard Treaty grants treaty nationals equal right of abode as Norwegian nationals. So far, non-treaty nationals have been admitted visa-free as well. “Regulations concerning rejection and expulsion from Svalbard” are in force on a non-discriminatory basis. Grounds for exclusion include lack of means of support, and violation of laws or regulations.[52][53][54] Same-day visa-free transit at Oslo Airport is possible when travelling on non-stop flights to Svalbard.

That’s not citizenship, but it’s living and working there without restriction, which is probably about as good as someone’s going to get in the present day. But it’s probably colder than most people would like.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard

Approximately 60% of the archipelago is covered with glaciers, and the islands feature many mountains and fjords. The archipelago has an Arctic climate, although with significantly higher temperatures than other areas at the same latitude. The flora has adapted to take advantage of the long period of midnight sun to compensate for the polar night. Many seabirds use Svalbard as a breeding ground, and it is home to polar bears, reindeer, the Arctic fox, and certain marine mammals. Seven national parks and 23 nature-reserves cover two-thirds of the archipelago, protecting the largely untouched fragile environment.

EDIT: And income looks pretty solid, even by Western standards:

In 2006, the average income for economically active people was 494,700 kroner, 23% higher than on the mainland.

Converting to 2006 USD and then rolling forward inflation to December 2023, that’d be ~$110,463.54/year.

But part of the reason that they’re gonna be paying that is because the people living there are gonna have to be living in polar twilight for a hefty chunk of the year.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

When it isn’t being cut, they have submarine cables to Norway.

en.wikipedia.org/…/Svalbard_Undersea_Cable_System

The Svalbard Undersea Cable System is a twin submarine communications cable which connects Svalbard to the mainland of Norway. The two optical fiber cable consist of two segments, from Harstad to Breivika in Andøy, and from Breivika to Hotellneset near Longyearbyen in Svalbard. The segments from Harstad to Breivika are 74 and 61 kilometers (46 and 38 mi) long, respectively, and the segments from Breivika to Hotellneset 1,375 and 1,339 kilometers (854 and 832 mi). Each consists of eight fiber pairs and there are twenty optical communications repeaters on each segment. Each segment has a speed of 10 gigabits per second (Gb/s), with a future potential capacity of 2,500 Gbit/s. The system is now the sole telecommunications link to the archipelago.

There’s apparently 5G service:

www.lifeinnorway.net/5g-norway/

The company began Scandinavia’s first 5G pilot back in November 2018, conducted Norway’s first 5G video call, and launched the world’s northernmost 5G pilot in Svalbard. Telenor chose Nordic company Ericsson over Chinese firm Huawei to supply the critical infrastructure for the rollout.

I don’t know whether Starlink orbital paths can cover that far north.

googles

Apparently so, and they started service about five months ago.

satprnews.com/…/starlink-launches-in-svalbard-a-n…

Starlink Launches in Svalbard: A New Era of Internet Connectivity in the Arctic.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Depends on the implementation, and I think that that’s something of an issue in discussion about it – because its effects depend a great deal on the specifics.

There is a portion of the small government conservative crowd that sees it as a replacement for welfare programs where the government mandates policy. Like, instead of getting, oh, food stamps or such, where the government precisely spells out policy in each area (“this is what you are permitted to buy with this”), people who are poorer than a certain amount would simply get a flat cash payment and choose how to use it. In that sense, it’d reduce the degree of control that government has, which is a goal that they’d like to see.

There’s also a portion of the redistribute-more-wealth crowd on the left that sees it as existing alongside existing welfare programs, rather than as a replacement. For them, if the government has progressive taxation policy (like, income tax brackets or the like), a flat benefit to everyone will tend to redistribute more, which is a goal that they’d like to see.

Both implementations would qualify as UBI – they both provide an unconditional basic income. But the actual effects depend on the implementation.

So when someone says something like “sign this petition for UBI”, I think that a really good question is “tell me what sort of UBI you are aiming to have implemented”, because the details have a very considerable impact on what it is that you’re signing up to support.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Magnesium supplement pills, I imagine.

Possible workaround for 0.19.1 outbound federation issues

If anyone else is having problems with 0.19.1 federation where outgoing messages don’t seem to make it out to other instances other than at instance restart, it sounds like @mrmanager, the lemmy.today admin, may have managed to resolve the federation issues on his instance. He hasn’t posted here yet (I assume because he...

How to pull rocks out of pipe in the ground?

My mom has a hole in the ground that she puts her clothes drying hanger in. Like this. The hole in the ground is a 2" or so pipe, set in concrete. The pipe has filled with gravel. Anyone have a tip on getting the rocks out? I can only get so many out using my fingers and then trying to use a set of chopsticks.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

a powerful vacuum

A shop vac, maybe with a narrow extender.

If OP is in the US – which I assume he is, from the inch measurement – I’d bet that he can probably rent one at a large hardware store, like Home Depot, if he doesn’t have any use for one outside of this.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

You can link to videos if you want. I don’t think that lemmy or kbin instances will likely provide free hosting for them, though.

There is a Fediverse service that provides video hosting, PeerTube.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerTube

I’m skeptical that it will scale – it costs to host video – but it’s there. You can host something on any PeerTube host willing to serve your content and link to it from the Threadiverse, same as you could on YouTube.

joinpeertube.org

EDIT: For a list of nearby instances:

peertube.fediverse.observer

Is there an app or way to set a start time and end time and totally simulate an automatic sunset with Hue lighting

I want to set a start time and end time and have my Hue lights slowly and very gradually over that timeframe shift from like yellow–> red or even white/blue at the start of the day–> red at end and have it automatically carry that out....

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I rigged up a simulated sunrise about 20 years back with a regular light, a computer, and an X10 controller back when I slept in a room without windows and wanted a more-gentle way of waking up than an alarm clock. So I totally get wanting to simulate a sunrise.

But why do you want to simulate a sunset?

Also, you might want to ask on !homeautomation, as they specialize in this sort of thing.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

upliftingnews

I agree with the insight that a lot of news has a really negative focus. That is, a lot of things like murders or disasters or the like that don’t really have all that much direct impact on the lives of most people are very mediagenic, so get disproportionately-heavy coverage. We wind up with a really skewed-negative perspective in the news media relative to reality.

However, I also have to say that I wasn’t necessarily blown away by some past efforts I’ve seen along the lines of remedying this either – that is, a lot of feel-good stories aren’t necessarily all that important to someone’s life either. Not to say that someone can’t want and consume feel-good stories either, but if one’s goal is to try to pick up useful information, probably what one would best read is neither material about shark attacks, nor about someone who overcame cancer or whatnot.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Robin Hood is another example of a set of works that had many people contributing different stories into what became the present-day collection.

Historically, a lot of works had many authors using the same character. I think that it’s a bit unfortunate that modern copyright law tends to discourage that.

H. P. Lovecraft was unusual in that he allowed other authors to make use of his characters (and settings, which are also covered by copyright), which is why his world – with Cthulhu and all that – has been widely used.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I kind of wish that multi-unit housing came with sound isolation ratings. That’d create an incentive to have better isolation and help customers weigh the tradeoffs.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I don’t really want to force a specific bottom limit on sound insulation, which is what that would do, though.

Some people won’t care as much as others relative to price and may not want to pay what it’d cost. And some people may want a much-quieter unit than any bottom limit would place.

The problem is that they can’t make an informed decision now because the information isn’t available.

What is your unpopular flim opinion

I’ll go first. Mine is that I can’t stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree. It’s like being continually reminded that I am in a movie. I swear the success of that movie has directly lead to every blockbuster having to have a joke every 30 seconds

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Mine is that I can’t stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree.

I haven’t read the comic books that they’re based on for a long time, but as I recall, they also break the fourth wall. I don’t think that that was introduced specifically for the movie.

googles

Apparently that wasn’t always there:

screenrant.com/deadpool-fourth-wall-break-first-t…

When Did Deadpool First Break The Fourth Wall?

Marvel’s Deadpool is known for his over-the-top violence and crude and crass humor, but perhaps his best-known character trait is his penchant for repeatedly breaking the fourth wall. Deadpool talks to the audience in comics, films and videogames - but he didn’t always have this power. In fact, early Deadpool was known for being quite serious and firmly rooted in the fictional realm…so when did the Merc with a Mouth first break the fourth wall - and how did he insult editors everywhere by doing so?

Deadpool and the assassin with superhuman accuracy Bullseye teamed up in previous issues, and in Deadpool , the two are reunited after a long absence. “How long has it been!?” Bullseye exclaims. Deadpool simply states “Issue sixteen.” It’s the smallest of fourth-wall breaks (he hadn’t even began speaking to the readers yet), but it shows that Deadpool is doing more than acting out - he’s acting as his own editor. Considering convoluted comics continuity, it’s normal for editors to occasionally place footnotes in certain panels, specifically when characters reference past events. Perhaps Kelly and Woods considered the old method, but wanted to try a new technique. Whatever their reasoning, Deadpool’s fourth wall breaks became a staple of the character.

Looks like Deadpool dates to 1997, though, so Deadpool breaking the fourth wall has been around for over a quarter of a century.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Not only that, but looking at the cast, it looks like LOTR is New Zealanders, Australians, or Brits.

lotr.fandom.com/…/List_of_the_Lord_of_the_Rings_f…

I mean, if there was a single internationally-popular movie or series that you could choose to take issue with as being “too American”, this doesn’t seem like it’d be the one I’d choose.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

This extension will automatically remove tracking elements from URLs to help protect your privacy when browsing through the Internet.

Firefox:

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/…/clearurls/

Chrome:

…google.com/…/lckanjgmijmafbedllaakclkaicjfmnk/

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Or something was standing next to your bed while you were asleep and thought that some salt would make you taste better.

Why do people hate on mobile games, call them "not real games" and mock them, when some mobile-exclusive games are the best games I've played?

The Infinity Blade or Minigore series, for example, or anything made by Illusion Labs. These games are genius and most consoles don’t even have a touch screen or utilise it well like some smartphone games do....

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I wouldn’t call one “not a real game”. If you like them, great, play them. I have not been very happy with mobile games, myself, however.

A couple of reasons:

  • While they don’t have to do so, many mobile games appear to me to be designed to cater to people playing in short spurts. That is, you don’t have to build up a lot of metal state about the game; you can play a bit while waiting in a line or something, put the thing on hold, do something else, come back. A lot of my favorite games don’t work like that.
  • For a number of genres, using a touchscreen is a serious limitation, because part of the screen is obstructed by fingers. Phones can use external input devices, usually via Bluetooth, and so you can make a game that requires an external input device, but it’s an inconvenience to lug one around with a phone, so smartphone games generally need to be designed to be at least reasonably-able to be played on the touchscreen alone. That places some constraints on the way the game can work.
  • Touchscreen accuracy is limited compared to a mouse pointer, which again limits a number of genres of games.
  • Not everyone using a smartphone game can be playing sound while doing so; carrying headphones/earbuds around isn’t something that all players will do. That means that smartphone games generally need to be playable without sound, which is a constraint that PC games generally don’t have.
  • The major benefit smartphones have is that they’re mobile. A smartphone can generally run for a while, as long as most of that is idling. Playing games in most genres burns through their battery quickly. You can carry USB powerstations, but kind of a pain.
  • Even in genres – like turn-based ones – that really don’t need much battery consumption, for some reason, game developers – unlike developers of many other application types – often seem to feel the need to have stuff going on while nothing’s happening in the game, burning battery life. I’d like to have the option to minimize battery usage.
  • I would say that a greater proportion of smartphone games than PC games have in-app purchases and ads, neither of which I like.
  • Many game genres tend to benefit from a wider field of view. Smartphone screens held normally take up a very small portion of one’s visual field.
  • I am not particularly enthusiastic about having Google track and profile me. A large portion of the commercial games on Android require that one use Google Play Services and this requires a Google account. I’m not willing to get a Google account. This limits availability of many commercial games. I have no problem with getting a GOG account on the PC, and am at least less concerned about Valve, with Steam, than Google.
  • I have no idea why, but a higher percentage of mobile games seem to go for a cutesy, simplified vector aesthetic. Maybe it’s because they need to run on screens that may vary a great deal in size; I don’t know, but it’s there. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that style, but I’m not especially enthusiastic about it. The Game Boy had the same “cutesy” tendency back when, relative to larger, fixed consoles, so maybe it’s to deal with small screens.
  • Most mobile games I’ve played that I’ve liked (e.g. Shattered Pixel Dungeon) are also available on the PC, and I find that it’s more-comfortable to play there.

So for me, at least, the mobile gaming experience hasn’t really been one that I’ve been all that happy with.

I could certainly see games that I think would work well with a smartphone. Choice of Games-type multiple-choice interactive fiction, or gamebooks. Those are (or at least can be) light on a battery, are fine on a touchscreen. I’ve generally played those on a tablet rather than a phone – I think that even with those, more screen space is desirable, given the option – but I have done those, and I think that they’re all right. Annoyingly-enough, Twine games – which I would think could be a good match for mobile – aren’t, because Android browsers don’t have an ability to view file:// URLs and Twine builds pages that don’t always work well on small mobile screens. There hasn’t been the kind of explosion of freely-available games in this genre that there have been for the keyboard-oriented Z-Machine and TADS interactive fiction VMs on the PC, though.

Deckbuilding games – though I’d rather have ones without animation or 3D stuff going on, to reduce battery consumption – would be another possibility that I’d like. If cards are designed for a small screen, I think that it’d be reasonable.

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