celluloid_dream
No bio...
User ID: 758
Probably something boring like workplace safety (mentioned blow), but I want to believe it's for boarding efficiency. Other travelers fussing with their ridiculous oversized carry-on is one of the most infuriating parts of air travel.
You line up nice and orderly, pass the ticket check, walk down the corridor, greet the flight staff, awkwardly try not to make eye contact with every row of passengers on the way back to your seat and then - hold up. What's this? Traffic is stopped ahead? A middle-aged fellow with t-rex arms is trying to clean and jerk 120 pounds of laptop charger and winter clothing in a wheeled suitcase that he 100% won't use at all on this 5-hour flight. That takes a full minute because he's short and the person in front of him put in their giant wheeled suitcase first, and his won't fit. Finally he manages to turn it on its side (and you can tell the compartment bin isn't going to close now and the flight attendant will have to fix it anyway..). Then he turns around and does it again for his wife.
Then the scene plays out again in reverse because you're stuck behind them deplaning too.
The whole concept of carry-on should be abolished. And don't even get me started on baggage carousels..
Edit: (oh, I misread. you're having the opposite problem, which makes the carry-on weight even worse)
celluloid_dream
6mo ago
I assume "cruise people" means the crowd that retires to the ships and moves on to the next sailing when they finish?
I did a 2-week to Alaska, and distinctly remember being on deck watching this stunning scenery go by and being utterly perplexed by the sight of multiple tables full of people instead fully engrossed in their bridge/cribbage card games and pina coladas, not even looking up out the window. Like, why did you come here if you don't want to see this?
I wanted to ask them, but it's not my place to ask nagging parent-questions of people twice my age, so I let it be.
celluloid_dream
6mo ago
This sort of characterization in writing has been bugging me a long time. I agree, it must be persuasive or enjoyable to some people, given how common it is, but I just can't get into it, probably for the same reason I don't like political cartoons. They feel condescending, the author either not trusting their readers to come to the right conclusion and trying to hammer it home with an egregious caricature, or else the author feeling insecure in how they might be perceived and doing the same thing to signal the right tribal allegiance.
As an aside, specifically with the case of calling things "misinformation", I think authors should almost never do it. It immediately stakes a claim that the author 1. knows in some cosmic sense, that the alleged misinfo is false, and 2. knows that the intent of the alleged misinfo was to deceive or bullshit. Even if they know the first, how could they know the second?
celluloid_dream
7mo ago
It's frustrating to me, and I think other Canadians, that our government allowed this to happen. I can't stress enough how much it didn't have to be this way. We had a good thing going. We were a pro-immigrant country. We liked newcomers.
You see bar charts like this and it's just baffling. Even at the vastly increased rate of immigration over the last 4 years, you'd see less backlash if those bars had been kept more even.
celluloid_dream
8mo ago
I wish there was more cultural demand for, not exactly hardball questions, but a surprise quiz here and there to let voters know the candidate isn't completely out to lunch.
"Yes, thank you for delivering your prepared remarks on immigration and the southern border, but if you don't mind, could you please name the President of Mexico?"
celluloid_dream
9mo ago
I've never quite got the appeal of deep mechanical gaming keyboards for work. I prefer something my fingers will fly over, not sink into.
As such, I like the thin aluminum Apple ones, or similar in office. I still use a thick one for gaming though. Feels more secure in WSAD-position.
celluloid_dream
10mo ago
I don't think that's quite right. The "them" you are telling is a tool, not a person. It shouldn't be expected to exercise any more discretion than your paintbrush does. It's more like they're letting you rent their super-cool paintbrush that can paint whatever you want, including Mickey Mouse and Hillary Clinton.
At no point does another person's discretion come into it. I don't see the argument that they should be made to prevent you from painting those things any more than a brush manufacturer.
celluloid_dream
10mo ago
Suggest finding out what the locals typically do, and copy that. (probably easier to buy when you get there, if you don't already own gear)
I'm from a rainy city in the Pacific Northwest where people wear their $800 Arc'teryx as fashion. Umbrellas still see play, but if you're walking around with one and not also a rain jacket, you mark yourself as "that kind of person" (not that there's anything wrong with that!).
Biggest thing with jackets, I find, is the hood design. Almost any rain jacket will keep you dry long enough for your commute. Not every rain jacket will keep rain off your face comfortably. A lot of them are designed to fit over large helmets, accommodate ski goggles, etc. etc. You probably don't want all these tradeoffs. You want something with a long brim, zips up past your chin, covers enough side-angle, and doesn't look ridiculous when cinched to fit.
celluloid_dream
11mo ago
It is also rooted in me seeing that the war on drugs turns the banned drugs into a highly valuable and easily produced form of underground currency and thus directly leads to the growth of drug gangs and cartels that are, clearly, responsible for a good share of the street crime that I am seeking to curb.
This doesn't match my model of most street crime.
I'll see a drugged out fentanyl addict (when they're not bent over like this) careen into the supermarket I'm shopping at, wearing about 3 layers too many and know instantly, this guy is going to steal some shit. I make eye contact with the security guard, do a little head nod as if to indicate, "hey, you see that guy? He's going to steal some shit". The guard gives a tired sigh as if to reply, "I fucking know, dude. What do you want me to do about it?", and I shrug and go back to shopping. Couple minutes later, I see the guard following the junkie - now with hoodie pockets stuffed full of batteries - out the door. I guess that's protocol. Junkie shambles off around the corner to the alley and probably sells his whole haul to another drug addict for $10 and moves on to smashing car windows to steal cans out of the cupholders or something. That's the street crime I see.
We have gangs. It's just that they're off in another part of the city shooting each other, and playing cops & robbers with the anti-gang police task force. I'm sure their crime is connected to the druggie stealing Duracells somewhere, but it doesn't feel like it. Maybe it's different in your city.
celluloid_dream
11mo ago
Claude 3.5 has been very good for creative writing - much better than GPT-4 or GPT-4o (which I continually have to slap to stop them from listifying everything). I paid for the Anthropic subscription within a day of trying it, it was that impressive.
Where the OpenAI models are boring and generic, Claude is interesting and specific. It weaves in little details that sell the realism. Like, if I have it write something set in my city, it'll name a minor transit station that only locals would really know about. Or, it'll have a character do something human and weird, like feel a bug on their neck and swat at it, but it was just a strand of hair. Its jokes/sarcasm/wit are close to being funny sometimes (or at least, not totally cringe or nonsensical like 4/4o).
But, this seems to come at a slight cost. You know how when you have an image model illustrate something, it has a tendency to blur bits of the request together? I've noticed it doing this a bit with the narrative when writing. Eg. if Alice is carrying a sword, and Bob a mace, it'll sometimes write that Bob drew his sword. 4/4o never seemed to make that kind of error.
And yes, as you note, it will occasionally take a Strong Stand on Ethics regarding intellectual property, and you have to work around it.
celluloid_dream
11mo ago
celluloid_dream
11mo ago
For every fixable homeless person in a city with expensive housing, there is likely a responsible homeful person living within their means in a cheaper city who would jump at the chance to move, if only housing were affordable.
I don't think you get to (fairly) keep the fixable workers while pushing the dregs out. You either build more housing or you don't, but the current homeless in your city probably all have to go.
Does anyone have insight into the business model of food delivery apps? (Doordash, UberEats, Deliveroo, etc.)
Right now, I can order restaurant food delivered at half price with a coupon deal, maybe 60% after the driver's tip. In order to qualify for the deals, I must have it delivered, so if I want half price food from the Thai place on my block, I have to go through one of the apps and get some international student (always an international student) to go in and pick it up, then ride his (always his) scooter ~100m around the block and hand it to me.
I would prefer to pick it up myself, but this invariably voids the deal, and it doubles in price.
Who is paying for this absurdity?
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