[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

I guess they're better than horse chestnuts.

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 33 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

One thing I think people miss when political donations by company are listed like this is that it's not the company itself making donations, it's their individual employees.

Ever made a political donation? Remember when it asked for your employer on the form? Well this figure is from people who put IBM there on their form.

So when you read a stat like this that tells you one company overwhelmingly donated one way or the other, it's really telling you nothing about the company itself, and more about the employees who work there - primarily the low level employees, who likely vastly outnumber everyone else.

Similarly, it means nothing as far as corruption is concerned when you look into a specific candidate's political donations and see that, for example, oil companies overwhelmingly donated to them. It doesn't mean oil companies literally donated to them, it means people who work at oil companies did.

It might be useful for gauging a company's general culture, but even then I'd be cautious since the bulk of political donations for most companies is probably dominated by their low level employees.

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 159 points 3 weeks ago

That doesn't sound complicated at all

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 159 points 1 month ago

Mark Rober for me, seems like he wants to be Mr. Beast Lite or something lately.

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 107 points 2 months ago

Hi, this is Andy here, the Founder/CEO of Proton. As former scientists, we don't do what we're doing to make the most money (otherwise we wouldn't have picked science as a profession). There's no price which we would sell Proton to Google or Facebook. We also don't need to because thanks to the strong support of the community, Proton has the resources to thrive and grow as an independent organization. Safeguarding this independence is how we ensure that over the long term, we can always put user interest above all else.

-Protonmail Founder, 2 years ago, for what it's worth.

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 86 points 3 months ago

Plus even that isn't enough: 10/3 has an infinite decimal expansion (in base 10 at least) too, but if π = 10/3, you'd be able to find exact circumferences. Its irrationality is what makes it relevant to this joke.

A mathematician is also perfectly happy with answers like "4π" as exact.

Plus what's to stop you from having a rational circumference but irrational radius?

Writing this, I feel like I might have accidentally proved your point.

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 159 points 4 months ago

This seems like a strict improvement over the old situation, in a way that should be directly felt by lots and lots of people every single day.

I don't get the urge to take a needlessly cynical take on news like this. Yes, the system is still flawed, but yes, it's better than it was before. Take the win and move on to the next reform.

72

I read this article and still walked away feeling like I didn't understand the situation that well.

Is it $56 billion that he's already been paid, and he needs to return it? $56 billion he's partially been paid, and he can keep what he has, but won't get the rest? Something more complicated?

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 108 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Almost: x²/2 + C

10
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world to c/no_stupid_questions@programming.dev

Note that I'm using autohotkey v2, not v1.

I want to run two different autohotkey scripts. I want to trigger a hotstring in the first script, the output of which ends up being part of the hotstring trigger for the second script. Is this possible?

Here's a simplified version of my intended workflow.

Script 1:

#Hotstring EndChars \
#Hotstring o
#Hotstring ?
::iv::ǐ
::av::ǎ

Script 2:

#Hotstring EndChars \
#Hotstring o
#Hotstring ?
::nǐ::你
::hǎo::好

So the idea is that I can type niv\ and the first script will convert it to nǐ - then I can immediately type \ and the second script will convert it to 你. So I type niv\\ and my text goes from niv to nǐ to 你. I can then type hav\o\ and have my text go: h, ha, hav, hǎ, hǎo, 好. So I can do niv\ hav\o and get nǐ hǎo, or I can do niv\\ hav\o\ and get 你 好. Both writing systems in a reasonably simple format.

There are reasons I want to set it up like this. The first script has dozens of functions beyond writing in pinyin/chinese, and I share it with another person - so I don't want to add potentially hundreds of random Chinese hotstrings to it, just the special pinyin characters. That's why I'm using two scripts.

But I also realize I could just make "niv" and "havo" their own hotstrings which go directly to 你 and 好 without the intermediate nǐ and hǎo. I don't want to do this mostly because I think the system I have in mind is prettier - type it correctly in pinyin first, then have it correctly convert to Chinese.

All of that aside: I've gathered that this is probably possible using some combination of SendLevel and #InputLevel - but I've tried a bunch of different combinations and ideas with it, and haven't successfully had one script trigger another yet. Even in simplified toy scripts, which is a little discouraging. Ideally I'd be able to do this with as few changes to the main script I share with another person as possible - the script that handles the Chinese can be as complicated as it needs to be though. Anyone know how to make this work?

18

For example - if a popular TV show is about to have its season or series finale, or a sport league is about to have its championship game. Are there any websites that track these, without all the noise of less important shows or games, to keep track of?

ESPN.com does seem to track upcoming sporting events pretty well, but it's not that easy to tell which upcoming games are "big" for the league in question or not.

136
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

It seems like every shower has its own unique way of controlling water temperature and pressure. Of all the showers I've ever used, no two of which have ever been alike, I like my controls the least. Plus the faucet has started dripping lately.

Is this likely to be something I can replace on my own, without a plumber? To me, that means: Can I likely do this without damaging the wall, without having to mess with pipes, and without needing to do anything involving words like "hacksaw", "weld", or "plumbing torch"?

Basically I believe in my ability to buy a faucet and control thingie from Home Depot; to use screwdrivers, allen wrenches, pliers, and regular wrenches; to use things like plumbing tape, lubricants, and caulk; and to remember to turn the water off to the house.

Would a project like this likely require anything more complex than that? I tend to prefer shower controls that have separate knobs for hot and cold, but I figure going from a one-knob setup to a two-knob setup is definitely going to require reconfiguring the plumbing. Should sticking with a one-knob solution be okay?

I don't know if it matters but I live in Florida in the US, and this place was built in the 1980s. I doubt this matters, but my current controls work by turning the larger knob left or right for temperature, and the smaller knob for pressure.

My place does have some annoyances - like the front door is an uncommon size that's difficult to find replacements for at places like Home Depot. Is there any chance of me running into issues like that when it comes to things like the size of the pipe openings?

Thanks for any insight.

Edit: Thanks for all the replies. It's pretty clear now that this is something that could very easily end up a lot more involved and time consuming and property damaging than I'm comfortable with.

73

I'm mostly thinking about insurance here. I've been told conflicting information. I live in Florida.

I live with someone who has a driver's license and a car, but I don't have either. I've avoided getting one because I have no interest in car ownership, and I feel like if I started driving regularly I'd probably die - I have driven before but I really don't think it's something I'd ever get good at.

It's undeniable that having one would be convenient though - for rare occasions like emergencies at a minimum but also other scenarios.

I know almost nothing about how this stuff works. If I get a license, am I required to acquire and pay for insurance, even if I don't own a car or regularly drive? Or will the person I live with have to pay more for their insurance? Are there any other costs or downsides associated with it that I might not be thinking of?

Thanks.

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 105 points 10 months ago

This but about how almost everything about Lemmy is spun as either good, or better than reddit's equivalent.

Like the other day I saw a post about how Lemmy's active users were on the decline, trying to claim that was somehow good for Lemmy. Or back when Lemmy had its /r/place copy, there were plenty of people saying it was better than reddit's. Basically anything about Lemmy that's somewhat lacking has people desperately trying to defend it as actually superior.

It borders on delusional at times. Yes Lemmy is good, but reddit is still better in dozens of ways, almost all of them related to user count. And this is coming from one of the people who deleted their reddit account and replaced it with Lemmy cold turkey - I haven't been back there (except for porn) in almost 8 weeks.

50
What is this cat? (lemmy.world)

What kind of cat is this? It was taken behind a Chinese food restaurant in southwest Florida.

The person who took the picture said it's a Bobcat, but other people who've seen it have said it doesn't really look like one, and is probably something non-native. Anyone know for certain?

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 188 points 11 months ago

Spinning it at 1575.42 Million RPS would create a 1575.42 MHz radio wave. That specific frequency is used by the GPS - so by doing this you'd be interfering with the reception of GPS signals, which is the illegal act you'd go to jail for here.

97
submitted 11 months ago by zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

Hollow Knight is an incredibly competent game on pretty much all fronts. In my opinion, Hollow Knight is a masterpiece and we will discuss all the things that make it so great in detail in this Hollow Knight retrospective. However - the one thing that I find most fascinating about Hollow Knight is an aspect of the game that is seldom discussed. The most fascinating aspect of Hollow Knight is that it exists in the first place - because to put it mildly - Hollow Knight’s existence should not be possible. Hollow Knight was developed by only three people, in roughly three years. Three people managed to produce a game that looks this beautiful, features a combat system with a skill ceiling this high, crafted a beautiful world this big, wrote lore that deep, and crafted gameplay this fluid. Three people did a job that puts most teams of 60 people that work for half a decade on a game to shame. How did three pull this off?

In this Hollow Knight retrospective, we are going to investigate this question. We are going to find out how it is possible that Hollow Knight even exists!

114
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

In late July, a couple of startling papers appeared on the arXiv, a repository of pre-peer-review manuscripts on topics in physics and astronomy. The papers claim to describe the synthesis of a material that is not only able to superconduct above room temperature, but also above the boiling point of water. And it does so at normal atmospheric pressures.

Instead of having to build upon years of work with exotic materials that only work under extreme conditions, the papers seem to describe a material that could be made via some relatively straightforward chemistry and would work if you set it on your desk. It was like finding a shortcut to a material that would revolutionize society.

The perfect time to write an article on those results would be when they've been confirmed by multiple labs. But these are not perfect times. Instead, rumors seem to be flying daily about possible confirmation, confusing and contradictory results, and informed discussions of why this material either should or shouldn't work.

In this article, we'll explain where things stand and why getting to a place of clarity will be challenging, even if these claims are right.

184
submitted 11 months ago by zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world to c/fediverse@lemmy.world

I just reached 112 myself.

I'm very much awaiting a time when users can block specific instances. I still don't want to check the option to hide NSFW content, because I do want to see NSFW content that may show up on non-porn communities. Just not really interested in seeing so much porn in All.

You can check on your settings page, btw, in the Blocks tab - count quickly with Ctrl+F.

5
submitted 11 months ago by zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world to c/support@lemmy.world

About two weeks ago I believe there was some sort of update that let posts that are just youtube links open in-line on the lemmy feed as embeds, by clicking the post thumbnail. This was pretty great.

It seems to be back to the old behavior now, where you can't do that anymore. Why? What happened?

43
submitted 11 months ago by zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
2
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world to c/houseplants@mander.xyz

I've had this cactus for a few years, and for a while it's had a problem where it grows so tall that it can't stand up. You can see in the photo that I have it tied to some stakes to keep it upright - if not for those it would literally uproot itself in under a day.

Why might this be? I don't know all that much about houseplants. I water this cactus (and my other cactuses, which are not the same species) once every two weeks, about 1 to 1.5 cups of water. I use some cactus fertilizer like twice a year, pretty inconsistently. It lives perpetually indoors with those three light rods visible in the picture as its sole light source (On for 12 hours a day).

Given how little I know about proper plant care, I'm sure none of that is ideal - but is any of it the obvious culprit for why this happens? What should I be doing better?

Thanks for any help.

P.S. Those two nodules just above the lower string are brand new, and it's never branched out like that before - what should I expect them to become? Round bulbs? Branches? Flowers? Nothing at all? The tip top of the cactus being white is also very recent.

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 243 points 11 months ago

Gonna go with Firefox as both my most-used piece of open-source software, and the software I see as most important to its ecosystem. If Firefox fails then we've just got Chromium-based browsers and, I guess, Safari.

[-] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 107 points 1 year ago

I'm having an easier time sticking to it and not visiting reddit than I thought I would. The first day was pretty sketchy with 90% of the posts being about Lemmy, reddit, or twitter - but since then it's been giving a more enjoyable experience.

It probably helps that I'm making an effort to post and comment, which I never really did on reddit.

As Lemmy grows I'd like to see more niche communities take off, similar to how there was "a subreddit for everything".

I do have a big wishlist for site functionality changes though. A big sore spot is that youtube videos and text posts can't open in-line on the front page.

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zkfcfbzr

joined 1 year ago