frezik

joined 1 week ago
[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 38 minutes ago

Close. WWII America had to invest heavily in farms to feed soldiers who need 4,000 kcal diets to support marching around with heavy packs all day long in potentially cold weather. That investment drove up automation in the farm industry, particularly with corn and soybeans.

War ends, but the infrastructure is all still there. If farms weren't heavily subsidized, they would collapse. There was real risk of fields going fallow on a mass level, resulting in too little food to feed the population. And then you have to keep subsidizing it, forever. Nobody has figured out a way out of that logic while maintaining a mostly capitalist production system.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Microsoft's original plan was to own the living room the way they own the office space. Not just gaming, but all your movies, TV, shopping, etc. could be done through the XBox.

Kinect was a particularly big jump in that regard. There were demos of AR-type stuff where you could see yourself wearing clothes you might want to buy. You could move around and the clothes on screen would move with your body. There's some promo videos of that, but nothing concrete ever came of it.

Now they have slagging sales for two generations, and a AAA industry that struggles to make a real hit and is laying off a lot of people. They can't even hold onto the core gaming market much less get their tendrils into the rest of the living room. They then release a handheld that's basically an upgrade of an existing handheld that wasn't selling very well, but now with XBox branding.

Is this a problem for the rest of us? No, not really. There's plenty of alternatives, and we don't need to care. Is this the result the money people at Microsoft envisioned when they started this ~25 years ago? No, not at all.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Welcome to everywhere. 3.5" disks in German are called "dreieinhalb Zoll Disketten", and in Dutch "drie punt vijf inch floppys". Both of those translate roughly to "three and a half inch disks/floppies". Everyone borrowed US computer terms and translated them directly.

No country uses the metric system exclusively. None. You will find exceptions if you look for them. This isn't some kind of moral failing, it's just practicality. Look at how car tires are sold for one example that's nearly universal due to industry standards.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

This is why for retro computers, I tend to prefer CompactFlash. IDE->CF adapters are cheap, and the cards are much higher quality. They effectively become an SSD that works on old stuff. (Just because I like retro computing stuff doesn't mean I want the whole experience, like waiting for disk heads to move, or worse, tape drives to finish reading. I'm old enough that I remember dealing with it and I don't need to deal with it again.)

Not a lot of call for them otherwise, though. SD cards have gotten increasingly good bandwidth, which means they're good enough for a lot of higher end cameras. CF is getting squeezed out.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

It is not possible to filibusterer this. Republicans are specifically using techniques to avoid having to deal with the filibuster under Senate rules. The whole thing is DOA if they do.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 hours ago

We're at around 1.5C for a few years. That's not the same thing as a sustained average.

What that means is that we still have time to fight for better policy.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

If the alarmists are right, we're completely fucked already. Might as well do nothing and enjoy the benefits of a petro society while it lasts.

This is not what climate scientists are asking for right now.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Much of Europe is getting hotter. AC is literally a life-saving technology on extremely hot days. No, it's not mere "comfort". Old people, in particular, are at high risk.

And it's not like Europe is completely blameless when it comes to global warming, either.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 19 hours ago

How airtight is airtight? Cheap Ziploc bags or Tupperware won't be enough in the long run. Maybe if you used a pressure sealed preservatives jar. Those will need to be heated up in a pressure cooker, so butter will melt and reconstitute.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Sorta. Anything fatty tends to pick up flavors from the environment. Now, in the cold, those chemical reactions are slowed down, but they're not stopped. If you leave it there for a while, it'll pick up off flavors. Still generally safe to eat, but you won't like it.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Human anatomy took some strange turns in the Star Wars universe. There was cross breeding with the Killik back when everyone was slaves of the Rakatan Infinite Empire. Now human females have an ovipositor that rips right through thin plastic bags.

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