8
lgbtqwtfbbq 8 points ago +8 / -0

I was like that until I got a 4k TV and started sitting a proper viewing distance from it. The difference between DVD and blu ray is pretty significant. 4k IMO isn't worth it for the most part if you have a blu ray. Especially for older (30+ years) movies with a lot of film grain (since most of the extra detail you're getting is film grain).

Though I will say my 4k copy of Hackers when they're showing the animations of the "inside" of the Gibson computer looks phenomenal.

5
lgbtqwtfbbq 5 points ago +5 / -0

That's what I do. I have a 42 TB NAS that I put everything on with a bunch of Kodi instances connected to it and a central SQL database.

Works pretty much exactly like a streaming site would except the video quality is much higher since most of my movies are just raw disc rips.

6
lgbtqwtfbbq 6 points ago +6 / -0

The key revocation updates get stored on the discs themselves. If you put in a newer disc with a newer version of the revocation list, the drive firmware auto-updates.

To workaround, get yourself a blu ray drive which can be modded with the LibreDrive firmware (I have an ASUS BW-16D1HT) and then just use MakeMKV to rip your discs.

10
lgbtqwtfbbq 10 points ago +10 / -0

Some years back I was talking to someone who moved here from Ireland. They were thrilled at how much cheaper the US was compared to Dublin then went on to complain about how few government services there were and how the government here needed to do more to help the poor

I think it was somewhere in the middle of that conversation when I decided I didn't want people moving here from Europe either.

4
lgbtqwtfbbq 4 points ago +5 / -1

It's already not getting there. If you want to argue that the only thing preventing gas tankers from being helicoptered in is the existence of "price gouging" laws then feel free to make that argument.

What if they don't fear "utter isolation of their community"? Laws against "price gouging" in times of natural disaster are reasonably popular, which is why they also exist in Red states. What then incentivizes the "rational people" to protect or avenge the shopkeeper? It's doubtful he possesses some particular skill in obtaining gasoline that others lack.

10
lgbtqwtfbbq 10 points ago +12 / -2

What does Sowell say about people existing in a breakdown of law and order deciding it's "cheaper" to kill the gas station owner and take the gas instead of paying his asking price? Surely that newfound substitution effect must have some impact on prices.

6
lgbtqwtfbbq 6 points ago +6 / -0

In disaster situations like this one if this gas station owner's body were found in a ditch with his skull caved in the police if they're even around wouldn't give it a second glance over the hundreds of dead bodies in ditches they've already seen.

Under those extraordinary circumstances different substitution effects (eg. killing/robbing the owner and taking the gas may be "cheaper" than just paying for the gas) are in play, and a useful economic model needs to take them into account.

5
lgbtqwtfbbq 5 points ago +5 / -0

If you told me this video took place in Ghana I'd believe you. You almost can't help but become racist watching this stuff: they behave exactly the same no matter where in the world they are.

4
lgbtqwtfbbq 4 points ago +4 / -0

Right. When Microsoft Research did their C#/.NET kernel back in the day they did their own thing instead of trying to bolt it onto an existing kernel. They weren't trying to tell a bunch of C kernel devs "no one's trying to force you to learn C#" as they try to rewrite major kernel subsystems in C#.

20
lgbtqwtfbbq 20 points ago +20 / -0

Personally I'm not even opposed to an OS written in something like Rust. But trying to lie to a bunch of C kernel developers that "no one's expecting you to learn Rust" when that's blatantly false if the Rust people get what they want from the effort is simply being disingenuous.

At least be honest to these people that you consider their skills obsolete in the modern world. That would be the honorable and respectful thing to do.

14
lgbtqwtfbbq 14 points ago +14 / -0

The entire Gettysburg movie could never be made today, in that it paints both sides sympathetically and has an entire scene where the Confederate soldiers are cheering General Lee as he rides by.

Different dreams...how very sad.

5
lgbtqwtfbbq 5 points ago +5 / -0

I saw The Deprogrammers when I was a kid, and I always think of it whenever I think of mainstream "anti-establishment" media figures like Jon Stewart.

I suppose even Brent Spiner himself to an extent, considering how diametrically opposed the cast of TNG now acts toward the supposed "timeless" values they espoused at the time.

A story/premise deserving of a much better budget.

14
lgbtqwtfbbq 14 points ago +14 / -0

My boss at my first "real job" told me some good advice very early in my career that was entirely correct but I didn't follow as much as I should have: "it's my job to push you as hard as I can get away with, and it's your job to tell me when to stop".

19
lgbtqwtfbbq 19 points ago +19 / -0

That would be true if modern companies were as embarrassed acting in the silly overly legalistic manner in which they do.

Tit for Tat is the optimal strategy. If you work for honorable people act honorably. Otherwise do what you're legally entitled to do.

4
lgbtqwtfbbq 4 points ago +4 / -0

I think a lot of regulation exists because in modernity it's extremely difficult to punish large actors who cause harm. Because of that, we have a lot of regulation so as to make it extremely difficult to cause harm. Because ultimately it's the only tool we have at our disposal to reduce the probability of occurrence.

With the most recent vaccine we saw the effects of getting rid of a lot of the regulations: it's not as safe/effective as most vaccines are, and since it's impossible to punish the manufacturers for that we probably need to bring that regulation back.

So I guess my answer to that question is "we probably have as much as we need, but if we want to need less we need to tip the scales toward being more able to punish wrongdoing/harm"

14
lgbtqwtfbbq 14 points ago +14 / -0

I'm not convinced that it'd be any less partisan if its entire editorial board were hard science PhDs

In the early 00s scientists were decrying the "awful" state of science journalism. As a result online outfits like ScienceBlogs hired academics in their various scientific fields to write about current events and publications in their fields, with the goal being to improve the quality of science writing and reduce the sensationalism of the science journalism at the time.

Instead a lot of the scientists hired to write about these things thought it more fun to write about their trash politics and opinions on social and religious matters, and instead of improving the quality of science writing we all just found out how dogshit all these peoples' views on those topics were.

At the time they had enough respect to confine their trash opinions to blogs, but respectability for institutions hasn't exactly gone up since then; and with declining readership for print media they'd almost certainly be tempted by the same sorts of incentives to sensationalize as this editorial board is. And they all have the exact same views on Trump as this creature does.

2
lgbtqwtfbbq 2 points ago +2 / -0

The left used to (pretend to) understand this in the early 00's when it was Walmart giving employees pamphlets on how to apply for food stamps and housing assistance.

3
lgbtqwtfbbq 3 points ago +3 / -0

When I was in college universities were researching ways of capturing methane produced by farm waste to use as an energy source.

Always liked the idea; don't know how practical it is. But of course a methane capture system doesn't get you recurring revenue like giving an injection to every single cow does.

4
lgbtqwtfbbq 4 points ago +4 / -0

I agree that to some extent you have to play the game as the rules are instead of the way you wish they were. However these people weren't just neutral bystanders: very often they also pushed for things to be the way they are today, because they were addicted to that cheap labor.

9
lgbtqwtfbbq 9 points ago +9 / -0

This is why I don't take anything the "moderate" liberals say about the "fringe left". They're just where you will be in 5-10 years.

And they all vote the same way. They'll talk about how dumb Kamala is, but they'll still vote for her because the alternative would be to consider that some "stupid redneck plumber" in "flyover country" might have a point about something; and that's just intolerable.

10
lgbtqwtfbbq 10 points ago +10 / -0

"10 million" has been the magic number for at least 40 years. Just recently bumped to 20. If it was 100 I'd believe it.

I've spent a lot of time in the San Diego area over the years, and you'd have a hard time convincing me that the population growth there is purely due to internal migration from within the US.

19
lgbtqwtfbbq 19 points ago +19 / -0

I grew up in farm country, and it was an open secret that all of the so-called "conservative" farmers hired tons of illegals to work their farms. In middle school I got in an argument about it with a friend whose dad was a farmer. "Respect the law!" he said. "But don't you hire a bunch of illegal labor?" I replied. "Yeah but we need that otherwise we'd go out of business."

For many years the left and right played a variant of "good cop/bad cop" on the matter where the right would bring them in to work, the "populist" left would pretend to object, and then the leftist judges would make sure you couldn't deport them or deny them benefits.

As an aside, people have been talking about "10 million illegal aliens in this country" as long as I've been alive. If it was 10x that it wouldn't surprise me.

view more: ‹ Prev Next ›