• 2 Posts
  • 889 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • something about audio that attracts an atmosphere of wilful ignorance

    I think it’s the lack of a shared vocabulary.

    Everyone likes some music better than other music, and so everyone think they can tell the difference between good and bad music. However, nobody can explain the difference in plain words.

    This easily leads to the conclusion that it is fully subjective, and this is where the ignorance comes from. If nobody can explain what good music is, then my own voodoo explanation is as good as any.

    However, we can talk about music theory, audio production and sound analysis in scientific terms to the point where we can even reproduce certain sounds based on the description. But we can’t really understand the description without actually experiencing the sound.

    It’s similar to somebody saying “I don’t like this cake” or someone saying “my taste receptors react to the umami in this cake”, but I still wouldn’t have a clue about how the cake tastes.

    Sound is also different from other sciences in that there is very little proof of one thing being more correct than others. And that goal changes constantly. Whenever somebody does crack the code to what people enjoy, it’ll get boring really quick.

    I had a music teacher long ago who said that there is no bad music, only wrong audiences. His point was that the music that makes it through to the recording and publishing will already have passed the filter where someone made a decision if there is an audience for it. If you hear bad music, then you’re just not the right audience.

    Anyway, cables. Who cares. The end result is the most important part. However, I’d prefer to hook up the instruments on stage with thick cables instead of bananas. Same thing applies at home. Any wire will do, but cheap wires do break.



  • Num pad is much faster for clean numbers than num row because you can use the thumb on zero, allowing you to use all 5 fingers without ever moving the hand.

    However the secret to achieve true mad man number typing speeds is to use both hands. Num row is for the left hand. Num pad is for the right hand.

    This can be optimized by positioning your left hand on 1 to prepare yourself for Benford’s Law which tells us that a majority of numbers start with 1.

    Actual numbers also includes many zeros (but rarely starts with one). The fat zero key on num pad has room for two fingers, just saying.



  • No, but there are fees for late payments and other special situations.

    Their main income is from the transaction fees that they charge the merchants.

    The idea is that people who don’t have money can spend money and create a transaction fee on a sale that wouldn’t otherwise have happened if they didn’t lend the money. That way it’s the same as a credit card that you only pay monthly.

    The difference is that the payments can be split, so that the customers can … uh … utilize their entire credit maximum every month…

    Needless to say, this kind of credit maximum optimization can end really badly for people who have unstable incomes. The same kind of people who might be tempted to use it.



  • Depends on the cause.

    If you’re protesting against anchovies on pizzas, sure, it might be a bad idea to block the roads.

    If you’re protesting against unidentified terrorists abducting and killing your neighbors, then you should obstruct the roads to stop them from proceeding with their genocide.

    You won’t be rewarded for being obedient. They’ll come for you next whether or not you followed their law.

    But whatever…now we know why the Germans didn’t stop the concentration camps in WW2 even if they knew about them: They had to go to work and didn’t want to obstruct traffic.





  • Resignation is often used in these kinds of cases, because there’s really no framework to fire them, since they didn’t actually violate any of the terms on which they’re hired. They should be tried for the crimes they’ve committed under the jurisdiction of the place where the crime was committed. Not in some random board meeting in a different country.

    What happens is that the board says “even if you didn’t violate our terms or any local laws, we don’t see our organization being able to work with someone like you, so we urge you to do what is best for both parts, which is that you resign voluntarily.”

    If they don’t, then the board can say “the existence of potential criminal cases against you can harm the reputation of our organization, so now you’re fired.” The outcome is almost the same, but this could create a lot more negative attention to what the company knew about.