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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • DVI and HDMI are actually the same video signal. Which is why adapters are so cheap.
    DP can carry an HDMI encoded signal (and thus a DVI signal), which is why DP->HDMI and DP->DVI adapters are so cheap. It’s called DP Dual Mode or Multi Mode or something like that.
    I haven’t encountered a device that outputs DisplayPort that cannot output the Dual Mode HDMI encoded signal as well.

    HDMI/DVI->DP is an active conversion - ie it is re-encoding it. Which is why the converters are significantly more expensive.

    However, it’s all digital. If the signal quality degrades, it will be very obvious because it stops working (sparkles on a black screen, lines, flashes, all sorts).


  • How about, they were both utterly terrible?
    Like, what does it matter?

    British Empire were shits, enslaved people, stole relics/art/wealth, murdered people, tortured people, probably experimented on people.
    Nazis were shits, enslaved people, stole relics/art/wealth, murdered people, tortured people, experimented on people.

    The Nazi’s atrocities are certainly better documented.
    Both because they are more recent in history, and because they were the losers. The winner’s atrocities were less likely to be documented throughout history.




  • towerful@beehaw.orgtoChat@beehaw.orgPeople aren't stupid.
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    11 months ago

    I think both are rational (consistent with or based on reason) it is just that one of them is using the right premises.

    Man, I had a whole thing typed out when I re-read what you wrote.
    I’m assuming you mean “aliens are real” is the false premise here…
    Because I’m glad I re-read. I had massively mis-interpreted your comment!

    2… [Snip]

    The way to teach this is critical thinking of “follow the money, follow the power”.
    And it’s pretty murky.
    I’m fairly certain “ban plastic straws” got so much traction because it diverted from actual issues.
    Fishing nets cause more issues and pollution. People now hate pasta straws, and blame it on environmentalists.
    Oil companies divert attention for another 5-10 years.

    Maybe I’m just cynical.


  • towerful@beehaw.orgtoChat@beehaw.orgPeople aren't stupid.
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    11 months ago

    The 3 things to fix:

    1. Our collective feeling that things aren’t going well
    2. Our general distrust in current authorities
    3. Our collective belief that an authority is good/necessary

    Also if we want society to be less susceptible to this we need to fix one or all of the three things

    Ok, so:

    1. Fix things that aren’t going well (or make people feel things are going well).
    2. Have authorities we can trust (or make people trust our current authorities).
    3. Reject authority (or make people believe that needing authority is a good thing).

    I have no idea what you are trying to say.
    It all seems really wishy-washy.

    But I agree that people aren’t stupid.
    I mean, on average, at least half the people are stupid. By whatever metric that is.
    Chances are - however - they are irrational.
    Despite all the evidence, they still want something to be true.

    Irrational:

    If you describe someone’s feelings and behavior as irrational, you mean they are not based on logical reasons or clear thinking

    https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/irrational

    99% of conspiracy theorys are irrational.
    By the time you know about a conspiracy theory, it is probably being tested and will likely be disproven. Or it has already been tested and proven to be wrong. Otherwise the conspiracy/theory would be a working scientific theory.
    Believing otherwise makes you irrational.

    Look at LK99. Huge deal, claimed proof, seemed legit. Within 2 months it was disproven to the satisfaction of the scientific community.

    Now there will be stories about LK99 being legit, and the “scientific community” (read government) rejecting it because UFOs are going through US court whatevers. And LK99 came from extraterrestrial origins, or whatever.
    This is irrational (edit: as pointed out in a comment, this is actually rational. It follows logic. But it is based on an irrational premise: that aliens exist).

    Or … scientists made a mistake.
    This is rational.

    ( Never mind the extremely infinitesimally small chance that extraterrestrial sentient life exists and coincides with our time, travelled across the universe and failed to survive an encounter with our planet (or that they successfully contacted only the government via means they were able to keep quiet, who then successfully kept that a secret). )

    Rationality is different from stupid.
    You can be stupid and rational.
    You can be intelligent and irrational.


  • I will say that a good scammer will circumvent a lot of the “earning trust” stage.
    Through social engineering or just sheer luck, they will catch you at a time when your guard is down and they will manipulate a sense of urgency.

    “Hi mom, my phone fell in the toilet and I really need it for work tomorrow. I’m using a friends phone right now, all my bank access was on that phone. I’m so stressed. Can you send me $800 via (dodgy website) so I can buy a new phone and get to work”.

    Instantly hits on an emotional pressure point. Adds a huge sense of urgency, with good reasons for an untrusted number and a dodgy payment method, and makes it seem difficult to corroborate with the mom’s kid.

    “Hello, this is your real estate agent. Unfortunately there has been a complication with the purchase of your new house. Due to extra fees, $10,000 needs to be transferred to X by midnight, otherwise the banks will reject the purchase/mortgage/whatever. Sorry for the out-of-hours contacts, I’m currently in (city) on other business and not in the office”

    Another hugely stressful scenario. Massive sense of urgency with a disastrous deadline.
    People don’t buy houses every day, and may not be fully aware of the process. They might take this as an unexpected but legit part of the process.
    Obviously, this requires significant social engineering to set the scam up in the first place (knowing someone is buying a house and roughly when). But the payout can be significant.

    The biggest piece of advice I can give is:
    If someone is applying a sense of urgency on any decision: STOP.
    Take a breather, think about the scenario. And then contact “the person/company” via another way through means you research yourself.

    If it’s on the phone, ask for a case number, Google the company and phone them directly. By text or email, same thing. Find their phone number via Google.
    If it is legitimate, an extra 30m isn’t going to harm anything. Especially if you say “sorry about that, I wasn’t sure if it was a scam or not”.


  • Go to steam, right click the game and browse local files.
    Navigate to something like Deep Rock Galactic\FSD\Content\Movies and delete (or move) them.

    I’ve played other games with annoying intros. Normally, deleting the files means the don’t play on startup.
    Where they are depends on the game. A quick Google found this solution.

    You will probably have to re-delete them after an update, and after running a “verify local files”.
    I’ve done this with EAC games without issues (incase you are worried)




  • I can tell you that big data centers likely have a 4 year hardware cycle, where it is all under warranty and service contract.
    After which, it gets sold to refurbishers who refurb it and resell it. Or the datacenter may repurpose it for labs, OOB hardware, or donate it to schools.

    A lot of smaller companies don’t need the latest and greatest, and are quite happy running old 2nd hand hardware.

    Even after they are done with it, there are plenty of hobbyists that will buy it. I have a couple 8 year old servers that run absolutely fine for what I need.

    Old servers are also kept around as parts for companies that refuse to update old hardware (and will just keep buying spares, or like-for-like replacements).
    The last step is ewaste, where the good stuff gets boiled in acid to extract the gold, or whatever they do.

    The only things that are generally destroyed during hardware cycles are the storage, and that’s normally for compliance reasons.





  • Never mind flaky internet, what about people that do events?

    Things like PowerPoint presentation machines, VJ systems, video servers (for massive multiscreen playback).
    You can’t go into a field for a festival and expect reliable internet.
    You can’t go into a theatre and expect reliable internet, especially when 3k+ people turn up.
    There are a few systems that run OSX, but Apple’s hardware doesn’t give you as much control as something like an Nvidia Quadro with sync cards. 99% of the big shows will be ran from Windows OS


  • On money counting…
    Well, $500 and $1000 bill was discontinued in 1969.
    So, if you are dealing with those bills, you are dealing with collectors who will be more particular.
    So, let’s got with $100 bills.
    Googling “fastest bill counter” gives the “JetScan iFX i100” which can do 1600 bills per minute.
    Which is only 6.25 minutes for $1M in $100 bills.
    And it had counterfeit detection.
    Honestly, that’s a hell of a lot faster than I expected.
    If the bank has/uses automated machines for customer deposits.

    Anyway, I don’t think a bank would accept a $1M deposit.
    Any deposits over $10,000 require special processing by the IRS.
    Indeed, all financial institutions need to abide by “know your customer” rules.
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer

    If you are a regular banker than has a $50k salary and you rock up with $1M cash, a bank is going to refuse you. Or at least do a hell of a lot of due-diligence.
    It’s all about anti-laundering and anti-terrorism these days, and they need to manage the risk of having you as a customer.
    If you have a history of big cash deposits, then it might be easier.

    Even then, chances are you would have to go to a fairly major branch of a bank for them to be able to accept the risk of holding $1M in cash.

    I know modern banking is “Money in, money out. So easy”.
    But beyond certain thresholds, risk management, government agencies and laws all come into effect. And you can bet your ass, a bank will be wanting to minimise their risk!




  • All it does for me is double down the imposter-syndrome.
    I’m not good at this… People keep hiring me, maybe I’m alright at it. Dunning-Kuger is a thing, maybe my “people keep hiring me” ego is making me blind.
    And yet, every day I do cool things, I learn new cool things, I redo old things with my new knowledge
    But still… I’m just pretending