Hyperreality

joined 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago (9 children)

However, it’s also possible that they saw it described as a 20 minute read

Bit of a tangent and anecdotal, but I went back in to higher education a few years ago. I'm middle-aged, I was surrounded by younger people. We're asked to read an article, everyone starts reading. I read it through, underline the important bits, I'm done reading. I look around. Everyone's still reading. Oh well, they'll be done soon. Nope. I think it took most of them 15 minutes to read an article I'd read in under 5. I was a bit perplexed. This is higher education, these aren't idiots, these are people who should be able to read articles quickly.

There are plenty of reports of functional literacy decreasing. That children are slower at reading and are less able to understand what they've read. Anecdotally, it seems like younger generations really aren't used to reading longer articles anymore. I grew up reading books as a kid. That's what we did before phones and the internet. I wonder if younger generations simply don't have that much experience reading, which is why it takes them so long to read, which is why they read even less.

In the case of this article, they see 20 minutes, they're scared off. So they simply guess what was in the article. That's pretty worrying if that's what people do. If you're unable or unwilling to read longer stuff, you're likely to make ill informed choices or be more easily influenced.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

As the article mentions, windows also uses KB/MB/GB to refer to powers of 2 when calculating disk space. AFAIK Linux somes does too, although the article says otherwise. Apparently OSX uses the KB=1000 definition.

It may be outdated, but it's still incredibly common for people to use KB/MB/GB to refer to powers of 2 in computing. Best not to assume KB is always 1000.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It wasn't/isn't. It's nothing to do with Americans. It was (and often still is) because of binary, as the article mentions.

2 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024.

So no, kilo is not always a thousand when dealing with computers.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

That's a relatively recent change though. AFAIK KB=1024 and MB=1024^2 was more common. As the article mentions, it's still commonly used in some sectors:

https://www.jedec.org/standards-documents/dictionary/terms/mega-m-prefix-units-semiconductor-storage-capacity

If you ask someone in their twenties, they're going to say 1000. If you ask someone who's older, or someone who knows a lot about disk storage they're likely to say 1024. Hell, as the article mentions windows uses the 1024 definition, which is one of the rasons why drives always seem smaller than their advertised size. The box says 250 GB, but when you install it windows says it'll say it's less than that. It's not actually less than 250 GB. It's just that windows is using GiB/Gibibytes but calling them GB/Gigabytes.

TLDR: no wonder people are confused.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It's cheaper, but not that much cheaper. Anecdotally, my current car is 8 years old and has cost me roughly 400 euros a year in repairs and servicing. Manual gearbox is fine and should outlast the car.

Also, if I do a simulation for extended warranty and servicing (8 years/210k km) on the manufacturers website for a petrol car and for an equivalent electric car, the difference is roughly 600 euros per year. I suspect that'll be down to the battery. Traditional car the costs are spread over a longer period. Electric the battery or whatever sneaks up on you. The whole thing becomes doubly annoying when you factor in high electricity prices, meaning (sometimes) fuel costs are lower than electricity costs.

To be clear, electric is the future, it's a good thing they'll be banning the sale of new ICE cars here in the foreseeable future, and an electric car almost certainly is cheaper to run. It's just not _that _much cheaper. I assume prices will come down when they're forced to start making more of them and competing with the Chinese.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (8 children)

I loved how Renault solved this for the Twizzy (and other cars). You bought the car. You leased the battery for something like 50 euros a month. (Probably more now).

Sure, that sounds expensive, but I suspect it worked out less than replacing the battery after a decade.

Suspect it also helped resale value. The most expensive repair to worry about for a second hand buyer, is the battery. Making that a lease removes that worry entirely. You know exactly how much it's going to cost.

Of course, having to pay that monthly lease fee for the battery, does make it more obvious that electric cars aren't necessarily that much cheaper to run than an ICE.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 10 months ago

And reconsider if you want to have kids given the worst is almost certainly yet to come.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

I've linked to them as a reply to the comment you're replying to.

Agree about the Witch Trials podcast .

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Here's a discussion of that podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmT0i0xG6zg

And another one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gDKbT_l2us

Yes, they're long videos. Yes, there's a reason they have millions of views. Genuinely interesting.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (9 children)

Can I recommend reading/listening to Ursula K. Le Guin's Earth Sea books?

They're also coming of age books about a young wizard, which almost certainly heavily inspired Rowling (although AFAIK she never admitted it), but the author is far less problematic. Also arguably much better books, so they're more enjoyable to read for adults too.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Not as if I'm a fan, but Eric Gill is/was a prolific, respected and internationally renowned artist. You'll his work across the UK, perhaps most notably on the BBC's broadcasting house.

Also designed the Gill Sans typeface, which I think everyone's heard of or even used. Used all across the world on signage or stores.

Here's why I have a hard time taking his works at face value:

Although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Gill as "the greatest artist-craftsman of the twentieth century: a letter-cutter and type designer of genius", he is also a figure of considerable controversy following the revelations of his sexual abuse of two of his daughters and of his pet dog.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Gill

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