Casual Conversation

Just like the fast food thing, TikTok is literally addictive. It’s the new breed of addictive tech. It’s the fentanyl of tech.

In the same way that sugar/candy is physically addictive, fast food has been proven to have the same physiological effects. It’s literally an addiction.

Meh I think the decentralization is a pretty nice use case actually. It’s great that no one can shut it down and no centralized entity can just decide that your money is gone now (for cryptocurrencies).

Look at Monero. Since it's almost impossible to track governments are actually trying to ban it but they can’t shut it down because anyone can just spin up a node and there’s nothing any government can do about it except banning it from exchanges. I think that’s pretty neat, although the environmental cost for this technology together with LLMs are absolutely crazy

My SO has long rants about blockchain and the people who think it is useful. My own, completely non-technical, criticism is "so you're saying privacy is enhanced by putting every transaction ever onto a permanent, unalterable public ledger?"

The only real use for the block chain is tracking stocks to prevent illegal shortselling.

So it will never ever ever get used for that purpose.

Obligatory fuck citadel.

Big number go up, get brain drug dose. not much more to it than that.

It's a really fun game. People exaggerate the "addictive" aspect because.. you know.. "internet"

I don't like that kind of game. I didn't like Balatro. I'm more into realism and simulation though. I had no idea why all of my favourite sites couldn't stop talking about it. Honestly, I think standards have fallen a lot further than we thought. Again though. I'm surviving until the release of Elder Scrolls 6. Balatro was never really on my radar.

hey, you're valid... I'm from Korea and it's crazy seeing how people drool over kpop nowdays. no attention for the actual good music, the korean rock and hip hop and funk and jazz and so on... just the corporate boybands.

It's the same shit that's popular in the US. manufactured popularity. we could talk about all the factors about how they pulled it off, but who cares, it's a bunch of shitty music created by desperate people selling their souls to rapists who prey on modern social isolation to sell empty fantasies to the masses.

that's the point of the music! you should be proud to dislike it. now go listen to something good, like Jaurim (자우림)

Isn't it basically the same as back when western boybands were popular, just with more internet? I suppose I don't quite get those, either, but it's not that hard to figure out why these groups are so appealing to many girls and women.

Part of it was EPA regulations fucking up small trucks. Another part is that they're safer for the occupants, deadlier for everyone else. And then there's general machismo.

I love my small car but it's getting impossible to drive anymore when the LED headlights of these trucks are literally at my eye level blinding everything. They are a danger and the only way out it seems is to join them and get above the lights.

You know how people who are into Q-Anon and Pizza-gate look at strange symbols and odd numerology to find strange connections to prove whatever crazy thing they believe. Taylor Swift like to release albums, singles and tours using favorite numbers, hidden symbols and hints in her other songs. So it fits that section of the internet who love to analyze to death things to find clues. Since she is so prolific there is enough material for her to hide these Easter eggs to generate endless conspiracies about when things are released. Since she does drop hints it makes sense that people love to find them. Its like a puzzle-game mixed with a conspiracy theory mixed with a "viral marketing campaign" all in one. And instead of unraveling the fabric of democracy she release music people like.

I like her music when I hear it, but don't seek it out. From what I gather she really speaks to women, they get her in ways I (male) would not relate to. She strikes me as moral and doesn't have skeletons in the closet or any weird behavior one would expect from someone that rich and famous. As dad would have said, "That's a stand-up woman!"

She knows how to sell herself, which I find an admirable and difficult trait. I feel I'm 10x more confident than the people that post around here and she's 100x more confident that I. And it's not bullshit, unearned confidence a la Senior Musk.

And who doesn't love how she fucked the record companies over at their own game? Knowing her own worth changed the industry.

Doesn't hurt that she's almost ethereally pretty. :)

The reason I like vinyl is how slow and deliberate it is compared to other mediums. If I want to play a record I have a limited curated selection which I purchased with a specific use case. These are all played in my living room and are generally slower and relaxing type music. If I want to play a record I will need to start at the beginning and typically commit to hearing the entire thing in its entirety. Each side I have to choose to continue which slows down the process. I can't skip ahead to the songs I like and it doesn't automatically play anything once its done. Its slow and has a large physical object which I enjoy.

If I used CDs I could skip to whatever song I like or have it automatically play the next CD. With a multi-disc changer I wouldn't have to choose what I want to hear each time. I have CDs which I use in my car for a different use case which is to listen to when the radio is being annoying.

The reason the people choose vinyl is because of its limitations. CD has a larger dynamic range, but because it's fully digital, producers can abuse that fact and make an extremely loud and dynamically compressed record and the CD will play just fine.

If you tried doing that on vinyl, the needle would fly off the record. So thanks to this physical limitation, people who produce for vinyl are forced to make a quieter, more dynamic record. It's less fatiguing on the ears, and if you want a louder record, you can simply turn up the volume.

I like vinyl for it being big enough to be somewhat like a poster. I'm hoping to eventually gave a vinyl wall when I have my own place

I'm 30 so CDs were well and truly widespread during my formative years so it's not nostalgia for me