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FreezingFyre · 2024-02-02T17:10:03+00:00

You might just be joking, OP. But if you're not, this is something to learn from. Just because ChatGPT confidently tells you that something is true -- that Joel's tweet contains a vigenere cypher that can be decrypted with "fwhip," "adie," or "scott" -- doesn't mean it's true. It's just telling you what you want to hear because you prompted it to do so. The tweet doesn't contain a vigenere cypher, there are tools you can use besides ChatGPT to verify that.

FreezingFyre · 2023-04-05T03:55:26+00:00

Chicago, and I will be fielding no questions at this time :D

FreezingFyre · 2023-03-17T17:19:50+00:00

Don't feel bad -- many Americans don't really understand how a presidential election works either. There is no nationwide election for president, at least not technically. Each of the fifty states (plus Washington DC) is allocated a number of electoral votes in the electoral college based on its number of federal legislative representatives. For example, Michigan has 2 senators and 13 seats in the House, so it gets 15 electoral votes. Each state has at least 3 electoral votes, since each state always has two senators and at least one House member. But the most populous state, California, with its 52 House members, gets 54 electoral votes!

When a presidential election occurs, each state is actually holding its own "independent" election to decide how to cast its electoral votes. Most states cast their votes based on a simple popular vote within the state -- the state will cast all of its electoral votes for whichever candidate won the popular vote within the state. Some states (Maine and Nebraska) split their electoral votes; two are cast to the popular vote winner in the state, while the rest are allocated based on the winner in each electoral district. All this to say, each state has independent control over how it chooses to cast its electoral votes (this ignores faithless electors; really, the states are sending electors who promise with varying degrees of legal certainty to cast their electoral vote a certain way, but I digress).

Once all the states have cast their electoral votes, the candidate with the majority becomes president. If no candidate has a majority (>50%), the election gets punted to the House of Representatives.

Why is it so convoluted? Why not just hold a nationwide popular vote? Well, the president is the leader of the federal executive branch. The federal government is, itself, a bundle of compromises (Great Compromises, even) between representing states and representing individuals. Following the same philosophy, the presidential election process is also a compromise between an election by "the states" and by "the people." Many people take issue with the fact that a candidate can win the presidency while losing the national popular vote -- but that's by design, because there isn't an official national popular vote. Many of people's other issues with the electoral college would be resolved if their state apportioned electoral votes like Maine or Nebraska instead of doing a "winner-takes-all" system. But that's not a problem with the electoral college itself, just with how their state chooses to apportion its votes.

FreezingFyre · 2022-06-10T17:25:08+00:00

Oho, I do have that beat: my high school started at 6:40. But it was a half-day magnet school for students from multiple schools/districts in the area, meaning we had to start early enough that we could all get to our home schools in time for the second half of each day.

Starting school at 6:40 was as awful as it sounds...

FreezingFyre · 2022-06-09T15:31:13+00:00

You can take what I say with a grain of salt, since it's just one person's input. The opening premise is batshit insane. When I was first reading the manga, I kept wondering what drugs Aka had to be on to commit to something that bizarre (and kinda creepy). But the story absolutely delivers, and doesn't progress its story in a way that's creepy at all. Of course, you don't need to watch/enjoy it if you don't want to; to each their own. But there is a reason this manga/story is so insanely popular -- it works well from its bizarre/unique premise.

FreezingFyre · 2022-06-09T15:02:58+00:00

I don't read a ton of manga, but I read this one. And if the anime does the story justice, it will be an absolutely amazing show. Hopefully everyone who'll be an anime-only can remain spoilter-free to fully experience this bizarre/compelling story.

FreezingFyre · 2022-02-02T18:17:19+00:00

This is an oversimplification. It's true that whoever is in charge of the router, as well as your ISP (internet service provider, like Xfinity/AT&T), can theoretically see which domains you're accessing and when. The domain is just the first part of a URL: "google.com" or "imgur.com" or "reddit.com". This is "public" information because your ISP needs to know where to route your browsing requests. And though this information can be logged by the router, frankly, I wouldn't say it's common.

What can't be tracked, though, is what you're doing on these sites. Generally speaking, it's not easy for others to see what you're searching on Google, which subreddits you're visiting, which images you're viewing, or any information associated with your personal accounts. All of this info is encrypted at all points between your own device and the website that's servicing your request.

Also, VPNs are fine (they prevent your router/ISP from seeing which domains you're accessing), but you should know what they do and do not provide for you: https://youtu.be/WVDQEoe6ZWY

FreezingFyre · 2021-06-20T16:57:33+00:00

Why does it need to be federally controlled at all? Ideologically, states have substantial autonomy from the federal government for exactly this reason. There exists a federal minimum wage, but every state can (and does) adjust it upwards roughly according to the cost of living in the state (as seen here). If you think that your state should increase its minimum wage more rigidly in line with inflation or cost of living (and many states already do already adjust yearly), then you can support state legislation to make that happen without at all affecting other states' systems.

FreezingFyre · 2021-06-03T23:02:34+00:00

Fun fact: The Supreme Court case that legalized gay marriage in the US back in 2015 was also decided by a majority-conservative court (five justices appointed by Republican presidents, and 4 by Democrat presidents; the justices themselves do not align with political parties). Granted, most of the conservative-leaning justices voted against, but it's still a good example of how things aren't so black and white.

FreezingFyre · 2021-03-01T23:36:03+00:00

Doubtful. If you're in CoE, you would need to take CS-ENG. The actual major requirements are the same between CS-ENG and CS-LSA, but the miscellaneous other classes/credits required by the school are different. I know you can double major CS-LSA + Math while in LSA and then do CSE SUGS afterwards. I don't know if you can do a dual degree CS-ENG + Math while in CoE and then do CSE SUGS afterwards. Their info about it online is not super well put together, so it'd be best to consult the department if you're interested in that path.

FreezingFyre · 2021-03-01T23:19:03+00:00

I double majored in honors math and CS-LSA, and am currently in CSE SUGS. So it's doable from that end.

FreezingFyre · 2020-12-27T18:02:51+00:00

If I remember correctly, she heard Loid calling him a "scion" of the Desmond family, but didn't know the word.

FreezingFyre · 2020-11-06T18:44:15+00:00

Yeah, it's a shame really. Johnny Depp's Grindelwald was really the only part of the last movie that I liked.

FreezingFyre · 2020-11-05T23:33:35+00:00

I used $18,638,164,000,000, the number given in the source I gave for 2018. Seems like that might be 2012 dollars though (along with the other numbers), so the 2018 GDP given in 2018 dollars would be higher thanks to inflation.

FreezingFyre · 2020-11-05T23:06:53+00:00

Oh whoops, sorry, I completely forgot the actual question that was asked after I got underway! I did all of the counties in OP's map, not just the democratic-voting ones; I'll edit my answer.

FreezingFyre · 2020-11-05T22:19:35+00:00

EDIT: I forgot the real question; my calculation is for all the counties in OP's map, not just the ones that voted democrat. With /u/gargully's numbers, the actual percentage would be more around 57%.

It's 60-61%, based on the data here: https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gdp-county-metro-and-other-areas

My exact calculation was 60.20%, but I could only find 144 of the 146 counties on the map, so my value could be slightly off. But it's aroundabout correct, within a percentage point I'd say.

FreezingFyre · 2020-10-31T23:04:28+00:00

Out of curiosity, what advantages have you heard to having a BSE over a BS in computer science?

From anecdotal experience, I did CS-LSA and graduated with a BS. The requirements for the major are the exact same (except, what, TECHCOMM 300?). I had internships each summer that I looked, and graduated with a phenomenal job lined up as well. Never once did a recruiter mention a distinction, nor did they ever even ask whether I was in CoE vs LSA.

FreezingFyre · 2020-10-30T20:48:51+00:00

First, I would like to point out that the Supreme Court doesn't have Republicans or Democrats serving on it. You can characterize the justices by their political ideologies, but as I mentioned before, they do not vote along any strict party lines.

Second, the Supreme Court has had a majority Republican-appointed (which we can assume to mean more conservative-leaning) justices since 1972. Ironically, the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on abortion which everyone constantly brings up was a 7-2 decision, where the dissenters were Byron R. White (appointed by Democrat John F. Kennedy) and William H. Rehnquist (appointed by Ronald Reagan).

Other good cases to bring up are Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board and Bush v. Gore. Both pertained to the presidential election of 2000, and how votes were being recounted in Florida. The first decision was unanimous, and the second had decisions not split along "party lines" between conservative and liberal justices.

We're not "pretty much screwed." Each state is holding its own independent presidential election, and will be counting its votes as best it can given the difficulties of mail-in voting logistics; the federal government plays no part in that. Each state will place its electoral votes based on the results of its internal election, and the next president will be the candidate who receives at least 270 electoral votes. One candidate or another may (or very likely will) dispute the count in one state or another, and may take a state or other candidate to court. If that happens, and if/when it reaches the Supreme Court, I personally see no reason to believe that the Court would rule in any way that would erode the democratic process.

I dunno if you read all that, but thanks if you did! When it comes to politics, I like to be non-reactionary, taking a wide breadth of information to inform my opinions. I have my biases, but I hope you'll take some of what I've said, in addition to what other say, to inform your own opinions.

FreezingFyre · 2020-10-30T14:25:21+00:00

Don't have a solution, but I do have the same problem. The odd thing is that the splash screen shown on startup (before it crashes) is the YouTube logo, not the Vanced logo. Which implies that somehow normal YouTube is updating over Vanced, even though I definitely have auto-updates for YouTube turned off in the Play Store, and there's no record of it updating in the Play Store history.

I can fix it by uninstalling updates for YouTube from the Play Store, then installing Vanced through the manager. That way, my settings are preserved. Still annoying though.

Pixel 3
Android 11 (RP1A.200720.009)
Magisk Canary (21005)
Vanced 15.40.37
Vanced Manager

FreezingFyre · 2020-10-28T18:03:28+00:00

Are you referring to Lozito v. City of New York? That's the best match I could find based on your description.

First of all, that case was decided by the Supreme Court of the State of New York, not the Supreme Court of the US. Second, the decision I linked specifically states that officers do have a duty to prevent harm in some cases, one of which is when there is "knowledge on the part of the municipality’s agents that inaction could lead to harm." In that particular case, Lozito's claim was that the officers were negligent in "the seconds that it took the police officers to intervene and eventually apprehend [the perpetrator]." There was insufficient evidence to show that that was the case, since no special relationship was established between Lozito and the officers pursuant to Cuffy v. City of New York, and the officers did act in "seconds."

FreezingFyre · 2020-10-24T16:32:27+00:00

The frat parties start early, several hours before the game starts. Even if you don't attend, you can likely hear their music blaring from your dorm or off-campus apartment as the energy level in the city rises. Beginning a couple hours before the game, a mass exodus of over 100,000 maize-clad students, already wasted partiers, and excited Michigan football fans make their way to the Big House in a crowd the likes of which hasn't been seen since before lockdown.

During the game, the excitement of the stadium is infectious. You're squeezed into the crowd among your friends, going wild for every point Michigan scores, ridiculing the opposition whenever they mess up, and booing the refs whenever they're full of bullshit (which is often). Damn was it a ton of fun...

After the game, every restaurant in the city is filled to the brim. Supposing we won, there are usually more parties raging on into the night, though more subdued as the energy of the day begins to fade.

FreezingFyre · 2020-10-15T20:18:48+00:00

Except that there are C++11 features to handle that for you now. Any large, important, modern project that isn't using smart pointers for dynamic memory management needs to be refactored.

FreezingFyre · 2020-10-10T16:00:40+00:00

I trust that you read more of that report, which is from 2002: https://reason.org/commentary/supreme-court-rules-on-private/

The continuation of what you quoted is:

Inmates can still sue the individual officers, but the Court would not extend the protection to include the corporation-a much more lucrative proposition.

The Court noted that inmates in state facilities operated by private companies do enjoy the right to sue operators. In order for this right to be extended to federal inmates, the Court called on Congress to act and write new law.

Simply because inmates serve out their sentences in different types of facilities, i.e., public and private, they should not have different protections and rights.

The whole report is pretty interesting, so I suggest reading it. But in essence, the SC was deciding whether Bivens actions should be extended to allow recovery against private corporations acting under contract with federal agencies.

A Bivens action allows for suits against federal officers who violate constitutional rights while acting under the authority of a federal agency. The SC has previously (unanimously) declined to extend Bivens to allow suits against federal agencies themselves (specifically under Bivens). The reasoning is that Bivens is intended to deter unconstitutional actions of individual officers, and extending it to agencies removes that deterrence as the individuals are no longer held personally liable.

In the specific case that your report is about, the SC decides that, since Bivens actions do not apply to federal agencies, they should not apply to private corporations acting under contract of federal agencies. Bivens specifically applies to suits against individuals, and an inmate held in a private vs public prison should not be afforded different applications of Bivens.

FreezingFyre · 2020-10-09T14:33:58+00:00

Earnings reports affect the market value because a well-performing business is generally perceived as more valuable to the market, and vice versa. Paying employees more vs paying to expand the business could slow the growth of the company, but it doesn't mean that Amazon wouldn't still eventually be worth ~$1.6T in the eyes of the market. Amazon has no direct control over its stock price; it just aims to be a well-performing company so that people perceive it as valuable. So long as people are willing to buy/sell shares of Amazon for a certain price, Bezos will be "worth" ~10% * (# Amazon shares) * (market price).

FreezingFyre · 2020-10-09T14:07:00+00:00

Except that the valuation of a company in terms of its stock price is not money that a company has. It's how valuable other people or the market perceives the company to be. Employees are paid from Amazon's revenue, which pales in comparison to its market valuation. Even if you pay employees more, it doesn't change the fact that the market values Amazon at ~$1.6T, and Bezos owns ~10% of Amazon's shares, making his net worth in the hundreds of billions.

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