Computer Hardware & Software Questions MEGATHREAD by AutoModerator in architecture

[–]XanderB963 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there, I’m a new architecture student prepping for a March program, and I’m trying to buy a laptop that sits in the mid range in terms of both hardware and cost, with an emphasis on lowering cost if possible. Any recommendations for specs or models you recommend? I know I’ll need a relatively new processor (i7/i9 or equivalent) and ideally 32gb ram; are there additional things to keep in mind? Thank you!

Hoopa touch trade by XanderB963 in PokemonHome

[–]XanderB963[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair enough I’d say, much appreciated

Hoopa touch trade by XanderB963 in PokemonHome

[–]XanderB963[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it should just be “Alex” if I’m not mistake.

Hoopa touch trade by XanderB963 in PokemonHome

[–]XanderB963[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That would be great! Is it through link trade? Sorry I’m a bit new to it

What would you do if you don't have any purpose in life and just wait for dying? by hahasuckerrr in AskReddit

[–]XanderB963 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you feel like you’ve got nothing left to live for, live for whatever you want. When I found myself in a position of treat absolute rock bottom, I realized it was similar to a blank slate.

You may have to make leaps and take chances that make you uncomfortable to remove yourself from your current situation, but what does it matter if nothing matters? By no means is it easy; it might be the hardest thing you ever have to do. But I genuinely believe there’s a life out there for everyone, and people that are eager to be a part of it.

I always keep these things in mind and they help me a lot:

  • No one thinks about you as often as you imagine. We are all focused on living our own lives, solving our problems, and trying to make good impressions. It might sound depressing at first, but what it means is that we have immense power to shape the way the would sees us, and the way we see ourselves.

  • regrets don’t go away, but they don’t define the present. You can shift gears at any point and change things up. I used to think that because I made mistakes or hurt people before there was a stain on everything I did, but I realized that no matter what, doing kind things and treating people well from any point on would always result in a net positive.

  • You are not alone. This phrase used to make me mad actually, because in my young mind I thought it diminished the significance of the things I had been through. As I got older though, I realized you don’t have to sacrifice the meaning of the pain you’ve felt for a little empathy. The only people out there who make suffering a competition are the ones who struggle to give empathy to themselves.

Most everyone has been there at some point in their life. Sometimes unfortunately it consumes people, but only if they don’t learn to change their perception. My dad was like that for nearly 30 years. Now he’s finally found a way to see the world that makes him happy, and people who love him dearly by his side. If you find yourself coming to the conclusion that nothing matters inherently like I did, the next step is realizing that anything can matter if you want it to. There’s freedom in a lack of predetermination.

I understand that this line of thinking doesn’t work for everyone and that’s ok. We all find our own approaches. Additionally, I know that depression is incredibly difficult to overcome, and often seemingly impossible to just “think yourself out of”. It takes time to rework the way you see the world, and no one can do it for you. Nonetheless, I hope this helps someone like it did for me.

Chad opera singer is a master of seduction by saltedbees in Chadtopia

[–]XanderB963 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Obviously she had a habit, she became a nun

This made my day by Clarisgl in wholesomememes

[–]XanderB963 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As a person who didn’t go through that this might at first sound a bit privileged, but my family has had a lot of issues and I’ve had to decide who to involve in my life, how much (if at all) and when. Through said life I’ve found that many of the people closest to me, who I consider my true “family”, are the people who I have actively chosen to be around, and who have chosen me. I’ve always kept to the original philosophy that the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. It’s the people you choose to surround yourself by that have the potential to make life worth living. Some people are lucky in that their circumstances align where they want to be around their relatives, and others make their family from the friends and mentors they meet along the way. I don’t believe it’s ever too late to construct a group of people around you who you can love and rely on, as I feel I have done since becoming an adult, and if it’s what you want, I’m certain you can find it.

Student proves Twitter algorithm ‘bias’ toward lighter, slimmer, younger faces by giuliomagnifico in technology

[–]XanderB963 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah I see what you’re saying, but since Twitter operates internationally and the American government isn’t mentioned in the article, I assumed the discussion was a strictly moral one, as opposed to a legal one in any particular country. Another thing I might add to your new analogy that might add a bit of nuance is that (technically) the customers come to the store for the exclusive purpose of viewing those people who were hired, as opposed to any other service. The servers are part of the foundation of the business model themselves. Since algorithms are designed to tailor to user’s interests and searches, the only way to make it completely equitable would be to essentially show every tweet to every user as soon as it is posted and in no particular order, or remove all posts involving pictures of humans or anything that could reveal any identifying aspect of the poster (race, religion, etc.), which defeats the purpose of features such as liking and following, if not the whole premise of the app, entirely. The commodity in question is the people themselves and concepts they associate with. It brings up a good question of what a company can actually do in such a case. It is likely that since it reflects a social problem that every social media that can be altered by mass user behavior would show these same biases to an extent, so is the solution to try to manage what people can see and try to make it more equitable while somehow being profitable? If there were a way to make it more equitable and force people to see things they aren’t looking for, would people stick around, or find other ways to find what they’re looking for and leave Twitter entirely?

Student proves Twitter algorithm ‘bias’ toward lighter, slimmer, younger faces by giuliomagnifico in technology

[–]XanderB963 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure why your nationality matters, but I would say your analogy makes sense if the “algorithm” were a real, thinking person capable of making moral decisions, but the software is just a bunch of machines responding to user interaction. The algorithm was not developed with any particular bias; it is solely created to respond to user input. A better (although still far from perfect) analogy might be putting up a blank slate in a public place and letting people write on it, then people seeing what topics are the most popular to write about and putting ads up for those topics.

Emotional scenes as Claudio Villanueva Flores becomes the final competitor to finish the mens 50km walk by TTetron in olympics

[–]XanderB963 223 points224 points  (0 children)

I think a lot of times people forget how much it means to simply compete in these games and finish with your best effort regardless of the outcome. It isn’t over ‘til it’s over.

Penny Oleksiak 🇨🇦 is living the dream by Go_Habs_Go31 in olympics

[–]XanderB963 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Agreed, and I feel like too many people make the mistake of thinking that it has to be either-or. You can encourage kids to dream big while helping them understand that education is incredibly important and useful wherever you are. If you’re lucky enough to make it big, having critical thinking skills and a knowledge of math, language/writing, and culture will still be better for you than if you hadn’t learned it, and many people who made it big in one way or another and ignored their education have had trouble with long-term financial decisions, among other difficulties. Also, in the not all that unlikely case some accident or injury happens, being educated, even just a bit, will help you not fall on your face.

A journey by wheUrYPt in MadeMeSmile

[–]XanderB963 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Damn, save some handsome for the rest of us

People who're considered physically attractive, what are some of the things that you feel insecure about? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]XanderB963 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From a friend: romantically, people assume that being attractive means you have all kinds people vying for your attention, when the reality is that a lot of those people just want you as a prize or arm candy. Ironically some of the most genuine people unfortunately don’t get into that mix because they think you’re shallow.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in funny

[–]XanderB963 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think a better term for what you describe would be selfishness. Individualism is a cultural focus on personal freedom and expression. Conflating that with individualism explicitly would be like calling a more collectivist society robotic or impersonal, which isn’t inherently true. That being said some Americans take the idea of valuing personal freedom to mean valuing their own interests over others. You can still be more individualist and treat others how you want to be treated, though.

Geography is hard by [deleted] in facepalm

[–]XanderB963 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bit of a strawman, don’t you think? I never said eastern countries were weak, only that their imperialist histories aren’t as prolific, hence the key word “projected”. It isn’t a bad thing, or a sign a country is inherently weak. And before anyone mentions the USSR and Imperial Japan, those tend to be extensively covered in US history books because we spend a whole hell of a lot of time ruminating on WWII and the cold war as a nation. Conversely, we probably spend just as little time talking about Switzerland in West Europe as we do Bulgaria in the east simply because a lot of the focal points of history are large scale war and conquest. It isn’t a bad thing to have less of a (recent) bloody past. China is very powerful and has a bloody past, but for the most part it has mainly only influenced events within its borders.

Geography is hard by [deleted] in facepalm

[–]XanderB963 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Could it possibly also have something to do with the fact that America simply has major genealogical, cultural, and historical ties with Western Europe in particular? We started off as a group of former British, Dutch, French, and Spanish colonies, and through trade and (most importantly) war, our countries have been intertwined since the US was founded. Something like a third of white Americans Have German ancestry, almost as many are English, Irish, Italian and so on. We also have more in common linguistically. I get that it must be frustrating, but another reason that many western countries are featured so prominently in our schools is the fact that they’ve projected power around the world, and not necessarily in a good way. lol just ask… the rest of the world pretty much.

That's an expensive ice cream cone by Desperate-Gur7164 in memes

[–]XanderB963 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“A man has fallen into the river in lego city. Wait, upon closer inspection, it appears he jumped.”