Netflix, The Social Dilemma, is the most important documentary of our times

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#21
OK, let's run with the strict indented definition of paragraphs, since this is the Lounge and we are mostly having fun. Whilst not distorting the truth.

Actually, I can't get tabs or indents to work on this forum.

olsond3 said:
Remember how the people who invented the atomic bomb came out later saying that they regretted it. I was reminded of that after watching the creators of social media interviewed in "The Social Dilemma" now available on Netflix. I found it terrifying. It is not perfect or anything, but watching the people who built the machine describe how it works and what it is really doing is a must see. I have worked in software for many years, I had only a vague idea of what was going on. It is too long, and too polished, but that may appeal to the widest audience. If you have ever spent time developing an algorithm that optimized something, you understand how badly single parameter blind optimization can go wrong. Imagine how long it would take an optimization algorithm with the only goal of maximizing the acceleration of a car to figure out that running into a solid wall gives the peak acceleration. Look around at your family and friends and see if you can pry them away from social media for a day. Go ahead and try. Turn off the internet at your house, you will find yourself alone in a few hours as the others go find internet elsewhere. Remind you of a gambling addiction?
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But pretty hard to read IMO. Not easy on the eye. 🙂
 
#23
H713 said:
Personally, I think that the internet and smartphones are a tool. Any tool can be used properly or improperly. For example, I love being able to look up a datasheet on a whim. Forums like this one and several others are an incredible resource as well.

Smartphones are the same thing. I can write a quick response to an email while waiting for the bus, for example. Having a camera on me all the time is great, because I can take a picture of something to compare when I get back to the office.

Social media is generally not worth my time (that includes the DiyAudio lounge, but here I am...). I think part of the problem is that the people who are smart and actually interesting to talk to have much better things to do than sit on social media all day, so what's left is largely garbage. Of course there are exceptions, but it seems that for every smart Youtube / Reddit comment there are 20 moronic, poorly-written comments.
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Yes, I liked it. Mobile Phones work for most of us. But I often venture outside the door without one. Causes me no anxiety whatsoever. I can catch up when I get home. 😀
 
#24
I stay away from social media as far as I can. I haven't got any Facebook account, neither others. But I have a very different attitude than the younger generation, due to my age. They like sharing every little nuances of their life, this is the way they live, that makes them member of the community.

"Hey, I am just listening to X.Y.'s new remix, because I am following the latest trend. You don't follow the latest trend, you lamer? Now you know whom you should follow - that's me. I buy the most fashionable garment, they are offered to me in exclusive promotions. If you have a look at my Facebook profile, you'll know what is fashionable. You want to be as fashionable as I am, don't you?"

There is a huge business behind ads. Your personal details are sold and bought, so you can be targeted by personalized special offers. And they know what you are interested in, in the next minute they offer you goods similar to what you were interested in. Facebook, Google and others just accelerate this procedure.

(I am an antisocial being, I am operating an adblocker in my home network, it is quite effective. The drawback is when I want to buy something, it takes me somewhat more effort to find it - or I just leave my house and go real shopping)
 
#25
scottjoplin said:
Some here have suggested a "like" button, what would that do?
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Make everyone who presses it look like an idiot. "Liking" something without having to bother describing, in actual words, why you liked it.

I spose the words dont matter anymore, relative to the count; it's the count that matters, being much easier to tally than (by computer) than words.

At least with Amazon product ratings, you get somewhat of a continuum, 0-5. Subsequent analysis can tell you a bit more than what a binary "like" gives. I look at the shape of their ratings bar chart and the number of ratings. Sometimes I read the reviews.

I get a laugh when it's clear the OEM "uses" their customers for their design verification test effort - another cheap trick that is not beneath many.
 
#26
lcsaszar said:
I am operating an adblocker in my home network, it is quite effective.
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Now THAT would be something I'd be interested in knowing more about. Stop it right at the door.

Without adblocking, it seems half of what the computer is doing is dealing with all the crap thrown your way, whenever you go browse almost anywhere. Understandably, some of these ads help keep a place alive. At others, it's pure monetization opportunity almost no one leaves on the table anymore.
 
#27
I've had Adblocker for some time now...I find it curious, even here on diyaudio.com, I note the "counter" on the Adblocker Icon tally up the numbers of ads blocked...here on "our" site...it is stopped at Six ads blocked, when i back up pages it resets & tells me how many it blocks per page....it varies here, six to eight ads, I don't know the difference between the six & eight. So, when we think of ourselves above the fray, we are not...someone is trying to find out about you this very moment you're reading this....Adblock is just not a single advertizement picture, it is much more, it is also curated as well, the "acceptable" ads are let thru.






------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick.........
 
#29
scottjoplin said:
I was taught each paragraph started with an indent and no empty lines.
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This is particularly applicable on "expensive" media. Stone blocks. Large city newspapers. The indent is the minimal break.

Somewhere around "glass teletype" someone realized that "paper is free". And a blank line is a better break.

But there are many other problems. Some text parsers omit excess spaces, including leading spaces for an indent. (There's 4 spaces before this line, crunched-out in display.) Actually they usually apply "rules" which can (at layout editor option) indent consistently. But most coders don't write text and do not know how it works. I compose neat paragraphs, for a review, or for my doctor portal, and the parser runsitalltogether. Sometimes different in preview than in public.

I suppose you were also taught two spaces after a sentence dot. :Pirate:
 
#31
Completely social media free, no intentions either, ad-free (© various blockers). Curious to see people submerged in this warm ocean like small fish circling the reef, avoiding the depths. Pile of books to climb over, all with near perfect interpunction. Poeticcally phrased: Less friends now then in the past - but the deep is silent and vast.
 
#34
I can't get paragraph indents to work on this otherwise fine vBulletin software. Most books use them where paragraphs are closely spaced. Just helps guide the eye which otherwise lose track of the page without some spacing guide.

The webs don't seem to bother with indents any more:

Quanta Magazine

Philadelphia Food

Preferring to space paragraphs. And I can live with that.

IMO the worst horrors are websites and bulletin boards that go non-standard with white text on a black background, and are far too Busy:

Novatech Community Forums - Novatech Community Forums

I had to abandon that forum. Far too teenage. Haven't done that stuff since Wordperfect 5.1 on IBM PC about 30 years ago.

A lost art is BBC Code which works on this forum software:

It allows you to do all sorts of interesting things like this at the Forums. Which can have great comedy value. You can post something quite deliberately offensive, but it looks like a glitch that it actually got posted. TBH, this a stunt that I don't often pull. But one for the reportoire. 😀

Or this sort of fun nonsense.

Getting back on topic, Facebook annoys me when I hit carriage return for a new paragraph. Instead it posts my first paragraph. This is a very definite design decision by Facebook. OK, shift-return does the job, but I can't be adapting my technique for each site. 😡
 
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#39
On the smartphones being a tool, this is correct, but you need to think about who's tool? A lot of the things that make it more convenient also require you to give up something to get the "benefit". Lots of google features require you to turn on location tracking to be able to use. The feature doesn't need it, but you can't use it unless you do. I choose not to use those features.

On the two spaces after a period. If the HTML doesn't remove them, you will see them in all of my posts. Why do I do it? Because it was what I learnt when I did touch typing at Tafe in the early 80's. This was the course that secretaries did to learn how to type properly. I was still in school, but thought it would be a good skill to learn. I didn't actually finish the course, but it was one of the things I still do to this day.

Tony.
 
#40
I still have my Strunk & White "Elements of Style", and Kate Turabian "Student's Guide to Writing". Turabian was the Dissertation Secretary at University of Chicago for decades. Her manual was used in my high school, college and grad schools. Pretty standard stuff for citations and proper grammar.

I gave copies of both to the folks who worked for me.
 
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