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johnzim commented on All Look Same?   alllooksame.com/... · Posted by u/mirawelner
hdra · 23 days ago
Am asian myself, got 6/18 too.

CJK people actually do look very similar anyway, which is not surprising as there are a lot of shared genetics.

The way people tell them apart is going to be mostly based on current popular fashion, which is quite difficult to do with these bust shots and what I'm guessing are older pictures

johnzim · 23 days ago
Ditto (albeit Eurasian)

The problem is I put like 70% as Chinese, because I guarantee there's a Chinese person in the world who looks exactly like the portrait. China is so mixed that it's a total wildcard.

johnzim commented on Denmark's struggle to break up with Silicon Valley   politico.eu/article/denma... · Posted by u/giuliomagnifico
pfisch · 2 months ago
idk, If I was in control of a country in the EU I would realize, unfortunately for pretty much everyone on the planet, that we have made a drastic miscalculation by relying on the US so heavily for defense.

However, that is not something that can be reversed meaningfully in less than a decade. So for now, I would play the long game like Germany while working to get the EU to build up a military force large enough to significantly reduce our dependence on the US.

johnzim · 2 months ago
It's not as if the US hasn't repeatedly requested that European nations invest in their defense for the past few decades.

Looking at it dispassionately as a European living in the US, if you wanted to foment the sort of mistrust many Americans have of Europe, I don't think you could have created a more invidious policy.

johnzim commented on OpenAI acquires Sky.app   openai.com/index/openai-a... · Posted by u/meetpateltech
johnzim · 5 months ago
Wow! I was wondering why they were so quiet! Great news
johnzim commented on We Politely Insist: Your LLM Must Learn the Persian Art of Taarof   arxiv.org/abs/2509.01035... · Posted by u/chosenbeard
fny · 6 months ago
As a Persian, I feel compelled explain.

The entire of the Middle East operates on a principle of magnanimous hospitality. The Arabs call this karam, for example, which is considered to even be a religious obligation.

So if you're a stranger passing through a town and chat with some locals, you can expect for someone to invite you for tea and maybe even dinner!

Do you take them up on the offer?

Most people in the West would ask themselves "do I have the time", but a middle easterner would think "do they have the time?" Remember, you as a guest are also magnanimously hospitable--in this case, the least possible burden. Unfortunately, the guest must navigate whether they are being considerate or insulting by refusing hospitality.

Now to address taarof specifically. Persian's have pathologized hosptiality to the point of psychosis. The behavior is often mechanically choreographed (e.g. you should refuse at least twice before accepting a cucumber.) In other cases, it's insane.

Story time:

My mom and aunt had not seen each other for 3 years and met for lunch at a cafe. They went back and forth over who would pay at the register until it erupted into a fight. They sat at separate tables for lunch.

A close family friend--with no provocation from my sister--offered to house her for a weekend she was visiting. My sister accepted. That friend later complained to my mother.

A friend of mine went to a mechanic who offered to fix a small issue for free. My friend knowing better paid him anyway, but the mechanic was still upset since he didn't pay enough!

Edit: Just to address some of the comments. Abroad, the degree of hospitality is warped for foreigners (for what I hope are obvious reasons). Middle easterners in the West are far more inclusive.

johnzim · 6 months ago
I can well believe! My Persian friend stopped attending a longstanding study group of the Book of Kings because it went from being quite American in culture to full-on taarof, and they complained that only 25% as much was actually being covered because of all the enforced civility.
johnzim commented on I replaced Animal Crossing's dialogue with a live LLM by hacking GameCube memory   joshfonseca.com/blogs/ani... · Posted by u/vuciv
RajT88 · 6 months ago
I also want to overthrow Tom Nook.

He traps you (and one presumes) all of the rest of the villagers in a vicious cycle of debt, and can only be satiated by millions of bells.

johnzim · 6 months ago
To be fair to Tom Nook, the interest rate on those loans is 0% and there's no risk of being foreclosed upon!
johnzim commented on Caltrain's electric fleet more efficient than expected   caltrain.com/news/caltrai... · Posted by u/ssuds
infotainment · a year ago
Agreed largely, though IMO BART is holding the bay area back. Unlike Caltrain and Muni, BART management is completely incompetent and more focused on spending their money on random things than actually running their transit system.

Fun fact: BART police has a large fleet of SUVs, with the highest vehicle-to-officer ratio in the bay area (if only there were some other way for them to get around!)

Fun exercise: compare the cleanliness of a Muni Bus/LRV to a BART car (even a new one at the start of the day). There is a huge difference.

johnzim · a year ago
Yep, BART is pretty reviled by all the other transit authorities, and for good reason, based on what my friends who work some of the other authorities have said.
johnzim commented on Lua is so underrated   nflatrea.bearblog.dev/lua... · Posted by u/nflatrea
pentaphobe · a year ago
Out of curiosity: does this post read like LLM (generated or assisted) to anyone else?
johnzim · a year ago
The conclusion at the end definitely does
johnzim commented on US lawmakers tell Apple, Google to be ready to remove TikTok from stores Jan. 19   reuters.com/legal/us-lawm... · Posted by u/thunderbong
fsflover · a year ago
> I think every country should develop their own social media.

There is Mastodon already, which is federated. EU already set up their own servers.

johnzim · a year ago
It is federated and it has benefits but the UX is garbage for average people and the actual protocol isn't one that'll scale.

You don't need an A+ protocol to get great if your product is good enough / dead simple to use but neither of those things apply to Mastodon, as much as I'd like them to.

johnzim commented on ’Brain rot‘ named Oxford Word of the Year 2024   corp.oup.com/news/brain-r... · Posted by u/ChrisArchitect
bee_rider · a year ago
Enahittificaton is the word of the last decade or so. But didn’t it become a named thing a couple years ago?
johnzim · a year ago
I remember reading it in 2014ish. The Cory Doctorow use is the newer one.

u/johnzim

KarmaCake day980October 5, 2013View Original