phony-account (u/phony-account)

phony-account commented on uBlock filter list to hide all YouTube Shorts github.com/i5heu/ublock-h... · Posted by u/i5heu

phony-account · a day ago

I’m paying over 40 dollars a month for YouTube but it doesn’t allow me to choose almost anything of what I see, despite trying hard to fine-tune my recommendations.

I can’t permanently turn off shorts - and this I find personally insulting. It really feels like encountering a drug dealer outside my house every time I come home, always expecting me to cave and try some of that good smack.

But apart from ignoring me when I say I’m not interested in whole genres of ‘fun’ videos, it also resets the streaming quality to the lowest setting every single day and then hides the quality setting deep inside a menu with several fiddly clicks.

And this isn’t for my benefit of course: I can easily stream 4K video to my screens. It’s to shave a few cents off each stream and max the gouging.

phony-account commented on Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place eukaryotewritesblog.com/2... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

brabel · 5 days ago

In Sweden it also almost never happens but this year there was a hurricane like storm that fell lots of trees and thousands of people had no power for days. But yeah it wasn’t because of snow.

phony-account · 4 days ago

> In Sweden it also almost never happens

This just isn’t true, at all - electricity is regularly out for hundreds or thousands of people in Sweden because of snow. This year was especially bad, where thousands were without any electricity for up to 10 or 12 days, but every year brings the same problems. Just google “elavbrott snö” and you’ll find many current examples - just as one instance:

https://www.horisontmagasin.se/2026/01/06/nya-elavbrott-nu-p...

phony-account commented on The World Happiness Report is beset with methodological problems yaschamounk.substack.com/... · Posted by u/thatoneengineer

arethuza · 2 months ago

Not sure that "crisp" is a word I'd use to describe any part of the UK in autumn - probably more like "soggy" - but that applies to any season!

phony-account · 2 months ago

> Not sure that "crisp" is a word I'd use to describe any part of the UK in autumn - probably more like "soggy" - but that applies to any season!

From the gently self-deprecating nature of your answer I’m guessing you’re British - and this is indeed the whole point of what I’m saying.

I genuinely and deeply miss this aspect of the English character which is totally lacking in Sweden - the websites called “shitLondon” or the insistence that English food is inferior to Italian or French cuisine or this repeated idea that it always rains (it doesn’t). That self-mockery simply doesn’t exist here, apart from when it’s some sort of humble-brag.

phony-account commented on The World Happiness Report is beset with methodological problems yaschamounk.substack.com/... · Posted by u/thatoneengineer

parineum · 2 months ago

I don't see how that makes the measure bullshit. Outlook and expectations are related to happiness. If you want for nothing but have little it's better than a never ending treadmill of more.

Having a culture that produces happier people in worse circumstances doesn't make those people less happy.

phony-account · 2 months ago

> Having a culture that produces happier people in worse circumstances doesn't make those people less happy

The question is whether stoicism in the face of what most people would categorize as suffering should be classified as “happiness”.

phony-account commented on The World Happiness Report is beset with methodological problems yaschamounk.substack.com/... · Posted by u/thatoneengineer

oldestofsports · 2 months ago

We’ve had about 1 hour of sunlight so far in december where i live in Finland, but it’s fine. It also makes the sun way more enjoyable when it finally shines in the summer.

I’d never want to live in perpetual summer. Seasons brings joy.

phony-account · 2 months ago

> I’d never want to live in perpetual summer. Seasons brings joy

Even this is a typical myth that I often hear from Scandinavians. In fact different parts of Spain (or England or France) have also clearly demarcated seasons.

If you want to experience the joy of Autumn then the crisp, long days of an English Fall are incomparably more distinct than the unrelenting darkness that’s almost indistinguishable from Winter in Scandinavia, for instance. And when Spring comes to the valleys of the temperate regions of Spain, then the blossom and explosion of wild flowers is miraculous.

But like I said, from preschool onwards Scandinavians are indoctrinated with the belief that they live in the best of all possible worlds, and no amount of actual experience can ever dent that notion.

phony-account commented on The World Happiness Report is beset with methodological problems yaschamounk.substack.com/... · Posted by u/thatoneengineer

alephnerd · 2 months ago

The perception of Spain is much more positive in the Anglophone world - it's viewed as a country where cost of living is low, you can nap in the middle of the day, the women/men are hot and easy, the wine is great and cheap, and you can party late at night.

In reality the average Spaniard isn't experience the majority of that, as those are perceptions that arose from the rose-tinted glasses of tourists. Most tourists don't know about the Eurozone crisis, the regional disparity, and the consolidation of Spain's economic growth engines to 1-2 cities.

Spain is a good developed country with a decent QoL as is reflected by it's HDI and developmental indicators (and the fact that it has outpaced historically richer and more developed Italy is a testament to that), but tourists almost always take a rose-tinted view whereas locals almost always take a negative view.

And I think this is the crux of the issue with how the "World Happiness Index" is used in American discourse - in the US almost no one vists Europe or other parts of the World for extended periods of time and most Americans lack familial or social ties in Europe. As such, idealized images of Europe ("a socialist paradise" or "white Christendom under siege") have taken hold in popular discourse and are used as proxies for the American culture war.

phony-account · 2 months ago

These measures are bullshit and often just come down to a prevalent societal ‘temperament’ that’s inculcated from birth. I live and have family in Sweden and the rest of my family is in Spain. The Swedes have immense pride in their country and pretty much only talk about the positives. When the winters are dark, cold, rain has been pouring for fourteen days straight and the last time you saw sun was 4 weeks ago, they say “there’s no bad weather just bad clothes”. One day I sat with my cousin and some other relatives in the olive grove of his country place in Spain - sun was shining and we’d been eating delicious locally produced food for hours and drinking wine from his vineyard while he yapped on about how everything in Spain is ‘shit’ (una mierda). And this is why places like Finland are reportedly the ‘happiest’ in the world.

phony-account commented on Photographer built a medium-format rangefinder petapixel.com/2025/12/06/... · Posted by u/shinryuu

JKCalhoun · 2 months ago

I also am a huge supporter of DIY projects. Also a huge fan of medium-format, film photography.

To that end, if I can help others try medium format film, I want to add that there are plenty of inexpensive used medium-format cameras on eBay. I have purchased perhaps a dozen over the years—none of which even approached US $1000. In case you are not DIY inclined…

(Sadly, Japan has been the best place to order used camera gear but that has become cost prohibitive now for this American.)

Searching just now on eBay for "Yaschica TLR Mint" shows a number of cameras around $300 that are probably excellent (surprise, most are from Japan).

Can't afford a Hasselblad? Try "Bronica Mint" on eBay. Looks like $500 will get you in the game.

Mamiya cameras are built like tanks (and weigh as much). You could do a lot worse: "Mamiya Mint" is going to get you a few great models around $400 or so.

All of these were (are) considered damn fine film cameras.

(Mamiya tend to have interchangeable lenses, as does the Bronica. There are some Wide/Tele adapters for the Yashica, but generally you use them as-is. Most of these cameras are completely manual in operation—the more sought after Yashica though have some light-metering capabilities.)

(The Yashica and some of the Mamiya are TLR, twin-lens reflex—more or less equivalent to a rangefinder? The Bronica and some Mamiya you view through the lens 'TTL'.)

phony-account · 2 months ago

I agree with you, but my point was aimed at people who might think that even a couple of thousand dollars would be too much to spend on a film camera, whereas used Xpans (with an unknown electronic lifespan) are commonly selling for in excess of $7k.

Otherwise I fully agree that buying old film cameras is still both the most practical and most fun way to get into the hobby.

phony-account commented on Photographer built a medium-format rangefinder petapixel.com/2025/12/06/... · Posted by u/shinryuu

phony-account · 2 months ago

This is a great product, and without meaning to underestimate the value of a ‘makers’ project I really wish it could be manufactured at scale with a metal body and a mount that could take a wider range of lenses.

Anyone currently interested in this breadth of formats would need to spend maybe 20 thousand dollars to buy cameras like the Hasselblad Xpan, the Plaubel Makina 67, and one of the Fujica 690 bodies.

Putting all this into one body is almost miraculous.

Lomo have recently released a nicely featured 35mm film camera[1]. I wish something like the MRF2 could also be produced in this way.

[1] https://shop.lomography.com/us/lomo-mc-a-35-mm-film-camera-b...