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I'm not a Pokemon card collector - I used to play TCG when I was a kid, but didn't really continue and played a little bit of TCG Pocket recently. Safe to say I'm an amateur. The closest I get to collecting cards is Yu-Gi-Oh but I do that more for the love of the game and don't really care about grading.

So, my question are not necessarily what the PSA is and how they grade, but some more in-depth questions that are maybe not obvious at a glance

  • Does PSA publish a list of "criteria" that makes a 10?
  • Does PSA provide the end-user with a list of reasons why a card was not graded a 10?
    • In my mind, a picture of the defects with measurements would be expected but I've never seen something like that mentioned
  • Are the other measurement systems really gaining steam to replace PSA or is that mostly just wishing from those burned by PSA?
  • What's the barcode on the PSA case for? I would assume it relates to question (2)

I realize I could look up most of these questions, but I did just want to chat about what, as an outside, seems like a flawed system and see what people who are not streamers or public figures think about the system

Thank you in advance!

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Any good, reliable ones out there?

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[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 79 points 1 year ago

I've always disliked plastic surgery, botox and heavy makeup. But that's normal enough

My real hot take is I am disgusted by long, fake nails. They make my skin crawl. They're so cumbersome, I truly don't understand how people love with them

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/31484305

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submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by notnotmike@programming.dev to c/books@lemmy.world

I figured it could be fun to do small discussion each time I finish an (interesting) book, since I always have so many thoughts but no book club to discuss them with.

I completed Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice last night, and I have to say I really enjoyed the book. I found it had a great amount of drama and intrigue to keep me reading on, even after my usual bedtime. But more significantly, I found the insight into 1800's English culture to be supremely interesting.

I was continually dazzled by the changes in English, and how we've modified the language as the years have progressed. For example, for someone to "condescend" in those days wasn't (in my interpretation) necessarily something rude, as it would be these days. It was seen as someone of higher station being humble enough to interact with and advise people who would generally be considered "beneath" them. For example, Lady Catherine is often described as condescending to Mr. Collins, which he takes great pleasure in.

This was also one of the first times I found an enjoyable use-case for LLMs, namely ChatGPT. I found it very helpful to be able to ask questions about the time period and its relation to the book and get specific, well thought out answers without spending too much time searching for reputable sites and scanning through potential sources for answers. That's time that I wanted to be reading, not researching. For example, I was curious how the "ten thousand a year" income was scaled, and how that worked out to today's dollars and how that income was generated. I also was able to ask questions like why Elizabeth might have been embarrassed at a certain scene, or why Mr. Collins was considered so "uncool" by everyone. In fact, a lot of my questions revolved around Mr. Collins and what he was specifically doing to be considered a social pariah by some. Admittedly, I could have had the same experience (potentially) using an annotated book, which I did want to do at some point, but I didn't find the time to get to the library to find a copy, and ChatGPT was conveniently in my pocket at any time. I generally consider myself largely anti-"AI hype" - but I'd be foolish not to admit that this is one of those use-cases that it really shines.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. I'd probably give it a five out of five, meaning that I will probably re-read it someday in the future.

Love to hear others thoughts:

  • When did you last read it?
  • Did you enjoy it?
  • Would you read it again?
  • Did anything about the book stick with you in particular?
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[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 83 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

FYI for anyone not in the know, this is the Good Good Good Newspaper advertised by Hank Green

It only consists of "good" news and is very uplifting - generally every print edition features some kind of theme like "animals" or "medicine" or "art"

If you can afford to support, I think it's a great way to encourage more uplifting news in our world

https://www.goodgoodgood.co/goodnewspaper/subscribe

[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 55 points 2 years ago

The idea of searching had me thinking that it would be nice to have a search-focused instance that didn't defederate from any sites (besides the illegal stuff) and auto-subscribes to every new community so it has all the information possible. Then you could do "foo bar site:searchlemmy.com" and get an effect similar to reddit

Although that's probably unnecessary. But would be kind of cool

[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 202 points 2 years ago

My hot take? No, it's not

You'll never change a mind with cruelty. You are merely selfishly expressing your anger

Best case scenario, this person now feels bad about buying a Tesla, but is now stuck with the car. They will likely have to waste resources fixing it and it may happen again. Sure, you could assume they're rich and can afford to fix it but that wastes literal resources extracted from our planet to fix or replace the car. And if someone buys the used version they'll have the same problem and may not be quite as rich the next time someone vandalizes the car.

More likely scenario, you piss the owner off and they dig in deeper. That's just how humans work

[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 53 points 2 years ago

Yes I think that's the correct interpretation

[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 222 points 2 years ago

What in the world? You are in a relationship with them. You can't live with, sleep in the same bed with, be best friends with, and do sexual stuff with someone and not be in a relationship! What do you think a relationship is?!

You say you don't want a relationship with them but what on Earth would you change if you entered into a "relationship" with them? Just your perspective and a label from the sounds of it.

I feel as though you need to reassess where you're actually at in this. Think about what a relationship means to you and why this person cannot fit that role for you.

And above all, you need to talk to them about this and ask if they think you're in a relationship. Because you might need to "break up" with them regardless of how you feel about it

[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 165 points 2 years ago

I mean, I'm not much of a tinfoil hat, but this article feels extremely conveniently timed for Intel, who is currently going through a massive ordeal with their chips. Especially considering that the vulnerability is so extremely difficult to exploit that there's borderline no story here for 99% of people but the headline will still drive clicks and drama.

[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 83 points 2 years ago

I was looking for resources for a custom LLM and noticed they had a ton of copyrighted books and wondered to myself how the heck that was legal

I guess this answers that

[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 65 points 2 years ago

I used to be really into doing Google Maps and uploading reviews, images, and updating stuff. I got a real sense of community out of it for almost no effort.

But now I'm trying to cut back on Google so much, trying to use Organic Maps more often.

I was also always self-conscious about taking pictures of stuff in a restaurant and eventually couldn't stomach it anymore.

[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 129 points 2 years ago

I'm really torn on news like this.

I'll get it out of the way that I am jealous. I wish I had been able to do what she did. I also think that if more people cared about education on this level, we could really get a significantly smarter population and start to solve some of the problems in the world.

Having said that, I have concerns over what her life is like. I would need a lot more details to feel comfortable that this kind of lifestyle is healthy for someone. She missed out on most of her childhood at this point, a time most adults look back on fondly as a time when they had no responsibilities. I have so many follow-up questions that the article doesn't address.

  • Is she truly self-motivated or does she have someone like her parents urging her to do this?
  • Given a choice, would she do it again?
  • What was her workload like? Was she constantly studying or is she lucky enough to not need to?

Also, more for my curiosity than anyone else's well-being:

  • How do you even sign a 10 year old up for college?
  • Do professors give leniency to an 11 year old in class or are they getting the same experience an 18 year old would get?
[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 74 points 2 years ago

Well the latter have more "meat" on them, whereas bugs are mostly just "shells" once they die. You aren't eating the shells of crustaceans, you're eating the innards

[-] notnotmike@programming.dev 237 points 2 years ago

I wanted to chime in, since I'm in the unique situation of not being a "Swiftie" but still having an above-average knowledge of Taylor Swift due to being married to a Swiftie.

For starters, her songs are very relatable for women. Especially in women around her age, she was routinely writing songs that spoke to the emotions during each periods of their lives. My wife, for example, was in middle/high school when Taylor was releasing her romantic country songs, and met me right around when Taylor released Lover. This is all because Taylor is extremely autobiographical with her lyrics and was writing about what she was experiencing at the time. She wrote lovesongs in Speak Now because she was in high school and early college when she produced the album. She wrote Lover because she had met a man who, at the time, she perceived to be a man she could spend the rest of her life with. Since Red, very few of her songs are about hypothetical situations. Almost all of them are about her real experiences as a person and as a woman, with the exception of folklore and Evermore, and that speaks to women in a very strong way. Her lyrics and reasons behinds songs are deep, much deeper than most give her credit for.

Additionally, she is extremely good at marketing. Many of her songs and albums have Easter eggs in them that only true fans will be able to find. She also drops a lot of cryptic hints, which her fans love to dissect and interpret to try and predict major releases or announcements. It's just good fun for them, and it increases the hype significantly. Also, her concerts are not just live music, they're a whole show. The Eras concert is 3 hours long, and she is singing and running the entire time. She rarely lip-syncs - I say rarely because I've heard claims that she does but I have never seen it - and gives it her all every single concert. Her band and many of her dancers and support staff have been with her for a decade or more now, and they have continued to routinely put on shows to the best of their abilities without fail.

Finally, she is, most Swifties believe, a genuinely good person. The worst thing I've ever heard of her doing is loaning her private jet out to her friends and families which caused her to break the news because her jet was causing a lot of emissions. Beyond that, she seems to be a grounded woman who genuinely loves her fans and the people around her.

If you take nothing else away from this post, this is the most important fact: She is relatable to women. She sings about her lived experiences, many of which are relatable to her fans.

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notnotmike

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