The Computer And General Tech Thread - Software, Hardware, Questions, etc.

[Ares Land]

Bradrn mentioned Legal Systems Very Different From our Own, by David Friedman, before, and I'd like to second the recommendation. It gets into quite a bit into Jewish law, or Islamic law.

One reason -- among others -- for the level of details and loopholes is that you can't change the Torah, of course, so naturally you have to find ways to make it work in varying circumstances.
(Muslim legal scholars tend to do the same thing, besides, and American constitutional lawyers.)

I'm not sure megacorps really need loopholes. They generally have the ear of the lawmakers in the first place.

Friedman is a libertarian, btw, but I like his books a lot. I think that's because his anarcho-capitalism is basically conworlding.

[bradrn]

One reason -- among others -- for the level of details and loopholes is that you can't change the Torah, of course, so naturally you have to find ways to make it work in varying circumstances.
(Muslim legal scholars tend to do the same thing, besides, and American constitutional lawyers.)

I do think that his treatment of American law together with Jewish and Islamic law shows a considerable amount of insight.

Friedman is a libertarian, btw, but I like his books a lot. I think that's because his anarcho-capitalism is basically conworlding.

Scott Alexander (who I learnt of Friedman’s book from) seems to think the same: see 1, 2, and probably others I can’t be bothered to find right now.

[rotting bones]

(Muslim legal scholars tend to do the same thing, besides, and American constitutional lawyers.)

I don't think the doings of Western ulema reflect traditional practice. Loopholes in Jewish law existed during the formative period of Islam, and the Mu'minin explicitly didn't like them. I have never heard of a Muslim asking the sheikh to find loopholes in Islamic law to fulfill requirements while not doing exactly what was asked. The whole idea is blasphemous. Muslims don't wrestle with Yahweh. There is no Islamic equivalent of the Jewish story where God tells the rabbis that his children have bested him. Allah knows everything you're thinking, and he's closer to you than your jugular vein.

On the other hand, Islam as practiced in my old community (subcontinental traditional Hanafi) commonly says things like: Do what you can, and God will reward you for your piety. (Again, Allah knows everything you're thinking, including your weaknesses and the strength of your piety.) So maybe the difference boils down to finding loopholes to fulfill commandments vs. not seeing religious precepts as strongly binding. But I don't think this is a comparison of like with like. I don't think the equivalent of Jewish mavens exist in more fundamentalist Islamist communities either. Why would you join a fundamentalist community if you're going to look for legal loopholes? You either fulfill your obligations honestly or you don't. Fundamentalists just have a different interpretation of what the obligations are. It's also possible that they fulfill more of them more often.

[Raphael]

Do I get this right that some places, or perhaps some contexts in some places, use 2:1 instead of 16:9 as the standard screen aspect ratio? I get that impression from some shows I've seen on Netflix.

[Ares Land]

Do I get this right that some places, or perhaps some contexts in some places, use 2:1 instead of 16:9 as the standard screen aspect ratio? I get that impression from some shows I've seen on Netflix.

Yeah, Netflix

I think 2:1's been around for a while but never really been popular until Netflix adopted it.
I guess it's a good compromise for streaming.

[Raphael]

I think 2:1's been around for a while but never really been popular until Netflix adopted it.
I guess it's a good compromise for streaming.

What does it offer that 16:9 doesn't?

[Travis B.]

I think 2:1's been around for a while but never really been popular until Netflix adopted it.
I guess it's a good compromise for streaming.

What does it offer that 16:9 doesn't?

My thought too - there isn't really much difference between 2:1 and 16:9.

[alice]

I think 2:1's been around for a while but never really been popular until Netflix adopted it.
I guess it's a good compromise for streaming.

What does it offer that 16:9 doesn't?

Smaller numbers that are easier for people to understand.

[Raphael]

Today, I spent several hours trying to solve a small computer-related problem that was completely driving me up the wall, sometimes making me alternate quickly between rage and desperation, without getting anywhere near a solution.

Then I asked about it elsewhere on the web, and got a suggestion that worked within less than an hour.

[alice]

Today, I spent several hours trying to solve a small computer-related problem that was completely driving me up the wall, sometimes making me alternate quickly between rage and desperation, without getting anywhere near a solution.

Then I asked about it elsewhere on the web, and got a suggestion that worked within less than an hour.

This wonderful new technology is amazing, isn't it?

[Raphael]

This wonderful new technology is amazing, isn't it?

OK, now I seriously wonder what, if anything, people got equally worked up about in the days before computers and related tech (not counting "other people").

[hwhatting]

OK, now I seriously wonder what, if anything, people got equally worked up about in the days before computers and related tech (not counting "other people").

People cursing, hitting, or kicking their radio and TV sets, home appliances, or cars because they don't work is a staple of old cartoons and comedy sketches, so I guess that would be one of the things.

[Raphael]

A few hours ago, I had a really weird internet malfunction. From the perspective of my PC, apparently about half of the websites I occasionally visit were gone, but the other half still worked fine. Google worked fine, but Duckduckgo was gone. zompist.com and the ZBB were gone, but my GP's office's website still worked fine. The Firefox add-on repository was gone, but Wikipedia still worked fine.

For a moment, I thought there was some kind of massive attack on large parts of the internet by malicious actors going on, but then I checked the websites my PC couldn't reach any more on my cellphone, and my cellphone could load them just fine. They still wouldn't load on my PC, though.

Simply rebooting my PC didn't help. Then, I turned off the electricity to my router for 15 minutes before turning it back on again, and also rebooted my PC a second time during that time. That did the trick; everything went back to normal.

Does anyone have any idea what might have caused this? Because I'm completely drawing a blank.

[Travis B.]

A few hours ago, I had a really weird internet malfunction. From the perspective of my PC, apparently about half of the websites I occasionally visit were gone, but the other half still worked fine. Google worked fine, but Duckduckgo was gone. zompist.com and the ZBB were gone, but my GP's office's website still worked fine. The Firefox add-on repository was gone, but Wikipedia still worked fine.

For a moment, I thought there was some kind of massive attack on large parts of the internet by malicious actors going on, but then I checked the websites my PC couldn't reach any more on my cellphone, and my cellphone could load them just fine. They still wouldn't load on my PC, though.

Simply rebooting my PC didn't help. Then, I turned off the electricity to my router for 15 minutes before turning it back on again, and also rebooted my PC a second time during that time. That did the trick; everything went back to normal.

Does anyone have any idea what might have caused this? Because I'm completely drawing a blank.

Maybe routing tables somewhere got royally screwed up somehow?

[Raphael]

Maybe routing tables somewhere got royally screwed up somehow?

I dunno. I guess that's possible. I don't really know enough about routing tables to know about that stuff.

[Raphael]

Does anyone have a good overview of the pros and cons of Protonmail?

[MacAnDàil]

Does anyone have a good overview of the pros and cons of Protonmail?

From my own experience, I have not gotten a single spam since opening the account. The only downside is that some people have not heard of it and assume that I actually meant something they had heard of. But a more detailed overview you will find wi someone else.

[Raphael]

Thank you!

[Raphael]

Now that this has been up for more than a week and got almost no replies, is it ok for me to bump it?

A few hours ago, I had a really weird internet malfunction. From the perspective of my PC, apparently about half of the websites I occasionally visit were gone, but the other half still worked fine. Google worked fine, but Duckduckgo was gone. zompist.com and the ZBB were gone, but my GP's office's website still worked fine. The Firefox add-on repository was gone, but Wikipedia still worked fine.

For a moment, I thought there was some kind of massive attack on large parts of the internet by malicious actors going on, but then I checked the websites my PC couldn't reach any more on my cellphone, and my cellphone could load them just fine. They still wouldn't load on my PC, though.

Simply rebooting my PC didn't help. Then, I turned off the electricity to my router for 15 minutes before turning it back on again, and also rebooted my PC a second time during that time. That did the trick; everything went back to normal.

Does anyone have any idea what might have caused this? Because I'm completely drawing a blank.

[bradrn]

Now that this has been up for more than a week and got almost no replies …

I think it’s just that no-one here has a clue how to solve it. Networking is complicated.