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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 29th, 2023

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  • The reason they are blackboxes is because they are function approximators with billions of parameters. Theory has not caught up with practical results. This is why you tune hyperparameters (learning rate, number of layers, number of neurons ina layer, etc.) and have multiple iterations of training to get an approximation of the distribution of the inputs. Training is also sensitive to the order of inputs to the network. A network trained on the same training set but in a different order might converge to an entirely different function. This is why you train on the same inputs in random order over multiple episodes to hopefully average out such variations. They are blackboxes simply because you can’t yet prove theoretically the function it has approximated or converged to given the input.


  • Most of the Paradox games support Linux natively. I play Europa Universalis 4, Stellaris, Crusader Kings 2 (haven’t bought 3 yet but it has native support), Hearts of Iron 4. Victoria 2 doesn’t have native support and I didn’t get Vic 3 but it is supported. Rimworld is native, so is Factorio.

    Have a look at what you want to play on protondb.com and figure out if gaming on Linux works for you. Baldur’s Gate 3 has a gold rating (gold being one level lower than platinum - the best rating for non-native games) which for all practical purposes should work.

    EDIT: I recommend installing Proton Glorious Eggroll in addition to the native Proton on Steam if you can’t get a game running with the native Proton despite protondb reports saying the game works. The installation is fairly straightforward, just read and follow the installation instructions on the page.












  • If you don’t mind paying, Protonmail. I pay €12 per month for mail and VPN combined however it is cheaper if you only want the email option. I haven’t used Gmail in about three years now.

    Degoogling is a long and difficult process. I highly suggest you start with small steps. For example, you could start using Invidious to watch Youtube videos. It is definitely not without bugs and you will run into issues. Change your search engine to Duckduckgo or Brave or whatever else you prefer. For general searches, these are good enough. Unfortunately, for addresses and navigation, Google Maps doesn’t have a good enough competitor that I know of. I urge you to make Firefox your daily driver if you are still using Chromium-based ones. I have Brave browser as an alternative for sites like banking or to access Maps or Google search. Start an alternate Protonmail account while still using Gmail. Be warned though that the free tier has 500MB, the paid tier 500GB.

    If you want to go full hardcore, look into Graphene or CalyxOS as a replacement for your Android. I specifically bought myself a Pixel phone so I can get a degoogled OS for my primary phone. I still have a secondary phone running Android for banking and paying which I turn off when I do not use it. Look into Shelter to freeze apps. For example, Uber doesn’t need to know your whereabouts when you are not specifically looking for a cab.

    But please, please, DO NOT start doing everything all at once or you will get overwhelmed. I now almost fully use open source stuff, and I pay and donate for services. I think this is the only way to show support for the projects you love and to have a voice against big tech/ad tech.