DarthYoshiBoy's recent activity
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Comment on Is TV advertising still relevant? Does anybody under 60 even watch traditional TV anymore? in ~tv
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Comment on Is TV advertising still relevant? Does anybody under 60 even watch traditional TV anymore? in ~tv
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentI was there for the advent of what Linear television likes to call OTT (Over The Top) Linear TV, that is basically just cable that runs on top of the Internet. The original iteration of the...I was there for the advent of what Linear television likes to call OTT (Over The Top) Linear TV, that is basically just cable that runs on top of the Internet. The original iteration of the product had a full 30 days of playback for EVERY channel. You never had to DVR anything so long as you wanted to watch it within 30 days of broadcast (Which we knew from analytics is when most DVR watching occurs, people either get to something they recorded in the first 30 days or they never watch it) you could just go back (to the left) in the channel guide and find the original airing of anything and queue it right up for play on demand. For reasons that I'll never understand, the content providers hated this and had it contractually either eliminated from their channels or limited to 7, sometimes 14, days of "lookback" viewing.
That decision and their continual efforts to stop people from seeing content via Aereo and Locast made me truly hate the content industry. I just can't understand for the life of me how an industry that largely pays their bills by having eyeballs on content, doesn't want anyone to be able to watch that content except at one point in time that they choose and only via mediums that they also choose. You'd think they'd want their content playing inside of everyone's eyelids if they could arrange it, but nope, if it wasn't some very narrow interpretation of live linear television they just weren't interested.
Excepting my friends still in the technical operations part of all of it, I'm frankly glad their industry is dying. Couldn't happen to a worse group of idiots.
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Comment on Is TV advertising still relevant? Does anybody under 60 even watch traditional TV anymore? in ~tv
DarthYoshiBoy (edited )Link ParentI have some insider knowledge here having worked within the beast specifically with the encodes at an operational level. The answer is that often the channels just are compressed 480p nonsense,...why do so many channels look like horribly compressed 480p?
I have some insider knowledge here having worked within the beast specifically with the encodes at an operational level. The answer is that often the channels just are compressed 480p nonsense, even as late as 2022 when I was last involved with this stuff. We'd did the best that we could with the signals we got, but they're usually not great to start with and a second round of encoding to get them suitable for transmission through the system is not doing it any favors, while the bandwidth to transmit isn't limitless so sometimes you have to do less than your best just to be able to fit everything in.
Going IPTV has its own ups and downs where you have to aim towards all those aging Americans who think their 5Mbps connection is "good enough" so you have to make players that prioritize consistency over bandwidth which will often result in lower quality bitrates being selected if the player logic thinks for even a moment that it might interrupt playback to run a higher quality. Which is all to say that while the compression can be better, it's still the same original source, ISPs in this country generally suck, and the dictates of catering to them and their customers makes it so that the best case scenario is usually not going to be the theoretical best case.
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Comment on Former US President Donald Trump will speak at the Libertarian National Convention in ~misc
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentThe headline did say it was a Trump speaking engagement. Saying it again is just redundant. 🤣I think it's a bad faith engagement either way.
The headline did say it was a Trump speaking engagement. Saying it again is just redundant. 🤣
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Comment on Former US President Donald Trump will speak at the Libertarian National Convention in ~misc
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentFrom the article: So it seems that they (I think naively, but naive is the whole libertarian platform IMO) believe that they'll get Trump to address issues that they believe are important to them....From the article:
The Libertarian Party said in a release announcing the speech that they will share a list of their top ten issues with Trump ahead of the convention, “hoping to make an impact on the policy positions of a past, and possibly future, President.”
So it seems that they (I think naively, but naive is the whole libertarian platform IMO) believe that they'll get Trump to address issues that they believe are important to them. I suspect that they will find themselves wanting in so much as they are unable to convince him that destroying this, that, or the other piece of government is a good idea, which... Who knows, maybe he'll think all of their shit is a great idea and will make an effective tool for their agenda?
I won't fault a group for wanting to have honest engagement of ideas with a political candidate and inviting them to a forum to address the ideals of the group (and where libertarians generally seem to think that everyone is a rational actor who would "do the right thing" absent oversight, I suspect that they think Trump is going to do that) but I mean, come on, you have had so long to see how this guy operates. It's some next level situational blindness to not see that Trump is going to do the same stumping he does everywhere and it'll mostly be incoherent blather with a side of racism and boorish attempts at snark. They could just not pay whatever his speaking fee is, wheel a TV up on the stage to run Fox News for the timeslot, and get the same effect.
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Comment on Alan Wake 2 still hasn't earned back its budget in ~games
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentHeroic seems to be the smoothest experience from what I've tried. Though I did just get notified about Junk Store this morning that looks like it may be even better than that? I might give it a...Heroic seems to be the smoothest experience from what I've tried. Though I did just get notified about Junk Store this morning that looks like it may be even better than that? I might give it a try just to see what the state of the art is right now.
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Comment on Alan Wake 2 still hasn't earned back its budget in ~games
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentI mean... No part of what you've said does anything to dissuade me from seeing how publishing a game and making it exclusive to your storefront are not intrinsically bound together... So, yeah,...I mean... No part of what you've said does anything to dissuade me from seeing how publishing a game and making it exclusive to your storefront are not intrinsically bound together... So, yeah, it's a shitty thing that publishers sometimes do, but it's clearly not a requirement.
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Comment on Alan Wake 2 still hasn't earned back its budget in ~games
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentTomato, tomato. EA and Ubisoft both publish games that are developed by outside devs which aren't locked exclusively to Origin and UPlay respectively, so clearly the exclusivity is its own...They didn't take Epic money for exclusivity (I don't think that's still happening in general anymore). Epic funded and published the game, same with Alan Wake Remastered.
Tomato, tomato. EA and Ubisoft both publish games that are developed by outside devs which aren't locked exclusively to Origin and UPlay respectively, so clearly the exclusivity is its own distinct shitty thing.
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Comment on Alan Wake 2 still hasn't earned back its budget in ~games
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentSteam has features that I use that have loads of increased friction to extend to games acquired via EGS. Steam Deck and Steam Link primarily. I can get EGS games working on my Steam Deck, but it's...Steam has features that I use that have loads of increased friction to extend to games acquired via EGS. Steam Deck and Steam Link primarily. I can get EGS games working on my Steam Deck, but it's work when I'd rather be gaming and it often requires ongoing work to keep it working so it's just a treadmill of me doing stuff that feels like the stuff I'm gaming to get away from.
That said, I'm against paid exclusives and walled gardens in principle so even if EGS had parity for features I love, it'd still be a no from me until the exclusivity shit ends.
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Comment on Alan Wake 2 still hasn't earned back its budget in ~games
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentThis was an earnings statement for investors in Remedy Entertainment Plc, not Epic, so it would be weird for them to be talking about Epic's concerns: Granted I'm not certain how things work in...Unless I misunderstood
This was an earnings statement for investors in Remedy Entertainment Plc, not Epic, so it would be weird for them to be talking about Epic's concerns:
In February 2024, Remedy announced that Alan Wake 2 had sold 1.3 million units as of the beginning of February. Alan Wake 2 sales have continued with a high average price. At the end of the first quarter, the game had recouped a significant part of the development and marketing expenses. During the first quarter, the team focused on working on the downloadable content (DLC) that will extend Alan Wake 2.
Granted I'm not certain how things work in Finland, but I think it would still be weird for them to be releasing an investor report that is telling their investors how the American company Epic Games, Inc. is doing publishing Remedy's game when the investors are probably more interested in the company they invested in.
But they shopped around and Epic made the best deal?
Epic made the best up front deal by guaranteeing a payout for exclusivity. It probably reduced the amount of worry and uncertainty in making the game, but Steam typically has double the daily active users of EGS, and EGS has Fortnite so I imagine that most of that EGS number is Fortnite and not people who might want to give a heavily story driven, sequel, single player, with high PC graphical requirements, sort of experience a go. As I said, Remedy probably would have made the game anyhow without Epic, but it's impossible now to see what that path would have looked like. It probably would have been more stressful and worrying (as I said, more suffering for the art) but I suspect that they wanted it enough that it would have happened with or without Epic's money despite what anyone says because they clearly have a story that they wanted to get out into the world that they're passionate about and such people don't often allow money to stop them for too long.
It is wholly a horse of a different color, but it bears mentioning that when the original Alan Wake released on Steam back in 2012, it made back (and them some) its development and marketing budget in 2 days, while Alan Wake 2 has had the better part of 2 quarters and hasn't yet crossed that line despite having vastly superior name recognition, word of mouth, critical acclaim, and all the wind in their sails anyone could hope for including a huge presence at the VGAs. The budgets are obviously worlds of difference, but I think it's illustrative of what a good platform can do for a game and Epic just isn't yet a good platform for developers aside the truckloads of money that they'll drive up to your door for exclusivity.
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Comment on Alan Wake 2 still hasn't earned back its budget in ~games
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentI mean, the premise of the article is that they haven't made back what they spent to make the game, so in the most literal sense (so far) it hasn't been worth it beyond their being able to make...it was totally worth it.
I mean, the premise of the article is that they haven't made back what they spent to make the game, so in the most literal sense (so far) it hasn't been worth it beyond their being able to make the art that they wanted to make (which I'll give you is probably justification enough, but that's not how you keep being a going concern.)
I'd wager decent money that they could have made what they wanted and could have earned back their budget at launch if they had released on Steam day and date with Epic, it's obviously a project where there's a lot of love and while it's terrible that it's true, a lot of artists will suffer a great deal for the art they love so this probably would have happened either way. 🤷♂️
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Comment on Alan Wake 2 still hasn't earned back its budget in ~games
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentI have a fairly solid friend group who all have Steam accounts (many of which who have kids who also have Steam accounts) and are pretty regular buyers there, I can't say that I've heard a single...I have a fairly solid friend group who all have Steam accounts (many of which who have kids who also have Steam accounts) and are pretty regular buyers there, I can't say that I've heard a single one of them saying anything about EGS or games therein. I don't think that outside of dedicated gamers and/or Fortnite players, Epic Store even exists. It's just not a name that has the popularity of Steam and that's where it really matters.
I (like you) also think that the "people who know what EGS is and won't buy there" crowd is pretty small, unfortunately for Tim and Co. there's the larger problem that the "people who don't even know that EGS exists" crowd is massive and they're not going to be drawn in by these exclusives to figure it out when there's known platforms (PlayStation & Xbox) that have the same games available.
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Comment on Alan Wake 2 still hasn't earned back its budget in ~games
DarthYoshiBoy LinkI'd love to help them out, but I ain't a buyer on any storefront where they want to sell the game, and I imagine that I'm not the only one. I really think it's that simple. I won't do Epic for PC...I'd love to help them out, but I ain't a buyer on any storefront where they want to sell the game, and I imagine that I'm not the only one.
I really think it's that simple. I won't do Epic for PC and I won't do digital for PS51 so even though I love Alan Wake, Control, and basically everything that Remedy has ever done2 they won't meet me where I'm a buyer and I'm less than surprised that they're not "Earning their budget back." Which, honestly? Fuck 'em.
They would have got my money anytime they wanted to do the barest minimum to earn the sale, instead they took Epic money to be exclusive and probably sunk any possibility of ever making even a fraction of what they could have made being both a physical release and on the most prominent storefront for their showcase platform at launch. As it is, I've seen far too many spoilers for the game now to warrant paying full price if it ever comes to a format where I would make a purchase. I hope the Epic exclusive was worth it, but it sorta seems like it maybe wasn't?
1 a position that has proven sapient as Sony has repeatedly decided to un-own stuff for users on PSN
2 and I have often bought multiple copies of their games in the past, usually once for Console and once for PC going all the way back to Xbox360 and the OG Alan Wake -
Comment on For those involved / interested in Web3, what do you make of the near and long term future for it? in ~tech
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentIt should be noted that the phrase "Tamper Proof" is probably a bit misleading as there is plenty one can do to tamper with a blockchain outside of the chain itself and the "Tamper Proof" nature...It should be noted that the phrase "Tamper Proof" is probably a bit misleading as there is plenty one can do to tamper with a blockchain outside of the chain itself and the "Tamper Proof" nature just makes it so that there's no recourse when the outside the chain tampering goes down.
If you give someone 10,000 Bitcoin in exchange for a couple pizzas and they just take the Bitcoin and disappear without providing any pizza, you've lost your Bitcoin and there's no mechanism to get it back, whereas your purchase of pizza via a debit card has protections that will "Tamper" with the ledger to ensure that you get your money back when due pizza does not materialize. This has been mentioned elsewhere here in the thread, but it's called The Oracle Problem and it basically boils down to the fact that you can only trust a blockchain to be accurate about itself, it can't do anything to square its internal state with reality AND MORE IMPORTANTLY it can't do anything to make reality conform to its internal state. The fact is that there's more than enough that lives outside the chain (almost everything in actual fact) to make that a rife playground for troublemakers and it's why literally no other system in the history of society has evolved to fill this niche, it assumes a lot of spherical cows to function as intended. It demands a TON of trust (I'd argue more than what our traditional system does) for what's supposed to be a trustless system.
Regardless, Randall Munroe said it best all the way back in 2009: https://xkcd.com/538/
If the Government wants to "Tamper" with your ledger, they're not going to be thwarted because you have great crypto protecting you and they probably don't actually care about you to begin with so the whole exercise is a farce. (Humorously enough, Randall was probably wrong about the wrench in the alt-text, this bad boy adjusted for inflation would have been $4.80 back in 2009: https://www.harborfreight.com/14-in-steel-pipe-wrench-61349.html)
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Comment on Reasons why World of Warcraft private servers fail in ~games
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentMaybe things have changed, but way back in the day when I played around with some private servers you had to provide your own copy of the client and it was fully unmodified, you just went and...Maybe things have changed, but way back in the day when I played around with some private servers you had to provide your own copy of the client and it was fully unmodified, you just went and dumped some crap in your hosts file to get everything wired up properly and off you went. Granted that was shy of 2 decades ago now, so 🤷♂️.
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Comment on I’ve been at NPR for twenty-five years. Here’s how we lost America’s trust. in ~news
DarthYoshiBoy Linkhttps://archive.is/kX4dH if you prefer to not feed the clickbait machine.https://archive.is/kX4dH if you prefer to not feed the clickbait machine.
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Comment on Why Bluesky remains the most interesting experiment in social media, by far in ~tech
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentThey are for profit, but they have chosen to be a Public Benefit Corporation which allows them (and their board) to take actions they otherwise would be liable for, in the interest of serving the...They are for profit, but they have chosen to be a Public Benefit Corporation which allows them (and their board) to take actions they otherwise would be liable for, in the interest of serving the Public Benefit they've identified (In this case, "open and decentralized public discussion.") So there's even a hedge there.
As a PBC they have a duty to (a) the shareholders, (b) the constituencies materially affected by the PBC's conduct, and (c) the public benefit(s) identified in their charter; and crucially shareholders cannot end or dilute the public benefit commitment of the PBC from year to year. Which isn't perfect, but what really is? They're trying, and as a user of both Mastodon and Bluesky, I have to say that they're doing the better job. I can't get my socials to join Mastodon for anything, but many of them will hop onto Bluesky easy.
For them as a PBC, the financial incentives only exist so long as they're serving their charter public benefit, so while it's entirely possible that they one day choose to reincorporate or something (I don't know if that's allowed/possible) to drop their charter cause, I think their mission to build a functional protocol above and beyond the platform itself has ensured that they wouldn't be able to do so without materially ending their existence because the genie is already out of the bottle and their product is out there for anyone to duplicate if desired. 🤷♂️
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Comment on Why Bluesky remains the most interesting experiment in social media, by far in ~tech
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentIf you hop into the settings for Bluesky, there's a setting for how many likes a reply needs to have to be shown in your feed, setting that significantly up from the default of 2 cleared a bunch...If you hop into the settings for Bluesky, there's a setting for how many likes a reply needs to have to be shown in your feed, setting that significantly up from the default of
2cleared a bunch of Neil off of my follow feed. I still enjoy seeing his replies and stuff in general that he posts, but the default2likes was far too few. You can also enable a setting that will only show replies in your feed if you follow both of the users involved in the transaction. I don't have that one on, but I might use it some day once the userbase starts to flesh out. -
Comment on Nobody warned electric vehicle owners how quickly they would burn through tires in ~transport
DarthYoshiBoy LinkI own a Nissan Leaf that hasn't been going through tires any faster than any other car I've ever owned. That said, I drive it exclusively in Eco mode with the enhanced regenerative braking drive...I own a Nissan Leaf that hasn't been going through tires any faster than any other car I've ever owned. That said, I drive it exclusively in Eco mode with the enhanced regenerative braking drive setting engaged so it's not laying down 100% of the torque it's capable of producing ever and my starts in it are generally slower/smoother than anything I've ever gotten from an ICE car.
I have taken it out of Eco mode once or twice and really given it "the gas" and I can see how you'd just shred tires if that was your day to day driving; it'll have no issues with putting a ton of torque straight into the wheels if you let it, but it also shreds your maximum range to drive like that so I take things slow and steady while remaining quite pleased.
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Comment on Why Bluesky remains the most interesting experiment in social media, by far in ~tech
DarthYoshiBoy Link ParentDid you read the piece? I (like the author of the piece) think the abstracted moderation and decentralized nature will probably do a decent job of keeping enshittification at bay. It's entirely...Personally I fail to see how it could be anything but temporary, when all the same preconditions for enshittification are there
Did you read the piece? I (like the author of the piece) think the abstracted moderation and decentralized nature will probably do a decent job of keeping enshittification at bay. It's entirely possible that some new path towards enshittification emerges, but for the ones we know of now, it looks like they're doing their honest best to keep them in check.
All of that just makes me angrier now that I know it was not because of some technical limitation or anything real, it was just a lack of imagination that anything might ever be different.