zoroa's recent activity
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Comment on Tildes Video Thread in ~misc
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Comment on Many widely used female health apps fail to protect highly sensitive data, study finds in ~health
zoroa LinkMozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, has a series of articles where they provide "privacy reviews" on products. They have a section on reproductive health:...- Exemplary
Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, has a series of articles where they provide "privacy reviews" on products. They have a section on reproductive health: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/categories/reproductive-health/ . I'm not actually sure how useful this content is, but it might be somewhat helpful to someone looking for a semi-consistent comparison of different products.
Also if you're on Android (or on iOS in the EU?), installing open-source health apps could also one a way to get some piece of mind. The incentive for open-source developers to collect and sell user data usually isn't high enough to surmount the technical and cultural hurdles.
Tangentially, it's worrying that this pattern of "tech app mishandles sensitive data" continues to occurs across sectors of tech where it'd be very reasonable to assume a higher standard of privacy:
Tele-Health
Dating Apps:
Cars:
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Comment on Duck Game rights are returned to developer in ~games
zoroa Link ParentAt least one other Adult Swim Games game was able to get the rights back to the devs. See this tweet from the dev of Small Radios Big Televisions.At least one other Adult Swim Games game was able to get the rights back to the devs.
See this tweet from the dev of Small Radios Big Televisions.
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Comment on Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content in ~comp
zoroa LinkThat echoes my feelings about an experience I had recently, where a coworker submitted a Pull Request (PR) for me to review. Typically, you'd spend 3-5 minutes writing a description of your PR...But I’m increasingly of the opinion that sharing unreviewed content that has been artificially generated with other people is rude.
That echoes my feelings about an experience I had recently, where a coworker submitted a Pull Request (PR) for me to review.
Typically, you'd spend 3-5 minutes writing a description of your PR that gives a useful and concise overview of your work. But instead, they dumped a veritable wall of slop generated by an LLM that very literally summarized their PR (e.g. "This block of code was added to this
path/to/file. This achieves [SOME INACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE IMPACT]").I was really frustrated by that interaction. It felt like they were signaling that their time was too valuable to spend on this pull request, but that somehow my time wasn't valuable enough to avoid reading their slop.
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HADES II Early Access has started
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Comment on Cartoons such as Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, or Avatar? in ~tv
zoroa (edited )Link ParentThere's a lot I don't like about Korra Weak spoiler for end-of-season action scene. Why were giant mech battles how TWO seasons ended?! But it's hard not to acknowledge how the show runners swung...There's a lot I don't like about Korra
Weak spoiler for end-of-season action scene.
Why were giant mech battles how TWO seasons ended?!But it's hard not to acknowledge how the show runners swung for the fences in both series with the themes they portrayed in a children's show.
Spoiler for a theme in Season 4 of Korra
Korra's journey with PTSD was one of my earliest exposures to the idea, and felt like a very powerful depiction of how trauma can trap someone. -
Comment on Cartoons such as Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, or Avatar? in ~tv
zoroa Link ParentI'm assuming you mean the series from 2003 and not the reboot. I hadn't thought about that in forever, and now I'm awash in a wave a nostalgia for that show.I'm assuming you mean the series from 2003 and not the reboot.
I hadn't thought about that in forever, and now I'm awash in a wave a nostalgia for that show.
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Comment on Steam refund policy update - "Advanced Access" now counts towards refund window in ~games
zoroa Link ParentValve updated their refund policy to explicitly call out both "Early Access" and "Advanced Access": Taken from: https://www.theverge.com/24138776/steam-refund-policy-changeValve updated their refund policy to explicitly call out both "Early Access" and "Advanced Access":
Here’s what Valve’s updated refund policy says about that as of today:
REFUNDS ON TITLES PURCHASED PRIOR TO RELEASE DATE
When you purchase a title on Steam prior to the release date, the two-hour playtime limit for refunds will apply (except for beta testing), but the 14-day period for refunds will not start until the release date. For example, if you purchase a game that is in Early Access or Advanced Access, any playtime will count against the two-hour refund limit. If you pre-purchase a title which is not playable prior to the release date, you can request a refund at any time prior to release of that title, and the standard 14-day/two-hour refund period will apply starting on the game’s release date.
Compare to earlier this month:
REFUNDS ON PRE-PURCHASED TITLES
When you pre-purchase a title on Steam (and have paid for the title in advance), you can request a refund at any time prior to release of that title. The standard 14-day/two-hour refund period also applies, starting on the game’s release date.
Taken from: https://www.theverge.com/24138776/steam-refund-policy-change
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Comment on Steam refund policy update - "Advanced Access" now counts towards refund window in ~games
zoroa LinkWas it widely known that playtime in Early Access didn't count towards the refund period? The "new" policy had always been my interpretation of Steam's Refund Policy, so I'd always be super wary...Was it widely known that playtime in Early Access didn't count towards the refund period?
The "new" policy had always been my interpretation of Steam's Refund Policy, so I'd always be super wary of going beyond that until I was sure I wanted to keep the game.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
zoroa Link ParentI'm pretty sure I hit 60 hours for the first Octopath, and howlongtobeat suggests Octopath Traveler II is in the same boatI went into this one completely blind and I have no clue if I'm in for another 10 hours or if it will be a 100+ hour grindfest, like Dragon Quest 11 turned into.
I'm pretty sure I hit 60 hours for the first Octopath, and howlongtobeat suggests Octopath Traveler II is in the same boat
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
zoroa LinkEiyuden Chronicle: Rising I'm still on my JRPG arc. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes releases tomorrow, 2024-04-23, and I'm really excited. Coming into the weekend, I figured I'd whet my appetite...Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising
I'm still on my JRPG arc. Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes releases tomorrow, 2024-04-23, and I'm really excited. Coming into the weekend, I figured I'd whet my appetite by playing the first game in the series: Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising.
Rising was the stretch goal for the Kickstarter campaign that brought Hundred Heroes to life. That context was constantly top of mind, since my entire playthrough screamed: "We just need to get this out the door as efficiently as possible so we can work on Hundred Heroes". That framing was unreasonably good at rationalizing why I liked and disliked parts of this game.
The art was by far my favorite part of the experience. The environments are gorgeous, and punch so far above the weight of everything else this game has to offer. The spritework done for the main characters and a few side characters is also great. I wouldn't be surprised if these art assets were re-used in Hundred Heroes to justify the disproportionate effort investment.
That investment of effort probably wasn't something the developers could extend very far, which would explain the rest of the game felt so flat.
The storytelling is anemic.
The plot is weak, and never evolves much beyond its premise of "an adventurer leaves home for a coming of home adventure". That "adventure" is entirely comprised of helping towns people with menial tasks (side quests) until the main character falls into a "mystery" most of the way through the game.
Every single one of the roughly 130 side quests, and a good chunk of the 31 main quests, is a fetch quest. Either "go to find a resource for me", or "go kill a monster and get this drop for me", or "go around town and talk to this person for me". The last one being the source of one especially egregious quest, where I had to talk to someone, then relay a message to the person 2 steps to their right, and then go back to end the quest. The repetition wouldn't be that bad if the quests provided some exposition about the world or an avenue to develop characters, but they don't. It's always a sentence or two of bland flavor text to initiate the quest, and at the end it's more bland flavor text of the main character asking for their reward.
All of the characters are flat. Dialogue is only used as a utility to move the game along, seldom provides any insight that elevates the characters out of the archetypes they were introduced as, and further highlights how repetitious this game is. The only reason I even remember the main character's name is because of a gag that happens at the end of the game.
Movement in the hub town feels sluggish and awkward. My entire playthrough was spent wishing I could move faster in the town. A wish exacerbated by the jerky running animations that make the characters look less like people and more like marionettes. I'd guess this is why the game immediately gives you access to fast travel in the town, that you can always access with a button press.
The combat is... fine? Rising is a Hack-and-Slash Action RPG, with some borrowed elements from metroidvanias (backtracking, light platforming, 2.5D). Combat at the beginning of the game feels really rough, since you're missing a lot of what other hack and slash games would start you out with (upwards and downwards attacks, longer combos). The RPG systems (accessories, magic, weapon/armor buffs) all felt cosmetic, in that they were just stat buffs that felt imperceptible in an already too easy game.
Despite all of those negatives, I didn't hate my time with the game. I was eventually frustrated by some background music I found repetitive, turned off the game audio, and turned on the podcast. The game started to really work for me at that point; its repetitiveness meant that I didn't really have to pay that much attention. I could just enjoy the eye candy as I mindlessly worked through the dungeons and the side quests.
It is a shame that the storytelling was so weak. Rising takes place in a contemporary time period to Hundred Heroes, with many of the characters in Rising set to appear in Hundred Heroes (I'd imagine that's all the characters with impressive character design). Investing in the story, worldbuilding, and characters would have made for a strong payoff going into Hundred Heroes.
I don't know that I really got anything out of playing this game, other than the Marvel-esque after-credits scene that teases the conflict in Hundred Heroes. Nor do I think I would even started (read paid for) the game had it not been bundled in my Gamepass subscription.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
zoroa LinkI finally pulled the trigger on getting on home server going. I suspect @artvandelay and I both found similar resources, since I also ended up getting an HP Elitedesk 800 PC (I got a mini instead...I finally pulled the trigger on getting on home server going. I suspect @artvandelay and I both found similar resources, since I also ended up getting an HP Elitedesk 800 PC (I got a mini instead of the SFF one).
I got proxmox and home assistant running surprisingly quickly. Took maybe 20 minutes.
But the whole process has me feeling... uncomfortable?
I have learned absolutely nothing so far, and have gained no tools for navigating home server administration with any confidence. I have no clue
- What the tradeoffs were when I chose proxmox vs anything else (docker, bare metal)?
- How I should be thinking about backups?
- If there's some way I could be documenting my server configuration as code, so I can drop it into a git repo.
- How I should be approaching the other stuff I want to use my server for that wasn't just a "download this script that sets up a proxmox vm for you".
Most of the home server/homelab documentation has either felt like:
- Guides targeting people who don't care about the technical details and just want something that works
- Reference documentation for the IT professional
I am in the middle and still feel very lost.
I tried to fix some of my old phones
I had some old phones with broken displays that I wanted to get running again to use as a secondary device. The phones worked fine other than the broken screens; I'd used both in the past year by mirroring them to my computer with scrcpy (one on the day I did the repairs).
But somehow managed to brick both devices?
I replaced the battery and display on the first phone, but was never able to get it to show any sign of life.
I replaced the display on the second, and everything seemed to be working initially. But after a full boot, the device suddenly turned off and has not even vibrated since.
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Comment on Looking for advice on replacing my motherboard in ~tech
zoroa LinkGiven the price sensitivity, and the fact that you are fine with your current performance, you're probably right that it's not worth the CPU upgrade. Though to give some context on what you can...Because, unlike me, most Tildes users are in the US, Canada, and Europe, when taking prices into account, multiply them by 5 in your head to have a sense of what that expense means in my country.
Given the price sensitivity, and the fact that you are fine with your current performance, you're probably right that it's not worth the CPU upgrade.
Though to give some context on what you can do: you're actually in a position for a decent CPU upgrade. Your motherboard is compatible with AMD's 5000 series CPUs, which is two generations newer than what you have. You'd enjoy a pretty sizeable performance lift, and many of the better CPUs in that generation have been coming down in price (in North America atleast). (I recently did a CPU upgrade from a CPU in the same generation as yours to the 5700x for around $150 USD).
Under the assumption that you're looking for the cheapest solution here, getting the same (or another motherboard compatible with the rest of your current build) would probably make the most sense.
Getting a more recent motherboard for AMD or Intel would require that you update other parts of your PC simulatenously (RAM + CPU).
You may be able to find an open box/refurbished motherboard for relatively cheap.
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Comment on Hades II - Technical test sign ups now available in ~games
zoroa LinkSuperGiant is currently livestreaming gameplay from their technical test: https://www.twitch.tv/supergiantgamesSuperGiant is currently livestreaming gameplay from their technical test: https://www.twitch.tv/supergiantgames
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Comment on How can I completely and permanently remove the ability to access the internet from a Debian derivative? in ~tech
zoroa Link ParentThe service manual for your laptop has a section that describes how to remove the network card from your laptop. This would disable internet (and bluetooth) access....Dell Inspiron 15 P39F
The service manual for your laptop has a section that describes how to remove the network card from your laptop.
This would disable internet (and bluetooth) access.
https://dl.dell.com/topicspdf/inspiron-15-5548-laptop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf#page=19
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Comment on An honest assessment of American rural white resentment is long overdue in ~misc
zoroa Link ParentMy understanding is that it's typically frowned upon to dump full articles in thread comments on TildesMy understanding is that it's typically frowned upon to dump full articles in thread comments on Tildes
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Comment on Megathread: April Fools’ Day 2024 on the internet in ~talk
zoroa LinkLandfall Games released Content Warning, a clone of Lethal Company, that's free to claim until April 2ndLandfall Games released Content Warning, a clone of Lethal Company, that's free to claim until April 2nd
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Comment on Tildes Video Thread in ~misc
zoroa LinkAll you have to do is start. by @LifeOfRiza Life of Riza's videos give me nostalgia for Casey Neistat at the peak of his daily vlog series. She's able to use incredible cinematography and great...All you have to do is start. by @LifeOfRiza
Life of Riza's videos give me nostalgia for Casey Neistat at the peak of his daily vlog series.
She's able to use incredible cinematography and great storytelling skills to elevate what could otherwise be a boring video of her engaging in the mundanity of working on her house.
A Yuzu Post-Mortem: The Great Emu-War, Pt. 2 by @MoonChannel
A lawyer provides a legal analysis of the suit that Nintendo brought against Tropic Haze LLC., developers of the the Nintendo Switch Emulator Yuzu:
The Great Emu-War continues. Yuzu, once the leading Nintendo Switch emulator, has been sued out of existence by Nintendo of America. In so doing, Nintendo has revealed its complete hand, and we have, arguably for the first time, a clear look at Nintendo's complete legal strategy against emulation.
In this episode, we'll break down exactly what Nintendo's argument is, and look also at the mistakes Yuzu made which allowed Nintendo to put the squeeze on them.
2023 was a Terrible Year to Look for a Publisher.... (and 2024 is Worse) by @Noclip
Noclip, video game documentarians, have been developing a video game in effort of documenting parts of development that are otherwise hard to shine a light on.
In this video, they discuss their struggles looking for a publisher for their video game during 2023.
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Comment on Redis adopts dual source-available licensing in ~tech
zoroa LinkUpdate: Linux Foundation Launches Open Source Valkey Community This seems to continue a pattern of: "Open Source project gets popular. Project relicenses to be more commercially viable. A fork of...Update: Linux Foundation Launches Open Source Valkey Community
Today, the Linux Foundation announced its intent to form Valkey, an open source alternative to the Redis in-memory, NoSQL data store. Project contributors quickly gathered maintainer, community, and corporate support to regroup in response to the recent license change announced by Redis Inc. Valkey will continue development on Redis 7.2.4 and will keep the project available for use and distribution under the open source Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) 3-clause license.
This seems to continue a pattern of: "Open Source project gets popular. Project relicenses to be more commercially viable. A fork of the pre-relicensed repo is created and maintained by the Linux Foundation".
Previous example: Linux Foundation Launches OpenTofu: A New Open Source Alternative to Terraform
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Comment on In the AI era, is translation already dead? in ~humanities.languages
zoroa Link ParentI'm kicking myself because I remember reading (listening to? watching?) something where a translator was making a similar conclusion, but I can't find it either. The translator made a point where...I read an interesting interview with a professional translator a while back — Unfortunately, I'm not able to find it anymore.
I'm kicking myself because I remember reading (listening to? watching?) something where a translator was making a similar conclusion, but I can't find it either. The translator made a point where there are domains where the cost of a machine mistranslating a document can be tremendous (e.g. contract law).
Separately, the video 999 - How to Make Good Use of Bad Language by Aquason was on an eye opener on how much of an art a good translation/localization is.
The author uses the lens of a video game localization to explore how a translator chooses to represent Japanese "profanity" in English. A process which has a surprising amount of depth, since there isn't a clear 1-to-1 for how swearing is done in English vs Japanese.
How AI Stole the ✨ Sparkles ✨ Emoji by @DavidImel
Balancing Abilities / Weapons Before Player Feedback by @FancyTyme i.e. Joshua Sawyer
I don't know that I'm really recommending this video, than the channel itself. Ever since Obsidian Entertainment shipped Pentiment at the end of 2022, game director Josh Sawyer has been sporadically posting content about game development on his YouTube channel. Think Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games, but less regular and less produced (with a singular video about his bike mixed in).
I'm not a game developer, but I really enjoy listening to skilled people with a lot of experience talk about how they do the thing they are good at.