Akir's recent activity
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Comment on Slop and guilt in ~talk
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Comment on Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft/Xbox in ~games
Akir Link ParentI feel they could do all of the things they want by simply manufacturing peripherals at this point. But there’s significantly less money to be made that way versus having the proverbial keys to...I feel they could do all of the things they want by simply manufacturing peripherals at this point. But there’s significantly less money to be made that way versus having the proverbial keys to the kingdom.
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Comment on Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft/Xbox in ~games
Akir Link ParentI feel that since at least the time Microsoft announced the Xbox One they have been actively trying to kill consoles. Their announcement of that system not only had some massively stupid changes...I feel that since at least the time Microsoft announced the Xbox One they have been actively trying to kill consoles. Their announcement of that system not only had some massively stupid changes that they were forced to peddle back on from public outcry, they started showing it off with media capabilities and didn’t talk games for something like the first 15-20 minutes. Since then, they’ve further integrated their console business with Windows, and essentially killed off the idea of console exclusives.
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Comment on Phil Spencer is leaving Microsoft/Xbox in ~games
Akir Link ParentThey did a steam deck, kind of. They have the Xbox branded Acer ROG Ally X Xbox or whatever stupid name they call the thing. They introduced new windows features coinciding with its release to be...They did a steam deck, kind of. They have the Xbox branded Acer ROG Ally X Xbox or whatever stupid name they call the thing. They introduced new windows features coinciding with its release to be more competitive with steam deck on the software front.
I haven’t heard any reports of anyone buying it though. It was very expensive.
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Comment on What's a reasonable amount of time to spend on an RPG campaign? in ~games
Akir Link ParentI know wanting 5 hour RPGs is weird, but I think that the reason why I end up noping out of a lot of RPGs - particularly those without particularly engaging combat mechanics - is that they are...I know wanting 5 hour RPGs is weird, but I think that the reason why I end up noping out of a lot of RPGs - particularly those without particularly engaging combat mechanics - is that they are often padded with what tends to feel like busywork. I'm told that Omori is a masterwork. And it might be, but the length combined with a lost save (Steam didn't sync it for whatever reason) prevented me from ever really 'getting' it.
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Comment on Ponderings on unicode support on the site, re: punycode, tags, etc in ~tildes
Akir Link ParentWe have a lot of multilingual people here, so I think any attempt to improve non-latin support on tildes is an endeavor worth taking. But at the same time, I don't think that it's a huge priority...We have a lot of multilingual people here, so I think any attempt to improve non-latin support on tildes is an endeavor worth taking. But at the same time, I don't think that it's a huge priority given that conversation here happens entirely in English.
That being said, I kind of like the idea of multilingual tildes conversations as well!
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What's a reasonable amount of time to spend on an RPG campaign?
Personally, I find RPGs to be at their best when they are reasonably short - somewhere between 5 and 20 hours. Games like Chrono Trigger and Earthbound seem to come to mind. For more open-ended...
Personally, I find RPGs to be at their best when they are reasonably short - somewhere between 5 and 20 hours. Games like Chrono Trigger and Earthbound seem to come to mind. For more open-ended experiences like Fallout New Vegas or Skyrim I find that I generally lose interest after somewhere between 30-50 hours regardless of how addictive the gameplay is.
I haven't played tabletop RPGs so I don't have anything to say about them, but please feel free to chime in with them as well.
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Comment on Here are your choices for a self-hosted ebook server in ~books
Akir LinkI'm grateful that this conversation has kept popping up because until now I haven't seen any reason to deal with an ebook server until this moment when I accidentally clicked in and saw a...I'm grateful that this conversation has kept popping up because until now I haven't seen any reason to deal with an ebook server until this moment when I accidentally clicked in and saw a reference to Apple Books. I didn't see what the purpose of having a dedicated server over a basic file server. But now that I realize that they are also syncing the reading status, bookmarks, and annotations, it seems incredibly useful! That was the one reason why I liked using Apple Books for my school texts - it let me read on the go as well as during my scheduled study time at the computer. I also have an ebook reader and having it sync with everything else could be very useful to me.
I have calibre on my mac already for a certain extension needed for, um, reasons, and my ebook reader has koreader which has calibre integration. The only missing part here is on my iPhone. Can I get any recommendations? There's about a million options out there.
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Comment on Lindsay Ellis - Is there still a very special place in hell for Matt Stone and Trey Parker? in ~tv
Akir (edited )Link ParentSouth Park and how the creators' political opinions have managed to affect society. Big parts of it are about ManBearPig and climate denialism as well as their current lampooning of the Trump...South Park and how the creators' political opinions have managed to affect society.
Big parts of it are about ManBearPig and climate denialism as well as their current lampooning of the Trump administration. She also compares how them and Stephen Colbert's criticism of the regime had some very different reactions from Paramount, the company paying both of them. Her works always cover a little bit of everything though.
(edited because the original wasn't terribly detailed)
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Comment on Why Vegas doesn't care if you visit anymore in ~finance
Akir Link ParentWould you mind if I asked what it was you do for a living? Feel free to DM me if you'd rather keep it private.Would you mind if I asked what it was you do for a living? Feel free to DM me if you'd rather keep it private.
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Comment on What are your architectural hot takes? in ~design
Akir Link ParentI don't know if I really agree with you but I do kind of wish it were still used more simply because it's a super durable material that is also very repairable.I don't know if I really agree with you but I do kind of wish it were still used more simply because it's a super durable material that is also very repairable.
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Comment on Why Vegas doesn't care if you visit anymore in ~finance
Akir Link ParentIt should be mentioned that my comment was mainly concerned with the experience on the strip. Outside of it there is still a lot to like, but it's a different kind of experience than what people...It should be mentioned that my comment was mainly concerned with the experience on the strip. Outside of it there is still a lot to like, but it's a different kind of experience than what people tend to think about when they are talking about taking a trip there. I'll reiterate that downtown in particular is wonderful!
The wide variety of people and cultures is one thing I really miss about Las Vegas. Growing up there it kind of made me wonder why people thought racism was a big deal because my schools were always filled with a mixture of people of different ethnicities. It turns out that in most of the rest of the country people are still racially geo-segregated. Where I live right now is an Asian neighborhood, and it's fairly rare to find black people, which still feels very strange in spite of now having lived here longer than I had in Vegas. The church I grew up in was a Southern Baptist congregation, and coming out of it was surprising how much of a negative opinion people had over their hateful ideology - I didn't get that for the most part.
Nowadays I have a love for the place. I don't know if the tourism industry for regular folks will ever recover, but I hope that the other businesses that have sprouted up there over the years continue to thrive and support the people who live there.
The thing I find particularly frustrating about this market change is that while the strip was always expensive for locals, it was still a place one could go to on a free day and enjoy the sights and amenities. I can't speak for them because I am no longer one myself, but it really doesn't feel like that's the case anymore. So the properties on the strip now feel like castles that locals may enter to labor in, but not to participate in.
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Comment on Why Vegas doesn't care if you visit anymore in ~finance
Akir Link ParentI actually have a high opinion of them, but I have seen others who dislike them because they are as much an advocacy organization as they are a news organization. That and there's a crazy...I actually have a high opinion of them, but I have seen others who dislike them because they are as much an advocacy organization as they are a news organization. That and there's a crazy anti-union stigma across much of the US.
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Comment on What are your architectural hot takes? in ~design
Akir Link ParentI think that my primary problem with brutalism is that it seems that every time I see it, it's not because there was some grand artistic vision to choose the style, but because it's less expensive...I think that my primary problem with brutalism is that it seems that every time I see it, it's not because there was some grand artistic vision to choose the style, but because it's less expensive to have exposed concrete than it is to make it look good. There are ways to make concrete forms more beautiful, but it seems like that's not usually happening.
I also hate when a building is entirely concrete. No matter how much shaping you do with it, it's going to look boring. It's the real-world equivalent to making a 3D model and never bothering to apply textures or edit the default material properties. And no, mixing grey concrete with grey bricks does not count. Color variety is important, regardless of what the building is for.
Perhaps the most important thing that I think shouldn't be in a brutalist style is outdoor spaces, such as courtyards or the spaces between buildings. They have the effect of making real plants look artificial, and anyone who is building those painful awkward concrete benches and seating elements that are always freezing and wet in the morning must have never had to live with the aftermath.
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Comment on Why Vegas doesn't care if you visit anymore in ~finance
Akir LinkFor those who might be skeptical given the source, I can tell you from personal experience that they are understating things. I used to live in Las Vegas and it’s rather annoying that most of the...For those who might be skeptical given the source, I can tell you from personal experience that they are understating things. I used to live in Las Vegas and it’s rather annoying that most of the things I was priced out of for lack of money had raised their prices to make it too high when I had the money to spend was a real slap in the face.
I live in Southern California. I am supposed to be the Las Vegas tourism bread and butter. But why would I go there now? It’s far too expensive for glittery things that I am usually priced out of. What would I do, walk through the beautiful malls filled with products I can’t afford? Frankly it’s a better deal staying at the resorts built on reservations, which have also have the plus of knowing my dollars are going to the benefit of the tribe running it. The strange thing is that I’ve actually noticed “reverse tourism” happening a lot more. Just yesterday I met a couple visiting Knott’s Berry Farm from Las Vegas, and they are far from the only ones I’ve come across.
There is a good time to be had in Las Vegas for those who are not rich, but it’s a very different experience. As far as I’m concerned, the area around the Fremont Street Experience - downtown - is the new Strip. They’ve got cheap rooms, table games you can afford to play more than once, affordable restaurants with good quality, and it’s actually walkable unlike the actual Strip. The actual Fremont Street Experience had the balls to block it from car traffic and fill it with people. It’s a modernized version of the idealized “old Vegas”.
The problem with it is that it’s very much a party area, so if you aren’t young or looking for that kind of atmosphere it isn’t going to be the best vacation for you. There are many places outside the strip and Fremont to stay for a more restful experience, but for Californians I would say you would likely be better served by the resorts operated by native tribes.
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Comment on What is the framework being used for these types of websites (fmhy.pages.dev)? in ~comp
Akir Link ParentOne would think, but even when telling them to just give us copy for us to convert ourselves, we still got no bites! To put things charitably, having a website without Wordpress is like being a...One would think, but even when telling them to just give us copy for us to convert ourselves, we still got no bites!
To put things charitably, having a website without Wordpress is like being a print shop that doesn’t accept photoshop files. You’ll be missing out on your ability to do business with some important entities.
To put things the way I personally feel, marketing companies are all staffed with slimy inflexible individuals who don’t know what they are doing and the price of doing business is often to sink down to their level.
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Comment on Hold on to your hardware in ~tech
Akir Link ParentWell now I really want to know how it is that you read it.Well now I really want to know how it is that you read it.
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Comment on Hold on to your hardware in ~tech
Akir LinkI honestly think that there is some kind of mental illness going on specifically among the American business leadership class at this point. It’s one thing to have a large company exit a market...I honestly think that there is some kind of mental illness going on specifically among the American business leadership class at this point. It’s one thing to have a large company exit a market that they are doing bad in but it’s another thing entirely to abandon ones where you control a high portion of it.
Frankly it’s just completely astonishing how many things that our country relies on in order to function essentially can’t be made here. We’ve outsourced everything. While we are still making some essentials, such as foodstuff, the machines that are actually processing those materials to make them usable are all made overseas - China, more often than not. And of course, it’s China who will be bailing us out of this stupid situation too.
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Comment on Hold on to your hardware in ~tech
Akir Link ParentDid you actually see @hungariantoast’s comment? I assumed it was a mistake post because it’s completely blank for me.Did you actually see @hungariantoast’s comment? I assumed it was a mistake post because it’s completely blank for me.
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Comment on What is the framework being used for these types of websites (fmhy.pages.dev)? in ~comp
Akir Link ParentThe business people are actually right to request full CMS, unfortunately. There are tons of marketing agencies who quite simply refuse to write content for websites that are not running...The business people are actually right to request full CMS, unfortunately. There are tons of marketing agencies who quite simply refuse to write content for websites that are not running Wordpress. In my old job we literally couldn’t find any who would be willing to use an HTML template for a small business.
There’s a huge difference between slop and formula. Slop is an absolute minimum of effort expended; it’s phoning things in. Formula is designed to be easy to digest, yes, but it takes effort. Often tremendous effort.
Precure is absolutely formulaic. There is no denying it. But things like reusing animation is not a way of phoning things in, but for increasing overall quality. Having canned animations mean that they have to put their all into the creation of those animations, so they are front-loading their production costs, which is a very high effort thing to do! Doing this also allows them to make sure that the scenes that they are not reusing can have more time to work on and improve the show overall. I am sure precure did not invent canned animations and they are far from the only shows that do it.
It’s also somewhat unfair to say that precure has 1000+ shows. There’s a whole bunch of precure but they are not all the same shows. But then again, what do I know? I’ve seen maybe three episodes of them altogether? Frankly, I do think that the shows are childish and that they are not worth watching. But why the hell should that matter to you? I don’t think less of anyone who watches it. Each episode is undeniably a beautiful work of art even if it’s not something that I personally appreciate. Art doesn’t need to be high brow to be art or to be loved. There are tons of shows that are low brow and arguably have less artistic merit than Precure but are still enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people. I can think of a few even when sticking to animation! Heck, I personally think higher of the people who watch kids animation than I do of the people who watch reality TV, which is generally more acceptable to society at large.