Banazir's recent activity
-
Comment on Is Emacs or VIM worth learning in today's day and age? in ~comp
-
Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Banazir LinkI picked up Another Crab's Treasure when it came out about a week ago, and it's been a blast. It's a souls-like game where you're a hermit crab using different shells to gain different abilities...I picked up Another Crab's Treasure when it came out about a week ago, and it's been a blast. It's a souls-like game where you're a hermit crab using different shells to gain different abilities and armor. Your main goal is to get your stolen home back, but you end up having to do more and more just to meet the demands of the business shark who stole it. This is the most I've ever played a souls-like, since in the past my muscle memory from Monster Hunter has interfered with my dodge timings to the point that I couldn't get very far. Another Crab's Treasure is relatively lighthearted and simpler than most of the genre, but it still includes common mechanics like dodging, blocking and parrying, quick/light and slow/heavy attacks, health potions, and bonfires/checkpoints. It's full of references, memes, and puns and overall it's been a blast to play.
Now that Sony has backed off on their decision to force PSN accounts, Helldivers is back on the menu. It's been mentioned farther up in the conversation, but I really think that this is the best co-op PvE experience we've gotten in a long time - and that includes most of my beloved Monster Hunter. The gameplay is third person over-the-shoulder, with first person aiming down sights for most guns, where you're fighting either Automatons (robots) or Terminids (bugs) who are encroaching on planets claimed and controlled by Super Earth. The whole game is set in a satirical fascist future where the government can do no wrong, and the satire is laid on thick enough that most people are able to catch it early on. There are battlepasses, but they're optional, can be unlocked for free via gameplay, and never expire, so there's no fear of missing out to motivate you to indulge in microtransactions. Overall, the developers (Arrowhead Games) are doing their absolute best to do everything right, and the game has only gotten better since it came out.
Finally, I've been casually playing and streaming BPS - Bullets Per Second. It's a FPS roguelike where you shoot, jump, dodge, and generally act on a beat similar to Crypt of the Necrodancer. Movement (yours and enemies) is not constrained to the beat, so you have to keep moving to avoid getting hit. The gameplay feels fast-paced and overall pretty smooth, but sometimes the beat detection just feels sloppy and a shot doesn't go off or your combo multiplier gets reset as a result. One of the stars of this game is the soundtrack - each level you go through has its own soundtrack, and areas like shopkeepers have their own tracks too. It's almost all metal, which fits the Norse theming of the levels and the Valkyrie characters you play. My two winning runs took me roughly an hour each, so it's a good game to pick up and play in relatively shorter bursts if you don't have long stretches of time.
-
Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
Banazir LinkI just finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and I absolutely loved it. I'm a math nerd at heart and cryptography is what got me into computer science in the first place, so having a book...I just finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and I absolutely loved it. I'm a math nerd at heart and cryptography is what got me into computer science in the first place, so having a book where whole chapters broke down some of the math behind encryption was a joy for me. I got some ribbing from my friends when I said the math sucked me in, but it really did. This was my first Stephenson book, and I'll probably pick up ReaMde (another computer-focused Stephenson novel) in the somewhat near future.
One of my local book club's books for the month (we pick three, you read what you want of those three) is The Jinn-Bot of Shantiport by Samit Basu. I'm only in the introductory chapters so I can't talk about it much, but I'm enjoying the sci-fi setting that feels like there's some fantasy hidden under the covers.
Finally, I'm in an online book club that's doing a Silmarillion read-along and discussion. I joined the community for the last Silmarillion club they did in late 2020 and it was enjoyable. I've been wanting to read through it again and take notes this time, so I'm using this club and the discussion as an excuse to do so. For those interested, look up Tea With Tolkien and you'll find the group. Be aware that the book club leader is fairly vocal about her Christian background and a lot of the discussion focuses on how Tolkien's Catholic faith influenced his writing in various ways.
I'm biased because I use Vi/Vim/Neovim anywhere I can, but I say it's worth it especially if you have to do any system setup from a very simple base image. It's a huge advantage to have not just an editor available, but a relatively complex one that can handle text manipulation commands. I've set up a few systems that only had Vi, not even full Vim or Nano. Granted you can install those quickly, but usually the point is to minimize actual time on server and reduce your personal footprint as much as possible.
If you're only working on your own machine, then I'd say it's less required. However, the big strength of Vim and Emacs in that situation is the default keybinds and commands. Being able to move, delete, or reformat whole paragraphs of code with a few keystrokes (and no mouse!) is a huge efficiency boost. You spend less time thinking about how to edit and more time thinking about how to improve the code. Once the commands become muscle memory, you'll find yourself missing having them.
If you want to learn, there's no better tool than
vimtutorto get started. Either way, have fun!