SloMoMonday's recent activity
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Comment on I deleted my second brain in ~tech
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Comment on A review of Alpha School in ~life
SloMoMonday Link ParentWhen I was fixating on sending my kids to the perfect pre-school I spoke to a teacher who explained that "you can pay for education, you can't pay for outcomes". And that's something that really...When I was fixating on sending my kids to the perfect pre-school I spoke to a teacher who explained that "you can pay for education, you can't pay for outcomes". And that's something that really changed a lot of how I think about this subject since, because it's telling of how different schools and programs sell themselves.
So when i looked into the local high-end kindergartens, it's all marketing about the type of high school and university opportunities that will open up. This program seems very fixated on that "2x more effective". Both are value for money propositions. But it has this unspoken implication that if the kid does not take to these methods, then the child failed the system. Especially since you're not getting that money back.
Anyway, just skimming through this and some resources from Alpha, it's fascinating to me. Especially since it's very corporate-cult feeling. The essay feels like someone pitching a techbro MLM. Add its all based on two-sigma methods that were not reproducible. And the AI stuff. So many bad vibes but the guy did say it has an image problem.
I'll probably look into it latet and post my thoughts.
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Comment on Managers say they are having trouble finding candidates for nearly 400,000 US manufacturing and technical jobs in ~finance
SloMoMonday LinkArchive Link and the labor statistics that the article doesn't actually link to. Also dug up this 2018 study - The Transformation of Manufacturing and the Decline in U.S. Employment.:- Exemplary
Archive Link and the labor statistics that the article doesn't actually link to.
Also dug up this 2018 study - The Transformation of Manufacturing and the Decline in U.S. Employment.:
The declines were largest in industries that faced the
largest growth in Chinese import competition. We cannot disentangle whether the threat
or reality of competition from imports induced manufacturers to automate their processes
or whether imports happened to grow most in places where automation was rising for other
reasons. In either case, this association between import shocks and automation suggests that
policies that restrict trade with the aim of returning employment to its pre-China-shock level confront the problem that the affected industries are now significantly more capital intensive
than before. They are thus unlikely to raise labor demand to old levels even if they are
protected from trade competition. -
Comment on Sam Altman says Meta offered OpenAI staff $100 million bonuses, as Mark Zuckerberg ramps up AI poaching efforts in ~tech
SloMoMonday (edited )Link ParentI understand that big deals are being made and Facebook has its own problems after the Metaverse gambit. And maybe they are going to talent with deals that could add up to 100mil in the best of...I understand that big deals are being made and Facebook has its own problems after the Metaverse gambit. And maybe they are going to talent with deals that could add up to 100mil in the best of outcomes.
But Altman is talking with such confidence about actions taken by competitors and his employees, trying to boast a position of strength. "Look at us. We so advanced that Facebook is paying top dollar for our staff. And our guys won't take the money because they believe in our company too much. That is how cool we are so give us your money so we can hold on to this top talent. " It's all posturing. And so is what Facebook is doing with Scale.
Scale AI has a few dozen small projects under their belt. It's more impressive than 90% of startups and speaks to very cleaver leadership, networking and unique service offerings. But all of their work put together can't be more than a hundred million in dev and consulting services. Unless I'm missing something big or they are cooking up a revolutionary system in the back, all I can see in their references is limited data entry/sorting improvements (which can be done through regular digital migration and a paperless initiatives), edge analytics in the cloud for autonomous machines (a backwards way to manage the large data sets generated by autonomous equipment and ignores the actual ways data modelling is used for proactive monitoring) , a few chat bots and other vague and generic AI features. They have a single hammer and everything is a nail. For 15 billion I'd expect companies capable of enterprise transformation projects and sporting a full suite of integrated industry solution services that has a long list of companies on reoccurring licenses. SMEs with decades of collective experience and experiences with every edge case.
Is the company valued at that point because it's demonstrated the capacity to perform at that level, or because we feel like they should. The story of a college drop out, starting his company, delivering the hottest new tech to big name clients. And then they get that major cash injection that will take them to the next level. The vibes are good.
But this is the Metaverse guy. The same person who sunk several GDPs and still failed to make something work. AI is also the companies that made Windows 8. And Google glass. And the Fire Phone. And Hyperloop. And a blockchain currency. And YouTube Red. And cybertrucks. And the Vision Pro. And Google Plus. And who put the charger under a wireless mouse. And who renamed companies that had global brand recognition. And Full Self Driving. And who's mismanagement created the misinformation hellscape we live in. They all enjoyed years of consequence free stupidity because they got by on vibes, monopolies, PR and untaxed fortunes.
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Comment on Sam Altman says Meta offered OpenAI staff $100 million bonuses, as Mark Zuckerberg ramps up AI poaching efforts in ~tech
SloMoMonday Link ParentThis sort of strikes me as a very juvenile move from Altman. Because if I were an investor, my questions are "Which employees are worth 100mil?", "What is the strategic risks or opportunity that...This sort of strikes me as a very juvenile move from Altman. Because if I were an investor, my questions are "Which employees are worth 100mil?", "What is the strategic risks or opportunity that makes that retention cost worth it?", "Whats the plan if these employees are hit by a bus tomorrow?", "Whats the premiums on insurance for an employee of this value?", "Are there legitimate security risks for this person or their family that needs to be accounted for?", "What else could that money be used on?", "What can Meta do with this person that we haven't already done?", "Have we fulfilled all the tax obligations before publicizing payments in that amount?", "Where is that liquidity coming from?", "What about employees that are not getting those bonuses, how is morale and can we afford to cut them loose or loose them to competition?", "What contracts are in place to stop people taking the money and running?", "Do we have a skills transfer and documentation process in place to reduce this level of dependency?"
And of course there's the bigger question of that money being real. Or is Altman playing semantic games with stock options, differed payments and empty promises. If anyone is poaching staff, its just a matter of picking up the phone and asking. OpenAI is the risky bet in this fight. If AI flops tomorrow, Facebook, Google, MS and Amazon still has everything else it started with. Altman has plenty of retail users and some big API deals but in the grander scheme, that's kid numbers next to the competition. And not good-enough numbers based on what they are valued at.
I know big tech throws around stupid numbers, but $100mil means something. It's probably more wealth than most families could ever make over several generations. You don't just instant EFT that to someone based on a whim after a handshake. Throwing around a number like that is boasting, posturing and/or ignorance. And people like Altman have really lost the benefit of the doubt and I think should be treated with a healthy level of suspicion. They claim that their tech will fix everything and abandoning our IP rights, the environment, privacy, security and countless working people will be worth the benefits. But these systems are forced into everyone's faces and shoehorned into every possible thing. How long before all our problems are solved? And more importantly, how does openAI intend to make money in the coming years? Because, every other company was able to whip up an LLM division in months. Those kids in china could made competitive models in a cave with a box of scraps. Retail and commercial market is so saturated that I'm sure we have AI powered Jello at this point. So how is openAI going to squeeze more blood from this stone?
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Comment on Contra Ptacek's terrible article on AI in ~tech
SloMoMonday LinkSome important context with the fact that I've not written production code in 6 years, what I did work on for the preceding 10 years was very niche programs and then industrial software. And I am...- Exemplary
Some important context with the fact that I've not written production code in 6 years, what I did work on for the preceding 10 years was very niche programs and then industrial software. And I am now having very little luck setting up Coding Agents to test myself so its an incomplete perspective there.
Patcek's original essay read like a contractors rationale for adopting LLM tools. Because as a contract dev, all you're doing is closing your tickets. Feature complete, tests are green, approved push to main and jump to the next one. It's the type of people who will probably find the most success in the current landscape because that is what it feels like the most lucrative employers want. Their devs to all be gig workers. The best feature/cost ratio for the shortest amount of time.
It was comical when Musk was grading twitter employees by how many lines of code they pushed or their criticality to core service while chainsawing everyone else. But that's every employer today. Leadership that is so far removed from ops that they see LLM's as an opportunity to bring on the lowest cost replacements while maintaining their system. While I can't fully understand how, the strongman that Ptacek and other supporters put forward is: (and I'm going to over quote to maintain context):
LLMs can write a large fraction of all the tedious code you’ll ever need to write. And most code on most projects is tedious. LLMs drastically reduce the number of things you’ll ever need to Google. They look things up themselves. Most importantly, they don’t get tired; they’re immune to inertia.
Think of anything you wanted to build but didn’t. You tried to home in on some first steps. If you’d been in the limerent phase of a new programming language, you’d have started writing. But you weren’t, so you put it off, for a day, a year, or your whole career.
I can feel my blood pressure rising thinking of all the bookkeeping and Googling and dependency drama of a new project. An LLM can be instructed to just figure all that shit out. Often, it will drop you precisely at that golden moment where shit almost works, and development means tweaking code and immediately seeing things work better. That dopamine hit is why I code.
There’s a downside. Sometimes, gnarly stuff needs doing. But you don’t wanna do it. So you refactor unit tests, soothing yourself with the lie that you’re doing real work. But an LLM can be told to go refactor all your unit tests. An agent can occupy itself for hours putzing with your tests in a VM and come back later with a PR. If you listen to me, you’ll know that. You’ll feel worse yak-shaving. You’ll end up doing… real work
All that's not to say the response essay is wrong or ill informed. It is the type of strategic considerations that should be front and center for any executive looking at and promising new technology. But we live in loopy land where new grads are concerned with stability and performance while leadership wants to just get the job done so they can clock out early. The fact that this tech is being paraded as GAI and peddled to critical systems just reeks. It is a tool that is designed to tick the right boxes to make you feel confident in shipping a bad product.
A "feature" of the system is that will past tests that it refactored itself. In a system prone to hallucinations that is managed by an "agent" subject to hallucinations and administered by developers that did not have a hand in the product beyond vague imprecise prompts. The same devs that would be subject to reduced headcount but increased workload because of this incredible tool. On teams with no institutional knowledge beyond entry level because that same LLM justifies the revolving door of employees. That isn't a red flag. That's the sky turning red because its raining blood. It's the growing domino meme with the largest set to crush an orphanage. And when (not if) something truly catastrophic happens: "How could this have happened? All out tests were green? Thank god this system wasn't designed by flawed and expensive humans that would be culpable in negligence so they ran through multiple layers of testing and vetted by the end user to ensure acceptable quality; otherwise this tragedy would have been so much worse."
Its the same sort of discomfort I had when Agile was pushed as the ultimate form of software development. And resulted in todays hot mess of "barely good enough" software that only seems to get worse. Call it an old fashioned take, but I was on projects where we would fight to be on the crisis desk because it was easy money. We shipped with confidence and the only real threat was integration errors or very situational bugs. And yes, it was expensive and drawn out and involved a lot of very specialized skills and experience to deliver properly. You got out what you put in and I'm forever grateful that our clients and employer were happy (ie. forced to) to put in the best they could.
So if cheap good vibes is all the assurance a FANG and other major companies need, then they can get what they pay for. If any grad or developer wants to develop those skills to grab that bag (no shame or judgement if you do, its tough out there), go for it. You don't have to agree with the sentiment, but Ptacek's essay is what employers want to hear you parrot. It will likely boost your prospects or buy you more time in your current role in places that are all in on AI.
Just remember that hyper specializing in one tool, ties you too it. And here its not just the technique or process, there is a significant risk in relying on a specific tool-set. Just ask any creative what they think of Adobe. Not sure what the difference is between models and agents but it seems like the only feasible way forward is through big web services. When this AI industry inevitably consolidates to a few big players and the cost of industry-standard tools is prohibitive to individuals or SME's; you are going to employer dependent. So be sure to have enough in you back pocket to sustain yourself. Even outside of the tech industry.
And also, Patcek's essay harps on about not caring for the future and operating in the now. That is objectively bad advice. The writing is on the wall and you'd do well to prepare for the worst today, next week and in ten years. AI might be the biggest trend we've ever seen but it helps to consider other "biggest trend of all time". Look into how massive cloud migration projects or corporate early adopters turned out. And not just the successes. Common moral of the story, sales spew a lot of shit. Someone has to clean it up. Hype is sales and there is a lot of AI hype.
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Comment on Astronomers find ‘missing’ matter in ~space
SloMoMonday Link ParentQuick question on specifics to try and wrap my head around this: Is their an idea about what a filament like this even looks like? Because that word makes me imagine a continuous strand of matter...Quick question on specifics to try and wrap my head around this:
Is their an idea about what a filament like this even looks like? Because that word makes me imagine a continuous strand of matter streched out like pulled toffee or a long gas blanket a few atoms thick. But I'm well aware that normal expectations don't really translate when a "short trip" is several lifetimes.
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Comment on Has anyone else had issues with the new low calorie sweeteners? in ~health
SloMoMonday LinkSort of the same for me. I need to check if things have any sort of artificial sweetener because they almost always given me a sickening feeling. Its at the point where some suger free sodas or...Sort of the same for me. I need to check if things have any sort of artificial sweetener because they almost always given me a sickening feeling. Its at the point where some suger free sodas or candies trigger a gag reflex. There's a similar situation for energy and other heavy caffeine drinks. Body just doesn't want any of it but can't tell if that's just a taste issue.
On the other hand, I was much worse with my sugar intake to the point that it was starting to cause dental and behavioral issues. Part of handling it was cutting out sugar and sweeteners completely for a few months and around a week in I felt fairly ill for a few days. Fatigue, lethargic and overall not doing so well. But the doctor said it was a normal withdrawal response so I pushed through and it improved quickly. After recalibrating I'd like to think I'm a better about it. Soda is a special treat and chocolate bars last days instead of minutes.
But patience_limited is probably right and you should check in with a GP or a endochronologist if you can. Couldn't hurt to get checked out and find if it's a normal reaction or if there are other things at work.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump vetoed Israeli plan to kill Iran’s supreme leader in ~society
SloMoMonday Link ParentWas watching normally reasonable chats devolve into full blown conspiracy thinking about this. The big question being "What could set Trump off?" because that is how you allocate government...Was watching normally reasonable chats devolve into full blown conspiracy thinking about this. The big question being "What could set Trump off?" because that is how you allocate government resources these days.
Any sort of attack or false flag would be seen as a Trump failure but the mounting domestic tensions might tip him over the edge. He needs to secure any sort of deal as a matter of pride now but being called weak is bound to get under his skin. There's also the many "favors" Trump owes a lot of people and leaves him in the middle of many conflicting interests.
Its a profound no-win scenario decades in the making and it all comes down to the whims of a man ruled by unresolvable daddy issues and the last psychopath that could pull his strings. If we ever sort ourselves out, we as a society really should work on how we allow upward failure and for people to enjoy consequence free lives. We won't, but its nice to imagine.
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Comment on What actually improves your photos in ~creative
SloMoMonday Link ParentOne of the best and most overlooked ways to improve with photos is to journal and share your best photos from shooting days. My old mentor would ask for a monthly photo along with a few paragraphs...One of the best and most overlooked ways to improve with photos is to journal and share your best photos from shooting days. My old mentor would ask for a monthly photo along with a few paragraphs detailing how and why we took it. Was a pain at first but after a while you look forward to having your work seen and discussed.
I'm looking to get back into photos too so if you want to compare notes every once in a while I wouldn't mind.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkFinished Act 2 of Expedition 33 and decided to take a bit of a break before finishing up. After the amazing showing from the game and story to that point, I seriously found the little time I spent...Finished Act 2 of Expedition 33 and decided to take a bit of a break before finishing up. After the amazing showing from the game and story to that point, I seriously found the little time I spent in act 3 disappointing.
plot spoilers
So it's not the whole family drama, pocket dimension plot twist that I take issue with. Was all fairly well telegraphed and not so far out of left field. It's probably the part of the story I'm most interested in and something I want to see explored more in future games.My real issue is that they managed to pull off my video game pet peeve and have the immersion killing "critical situation and time is of the essence" event and give you all the time you need to tie up loose ends. Hated it in Mass Effect, JRPGs and every open world game it happens in and seeing it here was almost more of a let down.
Almost all of the Act 3 events and side quests would have fit in just fine in a sort of intermission act. Between the paintress fight and retuning to Lumiere. Frame it as not knowing when the team would ever have the opportunity to return to the continent and you now have the chance to take care of personal business.
And act 3 could have been a marathon sprint to the finish where you don't loose the plot momentum and sense of urgency. Maybe pad it out with the Infinite tower or old levels as they are being erased for variety.
Since it's all busy work at the moment, I'll probably just grind through it on the steam deck and finish off properly on the PC later.
Act 3 aside, I love everything this game is doing. Characters are all a joy to see on screen and voiced so well. I actually look forward to scial times at came, just to see where they go.
Environments are evocative and the music just elevates even the most basic area. The fasion game goes very hard and the mime look is the best look. There just needed maybe one more playable character and some sort of recolour system for outfits.
The active combat system combined with interesting character abilities/pictos are a joy to experiment with and break. Monster designs are incredible and combined with the animations and parry system, it scratches that Bloodborne itch nothing else seems to reach. (Granted, there's 2 particularly devious enemies I can't seem to get.)
Also the generous respec and upgrade materials makes it easy to experiment with different builds and also tune difficulties. It was a lot more enjoyable to not max out attributes and stay just a little under powered.
Overall, it's one of my best games this year and really hope the devs do more.
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Comment on Tildes servers? How about Satisfactory? in ~games
SloMoMonday Link ParentYeah, the Satisfactory map is large but literally nothing next to procedurally generating a low poly world. When we did our 1.0 server, late game got a bit heated between 4 very ambitious people...Yeah, the Satisfactory map is large but literally nothing next to procedurally generating a low poly world. When we did our 1.0 server, late game got a bit heated between 4 very ambitious people encroaching on each others projects. People resorted to sneaking into arrays and changing clock speeds on individual machines to squeeze more power and materials into circulation. Ended up needing to mod all nodes to pure and spawning in a few more just to keep the peace.
But I do think there's room for some friendly competition and collaboration. Maybe we have a weekly challenge with a few set rules and a weird criteria. Something like best power/sink ratio. Or having set limit on logistics/organizing resources. Or being forced to use the recipes requiring the most screws.
Then people can work on their own terms and showcase afterwards.
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Comment on Resident Evil Requiem | Reveal trailer in ~games
SloMoMonday (edited )Link ParentEdit: Was trying to find the slide decks from the Capcom convention to share. Turns out they have all the info on their website. Recommend the Past and Future of REEngine and Philosophy of...Edit: Was trying to find the slide decks from the Capcom convention to share. Turns out they have all the info on their website.
Recommend the Past and Future of REEngine and Philosophy of REEngine to get an idea of how they see the engine in the business. The rest is super heavy technical discussions if you're into that.
RE Engine is a fascinating tool because it's not exactly comparable to how we consider other popular engines. We've seen a lot of studios jump to Unreal and the rational is on the fidelity or workflow or potential talent pool and there's all the AI stuff that was recently showcased. Even player discussions is around an engines rendering capabilities, upscaling and performance.
RE engine is a different beast entirely. It's not primarily built around the ability to generate high poly graphics or advanced lighting or large open worlds. And it's definitely not ment to go to market with a storefront generating licensing revenue. But in 10 years Capcom effectively doubled the codebase REE and scaled the team to almost 200 full time, dedicated engine developers. Its because RE Engine is literally Capcoms entire game development pipeline and dictates the structure of dev teams.
Around the start of last year Capcom had a big Conference to share their development methodology and I tried to stay up for some of it. My notes from then are a mess, but from what I can recall: The Engine team maintains a library of modules to fulfill potential requirements. Some of them are off the shelf until they can make something better in house. Everything from Rendering to Physics to UI, Sound, Scripting and a dozen other scribbles I can't read.
A big part of a new games Kick Off involves the game devs and engine devs working out which modules meet the creative requirements. Engine team assembles a custom engine out of the agreed modules and they work to support/facilitate game dev. RE Engine is there to integrate all these modules into a standard C# codebase, stay compatible with new and old hardware and to make the game look/perform well enough.
Big game dev is simmilar in how studios need to extend the engine to meet specialized requirements. But unless youre EA or Microsoft, Epic is not going to build and maintain your intergrations or being on hand to adress everyday issues. My buddy was considering a UE4 to UE5 upgrade for a project that was pretty early on and they gave up because Epic Support could not be bothered to answer an email.
Its not all so ideal RE Engine either. They mentioned issues with documentation and onboarding new hires/contractors. There's also problems handling very large assets and maintaining complex package sets across distributed teams. And theres also the problem of more complex games demanding more integrations to be managed. It's a really interesting system and is more in line with older style game dev where a lot teams opted for bespoke engines.
So all that context in mind, it feels somewhat misguided to attribute the problems in capcom games to just the engine. It's a big part of the business that does get a lot of attention and seems well run. Something to keep in mind is that the big, obvious technical issues often stem from human problems. It's not like devs just didn't know or want to make a bad game. The best performance and netcode are not fixing the issues people have with Dragons Dogma 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds. DD2 was made by 300 people in a cave through the pandemic and is not getting any support, dispite a strong showing. And Wilds looks like the follow up to World, but it feels more basic like Rise and lost a lot of hardcore players to the previous game. Next to other games, their opening numbers and even MH World, it looks dead. Technical fixes would help, but they are still mid quality titles that were boosted by hype. They really need content injections, gameplay tweaks and community management. That's business decisions and resource allocation that Capcom leadership is not doing.
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Comment on Resident Evil Requiem | Reveal trailer in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkFeels like Capcom went into the RE revival with a solid strategy and I couldn't be happier. In 10 years we got to watch countless live services make a boatload of money but completely ruin the...Feels like Capcom went into the RE revival with a solid strategy and I couldn't be happier. In 10 years we got to watch countless live services make a boatload of money but completely ruin the development teams behind them. And at the same time there's been so many mega projects that have no chance of turning a profit.
Then since 2016 theres been 6 RE games that are all doing their own thing. 7 rediscovered the the horror house roots with a surprisingly intimate and horrific FPS experience. Remakes 2 and 3 did a lot to get new players up to speed and deliver all the fan-service to long time fans. 8 fully empraced the campy horror carnival and then 4 remake took it home as my favorite action shooter of all time.
Every game had its issues and missteps but it's never the same problems for me between games. There's experiments, adjustments and evolution through the series and now I'm more curious on where they are going. With the consistency, I'm tempted to just avoid all the upcoming coverage and go in blind on release. (Not ever going to pre-order incase of any major performance issues that could come up)
On the whole, just happy that Capcom is seeing success by just delivering games. Who would have guessed its a strategy for a games company. DMC, Ace Attorney, Monster Hunter, Dragons Dogma and their fighting games are all in a pretty good spot and Pragmata is hitting all the right sci-fi notes for me. Now they just need to come clean about Exo Primal being a smokescreen to create dinosaur assets and just give us Dino Crisis 2 Remake already.
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Comment on Elon Musk calls for US President Donald Trump to be impeached as extraordinary feud escalates in ~society
SloMoMonday Link ParentI genuinely had "Musk Co ad from the white house" in my predictions but expected a Starlink or Space Ex plugs in press briefings. That Tesla show on the lawn was above and beyond any sense and I...I genuinely had "Musk Co ad from the white house" in my predictions but expected a Starlink or Space Ex plugs in press briefings. That Tesla show on the lawn was above and beyond any sense and I just accepted that we live in the tragedy circus timeline.
But after that and the South African "refugees" I figured they were good for at least a year. Even the most toxic couples have a honeymoon period. When they get a Doge after a few weeks thinking it's going to last. But it just destroys everything and is the catalyst for the falling out.
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Comment on 007: First Light announced (Gameplay reveal next week) in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkNeed to see a proper vertical slice demo of this game because I'm very curious what ioi could have possibly done. I was sceptical about them doing a 007 game, but realized the current style of...Need to see a proper vertical slice demo of this game because I'm very curious what ioi could have possibly done. I was sceptical about them doing a 007 game, but realized the current style of Hitman's immersive sim sandbox are a good fit for the early acts of a 007 movie.
The big divergence being that A47 enters through complex social engineering, traversal and disguise. 007 shows up with his Aston Martin being air dropped at the the velet with a super model/KGB agent on his arm and Vegas style neon sign floating over his head showing he's name and current address.
But after that, they both fall into their own flavors of espionage and infiltration. Getting where they don't belong, finding evidence, overhearing conversations and putting dots together. Bond is screened by his overt and eccentric charisma, while 47 is protected by his complete lack of any distinction.
And while both characters would prefer a quick and quiet exit, the most interesting scenarios are when things go wrong. But while 47s missions can degenerate into chaos and insanity, 007s has to. Bond needs to get captured. He needs to be dangled over the tank of tigers riding laser sharks. He needs an excuse to use the bomb pen and to fire the Walter PPK and close it out with the daring high speed escape.
So now I'm very excited to see how they plan to deliver. Specifically, how they untangle escalation from players failure but keep it feeling organic. IoI have been on this for a good while and Hitman has been excellent in the value and insane replay scope. Just hoping for another AA success story.
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Comment on DnD 5e - Do’s and don’ts as a player in ~games.tabletop
SloMoMonday LinkThis is more general guidance on the creative role as a player. There's plenty of people who let their lack of creative experience stop them from even trying things that help build creative skills...This is more general guidance on the creative role as a player. There's plenty of people who let their lack of creative experience stop them from even trying things that help build creative skills (and it is a skill that can be exercised and developed).
A big part of creativity is finding some sort of inspiration you and sharing it with your personal skills and talents, even if it's not artistic. Problem solving, building, negotiating, collecting/organizing, survival, cooking; it's different flavours of creativity you can bring to the table and can add to the experience in and out of the game.
The other part that makes people nervous is characters. A lot of people have a very hard time making their character act independently or just inhabiting a character. Most popular RPGs in media is played by professional performers and it can set some very high expectations. You don't need to completely immerse yourself if you don't want to. You also don't need to put on accents or refer to a character as yourself if it makes you uncomfortable. Think of it like describing how you played a video game. "Sir Fredrick runs up to the fight that started at the back of the tavern. He doesn't really understand why the goblin and gnome are fighting. He wants to keep things civil so he trys to seperate them by picking one up in each hand and holding them apart." You added an interesting action to the scene and that's enough. Your GM will collect all the players actions (and dice rolls) and should have enough to flesh out the scene and add in all the embellishments and details. If the GM misinterprets your action, speak up but no need to be pedantic on every detail.
Also when creating a character, you don't need to start with a fully formed identity and personality. It's fine to go in with a broad idea. You can use the "7 dwarfs" style at the beginning where you play into 1 or 2 big personality traits (Leader, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sensitive, Dopey, Curious, Devout, Hedonistic). From there you can discover things about the character with other players by feeling out situations. Just be sure to let the GM know if you want to have some blank space in your backstory and when you want to fill it in.
I'm also not the biggest fan of alignment charts since it can lead to wildly inconsistent behaviour. I enjoy working around a persons values, ideals and flaws. They can and should change as character goes through arcs; but keep in mind that the longer one is in place, the harder it should be to change.
And one thing I think is extremely important: Ask for permission before doing anything concerning another player's character. The big ones being theft and damage. Doesn't matter if it's fully in keeping with the character or for the greater good or you think they'll understand, it is not worth damaging a friendship over a game.
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Comment on Ukraine destroys more than forty military aircraft in a drone attack deep inside Russia in ~news
SloMoMonday Link ParentThis sort of capability is why cant figure out Russia's objectives Ukraine. I know it's territory, but every day the cost keeps climbing and a full invasion must be off the table at this point....This sort of capability is why cant figure out Russia's objectives Ukraine. I know it's territory, but every day the cost keeps climbing and a full invasion must be off the table at this point. This sort of attack is a message on just how costly that would be.
Even if the invasion does succeed and all visible remnants of the government and military are wiped out, it's impossible to tell how many independent cells have been put in place. Especially after Ukraine's strategic partner became compromised after the election.
The fact that containers could spend a year in transit through Russia means that they lack lack facilities to effectively control their territory. So how many containers does Ukraine have is yards and warehouses or just buried in fields. You could convert a few rooms in a building to be a launch platform through a window. Houses, barns, AC units, transformers, basements and sewers. Every 3d printer, machine shop could be a drone printer. And military drones can easily be disguised as media production units, or survey units or just hobby machines.
There'll even be risks outside Ukraine because at some point, the war on your own border has to end. And with so many unfriendly neighbors, you're going to have a lot of people happy to host and fund revolutionaries. How many years will Russia put up with the threat of independent Ukrainian cells? They could seed any number of ships or trucks with newly developed drone tech that lacks an effective countermeasure.
And on the the topic of countermeasures, how much territory is worth protecting. Infrastructure? Government and military targets? Oligarch assets? Industry? Civilian centers?
The war made sense when Russia thought they could just roll in and take the country with a blitz of special forces strikes and an armoured convoy down the main highway. I'm sure all the maps would have been changed by now if that worked and the EU would have been much friendlier to the Trump admin. But now it's attrition against a well equipped and very motivated opponent. Russia can demand concessions all they want or try to leverage Trump, Ukraine has little left to loose and a lot to gain.
Like Putin agreeing to negotiate will be a symbolic victory for Ukraine. Not hitting civilian targets is a victory. Unless it's an existential issue, you have to fold at some point or it becomes an existential issue for you. So where is Putin and the Russian peoples line?
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Comment on The issue of indie game discoverability on distribution platforms in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkThe best solution I can think of is granular human curation. Discovery algorithms run into so many issues in terms of platform homogenization, conflicting incentives, real-estate limitations and...The best solution I can think of is granular human curation. Discovery algorithms run into so many issues in terms of platform homogenization, conflicting incentives, real-estate limitations and advertising; that at the scale of global platforms, the diminishing returns have made them more of a liability to enthusiast users. It's acceptable for youtube or music streaming since a lot of that is background content. But gaming is an active experience and you want real value for time and money.
That's why most pure gameplay channels I still follow are very specialized in their content. I watch Aliensrock for interesting puzzle and deck-building games. Manlybadasshero for more obscure narrative horror, VN and quick weirder indie projects. Amelie Doree for classic Japanese VNs. Tokaku for rhythm games. Many games I've gotten or seen on those channels have never come up in recommended lists, online discussions or video recommendations. But these people make it their business to find and platform things that their audience likely wont get anywhere else, a strategy that runs counter to what the algorithm demands (consistency and popular trends).
The problem is finding this type of curation because you are avoiding the things that rise up in the algorithm. A strategy would be to drill down into a single game or genre until you find videos that has a more nuanced opinion on elements of the game design and avoid the YouTube over-reactions. These channels tend to be people who would speedrun or made dedicated content to one game and did not pivot to verity content after that ran its course.
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Comment on New device lets homeowners test tap water for lead easily in ~health
SloMoMonday LinkIt's cool tech, but the whole thing is being presented as VC bait. It's just badly solving a problem that's already been solved. Is there really the expectation that every person will have this...It's cool tech, but the whole thing is being presented as VC bait. It's just badly solving a problem that's already been solved. Is there really the expectation that every person will have this device on hand that will regularly test water for a single risk factor. Like they did 600 tests and hit six positives. What about microbiology or other heavy metals or microplastics or mold or the long list of other things that can go wrong in water.
On its own you might be able to package it as a high level test kit for inspectors or plumbers. But even then, it's still beaten out by multi-block test strips that don't need specialized hardware and an app. I think Lead is an yellow to purple strip and if there is even a sliver of what might be a color change, that water is going to a lab. If any strip it out of the normal, its going to a lab. And the one water lab I worked in started with test strips (specifically the colored chemicals used to make them) just to get a general idea of the sample. It's a pretty good chemical solution that doesn't really need to be replaced with a one trick digital solution.
Tap and groundwater tests should really be part of moving if the water quality is in question. Its a once off cost that cant be more than $100 and you'll get a full list of all the things that need to be addressed in the water. Specialized services will even recommend the exact filters and treatment needed to bring it back in line. Or, you could just get a very good RO filter with a mineral injector and you've gotten out most lead, pfas, microbio and other gunk that could be in there.
As a start, I'm sure you could get away with replacing a full Language Model with a Sentiment Analysis/Language Interpreter. The model takes a prompt, interprets it in a CRUD framework and it passes that request to the correct integration point. Would work with calendars, notepads and other simple data sets, so long as the information is properly sorted or tagged. And then it talks back to the user with templated responses incorporating the data gathered.
Its no natural language machine interaction, but at least you can be sure that the information is factual and accurate.