elight's recent activity
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Comment on Steam Summer Sale 2025: Hidden gems in ~games
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Comment on What could have been? | Brent and Jeff dive deep into JMS's original plan for Babylon 5 in ~tv
elight Link ParentIf you reflect on that video, and squint hard enough, you can see how the Crusade was a reincarnation of the original take on Babylon Prime. It likely would have been far better, had WB not also...If you reflect on that video, and squint hard enough, you can see how the Crusade was a reincarnation of the original take on Babylon Prime. It likely would have been far better, had WB not also demanded more wrestling and skin.
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Comment on What could have been? | Brent and Jeff dive deep into JMS's original plan for Babylon 5 in ~tv
elight Link ParentHell, I wrote an entire SWRPG campaign, on a US Robotics Pilot, while underutilized and bored at work, "episode" by "episode", using the lessons I learned from JMS! The man essentially pioneered...Hell, I wrote an entire SWRPG campaign, on a US Robotics Pilot, while underutilized and bored at work, "episode" by "episode", using the lessons I learned from JMS!
The man essentially pioneered serialized primetime storytelling with B5.
I'll be one of the first to admit, he doesn't always hit it out of the park but when he sticks the landing, JFC, it's a sight to see.
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Comment on What could have been? | Brent and Jeff dive deep into JMS's original plan for Babylon 5 in ~tv
elight (edited )LinkWatched. B5 was my autistic special interest for years, during and after its airing. I used to read rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 religiously, where JMS would banter with fans (and where the term...Watched.
B5 was my autistic special interest for years, during and after its airing. I used to read rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5 religiously, where JMS would banter with fans (and where the term "lurker" came from—for fans of B5 who lurked in that usenet group quietly without comment). JMS would comment on each and every episode. You can still view it in the archive.
I can't even tell you how many times I've watched the series. There are particular episodes where the count is likely something absurd:
- Chrysalis
- Sleeping in Light
- In the Shadow of [REDACTED]
- Severed Dreams (omg especially Severed Dreams...)
- The Deconstruction of Falling Stars (a true gift, as this episode likely would not have existed but for serendipity)
Without spoilers:
Over the years, I pieced together much of what this video covered less some of the details of the second half of the video. I'm grateful that B5 found itself with the practical constraints that it did. The result was a work of art that far exceeded the artist's original plans.
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Comment on What could have been? | Brent and Jeff dive deep into JMS's original plan for Babylon 5 in ~tv
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Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books
elight LinkJust finished All Systems Red (Murderbor Chronicles) and moved on to the second book. Easy reads. Just what I need right now.Just finished All Systems Red (Murderbor Chronicles) and moved on to the second book.
Easy reads. Just what I need right now.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
elight (edited )LinkI'm developing an iOS app to provide support to neurodiverse people. Just went to a friends & family alpha. Week or few and I should have an invite-only alpha. Frankly, I'm writing it for me....I'm developing an iOS app to provide support to neurodiverse people. Just went to a friends & family alpha. Week or few and I should have an invite-only alpha.
Frankly, I'm writing it for me. Hoping it can help other people.
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Comment on I need advice, which laptop would you buy now? in ~tech
elight Link ParentI don't love the keyboard either. But, then, I usually use mine docked with a split keeb with actual button travel that makes me happy.I don't love the keyboard either. But, then, I usually use mine docked with a split keeb with actual button travel that makes me happy.
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Comment on I need advice, which laptop would you buy now? in ~tech
elight LinkWell, I just did. Apple certified refurbished MacBook Pro. Save a few hundred bucks. Get the same quality. Winning.Well, I just did. Apple certified refurbished MacBook Pro. Save a few hundred bucks. Get the same quality. Winning.
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Comment on What's a new skill that you've picked up recently? in ~life
elight LinkLLM prompting. Seriously, this is a skill. You have to imagine that you're talking to an autistic (an autistic here) savant almost. it helps to be very literal establish a lot of context make...LLM prompting.
Seriously, this is a skill. You have to imagine that you're talking to an autistic (an autistic here) savant almost.
- it helps to be very literal
- establish a lot of context
- make everything explicit; implicit information is rarely understood
To be clear, I'm working with OpenAI 4o-mini: cheap, far less environmental impact, and effective.
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Comment on US bombers strike nuclear sites in Iran in ~society
elight Link Parent+1 re: Iranian liberalism. Granted, the puppet set up by the CIA further moved the country toward (autocratic) liberalism. But then the Shias took over. And then blowback against the US ensued....+1 re: Iranian liberalism. Granted, the puppet set up by the CIA further moved the country toward (autocratic) liberalism. But then the Shias took over. And then blowback against the US ensued.
Separate point: even Buddhists can stray widely from their path.
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Comment on US bombers strike nuclear sites in Iran in ~society
elight (edited )Link ParentLet's leave even nukes aside for a moment. Does anyone remember 2001 and the talk of dirty bombs? These are low tech ways to do a lot of harm so long as you have access to radioactive material....Let's leave even nukes aside for a moment.
Does anyone remember 2001 and the talk of dirty bombs? These are low tech ways to do a lot of harm so long as you have access to radioactive material.
It's interesting to note that Iran has had the ability for years now. They could (and maybe have—though this is unfalsifiable) armed their proxies with such devices.
Even without fission bombs, the terror of irreparable harm caused by radioactive material remains.
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Comment on US bombers strike nuclear sites in Iran in ~society
elight Link ParentThe thing is: Israel was far more liberal before Bibi corrupted the hell out of it.The thing is: Israel was far more liberal before Bibi corrupted the hell out of it.
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Comment on US bombers strike nuclear sites in Iran in ~society
elight Link ParentThe irony is that we already did a regime change in Iran when the CIA deposed the Shah. Iran's hatred for America is traceable back to Operation Ajax in 1953. Their hatred for us? Blowback.The irony is that we already did a regime change in Iran when the CIA deposed the Shah. Iran's hatred for America is traceable back to Operation Ajax in 1953.
Their hatred for us? Blowback.
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Comment on Is the AI bubble about to burst? in ~tech
elight Link ParentThis post grew to be a lot longer than I expected... Logically, the AI field will either be over- or under-developed. Capital and power interests won't allow under-development so some sort of...This post grew to be a lot longer than I expected...
Logically, the AI field will either be over- or under-developed. Capital and power interests won't allow under-development so some sort of over-development makes some degree of AI investment meltdown inevitable.
Despite this, LLM-based AI is already and will change society just as the advent of the internet to the general public, in the late 90s, dramatically altered contemporary civilization.
We're not due for a 1999-2000 AI industry meltdown yet. Governments and private investors are currently too invested in staking claims in this gold rush environment.
Let's talk history.
1999-2000 saw damn seemingly any moron who had an idea for "X except on the web" acquiring absurd levels of investment with little more than an idea. It was a gold rush to stake claims to territory on this new thing called "the internet".
If there is to be a meltdown, it's likely a few years off. Comparing to '99, we would need more eToys.com-levels of failures before investors pull back.
Disclaimer: I certainly have some bitterness over this meltdown as I was in the industry at the time. I saw the obvious profligacy, every time I routinely (I lived just off of it in Reston) drove down the Dulles Toll Road, the "Silicon Valley of the East", as it was called in the 90s and 2000s, driving by dozens of buildings with the dumbest of early web company names affixed to the top floor facades of the office buildings.
We're not here yet.
It remains to be seen if the AI heavy hitters can continue to progress the technology. When the technology ceases its Moore's Law level of improvement, then the field will fill with applications of the existing technologies until big interests start to fail and startups fail to acquire that territory and fail left and right. If and when that starts to happen, that will likely be the lit fuse of a meltdown.
I'm not convinced yet that this is a guaranteed outcome in the near future. However, given how greed works, it seems inevitable.
Just as Google and its contemporaries grew out of the beginning of the internet age, many other large interests (AOL, Et al) had to fail for those successful companies to establish themselves.
AI will continue to establish a new population of bourgeoise who own this new means of production. It will centralize more wealth. Since Trickle Down Economics is at best laughable, there will be less for everyone else, even as economies still grow.
Will it change the world? It already has. Will it create a utopia? Unlikely.
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Comment on Explain Linux controversies to me in ~tech
elight LinkGNU/Linux Richard Stallman is a famously former MIT professor known to have literally founded the GNU foundation ("GNU's Not Unix" which is a recursive acronym). He essentially founded the Free...GNU/Linux
Richard Stallman is a famously former MIT professor known to have literally founded the GNU foundation ("GNU's Not Unix" which is a recursive acronym).
He essentially founded the Free and Open Source Software movement. He's also held iconoclastic perspectives on all manner of recent historic events. IIRC, he was also accused of sexual harassment, leading him to be coerced into taking a huge step back and out of the public view.
GNU contributed enormous amount of software to what became known as Linux. Of particular note was gcc, the GNU C Compiler that was used to compile the Linux kernel.
Stallman would insist that Linux should be referred to as GNU/Linux, as Linux would not exist without GNU. He famously would insist on this nomenclature frequently and publicly when people would call the OS "Linux".
Disclaimer: this is mostly from memory so please amend based on what I remember or heard wrongly.
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Comment on Explain Linux controversies to me in ~tech
elight LinkLinus wrote the original kernel. Linus, in the 00's,used to write very bluntly and rudely on the listserv(s?) to people attempting, in seemingly good faith, to contribute to the kernel. My...Linus wrote the original kernel.
Linus, in the 00's,used to write very bluntly and rudely on the listserv(s?) to people attempting, in seemingly good faith, to contribute to the kernel.
My impression is that, as many of us do as we become graybeards, that he matured.
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Comment on Are they 'stars'? Or just rather ordinary people who need to work? in ~talk
elight Link ParentHe was Mr "Two chicks at the same time" in Office Space. I'd never heard his name before my wife dropped it once. I'm all like "Who the f is Dietrich Bader??" Now, between us, whenever she name...He was Mr "Two chicks at the same time" in Office Space.
I'd never heard his name before my wife dropped it once. I'm all like "Who the f is Dietrich Bader??"
Now, between us, whenever she name drops some actor I've never heard of before, my response is something in the vein of "they must know Diedrich Bader."
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Comment on Democratic lawmaker killed and another wounded in Minnesota in apparently ‘politically motivated’ attacks in ~society
elight Link ParentEven Illinois has its backwater idiots. It's easy to forget that, while our voting districts and states vote "red" or "blue" that the reality is that the distribution is rarely weighted...Even Illinois has its backwater idiots.
It's easy to forget that, while our voting districts and states vote "red" or "blue" that the reality is that the distribution is rarely weighted particularly far one way or the other.
And I'm always uncomfortable saying things such as this. I'm sure you already know this. I'm most always uncomfortable and irritated when people tell me information that I already know so I'm sensitive when I find myself doing it. Yet it seemed appropriate to say.
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Comment on Democratic lawmaker killed and another wounded in Minnesota in apparently ‘politically motivated’ attacks in ~society
elight LinkIt gets worse: An SUV drove into a crowd of protestors in Culpepper, VA Shootings at a protest in SLC https://www.axios.com/2025/06/14/no-kings-protests-usa-june-14-trump-military-parade I keep...It gets worse:
An SUV drove into a crowd of protestors in Culpepper, VA
Shootings at a protest in SLC
https://www.axios.com/2025/06/14/no-kings-protests-usa-june-14-trump-military-parade
I keep thinking of a line from Babylon 5 (the show feels increasingly prescient): "The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote."
Pillars of Eternity and its sequel are both 75% off.
My backlog of unplayed games is getting stupid this summer...