Amarok's recent activity

  1. Comment on The Muckers - Endeavor (2021) in ~music

    Amarok
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    A masterpiece of late 70s/early 80s throwback rock and roll, pure sounds vintage gold right here. <3

    A masterpiece of late 70s/early 80s throwback rock and roll, pure sounds vintage gold right here. <3

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Warhammer 40k timeline in 20 mins! From the 21st Century to the 41st Millenium in ~books

    Amarok
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    I had a similar reaction - D&D was the undisputed king of canon by volume, boasting a larger body of unified world-building than anything except perhaps for real world non-fiction history itself....

    I had a similar reaction - D&D was the undisputed king of canon by volume, boasting a larger body of unified world-building than anything except perhaps for real world non-fiction history itself. In fact there's so much out there that a complete / authoritative list is impossible to create.

    40k's four hundred novels does put it on a level to actually compete with D&D for the crown, though. There were at least three hundred D&D novels at the end of the 90s when TSR closed shop, with several magazines boasting hundreds of issues, multiple comic/manga series and dozens of video games - not to mention the hundreds of official roleplaying game books and campaign settings. The veritable explosion of third party content that came with the Wizards era added on top of all that, but also made it impossible to keep track of it all.

    Even with all of that on the table it's clear that 40k is able to hang tough with the king in every one of those categories. I'd always avoided it because I'm not into miniatures or the expense of that sort of tabletop gaming, or grimdark canon in general... though I confess after digging into it all that 40k is so comically grimdark it becomes oddly charming.

    2 votes

  4. Comment on Warhammer 40k timeline in 20 mins! From the 21st Century to the 41st Millenium in ~books

    Amarok
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    I settled on WesHammer's videos for the refresher - a bit longer but still quite brief in this context. This one franchise has more canon than all of the D&D settings combined, it's been quite the...

    I settled on WesHammer's videos for the refresher - a bit longer but still quite brief in this context. This one franchise has more canon than all of the D&D settings combined, it's been quite the rabbit hole. Calling it the polar opposite of Star Trek seems like the simplest possible description for newcomers.

    3 votes

  5. Comment on A new way to achieve nuclear fusion: Helion in ~science

    Amarok
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    Given all the overrated hype about net gain breaking even with older fusion approaches, I thought it might be nice to take a look at real progress in the world of fusion power for a change.

    Given all the overrated hype about net gain breaking even with older fusion approaches, I thought it might be nice to take a look at real progress in the world of fusion power for a change.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on A tech worker is selling a children's book he made using AI, then the death threats started in ~tech

    Amarok
    Link Parent
    Studios are going to lose their monopoly on production, and the influence the guilds have on blacklisting people who don't go along with their collective. That will probably generalize to all...

    Studios are going to lose their monopoly on production, and the influence the guilds have on blacklisting people who don't go along with their collective. That will probably generalize to all forms of entertainment, news, and propaganda too. Check out the AIs that generate 3D models and it's pretty clear that a photograph is all one will ever need to create an entire movie set or video game level in just a couple of years, and it'll take mere seconds to do either one.

    Check out the list of AIs in the top comment on that video that can provide everything one needs to produce a video game. Now mix in the insane capabilities of ChatGPT and it won't be long before the AIs can do the coding too. That bot is already helping people with their PhD thesis and getting it right.

    It seems democratizing, at least to me. I can sit here and create anything I desire without interference from another human being becoming necessary. I don't have to give up a single one of my rights or freedoms or sell out any of my principles to get investor money, or change things to placate some group of gatekeepers. I can sit down and tinker, and in a couple of months I've got an Avatar movie series or a Warcraft MMO or a new DC comic book series.

    At that point, just sorting through and curating a million movies, a hundred thousand games, a billion paintings, and tens of millions of books a month becomes our new problem. What do you do when more masterpieces come out in a single month than a human can experience in their entire lifetime? I guess you get an AI to engineer us a longer lifetime. :P

    The political implications of this are mindboggling, as it will become increasingly more difficult for any group, institution, or government to exert overt or covert influence on creatives as time passes. No gatekeeper can control that many gates opening that fast all over the world. Our grandchildren will probably have the same creative options as any vertical monopolist entertainment company has today, all from the comfort of their favorite chair in the basement - as long as they have the leather patience to guide the machines.

    At that point, I guess it comes down to a simple question - do you have anything worth saying?

    Tech is starting to speed up again - but this time, it's not just the hardware. AI is moving faster than ever and we're starting to see the various generations of any given narrow AI one-up themselves on the order of months, not years. Oh, and the need for large training sets is not necessarily going to remain a requirement for long. Our silicon is going to hold us back the most, but eventually that will give way to graphene, silicene, and photonics.

    That new hardware will probably be designed by an AI as well, and it won't take the 60 years it took humans to iterate from the IBM 1401 to Threadrippers. It'll do it in twenty, perhaps less, and it's likely that newer hardware will also make inroads on quantum computing. Photonics is a natural fit for that task, as it satisfies more of DiVincenzo's criteria.

    Kurzweil's prediction from the early 1990s of 2029 as a ballpark date for an AGI passing the Turing test and 2045 for a singularity-type event is starting to look dead on target now, not ridiculous. Capitalism has no brakes, either. The next two decades will likely be the most interesting and terrifying decades this planet has ever seen.

    4 votes

  8. Comment on Henry Cavill’s next play: ‘Warhammer 40,000’ series for Amazon in ~tv

    Amarok
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    I rarely have issues with the actor performances or the production team work myself - like you said, it always comes down to the plot and character development. For my money, the last decade has...

    I rarely have issues with the actor performances or the production team work myself - like you said, it always comes down to the plot and character development. For my money, the last decade has been a historic low on both of those key elements and no amount of money, marketing, or spin can cover for a dumb story.

    I see Andy Smillie and Max Bottrill also listed as producers, but being able to write a bestselling tabletop gaming franchise does not mean one can write a script, let alone several years worth of scripts. That's an entirely different animal. Having them in the room while those scripts are created is a good start, though. It'll save the writers time and help nail down the proper tone for the franchise.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on Henry Cavill’s next play: ‘Warhammer 40,000’ series for Amazon in ~tv

    Amarok
    Link Parent
    Yeah, that they do, and it would be wise to build them up over a longer career. One can't just hire a novice and toss them in the deep end. If a studio is putting out a flagship property with a...

    Yeah, that they do, and it would be wise to build them up over a longer career. One can't just hire a novice and toss them in the deep end. If a studio is putting out a flagship property with a major budget, that's a job for people with experience. There's a world of difference and an order of magnitude shift in difficulty between the easy stuff like reality television and cop dramas compared to genre television like The Expanse or Game of Thrones. The production team alone becomes a veritable army in that shift. Expecting a novice to handle it all without at least someone experienced mentoring is setting them up to fail and doing them a disservice, not to mention risking the entire budget/profit at the same time.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Henry Cavill’s next play: ‘Warhammer 40,000’ series for Amazon in ~tv

    Amarok
    Link
    Hmm... if Henry gets veto power over the woke mafia perhaps this show will be worth watching. Warhammer does seem to be a rather woke-resistant brand, it's going to be much harder to lecture the...

    star in and executive produce

    Hmm... if Henry gets veto power over the woke mafia perhaps this show will be worth watching. Warhammer does seem to be a rather woke-resistant brand, it's going to be much harder to lecture the audience on modern day political nonsense with the backdrop of a scifi horror space opera war drama. I can imagine how well that trash would play out with 40k's audience of tabletop wargamers - there would be blood in the streets.

    No writers or showrunners are attached

    Well, it's Amazon, so the default writing team barring divine intervention will be six women who once directed a music video or perhaps a handful of daytime television show episodes and are laughably unqualified to run a major studio production. Good luck, Henry. Lock down some actual talent while you have the chance. Perhaps the cringeworthy implosion of Rings of Power has sown some doubt in Bezos-land for you to work with. Just imagine what a Warhammer series could do with that budget, and the good news is it'll be up for grabs soon.

    I'd be there with bells on.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on The Witcher 3 next-gen update is going live: Patch notes in ~games

    Amarok
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    I may have to take a break from xcom for a bit and replay this again. I usually roll with Ghost Mode but there is no way in hell that mod will ever be compatible with all of the already integrated...

    I may have to take a break from xcom for a bit and replay this again. I usually roll with Ghost Mode but there is no way in hell that mod will ever be compatible with all of the already integrated mods. Looking over the list, though, it seems like they've already adjusted and included most of the changes I used Ghost Mode for in the first place.

    The default combat in the game was weak sauce, no matter the specialization, armors, or weapons. One could just tank away even on the highest difficulty and spam fast attacks to beat anything. Ghost mode created multiple builds around the various perk trees and rebuilt the armors and weapons and oils and potions to support all of the diverse styles, then customized various enemy types to make the use of oils and potions mandatory to beat them. It was a lot more fun.

    FCR3 looks like the same sort of deal, just a bit less in-depth and obsessive about getting every last detail right - though we will see what parts of it were included, cut, and changed by CDPR. I'm surprised as hell that this curated update actually has major rebalancing changes, I'd have expected nothing but cosmetic changes.

    Criticize companies over their easy-mode defaults and under-optimized mechanics and they will whine about making the games 'friendly so that even your grandmother can beat them' - as if that stupid notion still has or ever had relevance. Kids today are born with controllers in their hands, and difficulty scales exist for a reason. Good on CDPR for not being one of those companies and including some well-tested popular mechanics enhancements in the set. That is the one change in the list that really makes me want to try this out, though I appreciate the visual enhancements too.

    I'm... surprised they didn't update the in-game Gwent to be more like the standalone version. That seems like an obvious win-win to me, the original version in TW3 was only tolerable when modded, or modded right out of the game. :P

    4 votes

  12. Comment on James Gunn writing Superman movie - the project will focus on the hero in his younger days, and will star an actor other than Henry Cavill in ~movies

    Amarok
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    So we're dropping the best man to wear the cape since Chris in favor of... a wannabe smallville movie? This nonsense is why I cheer on the eventual bankruptcy of Hollywood. I would wish them the...

    So we're dropping the best man to wear the cape since Chris in favor of... a wannabe smallville movie? This nonsense is why I cheer on the eventual bankruptcy of Hollywood. I would wish them the very worst luck in the world, but their last decade of business decisions continue to make that redundant. Last count Disney was closing in on 40 cancelled projects and two billion in losses this year alone. I guess Warner Brothers wants to top that with their own series of bombs. I have faith in you, WB - you can fail even more than Disney if you really try, and you are off to a smashing start here.

    2 votes

  13. Comment on What's your unpopular opinion or idiosyncrasy about video games or games in general? in ~games

    Amarok
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    A little update on the few remaining bugs in the set. I'd call it functional but there's still some room for optimization. Nothing game breaking though.

    A little update on the few remaining bugs in the set. I'd call it functional but there's still some room for optimization. Nothing game breaking though.

    3 votes

  14. Comment on Megathread for news/updates/discussion about Musk's takeover of Twitter – Part 1 in ~tech

    Amarok
    Link Parent
    No, I don't think so. We were all set for a legendary 'red wave' that would retake the house and the senate. The polls were so universally wrong on this one that they lost scientific credibility....

    No, I don't think so. We were all set for a legendary 'red wave' that would retake the house and the senate. The polls were so universally wrong on this one that they lost scientific credibility. The GOP spent several fortunes and barely got the house, which should have been effortless for them. They always do well in the mid-terms - but not this time. Even Fox News has realized Trump is a losing brand, go check out their coverage of his announcement.

    Republicans want Trump gone. They know if he is the face of their party it's game over for another decade. They only just now figured this out for sure thanks to the mid-term numbers. They got what they wanted out of him, and since he can no longer deliver for them it's time to drop him like a used condom. His ego may even form a DJT party all by itself and split 10-15% off their base, which is a great incentive for them to lock him up. Watching him rip the GOP apart yet again is going to be entertaining.

    Having him back on Twitter will be great. Every time he opens his mouth more districts turn blue.

    5 votes

  15. Comment on Megathread for news/updates/discussion about Musk's takeover of Twitter – Part 1 in ~tech

    Amarok
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    The Trump Republicans had their asses kicked in three separate election cycles since then, losing worse every time. I hope they are stupid enough to try it again.

    The Trump Republicans had their asses kicked in three separate election cycles since then, losing worse every time. I hope they are stupid enough to try it again.

    4 votes

  16. Comment on Megathread for news/updates/discussion about Musk's takeover of Twitter – Part 1 in ~tech

    Amarok
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    He has no self control. Sooner or later something some other Republican says on Twitter will trigger him and he'll go off on a tear. Every time Trump opens his mouth on twitter he'll be doing the...

    He has no self control. Sooner or later something some other Republican says on Twitter will trigger him and he'll go off on a tear.

    Every time Trump opens his mouth on twitter he'll be doing the Democrats a favor. He's a dead brand that has been losing steam for three elections and nothing he says or does will get him any closer to the white house. All he can do is knock the rest of the Republicans down with him. I'm looking forward to his next batch of meltdowns.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on At least $1 billion of client funds missing at failed crypto firm FTX, sources say in ~finance

    Amarok
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    People never learn. There's always a new shiny token on the market, and everyone gets greedy enough to ignore the obvious lessons. I think people will buy right back in once some time passes and...

    People never learn. There's always a new shiny token on the market, and everyone gets greedy enough to ignore the obvious lessons. I think people will buy right back in once some time passes and gives them selective amnesia. There will be new crypto creations to buy, same as the old ones, just with a better marketing team. Perhaps someday one will be invented that is actually useful for something.

    3 votes

  18. Comment on At least $1 billion of client funds missing at failed crypto firm FTX, sources say in ~finance

    Amarok
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    He's probably right. Tether is the main doorway between crypto and fiat. It uses its own bullshit tokens just like FTX - it's just another unregulated ponzi. When it goes, crypto value goes back...

    He's probably right. Tether is the main doorway between crypto and fiat. It uses its own bullshit tokens just like FTX - it's just another unregulated ponzi. When it goes, crypto value goes back to 2010. There's no easy way out for the people left holding after that door closes, so they'll get to eat the losses.

    After the dust settles it'll be a perfect time to buy in at fire sale prices. People will never learn their lesson, and this market is forever beyond regulation, so the boom-bust cycle is going to be with us for the foreseeable future.

    3 votes

  19. Comment on Twitter’s SMS two-factor authentication is melting down in ~tech

    Amarok
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    When it comes to the raw body count I'd say Tesla's new kamikaze mode (nsfl) has yet to be surpassed. :p

    When it comes to the raw body count I'd say Tesla's new kamikaze mode (nsfl) has yet to be surpassed. :p

    3 votes

  20. Comment on Poland: Russian-made missile fell on our country, killing two in ~news

    Amarok
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    Groups agitating for war within the NATO sphere have been waiting for any excuse to escalate, and now idiot Russia has made their dreams come true. How far will they push it, I wonder? These are...

    Groups agitating for war within the NATO sphere have been waiting for any excuse to escalate, and now idiot Russia has made their dreams come true. How far will they push it, I wonder? These are the kinds of fuckups that give NATO members all the justification they need to park more hardware, more manpower, and more bombs all along Russia's border. I sense a lot more aid in Ukraine's future...

    4 votes