Ember's recent activity
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Comment on What is the most recent game to really impress you? in ~games
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Comment on What is the most recent game to really impress you? in ~games
Ember Link ParentReally hoping that Apple’s new augmented reality platform will eventually get Alyx. Apple is probably gonna dominate that market like they do in so many others, and it’d be a shame if the majority...Really hoping that Apple’s new augmented reality platform will eventually get Alyx. Apple is probably gonna dominate that market like they do in so many others, and it’d be a shame if the majority of users miss out on Alyx.
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Comment on Encouraging the young to die - The most toxic site I've ever seen in ~life
Ember LinkThinking about if this situation goes viral... it's so delicate (infohazard?), I'm a bit worried about if this gets picked up and talked about by more influencers. Are we gonna see twitch...Thinking about if this situation goes viral... it's so delicate (infohazard?), I'm a bit worried about if this gets picked up and talked about by more influencers. Are we gonna see twitch streamers and YouTubers watching this video, discussing it with less care, the tasteless ones actually navigating the site?
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Comment on Michael Reeves uses TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) units to turn other YouTubers into real life Rock' Em Sock' Em Robots and teach himself how to box in ~sports
Ember LinkIt's not a Michael Reeves video if he isn't skipping over the most technically impressive parts with "it's boring". Creator Clash happened in May, so I wonder what held him up so long since then....It's not a Michael Reeves video if he isn't skipping over the most technically impressive parts with "it's boring".
Creator Clash happened in May, so I wonder what held him up so long since then. Unless this was shot out of order and the boxing robot wasn't finished until later?
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Comment on Portal RTX review: This particular release dramatically modernises the Valve classic with all-new assets and a fully path-traced pipeline, transforming the look of the game in ~games
Ember LinkI gave it a playthrough. Looks beautiful. For anyone who's already got an RTX card, you should definitely give this a try. If you've never played Portal before, you owe it to yourself as a PC...I gave it a playthrough. Looks beautiful. For anyone who's already got an RTX card, you should definitely give this a try. If you've never played Portal before, you owe it to yourself as a PC gamer to play it (though I doubt there's a large amount of people who have the cash to buy an RTX card but haven't heard of Valve's games). And if you've already played Portal, it's still worth a replay if only for nostalgia's sake; it's a short game especially if you remember the puzzle solutions (~90 minutes).
Now... let's see if they do Half Life 2 with RTX next. Maybe the team behind Black Mesa will upgrade their game too?
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Comment on The Witcher 3 next-gen update is going live: Patch notes in ~games
Ember Link ParentAre there storylines/plot points that are lost by starting with 3?Are there storylines/plot points that are lost by starting with 3?
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Comment on The Witcher 3 next-gen update is going live: Patch notes in ~games
Ember (edited )LinkAs someone who's only seen the Netflix series and was mildly disappointed, which Witcher game should I start with? For a patient gamer, are the first two games good or should I skip to Witcher 3...As someone who's only seen the Netflix series and was mildly disappointed, which Witcher game should I start with? For a patient gamer, are the first two games good or should I skip to Witcher 3 right now?
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Comment on Qatar World Cup in ~sports
Ember Link ParentI would argue it's the other way around; periodic, visible events like this are opportune times to gather support and make a statement. There is a constant background radiation of child labor,...why do we only care about principles for something that happens every four years
I would argue it's the other way around; periodic, visible events like this are opportune times to gather support and make a statement. There is a constant background radiation of child labor, slave labor, and unnecessary deaths in the world, but we are collectively bad at taking action on slow, creeping trends. As you stated, the chance of making a protest that reaches hundred of millions is an incredible opportunity.
Yes, for those that care nothing for the World Cup, a boycott is meaningless. But less so for fans, where a circle of friends would take notice that one or two are intentionally out of the loop; doubly so for Oliver because of the platform he wields. What if major teams refuse to play? What if major advertisers pulled out due to mass protest and bad PR? What if an alternative organization to FIFA started trying to woo teams away? I find it disappointing that many with a voice considered the battle lost before even starting.
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Comment on Qatar World Cup in ~sports
Ember LinkI found it mildly uncomfortable that Oliver admitted he'll still be watching the World Cup. How can you enjoy watching something like this, let alone miss an opportunity to push for a boycott?...I found it mildly uncomfortable that Oliver admitted he'll still be watching the World Cup. How can you enjoy watching something like this, let alone miss an opportunity to push for a boycott? Aren't you just becoming part of the problem? Wouldn't your outrage be more powerful if you're also mourning the event which your morals prevented you from watching?
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Comment on ROBLOX_OOF.mp3 in ~games
Ember LinkI clicked the link without reading Duration or Authors, fully expecting a 3-second meme video. When I saw the 2-hour runtime... well, guess I have to watch the whole thing. Really good video from...I clicked the link without reading Duration or Authors, fully expecting a 3-second meme video. When I saw the 2-hour runtime... well, guess I have to watch the whole thing.
Really good video from hbomberguy as always; I'm extremely curious if Tommy will respond in any way.
Also interesting to see Lindsay Ellis in the comments section; I miss her content.
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Comment on Help me decide what technology should I use for this project in ~comp
Ember Link ParentOh absolutely. As an end user, I always prefer installing an app or desktop program if it's available. Unless it's an Electron app, the experience will almost always be better than their website....Oh absolutely. As an end user, I always prefer installing an app or desktop program if it's available. Unless it's an Electron app, the experience will almost always be better than their website.
I think there's a big divide right now between what users prefer and what developers prefer. Users want that clean, integrated experience that doesn't require different intuition or knowledge to start using, and so usually a native app that looks like the rest of their OS is best.
But devs prioritize the development experience, sometimes at the cost of the end product. Just look at Javascript... the JS ecosystem has tons of libraries built to make the dev experience stellar, and so many frontend devs seem to genuinely enjoy working in React, Typescript, Vue, etc. Or languages like python, new developers love how clean and readable it feels. Never mind how much memory both JS and python can consume, how slow they can chug along compared to compiled code.
So yeah, if I'm an end user, I want a native Windows desktop app written in C# with WPF; if I'm on iOS, I want a Swift app; Android, Kotlin. But if I'm a developer (or a company employing that dev), there's a strong chance I'm gonna pick React and Electron :( Just look at Microsoft right now... they just shipped MAUI, a C# framework for frontend mobile apps... and yet Microsoft Teams is written in React.
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Comment on Help me decide what technology should I use for this project in ~comp
Ember LinkI've worked on personal web app projects in both PHP and C#, and I enjoyed C# far more. ASP.NET Core is so nice to work with and comes with so many easy features out of the box. I haven't done...I've worked on personal web app projects in both PHP and C#, and I enjoyed C# far more. ASP.NET Core is so nice to work with and comes with so many easy features out of the box. I haven't done frontend UI in C# but I've heard that Blazor (with C#) is very nice to work with.
For hosting, I have a cheap raspberry pi that I run my app+database on. C# supports Linux now, and so deploying it plus my database to the pi was very painless.
Most corporate places nowadays use web apps for their internal tooling. It makes it easier to deploy changes... would you rather ask all your users to update their desktop apps, or just silently update the web app in one pass? There's also less headache with installers and executables, local permissions, etc.
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Comment on Mega Millions ticket wins $1.34 billion lottery jackpot in ~news
Ember Link ParentEvery time the lottery comes up in the news, I re-read that post. Despite it being a huge warning, with big examples of why it's a mess to win the lottery... there's something thrilling about just...Every time the lottery comes up in the news, I re-read that post. Despite it being a huge warning, with big examples of why it's a mess to win the lottery... there's something thrilling about just reading the steps they laid out. Imagining yourself finding a bit lawyer, setting up funds, the secrecy game... it's a great fantasy.
Like watching an action movie. Sure, in real life, action movies would be awful to participate in—blood, trauma, tinnitus, etc. But they're fun to experience from afar.
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Comment on Five UX improvements that could save lives in ~tech
Ember Link ParentI'd guess it's because touch screens are cheaper for companies. They can ship a touch screen and spend years revising the software instead of paying the up-front hardware & design costs for a...I'd guess it's because touch screens are cheaper for companies. They can ship a touch screen and spend years revising the software instead of paying the up-front hardware & design costs for a permanent set of physical controls. Then they can subsidize development by adding a subscription fee...
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Comment on Five UX improvements that could save lives in ~tech
Ember Link ParentI think another good alternative would be for Apple & Google to build and maintain it themselves. They can spare a single development team maintaining "emergency" features like Amber Alerts, COVID...I think another good alternative would be for Apple & Google to build and maintain it themselves. They can spare a single development team maintaining "emergency" features like Amber Alerts, COVID exposure, 911 calls, etc. The government can mandate the phone OS either provides the old functionality of just free-form text or new structured input that populates the new UI. If the user's phone doesn't have an Internet connection to download the associated images, then fall back to the old notification or image alt text.
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Comment on What's the point of grammatical gender? in ~humanities
Ember Link ParentDo you have any examples of human languages that are not type-0? If all natural languages are type-0, does that mean a type-1 language would be more of a set of instructions like RegEx or a...Do you have any examples of human languages that are not type-0? If all natural languages are type-0, does that mean a type-1 language would be more of a set of instructions like RegEx or a programming language?
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Comment on Tom Cruise’s new ‘Top Gun’ could take movies back to the late ’70s and the golden age of blockbusters in ~movies
Ember Link ParentI feel like a lot of major "cultural event" franchises are TV series now, instead of film. The Office, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, or single-season stuff like...I feel like a lot of major "cultural event" franchises are TV series now, instead of film. The Office, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, or single-season stuff like Squid Game or WANDAVISION... all were things I'd hear about in offline conversation, away from the Internet. TWD had a huge impact on zombie popularity, Squid Game was literally everywhere for a while, Game of Thrones spoilers were a huge deal.
If I had to guess on what would be nostalgia-bait in a few decades, it would be these shows instead of original films from the same period.
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Comment on GitHub will require two-factor authentication (2FA) for all users who contribute code by the end of 2023 in ~comp
Ember LinkSeems good, as long as it's not SMS 2FA. Any developer who isn't aware of 2FA will get introduced to it and hopefully learn why it's important; for the rest, this won't be an issue at all.Seems good, as long as it's not SMS 2FA. Any developer who isn't aware of 2FA will get introduced to it and hopefully learn why it's important; for the rest, this won't be an issue at all.
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Comment on What is your favorite game you'll never finish? in ~games
Ember LinkUndertale's 3rd run. I played through the Neutral and Pacifist routes, and to "complete" the game/get everything out of it, you'd have to play the Genocide route. But I don't have the heart to do...Undertale's 3rd run.
I played through the Neutral and Pacifist routes, and to "complete" the game/get everything out of it, you'd have to play the Genocide route. But I don't have the heart to do the killing myself... admittedly I've watched countless playthroughs by YouTubers, and the game even calls out viewers for doing so. But I think at the very least, I'll keep my own save file in its current state forever, at the end of the Pacifist route, with happy endings for everyone. -
Comment on Taking the warts off C, with Andrew Kelley, creator of the Zig programming language in ~comp
Ember LinkSome direct comparisons to C and Rust:Some direct comparisons to C and Rust:
[...] Let’s say you’re writing a desktop application C code. You’re going to make OS calls, you’re writing blocking imperative code. And that’s a well-understood concept.
If you’re writing Go code, you’re doing an event loop, always. You’re not doing the thing that you’re doing in C. It would be very difficult to have a Go library that you call from C. Because Go depends on a hefty run time to do all the event loop stuff. So those are distinct. Rust supports both but there’s modes. They’re different codebases. In Rust, you can write the kind of C code where you have blocking imperative code and you make OS calls. Or you can do async stuff with Rust where you depend on Tokio, or maybe there’s another one. It’s very pluggable.
But then you’re getting the Go thing, where it’s the event-based thing. But it’s a different codebase. The thing that’s interesting about Zig is that, like Rust, Zig supports both of these use cases, but with the same codebase. You can have a library that both can be compiled for the Go use case and for the C use case. We call it colorblind async functions.
3rd party controller support hopefully. They’re supporting Unity according to the announcement, so they’ve gotta support some type of input… Unity games like Beat Saber would be pretty dumb without something to hold.