LunamareInsanity's recent activity

  1. Comment on Europa Universalis V release date announced (Nov 4th) and prepurchase now available in ~games

    LunamareInsanity
    Link
    I'm cautiously optimistic for EU5, but I expect it will need some time in the oven post-release. CK3 felt very bare-bones at release and needed a few years to catch up to CK2 -- I'd say they're...

    I'm cautiously optimistic for EU5, but I expect it will need some time in the oven post-release.

    CK3 felt very bare-bones at release and needed a few years to catch up to CK2 -- I'd say they're both about as good as the other now, but with different strengths (CK2's raw amount of content vs. CK3's mechanics). I never played Vic2 but I've heard similar things about Vic3, and Vic3 as a standalone game feels fairly empty of content still.

    I suspect EU5 will be another CK3 situation - great bones for a game and great new mechanics, but lacking in content. I'm extremely excited for the new level of detail in pops and buildings and economic growth in general. Similarly, I'm dismayed that my favorite feature from EU4, mission trees, have so far been absent from any of the dev diaries and likely won't be in the game at release. Hopefully a mission tree-like system will come shortly after release. (HOI4 is my favorite Paradox game purely on the back of high quality modded focus trees)

    All in all, EU5 looks like it'll be a really good game -- its just a question of when it will be good. I'm expecting early 2027 for EU5 to be good enough to put my next thousand hours of a Paradox game into, and until then I'll happily play EU4's Anbennar.

    Also, I'm gonna miss mana :(

    5 votes

  2. Comment on Meta allegedly pirated terabytes of porn to trick the BitTorrent protocol into letting them pirate books faster in ~tech

    LunamareInsanity
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I was curious about these questions too, so I did some digging. The filing document holds what are probably the answers. re: downloading of porn being said to accelerate downloading of e-books....

    I was curious about these questions too, so I did some digging. The filing document holds what are probably the answers.

    re: downloading of porn being said to accelerate downloading of e-books.

    BitTorrent operates on a “tit for tat” basis where Meta’s seeding (uploading), enables Meta to obtain better download speeds so that it can consume more content, faster.

    The tit-for-tat mechanism within the BitTorrent Protocol rewards users who distribute the most desired content. This ensures that users distribute content on BitTorrent as opposed to solely downloading. If all BitTorrent users were to avoid distribution, then there would be no content available on the network for users desiring to download it.

    Defendant was specifically aware of this issue and, discovery will likely show, is the reason why Defendant elected to continuously distribute Plaintiffs’ content as opposed to just purchasing a subscription or modifying its BitTorrent clients to download only.

    It seems to me like they just... don't understand that there isn't a universal point to ratios.

    Higher ratios of seeding leading to faster download speeds as incentive for seeding sounds plausible. Especially if your thought process is very capitalistic and you're baffled about how torrenting as a culture can survive.

    Edit: Apparently it is me that doesn't understand! There actually is a choking algorithm that does pretty much exactly what is described above. It was apparently very useful back in the olden days when bandwidth was low and has remained in the protocol. I've never encountered it in practice, but maybe it truly is relevant when you're downloading at the scale of ~100TB a pop.

    Also, I doubt Meta was participating in private trackers from just this info alone -- if nothing else, I don't know a private tracker that has both prodigious amounts of books and porn at the same time. Even the generalist trackers are light on porn and books (and heavy on tv shows and movies). Though I am curious why, if the point was books to train models on, they didn't just download that clearnet rip of Bibliotik from a few years back...

    re: traced back to Meta IPs, this one is pretty cut and dry. There were Meta employees torrenting from corporate clearnet IPs or their home residential IPs that got caught. From there, they extrapolated their download patterns (assuming there was a torrenting script handed down by corporate) and found potential datacenter VPN'd IP blocks with the same behaviors.

    Strike 3 conducted an analysis attempting to find Meta’s hidden IP addresses by looking for certain correlations to data patterns that matched infringement patterns seen on Meta’s corporate IP Addresses. These include, but are not limited to, such instances as:

    a. Similar patterns involving mass infringement beyond what a human could consume;

    b. Similar methodical downloads of disparate content based on the patterns shown by Meta’s corporate IP addresses;

    c. Similar content being downloaded on the same day or at or near the same time as on Meta’s corporate IP addresses;

    d. Similar targeting of certain types of content featuring specific languages at or around the same date and time that followed a shifting pattern (i.e. IP addresses that targeted French language versions of TV shows or films on the same day as Meta’s corporate IP addresses and then shifted in apparent connection with Meta’s corporate IP addresses to target Russian language versions of TV shows); and

    e. Correlations to Meta’s corporate IP addresses where the same content is being torrented in different resolutions at or around the same time.

    13 votes

  3. Comment on The 2025 Steam Summer Sale is live (runs June 26 - July 10) in ~games

    LunamareInsanity
    Link Parent
    I haven't done much more than skim them, but Paradox recently put out Beginner's Guide videos for each of their games and they seem quite well done. Here is the one for EU4. Personally, I'd...

    I haven't done much more than skim them, but Paradox recently put out Beginner's Guide videos for each of their games and they seem quite well done. Here is the one for EU4.

    Personally, I'd recommend playing a campaign or two between watching each video in the series.

    Most importantly, more time played will be the single biggest source of learning in the beginning, so try not to be too intimidated and just jump in! Guides can tell you what to do but only experience lets you actually do it.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on What are your favourite time-loop based books, movies and video games? in ~talk

    LunamareInsanity
    (edited )
    Link
    One of my favorite genres! All the heavy hitters have been mentioned, so I'll throw in some more obscure recs. Books Throwing in another vote for Mother of Learning. This one is especially...

    One of my favorite genres! All the heavy hitters have been mentioned, so I'll throw in some more obscure recs.

    Books

    Throwing in another vote for Mother of Learning.

    This one is especially excellent if you enjoy seeing multiple clever ways to use (& abuse) time loop mechanics in order to maximize strength gain - however, this isn't a story with an OP protagonist. The threats in the story are such that the time loop shenanigans are needed just to keep him on par, and seeing the constant power struggle and methods to extract just a little more use of the time loops is the highlight of the book. Mother of Learning is probably my favorite time loop story (though its moderately cheating since it combines another one of my favorite genres, progression fantasy)

    Honorable Mention:

    • Recursion - I can't remember much about it, but I do remember thoroughly enjoying the back half of the book.

    FanFiction

    Naruto

    Time Braid is the story that made me fall in love with the concept of time loops.

    Sakura repeats the Chunnin Exams, growing ever stronger (and ever more traumatized). The main appeal to this story are the meta-time loop mechanics. Other prominent characters are in their own separate time loops, and sometimes those loops merge with one another. Its a great dynamic where some characters have lost their sanity to the endless loops, some find ways to manipulate the meta-loops in order to stave off insanity, and generally everyone has demons scratched into their psyche. All the while, they don't know whether the person they're interacting with is the copy they've met thousands of times, or a fellow time looper/eldritch-being with thousands of years of life and experience. Its very melodramatic and sometimes can border on "trauma porn", so avoid if those are concerns, but the time loop mechanics themselves are my favorite in the genre by far.

    The Naurto fandom really loves time loops, apparently, so honorable mentions to:

    • A Lifetime of Chances, a sometimes sweet short story of comradery through being stuck in loops together and sometimes grimdark story of losing your morals and killing your teacher just to gain intel
    • Do You Remember Love, a one-chapter story that I won't spoil

    My Little Pony

    Hard Reset and a fan-made sequel/alternate-timeline Hard Reset 2: Reset Harder.

    The best way I can describe the story is that its like Outer Wilds but in text form. An invasion is coming to kill Twilight Sparkle and burn down everything she loves. Her only advantage is that she's trapped in a time loop mere hours before her demise. She needs to find the right chain of actions, events, knowledge, friends, and lore in order to save everything and everyone. For every obstacle she overcomes, 3 more pop up in its place. To save everyone seems impossible, unless she can take everything she knows and complete that One. Perfect. Run.

    The main story itself is very well done, but the sequel/alternate-timeline absolutely shines by emphasizing optimal use and metagaming of the time loop mechanics. Without giving anything away, the concept of knowledge acquisition through time loops and how that affects conversations, relationships, and even enemies is front and center. If the main story was Outer Wilds, this side story is Primer - think formalized logic tries to stop an invasion, and you'd be pretty close.

  5. Comment on Is the current war in Palestine the first time the victim wound up being seen as the aggressor? in ~humanities.history

    LunamareInsanity
    Link Parent
    The West (broadly) and the United States (especially) did intentionally set up hostile economic conditions on Japan that were designed to forcibly end the war in China. In response, Japan took...

    The West (broadly) and the United States (especially) did intentionally set up hostile economic conditions on Japan that were designed to forcibly end the war in China. In response, Japan took what it needed militarily instead (see more: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/j7r3is/why_did_japan_declare_war_on_america_in_1941/)

    Though I would agree that the US shouldn't quite be considered the aggressor, even taking the above argument to the extreme.

    14 votes

  6. Comment on Is there an alternative to Nexus Mods? in ~games

    LunamareInsanity
    Link Parent
    For anyone looking to use Wabbajack with a free Nexus account, I recommend using this to skip the individual mod download clicks: https://github.com/M1n-74316D65/Wabbajack-fast-downloader Its a...

    For anyone looking to use Wabbajack with a free Nexus account, I recommend using this to skip the individual mod download clicks: https://github.com/M1n-74316D65/Wabbajack-fast-downloader

    Its a little finicky and not 100% user friendly, but I downloaded a 229 mod pack in about ~10-15 minutes (most of that was download time and getting Wabbajack to see the manually downloaded mods)

    2 votes

  7. Comment on What are you reading these days? in ~books

    LunamareInsanity
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    General consensus is Mistborn Era 1 (the original trilogy) should be read before Stormlight. There's a lot of discussion on reading order (see the subreddit wiki) but Mistborn Era 1 is...

    General consensus is Mistborn Era 1 (the original trilogy) should be read before Stormlight. There's a lot of discussion on reading order (see the subreddit wiki) but Mistborn Era 1 is consistently among the first set to be read.

    Here's a recent video by author himself giving his recommended reading order!

    Personally, I've done:

    • Mistborn Era 1 -> Mistborn: Secret History (this placement is very contentious) -> the entire Stormlight Archive series + novellas -> (currently starting Mistborn Era 2)

    I really enjoyed picking out small details from Mistborn Era 1 in The Stormlight Archive, but they're very much still background "blink and you'll miss it" level stuff, so the exact reading order doesn't seem super strict.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on Share your personal dotfile treats and Unix tool recommendations in ~comp

    LunamareInsanity
    Link Parent
    All of this is correct, as far as neovim goes. And to be clear, my example in the OP of this thread was with using nixvim. Here's how you'd add lua: programs.nixvim = { extraConfigLua = ''...

    All of this is correct, as far as neovim goes.

    And to be clear, my example in the OP of this thread was with using nixvim. Here's how you'd add lua:

      programs.nixvim = {
    extraConfigLua = ''
      print("Hello world!")
    '';
  };

    which will be added to init.lua.

    @fxgn Its worth noting that under the hood, nixvim is just filling out pre-made templates in vimscript (for editor settings) and lua (for plugin installation/settings, etc.)

    The end-user also has the ability to tap into this and use the same framework to configure at whatever abstract level they want. See these docs for details.

  9. Comment on Share your personal dotfile treats and Unix tool recommendations in ~comp

    LunamareInsanity
    Link Parent
    You're right that NixOS+home-manager will replace maintaining almost all other configuration files. And you're also absolutely right that its an information-dense overload all at once. Personally,...

    You're right that NixOS+home-manager will replace maintaining almost all other configuration files.

    And you're also absolutely right that its an information-dense overload all at once. Personally, I'd recommend starting with a small, pre-made template (I like nix-starter-configs - use the minimal version for minimal info overload) and just jumping in one day in with the intention to configure a system and install things. Ignore flakes and anything fancy for now. Its easy to come back to those later, but you can only start once!

    I hope NixOS treats you well when you give a try again!

    3 votes

  10. Comment on Share your personal dotfile treats and Unix tool recommendations in ~comp

    LunamareInsanity
    Link
    NixOS has been the biggest boon to my enjoyment of computing in a long, long time. The biggest feature for me is consolidating the endless methods and formats of config files into both a...

    NixOS has been the biggest boon to my enjoyment of computing in a long, long time.

    The biggest feature for me is consolidating the endless methods and formats of config files into both a centralized location and - most importantly - a standardized language with standardized logic.

    My favorite example is vim configuration. The various methods of configuring neovim (old vimscript options, the new lua config, plugin managers, plugin installation, and various plugin-specific configs) have all been consolidated. This makes maintaining and adding to the configuration an absolute breeze. A small edited excerpt:

      programs.neovim.defaultEditor = true;
  programs.nixvim = {
    enable = true;
    opts = {
      number = true;
      relativenumber = true;
      undofile = true;
    };
    plugins = {
      floaterm = {
         enable = true;
         keymaps.toggle = "<C-t>";
       };
    };
    colorschemes = {
      rose-pine = {
        enable = true;
      };
    };
  }
    Full neovim config 
    {
  programs.neovim.defaultEditor = true;

  programs.nixvim = {

    enable = true;

    globals.mapleader = " ";
    globals.maplocalleader = " ";

    opts = {
      number = true;
      relativenumber = true;

      shiftwidth = 2; # Size of an indent
      tabstop = 2; # Number of spaces tabs count for
      softtabstop = 2; # Backspace by group of spaces instead of single space
      expandtab = true; # Use spaces instead of tabs
      smartindent = true; # Insert indents automatically

      cursorline = true; # Highlighting of the current line

      undofile = true; # Save undo history after closing buffer
    };

    keymaps = [
      {
        key = "Space";
        action = " ";
      }

      {
        key = "<leader>sc";
        action = ":source $MYVIMRC<cr>";
      }

      {
        key = "<C-g>";
        action = ":FloatermNew --height=500 --width=500 --wintype=float --positon=center --name=lazygit --autoclose=2 --cwd=<buffer> lazygit<cr>";
      }

      {
        key = "<S-Up>";
        action = "";

      }

      {
        key = "<S-Down>";
        action = "";
      }
    ];

    plugins = {
      lastplace = {
        # Reopen files to previous location
        enable = true;
      };

      floaterm = {
        # Floating terminal
        enable = true;
        keymaps.toggle = "<C-t>";
      };

      leap = {
        # Press "s" to seek in the file
        enable = true;
      };

      nvim-autopairs = {
        # Auto-insert pairs { }
        enable = true;
      };

      treesitter = {
        enable = true;
        indent = true;
        nixvimInjections = true;
      };

      hmts = {
        # home-manager tree-sitter: highlight code within nix
        enable = true;
      };

      mini = {
        enable = true;

        modules = {
          surround = { };
        };
      };

      twilight = {
        enable = true;
      };

      lsp = {
        enable = true;

        keymaps = {
          silent = true;

          diagnostic = {
            "<leader>k" = "goto_prev";
            "<leader>j" = "goto_next";
          };

          lspBuf = {
            gd = "definition";
            K = "hover";
          };
        };

        servers = {
          pylsp = {
            enable = true;
            settings.plugins.ruff = {
              enabled = true;
              lineLength = 88;
            };
          };

          nixd = {
            enable = true;
          };
        };
      };
    };

    colorschemes = {
      rose-pine = {
        enable = true;
      };
    };

  };
}

    Consolidation of how to configure things extends to pretty much every other part of the system you can think of. Once you understand the syntax of the language and where to find the options (search.nixos.org), system configuration becomes extremely easy to maintain. It has been much less painful than the old-school way of needing to learn all the different ways base Linux wants to be configured, let alone 3rd-party programs.

    Indeed, most of the common options of both the Linux OS and 3rd-party programs have been pre-packaged into simple true/false flags by the community or otherwise are much more consistent to configure. Failing that, nearly every program includes an option to get back down into the config files themselves, for non-standard needs.

    Some choice examples:

    • Generic auto-login = services.displayManager.autoLogin.enable = true;

    • Install, enable, and run a service = programs.jellyfin.enable = true;

    • Change user shell:

       users.users 
   { 
     luna = { 
       shell = pkgs.fish; 
   }; 
 };

    • Extremely standard boilerplate for most self-hosted services:

        services.audiobookshelf = {
    enable = true;
    port = 8389;
    host = "0.0.0.0";
    openFirewall = true;
  };
    • Slightly more in-depth configuration for the Transmission torrenting service - config is extremely typical of a service with many options 
      services.transmission = {
  enable = true;
  webHome = pkgs.flood-for-transmission;
  home = "/media/torrents";
  user = "transmission";
  group = "media";
  openRPCPort = true;
  downloadDirPermissions = "775";

  settings = {
    rpc-bind-address = "0.0.0.0";
    rpc-whitelist = "192.168.*.*, 100.*.*.*";
    rpc-authentication-required = "true";
    rpc-username = "*******";
    rpc-password = "*******";
    download-dir = "/media/torrents/data";
    dht-enabled = "false";
    pex-enabled = "false";
    speed-limit-down = 20000;
    speed-limit-up = 400;
    speed-limit-down-enabled = true;
    speed-limit-up-enabled = true;
  };
};

    The main con is that NixOS does have a learning curve. Its not overly difficult, but NixOS needs things done in its own particular way. Pre-existing Linux knowledge will lead you astray until you learn which parts you can keep and which parts you need to forget. And, admittedly, the documentation and wider community assumes a level of understanding about Nix (the language) that makes the initial learning hurdle harder than it needs to be. However, once NixOS (and to a lesser extent Nix) clicked for me, I fell in love and have not gone back to a "regular" distro ever since.

    I also intentionally stayed away from gushing over the usual Nix(OS) features I hear praised all the time (immutable systems, dev shells for per project package management, easy building of specific versions of packages) in favor of what has been my own favorite feature (and something I hear much less about) - the return of the pure joy of configuration.

    8 votes

  11. Comment on Help me build my “woke” Fourth of July playlist in ~music

    LunamareInsanity
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Absolute banger, its amazing live because they used to bring their instruments into the crowd to play (I think that honor is reserved for Brandenburg Gate these days). The one that came first to...

    Absolute banger, its amazing live because they used to bring their instruments into the crowd to play (I think that honor is reserved for Brandenburg Gate these days).

    The one that came first to mind when I saw the title is Stars and Stripes by Anti-Flag. Another honorary mention that came to mind after I read the top comment of this thread is We Called It America by NOFX.

    Edit:
    American Jesus - Bad Religion is also an amazing choice, from a comment down below.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on Competitive Overwatch players of Tildes: What's a tip you'd love to share? in ~games

    LunamareInsanity
    Link Parent
    Masters Echo player here, I'm curious if you have any tips for Duplicate! My experience with Duplicate is about 50% of the time I'm insta-killed, and I probably only build an ult with it about 1...

    Masters Echo player here, I'm curious if you have any tips for Duplicate!

    My experience with Duplicate is about 50% of the time I'm insta-killed, and I probably only build an ult with it about 1 in every 5 copies (especially after the ult built nerf). I try and use it as a fight engagement tool via copying the tank but in my experience this leads to a quick death. I find I'm able to extract more value from it by copying DPS heroes to tilt a 1v1 heavily in my favor.

    As a bonus, my scrim team has started receiving VOD reviews from Natter, and the number one thing he harped on for my Echo play specifically is flight/high-ground usage.

    Essentially, the school of thought is to always use Flight with a strong purpose - using the momentum to finish off targets, taking a better high ground, as a temporary off-angle - and not using Flight outside of that. The idea is to maximize time on high ground while still having Flight available to escape/engage/peel - and also Flight time is heavily correlated with the amount of damage Echo takes, so less flight means less damage taken. This is a very hard lesson for me to incorporate, being a Pharah main who instinctively takes to the skies at the slightest chance!

    1 vote

  13. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

    LunamareInsanity
    Link Parent
    Just want to throw some more love at Project Wingman. I've been a massive fan of the Ace Combat series since childhood (Ace Combat 5 was my favorite game for many years) and when I first played...

    Just want to throw some more love at Project Wingman. I've been a massive fan of the Ace Combat series since childhood (Ace Combat 5 was my favorite game for many years) and when I first played Project Wingman last year it blew me away and has become my favorite game in the genre.

    The moment when everything turns orange is one of my favorite gaming moments of the last decade, and as someone that took a few years to get around to it, I cannot recommend Project Wingman enough for fans of the genre.

  14. Comment on Who are your favourite content creators, and what do they do? in ~tech

    LunamareInsanity
    Link
    Gaming Nerd³ - ADHD hypercomedic YouTuber from the ancient times turned old and still ADHD. Like the Lets Plays of olden times with a style refined over years of constant reinvention. I've been...

    Gaming

    2 votes