Macha's recent activity
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Comment on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in ~tech
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Comment on What's a show you love that's from before your time? in ~tv
Macha LinkYes Minister (1980-1984) - A British sitcom about the workings of government that often gets accused of being a documentary. It's peak sketch was probably the one on opinion polling but plenty of...Yes Minister (1980-1984) - A British sitcom about the workings of government that often gets accused of being a documentary. It's peak sketch was probably the one on opinion polling but plenty of sketches that land strongly throughout the whole series.
Arguably gotten even more relevant given the demographics of current senior politicians means they did watch it when it was relevant.
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Comment on Recommendations for noise cancelling, over ear headphones in ~tech
Macha LinkI had two XM4s from Sony fail in three years (the first developed a feedback loop in the ANC causing it to emit ear piercing screeches at random, the second had the folding hinge fail and the cup...I had two XM4s from Sony fail in three years (the first developed a feedback loop in the ANC causing it to emit ear piercing screeches at random, the second had the folding hinge fail and the cup disassemble, and when I looked back at the first I could stress fractures on the plastic in the same location.
Since that experience I switched to the Bose QC IIs. The audio quality is not quite up there with the sonys, and the Bluetooth seems to always pick the wrong devices (it can connect to two at once but it loves to connect to an iPad and work Mac ahead of my phone) but they’re still going strong.
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Comment on What are your "how on earth did I not learn this sooner" tech moments? in ~tech
Macha Link ParentIf you use a separate search bar in Firefox, that's ctrl-kIf you use a separate search bar in Firefox, that's ctrl-k
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Comment on That book you remember some details but can't recall the title in ~books
Macha Link ParentBoth candidates, the witch trade sounds more likelyBoth candidates, the witch trade sounds more likely
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Comment on That book you remember some details but can't recall the title in ~books
Macha LinkI remember a book I borrowed from the library when I was 10 or so. The premise was the protagonist was sent off to some relatives (for summer? To live with?) and she ends up finding a conspiracy...I remember a book I borrowed from the library when I was 10 or so.
- The premise was the protagonist was sent off to some relatives (for summer? To live with?) and she ends up finding a conspiracy with other kids going missing and it turns out that like some underwater witches had been kidnapping them to work mining stuff underwater, until the protagonist rescues them.
- The cover art was either a pearl or a bubble.
- I think there may have been a sequel which I remember even less about
- There is a non-zero chance that it was an Irish author
- I was reading above my age range often at the time so it may have been a book aimed at teenagers
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Comment on What are your "how on earth did I not learn this sooner" tech moments? in ~tech
Macha Link ParentFor Linux there's wl-copy and wl-paste for Wayland and xclip for X11For Linux there's wl-copy and wl-paste for Wayland and xclip for X11
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Macha LinkWorking on my farming game off and on. I'm now on week 3. I've worked on implementing buildings: they have a model (that fades if you go behind them), a foundation, a hitbox, and a number of...Working on my farming game off and on. I'm now on week 3.
I've worked on implementing buildings: they have a model (that fades if you go behind them), a foundation, a hitbox, and a number of interactable points (for e.g. doors, noticeboards, etc.). Currently this is setup as a Godot scene for each building, but I'd like to later on move it to the data file loading system eventually. I'll do that when I have more than one building though :) I am quite happy with the pixel art house I've made for the T1 farmhouse.
Previously a lot of this interactable stuff was hardcoded ("Press Y to water", "Press E to harvest", "Press Space to open NPC shop interface") style, and it was all tied to the Player class, but this was going to quickly get messy when I had more than 4 actions, and actions that depend on context like building zones. It also was a horribly unintuitive UI but it worked for testing the functionality. Obviously wasn't intended to be permanent but needed to get the foundations in place for context dependent actions.
I'm thinking of dividing actions into three categories: Primary actions (e.g. "talk to an NPC", "open a chest", "read a sign"), Secondary actions ("Open NPC shop UI", "Chest Settings"), and Item Actions ("use the tool you're currently holding", "plant the seed you're currently holding"). I've set up a proper hotbar system to enable this. The other ways games handle it are either like Stardew shops where they split the interactable for the NPC and their other roles (e.g. the "NPC" shop is actually the shop counter), or where the "primary" interaction just opens a menu if there's multiple options. Maybe overthinking what I want the code interface to be for calling that. I don't want it reaching into a bunch of globals for easier implementation of future multiplayer and save/load.
The other next step is save/restore of zone state (e.g. crops placement) which is needed for save/load obviously, but also for zone transitions (like entering buildings). I may throw a main menu and load/save interface in while touching on this anyway.
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Comment on Ahead of an all-digital future for PlayStation, Sony needs to prove in courts that players know they don't own digitally purchased games in ~games
Macha Link ParentDon't forget "we don't like your device so even though you're paying us for 4k, you're only getting 720p"Don't forget "we don't like your device so even though you're paying us for 4k, you're only getting 720p"
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Comment on GOG added OpenMW and Tamriel Rebuilt into their store for free as mods for TES3 Morrowind in ~games
Macha Link ParentThe Tamriel Rebuilt team lead with it in their post on their latest expansion release, so they’re clearly onboard, and I’d be very surprised if GOG didn’t work with the OpenMW team to get them...The Tamriel Rebuilt team lead with it in their post on their latest expansion release, so they’re clearly onboard, and I’d be very surprised if GOG didn’t work with the OpenMW team to get them there.
Both are under active development. OpenMW is a reimplementation of Morrowind, rather than a simple mod. They’ve reached feature parity with the original engine some time ago and their focus these last few years have been polishing effects, adding new graphical features, and new modding hooks (to e.g. allow MWSE mods to work in OpenMW). There was some talk a few years back of merging multiplayer into the mainline releases (it was implemented in the tes3mp fork) but there doesn’t seem to be any movement on that anymore.
More so than the OpenMW team, I’m actually more surprised that Bethesda was ok with OpenMW being distributed through an official Morrowind distribution channel, if I’m honest. They’ve always been a bit more tepid with remake efforts, like they took down that FO4 in FO3 remake a few years ago, but I guess since OpenMW still requires a copy of Morrowind for assets they’re more ok with that.
Tamriel Rebuilt is also in some of its fastest development. The last few years have been in like an almost 2 expansions a year pace, alternating between adding new regions and reworking old regions (the mod was started when Morrowind was a current game after all). It feels like the wave of publicity they got in 2023 really revitalised the mod, whether by extra motivation for the existing devs or by more devs. Plenty of their newer regions are considered to be better than the base game regions.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Macha Link ParentMultiplayer is something I would like. I play a lot of these games with my brother personally. I've had a brief look at Godot's high level multiplayer and it's a bit too automagical for me to...Multiplayer is something I would like. I play a lot of these games with my brother personally. I've had a brief look at Godot's high level multiplayer and it's a bit too automagical for me to trust it but also I don't want to dive into deciding a lockstep vs server authoritative model and building a lot of networking code until I get a core loop that's fun by itself.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
Macha (edited )LinkI’m working on a farm sim/cozy game I started about two weeks ago. My attention span with these projects is often quite short but I’m actually feeling pretty good about this one. I’m using Godot,...I’m working on a farm sim/cozy game I started about two weeks ago. My attention span with these projects is often quite short but I’m actually feeling pretty good about this one.
I’m using Godot, which I’ve used for several Ludum Dare jams before this point. Up to now I’ve got a basic game loop working. You can buy seeds, plant crops, water them, harvest them and sell them, then repeat.
I think the core idea I have is it’s going to be a little like a more zoomed out big picture farming sim or a very zoomed in colony builder depending on how you look at it. You’ll use your progress in the farming/mining/fishing/etc. part of the game to build up the town and attract NPCs from a pool, while unlocking new features. This does mean the non-fixed NPCs are probably not going to be as individually deep as Stardew/Mistria NPCs but I’m aiming for deeper than Animal Crossing/Graveyard Keeper.
The art style is pixel art based but I’m going slightly more detailed than stardew (48px npcs, 24px tiles). Kind of more in line with Graveyard Keeper’s level of detail. There is a little impulse going “But what if it’s isometric” because I have a vision of a really cool looking town with lots of verticality but I’m also aware that’ll make the art more time consuming and also make the controls annoying if you need to do stuff tile aligned like placing crops. I may end up doing a POC of that before I get into bulk assets though…
This week I’ve spent time getting the core loop going but also set it up so I can load item/crop/shop definitions from TOML files in a kind of Minecraft resource pack style to facilitate addons/mods. Kind of a little ahead of a sensible time but it’s one of those things that easier to bake in than retrofit in.
Also independent world and UI scaling which was kind of an ordeal. Spent a bunch of time on that but happy where it is now.
Anyway, my short term task list is:
- getting a basic NPC dialogue system in (probably going to use the Dialogue Manager addon for this)
- getting zone transitions working so I can have buildings
- getting a first iteration of the town zone set up, currently the single vendor stands next to your bed and 5 tiles away from your crop patch
- getting a first draft of the NPC move in system going
My day job is also software development and it’s so much less engaging in these days of AI, so its feeling pretty good to have the coding bug again
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Comment on Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker in ~tech
Macha Link ParentFor me, the ads 20 years ago weren’t acceptable either. Popover/popunder windows, casino-esque flash animations with “you are the ten millionth visitor”, the weight loss ads with different models...For me, the ads 20 years ago weren’t acceptable either. Popover/popunder windows, casino-esque flash animations with “you are the ten millionth visitor”, the weight loss ads with different models before and after, “hot singles in your area”, etc. That’s pretty much the time I first started using Adblock.
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Comment on What are your memorable airport stories? in ~transport
Macha Link ParentDomestic/shorthaul first/business class often are just front seats plus extra legroom (sometimes…. Lufthansa sort haul business class is the same seats as economy). The fancy and expensive first...Domestic/shorthaul first/business class often are just front seats plus extra legroom (sometimes…. Lufthansa sort haul business class is the same seats as economy). The fancy and expensive first class is mostly a long haul thing.
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Comment on Why does Opera GX rarely come up in browser discussions? in ~tech
Macha Link ParentThere was a period around Opera 8/9 where it was noticeably faster than Firefox and Chrome wasn’t out yet. The UI was also just more polished than competitors at the time. Speed Dial was part of...There was a period around Opera 8/9 where it was noticeably faster than Firefox and Chrome wasn’t out yet. The UI was also just more polished than competitors at the time. Speed Dial was part of that before other browsers copied it. I seem to recall they were also first to being able to turn arbitrary search fields into custom search engines.
The built in email client and IRC client were also pretty good.
Also as a web developer they were usually pretty on the ball with supporting new CSS features (which resulted in being the first to pass acid2 on non-Mac platforms by a couple of years), which made a lot of web devs want to support them. At the same time, I think they were also first to come up with browser fixes as a concept so they were more compatible with sites designed only for IE too.
My personal browser history is IE -> Firefox -> Opera -> Chrome -> Firefox.
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Comment on Why does Opera GX rarely come up in browser discussions? in ~tech
Macha LinkIt’s a closed source chromium fork by a company whose current owners have engaged in morally questionable business practices. That’s pretty dead on arrival. Most of the gaming features are bloat,...It’s a closed source chromium fork by a company whose current owners have engaged in morally questionable business practices. That’s pretty dead on arrival. Most of the gaming features are bloat, as well. If closed source Chromium forks doesn’t bother you and you want the Opera design vision, then there’s Vivaldi, which has a lot of the team behind the original Opera.
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Comment on Survey: The temperature in my room now is _____ and it feels _____ in ~talk
Macha LinkIt's 25C, but at this point that's mostly the fault of my gaming PC, unlike recent weeks where the outside temperature leaking in would have brought it to 28C/29C. It's an improvement, but could...It's 25C, but at this point that's mostly the fault of my gaming PC, unlike recent weeks where the outside temperature leaking in would have brought it to 28C/29C. It's an improvement, but could still do with being less. My ideal is like 19C I guess.
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Comment on The Filipino virtual assistants behind LinkedIn’s “thought leadership” content mill in ~tech
Macha Link ParentSo many job forms in tech have a mandatory field for LinkedIn profile these days even. Having been involved in interviewing, we never really looked at it because we got the actual CV which is what...So many job forms in tech have a mandatory field for LinkedIn profile these days even. Having been involved in interviewing, we never really looked at it because we got the actual CV which is what we looked at (I can't rule out HR looking at it in pre-screening though). I asked a friend that works at an ATS company why their product seems to require it and they said as far as they could tell it was because it let them populate avatars in the CV list to make their UI look better.
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Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games
Macha Link ParentHa, the praise for the house/area makes me feel kind of guilty for disappearing.Ha, the praise for the house/area makes me feel kind of guilty for disappearing.
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Comment on Give me your culture clash stories in ~travel
Macha Link ParentTried that in San Jose once, we have smaller motorways than the “local” road the hotel was on.Tried that in San Jose once, we have smaller motorways than the “local” road the hotel was on.
It's a circular discussion at this point. It's been something people discuss as a potential a lot, to the point that e.g. it got quoted in the GN video "People are saying some TVs even connect to open wifi", and then people just point at the GN video as proof that the rumour is true instead of them commenting on the rumour.
But nobody (including GN) appears to have been able to prove this in testing, and it seems like something that would be very easy to prove if it was happening.