Promonk's recent activity

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

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Though I enjoyed the first two games, I too only jumped on the 3D Fallout wagon with 4, and I've also had a helluva time getting into NV, though I've tried many times. The lack of crafting wasn't...

    Though I enjoyed the first two games, I too only jumped on the 3D Fallout wagon with 4, and I've also had a helluva time getting into NV, though I've tried many times. The lack of crafting wasn't my issue as much as the stiff combat and lack of sprint that did me in. I tried modding sprint in to see if that helped, but none of the mods I tried managed to implement it well.

    I've kind of just resigned myself to having missed out on 3 & NV. The mechanics are just too outdated for me to get into anymore, I think.

    1 vote

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

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    I played the hell out of Timberborn until the Badwater update happened. When that dropped, I realized the devs and I were on different wavelengths about where we wanted the game to go. With the...

    I played the hell out of Timberborn until the Badwater update happened. When that dropped, I realized the devs and I were on different wavelengths about where we wanted the game to go.

    With the inclusion of badwater, it became apparent to me that the devs were more interested in making the game about survival from beginning to end. I liked that playthroughs started with the goal of survival, but that you could overcome that challenge with solid infrastructure development. What I wanted was for them to develop the parts that happened after survival was a solved problem. I wanted options for a late-game challenge that would influence the player to think strategically in the early-game. Instead I got a new complication on the basic survival mechanisms that didn't seem to me to add anything new or interesting, just more tedium and annoyance.

    More than just what badwater did or didn't add, the fact that the devs chose to focus on an early-game mechanic over making the whole arc of gameplay feel complete and whole disappointed me. It had already been in early access for quite a while at that point, and the decision to change basic gameplay so far along–and not in a way that I felt was very beneficial–suggested a lack of focus. Like they didn't really have an idea on how to tie the game together into a cohesive whole, or worse, would really rather not bother with all that and just make the goal of the game to survive as long as possible. That idea really didn't appeal to me.

    I have difficulty explaining my thoughts on the matter, in part because I'm not entirely certain myself how and why my feelings on the game changed, just that it was badwater that did it.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Wikipedia loses challenge against UK Online Safety Act verification rules in ~tech

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    It's not very much like a name a member of the HoL would actually have. By rights he should be "Sir Reginald Fuckwit, Twelfth Earl of Torygobble," but I was trying to make a point and the sentence...

    It's not very much like a name a member of the HoL would actually have. By rights he should be "Sir Reginald Fuckwit, Twelfth Earl of Torygobble," but I was trying to make a point and the sentence was already getting unwieldy.

    6 votes

  4. Comment on Wikipedia loses challenge against UK Online Safety Act verification rules in ~tech

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Ok, let's say "I would've expected more sense out of y'all 15 years ago."

    Ok, let's say "I would've expected more sense out of y'all 15 years ago."

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Wikipedia loses challenge against UK Online Safety Act verification rules in ~tech

    Promonk
    Link
    Can any Brits out there explain to me why the UK is so hot for a surveillance state? You guys were way ahead of the curve on CCTV, and it seems like whenever I hear of some boneheaded scheme to...

    Can any Brits out there explain to me why the UK is so hot for a surveillance state? You guys were way ahead of the curve on CCTV, and it seems like whenever I hear of some boneheaded scheme to de-anonymize the universe, it either comes from some US-based security lobby ghouls or Lord Torygobble Fuckwit XII in the UK House of Lords.

    I'd understand it better if you were still getting high on your own imperial farts and hadn't had multiple literary genius native sons who explicitly told you how bad an idea it is to let government monitor your every waking moment. Like, I understand why the American oligarchs are dumb enough to champion this nonsense; lots of them probably think George Orwell was the dude who made the microwave popcorn. You folks already had your humbling though. I expect a bit more sense out of y'all.

    40 votes

  6. Comment on Sheogorath - Zoom (2018) in ~music

    Promonk
    Link
    For clarity: the artist is Young Scrolls, using clips from the character Sheogorath. YS credits the characters he samples for the EPs he produces, which is where the attribution comes from. My...

    For clarity: the artist is Young Scrolls, using clips from the character Sheogorath. YS credits the characters he samples for the EPs he produces, which is where the attribution comes from.

    My favorite track by YS (not counting "Dagothwave," of course) is probably "Neon Vivec." I also highly recommend the "Saint" EP.

    Young Scrolls also made a soundtrack replacement mod for Skyrim entitled "Lorkhan" which I have been intending to use on my next playthrough. I just haven't felt the need to watch my mage run intentions devolve into yet another stealth archer run lately.

    2 votes

  7. Comment on Tom Lehrer, influential musical satirist of '50s and '60s dies at 97 in ~music

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Bo Burnham is similarly biting in his commentary, but his focus is much more on the individual experience than the strictly political. I also would hesitate to call his work "fun," per se....

    Bo Burnham is similarly biting in his commentary, but his focus is much more on the individual experience than the strictly political.

    I also would hesitate to call his work "fun," per se. Depression and cynicism are major themes in his work. Carlin is a much more direct influence on his humor than Lehrer.

    9 votes

  8. Comment on What were you right about? in ~talk

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Beginning a claim with "a lot of people think" is a near-universal synonym for "I'mma 'bout to spout some bullshit." That particular sliver of the Mandela Effect nonsense has always especially...

    Beginning a claim with "a lot of people think" is a near-universal synonym for "I'mma 'bout to spout some bullshit."

    That particular sliver of the Mandela Effect nonsense has always especially bothered me. Even as a joke it's pretty dumb, because it boils down to "I don't understand particle accelerators, therefore they are magic." It just feels lazy.

    7 votes

  9. Comment on What are your AI-generated guilty pleasures? in ~tech

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Vedal certainly has a good eye for talent. It's not entirely inaccurate to say he's built a sort of loose agency of independent Vtubers up simply by inviting them to come play with his toy....

    Vedal certainly has a good eye for talent. It's not entirely inaccurate to say he's built a sort of loose agency of independent Vtubers up simply by inviting them to come play with his toy.

    There's a lot that's really fascinating about the whole thing, and not least is how un-exploitative it feels. The colab partners get content and exposure, the clippers get an audience and material with which to hone their skills, the fan artists get subject matter that people feel good about, the audience gets as much or as little entertainment as they want and membership in a generally positive online community, and the platforms (primarily Twitch and YouTube, but also to a lesser extent Discord and Twitter) get all this happening on their sites, not to mention a cut of the donos and memberships. It seems like a win-win for pretty much everybody, as long as the viewers feel it's worth the investment.

    I guess time will tell if the seeming matches the reality. At the very least I suspect marketers will be studying these last few years of the Neuroverse for a long time.

    5 votes

  10. Comment on What are your AI-generated guilty pleasures? in ~tech

    Promonk
    Link
    I admit to a weakness for clips of Neuro-sama, the AI Twitch Vtuber. Of all the, um, "artistic" applications of AI I've seen, "she" probably feels the most genuine and emotionally affecting,...

    I admit to a weakness for clips of Neuro-sama, the AI Twitch Vtuber. Of all the, um, "artistic" applications of AI I've seen, "she" probably feels the most genuine and emotionally affecting, thanks largely to the community that's grown up around her.

    I think that's one of the biggest differentiators between the Neuro project and other AI works I've seen: she's not designed to replace human effort, she has actually developed to be a focal point for humans to interact with each other around her. The AI generates the raw material that the humans around her use to create the actual art, which is a community and the narrative of its formation.

    I don't know what her environmental impact might be, but my hunch is that it's comparatively slight, considering that in a way it's just one model generating responses for thousands of "users" at a time. I'm sure she requires tons of electricity to train and run, but then I can't imagine the sum of her usage exceeds the usage of a moderately sized video production studio, at least not by very much.

    9 votes

  11. Comment on Scientists estimate European heatwave caused 2,300 deaths last week in ~enviro

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    I don't know about European wood farming methods, but if they're anything like those we use in the PNW, then no, fertilizer is not generally used.

    I don't know about European wood farming methods, but if they're anything like those we use in the PNW, then no, fertilizer is not generally used.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on Scientists estimate European heatwave caused 2,300 deaths last week in ~enviro

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Looks like the study is saying that AC doesn't actually increase heat, it just moves it from the places people with money are to where the poors hang out, which is a fair enough critique. I can't...

    Looks like the study is saying that AC doesn't actually increase heat, it just moves it from the places people with money are to where the poors hang out, which is a fair enough critique.

    I can't help but think that heat is coming either way though, at least if climate modeling is anything to go by. It's probably past time for France and the rest of Europe to give a serious think on how they're going to ensure access to shelter, and I doubt a blanket rejection to AC as a concept is the best way to accomplish that.

    7 votes

  13. Comment on Scientists estimate European heatwave caused 2,300 deaths last week in ~enviro

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    It doesn't though, at least not appreciably. AC moves kinetic energy from one place to another; it doesn't actually generate more of it to any great degree. The heat they do create comes entirely...

    It doesn't though, at least not appreciably. AC moves kinetic energy from one place to another; it doesn't actually generate more of it to any great degree. The heat they do create comes entirely from running pumps to compress coolant and fans to move air, which are not significant sources of heat when considered alongside the giant nuclear fusion furnace pumping radiation down on the landscape.

    7 votes

  14. Comment on Scientists estimate European heatwave caused 2,300 deaths last week in ~enviro

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    The energy used in wood heating is, in isolation, carbon-neutral by definition (assuming stabilized usage over time). After all, the carbon in the fuel comes directly from pulling carbon out of...

    The energy used in wood heating is, in isolation, carbon-neutral by definition (assuming stabilized usage over time). After all, the carbon in the fuel comes directly from pulling carbon out of the air. Maybe that's what's causing the confusion.

    The harvesting, processing and transport of it is most definitely not carbon neutral though, and of course the impact to air quality is plainly negative. Those are the sorts of confounding factors that people often don't consider when making gut judgments about sustainability, especially when traditions are involved.

    13 votes

  15. Comment on The America Party in ~society

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    I'm not asking you to apologize. I'm not even asking you to stop doing it. Be as uncivil to all the bigots you please with my blessing. I'm only saying why I try to avoid talking and thinking like...

    I'm not asking you to apologize. I'm not even asking you to stop doing it. Be as uncivil to all the bigots you please with my blessing.

    I'm only saying why I try to avoid talking and thinking like that. My gut tells me that shit is habit-forming, and leads nowhere good.

    5 votes

  16. Comment on The America Party in ~society

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    My thoughts exactly. I sure as hell don't refrain from using dehumanizing language to speak of bigots to preserve their feelings, I do it to hold onto what precious little sanity is left in my skull.

    My thoughts exactly. I sure as hell don't refrain from using dehumanizing language to speak of bigots to preserve their feelings, I do it to hold onto what precious little sanity is left in my skull.

    2 votes

  17. Comment on The America Party in ~society

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    I've always disliked that term for two reasons. One, it's uncomfortably reminiscent for me of a certain slur for homosexual men that, to my lasting shame, I used all too often as a child; and two,...

    I've always disliked that term for two reasons. One, it's uncomfortably reminiscent for me of a certain slur for homosexual men that, to my lasting shame, I used all too often as a child; and two, referring to groups of people with a term for vermin is one of those warning signs that shit has really gotten off-track.

    4 votes

  18. Comment on ITA was a 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet – and left thousands of UK children unable to spell in ~humanities.languages

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    I swear I'm not trying to "well akshually" on you, but it's one of my favorite weirdnesses of English that virtually no trace of Brittonic remains, in either the vocabulary or grammar. You'd...

    I swear I'm not trying to "well akshually" on you, but it's one of my favorite weirdnesses of English that virtually no trace of Brittonic remains, in either the vocabulary or grammar.

    You'd expect that a fair amount of a language displaced through conquest would survive, but that's just not the case for English vis-a-vis Brittonic (we'll set aside considering Welsh for now; it's OK, they're used to it). Most of the vocabulary derived from Celtic languages was adopted by Romans or their successors and comes down to us through French rather than directly from the Celtic Brittons, and what Celtic grammar English has picked up seems to have mostly come through contact with Scottish or Irish Gaelic centuries after the Anglo-Saxon invasions.

    The Anglo-Saxon invaders were pretty ruthless in suppressing the native language and culture, even to the point where very little Latin in modern English derives from the Roman occupation of Britannia, outside of some place names. Nearly all of the Latin-derived words we use came to us through Norman French, Ecclesiastical Latin, or during the resurgence of Classical influence during the Renaissance.

    It's even weirder when you consider that a similar thing happened several hundred years later to English, and nearly the opposite result happened: Old English remains the core of vocabulary and grammar for Modern English despite the country having been invaded by Norse-flavored French speakers. They were two very different kinds of invasion though, so you'd expect different outcomes, but it's weird all the same.

    25 votes

  19. Comment on The America Party in ~society

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    He's a naturalized citizen, so it makes more sense to call him a South-African-American rather than just South African. He's ineligible for that one office either way, so might as well be more...

    He's a naturalized citizen, so it makes more sense to call him a South-African-American rather than just South African. He's ineligible for that one office either way, so might as well be more accurate about it.

    I don't like that he's an American any more than you do, but that horse has long ago left the barn.

    3 votes

  20. Comment on The America Party in ~society

    Promonk
    Link Parent
    Well, it's the AP, right? Why don't we just agree to call them APes?

    Well, it's the AP, right? Why don't we just agree to call them APes?

    18 votes