Promonk's recent activity
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Comment on I think I have a broken AT&T route? in ~tech
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Comment on "Shower thoughts" and other things to ponder in ~talk
Promonk Link ParentWhat I like best about this list is that a lazy namesmith would just make the two names simple rhymes, but you haven't. "Randall Pando" and "Starbar Jarnifar" and the like are at best near rhymes....What I like best about this list is that a lazy namesmith would just make the two names simple rhymes, but you haven't. "Randall Pando" and "Starbar Jarnifar" and the like are at best near rhymes. It shows attention to your craft.
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Comment on I think I have a broken AT&T route? in ~tech
Promonk Link ParentYou're putting an awful lot of faith in that traceroute. Are you certain it's justified? Traceroute is really only useful in a handful of cases and this really isn't one of them.You're putting an awful lot of faith in that traceroute. Are you certain it's justified? Traceroute is really only useful in a handful of cases and this really isn't one of them.
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Comment on Time for a new mouse? in ~comp
Promonk Link ParentThe only caveat I would add is that the boards you'd be working on are tiny and not easy to mount with helping hands or a board clamp. The absolute best thing to work on to build proficiency is...And if you want to get comfortable with soldering, mouse switch replacements are one of the easiest things you can do...
The only caveat I would add is that the boards you'd be working on are tiny and not easy to mount with helping hands or a board clamp. The absolute best thing to work on to build proficiency is some kind of through-hole PCB kit like Radio Shack used to sell like a digital clock or something, but those are hard to find since RS but the dust. I don't even think iFixit sells stuff like that, but I could be wrong.
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Comment on Steam Replay 2024: Discussion topic in ~games
Promonk Link ParentThat graph has never made sense to me in the years I've bothered checking the year in review. I too got "action roguelike" as my biggest category despite the fact that I spent the most time this...That graph has never made sense to me in the years I've bothered checking the year in review. I too got "action roguelike" as my biggest category despite the fact that I spent the most time this year playing Fallout 76, Satisfactory and Elder Scrolls Online. I honestly can't remember the last time I earnestly played a roguelike.
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Comment on Is there a way for Donald Trump to run for US presidency for a third time? in ~society
Promonk Link ParentI understand what you're saying, that the GOP has been very good at manipulating the way people perceive legality and finding loopholes to accomplish their goals, and there's no reason to think...I understand what you're saying, that the GOP has been very good at manipulating the way people perceive legality and finding loopholes to accomplish their goals, and there's no reason to think they won't extend that effort to further chicanery.
I'm telling you that this one is different. The 22nd Amendment together with Article II is explicit and clear, and while I have no doubt some would try to twist the language to suit their aims, that is a crossing of the Rubicon that millions of Americans–including many that've sworn to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic–would recognize. It would mean civil war. I don't know what the outcome of such a war would be or even what it would look like, but I'm certain it would happen.
But that is entirely beyond your control and mine. Our concern and anxiety is better directed toward solving the problems that give the MAGA cult its strength, because that will have to come from the states and be led by grassroots efforts to make our system more sane and humane.
Leave Trump to make his decisions, and we will react. That's all we can do regarding him, anyway.
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Comment on Is there a way for Donald Trump to run for US presidency for a third time? in ~society
Promonk Link ParentIt's just that direct. If Trump or his supporters attempt to disregard that without a constitutional amendment ratified by 3/4s of the states within seven years, it will mean civil war. The...No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice...
It's just that direct. If Trump or his supporters attempt to disregard that without a constitutional amendment ratified by 3/4s of the states within seven years, it will mean civil war.
The question is whether he and his crew think they can win, and whether the defenders of constitutional law can stomach the fight.
Trump is an old man, and not exactly the picture of senile good health. He will be gone eventually, likely in a little over four years. Concern yourself more with who will succeed him eventually.
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Comment on Inside the MAGA plot to write birthright citizenship out of the US constitution in ~society
Promonk Link ParentBut they use some semblance of moral reasoning to justify their winning, and I think it's necessary to analyze the logic of it. This is the function that Evangelical Christianity is playing in the...I mean they'll argue based on literally anything that allows them to win, logic or morals be damned.
But they use some semblance of moral reasoning to justify their winning, and I think it's necessary to analyze the logic of it.
This is the function that Evangelical Christianity is playing in the American far-right movement[s], and underpins many aspects of their worldview. The celebration of ignorance we see regarding science finds a basis there, as does the analogous fetishization of approved media like Christian rock, apologetic "documentaries," and Veggie Tales, and the demonization of agnostic and morally thought-provoking media like Dungeons & Dragons, "The Last Temptation of Christ" etc.
Most importantly though, Evangelical Christianity perpetuates a particular type of social hierarchy that does not include direct, functional reciprocation between authority and subject. Everything is owed to God, and in exchange he is supposed to take care of the devotee. However, there's no way to enforce this covenant, and when he doesn't reciprocate, that's reasoned to be due to a moral failing of the subject, not a failure of God to uphold His covenant. While the promise of reciprocation is given, in practice, the exchange is one-way–just like they envision their perfect Union would work.
I don't want to seem like I'm arguing with you, as that's not my intention. I'm using your responses to flesh out my own thoughts on the subject, as I've found that writing my thoughts down helps me to clarify for myself what I'm thinking.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Promonk LinkMuch like @smiles134, I too went dumpster diving through my Humble Bundle entitlements the other day. I came up with Gas Station Simulator. My first job was as a fuel attendant at a gas station....- Exemplary
Much like @smiles134, I too went dumpster diving through my Humble Bundle entitlements the other day. I came up with Gas Station Simulator.
My first job was as a fuel attendant at a gas station. My first job out of college was as a price book database administrator for a small gas station/c-store chain. I unfortunately know the gas station business quite well. I get the impression that at least some of the developers of Gas Station Simulator do as well.
GSS is a quintessential eurojank small business simulator a la Power Wash Simulator, TCG Card Shop Simulator, Lawn Mower Simulator (which is also aging in my Humble Bundle cellar), and a million others. I wouldn't call it the best entry in the genre–Power Wash Sim or the Euro/American Truck Sims probably take that spot–but I've been having fun with it.
Progression is straightforward: you start with a single fuel dispenser and a laughably tiny tank, and space for a couple of shelves in your c-store. You can then take your profits from fuel and invest them in shelves from which to sell snacks and soft drinks. You need to restock the shelves periodically, and you do so by ordering product through a PC next to the register (this is also where you order fuel from the distributor).
The game gives you progression goals such as "serve 30 customers at the cash register and 50 cars at the pump," which eventually direct you to "level up" your gas station by making a one-time infrastructure investment. These level ups give you more space for shelves and fuel dispensers, as well as open up the opportunity for smaller infrastructure investments to start providing other services and products such as a repair garage and car wash.
Each service has several associated minigames you must perform to complete sales, and often the gameplay of these minigames imitates other more successful sims. The garage games are stripped-down versions of the gameplay of the Car Mechanic Simulators, and the car wash is a simplified Power Wash Simulator minigame. At endgame, your goal is to buy expensive roadside attractions such as the World's Largest Rocking Chair, to turn your gas station in the desert into a tourist trap. That's as far as I've gotten, but I think that's the jist of it.
These types of games are usually made with off-the-shelf game engines like Unity or older Unreal versions, and are usually developed by tiny European developers little more than bedroom developers. Physics jank is not only to be expected, it's a core component of their appeal, and GSS follows proudly in this tradition.
The cash register minigame is lousy with physics bugs that throw products all over the place and cause you to miss out on accuracy bonuses. The fuel customers have to perform a little superstitious pigeon dance before you are allowed to fuel up their cars, and often their hair assets are on sideways until they complete the dance. Sometimes customers leaving your parking lots will collide with customers driving through to the garage or car wash at just the right angle that neither are able to move forward on their paths, causing them to sit there spinning wheels and honking like NYC taxi drivers with severe anger management problems.
All perfectly normal and expected bugs in a game like this, but the solution to this last one is where my opinion of the game shifted from "forgettable" to "amusing little time-waster." In order to clear traffic snarls or right cars that've been flipped by one of the numerous physics bugs, you need to push a button marked with a UFO. At that point a short cinematic plays of a stereotypical pulp fiction UFO flying up and shooting a beam that "abducts" everyone on the station, resetting your customers and delivery vehicles. It's really much more charming and amusing than it has any right to be.
The moment-to-moment gameplay is about time management. Later station levels allow you to hire helpers that will handle one or two of the regular duties of operation, but at first, it's just you pumping gas, scanning product, stocking shelves and ordering products and fuel. I don't know if people will eventually get so impatient as to leave without being served–I'm just that good–but at the very least, poor time management will cost you profit. This is where the sim most resembles actually running a gas station, as the gameplay is eerily reminiscent of some of my busiest experiences working in such a store.
I have a few gripes, but none are really game-breaking issues. Inventory space is oddly balanced, so that you often have to choose between buying two products of which you're out of stock just because you don't have the warehouse space to receive them both. There might be an inventory bug that hides product on the shelves, as I currently have scores of alcohol products listed in my inventory, but the shelves appear to be only 1/3 full and there's nothing sitting in the warehouse. There's also a minigame of sorts where you need to remove piles of sand left behind by sandstorms using a small backhoe or else the idiot customer AI will get hung up on them and demolish your customer churn. This minigame is just awful. The dirt mover handles like an obese drunken hog, and sand piles are so hard to spot that you'll most likely only notice them after a customer has high-centered and your traffic situation needs a little extraterrestrial assistance.
In all though, I recommend it for people who have a fondness for eurojank simulators. You can probably expect about 10 hours of main story progression if you go slow and steady, and maybe another 5 if you want to see absolutely everything. They do offer expansion DLCs, some of them free, but mostly these seem badly overpriced. I'd say look for the base game at about the $10-$15 USD price point, then pick up DLCs at about $5 apiece when they go on sale.
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Comment on Inside the MAGA plot to write birthright citizenship out of the US constitution in ~society
Promonk Link ParentDon't worry. I didn't take it as disagreement. I was just 'splainin' myself. I think the main thing is that so-called nativists are less concerned about nativity than they are who has a moral...Don't worry. I didn't take it as disagreement. I was just 'splainin' myself.
I think the main thing is that so-called nativists are less concerned about nativity than they are who has a moral claim to the land by their reckoning. This recent development is just another in a long line of arguments why it's supposedly okay for people in lifeboats to pull up the ladder after themselves.
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Comment on Inside the MAGA plot to write birthright citizenship out of the US constitution in ~society
Promonk Link ParentI thought of mentioning that, but I'd already written a novella, and I don't think it really changes the ethical dimension much. Certainly settlers weren't more justified in grabbing native land...I thought of mentioning that, but I'd already written a novella, and I don't think it really changes the ethical dimension much. Certainly settlers weren't more justified in grabbing native land because 19 out of 20 of them had already died.
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Comment on Inside the MAGA plot to write birthright citizenship out of the US constitution in ~society
Promonk (edited )Link ParentI suspect the implication is the same old song and dance that colonialist Americans have been pushing for centuries: that the land we conquered was 'vacated,' or not developed properly. In the...- Exemplary
I suspect the implication is the same old song and dance that colonialist Americans have been pushing for centuries: that the land we conquered was 'vacated,' or not developed properly.
In the nineteenth century at least, land grants to settlers were dependent on them developing the land in some fashion; that was how John Chapman, aka "Johnny Appleseed," made his mark. He sold fruit tree seed and saplings along the then-frontier, because planting fruit trees and tending them long enough for them to produce fruit was accepted as an indicator that someone was working the land, and thus entitled to the grant of it.
This of course completely ignores that there were already peoples in the interior who in many cases did perform land management. It was assumed that it just wasn't the right kind of land management. Semi-nomadic plains tribes weren't sedentary agriculturalists focused on monocultures for the most part, and that was the only kind of agriculture US society could appreciate, as it was how economic exploitation of the land worked in the economy of the day (and today, in fact). Even when native peoples did adopt sedentary agricultural lifestyles, as in the case of the Cherokee, some pretext was invented for why it didn't really count.
I find it darkly humorous that a nativist would claim that birthright citizenship is a holdover from feudalism, when the whole point of birthright citizenship is that citizens are not inextricably tied to the land like a serf would be, but to the nation and the social contract upon which its authority is based. The territorial aspect of it is simple pragmatism; hypothetically, a nation based on a conceptual agreement doesn't need to limit itself to a geographic territory. The only reason territory is a consideration at all is because the social contract cannot be enforced without some locality; in other words, birthright citizenship is about the rights and obligations of the citizen first, and is only determined by locality because rights cannot be guaranteed and obligations extracted unless there's some localized apparatus of authority to make it happen.
And that's the real rub of it. If you'll permit me to inject a bit of a class-struggle analysis, it seems to me that a major force behind what we so inappropriately call 'conservatism' is an utter rejection of the social contract itself. They have no objection to demanding obligation from subjects; what they object to is the notion that that obligation entails reciprocation. Obligations to them are owed by virtue of what the extractor already controls, not by virtue of an agreement between the subject and ruler. That's the source of "rules for thee, but not for me," and the Prosperity Gospel that intones that boons are bestowed and punishments meted purely on the character of the one receiving them, regardless of context or inarguable evidence to the contrary. Despite, in fact, the unambiguous proclamation of the scripture they profess to follow. Obligations are owed only upwards, and reciprocation is framed as theft or usurpation of the Proper Order of Things™.
There's no limit to the opportunism and bad faith. It's simply exhausting.
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Comment on Op Ed from UnitedHealth Group CEO: The US health care system is flawed. Let’s fix it. (gifted link) in ~society
Promonk Link ParentI don't know that you can place blame at the feet of the legacy media outlet because the general public has become illiterate to the conventions they've been operating under for 150 years. I don't...I don't know that you can place blame at the feet of the legacy media outlet because the general public has become illiterate to the conventions they've been operating under for 150 years.
I don't think it's the Times's fault people don't know what an op-ed is supposed to be and always has been, in other words.
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Comment on Mystery drones over New Jersey spark concerns as FBI investigates in ~transport
Promonk Link ParentThe same was true of the pamphlets of Swift's day, and many people didn't get it then, too. All I'm saying is that being taken literally is an inherent risk when utilizing satire, which is why one...The same was true of the pamphlets of Swift's day, and many people didn't get it then, too.
All I'm saying is that being taken literally is an inherent risk when utilizing satire, which is why one should be cautious when employing it. Rejecting it as a genre altogether is the quintessence of the proverb about the baby and the bathwater.
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Comment on Mystery drones over New Jersey spark concerns as FBI investigates in ~transport
Promonk Link ParentIn my case, with generous amounts of MSG. Salty but savory.In my case, with generous amounts of MSG. Salty but savory.
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Comment on Op Ed from UnitedHealth Group CEO: The US health care system is flawed. Let’s fix it. (gifted link) in ~society
Promonk Link ParentIt's an op-ed. That's the whole point of an op-ed: it's the section for people to submit pieces of opinion for public consideration. Considering this is a major topic of conversation right now,...It's an op-ed. That's the whole point of an op-ed: it's the section for people to submit pieces of opinion for public consideration. Considering this is a major topic of conversation right now, it's reasonable for the NYT to run it, at least by the centuries-old tradition of newspapers. That's not to say I agree with it or think it holds much merit as an argument, mind.
A responsible outlet would run an editorial addressing the subject. If you're going to find fault with the NYT about this, that's what you should be criticizing.
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Comment on Mystery drones over New Jersey spark concerns as FBI investigates in ~transport
Promonk Link ParentI think the impact of satire is dependent on ambiguity, though. Otherwise it's simple irony or sarcasm. I think the best thing is to be artful with your signposting and not be too hung up on the...I think the impact of satire is dependent on ambiguity, though. Otherwise it's simple irony or sarcasm. I think the best thing is to be artful with your signposting and not be too hung up on the percentage of people who get it. Satire needs to be a scalpel to be effective, not a bludgeon. Reserve it for times when the ambiguity can be effective.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Promonk Link ParentIt has its place, but as primary gamespace generation it has its flaws.It has its place, but as primary gamespace generation it has its flaws.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Promonk Link ParentI think the procedural nature of it is to blame for a lot of the feeling of shallowness. There are only a handful of truly unique locations in the galaxy; everywhere else is stamped from the same...I think the procedural nature of it is to blame for a lot of the feeling of shallowness. There are only a handful of truly unique locations in the galaxy; everywhere else is stamped from the same sheet. It leaves the whole thing feeling generic and same-y.
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Comment on Mystery drones over New Jersey spark concerns as FBI investigates in ~transport
Promonk Link ParentI'm still of the camp that says you're better off not using satire if you're going to signpost it explicitly. I had a professor who said that one of the defining features of good satire is that it...I'm still of the camp that says you're better off not using satire if you're going to signpost it explicitly.
I had a professor who said that one of the defining features of good satire is that it divides the audience into two groups: those who get it, and those who don't. I've considered many examples of satire since then, and I have to agree with her.
Of course, she said this right about the time Poe's Law was devised. Perhaps she'd have a different perspective nowadays.
I would be surprised bordering on shocked if you got a TTD response from every node along a route, beyond a handful of hops at least. Traceroute has never been a properly defined standard, and few network admins bother to enable TTD response for externally facing routers. The only time it might be a reliable method is when you're working with a complete network map for a network where you know traceroute has been enforced at every node--say, a corporate intranet for a company run by an OCD network engineer. That is definitely not what you're trying to use it for here. You're really not getting much from the traceroute that you wouldn't get from a simple ping.
Networking has never been a strength of mine though, either technically or socially, so I can't really help much. My first guess would be DNS, but that's about as helpful as a dog trying to help you translate Mandarin.