secret_online's recent activity
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Comment on I survived the certificate expiration of October 19th 2026 and all I got was to make a silly shitpost in ~tildes
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Comment on McDonalds and Star Trek's "Red Alert" sound in ~talk
secret_online Link ParentIn New Zealand we have the red alert sound, not the alternating tones in your second link. I suppose it makes sense that we'd have the same sounds as Australia, but it's strange that they're...In New Zealand we have the red alert sound, not the alternating tones in your second link. I suppose it makes sense that we'd have the same sounds as Australia, but it's strange that they're different to what seems to be the rest of the world.
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Comment on Tildes “orphans”, what do you do for Christmas? in ~life
secret_online LinkI live alone, which suits me quite well. My closest family has been travelling around the country for the past nearly 4 years, so it's pretty seldom that we're together at this point. In past...I live alone, which suits me quite well. My closest family has been travelling around the country for the past nearly 4 years, so it's pretty seldom that we're together at this point. In past years I have travelled to meet them if they're settling in a place for a while or other family, but I usually use Christmas day as a travelling day since the flights are cheaper and the roads are clear.
The social group in my apartment building gathers in the lobby with food and drinks on Christmas day. Last year I baked cookies and they were received well, so I'll be doing those again over the days leading up to it (I simply can't bear doing the baking and the decorating on the same day). Beyond that, I'm sure there will be lots of time to just relax or get out and walk.
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Comment on Timasomo 2026: Week 2 Updates in ~creative.timasomo
secret_online LinkMy Minecraft mod is now pretty much feature complete. You can grab the jar file from one of the build zips at the bottom of this GitHub Actions run, depending on which mod loader you're using....My Minecraft mod is now pretty much feature complete. You can grab the jar file from one of the build zips at the bottom of this GitHub Actions run, depending on which mod loader you're using. There's still more to do, but at least this is close to a version I can publish if the rest of the month falls out from under me.
My main focus last weekend was on textures. I spent an evening plus most of a day just doing textures. When I wasn't doing textures, I was redoing the UV mappings to make drawing the textures easier. But, I have textures. Blockbench allows you to have reference images behind the model that you can use to pick colours, so I added the textures for anvils (the shade I wanted the frames to be) and iron bars (a thin metallic thing whose style I could imitate). What I found worked best was using only 3 colours, as any more made it feel too contrast and noisy. There are actually 4 colours, as any inward-facing faces use a slightly darker 3 colour palette.
I'm still keeping my limit of only working on this mod over the weekends, but where's the limit on that? Does launching the game with the mod installed so I can build structures to take screenshots for the mod's listing page count? I think not, so I've been doing that as well. So far I have made a little cosy kitchen, and a sort of linked or wrought fence for a garden. The latter came about from just placing some of the frames and noticing it looked cool.
You'll notice that both of those screenshots have windows frames that are unfilled. I have one final decision to make with this mod; do I make the glass:
- 2px thick (so it's flush with the frame),
- 1px thick so it's slightly inset, has thickness, but is not aligned to the pixel grid (breaks the guidelines of Minecraft graphics), or
- 0px thick so it's inset, is pixel grid aligned, but has no thickness (like iron bars).
I still have not decided on this, and I need to make the decision before I take the actual screenshots and make the mod's icon.
Today's bonus image is a Creeper. Plain and simple.
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Comment on There's a new Elder Scrolls MMO in ~games
secret_online (edited )Link ParentI think you misunderstood what I wrote, but perhaps that's because I wasn't clear in what I was actually trying to say. To be clear, I am not calling you vacuous. I think the delivery of your...I think you misunderstood what I wrote, but perhaps that's because I wasn't clear in what I was actually trying to say. To be clear, I am not calling you vacuous. I think the delivery of your message was uncharitable, and there was maybe a different way of approaching the discussion that didn't lead to two people being defensive.
Generative AI exists, the same way any tool exists. We can't close this metaphorical Pandora's Box, not anymore. When we look at how past tools have been used by humans we see the line of acceptable uses of said tools be drawn somewhere around causing harm to other humans. As society has developed, and continues to do so, the definition of harms changes, and thus so does the line of what uses of tools are consided acceptable. Because we are individuals, we all place that line somewhere else. Sometimes the line is straight, sometimes it's wiggly. There is interesting, balanced, nuanced discussion to have in that space where people can learn from one another. Insulting opinions blocks those conversations, which to me feels against the spirit of this site.
To bring it back to the topic at hand, someone adding MMO features to Daggerfall, we do see the speed at which people build upon previous work to make a new experience. We see people attempting software projects that were seen as insurmountable before. We see people mixing and remixing ideas. We also see the unpolished nature, the fact it's raw output from the most sophisticated statistical engine we've made so far. We see the priorities of the people making these projects, and isn't there something interesting in that too?
These are different uses of the same tool. What do we, as a community of pseudonomous strangers on the internet, see as being acceptable, and what do we not? How does the use of Generative AI to make software affect the makers themselves? What stories are being told about these projects, and how does the way they're being told fit into the wider discussion around Generative AI? These are the things I would find much more interesting to see, beyond the inevitable "slop or not" comments.
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Comment on There's a new Elder Scrolls MMO in ~games
secret_online Link ParentI'm just going to reply to this to say that this whole conversation so far (including @Grenno) feels very un-Tildes to me. I come to this website for for interesting discussions where people can...- Exemplary
I'm just going to reply to this to say that this whole conversation so far (including @Grenno) feels very un-Tildes to me. I come to this website for for interesting discussions where people can have a discussion on nuanced topics without resorting to personal attacks.
As for the take itself, I believe it can be both. Generative AI is both individually empowering and a tool being used to fuel mass consumption of vapid Content™. A knife is used to cut onions and to stab people. A rock is used to sharpen other rocks to make primitive tools and to bludgeon. To say AI is just one thing is to ignore the the way the disgustingly rich are treating other human beings through this tool. To say it's the other is to ignore the sudden ability that people have to create software that was infeasible before, clones or not. To say it's either of these and not something else is to ignore the impact it is having on knowledge work industries in general, and I'm sure a 4th person could come in with a different perspective too. The discussion is nuanced, and worth more than insulting others' opinions.
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Comment on Deno is joining Cloudflare in ~comp
secret_online LinkI think it's a shame that development on Deno is being shut down, but to be honest I don't know what kind of company (I mention companies because that's where the big sponsorships come from) would...I think it's a shame that development on Deno is being shut down, but to be honest I don't know what kind of company (I mention companies because that's where the big sponsorships come from) would ever have used Deno as their JS runtime over Node. Node is more established, has a larger ecosystem of tools around it, and has clear management structure and funding for that provided through the OpenJS foundation. Having a series of standard library packages is neat (though Node had its own too, I guess), having a permissions model is great (Node now has one, opt-in), creating another public NPM registry is... a choice? But if I were the one deciding the technology stack for a company, I would be looking at which option is likely to be supported for a long time. That was never going to be Deno.
Anyone who chose Deno just learned they've got a year's worth of patches and security updates left. Anyone using Deno Deploy just learned they've got 6 months to move to CloudFlare or completely change their deployment. At least JSR is sticking around, but I get the feeling it'll be on life support more than active development. It's better than Deno just going completely under, I guess.
As an aside, I wonder what's going to happen to the lawsuit that Deno has against Oracle over the name JavaScript. They were asking for 200k in crowdfunding for discovery and received 44k. Will CloudFlare keep it going, or will they just quietly close it down and let Oracle still sit on the name? I also wonder if the legal costs contributed to Deno needing to be bought.
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Comment on Machinarium 2 | Announcement trailer in ~games
secret_online LinkOh I'm looking forward to this, I fell in love with Amaninta's games with the original Machinarium. Plus it means more music from Floex, which is always a joy.Oh I'm looking forward to this, I fell in love with Amaninta's games with the original Machinarium. Plus it means more music from Floex, which is always a joy.
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Comment on Timasomo 2026: Week 1 Updates in ~creative.timasomo
secret_online LinkI've decided that I should only work on my Minecraft mod (now officially called "Leadlight") over the weekends. This was a wise decision given how hectic my week was. I will be using terms without...I've decided that I should only work on my Minecraft mod (now officially called "Leadlight") over the weekends. This was a wise decision given how hectic my week was. I will be using terms without necessarily defining them in this (and future) update(s), so if there's anything you don't understand and you're interested in specifics, please ask. Just because I learned a lot of the concepts the hard (well, not truly hard, but not the easiest) way, doesn't mean you have to too.
The first thing I did for this project was some modelling. I took inspiration from how the game does the models for the base game, where it defines the north-facing side and the south-facing side and then uses blockstates to do the rotations. The simplest window frame shape I'll have is effectively just a bordered regular glass pane so I made a model for that in Blockbench (The UV mappings have changed slightly since making that). It's multiple boxes, and when I export I can turn on and off different segments. There are actually 5 models in there, the north, south, center, and the middle sections facing north and south for when the block is just a single segment. It's much easier to see why this is needed when displayed in-game. I also wrote some code to datagen all of the required blockstate and model files. I'm using the models from Blockbench as a template, with the datagenned model files using them as a parent and passing in the textures. This is so I can have multiple material types, but that's for weekend 3 or 4.
With the success of that, I decided I may as well do the models for three other window shapes: vertical, horizontal, and square. Technically, all of the models that I did for the large window shape could be re-used for the vertical windows, and with only a few additions I could do a lot of re-use for the horizontal and squares too. I went ahead and made the models for those and added them to the game. I also made a flat grey texture so I wasn't looking at colourful boxes all the time. I will need to come back to textures. Yes, I am putting it off.
A window frame is useless without glass to put in it, so I then went on a side tangent to create new items (which for now I'm calling "Cut Stained Glass Panes") that would be placed within each segment of the frame, and how I'd actually represent that in the blocks. There were a couple of iterations on the design, but I ended up on a data component that has a slot for top and bottom for north, south, east, west, and center. Having it as a data component means it's easy to attach to items, so ctrl+middle click in creative can pick up a window frame with knowledge of what each slot has. One of the last things I ended up doing over the weekend was actually adding interaction, so right clicking a cut pane into the frame would put it in the spot you clicked, and using an empty hand would remove it. Oh, and datagen for crafting recipes. The cut panes come from putting stained glass panes into a stonecutter, while the frames themselves have a recipe for the large frame, which is then used to craft the other types.
I was pretty happy with this progress for the first weekend, but since I still had some of the day left I decided to try drawing the glass. In terms of things I dislike in making mods, the thing I hate the most by far is anything to do with rendering (followed by making textures, then making models). Because I plan of having two more frame shapes with diagonal lines, I need to be able to draw a triangle. After much error (with some trial) I made every frame block (easier to start without thinking about the data each block has) draw a triangle. The problem was that as soon as you have multiple frame blocks it doesn't do what I wanted at all. Turns out, Minecraft really wants you to be drawing quads, not triangles, so I just added a 4th point that's the same as the 1st and everything is fine.
Of course, I don't just want a random triangle, I want shapes within the frame. This took some puzzling, such as getting some maths wrong and drawing in the wrong place, or doing the absolute beginner mistake of submitting your vertices in the wrong order so the faces are only visible from the wrong side, or, as you've probably seen from those screenshots, using the wrong path for the texture even though an hour ago you had it correct. But, eventually, I fixed it. I have a mod that works and has all of the basic features I want this mod to have.
I expect future weeks' updates to be more mundane than "I made what looks like most of this mod!". Like all software development, it takes 20% of the time to do 80% of the work, and 80% of the time to do
20% of the workthe other 80% of the work. As a reward for getting through this post, have a rendition of Piet Modrian's Composion II in Red, Blue, and Yellow. -
Comment on Was watching a history YouTube video when I realized they are all AI in ~tech
secret_online Link ParentAiSList seems to be someone's attempt at that, though the website is slopped and the source code for the extension itself hasn't been uploaded to GitHub. I only found out about it since it's been... -
Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
secret_online LinkI've continued the backporting of one of my Minecraft mods from last week, though this has been slowed by me making a new mod for TiMaSoMo (which I'll talk about more in the update topics for...I've continued the backporting of one of my Minecraft mods from last week, though this has been slowed by me making a new mod for TiMaSoMo (which I'll talk about more in the update topics for that). I'll be spending the weekends working on that mod, and the week days working on this one.
I finished the port to 1.21.11. It's all working just fine, but the biggest challenge is yet to come. I've had a taste of it so far, but 1.21.1 was released an entire year before 1.21.11 so there were a lot of changes to the game, and lots of them in rendering. I'm going to be saving those for last. Mostly my process is picking a file and then trying to get rid of the compiler errors one-by-one, and I don't know how many there are in total since IntelliJ isn't listing more than 101 problems in the problems tab.
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Comment on Jet Lag Season 19: Japanorama | Trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentI want to call out this magnificent pun from Tom on the Layover Light episode 7 spoilers (Talking about the tripod thing that Sam and Ben saw with the rail workers)I want to call out this magnificent pun from Tom on the Layover
Light episode 7 spoilers
(Talking about the tripod thing that Sam and Ben saw with the rail workers)
[...] a theodolite measures angles and, uh, these days it's normally a laser thing for land surveying or something like that.
And you can tell the difference because a theodolite is on a tripod and a theodotite hangs down from the roof. -
Comment on Timasomo 2026: Roll Call in ~creative.timasomo
secret_online (edited )LinkSince my current creative outlet is working on my little Minecraft mods, I think it's time to make one more. You know, give myself even more ongoing maintenance. I want to do something with...Since my current creative outlet is working on my little Minecraft mods, I think it's time to make one more. You know, give myself even more ongoing maintenance.
I want to do something with stained glass panes, making them more like stained glass windows. The idea is that you'd make a frame block in one of a few set shapes, then fill in each section with different colours of glass. How will you make the frames? Don't know yet. How will you fill in the sections? Don't know yet. How will you change a section? Don't know yet. What happens if a side connection of the pane is made/broken? Don't know yet. That's all to figure out as I go.
I'll have some decisions to make early on about how to do this. I don't think I want to make it data-driven so other mods could add new glass types or frame shapes, which means that depending on how many possible combinations there are I might be able to use blockstates to render everything rather than a custom block entity renderer (like I have to for my Tiny Flowers mod). If there are too many combinations then I might have to use blockstates for the frames, then render the glass itself separately.
Quick edit: I ran some numbers. I'm using blockstates for the frames, then custom rendering for the glass. The number I got is large enough that it runs into precision issues and I can't trust it anymore. This is entirely my fault for reaching for JavaScript to do maths.
I'll be targeting Minecraft 26.1, though at the end/after the month I'll bring it forward to whatever version is the latest. I don't plan to port this back any further, since porting Tiny Flowers 2.0.0 back to even just 1.21.11 has been a massive pain.
Oh, and I need a name. Preferably before I create the project repository. I want something related to the craft of making stained glass, so the first thing I need to do is research (or outsource to the lovely folks here ;D).
Quick edit: currently thinking of "Leadlight" as a name, since that's another term for windows ("lights") with lead ("lead")
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Comment on Announcing the eighth annual Tildes' Make Something Month (Timasomo)! in ~tildes
secret_online LinkI'm not sure I'll be able to commit just yet, but that's what the next couple of days are for organising. Please add me to the list, if nothing else it'll be a reminder to see what everyone else...I'm not sure I'll be able to commit just yet, but that's what the next couple of days are for organising. Please add me to the list, if nothing else it'll be a reminder to see what everyone else is up to.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
secret_online LinkI had a DM through CurseForge (of all places) wondering whether I could port v2 (a complete rewrite) of my Tiny Flowers Minecraft mod to 1.21.1, which is a somewhat popular version of Minecraft...I had a DM through CurseForge (of all places) wondering whether I could port v2 (a complete rewrite) of my Tiny Flowers Minecraft mod to 1.21.1, which is a somewhat popular version of Minecraft for mods. I originally released v2 for 26.1 (released early this year) because it made for a good cutover point, and I could always try to backport it later. Well, now is later.
Of course CurseForge, being CurseForge, highlights the most recently released file for your mod, not the one for the most recent version of the game, and I want the most recently released file to be for 26.3. I don't want it to be just an empty release So now was as good a time as any to implement a feature I've been thinking of: allowing the tiny flowers to be put in a Flower Pot. This wasn't so bad, a bit more than a day's work over the weekend. At least I'll have something substantial to release for newer versions of the game and I can ensure that the latest version of the game is highlighted on CurseForge.
Now on to backporting. My plan is to go back through some major versions step by step, so I don't dealing with 2 years' worth of game changes all at once. Starting with the current version of the game (26.3), I've gone back to 26.2 and 26.1.2. These weren't so bad, there were some minor changes here and there, mostly slight refactoring to some of the game's classes that I happen to depend on.
My next milestone is the version just before 26.1: 1.21.11, which, as of writing, is what I'm still working on. There have been four major flavours of pain:
- Major refactors. Mojang is constantly refactoring the game, for the better, but this means that going back in time is an annoyance.
- Classes have moved. This is somewhat related to the above, but with one extra twist: mappings. Prior to 26.1 the Minecraft .jar files were obfuscated. In order to actually work on the codebase the obfuscated classes need to be remapped, and of course, there are competing standards. The mod template I'm using uses mojmaps, Mojang's official mappings. But anything related to the Fabric modloader, including the very useful mcsrc.dev, uses Yarn mappings which have much less legal potential surrounding them when it comes to tooling. Luckily there's mappings.dev to help translate between them. So quite often I'm copying class/method names into mappings.dev to find out what they're really called so I can use them. It's just an extra layer of work on top of my existing lack of familiarity with Minecraft's code.
- This is the last one I need to figure out. Rendering completely changed. Because the tiny flowers are data-driven I can't easily use the blockstate system to render the flowers, and instead load the models and send them off myself. This is a problem when Mojang completely changes how rendering works. Every class has changed, models are more explicit in the split between unbaked and baked, and tinting (for changing things like grass colour) is completely different. I've written some code that look kinda hacky but doesn't work yet, but at least the game runs now and I can start playing around some more.
Oh, and remember how my target version was 1.21.1 and I'm only at 1.21.11? There's still another year's worth of game development I need to go backwards through. There are things I know have changed in the game that will affect me (Wildflowers and Leaf Litter were only added in 1.21.4, and that came with a minor change to Pink Petals), but there's probably more that I don't know. I don't have to do this backport, but I've set it to myself as a challenge so I'm going to give it the best I've got.
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Comment on Minecraft developer Mojang has announced that the Sift is coming to Java and Bedrock Edition in 2027 – the game's first new dimension in over fourteen years in ~games
secret_online LinkI'm going to wait to pass judgement until I've at least played Minecraft: Dungeons 2 to see what it feels like there before thinking about how it would feel in the main game. I'm seeing a lot more...I'm going to wait to pass judgement until I've at least played Minecraft: Dungeons 2 to see what it feels like there before thinking about how it would feel in the main game. I'm seeing a lot more pastel colours compared to the overworld's more realistic colours, the Nether's deeper colours, and The End's washed out tones. I do wonder what the long-term plan is for the dimension, whether it's going to be a one and done or whether it will see updates over time. Especially because there's already a mostly abandoned dimension in the game already.
Speaking of, it's odd/sad that they're going with an entirely new dimension while The End is still so barren. The End isn't really a fun place to explore. There are mods that have made it better for exploration, but I feel there needs to be some other reason to explore The End that isn't just "get elytra and boxes from one structure".
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Comment on Jet Lag Season 19: Japanorama | Trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentEpisode 6 spoilers Definitely not their proudest moment (though not as bad as throwing away a skip that's valid for the next prefecture). Adam and Tom ended up doing 3 mind meld challenges in a...Episode 6 spoilers
Definitely not their proudest moment (though not as bad as throwing away a skip that's valid for the next prefecture).
Adam and Tom ended up doing 3 mind meld challenges in a row between last episode and this. It was a bit shaky with the convenience store, but they got it in the end. This one felt a lot easier to strategise around, which I think Adam knew by rejecting the first spot Tom picked. The spot they ended up going for had far fewer things to pick from.
On the podcast Ben said he still wears the hat he bought from the baseball game. Apparently there was some sort of collab going on between the team and Nintendo which is why there were Pokémon on them.
Sam spent so long skipping those stones. I think it was harder because they were throwing from higher above the water. I'm slightly upset that Adam and Tom didn't scoop them here, but they should be able to do the ghost platform challenge here, right? I believe they were the only ones to leave at that station.
It's insane that over the course of one game day that Sam and Ben cleared 8 prefectures, 4 of them with skips. I know they have been planning for this, but it's still crazy to see.
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Comment on Using ASCII art to prove that I, not an LLM, wrote something in ~tech
secret_online Link ParentYour mobile-friendly link at the top links to example.com, not the mobile friendly version.Your mobile-friendly link at the top links to example.com, not the mobile friendly version.
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Comment on There's a new "Google Jail" for independent wikis in ~tech
secret_online Link ParentThat's good to know. I have a side project I've kept on a subdomain of my personal site that I've been considering moving to a new domain. Given the fuss, I think it's fine on the subdomain for...That's good to know. I have a side project I've kept on a subdomain of my personal site that I've been considering moving to a new domain. Given the fuss, I think it's fine on the subdomain for now.
I wonder if the way to do this is to have the new domain 301 to the old domain for however long the jail sentence is, then once that's over swap the redirect the other way and use the domain change tool in the search console.
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Comment on Jet Lag Season 19: Japanorama | Trailer in ~hobbies
secret_online Link ParentEpisode 4 spoilers It's amazing how close this race is at this point. I mean, here they are in Kyoto where I'm sure they'll have a lovely evening of not talking to each other because they need...Episode 4 spoilers
It's amazing how close this race is at this point. I mean, here they are in Kyoto where I'm sure they'll have a lovely evening of not talking to each other because they need alone time off-camera.
I wonder how the closeness is going to change as they take the different routes. Ben and Sam obviously have their mega move that gets them to the Tokyo metro area, but they still need to make their way through a few prefectures and will generally have slower non-shinkansen trains. Tom and Adam will have ok speed trains, but they'll be less frequent so they'll need to be good at challenges to not be waiting around for expresses.
ELI5 analogy: it's the stamp used to make the wax seal for envelopes sent over the internet. Every website can get its own seal to prove that its envelopes are real, and browsers will throw away envelopes with bad seals. For security reasons, the stamps have expiry times built into them before they are untrusted and you need to get a new stamp before the old one expires.