SloMoMonday's recent activity
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkIts a long weekend here and I've spent a lot of it playing Iron Nest. It's a steampunk artillery simulator. You're trapped in the turrrent of a walking fortress. You have a big map table. And a...Its a long weekend here and I've spent a lot of it playing Iron Nest. It's a steampunk artillery simulator. You're trapped in the turrrent of a walking fortress. You have a big map table. And a mechanical ballistics calculator. And a command and recon radio that feeds you instructions and field updates.
The standard workflow starts with the briefing over freshly brewed coffee and you have a very abstract map with no useful information. Command conveys your coordinates and the position of field assets. Field spotters triangulate reference points, targets and movements. You plot a trajectory between yourself and enemies. Maybe you fire off a flare or order a recon flight to get a better sense of what you're shooting at and get some time stamped photos overlayed on the map table (their are targets that are also invisible from air and its dangerous when some photos are outdated). Plug all the measurements into the calculator and print the Fire Mission Cards. Sequence the cards to group shots that minimize adjustment and make sure the first shot has max travel time so you cycle into a quick followup after impact. With all the fire missions prepped, you head over to requisition desk and shuffel through the card catalog to stock up on the right munitions. Standard high explosives, double stuff HE if you want a 1 square km hole, clam shells (cluster munitions), AP if the target is underground or a ton of other options. Don't forget to properly sequence the autoloader and to have enough cheese (powder charges) on hand. Load up the first 2 rounds. Set the guns. Make sure you have a clean and orderly work environment. Have your fire mission cards in the order you need them. Clear the map of distractions. Make sure there's no steam valve leaks. Clear the clipboard. Put on some music.
At this point, I'm already having the time of my life. 10/10 game. Then you fire off the first shot and all hell breaks loose. Most likely, once the first rounds hit, you are subjected to counter fire and you have about 300 seconds before they zero in on you. Thankfully early recon identified enemy artillery positions and the cards are already printed. But I got a bit lazy and didn't lable my Fire Missions properly. And there are too many lines on the map so it's hard to find the correct measurements. And it doesn't help that the cards don't have distance. Screw it, I'll just make an educated guess. And in the rush I load a fire shot because its the same color shell as the AP while being for completely different use cases. And you can't unload the giant gun so I have to cycle out that round by using it. But that means reworking that fire mission since it was planned to hit a moving target at precisely 10:55 which is 20 seconds after I'm dead. And then we're hit with gas and I need to limit my vision with a mask. And the power goes out so the entire operation needs a manual restart. And that's not even done when I'm being shelled, so I do the last resort and order an emergency reposition. And now all my Fire Missions are scratched. And I have no idea where I am. And we've lost so much steam pressure that there's way too much offset to my instruments. And I can already hear the enemy fire closing in. So... we are blind firing. Friendly fire be damned.
Its a brilliant experience. Every new mission adds more and more complexity while the tone and atmosphere never lets up even once. Highly recommended if you like fiddling with analog machines, big guns or messing around with maps.
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Comment on Incentives are for losers in ~society
SloMoMonday Link ParentThere's a sense of the writer just saying "people should just not be stupid and do the right thing". Not a lot of people have a say in the matter. Most people live and die on the incentives set...There's a sense of the writer just saying "people should just not be stupid and do the right thing". Not a lot of people have a say in the matter. Most people live and die on the incentives set for them. This is the sort of "hustle wisdom" you'd see on Diary of a CEO. Something for people to fantasize about when they are in charge and not bound by silly targets and KPIs.
It doesn't help when so many businesses have been "streamlined" through years of management consulting, MBAs corporate consolidation that have no idea what businesses actually do to make money. And it's all geared to a singular incentive of maximizing shareholder value.
The metrics and incentives that matter are out of 99% of peoples hands. Cutting headcount by 60% is known to boost share prices. Off-shoring is 12% more profitable. Outsourcing core operations reduces capex by 60%.
The incentives for everyone else are not set by "sky daddy". Its a transaction between a person and their employer. It's quantifiable metrics that both parties can sign. It's also set in good faith that it's towards mutual benefit. But only one party holds all the cards.
People can do the best work of their life for 10 years or be an anchor holding back every team they are in the general vaccinity of. The 10 year guy is more likely to be cut as a higher earner. Its the same system that cut hours when you're just about to make benefits. Or talks you into unpaid overtime to be a team player. Incentives are not bad, they are just weaponized.
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Comment on Craft - A new AI powered TTRPG engine in open beta in ~games.tabletop
SloMoMonday LinkOne of the things I'd be interested to see is how an LLM system manages compartmentalization. The lack of this feature make AI adoption a security and privacy nightmare in industry. And it's a...One of the things I'd be interested to see is how an LLM system manages compartmentalization. The lack of this feature make AI adoption a security and privacy nightmare in industry. And it's a real challenge here because open ended role play requires maintaining multiple frames of reference. There's a world state. There's individual players. Multiple NPCs in scene. There are NPCs out of scene and thier degree of visibility. LLMs manage what's explicitly in the scene and in "frame" to the players.
Its not like there's hard and fast rules to this. I know good GMs who can instinctively weave their NPCs through sprawling stories on the fly. Other people map out exactly how NPCs behave when not in contact with Players. But an important factor for everyone is that there is often an information gap between the players and NPC. Its easy with a friendly character where you can bridge that gap with a simple "we catch them up on the situation". But adversarial relationships will be weird because it's hard for an LLM to keep a secret from itself.
Beyond that, I'm curious what's the implications of so much copyright material that's already on this platform. There's always been leeway for fan games/modules with rules inspired by major properties. But here it feels weird paying a non-rights holders to effectively bulk produce licenced content. WotC are probably particularly interested seeing so many AI tools built entirely on 5e rules and gamebooks. I would really hate for these type of products to kill fan projects and games when companies overcorrect to protect their IP.
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Comment on Antisemitism on campus is 'systemic' and going unaddressed, says new report in ~society
SloMoMonday LinkMy little experience with discrimination surveys and reports makes me feel like there's a lot missing from this kind of study. Not saying that the feelings expressed here are not valid or the...My little experience with discrimination surveys and reports makes me feel like there's a lot missing from this kind of study.
Not saying that the feelings expressed here are not valid or the events did not happen. But there tends to be 30 perspectives to any ecosystem and the facts tend to be a mishmash of elements from all of them.
The primary concern is that the study doesn't seem to honestly reflect the perspective of the marginalized group it claims to represent. But the perspective of a spesific subgroup within a subgroup. It defines "Jewish voices" as:
1,038 responses received; 900 retained after screening and data-quality review.
Recruited through Jewish student organizations, community networks, and related channels.
Comprehensive, spanning the broad variation in demographic variables expected from the Canadian Jewish population.
That last part is interesting because there is a distinct lack of representation from students that do not participate in Jewish Networks or Organizations. Goes as far as to insinuate that such groups don't even exist like in this data visualization
It is not a fair subgroup since you are discounting up to 75% of relevant participants.
Among all Canadians who reported having a religious affiliation, just under one third (32%) participated in group religious activities at least once a month. However, some groups of affiliations had proportions well above this average—Jehovah’s Witnesses (86%), Latter Day Saints (80%), Anabaptists (75%), and Pentecostals or other Charismatics (72%). Others had proportions below the average—Buddhists (15%), Anglicans (19%), United Church (19%) and Jews (24%).
It would be fair to have disclosure regarding respondents affiliation with certain groups in relation to their answers. (Maybe I'm missing it, but can't seem to find the raw response data to get a full picture). Because it feels like the data collectors have a very specific idea of a "legitimate " Jewish identity.
It also dramatically changes the framing when it's presented as "90% of Jewish students... " vs. "90% of Hillel/Hasbara/Jewish Student Org members..."
Beyond that, we are simply missing every other perspective on the matter. Yes, the victims perspective is important, but those victims exist in a wider context. The big piece of missing context being "what is Anti-Semitic behavior?" Because those definitions have been sort of torn apart as of late.
If I had the capacity to do a wider survey now on 1000k people from the general population, my base line would be:
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all Jews need to be exterminated.
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Jews have no place in Canadian society.
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Jews are dishonest and thieves.
I'm hopeful that these scores are all low across the board and we can agree that no one wants to be anti-semetic. And if that's not the case, we can also analyze in what subsets and situations those scores are high and start to find out what is going on there.
Questions like:
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The state of Israel is justified in their behaviour and actions throughout the world.
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i approve the actions of the IDF in Gaza and the West Bank?
makes for foreign affairs opinion study. And it can wrap back into the discussion with:
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I believe the state of Israel is representative of Canadian Jews.
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I believe Canadian Jews can hold views that oppose the State of Israel.
I think that's important because now we know where people draw the line between the behaviour and actions of an individual vs the behavior of a State. Personally, I would prefer that people traded me as seperate from the actions of a government I have limited say in.
Theres also a big difference between percieved discrimination and documented/verifiable discrimination. Because as much as we have a duty to protect victims and prevent harm, it can't be denied that there are material consequences and costs involved in these sort of discussions. Zionist student bodies have incentive to shape discourse and limit critique of Israeli action, sometimes to the detriment of the safety and security of Jewish people (see the ADF response to the richest man on earth doing Nazi salutes and encouraging Anti-Semitic discourse on their platform). And by rejecting any opposing Jewish expression, it isolates those people and makes them more susceptable to being targets and victims, but without any support network.
There are also policy and civic implications. Is it unfair for a person to demand that $x bil in Israeli aid and self defense be used for local food subsidies or healthcare. Is it acceptable that peaceful protesters are being labeled a terrorist threat for opposing a human rights violation and are lumped in with the literal Nazis.
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Comment on Anthropic discovered three cases where Claude broke into another system in ~tech
SloMoMonday (edited )Link ParentThanks for pointing it out because it's such a negligible part of this report. I'm pretty sure my brain filtered out the name Irregular since its mentioned twice and I was looking for a joint...Thanks for pointing it out because it's such a negligible part of this report. I'm pretty sure my brain filtered out the name Irregular since its mentioned twice and I was looking for a joint statement with the full accounting on how this could have happened and corrective measures.
I just assumed they'd partnered with someone on the scale of PacketLabs or Plavno for such a sensitive matter. Even Qualysec who can throw endless manpower at the problem is a good choice. There's plenty of candidates with a lot of real world experience, clients and infrastructure. Not just for the expertise to do the testing, but bringing them into this work gives them the hands-on knowledge and insights to protect thier high risk clients before these models hit the market.
And it's not like they can't afford it.
The only thing I know about Irregular from primary sources is that the founders like to make media statements and their research is summarizing model performance on security benchmarks. (Seriously, it's mostly: <model name> against offensive security benchmarks) and they don't even have a standard template for that which makes me think it's LLM generated reports). There's not even author names on reports or even a physical address or contact number on their website. Just the fact that they have the big AI Labs as clients.
5 minutes digging and it's a Sequoia backed startup out of Israel. No trace pre-2024 because they changed names from Pattern Labs (no trace on that companies work either). Founders are Dan Lahav (informatics academic with no real security credentials outside of LLMs or ) and Omer Nevo (professional founder in YC, IATI spaces and looks more focused on an AI robotics company) and seem to be the only employees I can identify.
Its the sort of company that would never even beat the sniff test for any serious Procurement Screening. And if they were the peak of AI security, why if every major company on earth not listed as clients.
Its the type of event that would lead to one to question all the other security comments and research these companies have done.
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Comment on Anthropic discovered three cases where Claude broke into another system in ~tech
SloMoMonday Link ParentI don't see how that is in any way a redeeming factor. The same way this: means nothing. Proportionality doesn't matter here because 3 out 141000 bad runs still means that 3 crimes were committed....- Exemplary
I don't see how that is in any way a redeeming factor. The same way this:
Of the 141,006 evaluation runs we reviewed, we identified three separate incidents (involving six total runs, four of which impacted the same organization; the other two incidents each happened in independent evaluation runs). Each incident involved a different fictional capture-the-flag scenario—for example, in one, Claude played an employee of a made-up company, attacking that company’s internal systems inside a private test environment.
means nothing. Proportionality doesn't matter here because 3 out 141000 bad runs still means that 3 crimes were committed. And the lack of accountability is maddening because people are fired for far less. Yes there is special provisions made for instances where you gain unauthorized access and report the vulnerability. But those are by humans acting with intent and who can make a judgement call of how far they can go.
These models would have believed that everything they found was fair game? What's to stop it harnessing to an open file repo and just offloading sensitive data to simulate a hostile actor? Or pick up emails and firing off threats? What if someone was in an emotionally compromised state and starts getting extortion mail with private information? Or it assumes someone identity and conducting illegal activities. Or worming its way into an insecure sales service and setting all prices to 99c?
It's the type of mistake an intern makes when they don't know how to manage working across multiple environments or if someone is learning automation scripting and isn't accustomed to managing runaway failure states. But its gross incompetence being fueled by ungodly amounts of money and computational capacity.
Vendor said one thing and in reality its another; fine. If I were organizing a little wargame on a mirror of prod, I would of course host that mirror as far away from my system as I could with a vendor that could monitor and provide a forensic report on what had happened.
I don't think its unreasonable to name that vendor so we can get the scope of their operation and how much they have been paid to put the entire internet at risk. Because if they failed to notice that spooky shit was happening in their domain that really should not never happen, it raises questions on all the other work they did.
Beyond that:
In all cases, our evaluation prompt stated explicitly that Claude had no internet access, but didn’t give Claude any limits on where to look for the flag.
What the hell does that mean?
Why would that even need to be a prompt?
Do they not know that these systems hallucinate and have a counterfactual affirmative bias?It's not the type of arbitrary consideration you attribute to non-deterministic processes.
And researchers being paid in excess of $300k a year, I'd expect a cursory:
int result = std::system("ping -c 1 8.8.8.8 > /dev/null"); if (result == 0) { std::cout << "I think something is wrong because we are hitting the open internet before we even launch this ballistic code generator." << } else { std::cout << "No internet connection and have successfully performed common sense due diligence. You deserve a gold star and a juice box." << }It's such a laughably easy thing to verify. One of the reasons I'm so skeptical on AI/LLM solutions is because I subject these tools to easily verifiable tests and I never get 100% success rates. (You can make the argument that these systems should not be used for problems that can be programmatically solved, but that's not how its being sold or used; even by it's own developers in this case.)
It's standard security practice. Yes, they were handed an environment. Who is verifying the environment configs. Don't you make doubly sure your actions aren't hitting live in any possible way. Double check that the ip addresses and API keys are pointing to test instances. Why was there no system outputs illustrating exactly what actions were being taken and a customer side supervisor. It's literally the type of work I needed to do when I just got into tech so we knew how to be responsible when dealing with client work.
The capabilities and value of this tech is immaterial when the people running this ship have every possible advantage and can't even do the easy stuff.
I'm particularly incensed because coming off the last post I'd seen where Anthropic was saying we should "pace ourselves"; why the hell are they not doing anything about it. Publicly say that there needs to be a hold on data-center construction and service limitations while proper safeguards are put in place. Restrict agent integrations that let users hook up their credit cards and personal emails to these tools that clearly can not act within scope. It's a handful of companies saying that the entire world needs to be responsible for their shitty software.
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Comment on OpenAI and Anthropic endorse call for US government to "pace" AI progress in ~comp
SloMoMonday LinkMy personal take is that this is a direct response to open source/weight models showing a lot of promise and the growing threat of Chinese AI hardware potentially flooding the market. There's also...My personal take is that this is a direct response to open source/weight models showing a lot of promise and the growing threat of Chinese AI hardware potentially flooding the market. There's also Amazon making the Tranium custom chips, Googles TPUs that will make this market place a lot more competitive. (There's also Meta, but I'm not even sure Zuk knows what an LLM is after the earnings call. I think he just needs to go into the woods and set fire to a few million dollars to feel better).
I think the biggest fear is that if chips make it to end-customers who deploy capability as needed and not have to rely on the centralized compute providers. It throws a massive wrench in the works of the whole circular finance mess that relies on the Data Center build-out. NVidia has likely sold more chips than are in circulation and the 3 year renewal window is coming up soon. They also made commitments to buy memory has made a lot of people don't like. There is also the pushback to data-center roll out. People having a Plan B that does not keep the NVidia train moving and is going to ruin the big circle-jerk they have going on.
Now that the discussion is all about RoI and Pro-rata/token billing, people are a little more reserved on their LLM ambitions and would be looking for cheaper options, even if its not the most cutting edge model. Productivity, capability and intelligence are all neat ideas, until it starts to cost more money than it makes. Unless there are industry products that can demonstrate year-on-year revenue growth/cost-savings and the AI companies can commit to iron-clad costing framework for 5+ years, I'm sure most people are happy with incremental improvements. Also, plenty of clients have been burnt on AWS op-ex so I don't think they are keen on having 2 opaque cost centers.
I would not be surprised if the two biggest AI Labs idea of "pace" is to put a ban on "unregulated AI tech" and strong arm other countries into only going for the US Fed Approved Providers. The Labs have spent so long signaling that the value of the product comes from brute force application and reckless acceleration in all aspects. Pivoting to value-for-money and and caution now that they are under threat is what one would describe as a "chicken-shit move".
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Comment on Do I belong in tech anymore? in ~tech
SloMoMonday LinkI think the last time I was ever happy working was 2015. Just before our company was acquired and we just did a normal deployment of off-the-shelf software at a big client. Spend a couple of...I think the last time I was ever happy working was 2015. Just before our company was acquired and we just did a normal deployment of off-the-shelf software at a big client. Spend a couple of months in the middle of nowhere. Get requirements. Build to a dev environment. Go to war with MS and SAP to get integration working. Get UAT sign off. Rehearse change over for a week. Full system update over a long weekend. Had a nice wrap up party and collected a bonus.
It was a normal job. I had no doubt that I was doing anything dubious and harmful. Hell, I'm proud to say that I had a minuscule role in getting clean water pumped to half the country.
After that, we had to convince a client to change their safety requirements because a reasonable ask was not part of the cloud strategy. After that I worked on a massive cloud migration project that got several dozen people fired, some of them close friends. And then I was dealing with startups which effectively killed any joy I got from tech and development.
You're driven to a special kind of insanity when you see your boss go on stage and say the illustrative prototype that was made on a flight the previous day, is actually a production ready suite of Blockchain-enabled work/asset management software that could replace SAP, WorxHub and Maximo. And I apparently made it a plug-and-play cloud solution with one-click migration and integration. That got me out of tech by the end of 2019.
And the worst part is that a lot of the things I knew to be bad business and technical decisions panned out pretty close to how I expected. The client we told had "impossible" requirements for on-prem failover ended up just building the feature in house and expanded the project to phase out our software entirely. The company that was sold cloud-transformation as a cure-all to their problems are now desperately trying to rebuild their infrastructure because costs and service issues have spiraled and everything they sold is now far more expensive while the skills are all gone. And all of the damn founders I'd worked for are now AI shills but they seem no closer to their grand visions being magically materialized. All they do is post about how many concurrent AI instances they have spitting out more code than 10000 devs.
The worst part is that it's not like the working world outside of corporate tech is any better. Did a stint consulting and that got blown up because I'm not "AI forward" enough, simply because I prefer a safe and measured approach to development. I worked at my family business and that just resulting in more of the abuse I'd originally tried to get away from. I did a bit of academic work and AI sort of blew up that whole field as well. I had no idea how effectively teach kids who are terrified that a single slip up will essentially tank their entire lives. I do not blame them for using the correct-answer-generator for everything.
So yeh. 15 years of work and I'm effectively worse off than I started. I have no more motivation to work any harder because for myself, my wife and everyone else that I know who did things the "right way", we are all broke, miserable and exhausted. I'm content doing enough to keep my family safe and get my kid set up as best we can. Planning beyond that is a moot point. On the flip side, the only people who seem to have anything going for them seem to cheaters, scammers and grifters.
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Comment on Your cookware got worse on purpose: who owns Pyrex and All-Clad now in ~food
SloMoMonday Link ParentThis might seem a little random, but laboratory glassware can be very good. I've been using reagent bottles, beakers and large evaporating bowels in my little baking side project and I'm...This might seem a little random, but laboratory glassware can be very good. I've been using reagent bottles, beakers and large evaporating bowels in my little baking side project and I'm constantly looking out for any clearance sales from the supply stores (for safety and common sense reasons, please don't get glassware that was used for real lab work).
Most of the smaller items can be a steal like 1L
borosilicate beakers and 500ml quartz bottles going for less than $10. Theres also a few sellers that can customize the pieces by fitting handles or custom markings (I always ask if they can put the weight of an empty container on it so I don't have to keep zeroing out my scales).Unfortunately, anything larger than 1L can get pretty pricy, but surprisingly not as bad as some of the pyrex items. I got a few 5l bottles that I use for bulk orders and those were about $60 each. But they paid for themselves because I can fill it with whatever I'm making, leave the whole thing in a pot of boiling water for as long as I want to strayalize and then throw it straight into the fridge. Never had any thermal shock or pressure breaks like some of the new pickling jars I've gotten (seriously, there are so many "fake" jars people get for the aesthetic and even if the size and weight are right, they crack and shatter at the worst possible times). And if I've ever made an ingredient or sauce and have any left overs, just transfer it to a smaller bottle, boil it and it keeps for a while.
Also, in cookware. Titanium is an amazing non stick surface. Doesn't scratch under metal utensils, is about 80% as good as the polymer options and looks almost brand new after about 2 years of near daily use. Bad news, the prices are insane (up to $200 for a medium pan) and it's hard to know when you are getting the genuine thing. But I hope this will be one of those "forever" purchases like the skillet and kitchen aid I've inherited from my mom.
Speaking of KitchenAid, if you've gotten one after 2019, take it to a good third party repair person and ask if they can do a quick service and upgrade. The newer models have some penny-pinching in the smaller components that make it far less robust and puts it at risk of major failure. Plastic bushings. Low quality screws. No spring clip for attachments. Thinner wireing. It's made to fail in a lot of small ways and you'd be tempted to just buy new. It's very cheap to prevent most of these problems and get it up to par with older models.
The newest models have replaced most of the mechanical controls with the jankiest circuit work, the entire motor assembly is a single block so no chance of an inexpensive repair and the new padel attachment looks like they just stamped it out of the cheapest steel they could find. Seriously, any misadventure will probably cause it to scrape up your bowel and you get yummy metal shavings in your birthday cake. And it's a shame because the new features are things I've wanted for a while. A light just above the mixing bowel and a continuous speed controller so you can get the sweet spot between clicks.
I know people have been stockpiling spares for older units since its obvious Whirlpool is tooling up for all new machines to go that way and I'm sure good machine shops should be able to fabricate spesific parts that go out of circulation. So if you know where to look, I'm sure you can keep the old machines running for a long while.
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Comment on Four awful new privacy-eroding features from Meta in a month in ~tech
SloMoMonday Link ParentI really wish we took social media addiction a more seriously. I only really used reddit and even with just that, it was a struggle to break my tendency to randomly scroll every free minute....I really wish we took social media addiction a more seriously. I only really used reddit and even with just that, it was a struggle to break my tendency to randomly scroll every free minute. Killing the API was the shock I needed to quit but I sometimes reflexively scroll to where the old app shortcut was.
Also, all the "child-protection" bans just dance around the fact that nothing magically happens at 18 that makes a person immune to the problems these platforms create.
Advertising isn't just all the companies that want to sell you things. It includes lobbying groups, politicians, foreign governments and surveillance agencies. The things that they do which harm kids mental health are arguably more harmful to adults because they can be driven to actions that affect their spending, voting and the people they may have authority over.
Algorithms are designed to push people to extremes where they are likely to make rash decisions. And you wont know what's on another person's feed because it's all so hyper curated. It results in a weird social situation where everyone gets their own reality bubble and if the real world makes them uncomfortable, just jump back in the feed where everything is exactly the way it should be.
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Comment on Obsidian Entertainment reportedly lays off a quarter of staff, cancels multiple projects, and begins work on new Fallout game in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkFor me, its a simple matter of too little, too late and after too many missed opportunities. I a strange situation where Bethesda is so far removed from any truely influential games that people...For me, its a simple matter of too little, too late and after too many missed opportunities. I a strange situation where Bethesda is so far removed from any truely influential games that people enjoy talking about old games more than playing the new ones. And the new ones (mostly Starfield and Outer Worlds) are bad wrappers around Fallout projects that were never allowed to materialize.
The odd social climates of both those universes feel far more suited to spaces in a Fallout setting than any sort space Sci-fi narrative. Even in a post-earth frontier, the urban centers of Starfield should still be bogged down with a lot more bureaucratic and political structures that stretch across systems given how commonplace FTL transit seems to be. At the same time, there should have been significant technological progress and cultural divergences given the population sizes and the industrial capacity for spacecraft, agriculture and consumer goods. Instead, it seems like technology and social identity froze around the instant earth was destroyed (the tech on post-apocalypse earth is identical to the tech in the rest of the galaxy) and things tend to exist in isolated bubbles where developments in one area rarely, if ever, affects other places. Dynamics that only really make sense in the wasteland setting of Fallout where even traveling to the next town is a life-or-death journey for regular people and resources are so limited that any community is inevitably doomed to stagnation and eventual decline. (Granted, New Vegas had some real stakes and grander worldbuilding throughout the game. Less so with the other Bethesda-Fallout games)
Simmilar thing with Outer Worlds. The game felt like a massive case of "Tell, don't show", where everything is about a corporate feudal system where everyone is under the boot of one corporation or another. But in practice, it was all just a bunch of small western/wasteland style towns, a rebel trading post and one lifeless city where everything is either in stagnation/decline. The corporations were so reduced that they were largely inconsequential to anything happening. Sort of like a lot of factions in Fallout that can barely manage their territory effectively, even at the best of times. I think the narrative here was really meant to be a New Vegas 2 situation where there were attempts to build some sort of progressive corporate culture after the NV election and it all collapsed since the skills/talents were not around. And the wasteland-corporate colonies that had no idea how to administer themselves, found some vault of skilled people in Texas or California that everyone starts fighting over.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
SloMoMonday Link ParentFor me, Celeste has some very clean controls and visuals that allows you to consistently drill certain screens and movements. I only really appreciated that when moving from Switch to PC and...For me, Celeste has some very clean controls and visuals that allows you to consistently drill certain screens and movements. I only really appreciated that when moving from Switch to PC and didn't have to deal with the considerable stick drift (if anyone finished Farewell playing on joycons... How?). Maybe I'd say the same with 100+ hours on SMB. But after 6 hours, the controls were just too floaty with the high variability in jump height and the scale of everything felt a bit too small to get consistent results.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
SloMoMonday Link ParentIt felt like the difficulty was pretty flat for most of the game and it started to become a slog to get through. Then there's a major spike right at the end when they just start throwing enemies...It felt like the difficulty was pretty flat for most of the game and it started to become a slog to get through. Then there's a major spike right at the end when they just start throwing enemies and red zones at you with large spans of no floor/grapple points. It's not full Kaizo insanity and using the time-slowing system to aim your hook helps a ton. There's also a late-game movement tech which that can have very inconsistent interactions with platforms and rails so keep that in mind.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkI've had a lot of time to jump around games while traveling with the Steam Deck. Was excited to finally dig into Factorio Space Age and... nope. Can not play this on the deck. I did get up to Blue...I've had a lot of time to jump around games while traveling with the Steam Deck.
Was excited to finally dig into Factorio Space Age and... nope. Can not play this on the deck. I did get up to Blue Science hooking it up to a monitor and keyboard but the way I play is not conducive to controllers and small screens (and to play in planes since I tend to talk to myself when planning). Will get into it properly now that I'm home.
Another game is Sanabi. This is a 2D gimmick platformer by a Korean studio and the narrative plays hard into a sort of sci-fi K-Thriller/Action vibe and takes a lot of inspiration from Metal Gear. While the overall quality is above average, there are occasionally some amazing levels, art and character moments. However, like Metal Gear, there are times when narratives and cut-scenes can become a bit... much. To the point where I sometimes could get control after a scene, walk to the next room and immediately get another scene. The main gimmick is a grappling hook that is pretty intuitive to use but the main game is held back by forgettable combat and levels that can overstay their welcome. There is also a free DLC mission that puts you in the shoes of one of the more standout Bosses and makes for a fitting send-off.
Also played Super Meat Boy for the first time. Since I'm 15 years late to this particular party, all I can say is that it's a well made precession platformer that has plenty of little secrets and is a fun throwback to Newgrounds art style. But it's not nearly as refined as Celeste or interesting like Will You Snail.
Luna Abyss. This is a fun one and I put it down since it technically "runs" on the deck the same way a car can technically run on Nutella. It's British Hollow Knight. And if endearing bugs says something about the Australian psyche, then it looks like Brits have thing for charismatic gender-fluid people because so many of the characters here are just a joy interact with. The game is a first person platformer/arena-shooter in a post-post-collapse lunar colony where you are sent to serve out a 25 year prison sentence. And the game just throws you right in with an FPS that does some genuinely interesting things. Like they are not afraid to get crazy with the levels, color and contrast. Spaces are vast, dark and dead. It scratches the itch I got from Metal Garden for dauntingly large and moody level design. (Also please play Metal Garden. It's like $2 and 2hrs long and you can feel like this dev is onto something special). They also just give you an aimbot. None of the bullet hell parts left me thinking that it was strictly needed, but it has me excited for how hectic combat could get if they don't want you even aiming. The part I'm not to keen about is the main story. Like Silksong, there's a lot of religious (I think its Catholic) undertones, savior/Christlike figures and false prophets. I think it could have come together better if there was the option of Downtime and experiencing the wider world, outside of the oppressive underground. It feels like that must be here but I've done 2 levels and the game forces you to go to sleep and jump into the next assignment. Looking forward to finish this on a big screen.
Bounced between a few tower defense game but none really stuck. Idun feels like a Warcraft 3 TD mod with hero characters, but there's some weird F2P mobile game vibes in the staggering amount of resources/currencies, "filler" missions, and the way some things have pointless limitations.
Defense Grid - The Awakening, it's been well over a decade since last playing it, I have 20hrs in it and cant remember a thing about it. The game really shows it's age and feels way too rigid and streamlined.
Gem Craft - I have no idea what the hell is going on.
Tower Domination, Repel the Rifts, Mineral Defense - Three roguelikes where the only strategy at high difficulty is to just roll good paths that merge into overtune kill-funnels. Tower Domination probably tries the hardest to balance it out, but overall, there's just way too much variation and even the best runs can be killed with the wrong enemy spawning on the wrong path. -
Comment on No, artificial intelligence is not conscious in ~tech
SloMoMonday LinkAt first I was a little disappointed with this piece, especially since I love his stories Absence of God, Liking What you See and Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom. But to me, the conclusion...At first I was a little disappointed with this piece, especially since I love his stories Absence of God, Liking What you See and Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom. But to me, the conclusion here points to this being something of a of a reluctant exercise for him.
It’s fortunate that LLMs are not conscious, or else the actions of the big AI firms would be even more scandalous than they already are. So why are Anthropic’s employees suggesting that Claude might be conscious? Perhaps it’s just another form of hype; perhaps they have fallen prey to the same spell that they have been casting on their customers. But when they publish a document about Claude’s moral education and have their in-house philosopher do a press tour, we should understand them as asking the rest of us to indulge them in their fantasies. We don’t have to play along. In writing this essay, I have spent more time indulging them than they deserve, in the hopes that it will keep you from spending your time indulging them. If you want to think about LLMs, there are scores of other questions more worthy of your contemplation; you can safely ignore the question of their being conscious.
I can sort of empathize with this sentiment. Ever since the discussion of LLMs/AI really started to get steam through 2024, the topic of machine sentience and consciousness seemed almost a moot point given the many glaring business/costs/RoI/safety issues I needed to resolve. I suspect someone like Chiang would have had his own areas of concern, particularly in psychology and philosophy of humans relationships with tech/corporate in general. I might be projecting, but it feels like the entire second half of the piece is an exercise in self restraint by constantly skirting around the things he wants to talk about. (Parenthood, accountability at scale, infatuation with slavery, IP theft...)
But the idea of machine consciousness has been so thoroughly staged in the public discourse that it was for a long time, one of the only discussions most people could hope to have. "What happens if it breaks containment." "AI is showing signs of introspection." "We need to be prepared for super-intelligence that definitely going to arrive any day now." "We have a model in the lab that makes us afraid for the future." Even now that the industry has finally reached the cart that was miles in front of the horse and costs vs. RoI is unexpectedly the most important thing in the world, I still see the topic of machine sentience come up in non-technical circles and it is just as big a point of an anxiety as it ever was.
I also suspect there's a level of frustration when sci-fi writers are expected to comment on this industry when it's the original trope of the genre: Frankenstein defiled the dead to create life simply because he could. I think Chiang was explored this idea in a story call Life of Software Entities (haven't read it in a while but it's basically Her with some weirdness).
On topic of consciousness itself, that just seems like a philosophical black-hole that doesn't even have a fun thought exercise to make it approachable (trolly problem, ship of Theseus, teleporter proplem). And a person can't exactly share or remove themselves from their own conscious experience to gain insight through perspective. I recently learned that "internal monologues" are literal things for some people and it has completely changed how I approach other people and try to communicate because my own head doesn't seem to work like that.
So how do I describe making a conscious decision when words are not exactly part of that process? Is either conscious experience "correct" or "anomalous"? How does this overlap with brain chemistry, upbringing and life experiences? Is any of this even practically quantifiable and can it be effectively categorized? -
Comment on Nvidia announces liquid cooling system that promises to reduce electricity consumption and cut water use by up to 100% in ~tech
SloMoMonday LinkWhile such developments are objectively good, it does sound like a desperate attempt to save face. At least at this point. Data center roll out is being stonewalled by communities across the board...While such developments are objectively good, it does sound like a desperate attempt to save face. At least at this point.
Data center roll out is being stonewalled by communities across the board and the power draw/noise pollution/environmental impacts are real. Combine that with the climate crisis being particularly impactful recently, SpaceX stumbling, global fuel reserves being strained and the very fresh tech price hikes; it's not looking good for the AI industry.
Its one thing to stand up in a town hall with a press release with some loose technical specs saying "we solved all your issues". Doesn't mean that we shouldn't still do an impact analysis and an environmental review, social equity plans and community consultation. It also means that if this tech exists, it should be retrofitted in existing centers and should demonstrate tangible results. That would support its case when proposing additional roll out. But that's all too slow for how hot NVIDIA has been burning for years.
Limiting it to new chips means that there is still a lot of stock in the world that is an environmental hazard and there is no incentive to better the infrastructure that is already causing real harm. It just feels like a desperate ploy to sell more chips. Even if all the existing stock still isn't being fully utilized. (Which is a wild idea on its own. It's not like you can just strip down $100k in unused boards for $100k of parts to make new ones)
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Comment on What do you think about Destiny 2’s imminent death and games as a service? in ~games
SloMoMonday Link ParentIf you'd like a bit of a lighter story about the game. This was around Deep Stone and I was running it with my sibling and some friends. Warm up with the strikes and the whole way through, my bro...If you'd like a bit of a lighter story about the game. This was around Deep Stone and I was running it with my sibling and some friends. Warm up with the strikes and the whole way through, my bro is going on about how hes so hungry. We tell him to get some chow but he says he's good... then proceeds to wine about it all the way through the twin Oger fight.
So I get out my phone and order him delivery. In the form of random sides and extras from as many places that would allow it (add that it's a prank in the notes and people are surprisingly game). We had to wipe every few minutes because he had to go get 2 chicken wings and a handful of serviettes and a cup of ice and a can of bagle sprinkles and waffle toppings without the waffle and a platter of BBQ rib sauce over grilled peppers.
After the half dozen wasabi tubs, my brother threatens to dip and one guy does a flawless Zavala impression: "Guardian, are you abandoning the mission because you find your rations... unsatisfactory. And am I to understand that you find humble gifts from your brother in arms to be beneath you. Is that truly the conduct you wish citizens should expect from a Titan of the traveller."
We didn't even make it to the sorrow fight that night. Was it worth the money? No. But I was playing Destiny so that should explain where my head was at.
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Comment on What do you think about Destiny 2’s imminent death and games as a service? in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkGoing to be a bit more emotional since played Destiny on and off since Peter Dinklage listlessly woke us up in the Cosmodrome. We had a regular raid group that did Vault of Glass, Crota's End,...- Exemplary
Going to be a bit more emotional since played Destiny on and off since Peter Dinklage listlessly woke us up in the Cosmodrome. We had a regular raid group that did Vault of Glass, Crota's End, Kingsfall and Machines Wrath all blind. Did Trails and Nightfalls religiously. Fought for god-roll gear. Sherpa for newer players. Got both my bothers playstations, copies of the game and PS+ when I left home so we could still play. And finished Rise of Iron thinking it would only get better.
Then, in spite of Destiny 2 being on the PC, it instantly felt like so much more of a chore. Forsaken and Last Wish were the last high points and Shadowkeep looked like it could carry that momentum. But Beyond Light and Witch Queen is where things started going pretty bad. I really should have drawn the line at Sunsetting content I paid for, or the over emphasis on Eververse, or the god aweful transmog, or the way PvP was left to rot. But my wallet kept being dragged back in.
There were plenty of bright spots here and there. But on the whole, it was simply a case where I could count on being let down with increasing frequency. And it was finally Lightfall that broke the camels back. Just deleted the game, sunk cost be damned. I even stopped watching Byf videos to keep up. It just wasn't worth it. Don't even know how Final Shape ended.
So yeah. After that, I just have zero patience for live service and MMOs. Even general PvP and co-op "friend slop". Destiny showed good enough numbers to supercharge the enshitification of premium online gaming. The idea, combined with Fortnight, CoD and Apex effectively killed countless other studios and promising projects, including Arcane Austin, Overwatch, Halo and a big chunk of Sony's unreleased First Party ambitions.
Just like Destiny, anything live service feels like waiting for a scrap of positivity in a deluge of bad business or poorly aging gameplay.
I would not be nearly as negative if I could boot up the game right now and have instant access to hundreds of hours of increble gameplay from over a decade of creative and community efforts. 95% of this work can exist as a single player, linear experience. I can't see any reason why this can't exist as peer-to-peer or through dedicated server setups that allow for people to curate their own experience. We've already had sensible looter style RPGs as far back as Diablo 1 and with the game going offline, there's no need to maintain the balance.
Last Christmas, I played halo splitscreen with my cousin and our kids. Got the AlphaRing mod, hooked up the pc to the big TV and spent nights going through Reach, ODST and multiplayer on 3. The same way I used to play with that cousin and our parents over a decade ago. It was just magical to have the whole family there and to see my kid go a little feral when we got that grav hammer.
I'm not going to show my kid how to Solo the Abyss or rag on my brother because he's never been able to outrun the flaming Servitor (it doesn't stop being hilarious to see him bonk the same cliff every bloody time). The infinite loot cave is gone. The Mythoclass, Bad Juju and Souros Regime that I dragged into every, even when it was off meta. No one will have a chance to reimagine the city factions or the criminally under used Last City (and even the Traveller itself). It's all just gone. And needlessly so.
After people paid for it. Thats probably the part I'm most salty about.
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Comment on Who’s buying SpaceX and Anthropic? in ~finance
SloMoMonday LinkI've actually just set a meeting with a financial advisor to make sure we have managed exposure to SpaceX and the AI public offerings. In general, the instant rules are being broken to get people...I've actually just set a meeting with a financial advisor to make sure we have managed exposure to SpaceX and the AI public offerings.
In general, the instant rules are being broken to get people "in on the action", it's the biggest red flag to me and it seems like the exact case here.
In terms of spaceX, there a lot of weirdness going on:
Most notably, the company is putting up a laughably small percentage of shares. Musk will still maintain full control of his company and have no incentive to act in investors best interest. If thr company goes public at the requested price, he then folds it into Tesla and is practically entitled to his insane "performance bonus" based on a damn technicality. And if SpaceX is rammed into every index fund and passive portfolio, governments will be forced to bail it out to protect pension funds. And all that money just goes to Musks slush fund.Similarly, with AI, I do not see any sustainable path to recoup the costing. 2 Trillion dollars is the cost-to-date on the AI roll out. And that's loose change compared to the $15 trillion valuation across the 6 already existing AI companies.
Can EVERYONE make a significant RoI to justify these types of costs and valuations. This is with an escalating energy crisis. And an inevitable everything-shortage. And an increasingly likely Chinese invasion of Tiwan. And the fact that Data Centers are not coming online anywhere fast enough for nvidia to install Blackwell's and recoup costs to buy the latest high end tech. And to still perform in the face of cheaper Chinese models.
My biggest critique of Silksong is how restrictive the tool/shard economy is. Mostly because tools offer the most unique gameplay opportunities and build diversity and I would have loved to do a needless run. But at the times when the you would be most tempted to experiment and find a new playstyles (hard bosses, difficult areas) you are punished by being starved for shards and being forced to farm, just to access these features again.
The silk/spells work because the resource is damage and the opportunity cost is healing. You always do damage, even if you are struggling so its never out of reach. For tools, the resource is kills and even that is situational. The opportunity cost is wasted time to stockpile shards and that can be too steep a price for players wanting forward momentum. Thankfully Silksong is sprawling enough that stepping away from an encounter has a high chance of putting you on a new path or exposing secrets, but in doing so; you'd probably fall back on old habits over expanding your skill set because you are already on the back foot. Its probably why a lot of people only start to tinker with builds on NG+.
Personally, I would have put tools in a Stock and Recharge type system. Shards could be the upgrade resource to improve the stock size, recharge rate and capability. Could even be made where those upgrades are assigned to crest slots over the tool itself so no one tool becomes overpowered. So a slot can only improve one of those variables and the Architect better embodies the idea of super fine-tuned builds.
Overall, I do think Silksong is one of those unique games where even my criticism is a testimony to how much the devs got right. I want to spend more time with the niche systems they made and explore different identities for the main character. Hornet is a fun a expressive character with the veriety of animations alone. I can imagine a version of the story where she survives with only the weapons she picked up along the way and the needle is a final unlock.