SloMoMonday's recent activity
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Comment on Life Below | Launch trailer in ~games
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Comment on US military launches strikes on southern Iran amid talks in Qatar in ~society
SloMoMonday Link ParentI think a lot of the global fuel price-cuts is due to releasing the strategic oil reserves to stabilize prices. All the talk of a deal was to calm markets to bring down the speculative price....I think a lot of the global fuel price-cuts is due to releasing the strategic oil reserves to stabilize prices. All the talk of a deal was to calm markets to bring down the speculative price. Materially, production is most likely at a cold stop. Even if things went back to pre-war arrangement right now it doesn't look that will even be enough to push through the slow restarting of production and then supply lines.
And unless the US government steps in and effectively nationalizes the oil companies and considers local people, they will keep exporting the strategic reserve for $100+/barrel. (odd choice given that you're at war). They know KNOC, EBN and the CNPC have an incentive to buy supply wherever they can get it. There is a world where the strategic reserve is used for it's purpose and carry people through a supply shock. But where's the money in that?
The faintest glimmer of a silver lining is that I can see this being a massive blow to gas cars and force air/cruise travel to evolve, at least outside the States. Hybrids or full EVs have become the norm in under a year where I am and we're well behind Brazil, Mexico, India and SE Asia. Even some of the recovering parts of the middle east are plastering their buildings with panels to reduce grid dependency. Pretty sure Europe, Australia and Canada will start catching up as a necessity too. Beyond that in the 15+ years it takes to start bringing more nuclear plants online, most countries could probably get the bulk of domestic users onto supplemented renewable VPP grids. It's either that or keep the risk of insane people taking the entire world hostage for a quick buck.
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Comment on A random sci-fi question for you in ~talk
SloMoMonday LinkSoooooo... what do I need to do to get to Terra Nov... I mean New Mongolia. (I really liked the idea of Terra Nova. Unfortunately the show did not get the space to find its groove and audience.)...Soooooo... what do I need to do to get to Terra Nov... I mean New Mongolia. (I really liked the idea of Terra Nova. Unfortunately the show did not get the space to find its groove and audience.)
But seriously, even if I do suffer some horrible frontier-related death; the thought of a clean slate planet is intoxicating. I'd happily take being mauled by some mega-fauna predator over slowly being killed in a windowless office by my neighbors second hand Vape smoke.With a colony like Mars, I can easily see it becoming a distilled corporate hellscape. Food, water, data and even air being at a premium and provided through monopoly services. Not hard for those seven years to be dragged out with every excess charge and no real recourse, even with a united workforce. (If this sounds like your thing, can I recommend the game Hardspace Shipbreaker. The plastic free food option is not bad).
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Comment on From neat lawns to wild havens: how No Mow May is transforming England’s gardens in ~enviro
SloMoMonday Link ParentI'll see if I can find my notes, but from what I recall from way back when: a lot of nutrients and minerals in the soil tend to sink because they're heavy. And if the vegetation is sparse, its not...I'll see if I can find my notes, but from what I recall from way back when: a lot of nutrients and minerals in the soil tend to sink because they're heavy. And if the vegetation is sparse, its not exactly going to be used anywhere else. What weeds tend to do is capture those nutrients in their roots and since they don't exactly need much to grow, they sit on the bulk of it.
Weeding pulls the roots and all their captured nutrients out of the soil and then tilling jumbles up any roots, mycelium and insect biome made that space home and was effectively circulating all that energy. Throw on all your fertilizer and weed killer and all those nutrients are sinking about 15cm-20cm with nothing to catch it. It's where you start transitioning into B-Horizon density and it's not doing anyone any good there. So naturally a lot of industrial farmers resort to just saturating spaces with fertilizer, which is a way of getting nutrients to your crops but its hell on the soil ecosystem.
Now this is going to be a tangent, but remember "its not much but it's honest work" meme. That's the late David Brandt, and that gentlemen is a pioneer soil health in the US. Here's a lot of the discoveries and strategies he developed and I'm sure there's plenty of literature from him is you know where to look. There's also Charles Dowding with his own good resources but I'm not the biggest fan of his style. I have a thing for chaos gardens.
If you want a practical overview for a home garden/veg patch, this is my method
You start with 3 rules: 1. Don't ever weed or pesticide you garden. 2. Don't till the soil. 3. Please don't ever weed or pesticide you garden. If you want perfectly controlled environments and clinical precision, hydroponics or micro-greens might be your speed (and they're fun projects anyway so give them a try as well if you can). To "tame" your plot for planting, start by collecting as much compostables/mulch as possible and ensure you have a good stockpile until a few weeks before planting season. Also collect clean brown cardboard. Minimal black ink is fine but avoid the color/plastic stuff or ones that come from food places (grease and meat smell).Mark out your plot and you can cordon it off with some wood beams if you like. Then tile the cardboard over that space. Unless there is a considerable shrub there, you want to preserve as much plant matter as possible. Soak the cardboard with water, put a bit of manure to level it out and then a thick layer of compost and top it off with mulch (some people do plastic but I find that a magnet for slugs and snails. Periodically top up the compost and throw your bokashi broth and other soil supplements if you like. And when its time to plant, just shift the soil for seedlings or poke it for seeds. Then you just need to be very generous with the mulch. If you want a bit of order or irrigation flow, gently push the soil to form two mound beside your planting line.
If weeds are encroaching on your crop, don't pull them. Just smother it out with a small piece of wet cardboard. But the much should help prevent that and retain moisture to bring down the watering costs.
As for pests: there are super targeted and minimum impact ways to deal with most of them. But a general use killer like roundup is indiscriminate and goes for pollinators and generally valuable fauna. There's also companion plants that tend to be very fragrant and natural pesticides. Mint, lavender, marigolds, basil. Plenty to choose and it has the added benefit of brightening up the color and smell of your space. (Just try to keep mint and lavender in a pot, that stuff spreads like crazy). Can also encourage natural predators, birds, bats, spiders, ladybugs. Even if they take their share of produce, they can make a big difference with even household pests.
I don't know if its past planting season up north, but if you missed it, you can even start now and just litter your space with a mixed bag of green fertalizer seeds. Then you can cover over that growth next season for a bit of a head start.
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Comment on How I feel about LLM (AI) writing in ~tech
SloMoMonday LinkLLMs supercharge so many issues with the internet at large so it's hard to have opinions on one specific part of it without being contradictory on the whole. So I'm going to be pedantically...LLMs supercharge so many issues with the internet at large so it's hard to have opinions on one specific part of it without being contradictory on the whole. So I'm going to be pedantically specific:
I think LLM writing is fine (or even fun) for entertainment and creative purposes, provided the models are fairly trained on works by consenting and compensated artists. Those models should be run on sustainable hardware, and in a well considered sandbox that protects the users privacy and with the proper guardrails and deterministic measures taken to prevent abuse and model drift.And I need to be so granular with that view because things outside that parameters goes into territory I don't agree with and consider harmful.
I'm only going to rant on first part of that condition: "Entertainment and creative" reasons. It drives me insane that people use these tools for information, correspondance and decision making. Common sense would say that you should always verify whatever you find, especially regarding important matters. But it doesn't help that 9 out of 10 times, when any web page is published after 2024, its just more LLM generated content. Same thing with emails. I have a tag specifically for people that I know communicate via LLM. Because if I receive anything that contains technical or precise details; I will call to double check. If I send them something with important details; I will call to make sure they got the info in case their AI summary of their entire mailbox missed something. And the fact that these tools are becoming increasingly accurate is more of a problem because that means when the model does messes up, it's harder or less likely to be caught.
And even if they are more accurate than a human, the issue is a matter of accountability. My professional liability cover does not include AI related errors. I specifically asked for it over the last two years and they don't even entertain the idea. So I fave a report and an LLM filler line leads to a bad decision, that's on me. Hell, if I look up a formula online and get something slightly off from an LLM generated page, I'm still on the hook for that.
And that carries over into LLM written content thats flooding every corner of the internet. Especially when it's an LLM centipede as far as the eye can see. I looked up the recipe for a caramel sauce and AI auto-result spit out a method I knew was wrong. No butter, the sugar boils, too little cream no instruction to take it off the heat. It's going to burn or become a grainy fudge block. There was a reference to an LLM written recipe on a site created by a "home baker" in 2024. The site has several hundred recipes, each with a touching emotional story and photo that made the dishes look magical. It's obvious whats happening and there is no incentive to stop it. Especially when the metrics for online success is attention, scale and advertising space. Not authenticity and factuality. Yes it's been like that for a while, but it's near unmanageable.
It seems innocuous, but what if one of the millions of instantly generated, untested methods, suggest someone deep fry something frozen in hot oil. Or it misses a warning when some step could be dangerously reactive. Or a person has an important event and it's ruined because of bad guidance. It's not out of the question with how much content is generated in the food space alone. Multiply this issue across every field and every question. And then factor in that there is incentive to use these platforms in advertising. Include the fact that many LLM providers are very cozy with the current US president and their CEO's have, unique beliefs.
We make decisions based on perception of the world. LLM's have flattened that image into a general average and now its reinforcing itself ad nauseam. The tech is fine, I guess. My friend paid me to train his LLM game on some of my old TTRPG notes and the prototype I tested was fun for a few hours. I have a local model that has a good handle on the technical manuals and reference books I use and can point me towards things I might need. A guy I know has a model that is starting to preemptively flag issues on his print-farm. It's got utility, but it just seems like its the only tool being used for every possible thing, just to justify its existence.
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Comment on US Government UFO document release in ~society
SloMoMonday Link ParentTo be fair, it does feel like the US military is being run by a mid 30's basement dweller that uses his mom social security money to my a bunch of pay-to-win crap and still gets wrecked by a lobby...To be fair, it does feel like the US military is being run by a mid 30's basement dweller that uses his mom social security money to my a bunch of pay-to-win crap and still gets wrecked by a lobby of 13 year olds.
But in all seriousness, it does look like the current us military has a thing for the aesthetics of the military, without any of the tedium or rationale that would make the biggest war machine in history even somewhat effective. Like that AI written speech after that pilot rescue thing. It's like someone is fishing for quotes or narratives that will fit into a game depicting this war. Hell, even the rhetoric they use reeks of insecurity. Insistent in only talking about "warfighters", constant use of religious imagery, constantly reiterating just how completely Iran's capability has been destroyed.
It bleeds over into this web design with the faux military, cyberpunk, conspiracy styling. Like this project had more forethought than the whole "who would have thought they would choke out global oil supply" situation. Its so tragically juvenile.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
SloMoMonday (edited )Link ParentIts probably one of the best games to show off with if you get the opportunity. You can watch a rapid jump from "Its just one button. How hard can it be?" to "Its just the third level. How is it...Its probably one of the best games to show off with if you get the opportunity. You can watch a rapid jump from "Its just one button. How hard can it be?" to "Its just the third level. How is it so hard?". And then you casually FC 1-X while holding a conversation, because that 7-count is burned on your brain.
Also, why am I 60 hours in and only leaning that there are difficulty levels. I probably pushed it up to hard when I first got the game, and forgot. But I could have saved so much grief on 5-X and 1-XN? -
Comment on 'Blue dot fever' claims Post Malone, Pussycat Dolls concerts. What's really behind it? in ~music
SloMoMonday Link ParentAlso throw in the fact the modern events are pretty miserable. In the last few years, I only managed one music act but I work in conventions, sports and stage shows when I travel. Beyond the...Also throw in the fact the modern events are pretty miserable. In the last few years, I only managed one music act but I work in conventions, sports and stage shows when I travel. Beyond the endless seas of phones and rowdy crowds, really feels like there no more effort from the organizers side. Concession stands are far less and of worse quality. Similar thing with merch which are mostly crappy blanks with even worse prints. Stewards and security beyond the main seating is lacking and often have no clue how to handle a crowd. Constant software bugs, poor signage and miscommunication everywhere from parking to tick check and dispersing afterwards. Ton of places with seats that are essentially a waste of money for the experience you get. Don't know if its just me or a new trend, but the last comedy show, a hospitality convention and a circus act all had horrible AV.
The only show I have planned for this year is the new run of Rocky Horror Show and not keen to waste time or money anywhere else.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
SloMoMonday Link ParentI've not been having the best time getting more intensive F/TPS to play smoothly on the Deck. Roboquest, Deadlink, Deadzone Rogue, Selaco, Void Breaker, Boltgun... I literally can't get a grip on...I've not been having the best time getting more intensive F/TPS to play smoothly on the Deck. Roboquest, Deadlink, Deadzone Rogue, Selaco, Void Breaker, Boltgun...
I literally can't get a grip on it and even games that are fine on regular controllers feel clunky.But at the same time, slower and more tactical games are a blast. The original Dead Space and Resident Evil 2R were a blast to play while travelling.
Also, Voidigo is a blast on local co-op. Highly recommended.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
SloMoMonday Link ParentSo far I've found 2 baseball songs. A heart to heart in the cages. And a 50 course baseball dinner.So far I've found 2 baseball songs. A heart to heart in the cages. And a 50 course baseball dinner.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
SloMoMonday (edited )LinkI've been on a Rhythm Game kick for most of this year since its easiest thing for me with work has been kicking my ass. Finished up the Rhythm Doctor 1.0 release. It's a one button game where it's...I've been on a Rhythm Game kick for most of this year since its easiest thing for me with work has been kicking my ass.
Finished up the Rhythm Doctor 1.0 release. It's a one button game where it's interesting takes on every 2nd or 7th beat. Sometimes it's by managing multiple rhythms, holding a note, incorporate delays or dealing with a fictional human/pc virus that messes with the game window. Game has a light lockdown-inspired story where you're a remote nurse that needs to stay in synch with heartbeats.
I was a bit sour on where Early Access left off with the Act 5 boss level being an unforgiving and annoying sports song that would fit right into a 2000s Sonic game. Thankfully Acts 6 and 7 picked got back in form pretty quickly with a stage musical love song, a horror/anxiety level and their own Remix 10 right at the end.
Theres also a ton of custom tracks (of varying quality) and a handful of free collab tracks with other games. Some with custom mechanics.
Unfortunately, I wouldn't call this the most approachable game. Even with just one button, it can get pretty unforgiving. Especially if there's a system you struggle with. Progres/performance gates can lock you in place for a long while. And those tough songs tend to be on the longer end or stack multiple rules sets so it just ups the frustration factor for a more casual player.
But I'd say it's highly recommended for enthusiasts. The boss levels do some amazing things with conventional rhythm systems and it's constantly evolving in unexpected ways.
Then there's Bits and Bops. My kid has stumbled on Rhythm Heaven videos and this is the closest thing I could find for her outside of getting the game running on Emudeck. While the average quality in B&B is pretty high, it's still only 16 minigames. Theres also 3 games that seem impossible for me to get a Perfect on for some reason and I have no intention of hearing President Bird sqwak again in my life.
Overall it's a fun experience, especially with kids. Lots of vibrant animations with some silliness sprinkled in. I really hope they're quick to bulk up that library of songs because just over a dozen is hardly enough to keep players coming back and the workshop levels are not very good.
Put a bit of time in Rift of the Necrodancer again. On release the 3 track music/combat/style was fun, but there was a lack of interesting patterns, especially in the lower difficulties. But I think the chart makers on the workshop really ran with the tools because there are some real gems there. It seems like some of that styling has been brought into the collaboration packs.
Of those packs: Friday Night Funking, Undertale, Hatsune Miku and Valhalla have some of my favorite tracks. The other packs like Pizza Tower, Celeste and some v-tuber music are not my taste in this context. I'd also like to see more veriety in the official music. It's all been very "video gamey" music so far and a bit more of a mix could do well in this system. (Uptown Funk is in the workshop and that is a fun chart. Also the Silksong charts are shockingly good).
I'm currently part way through Unbeatable.
I like the main system. I really like the baseball minigame. I like when the story does artsy stuff and it can sometimes feel like a proper punk film along the lines of DOA, Bigger Splash/Rude Boy or Breaking Glass.Its also a game i dread starting it because it's severely lacking in the QoL department. Unreliable save points, long and unskippable dialogue segments, some visual indicators that just lie, tedious navigation and inconsistent... everything. Like last night, the game magically moved me to save slot 2 and I needed to do the whole setup process before I could go back to menu. And when I got to my save file, it randomly threw me 2 hours and an annoying minigame back.
Spent the time since then in arcade mode and will dip into the story when have the bandwidth to put up with the all the crap you need to wade through to actually experience it.
As for the actual gameplay: It's a two track horizontal scroll that folds in from both the left and right. It can get really tricky if you're unfamiliar with a chart and there's a ton of little tricks they can introduce like invisible notes or beats that jump across tracks. I also love the mix of music and some of the soundtrack is on my current rotation.
Lastly, I'm excited for the Dead as Disco early access in a few hours. Got way more time in the demo than I reasonably should and it's an incredible power-fantasy rhythm brawler.
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Comment on I love bioparks in ~travel
SloMoMonday LinkAll of Table Mountain in Cape Town is effectively a giant Bio Park. If you just want to have a nice day trip, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden is tucked into the North-Western part of the mountain...All of Table Mountain in Cape Town is effectively a giant Bio Park. If you just want to have a nice day trip, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden is tucked into the North-Western part of the mountain facing away from the sea so it's pretty sheltered and not too bad when the wind picks up. There's a ton of endangered plants, a bonsai garden, cultural and medicinal garden, a canopy trail. And it's built in a way where the landscape gradually morphs into fully indigenous fynbos as you get closer to the mountain.
If you go further south, there's Table Mountain National Park which is more hardcore multi-day hikes and camping. But there is the Cape Point area where you can climb a mountain towards a lighthouse and wander towards the narrowest cliff-point in high winds. Great spot for bird watching, tracking down rare plants and potentially falling to your death.
But seriously, Cape Town is just a magical space for bio-tourisim. You can do all the easy tourist sites, a good week of hiking or cycle tours. You could also find a lot of landscapes from the live action One-Piece if that's you thing.
( I strongly recommend doing the hikes or biking with a local group. Partly for security, but mostly because some of these spots can get deceptively treacherous with a constant risk of wildfires, wind and mist/fog.) -
Comment on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate price drops to $22.99 USD/month in ~games
SloMoMonday LinkI'm genuinely surprised it wasn't renamed to CopilotBox 360 Pass for Gaming. But in all seriousness, MS seems committed to bleed thier enthusiast customer base. Call of Duty has lost all cultural...I'm genuinely surprised it wasn't renamed to CopilotBox 360 Pass for Gaming.
But in all seriousness, MS seems committed to bleed thier enthusiast customer base. Call of Duty has lost all cultural relevance. Halo Infinite launched with UX limitations that prevented essential features. Bethesda... is doing Bethesda things. Studios were mismanaged and then shut down. Paying the monthly subscription is a tacit approval of whatever MS is doing and just encourages them to not change for the better.
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Comment on The powerhouse of American citrus is suffering a brutal, unrelenting decline in ~food
SloMoMonday LinkSo I remember HLB coming up a lot in South Africa around 2017/8 back when I worked in the Agri space. The attitude back then was to treat infection as an inevitability and prepare accordingly. I...So I remember HLB coming up a lot in South Africa around 2017/8 back when I worked in the Agri space. The attitude back then was to treat infection as an inevitability and prepare accordingly.
I still have a briefing that was floating around back then and it was pretty dire.
The first case of citrus
greening in Florida was detected on a
backyard tree in 2005, and now it is present
throughout citrus producing counties
(USDA, 2016). According to an impact
study by Hodges and Spreen in 2012,
between the seasons of 2006/2007 and
2010/2011, there was a total output impact
of -$4.541 billion. During the 4 years
looked at in the study, the direct impact to
the Agricultural employment sector was
3 940 jobs lost and the total jobs lost
directly and indirectly as a result of HLB
was 8 257. In Brazil, where the first
reported case of HLB was in 2004, a total
of 500 000 trees were officially eliminated
by 2007 (three-year period), and 300 000 to
400 000 trees were eliminated unofficially
(Gottwald et al., 2007). Currently, it is
estimated that 52 million trees have been
removed, equal to a quarter of the countries
citrus hectares.When HLB spreads to South Africa, it will
have a direct impact on our economy, as
well as on the livelihood of farmers and
citrus related industries and their
employees.Given the magnitude of the threat,
collective bargaining and reasoning should
be engaged in between the industry and
supermarkets, along with import country
authorities, to emphasize the eminent threat
of HLB and provide perspective with
regards to the importance and safety of a
carefully and responsibly used systemic
remedy, with due sensitivity towards the
importance of protecting our pollinators.That last part is important because the strategy is to flood everything around potential infection with Imidacloprid which is basically synthetic nicotine. The chemical is a soil drench so shouldn't cause too much (Immidiate) human health issues. But any bugs are getting wiped out.
Thankfully, apart from a brief scare that confused ACG with HLB, there's not been any outbreaks. I think it's largely due to a lot of tighter pest controls after PSHB has been wrecking urban trees for the last few years and that the local environment hopefully being hostile to the Asian citrus psyllid.
But it's scary that all of Florida Citrus is infected. Last I checked, Brazil was sitting at 50% and they were basically moving the entire industry to places that should be safer.
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Comment on An insight into looksmaxxxing/blackpill "ideology" in ~life
SloMoMonday LinkI saw a discussion describing Looksmaxing as the latest "blue-bottle" body image issue. Underneath the jargon, methods and presentation; its all praying on the innate anxiety of not being born in...I saw a discussion describing Looksmaxing as the latest "blue-bottle" body image issue. Underneath the jargon, methods and presentation; its all praying on the innate anxiety of not being born in the right way for the lifestyle they want to live. But this is a MANS issue and not anything like the Pink-bottle ones that also involve addictive and antisocial behavior, eating disorders, invasive/dangerous cosmetic treatments, unattainable (or plain creepy) beauty standards and the like. Both are supercharged by popular media (new and old) and are being weaponized by conman, grifters and the mentally unwell.
Even the name is indicative of being masculine by framing it as something noble and scientific. You're not being vain or insecure. You're "maximizing a key metric that dictates probability of future success". Something objective and scientific. There's a feeling that the public figures are abdicating personal responsibility by saying that they "have to" do it or be left behind. It's something pushed on you by women and the Chads. And then impressionable people suspend agency and follow the leader, simply because its the only path that they have seen to success that they are able to emulate. Beside the odd mail order drug or paywalled content, it seems like entry level Looksmaxing is just inexpensive and sustained self-harm.
It's evident with how a lot of hustle and crypto/stock bros have falling out of favor because interest rates are up and people simply don't have the money or energy to put in any more. Or even how a lot of the red-pill crowd like Tate and Jordan Peterson have all been exposed as the grifters that they are and suffering shrinking relevance.
But this is an impression from the outside looking in. I'm just grateful that the worst things I got sucked into was Toxic Atheism and 2000s Tumblr/FanFic drama and neither caused any permanent damage.
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Comment on Which Linux distro do you use, and why? in ~tech
SloMoMonday LinkBeen using Arch all round since 2021 and recently jumped to CachyOS on my gaming PC. Enjoyed all the customizing and fiddling at first but lately there's no major issues and I don't even have to...Been using Arch all round since 2021 and recently jumped to CachyOS on my gaming PC.
Enjoyed all the customizing and fiddling at first but lately there's no major issues and I don't even have to open the terminal much besides a package install or update.
And not the biggest fan of KDE but its the easiest if other people need to use that pc.
For my workstation is either MATE or xfce. -
Comment on AI populism's warning shots in ~society
SloMoMonday LinkI've been taking a trade-skills night classes with a lot of people straight out of high school (18-20). It seems like more than half of them were high performing students who all elected to put...I don’t know what exactly motivated Altman’s assailants, of course, just as I don’t know what specific thing radicalized Luigi Mangione or Tyler Robinson. But the 20-year-old Molotov-thrower had joined a Pause AI Discord and penned a Substack post on existential risk, writing that AI executives are “sociopaths/psychopaths” and “gambling with your future and the lives of your children… These people are almost nothing like you.” We know less about the second set of attackers, except that they are also young: 23 and 25.
I've been taking a trade-skills night classes with a lot of people straight out of high school (18-20). It seems like more than half of them were high performing students who all elected to put uni on hold to do gig work all day and weld pipes till 11.30pm. And speaking to them, there is a sense that they don't even have faith in high-school exams, so a degree is out of the question. Their experience of education was watching every standard and metric go down the toilet because of LLMs and they could at least make a somewhat informed decision on what direction to go.
Shift that to people in their mid 20's and I can't begin to imagine the absolute dread of making the "smart" choices and graduating into instant redundancy. Many people made deliberate choices to lean into AI, how many positions are actually out there if the technology should at best replace 10% of workers today. And its clear companies would prefer no workers all together. To top it all off, it seems like Sam Altman has a habit of only being right about the bad parts of AI. Massive job losses. Major roll out of disruptive data centers. Resource shortages and outright wars. Bad for regular people. Great for investors though. Can see why they keep giving him money.
Haven't seen much of that abundance come around though. But with this trend, I can see why people are panicking. His vision of the AI apocalypse has already started. Hell the Iran war kicked off with some model painting a girls school as a valid target. No one else is taking responsibility or will be held accountable so it's all on the technology. What's to stop the government from gunning a regular person down and saying that the AI did it. We already have video of ICE murdering two people and there hasn't been a peep about that since.
I've always been vocally anti-AI. Probably started as far back as 2017 when we tried to use early TensorFlow systems for Big Data analytics. And the brunt of my arguments have always been that it doesn't work like a reasonable tool should.
But now its a just another turd in a shitstorm. A data center is drawing more power in an energy crisis because a needless war done on behalf of a rouge nation that has effectively captured the US government in service of overrunning the middle east, that will lead to an even greater migration crisis and be used as fuel for far right movements. The power draw will also put more pressure on the climate crisis that has been ignored for several decades at this point and is already destabilizing agriculture that is going to take a hit because the agri-chem shortage from the above mentioned war. The data center also has water usage and so that's going to drive up two utilities and possibly municipal taxes to treat the waste and service the infrastructure. And if tax/rate-payers are subsidizing this tech, it means businesses are likely forced to increase prices...
It's a very hopeless situation all round and people are going to lash out when there 's no obvious thing to do.
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Comment on Esoteric Ebb | Fully Ramblomatic in ~games
SloMoMonday Link ParentTL DR. It turned into a review. Long story short. Not exactly Disco and far from any of the popular DnD shows or modules. Worth the time if on discount. One friend of mine likend it to a Monty...TL DR. It turned into a review. Long story short. Not exactly Disco and far from any of the popular DnD shows or modules. Worth the time if on discount.
One friend of mine likend it to a Monty Python/Blackadder RPG and another said its like playing Harry from DE, playing a TTRPG. I agree with both.
It pulls a lot of the aesthetics and broad structure of DE. The PoV and map layout/styles. Your stats shaping you thinking/perspective. The investigation story and too patient assistant (its no Lt Kim but a good enough substitute). But I felt it stands on its own and the dev feels inspired while doing his own thing.
Theres an air of sillyness to the whole thing with some easier social commentary. Gender roles, politics, labour/capital, colonialism and race relations, drinking a potion that may have changed your biological sex, revival magic, eating sentient beings, religion, laws... Nothing too inflammatory like in DE but it's nice to see NPCs have opinions on these topics and it's relevant with the state of the wider world. I honestly looked forward to talking to the halfling anthropologist or the orc merchant rep and even the various politicians you cross paths with.
Its definitely not Critical Role, but there are some hints of Dimension 20 with the tone becoming pretty cerebral and introspective at times.
Because it's a very low level game, magic is a situational tool, gear is mostly stat mods/story options and there's "combat" encounters that is more about decision making over dealing damage. And overall I'd say the DnD framework was the weakest part of the game because this adventure hits all of the systems weak spots.
Fundamentally, 5e is a power fantasy engine with 500 ways to kill someone and 2 ways to navigate a conversation.
It feels like a D20 dice allowed for far too much variability and even with boosted stats, there were several times where I just had long streaks of bad to near-hit rolls. Combine that with the other DnD problem where there is very little incentive for specialists over multi-classing and I can see the RPG systems being redundant over multiple games.
I decided to go all in on charisma since this is a more social game, but it felt like I never got any meaningful moments for that skill to shine or a true tests that any other build would fail. And on the flip side, I could reliably gear my way to most other high DC rolls with minimal save scumming.But I can see why 5e would work a lot better as a business decision given how it is the default RPG a lot of people know and its on the back of a game, movie and all the web shows.
Overall, I like it. Reminds me of my style of GMing that is a lot lighter on combat and quests are a web of intersecting interests. It feels a lot lighter to almost being whimsical at times. There is also some amazing failure outcomes and plenty of chances to do cool things with a disaster character that is surprisingly good at their job.
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Comment on I’m traveling internationally for the first time and could use tips! in ~travel
SloMoMonday LinkHaven't done any touring in a while so maybe things have changed, but there were some pretty convincing scams when I used to travel EU. It was actually a lot more convincing than some of the stuff...Haven't done any touring in a while so maybe things have changed, but there were some pretty convincing scams when I used to travel EU. It was actually a lot more convincing than some of the stuff I've seen in the US and East Asia so keep an eye out. Money exchange, tickets for free attractions, fake IPD services... They all used signage that looked pretty official and I hope that was cracked down on.
Besides that. I honestly prefer Europe in summer and 2 or 3 days a place doesn't sound like nearly enough. You could spend a week just wandering around Amsterdam with a small camera and visiting random coffee shops.
Some things I would recommend in Norway:
If you end up in Bergen, take the train going out to Myrdal for a beautiful 2hr route. Wander around for a few hours. Get lost. Find a random shack/cafe/restaurant thing (think it was call Ralliroza). Yes, it looks like a horror movie trap but they have the best crapes and jam so it's worth the risk. Sit by the river for while.Also while it's not a castle, there's the Damsguard Mansion in Bergen which is probably the weirdest historic places I've ever been. Like a hunted house that's a little too effective.
And in Oslo, the Ekeberg Sculpture Garden is an amazing day out.
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Comment on Donald Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" as his threatened attacks on Iranian infrastructure loom ahead of deadline in ~society
SloMoMonday Link ParentI'm trying to decide if its just insider trading to the most extreme degree, someone swapped out the football for an old Speak and Spell or if Tump actually believes that the Iranians have agreed...I'm trying to decide if its just insider trading to the most extreme degree, someone swapped out the football for an old Speak and Spell or if Tump actually believes that the Iranians have agreed because they "have to" in his mind.
Regardless its an objectively a good outcome, but on the level of an arsonist deciding to spare a hospital after burning down the city.
Energy costs are up. Agri-chem is heading for a cliff. And even if Trump is removed today, everyone knows the US is at least 4 years away from another Trump. And this is not even thinking about the hell US policy is putting regular people through, the world over.
I'm a sucker an interesting city builder and itching for something to tide me over till Frostpunk 2 DLC. Will give it a try.
Over the last few months I've tried Airborne Empire, New Cycle, Captains of Industry, Stranded Alien Dawn and Memoria Polis. They're all pretty good and have their own charms. But they lack the spark to keep me coming back or to get me really invested.
I tend to revert to playing my Timberborn megaproject or Jurassic World with the kid.