TheFireTheft's recent activity

  1. Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes

    TheFireTheft
    Link
    Mine comes from a one album wonder band called The Fire Theft (who rose from the ashes of Sunny Day Real Estate). It's been over 20 years since their album came out. Damn.

    Mine comes from a one album wonder band called The Fire Theft (who rose from the ashes of Sunny Day Real Estate). It's been over 20 years since their album came out. Damn.

    2 votes

  2. Ideas for a side project I'm working on -- an RPG to help me curb my alcohol consumption

    ~comp Ask (recommendations)
    Preface: I am familiar with Habitica. This idea would probably scratch a similar itch, but I'm also using this as an opportunity to sharpen my Rust skills. My idea came about when I was trying to...

    Preface: I am familiar with Habitica. This idea would probably scratch a similar itch, but I'm also using this as an opportunity to sharpen my Rust skills.

    My idea came about when I was trying to find out some new tactics to curb my alcohol consumption, which isn't quite out of control yet, but I don't want to tempt fate.

    I've also really liked the progression aspect of RPGs. What if I could gamify my quest to not drink alcohol and make it sort of a fun, unique RPG experience at the same time?

    In the broadest sense, it would go something like this:

    • You open the game up, ideally each day. You are instantly prompted: "Did you drink yesterday?" (and perhaps it will go back a few more days if you skipped).
    • For each day you answer "no", you are rewarded with some sort of tokens, credits, etc. -- currency to play the game. If you answer "yes", maybe you get penalized somehow.
    • Then, you pick up your journey, which is sort of a standard RPG experience -- fighting battles, buying gear, learning spells, leveling up, advancing through the world, you name it.
    • The game should get progressively more difficult, but should not have an ending, as "quitting alcohol" does not have an ending either. At the same time, it should scratch the RPG progression itch.

    The initial game concept I came up with is just one that I see as the quickest way to get this off the ground, which would be something CLI-based, where you are presented with a menu ("visit shop, enter arena, view equipment" etc.). You spend battle tokens to enter into arena battles, which reward experience points, money, and gear. You level up, work towards a build (there needs to be a way to respec because restarting isn't really an option), and progress through the arena.

    In total, you would probably spend less than 5 minutes every day playing the game, which is by design. It should be an every day habit. But, there should be enough entertainment value that, if I'm not getting those sweet battle tokens by not drinking, I'm missing out on experiencing the game (or, I could lie, which defeats the purpose of the app).

    So that's where I'm at right now. I'm really interested to hear your thoughts, ideas, critiques, etc. before I spend a free weekend building out a concept.

    Some questions in particular:

    • I was leaning toward just building this in CLI because it will be extremely simple. It could just be a matter of STDINs. However, I'm open to other Rust-based options. Is there a good Rust UI toolkit or web framework that is worth looking into that would make this a little more modern?
    • What about game features? What could make this a really fun experience, while also balancing the whole concept of being built around your life and your habits?

    In the end, this is a deeply personal project that would be built, first and foremost, for my specific needs. But that's not to say I couldn't build it with some scalability in mind. Rather than asking about alcohol, perhaps the "habits" can be customized, and so forth.

    Anyway, have a great weekend!

    23 votes

  3. Comment on Thoughts on a Democratic postmortem in ~society

    TheFireTheft
    Link Parent
    We fight for our children and their children. Simple as that. We can give up and fail future generations or we can keep fighting until we are no longer capable.

    We fight for our children and their children. Simple as that. We can give up and fail future generations or we can keep fighting until we are no longer capable.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on Thoughts on a Democratic postmortem in ~society

    TheFireTheft
    Link
    I had a passing thought this morning that is certainly half-baked and most likely a pipe dream. Keep that in mind as you read through my ramblings. This thought is based on the fact that...

    I had a passing thought this morning that is certainly half-baked and most likely a pipe dream. Keep that in mind as you read through my ramblings.

    This thought is based on the fact that corporations and billionaires have deeply entrenched themselves into U.S. politics -- both sides of the aisle -- and are using politicians as tools to fortify their positions. I don't think there's anything surprising here. Furthermore, politicians (aligned with one party in particular) have taken actions to weaken democracy. Our corruption goalposts have shifted so much in the past 8 years that things that would have seemed like absolute treason back then are now just "lies from the bad guys" -- the libs, the RINOs, you name it.

    What if, just what if, Biden used this next month as an opportunity to say "fuck it." Damn the corporate machine. I'm going to do whatever is left in my presidential power to shift some of the favor back toward the people. He's old, his political days are done, he doesn't have to worry about appeasing anyone or being assassinated.

    I'm actually not sure what the specific actions might be since I'm a political science dufus, but the idea would be to use his remaining time and powers to turn all sights towards fighting corruption, strengthening institutions, returning some power back to the people. Are there any teeth to executive orders that don't rely on the rest of the politicians who are either afraid of or fully supportive of monied influences?

    He could, for example, pardon Edward Snowden, who may already be fully compromised by the Russians (no fault of his own at this point, the guy's just trying to survive). It may empower the next Boeing whistleblower to take action before something bad happens. Or it may not because Trump will be in office.

    He could introduce some sort of executive order that impacts the ability of lawmakers to trade stocks (again, I'm not sure how possible this is). Something like this would be hugely popular across the political spectrum and then Trump would have to either (a) support it to keep people happy, or (b) shoot it down and look like a corruption supporter. A sort of a poison pill that is good for the people.

    I know, it's all very grandiose and there's not enough time left in his presidency to do anything substantial. But I just keep going back to the thought that the only time when most American politicians will realistically fight back against corruption is when they have nothing left to lose.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Bitwarden switches password manager and SDK to GPL3 after FOSS-iness drama in ~tech

    TheFireTheft
    Link Parent
    They have a business subscription, which includes a way to create shared folders of passwords for different groups of people. That, plus a bit of peace of mind because employees aren't reusing...

    They have a business subscription, which includes a way to create shared folders of passwords for different groups of people. That, plus a bit of peace of mind because employees aren't reusing "password1!" everywhere makes it worth it to me.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix 2024 - Results in ~sports.motorsports

    TheFireTheft
    Link Parent
    This is exactly what I was looking for! For some reason early on I've taken a liking to Norris, but I'm going to watch some of the shows/documentaries and some more races. I will let the fandom...

    This is exactly what I was looking for!

    For some reason early on I've taken a liking to Norris, but I'm going to watch some of the shows/documentaries and some more races. I will let the fandom develop organically.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix 2024 - Results in ~sports.motorsports

    TheFireTheft
    Link
    Posting in here as I don't think it's worthy of a new post: I'm trying to get into F1. I've got a pretty good grasp on the rules, but I don't really know who to root for. First and foremost, am I...

    Posting in here as I don't think it's worthy of a new post:

    I'm trying to get into F1. I've got a pretty good grasp on the rules, but I don't really know who to root for.

    1. First and foremost, am I rooting for a person (because I like their personality, racing style, etc.) or am I rooting for a team? If the former, when said person jumps to another team, do I jump ship as well?
    2. Of the "main players" (Norris, Verstappen, Leclerc, etc.), can they be assigned archetypes, e.g. dirty racer, loyal, etc.?
    3. Are there historic rivalries between teams, or is it just that "every team is a rival"?

    Basically, I'm just trying to gather some information to help influence who I'm going to be cheering for, since I think that's such a big part of the entertainment value of sports.

    4 votes

  8. Comment on You're running for office on a somewhat petty, yet univerally-understood single issue. What is it? in ~talk

    TheFireTheft
    Link
    My platform is built around tipping culture reform and the myriad benefits it will bring to our mighty country. As president, I will ensure that tipping is ONLY allowed for non-organizational...

    My platform is built around tipping culture reform and the myriad benefits it will bring to our mighty country.

    As president, I will ensure that tipping is ONLY allowed for non-organizational entities (read: individuals and small local bands).

    Restaurants will immediately be forced to pay wages to all workers and tips will no longer be collected -- competitive pressures will quickly drive server wages up to where they should be.

    Companies, such as Starbucks, who include a tipping mechanism in the transaction process, will be fined heavily and repeatedly.

    No longer will you have to suffer through "now the screen is just going to ask you a few more questions" dialogue.

    Citizens on both ends of the aisle will unite under me as we march toward this common goal. America can be a better place!

    8 votes

  9. Comment on I hate alcohol. Totally hate it. in ~talk

    TheFireTheft
    Link Parent
    Respectfully, a response of "Meh" to someone else's opinion on alcohol, whether or not it's a "cry for help" or simply an opinion that's different than yours, is dismissive at best. Condescending...

    Respectfully, a response of "Meh" to someone else's opinion on alcohol, whether or not it's a "cry for help" or simply an opinion that's different than yours, is dismissive at best. Condescending is probably a better adjective.

    I can relate to many of the OP's points to a much less severe level, but they still mostly ring true to me. Everyone's experience with alcohol will be different, but we objectively know of alcohol-related illness, physical abuse, automobile accidents/deaths, etc. that are directly caused by alcohol.

    Addiction is multi-faceted and alcoholism can take hold even in the most "immune" of individuals. Of course the people involved should be blamed for their direct actions, but there's a bigger picture -- alcohol -- which is systemically making said direct actions more likely to occur.

    20 votes

  10. Comment on Any advice for dealing with grief from a traumatic incident in ~life

    TheFireTheft
    Link
    Having a similar sort of unexpected loss/trauma myself, here's what helped me: As others have said, seek out a professional sooner than later. You will likely spend many sessions with them. You...

    Having a similar sort of unexpected loss/trauma myself, here's what helped me:

    1. As others have said, seek out a professional sooner than later. You will likely spend many sessions with them. You should eventually see progress (*see #2), and hopefully, there will come a time when you and the therapist are both struggling to find things to talk about -- which means their job is done.
    2. Not all therapists are equal and some are better than others. I have had experiences on both ends of the spectrum. Follow your gut.
    3. What also really helped me was keeping a journal, which was a sort of self-therapy session. I would allow myself to start writing about an easy topic ("something fun I remember about ____") and it was always amazing how my brain would take the writing into different, unexplored directions. When you're journaling, you shouldn't be afraid to let your fingers type out uncomfortable things. Let your brain and your fingers do the work, and you'll be amazed with what you discover about yourself (or your trauma).
    4. Go at your own pace. Don't rush it, but more importantly, DON'T let yourself repress it.

    You got this.

    3 votes

  11. Comment on What game do you consider an unconventional masterpiece? in ~games

    TheFireTheft
    Link Parent
    I'll take it a step further and submit the original Tribes (not to steal your thunder... Tribes 2 was awesome). Many of the features that were built into Tribes 2 were actually...

    I'll take it a step further and submit the original Tribes (not to steal your thunder... Tribes 2 was awesome).

    Many of the features that were built into Tribes 2 were actually organic/unintentional products of the original Tribes. For example, "skiing" (picking up speed by running/jumping downhill to launch yourself further) was not built into the original game. Something with the physics engine made it so that if you jumped down a hill with the right timing, your speed would pick up. There was an almost mandatory mod that would ski for you by just holding down the spacebar.

    For an added bonus, once you ski down a hill and back up the other side, you aim your disk launcher at the ground, jump, and fire away to launch yourself into the sky -- hopefully aimed directly at the opponent's flag off in the distance so you can sweep in and grab it without much resistance.

    If you were competitive, you would actually have to learn all of the various routes for each map. Ski down this big hill, up that little crest right there, disk jump, aim yourself to the right of the base, land in this little valley and ski down and up, launch across the top of the base, grab the flag, and hit the return route before you get blown to shit. There was a mod that would time your flag capture attempts so you could practice before a big match.

    The original concept of dueling was just two people, standing decently far apart from each other, behind the Raindance base. One would chuck a grenade, and when it explodes, game on!

    You were judged by your ability to MA (mid-air shot) with the disk launcher. That was pretty much key to (1) winning duels, and, more importantly (2) getting invited into one of the big clans such as 5150. Once you were part of the clan, you were typically expected to participate in CTF matches/tournaments against rivals and specialize in a position (capper, sniper, etc.)

    If I recall correctly, some other things that weren't built into the game were proper loadouts (light, medium, heavy) or custom HUDs/crosshairs. The modding community for the original Tribes was huge and made the game better than intended.

    Man, Tribes was so unique compared to ALL other FPS games at the time. I would argue it's partly because of the X-Y-Z gameplay (jetpack), but I think a big part of it was all of these little unintentional gameplay side effects that just became core to the game. I'm not sure the "feel" of Tribes gameplay has been reproduced since Tribes 2 -- which was essentially just a better, modernized version of Tribes with many of the "unintentional" features built in.

    Also, Shazbot.

    9 votes

  12. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

    TheFireTheft
    Link Parent
    I think it has pretty much stalled out at this point. My plan is to do a sort of a follow-up post in a few weeks (after we've all had a chance to drink enough songs from this firehose) to find out...

    I think it has pretty much stalled out at this point. My plan is to do a sort of a follow-up post in a few weeks (after we've all had a chance to drink enough songs from this firehose) to find out what sort of surprises or new music people discovered. After that... who knows? Maybe we'll do a reboot in the future with different rules to ensure a different sound?

    1 vote

  13. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

  14. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

    TheFireTheft
    Link Parent
    Added, although I'm going to blame you when I have Christmas music stuck in my head in the middle of the summertime.

    Added, although I'm going to blame you when I have Christmas music stuck in my head in the middle of the summertime.

  15. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

  16. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

  17. Comment on California’s largest wildfire explodes in size as fires rage across US West in ~enviro

    TheFireTheft
    Link Parent
    American of 40 years here and this is the first I’m hearing of this. Are you saying Americans believe that catching stuff on fire with malicious intent is part of our ethos? Sure, we may love our...

    American of 40 years here and this is the first I’m hearing of this. Are you saying Americans believe that catching stuff on fire with malicious intent is part of our ethos?

    Sure, we may love our fireworks and campfires with a drunken guy playing Wonderwall on guitar, but I can’t say I’ve ever met a living, breathing arsonist.

    10 votes

  18. Comment on Seeking advice on untangling the hornet's nest that is my business's website in ~comp

    TheFireTheft
    Link Parent
    Sorry, I should have mentioned that everything is in Git and the codebase is mostly configured for self-hosting in dev environments (e.g. separate .env to keep out secrets, database fixtures, etc.)

    Sorry, I should have mentioned that everything is in Git and the codebase is mostly configured for self-hosting in dev environments (e.g. separate .env to keep out secrets, database fixtures, etc.)

    5 votes

  19. Seeking advice on untangling the hornet's nest that is my business's website

    ~comp Ask (advice)
    I'm in a decade-long predicament related to the management of a somewhat complex website for my publishing business, and I'd appreciate your advice. For context: I joined the company as an...

    I'm in a decade-long predicament related to the management of a somewhat complex website for my publishing business, and I'd appreciate your advice. For context:

    1. I joined the company as an original founder about 15 years ago. My initial roles mostly dealt with accounting, finance, sales, account management, etc. -- really, anything and everything I could help out with. I offered to take ownership of our website since I had a fair amount of web design and programming experience.
    2. The original version of our website was a patchwork of PHP scripts from back in the days before Composer. I was inexperienced and didn't know anything about frameworks, etc. so I just started adding code.
    3. Over the years, I built homebrew versions of user authentication, a backend (CMS, CRM, etc.), and our front-facing website (full-stack, from cloud hosting to CSS and everything in between). As the story goes, it became a spaghetti code mess that was only maintainable by me.
    4. Realizing that I'd created a mess, my next long-term project was to slowly start transitioning the entire backend over to the Symfony framework, including many/most of the homebuilt components such as auth. This probably took 5 years in earnest. This way, I could at least begin to have conversations about getting outside help.
    5. The other founder passed away unexpectedly, and I've found myself not having enough time to dedicate to the website. I can work on it here and there and patch it up when things break, but my fear is that we're going to become stale.
    6. I've had several conversations with individuals and web development companies in various capacities over the years. These conversations ranged from "sure, I can help out with front-end stuff" to "we would like to rebuild your website from scratch using (insert popular CMS) and then manage it for the low cost of (insert high cost)".

    Right now, all of the coding goes through me because it's the cheapest option (plus all of the context above). I'd like to explore delegating or outsourcing it again, but I don't know where the happy medium is as far as what needs to stay in-house.

    Just to give an idea of the complexity, as it goes well beyond what you would think a publisher needs, here are some of the features:

    • User auth/database with tens of thousands of users
    • Single sign-on that connects those users to several other platforms seamlessly
    • Content authoring
    • Several "microsite" type pages on the front end that require their own CSS/JS needs
    • Some unique features that were built because we couldn't find suitable alternatives, such as a webinar player that automatically generates certificates and stores them for the user, watermarked PDF downloads to include user information (i.e. to prevent piracy), etc.
    • CSS from the Bootstrap 3 era that has been modified and bolted onto over the years
    • Jquery stuff from way back in the day
    • and on, and on, and on

    To do things right, I would think that I need a server admin, a Symfony/PHP expert, and a front-end expert. But we're talking about what - hundreds of thousands of dollars per year? We can't afford that.

    In my mind, an ideal situation looks like this:

    • I am still able to see, modify, and keep control of our codebase (Git)
    • Hosting is managed. This is where my second biggest* fear lies, in that I know enough server admin to be dangerous, but I lose sleep knowing that an intrusion is inevitable and there are smarter people than me that can help prevent one.
    • I can assign out projects (e.g. we want to upgrade to PHP ## and Symfony ##, we want to redesign a page/template/etc., we want to implement SAML and connect it to another platform, etc.)

    *My biggest fear is that, since I hold the keys to everything related to this website, if I am unavailable (or get hit by a bus) then I leave the business in a REALLY bad place.

    Can anyone offer any advice on navigating this hornet's nest?

    11 votes

  20. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    TheFireTheft
    Link
    I have two esoteric projects that I work on back and forth. Right now I'm in between them and considering which one I should pick back up. I have a sorta-working hobby OS that is designed to...

    I have two esoteric projects that I work on back and forth. Right now I'm in between them and considering which one I should pick back up.

    1. I have a sorta-working hobby OS that is designed to target my retrocomputers (mid-90s to early 2000s era). I don't really have an end game, other than that I'd like to be able to have it boot on my 386 and have some sort of functionality, e.g. keeping a, journal, text-based games, etc.

    2. I have a MUD that I decided to finally pull the trigger on and make somewhat public. It is listed on a MUD listing website and people can actually register and play, but it's nowhere near complete. So, I soft-launched it, and then I got sidetracked. Maybe I'll put this one back at the top of the priority list...

    7 votes