all_summer_beauty's recent activity

  1. Comment on Hank and Bernie talk about AI (for real) in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    Yep, I suppose I could have clarified that for those unfamiliar with his stuff, thanks for mentioning it.

    Yep, I suppose I could have clarified that for those unfamiliar with his stuff, thanks for mentioning it.

  2. Comment on Happy 17776 Day! in ~misc

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    Spoilertown Wait, what the hell? I never saw the page/video where Juice makes fun of the plaque and Nine loses power for a second. That makes it so much better. The ending would not have seemed...
    Spoilertown

    Wait, what the hell? I never saw the page/video where Juice makes fun of the plaque and Nine loses power for a second. That makes it so much better. The ending would not have seemed weird to me at all had I seen that. When I read it I went straight from Nancy talking about her grandpa's Browns sign to Emily and Jason talking about NYC. I guess I bumped "continue" by accident and didn't notice somehow? That's annoying. Thanks for clueing me in!

    4 votes

  3. Comment on Hank and Bernie talk about AI (for real) in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link
    Hank Green sits down with Bernie Sanders to talk about regulating AI, specifically a datacenter moratorium bill the senator has recently introduced. There's not a ton of specifics in here, but...

    Hank Green sits down with Bernie Sanders to talk about regulating AI, specifically a datacenter moratorium bill the senator has recently introduced. There's not a ton of specifics in here, but Hank and Bernie both had some comments which I thought offered a bit of fresh insight. It's also just comforting to be reminded that someone with power is trying to do something about all of this.

    (Once Hank starts playing connections, the video's basically over; he talks more after that but TBH I don't think there's really anything of substance in that closing bit.)

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Happy 17776 Day! in ~misc

    all_summer_beauty
    (edited )
    Link
    This is fantastic, thanks so much for sharing! Spoilery questions Edit: Somehow I missed a page?

    This is fantastic, thanks so much for sharing!

    Spoilery questions

    Edit: Somehow I missed a page?

    I'm a little confused about the ending - it seems extremely abrupt. Why is Nine going to sleep? Was this referenced earlier on and I just forgot? Why does Juice have such limited time to answer remaining questions?

    3 votes

  6. Comment on Proton Meet isn't what they told you it was in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    Sure, crypto is an option too. Signal accepts it as well. I'm sure plenty of people who care enough to want to keep their payment info separate from their Signal/Proton account are also wary of...

    Sure, crypto is an option too. Signal accepts it as well. I'm sure plenty of people who care enough to want to keep their payment info separate from their Signal/Proton account are also wary of anything to do with crypto, though. But as for "how do they know if an account is current?", it sounds like that's possible with Signal's method?

    Using the anonymous credential scheme that we introduced for Signal private groups, clients make payments and then associate a badge to their profile such that the server can authenticate the client is in the set of people who made a payment, but doesn’t know specifically which payment it corresponds to.

    Like, it doesn't specifically mention attesting currency, but couldn't it? The "badge" in the above statement could be a digital stamp on your account that says "yep, this one's paid for until YYMMDD". It basically already is; the visible badges you get on your Signal profile only last for a certain amount of time. Doesn't that require the same functionality as "tying features of your account to payment" would? And it sounds like the server never knows which payment corresponds to which account. I don't see another way to read that statement, but it's totally possible I'm wrong. Am I just missing something?

    5 votes

  7. Comment on Proton Meet isn't what they told you it was in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    Right, that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying that the Democrats haven't thrown "the little guy" under the bus plenty, simply that vaguely suggesting that Republicans would be a sensible choice is...

    Right, that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying that the Democrats haven't thrown "the little guy" under the bus plenty, simply that vaguely suggesting that Republicans would be a sensible choice is absolutely wrong.

    9 votes

  8. Comment on Proton Meet isn't what they told you it was in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    I agree that supporting the broken clock when it's right isn't a "cancelable" offense. For me, it was the part about that really bugged me. Like, yes the Democrats are often useless, but claiming...

    I agree that supporting the broken clock when it's right isn't a "cancelable" offense. For me, it was the part about

    10 years ago, Republicans were the party of big business and Dems stood for the little guys, but today the tables have completely turned... Until corporate Dems are thrown out, the reality is that Republicans remain more likely to tackle Big Tech abuses.

    that really bugged me. Like, yes the Democrats are often useless, but claiming that the Republicans stand for the little guys and are more likely to fight big tech abuses is a take that simply has no basis in reality.

    A second thing that isn't directly related but makes me mostly agree with @lynxy is that the last time Proton was in the news for acquiescing to law enforcement, it was the payment information that was the weak link... But Signal has this solved. Why doesn't Proton? Maybe I'm missing something that makes it different for them, but as a layperson it sounds like Signal's scheme should be widely applicable.

    11 votes

  9. Comment on New ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie From Stephen Colbert and his son in development at Warner Bros in ~movies

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    Ooooof... thanks for the correction. It's been years since I read the books and people meme on Tom Bombadil so much that he's overshadowed her in my memory. :( They really are more of a package deal.

    Ooooof... thanks for the correction. It's been years since I read the books and people meme on Tom Bombadil so much that he's overshadowed her in my memory. :( They really are more of a package deal.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on New ‘Lord of the Rings’ movie From Stephen Colbert and his son in development at Warner Bros in ~movies

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    Just a minor character, he is a merry fellow. Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master: His songs are stronger songs, and his...

    Was there a character from there who didn't make the cut for the film??

    Just a minor character, he is a merry fellow. Bright blue his jacket is, and his boots are yellow. None has ever caught him yet, for Tom, he is the Master: His songs are stronger songs, and his feet are faster.

    17 votes

  11. Comment on Thinking of getting Proton and using it as my day-to-day email, but I have concerns in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    This was the biggest thing for me—you gotta start somewhere. Part of it involves an appreciation of delayed gratification, but the more practical fact is that you simply can't do it all at once....

    If you put yourself in a situation where you have to change everything all at once, then of course you'll be inclined to never do it because it's too hard.

    This was the biggest thing for me—you gotta start somewhere. Part of it involves an appreciation of delayed gratification, but the more practical fact is that you simply can't do it all at once. Privacy isn't a house you build in a day, you do it one brick at a time until eventually you've got a home.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on GrapheneOS refuses to comply with new age verification laws for operating systems — group says it will never require personal information in ~tech

  13. Comment on GrapheneOS refuses to comply with new age verification laws for operating systems — group says it will never require personal information in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    As someone who mostly gets the joke: Is the 2038 date just when we run out of bits to store the "seconds since 1969" in a single integer?

    As someone who mostly gets the joke: Is the 2038 date just when we run out of bits to store the "seconds since 1969" in a single integer?

    1 vote

  14. Comment on Any beginners advice or resources on developing a 2D RPG/Puzzle video game? in ~comp

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    Ah, I meant to mention the community "cafe" server but forgot after it wouldn't allow me to share an invite ("maximum number of invites reached" apparently?). Assuming OP can still get in, I agree...

    Ah, I meant to mention the community "cafe" server but forgot after it wouldn't allow me to share an invite ("maximum number of invites reached" apparently?). Assuming OP can still get in, I agree it's a great resource. Thanks for bringing it up!

  15. Comment on Any beginners advice or resources on developing a 2D RPG/Puzzle video game? in ~comp

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    No problem! I hope they're helpful! Ha, I guess I didn't quite say it specifically, but this is 100% what I was getting at. That is always the trick! The challenge (or devil, if you will) is in...

    No problem! I hope they're helpful!

    The trick will be getting it off of paper and into a practical product.

    Ha, I guess I didn't quite say it specifically, but this is 100% what I was getting at. That is always the trick! The challenge (or devil, if you will) is in the details and execution.

    Good luck! And have fun! :)

    2 votes

  16. Comment on Any beginners advice or resources on developing a 2D RPG/Puzzle video game? in ~comp

    all_summer_beauty
    (edited )
    Link
    I'll echo what Akir said, though I will riff on it a bit. Disclaimer: I'm not a game developer or professional programmer, I've just been learning Godot in the background for around eight or nine...
    • Exemplary

    I'll echo what Akir said, though I will riff on it a bit. Disclaimer: I'm not a game developer or professional programmer, I've just been learning Godot in the background for around eight or nine years now.

    I do think I'd recommend tempering your expectations (beyond what you think is necessary); in my experience, games are almost always more complex to implement than we expect, RPGs (even RPG-lites) most of all. Like, I've played plenty of RPGs, so I know that "loot, character XP leveling & attributes, magic & spells, items, gear, and upgrading spells, weapons and gear" sounds like it's somewhat stripped down from what a typical RPG offers, but having tinkered around with creating many of the types of systems you mention, I've found that they can be deceptively tricky. Those things and the interactions between them are a big part of what makes any RPG complex (I would guess the remainder is mostly dialogue and quest management). If you've never done any of that before, it can be a lot to handle.

    That said--

    It doesn't sound like this will be a pillar of your financial security or anything, so you're not taking a risk by doing things in a way that is less efficient or more challenging than it needs to be. If that's what you're interested in, then there's a good chance that working on it is how you'll learn best. I would just advise that you go in with the attitude that it's okay if, months or a year from now, you haven't made tangible progress on this specific project. As someone who is no stranger to transient fixations, I've started loads of projects over the time that I've been working with Godot, and I've finished like four of them haha. But I'm okay with that for three reasons: (a) I'm not financially dependent on it, (b) I learned a huge amount from every project anyway, and (c) I'm having a blast.

    So if you're not bothered by the thought of never even making it to Early Access, I say go for it! The worst that can happen is that you learn a ton about something you think is cool and don't publish a game.

    Resource recommendations (mostly Godot)
    • The documentation is generally pretty awesome for the fundamentals of most things. You'll definitely find areas in which it's lacking when you start digging deeper, but it should be excellent for most things at the beginning.
    • GDQuest is pretty great. I used to not love their teaching or coding style, but that was partially because I just didn't understand it well enough yet, and they have created a lot of excellent learning materials since the time when I formed that opinion. I also very (very) briefly did some work for them and I get the impression that they're good people. Their site's overall aesthetic is not really my taste, but it doesn't take away from the education they provide.
    • Godotneers (YouTube channel) - So so so good. Cannot recommend enough. As a hobbyist, I obviously can't confirm this, but I get the impression this channel is run by someone with real experience in how to do this stuff correctly, as opposed to the many (well-meaning and genuinely enjoyable) "how to be a gamedev" channels out there. The videos are long, but the explanations are generally very good and they concepts he covers are almost always powerful things that will serve you well in loads of different ways. I don't think I would start here though, since these are more deep-dives on specific topics/techniques.
    • Game Programming Patterns (web book) - This was what helped me start understanding programming beyond just writing methods and scripts and realizing what software engineering actually means. Knowing how to put systems together and having tools in your toolbelt with which to construct them is crucial for games.

    Discord Links

    Quality sources to watch for when searching for answers

    • The official forums (https://forum.godotengine.org/)
    • The off-brand forums (https://godotforums.org/) - Not actually affiliated with the Godot project/Foundation, but generally still pretty decent
    • Stackoverflow, of course
    • Don't be afraid to dive into GitHub issues if that's where the answers seem to be. The project leads are very active and often have good insights to offer.
    • If you're feeling especially brave, the engine source can sometimes be helpful to see too, if you run into a particularly confusing bug and no other results are turning up.
    • Reddit is actually not awful, though it's more hit-or-miss than the others usually are
    • The documentation has a "community notes" feature which sometimes has helpful suggestions in it. Basically, anyone can comment on any page of the docs to remark on things they think add to the information it contains. Sometimes you get confused people using this as a support portal (which it explicitly says not to do lol), but usually these are a good source of thoughtful recommendations.

    Misc

    • Be careful using LLMs with GDScript/Godot. I've never used a paid one, so I can't speak to the level of quality there, but the ones I use as a fallback when searching fails me (the free models available on duck.ai) are... okay. They usually get GDScript syntax pretty much right and their algorithm suggestions are fairly decent too, but the problem is that, often, the crucial element their solution revolves around will be entirely hallucinated. They (unsurprisingly) regularly just invent whole classes that don't exist. But, critically, those classes look extremely plausible, which means this will waste you TONS of time if you don't know the part of the engine you're working with well enough to immediately spot when the LLMs do this. Honestly, I would not use them for learning fundamentals, or even for a while after that, if ever.

    Also, if you want someone to rubber-duck with or even just chat about Godot, let me know! I'm happy to do anything related to this stuff.

    7 votes

  17. Comment on New Firefox features: Built-in free VPN, split view, tab notes in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    I don't have much to add to this - you've outlined roughly what I was thinking. I also had a "wait, what? How...?" moment when I got to the part about the VPN being free.

    I don't have much to add to this - you've outlined roughly what I was thinking. I also had a "wait, what? How...?" moment when I got to the part about the VPN being free.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on New Firefox features: Built-in free VPN, split view, tab notes in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link Parent
    Split view is the thing I miss most from when I daily drove Zen for a few weeks. Very happy to be getting it back (assuming it has good UX).

    Split view is the thing I miss most from when I daily drove Zen for a few weeks. Very happy to be getting it back (assuming it has good UX).

    2 votes

  19. Comment on New Firefox features: Built-in free VPN, split view, tab notes in ~tech

    all_summer_beauty
    Link
    Several things I'm excited about are coming in the next few Firefox updates! Split view is probably my #1, closely followed by the VPN (depending on how good it is). Full list from this post:...

    Several things I'm excited about are coming in the next few Firefox updates! Split view is probably my #1, closely followed by the VPN (depending on how good it is).

    Full list from this post:

    • Settings navigation improvements
    • Free built-in VPN - "Users will have 50 gigabytes of data monthly in the U.S., France, Germany and U.K. to start." Available in Firefox 149 starting March 24.
    • Smart Window (formerly AI Window)
    • Split view - Available in Firefox 149 starting March 24.
    • Tab notes
    17 votes