balooga's recent activity

  1. Comment on Inside Doug Liman’s $70 million AI-made movie starring Casey Affleck and Gal Gadot in ~movies

  2. Comment on Income tax will be dead within five years as AI jobs crisis grows, says Monzo founder in ~tech

  3. Comment on Hungary’s new leader reveals Viktor Orbán diverted Hungarian taxpayer funds toward bankrolling CPAC in ~society

    balooga
    Link
    Assuming it was an actual crime, is this something Orbán could be prosecuted for? Bolsonaro‘s in prison. I am 100% in favor of locking up fascist criminal ex-presidents. I know who I’d like to see...

    Assuming it was an actual crime, is this something Orbán could be prosecuted for? Bolsonaro‘s in prison. I am 100% in favor of locking up fascist criminal ex-presidents. I know who I’d like to see next on that list too.

    17 votes

  4. Comment on Inside Doug Liman’s $70 million AI-made movie starring Casey Affleck and Gal Gadot in ~movies

    balooga
    Link
    Sounds like they’re doing something similar to an I2I (image2image) or v2v (video2video) workflow plus inpainting. If I’m understanding right, they’re shooting the raw footage then pre-processing...

    “AI is part of our process, but the process starts with human intent and human direction,” Scholl said. “Whether that’s modeling or reference searches. And then we get something back. The big difference is that you go on ChatGPT and ask for a generation of an image, you just put a text prompt in and you accept what you get. In this case, what goes in the prompt is already an image that’s previously generated by us. It’s much more specific.”

    Sounds like they’re doing something similar to an I2I (image2image) or v2v (video2video) workflow plus inpainting. If I’m understanding right, they’re shooting the raw footage then pre-processing it with “traditional” VFX, but probably at a deliberately crude level of detail. Then that is being fed into a diffusion model with the live-action parts they want to keep (the actors’ performances) masked out so everything else is replaced. The model will match the composition of the VFX background and retain awareness of the masked portion within the scene so it blends naturally. They can steer it in certain directions with text prompts too. My guess is they’ve got a beefy GPU cluster generating hundreds or thousands of these per shot and they’re manually picking the best results.

    They probably iterate on the specific text prompts they use, and maybe on the rough BG renders too, to guide the model toward the director’s vision but it’s an inexact science. I imagine they also feed completed shots within the same scene back into it to preserve continuity across multiple shots.

    I’m curious what issues they hit with chroma key (green/blue screens). I’m guessing there were colored reflections or shadows casting a tint that inpainting was trying to match, but I figured that was a solved problem decades ago. Maybe it’s because of the cheaper lights they’re using? It does make me wonder if that complicates the VFX rough pass, forcing them to rotoscope instead. But I think there might be new methods of auto-rotoscoping which are less precise but the inpainting pass will correct anyway so they can be sloppy about it.

    Another thing I want to know is what kind of resolution they’re able to generate at, and what compromises they have to make to get there. In my experience today’s models are decent for displaying on a cellphone or computer screen. But if you're targeting 4K and higher movie theater resolutions, the limitations are going to show. Of course I’m not familiar with the proprietary models being marketed to studios; they’re probably custom-trained for that. But I’d very much like to know more about that corpus and what its blind spots are.

    From the link @BlindCarpenter posted:

    The film’s producer, Ryan Kavanagh, is attempting to calm the inevitable industry firestorm, stressing that the film will not replace real actors with AI-generated performers. “We will not have any AI-generated actors that do not exist,” he told Variety, emphasizing that AI is being used as a tool to make filmmaking more efficient while protecting jobs.

    I suspect he’s leaning on a technicality of how “actor” is defined in union rules. I’d be shocked if there were no AI-generated background characters (extras) in the film.

    11 votes

  5. Comment on Project Hail Mary - Discussion thread in ~movies

    balooga
    Link
    Bumping this topic because I finally saw the movie last night and wanted to talk about it. I think it was an especially great adaptation! I was nervous about how they were going to compress the...

    Bumping this topic because I finally saw the movie last night and wanted to talk about it. I think it was an especially great adaptation! I was nervous about how they were going to compress the story for time but I think they made the right tradeoffs. As much as I loved the experimentation and science of the novel, it was the right call to thin that part out for the movie. I wish they had spent a bit more time showing how Grace and Rocky learned to communicate — that was already hard to swallow in the book and felt really glossed-over on screen. That’s a nitpick. I love that the ending was preserved I really expected a Hollywood rewrite there.

    The cinematography was beautiful, though there were some parts that I felt overdid the shaky cam or that artistic blurry-field-of-colors effect. I mean, it was all gorgeous. There was one shot, a macro close-up of Grace recording a video journal, awash in harsh red light and darkness, viewed as though a low-resolution screen… the whole frame was just elongated pixels where you could barely make out the talking face. Visually I loved it but it pulled me out of the moment when I started to question why the lighting was like that. I don’t think there was a story reason for it, it was just because it looked cool. Which is fine. There are many moments like that, however. It’s a very stylish film and the music suits it very well.

    I thought Ryan Gosling did a terrific job as Grace, and Rocky was practically perfect too. I was impressed with the way microgravity looked in the movie… I realized I don’t know how they do that in movies these days. Old movies like Apollo 13 constructed sets in the cabin of a vomit comet aircraft and recorded takes during ~30s periods of freefall in nosedives. Is that technique still used or is it all VFX now? It looked good either way.

    I still don’t understand the geometry of Rocky’s ship. It looked like a bunch of rods with empty space between them? I couldn’t really tell how it had an “inside” or an “outside”. This is one area where I think the movie’s style worked against it; sometimes I wished the camera would just linger on the details so I could make sense of what I was looking at. I feel like my overall takeaway (of that ship in particular) is mostly impressionistic.

    All in all I think I’d give the movie 8.5 or 9 out of 10. I enjoyed it a lot and my criticisms are mostly superficial. I felt like it was one of the most intelligent, well-made films in recent memory. Kudos to Lord and Miller, and of course Andy Weir, and the whole cast and crew for a really solid production.

    4 votes

  6. Comment on No-stack web development in ~tech

    balooga
    Link
    Seems like this is an argument against full-featured webapps. Static HTML documents with CSS and JS are great. You can create really beautiful, fast, dynamic sites with modern native JS APIs and...

    Seems like this is an argument against full-featured webapps.

    Static HTML documents with CSS and JS are great. You can create really beautiful, fast, dynamic sites with modern native JS APIs and CSS techniques. I'm not pooh-poohing that choice at all! But if your project calls for a complex, stateful SPA with a mature design system and robust data handling, I'd argue that the basics aren't going to get you there. That's what React is for. It's not for pages or sites, it's for applications. Not every project is going to have those requirements — most really won't — but for those that do we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss it. Unless you've got a worthy successor in mind that solves the same problems as React, I don't think you should label it "legacy" or say that there's never a use for it.

    I think I'm nitpicking when I really largely agree with the post, I just took issue with the wholesale rejection of React being labeled "my only absolute advice" so quickly after pointing out that stacks are fine when they suit the project.

    On an unrelated note, I love the retro W3C-style badges in the site footer!

    4 votes

  7. Comment on The Jackbox Party Essentials available on Netflix in ~games

    balooga
    Link Parent
    I went looking for these in the Netflix app on my PS5... turns out Netflix Games aren't supported on consoles for some reason. Tried on my iPad with no luck there, either. As far as I can tell,...

    I went looking for these in the Netflix app on my PS5... turns out Netflix Games aren't supported on consoles for some reason. Tried on my iPad with no luck there, either. As far as I can tell, it'll only work in a smart TV app, or on a computer running Chrome or Edge.

    Well as a Firefox guy who is absolutely never gonna use smart TV apps for any reason, that kinda sucks.

    I get the browser compatibility thing — I don't like it, but I get it — but I'm honestly perplexed why Netflix has locked out console users. That should be the premier way to play something like Jackbox. Maybe I'll still give it a try in Chrome, I can hook up my laptop to the TV, but honestly what a hassle. The PlayStation is right there, permanently hooked up. I use it to watch Netflix all the time. I'm actually really curious now what the numbers look like... Netflix knows what percentage of its userbase are using smart TV apps vs. consoles. Am I in that tiny of a minority? I guess if the TV comes with the app preinstalled, for most people that's the path of least resistance. But also, it's terrible?

    2 votes

  8. Comment on The Jackbox Party Essentials available on Netflix in ~games

    balooga
    Link
    That's actually really cool! I love the Jackbox games but I've never owned them myself. Got Netflix though — I'll have to try this!

    That's actually really cool! I love the Jackbox games but I've never owned them myself. Got Netflix though — I'll have to try this!

    4 votes

  9. Comment on What might be going on with this indie game "fansite"? in ~games

    balooga
    Link Parent
    I've been poking around for info about this and that About page is definitely not being truthful. The whole site is AI slop. From what I can tell so far, it's fairly trivial to extract a .pck file...

    I've been poking around for info about this and that About page is definitely not being truthful. The whole site is AI slop. From what I can tell so far, it's fairly trivial to extract a .pck file from a Godot game and redistribute it as WASM.

    Like OP said there are no ads on this site but there are definitely network requests hitting ep1.adtrafficquality.google, ep2.adtrafficquality.google, pagead2.googlesyndication.com, and googleads.g.doubleclick.net. Looks like maybe the ads are loading in iframes? I'm not sure what the latest trends in ad fraud are but I'd guess the operator is trying to get the revenue while trying to keep the ads hidden from view.

    I searched around and found a bunch of sketchy "play free online" sites hosting this particular game. And many others. I saw Godot games but also Unity and even Scratch. There's a pretty active ecosystem of junk sites serving up pirated web games for ad impressions. Looks like they're all passing around this same WASM build of Idols of Ash and I'm not sure of its provenance. Still investigating that to see if I can figure out when it was made and maybe by whom.

    15 votes

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

    balooga
    (edited )
    Link
    🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌓🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗🌔🌕🌖🌑🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑 🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌓🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗🌒🌕🌕🌗🌑🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑 🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌓🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌓🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑 🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌒🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘🌓🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑🌔🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑 🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌓🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑...
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🌑🌑🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑🌕🌕🌗🌓🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑🌕🌕🌗🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑🌑🌓🌕🌕🌘🌑🌑🌑
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🌑🌑🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑🌕🌕🌗🌓🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑🌕🌕🌗🌑🌒🌕🌕🌘🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌑🌔🌕🌖
🌑🌑🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑🌕🌕🌗🌓🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖🌓🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖
🌑🌑🌔🌕🌘🌑🌑🌔🌕🌘🌒🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘🌔🌕🌕🌖🌘🌑🌑🌑🌔🌕🌕🌕🌕🌖🌑🌓🌕🌕🌕🌘🌑

    Inspired by @Juan over here I just vibe-coded this PNG to emoonji-art converter this afternoon. Truly we are living in the future.

    1 vote

  11. Comment on The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act in ~movies

    balooga
    Link
    I've never watched the show. Looks a bit... um, not my style. My 12yo kiddo has been asking about it though, and I'm not sure how age-appropriate it is. Would you (anyone reading) recommend it for...

    I've never watched the show. Looks a bit... um, not my style. My 12yo kiddo has been asking about it though, and I'm not sure how age-appropriate it is. Would you (anyone reading) recommend it for tweens? It it as horror-oriented, or existential dread inducing, as I imagine it to be based on the art style?

    Sorry for the off-topic! Feel free to label as you see fit.

    6 votes

  12. Comment on Prototyping with LLMs in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    It's an interesting counterpoint to Genesis 11, where people carefully architect and plan the construction of a tower, only for God to hit them all with aphasia, thus forcing the project to be...

    It's an interesting counterpoint to Genesis 11, where people carefully architect and plan the construction of a tower, only for God to hit them all with aphasia, thus forcing the project to be abandoned.

    4 votes

  13. Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news

    balooga
    Link Parent
    I low-key love that the marketing picture shows the controller above a crumpled burger wrapper, nasty grease stains and all. It's highly atypical for fast food ads to portray any part of their...

    I low-key love that the marketing picture shows the controller above a crumpled burger wrapper, nasty grease stains and all. It's highly atypical for fast food ads to portray any part of their products so realistically. So, uh, kudos for that.

    4 votes

  14. Comment on Half-baked idea for metered inline image allowances in ~tildes

    balooga
    Link Parent
    DefinitelyNotAFogey

    DefinitelyNotAFogey

    9 votes

  15. Comment on Half-baked idea for metered inline image allowances in ~tildes

    balooga
    Link Parent
    I don't actually have one since I'm mainly just active on Tildes and we don't do that here. I used to think Imgur was great but I'm usually behind a VPN and these days they do their damndest to...

    I don't actually have one since I'm mainly just active on Tildes and we don't do that here. I used to think Imgur was great but I'm usually behind a VPN and these days they do their damndest to block me because of that.

    3 votes

  16. Half-baked idea for metered inline image allowances

    ~tildes Text 478 words
    This is totally a half-baked shower thought of an idea, and not one that even I am personally persuaded by, but I’m curious to gauge what others think of it. Sometimes it might be useful to allow...

    This is totally a half-baked shower thought of an idea, and not one that even I am personally persuaded by, but I’m curious to gauge what others think of it.

    Sometimes it might be useful to allow images to be inlined in topics or comments instead of requiring users to link to them. If that ability were unrestricted, people would probably use it for frivolous reaction GIFs, memes, etc., which are not wanted here on Tildes. But if we restricted how often people could do it, if we made it costly, they’d be less inclined to waste it.

    We already have precedent for metered functionality to discourage abuse: Exemplary labels. That seems to be working pretty well. What if users received one image credit per month? We could allow them to rollover/accrue but maybe cap them so nobody can have more than five(?). That’s certainly scarce enough to make me think twice about wasting them.

    We could make them collapsible so they can be hidden with a click (though I’m not sure if it’s feasible to make per-image collapsed states persistent). We could also have a user setting for people who don’t want to see the images. Maybe call it “Inline Image Display” with these options:

    • Always show
    • Always collapse
    • Always collapse unless in <details> blocks
    • Render as link to image instead

    If we wanted to be really cautious we could default to that last option (basically current behavior) so nobody would be opted-in if they didn’t want it.

    I’m not suggesting Tildes should get into the free image hosting business. This idea assumes that the images being shown are already hosted from a place that permits embedding on third-party domains. We might be able to validate that before running the form submit, to surface a warning when an image is inaccessible so people don’t find out it’s broken until after spending a credit for it.

    We could also allow these images only in new topics, and not in comments where they’re more likely to be used flippantly. Or charge two credits instead of one to do it in a comment. Or in that user setting we could add “Always show in topics and collapse in comments” as an option.

    If we wanted to get fancy we could also allow users to flag whether an image they’re sharing is NSFW, and add a couple additional options to that user setting, to exclude those if desired.

    Of course now that I’m thinking about NSFW images in 2026 I’m reminded that all this age-verification hysteria could be brought to Tildes’ doorstep much faster if we directly displayed user-originated images on the site. Not really a battle I’d chose for us (read: Deimos) to fight so that risk alone might render the idea DOA.

    I’d still be interested to hear what others think though.

    27 votes

  17. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of April 6 in ~society

    balooga
    Link Parent
    There is no possible way to frame that statement as ethical, respectable, or patriotic. No way to portray it as in any way aligned with Christian morality. It’s just one example of many recent...

    The United States… has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world.

    There is no possible way to frame that statement as ethical, respectable, or patriotic. No way to portray it as in any way aligned with Christian morality. It’s just one example of many recent mask-off statements made by the magasphere that is unabashedly, nakedly evil from top to bottom. You can’t dress it up with justifications or try to twist it into anything other than exactly that — an evil, reckless, headstrong affront to humanity. Completely out of alignment with anyone who values mercy, compassion, democracy, freedom, principled leadership, or even basic decency.

    6 votes

  18. 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

    balooga
    Link Parent
    …of course it did. Keep it classy, U.S. politics.

    …of course it did. Keep it classy, U.S. politics.

  19. Comment on Project Glasswing: securing critical software for the AI era in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    Okay, I see where you're coming from now. I'm not making a long-term bet against it... what I'm predicting is a near-term crisis that acts as an industry wake-up call, which in turn leads to much...

    Okay, I see where you're coming from now. I'm not making a long-term bet against it... what I'm predicting is a near-term crisis that acts as an industry wake-up call, which in turn leads to much better (I probably mean "deterministic") tools and workflows that really do solve the problem for good. But right now? It's still the wild west. In the meantime I think a lot of engineers, or engineering departments, are going to get overconfident and create some real messes for themselves, before actual best practices are solidified.

    5 votes

  20. Comment on Project Glasswing: securing critical software for the AI era in ~tech

    balooga
    Link Parent
    As a member of that industry (albeit between jobs at the moment) who is pretty deep in the agentic engineering space these days, I'd like to know more about those best practices you're talking...

    As a member of that industry (albeit between jobs at the moment) who is pretty deep in the agentic engineering space these days, I'd like to know more about those best practices you're talking about. From where I'm sitting that still seems very much up in the air.

    13 votes