balooga's recent activity
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Comment on Two years to save the planet, says UN climate chief in ~enviro
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Comment on Keanu Reeves joins 'Sonic 3' as Shadow in ~movies
balooga LinkAs a fan of Keanu Reeves AND Sonic the Hedgehog… I’m seriously disappointed in both of them.As a fan of Keanu Reeves AND Sonic the Hedgehog… I’m seriously disappointed in both of them.
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Comment on The Lonely Island beginnings | The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast - Episode 1 in ~tv
balooga LinkI remember watching The Lonely Island vids on the Channel101 website back in 2004 or so. They had a bunch of stuff on their own site too, this was before YouTube. Being a fan of theirs before they...I remember watching The Lonely Island vids on the Channel101 website back in 2004 or so. They had a bunch of stuff on their own site too, this was before YouTube. Being a fan of theirs before they got famous has been the defining hipster moment of my personal pop culture story. And they did kinda sell out, and I don’t watch SNL so I haven’t kept up with them in literally decades. But I was honestly happy for them, that all three got hired together, which is frankly absurd (but merited in their case). I love that The Lonely Island has remained a thing separate from SNL all the while. Nice to see they all made it to veteran celebrity status, with their friendship intact… It’s a true success story.
I listened to the episode and enjoyed it nostalgically. It inspired me to rewatch a few episodes of The ‘Bu which are still pretty masterful today despite their nonexistent budget. I hadn’t realized until Seth Meyers mentioned it in the podcast that Channel101 was partly a Dan Harmon creation. He’s a household name now but that website seemed super underground at the time. I didn’t even realize they did physical screenings, I thought it was all online! There was a lot of talent in that pool. I need to go look up Sockbaby and Kicked in the Nuts, see if either of those are still hosted somewhere.
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Comment on ‘Heroes’ reboot in the works from series creator Tim Kring in ~tv
balooga Link ParentOkay, since somebody bit... you gotta watch this surreal Flash-turned-YouTube video from that era. IIRC it originated as a Worth1000 "misheard lyrics" Flash animation contest winner, but W1K and...Okay, since somebody bit... you gotta watch this surreal Flash-turned-YouTube video from that era. IIRC it originated as a Worth1000 "misheard lyrics" Flash animation contest winner, but W1K and Flash are both long dead so I can't prove that. Warning: Contains juvenile early aughts edgy "humor" but the good still outweighs the bad in my opinion.
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Comment on Evennia: a modern way to create MU*s in ~games
balooga Link ParentOh wow, Gemstone III was one of my jams back in the day.Oh wow, Gemstone III was one of my jams back in the day.
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Comment on Nintendo 64-style platformer Corn Kidz 64 releases for Switch on April 19 in ~games
balooga Link ParentPersonally I can't say I find a ‘90s gaming experience to be something I particularly want. That first generation of 3D platformers was rough. Janky character controls, even worse camera controls…...Personally I can't say I find a ‘90s gaming experience to be something I particularly want. That first generation of 3D platformers was rough. Janky character controls, even worse camera controls… I loved those games at the time but there have been so many innovations since then that it’s downright painful to play them now.
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Comment on ‘Heroes’ reboot in the works from series creator Tim Kring in ~tv
balooga Link ParentIt means "I did it!" Edit: Anybody else remember the ancient Yatta! song meme?It means "I did it!"
Edit: Anybody else remember the ancient Yatta! song meme?
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Comment on ‘Heroes’ reboot in the works from series creator Tim Kring in ~tv
balooga Link ParentIt’s a good point that the superhero entertainment landscape has changed a ton since Heroes first aired. The Dark Knight hadn’t come out yet, nor had the entire MCU. Today we literally have the...It’s a good point that the superhero entertainment landscape has changed a ton since Heroes first aired. The Dark Knight hadn’t come out yet, nor had the entire MCU. Today we literally have the term “superhero fatigue” to describe audience burnout with this kind of story. It doesn’t feel like the right time to try it again.
Also, in my opinion Heroes was very much an example of the Lost style of storytelling, where the show builds interest by layering mystery upon mystery with no actual plan to resolve 90% of it. They were just making it up as they went along. It made for an exciting season as it aired but it was ultimately unsatisfying. I don’t think this method is viable in 2024; a lot of people are still wary of it, particularly after seeing how Game of Thrones went off the rails after outpacing GRRM. I’d be worried about a Heroes reboot trying the same trick again.
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Comment on Elon Musk’s xAI seeks up to $4 billion to compete with OpenAI in ~tech
balooga Link ParentWhat a coincidence, so am I! My pitchdeck is simply “I will spend it better than Elon Musk would.”What a coincidence, so am I! My pitchdeck is simply “I will spend it better than Elon Musk would.”
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Comment on Evennia: a modern way to create MU*s in ~games
balooga LinkI've got a lot of fond memories from the '90s MU* scene. Unbelievably, TinyTIM (the world's oldest MUSH) is still running, though I'm linking an archive snapshot because their site's apparently...I've got a lot of fond memories from the '90s MU* scene. Unbelievably, TinyTIM (the world's oldest MUSH) is still running, though I'm linking an archive snapshot because their site's apparently been offline for a few months. The game server's still kicking though, albeit as a digital ghost town. Feels like somebody left the machine on in a closet somewhere and walked away for two decades.
I'm glad there are still enthusiasts out there keeping the scene alive and improving on the mechanics and backend architecture. At this stage in my life I no longer have the free time (or, arguably, the imagination and attention span) required to get back into it myself. But I still get warm nostalgia fuzzies when I think about it, for whatever that's worth.
One thing I noticed while reading the article is that apparently
telnetis still the preferred protocol for these? That's been deprecated basically everywhere for a reason. I get that someone's MUD session isn't exactly a high-value target but still... why not update that? I'm assuming SSH could be used, though I've never seen it done. -
Comment on Norwegian bridge collapsed ten years after it was built – all because designers focused too much on making it look good in ~engineering
balooga Link ParentWhat? That's a beautiful bridge! Way more aesthetically pleasing than this one was. And it lasted, I assume, 115+ years?What? That's a beautiful bridge! Way more aesthetically pleasing than this one was. And it lasted, I assume, 115+ years?
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Comment on US Senate Republicans furious over Donald Trump derailing FISA bill in ~misc
balooga Link ParentI may be misinformed, but I don't know if this is actually the case anymore. It certainly was when Snowden made headlines, and the surveillance apparatus was definitely intended to function that...This act is precisely the surveillance apparatus that Snowden martyred himself for. The federal government, through the NSA and other agencies, monitors and records essentially every form of electronic communications we have access to. We currently live under a surveillance state far, far more intrusive than anything the Soviet Union or East Germany could ever dream of.
I may be misinformed, but I don't know if this is actually the case anymore. It certainly was when Snowden made headlines, and the surveillance apparatus was definitely intended to function that way. But in the years since then, the internet has made great strides in rolling out SSL, end-to-end encryption, and the like. Anyone can configure their systems to use DNS over HTTPS, and tunnel their traffic through an anonymizing VPN. The NSA is likely continuing to siphon off every bit of data they can (aka, all of it within the USA) but the vast majority of it is meaningless noise at this point. I think the goal at this point is to store everything in giant datacenters, in case the ability to decrypt portions of it becomes feasible in the future.
That said, I'm sure they've got tons of other nefarious things in the works since Snowden. Highly classified things we can only speculate until another whistleblower comes forth. The things we do know about that I'm most concerned about are data brokers, who hoover up every detail they can get their mitts on and sell that info to others, including state actors. Defense against this is more complicated but using uBlock Origin and a browser with strict tracking protection can go a long way. Also, the gov't is involved in the zero-day exploit trade which is generally terrifying but usually those attacks are targeted at specific individuals. Not mass surveillance. Same with subpoena'ing tech companies to find out what particular people are doing on their platforms.
I don't want to be all "stop worrying, everything is fine" when the NSA is very assuredly continuing to do what we know it does, in secret. I'm sure they've got some horrifying powerful tech in use right now that no one knows about. But I'm not sure how much value there is in being paranoid about unknown unknowns. Better to address the problems we know to be real, and apply smart defenses against them wherever we can.
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Comment on US Senate Republicans furious over Donald Trump derailing FISA bill in ~misc
balooga Link ParentI don't know the context of the quote but could he have meant "on every American" instead of "on Americans" (collectively)?I don't know the context of the quote but could he have meant "on every American" instead of "on Americans" (collectively)?
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Comment on Pompeii: new paintings found in ~humanities.history
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Comment on OpenTofu denies Hashicorp's code-stealing accusations in ~comp
balooga LinkThe linked source code origination report is interesting. It’s too long and arcane for me to read in full right now, but provides a lot more substantial technical analysis of the situation than...The linked source code origination report is interesting. It’s too long and arcane for me to read in full right now, but provides a lot more substantial technical analysis of the situation than the article does. I’m not a lawyer (and I’m generally opposed to “intellectual property” on principle) but based on this I don’t think Hashicorp has much of a leg to stand on.
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Comment on ESA satellites to test razor-sharp formation flying in ~space
balooga LinkDoes anyone know what kind of propulsion and fuel are used by craft like this?Does anyone know what kind of propulsion and fuel are used by craft like this?
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Comment on Why large language models like ChatGPT treat Black- and White-sounding names differently in ~tech
balooga LinkFrom the link: I’d like to read more about this. To the best of my knowledge, whether a model is open- or closed-source doesn’t have any bearing on the understandability of its inner workings....From the link:
Most of these newer LLMs, the ones people are most accustomed to, like ChatGPT-4, tend to be closed source. With open source models, you can break it open and, in a technical way, look at the model and see how it is trained. And if you have the training data, you can look at whether the model was trained in such a way that it might encode disparities. But with the closed-source models, you have to find other ways to investigate.
I’d like to read more about this. To the best of my knowledge, whether a model is open- or closed-source doesn’t have any bearing on the understandability of its inner workings. Even access to the full training set isn’t going to explain how a given pair of tokens will be weighted or interact in a particular context. Aren’t all LLMs fundamentally black boxes?
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Comment on If we can't block users can we at least filter out topics posted by those users? in ~tildes
balooga Link ParentSomething like that would also work with uBlock Origin, if anyone uses that but doesn’t want to install Stylus also.Something like that would also work with uBlock Origin, if anyone uses that but doesn’t want to install Stylus also.
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Comment on New SimCity 4 mod gives it a fully functioning 3d camera in ~games
balooga LinkGood lord has it been that long already? I still think of SimCity 4 as the plucky upstart trying to dethrone SimCity 3000. I wasn’t expecting to feel so utterly devastated this early in the morning.more than 21 years following its initial release
Good lord has it been that long already? I still think of SimCity 4 as the plucky upstart trying to dethrone SimCity 3000. I wasn’t expecting to feel so utterly devastated this early in the morning.
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Comment on [help] Tips on resolving git conflicts, for the faint hearted in ~comp
balooga Link ParentI agree that diffing from the CLI is a real pain, I avoid it whenever I can. Any tool is going to have a learning curve, and the diff tools built into IDEs will vary, but I think any GUI is...I agree that diffing from the CLI is a real pain, I avoid it whenever I can. Any tool is going to have a learning curve, and the diff tools built into IDEs will vary, but I think any GUI is probably going to be a better experience on the whole. If you're not coding in an IDE (which you arguably should be, but that's another discussion) it's probably overkill to fire one up just for diffs. I'd recommend a specialized program. My personal favorite is KDiff3, which is kinda fugly but FOSS and full-featured:
- Git-compatible conflict resolution
- Auto-merge functionality
- 3-way diffing
- Recursive whole-directory contents diffing
- Toggleable whitespace/comment diff highlighting
- Inline character-by-character diff rendering
- Cross-platform binaries available here.
As utils go it's basically prehistoric but it continues to be maintained and actively developed. You can configure git to use it as
difftoolandmergetoolso it will open instead of the CLI tool by default. It's loosely "themeable" meaning you can change some colors, icons, and fonts, which isn't amazing but does help to file down some of the rough visual edges on Mac in particular.
This may be the most 2024 idea I have all year, but it's time for a gritty live-action reboot of Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Make it a big-budget HBO series. Replace the "mother earth" Gaia character with some sort of digital platform that amplifies the voice of the people... maybe keep Gaia as the AI personification of our collective will. Captain Planet himself is not a superhero, but an ecoterrorist vigilante whose whole thing is identifying the (actual) responsible parties who have the power to fix things, and making it personal for them. Lots of closeups of bloodied billionaires cowering in corners, swearing they'll do right thing so they won't get visited by the Captain again.
I'm half joking, but we've been waiting for the polluters to stop, or be stopped, for decades. Recycling and driving EVs aren't going to fix anything on the global scale. The problem is in the hands of a few, people who possess the power to improve things but refuse to use it on meaningful change. Who will hold them accountable? If only there was some way to crowdfund a resistance movement, since governments and corporations are failing us. I'd prefer if that weren't ecoterrorism or some kind of extra-legal action, but what else is there? At least a big TV show would get a new kind of conversation started.