balooga's recent activity
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Comment on Sorry. Your car will never drive you around. in ~transport
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Comment on Vancouver’s new mega-development is big, ambitious and undeniably Indigenous in ~design
balooga Thanks for the info, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions about that.Thanks for the info, I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions about that.
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Comment on Vancouver’s new mega-development is big, ambitious and undeniably Indigenous in ~design
balooga The building designs shown in the article look great! I love the emphasis on greenery and outdoor space. I looked up the site on the map to see where it was going to go, and there's honestly not a...The building designs shown in the article look great! I love the emphasis on greenery and outdoor space. I looked up the site on the map to see where it was going to go, and there's honestly not a lot of land there... it looks like they intend to develop every inch of it. I'm not sure how feasible that really is. Looks like they want to build right up against existing structures on neighboring land.
Practically, this is a giant middle finger to the City of Vancouver. Now I'm not going to add to the non-Indigenous chorus saying what they should or shouldn't do. But I can't help but wonder if the city could retaliate by blocking their access to the power grid, sewers, roadways, etc. A development like this one requires cooperative coexistence. If the Squamish First Nation is operating in bad faith, I doubt the city is under any obligation to facilitate their plans.
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Comment on Some thoughts about Starfield's world in ~games
balooga Beautiful. Honestly I’m not sure how much staying power BGS has at this point. Skyrim was an incredible, fantastically realized game. Still one of my all-time favorites, even after *checks notes*...I can't help but compare, there's multiple studios putting out what anybody would call their "magnum opus" products and those are going wildly well. Starfield feels like a wet fart in the middle of a really good concert.
Beautiful.
Honestly I’m not sure how much staying power BGS has at this point. Skyrim was an incredible, fantastically realized game. Still one of my all-time favorites, even after *checks notes* 13 years. Nothing the company has put out since then comes close, and in the software world that’s an eternity. How many of the developers, artists, writers, etc. from the Skyrim team are still working there? I’d be amazed if that number was in the double digits.
I know Fallout 4 is highly regarded in some circles but it was a departure from everything I personally thought made New Vegas a joy to play. Bethesda’s mistreatment of Obsidian after FNV still leaves a bad taste in my mouth… I feel they’ve ruined the franchise in the intervening years. On top of that, Fallout 76 was universally panned and Starfield is lackluster. I don’t have any confidence that TESVI will be a worthy successor to Skyrim. For companies delivering an equivalent experience, my attention has fully shifted to Bethesda’s competitors. I hope BGS will prove me wrong but I’m not holding my breath.
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Comment on The FBI’s new tactic: Catching suspects with push alerts in ~tech
balooga It’s not clear to me from the article if push tokens are automatically associated with all user accounts on iOS and Android devices, or if they only get assigned on transmission of a push...It’s not clear to me from the article if push tokens are automatically associated with all user accounts on iOS and Android devices, or if they only get assigned on transmission of a push notification. In other words, is everyone susceptible to this method of deanonymization, or can it be prevented by disabling push notifs on your phone?
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Comment on When do you listen to podcasts? in ~life
balooga If you’re into tech stuff I’m a big fan of Security Now, Hacked, the Accidental Tech Podcast (Apple-focused), and the 404 Media podcast. For general interest listening I recommend 99% Invisible,...If you’re into tech stuff I’m a big fan of Security Now, Hacked, the Accidental Tech Podcast (Apple-focused), and the 404 Media podcast. For general interest listening I recommend 99% Invisible, The Last Archive, and Unexplainable from Vox. For deep-dive news/politics/science/philosophy, check out The Ezra Klein Show, Mindscape, and Today Explained and Unexplainable from Vox. For more oddball stuff I really like QAA (formerly QAnon Anonymous). Merriam-Webster has a bite-size Word of the Day podcast I keep in my rotation too.
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Comment on Why is the discourse on Tildes so much nicer than most places on the internet? in ~tildes
balooga That comment was still up? I’m surprised it wasn’t removed.Hadn't seen them for a while, checked their profile, their last post was 'fuck it, I'm sick of this "feelings" snowflake bullshit' and declared they were leaving.
That comment was still up? I’m surprised it wasn’t removed.
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Comment on Why is the discourse on Tildes so much nicer than most places on the internet? in ~tildes
balooga You know, I’ve been here basically since the beginning (going back before the label feature was imagined) and I don’t think I’ve ever actually used the Malice label. Maybe once. Which is a...You know, I’ve been here basically since the beginning (going back before the label feature was imagined) and I don’t think I’ve ever actually used the Malice label. Maybe once. Which is a testament to the quality of conversation on Tildes, but also it sounds like you have a looser idea of what it’s for than I do. I’ve been reserving for stuff like direct name-calling and threats, which if they happen here at all are usually wiped clean before I see them. But I’ve never thought to label a comment just for having an assholish tone. I do see those from time to time, rarely, but absent explicit hostility it seems a bit heavy-handed to drop a Malice on there when it happens. I guess it’s a matter of personal judgment.
I always tend to be mindful of my tone when I post. I think I'm just an agreeable person IRL so as far as I know I’ve never been on the receiving end of moderation here. But I still find it a bit disquieting if actual tone policing is happening, which I was unaware of. Maybe blissfully ignorant. How much of that is actively occurring on Tildes?
I try to steer clear of site drama and controversy when it does spring up, so I’m maybe not up to speed on the current zeitgeist about how to deal with concerns about tone. I think my gut reaction is “first they came for the impolite posters, but I said nothing because I’m socially well-adjusted” or something. Is tone policing the right thing to do? Clearly it results in a really nice conversational tenor for the site, I can’t argue with that. I’m just wondering about neurodivergent folks, people on the spectrum for whom managing tone is not a simple ask. Are we stifling contributions from them?
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Comment on American politics is undergoing a racial realignment – Democrats are rapidly losing non-white voters as the forces that ensured their support weaken in ~misc
balooga If you install the Bypass Paywalls Clean extension (for Firefox or Chromium) paywalled links like these will seldom be a problem. I don’t even realize which sites have walls because I almost never... -
Comment on Kagi + Wolfram in ~tech
balooga Many thanks for that, I haven’t revisited my strategy in years. It’ll be good to make sure what I’m doing is still current and effective.Many thanks for that, I haven’t revisited my strategy in years. It’ll be good to make sure what I’m doing is still current and effective.
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Comment on Kagi + Wolfram in ~tech
balooga This is compelling, I’ve been watching Kagi from afar but haven’t tried it myself. This seems like a legitimate reason to change that. I’ve been mostly satisfied with DuckDuckGo for years, but I’m...This is compelling, I’ve been watching Kagi from afar but haven’t tried it myself. This seems like a legitimate reason to change that.
I’ve been mostly satisfied with DuckDuckGo for years, but I’m pretty sure it’s just a front-end for Bing. Results are generally “good enough.” I think result relevance has declined for all the search engines in the past few years, just because of the state of the web these days. I don’t worry too much about tracking because I use uBlock Origin + Decentraleyes + CanvasBlocker and Firefox with enhanced tracking protection, and a VPN, and a weird habit of opening unknown links in private windows to isolate them. A bit more paranoid than most, lol. Anyway, I mentioned in another thread that I’m unemployed at the moment, so Kagi’s gonna have to wait for some cash flow. But I’m interested.
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Comment on Fallout | Official trailer in ~tv
balooga That might be preferable to the games with their garbage-strewn environments everywhere you turn. Really, 200+ years later and nobody’s thought to pick up the tin cans all over the floor?That might be preferable to the games with their garbage-strewn environments everywhere you turn. Really, 200+ years later and nobody’s thought to pick up the tin cans all over the floor?
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Comment on Inside Out 2 | Official trailer in ~movies
balooga I really like the first movie and this looks like a decent sequel to me. Full-blown puberty was the next logical progression! The new emotions should be fun to watch and mostly make sense, but it...I really like the first movie and this looks like a decent sequel to me. Full-blown puberty was the next logical progression! The new emotions should be fun to watch and mostly make sense, but it does bug me that the first movie sets the precedent of showing the same set of five as the only ones present inside everyone we see. I'm curious how they retcon that. I'm expecting some sort of "once you're fully grown those emotions are still present but mostly not in control of anything" explanation. Maybe we'll peek into Mom and Dad's heads again and the camera will pan over to show their embarrassments and anxieties being suppressed in comical ways. I could get behind that.
As a hardcore Pixar fan since Toy Story, it warmed my heart to hear John Ratzenberger's voice again! I had to look it up to make sure it was really him. I was also surprised then to learn that the cast includes Frank Oz and Flea. Interesting. I see that they recast the voices of Fear and Disgust: Tony Hale now replaces Bill Hader, and Liza Lapira replaces Mindy Kaling, respectively. I think the former is a great choice... I'm not familiar enough with Lapira's work to comment on her. All in all I'm pretty excited about this one.
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Comment on Polymath - Toolkit to automatically segment music tracks and convert to MIDI in ~comp
balooga This looks cool! I'd like to hear some samples of what it can do.This looks cool! I'd like to hear some samples of what it can do.
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Comment on On creation for creation's sake in ~talk
balooga I’m in a similar situation to yours. I’ve been coding professionally for 17 years and I’m still riddled with feelings of inadequacy, imposter syndrome, lack of motivation, and burnout. I was laid...I’m in a similar situation to yours. I’ve been coding professionally for 17 years and I’m still riddled with feelings of inadequacy, imposter syndrome, lack of motivation, and burnout. I was laid off last month and I’m just completely uninterested in doing the tech interview thing yet again, especially with how the deck is stacked in 2024, and working my tail off just to find another engineering job that makes me miserable again.
So I decided to go out on a limb and make a game instead! Never done anything like this before. Partly I just want to see if I can, because I’ve never taken on a project at that scale, all by myself. Just solo devving. Of course my spouse and kids are depending on me earning a living so I’m hoping to crowdfund this thing and sell it on Steam or something.
It’s actually pretty terrifying, not knowing how long it will take to build, if I’m capable of doing it alone, if the final product will be interesting to people or even fun. But here in these early stages (2 weeks in) I’m at least feeling light and excited about something, which I’m considering a good thing. I don’t love the tightrope-walking-without-a-net aspect of this but I’d never realistically be able to take on this project while holding a day job, and at least I have unemployment benefits and some severance. It was a “now or never” decision I made impulsively. I’m really hoping it doesn’t blow up in my face…
I may share more about it on Tildes as my plan comes together or when I start to run up against the hard parts of the process. I know there are other game devs in this community whose advice I’d really appreciate. At the moment I’m not even sure what questions I’d ask.
I’m contemplating bringing others in with me for playtesting, brainstorming, and general accountability. I think I probably work harder if I know someone’s going to be checking up on my progress. Of course I can’t afford to pay anybody so it would have to be a hobby thing for folks — I wouldn’t feel great about that. I’m thinking I should try to get enough of the game’s foundations together to assemble the crowdfunding pitch and secure some backers first, then maybe I can do some community building with them through discord or something. I have no idea what I’m doing, haha. But at least then I’d be interacting with interested parties and not spamming strangers. I have no experience with marketing, or asking for money or help. I don’t even use social media. The more I think about it, the more important that aspect of this project seems if it’s going to have any success.
I don’t know if any of this is relevant to your ask, OP, but it’s all I’m thinking about these days so I figured I’d write it out.
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Comment on On creation for creation's sake in ~talk
balooga Dreams was awesome, RIP indeed. I’m still disappointed they never released a PS5 upgrade with PSVR2 support.Dreams was awesome, RIP indeed. I’m still disappointed they never released a PS5 upgrade with PSVR2 support.
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Comment on One in four school-starters in England and Wales not toilet-trained, say teachers in ~life
balooga This seems like a pretty good use case for (careful, practiced, methodical application of) LLMs. Allow respondents to type free-form reasons and let the AI detect patterns that might not have...This seems like a pretty good use case for (careful, practiced, methodical application of) LLMs. Allow respondents to type free-form reasons and let the AI detect patterns that might not have otherwise been apparent.
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Comment on ‘Dune: Part Two’: How sci-fi space worm epic reared head to $81.5m opening after strike release delay in ~movies
balooga Which is funny considering how absolutely atrocious the Scorpion King CGI was.Which is funny considering how absolutely atrocious the Scorpion King CGI was.
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Comment on HP wants you to pay up to $36/month to rent a printer that it monitors in ~tech
balooga Ah yes, the “I am altering the deal, pray I do not alter it any further” clause.Ah yes, the “I am altering the deal, pray I do not alter it any further” clause.
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Comment on The Era of 1-bit LLMs: All Large Language Models are in 1.58 Bits in ~comp
balooga I wonder if the same technique could be used for image models?I wonder if the same technique could be used for image models?
Thanks for sharing this, it's an informative video with a lot of facts to back up my gut apprehension about autonomous vehicles. The more I understand about how these technologies work, the less I trust them. I say that as a software engineer by trade, and my less geeky friends and family have raised their eyebrows when I've mentioned my hesitancy to them. They expected me, the "tech guy," to be all-in on self-driving vehicles, but I don't want anything to do with the things. Anecdotally it seems like it's the less technically inclined folks who are more trusting of it, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
The other day I was driving through a construction zone in a pedestrian-heavy area with speed bumps and crosswalks. There were traffic cones indicating a lane switch into the oncoming lane, signaled by a flagger. Straight ahead through the cones was a giant gaping hole. Honestly as I approached it I could barely sort out where I was supposed to go and when. There's not a computer system on the planet that could navigate it correctly. Best case scenario, the car just stops in the middle of the road. Worst case, you end up in the hole (along with the flagger your car dragged beneath it).
I visited Maui last year and drove the Road to Hana. It's a stunningly beautiful drive. It also demanded my full attention, with its blind hairpin curves, dozens of single-lane bridges, and frequent occurrences of tourists and their cars wherever they felt like parking on the shoulder for some sightseeing. The bridges were the craziest part, often I had to engage in some nonverbal communication with oncoming cars just to negotiate who went when. At one point I had to quickly throw the car in reverse to avoid a collision. And I haven't even mentioned the locals who drive way too fast (and the expected courtesy of slower drivers pulling off the road when they come up behind so they can pass), or the oversized oncoming work trucks crossing the center line around blind corners.
Anyway, I'll have confidence in self-driving cars when they can seamlessly handle both of the above situations without killing anyone (or giving up and just stopping the vehicle in the middle of the street). If the tech ever matures to that point, I don't expect it to happen for several decades at least.
If you'll indulge me for a moment, I want to talk about alternative approaches to vehicular autonomy. Things like some sort of mesh network all cars participate in or the swarming behavior shown in the video are really interesting but they're impossible for one reason: uncontrollable variables in a dynamic environment. You can get all the new cars to play nicely together, but they still have to share the space with the old cars that don't. (The designated lanes idea in the video would help but not solve this fully.) You have non-vehicles that enter the roadway unpredictably — wildlife, pedestrians, construction, rogue soccer balls, whatever. You can't plan for every contingency.
At the same time, we still don't have flying cars. Maybe this is their moment. What if when they finally arrived, they all came equipped with a standardized self-driving system that communicates with neighboring vehicles? The biggest old argument I heard against them was the danger a bad driver could pose driving drunk at cruising altitude or whatever. But if every single one of them is autonomous from day one? Maybe not so bad. With no manually driven cars sharing the airspace, and of course no pedestrians or construction to contend with, maybe no real hazards apart from birds... I dunno, I think it's compelling. It'd be a hell of a lot faster to get from A to B, I know that much at least. If Not Just Bikes has taught me anything, it's that roads suck... I'm kinda ready to just be done with them altogether.