deathinactthree's recent activity
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Comment on What's a product or service that you use but don't want to pay for and why? in ~life
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
deathinactthree Link ParentOh, that answers my question in my other comment. TIL!Oh, that answers my question in my other comment. TIL!
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
deathinactthree Link ParentMakes me wonder if there's a term for "portmanteau but not exactly"Makes me wonder if there's a term for "portmanteau but not exactly"
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
deathinactthree Link ParentHeh, I live in Seattle and they play "Chaise Longue" pretty regularly on KEXP. Although it's been a bugbear for me for a long time, that's probably why I was thinking about it recently!Heh, I live in Seattle and they play "Chaise Longue" pretty regularly on KEXP. Although it's been a bugbear for me for a long time, that's probably why I was thinking about it recently!
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Comment on What are some of your routines or habits? in ~life
deathinactthree LinkEvery morning starts with a coffee and cig (I know) in my bathrobe on my back deck watching the sun come up. Then some light stretching, then getting my dailies in Gems of War (F2P game but you...Every morning starts with a coffee and cig (I know) in my bathrobe on my back deck watching the sun come up. Then some light stretching, then getting my dailies in Gems of War (F2P game but you don't have to spend money) for 5 minutes before my daily ablutions. Then log in to work.
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
deathinactthree Link ParentSimilarly, "poisonous" vs "venomous".Similarly, "poisonous" vs "venomous".
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Comment on What common misunderstanding do you want to clear up? in ~talk
deathinactthree LinkIt's "chaise longue" (lit. "long chair" in French), not "chaise lounge". Drives me nuts for some reason, even though I get how it happened since, y'know, you lounge on it.It's "chaise longue" (lit. "long chair" in French), not "chaise lounge". Drives me nuts for some reason, even though I get how it happened since, y'know, you lounge on it.
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Comment on Why do some gamers invert their controls? Scientists now have answers, but they’re not what you think. in ~games
deathinactthree LinkThis thread makes me feel like I'm the weird one, heh. I use non-inverted always specifically including for flight games (e.g. Freespace 2, No Man's Sky) because for me, I don't think of the...This thread makes me feel like I'm the weird one, heh. I use non-inverted always specifically including for flight games (e.g. Freespace 2, No Man's Sky) because for me, I don't think of the joystick as my neck, but my corneas: I push up if I want to look or move up, down if I want down, left, right, etc. I can't get the hang of inverted controls. I look in the direction I intend to move. I don't even use free look controls because I'm Going Where I'm Going. Not sure what this says about my brain.
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Comment on Investment club? in ~finance
deathinactthree Link ParentAlright, I'm in. I'm an extremely conservative investor but like I said, I have some "fun money" I can play with, and none of it is crypto or will be. It could be useful to give some basic advice...Alright, I'm in.
I'm an extremely conservative investor but like I said, I have some "fun money" I can play with, and none of it is crypto or will be. It could be useful to give some basic advice for people starting out as well as collectively doing some fundamental analysis on prospects and see where it goes.
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Comment on Investment club? in ~finance
deathinactthree Link ParentAll that makes sense, and fair enough. But I'd be remiss to not ask since this is something you're looking at spearheading: what's your background in this? I'm not looking for a specific answer,...All that makes sense, and fair enough. But I'd be remiss to not ask since this is something you're looking at spearheading: what's your background in this? I'm not looking for a specific answer, just curious.
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Comment on Investment club? in ~finance
deathinactthree Link ParentI like the idea of a knowledge exchange that was mentioned. I can pitch in a small amount but my advice will be really boring--S&P500 and Vanguard Retirement Funds --but could be valuable for...I like the idea of a knowledge exchange that was mentioned. I can pitch in a small amount but my advice will be really boring--S&P500 and Vanguard Retirement Funds --but could be valuable for people starting out on the how and why.
For the investment club I have a small separate account I keep for moonshots but is the goal here technical or fundamental analysis? Both? Neither? Vibes? 😜
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Comment on Investment club? in ~finance
deathinactthree Link ParentI feel the same way. Almost all my money is in no-load indexes averaging 15% YOY but, like, I'd at least look. I have a separate much smaller account where I can take some chances.I feel the same way. Almost all my money is in no-load indexes averaging 15% YOY but, like, I'd at least look. I have a separate much smaller account where I can take some chances.
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Comment on I've noticed an odd and possibly disturbing trend on Reddit lately in ~tech
deathinactthree Link ParentI have occasionally myself debated creating such a bot that allows me to bait a Reddit Idiot(tm) into arguing endlessly with an LLM. But I truly feel that there are enough bots (or even just...I have occasionally myself debated creating such a bot that allows me to bait a Reddit Idiot(tm) into arguing endlessly with an LLM. But I truly feel that there are enough bots (or even just idiots) on Reddit that I would just be contributing to Dead Internet Theory. It wouldn't add anything but more noise.
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Comment on Favorite mobile games for short play sessions? in ~games
deathinactthree Link ParentThis seems pretty good actually--I just ran through the tutorial and a couple of levels and it strikes me as a simplified (not simple) version of Alina of the Arena which is a game I love and I...This seems pretty good actually--I just ran through the tutorial and a couple of levels and it strikes me as a simplified (not simple) version of Alina of the Arena which is a game I love and I always wished I could play on mobile. This is close enough! Thanks!
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Comment on Explain Linux controversies to me in ~tech
deathinactthree Link ParentThat's how I recall it as well. It's not that the project was asking for financial support, it's that it was a little presumptuous to default to a $20 (IIRC?) donation on the download page for an...More “lol I’m donating to Debian not this unfinished desktop environment that’s an old fork of an Ubunutu LTE” and less “how dare a FOSS project ask for donations!”
That's how I recall it as well. It's not that the project was asking for financial support, it's that it was a little presumptuous to default to a $20 (IIRC?) donation on the download page for an aging Ubuntu fork with a custom desktop environment that wasn't even close to usable as a daily driver. Pantheon was somewhat promising when it launched in 2011 but still barely an MVP at that stage, and they were using dark patterns to make you pay retail software price for software that doesn't work.
I'm phrasing it this way because they did. It wasn't "please donate to help our developers get to the goal of a finished and fantastic software experience", it was "click here to buy ElementaryOS". It gave you to understand you were buying a retail product.
That rubbed a lot of people, including me, the wrong way. And here we are, nearly 15 years later, and I would argue eOS is still not what I'd consider ready for prime time, and they're still asking for money--but at least now it's a bit less dark-patterny.
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Comment on What is a quote that you really like that is from a problematic person? in ~talk
deathinactthree Link ParentTrue... in hindsight I feel like maybe giving him a little more credit than I used to just because so many people have tried and failed to be him since. I didn't care for Jobs much as a human...True... in hindsight I feel like maybe giving him a little more credit than I used to just because so many people have tried and failed to be him since. I didn't care for Jobs much as a human being, but I would never claim he was a stupid guy. Unlike, say, Holmes putting on a turtleneck to sell her scam, or Musk buying his way into a decade of credibility for a bunch of companies he had no hand in the success of.
I didn't really believe in Jobs' vision (though full disclosure, I had my reasons at the time and have come around a little bit on since) but at least he had one--my antipathy was more around his leadership style and the fact that he was never an engineer despite letting himself be widely seen as one.
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Comment on What is a quote that you really like that is from a problematic person? in ~talk
deathinactthree (edited )LinkI have no love whatsoever for Steve Jobs, whom I regard as little more than a successful salesman taking credit for other people's work and who was always kind of a scummy dude both personally and...I have no love whatsoever for Steve Jobs, whom I regard as little more than a successful salesman taking credit for other people's work and who was always kind of a scummy dude both personally and professionally, but he has two quotes that have always stuck with me:
"It's not the customer's job to know what they want."
"Real artists ship."
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Comment on May 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 5(ish) Discussion in ~games
deathinactthree (edited )LinkSliding in under the wire since the final recap isn't posted yet, and since I only managed to add two games that aren't going to take a lot of words: deathinactthree's bingo card Mode: Standard...Sliding in under the wire since the final recap isn't posted yet, and since I only managed to add two games that aren't going to take a lot of words:
deathinactthree's bingo card
Mode: Standard Bingo! Finished 10/25 Your friend loves it
✅ Berzerk BoyHas survival mechanics Has an isometric perspective
✅ Albion OnlineA romhack or total conversion mod Has both combat and puzzles Has a silent protagonist Randomness determines your fate Owned for more than 4 years Has a moral choice system
✅ The Witcher Tales: ThronebreakerHas cards
✅ InscryptionA modded game Has a skill tree ★ Wildcard Has a review score below 57 Has driving
✅ Bang Bang RacingFocuses on relationships
✅ Stray GodsHas a score system From a series you have never played Uses procedural generation An updated version (remake, re-release) of an older game
✅ Shadow Warrior 2013Has a satirical vibe
✅ Shing!Is open-source Uses a unique control scheme
✅ Arcade ParadiseFocuses on exploration
✅ Dear EstherIs one of the oldest games you own Dear Esther
This has sat on my hard drive in one form or another since its release in 2007. Starting life as a Half Life 2 mod and eventually getting ported over to the Unity engine, it's a game that invented the need for the term "walking simulator"--you spend the entire game walking from one end of an island off the New England coast to the other. There's no controls beyond walking. No sprinting or jumping or interaction of any kind. Someone, which is not entirely clear as to whether it's you, someone you're trying to find, or someone who was also trying to find whatever you're trying to find, narrates pieces of a story periodically during your walk. The story doesn't make any sense at all at first. It sometimes seems to allude to the things you see during your walk. Often it's clearly talking about things that happened in the past that seem completely unrelated. Until, depending on your read, it's all very clearly related.
The game only takes an hour at most start to finish unless you spend some time looking at the various vistas offered by the game, which I did. In a sense, the original HL2 mod was an attempt to push the visual experience as far as it could go, which is partially why it didn't offer much in the way of interactions or moving objects, because it was a bit of a beast to run in 2007 and controlling for jumping aliens or fast gunfire would've caused your GeForce 8800 GT to dribble out the bottom of your PC case, having melted into liquid form and forming an Elephant's Foot underneath your desk.
Ported to Unity in 2013, the graphics hold up surprisingly well and I did occasionally just hang out and appreciate the care put into the surroundings. The more the story unfolded and took shape, the more I became invested, but I can't say anything more than that. As an experience, Dear Esther only works at all if you go in absolutely blind, and I mean blind--the less you know anything past that it's a walking simulator, and the less you expect, the more impact it will likely have. Fortunately, despite having this in my library for 18 years, I did go in blind, and while I initially expected my attention to wander off in the first 10 minutes and uninstall it, I can say that I genuinely enjoyed it and found the ending...well, literally any word I could use here risks giving something away. I will say that if you haven't played this because you kind of roll your eyes at an expected "twist" ending of "but I'm/you're/we're deeeeeaaaaAAAAAaadddd!!1!"--I will fully confess that having that expectation is why I never spared the hour for nearly two decades--it is not that. It's also not not that, but it's nothing nearly so lazy. Death is almost beside the point. It is also the only point.
This game is a kind of literature and I'm not surprised it launched the walking simulator genre. If this game was any longer than an hour it would become incredibly tedious and you would declaim something about trading your kingdom for a sprint button. If it was any shorter than an hour it wouldn't have any time to soak into you enough for you to buy the premise. I truly thought I wasn't going to care at all about this game but it turned out to be something I'll be thinking about for a long time.
Inscryption
Upfront, I'll say I wish I had more to say about this game but I'm kind of sliding it under the door since it's the end of the month. I expect it'll be a game I could write 2000 words on at some point but I didn't have a chance to get very far and I've only got a few hours before @kfwyre closes the gates, so I'm leaving this flyer on the ground largely to remind me to write up something about it later on in one of the usual weekly gaming topics.
I was really looking forward to this one, and I was right to. Oddly, the biggest reason it went on the backlog was that I felt uninspired by the card art. Simple line drawings of animals while I was playing other card-based games with art that looking at was half the appeal. Imagine going from the richly painted and animated cards of Gwent, say, to a pencil drawing of a frog. It's just a frog. Its power is that it can hop. (In the way of flying enemies which is insanely useful, but still.) Where's the fireballs? The magic shields? The area of effect damage? Particle effects?
I didn't really dismiss the game because of that, but there were other deckbuilders in my queue that were literally just more appealing to look at, so while I was genuinely excited about getting to this one, I kept putting it off. If you're familiar with the game, you already know the actual card game is only part of it. Yep, it's just simple line drawings of animals that you put onto the board to fight each other viz. their numerical attack and health numbers. Then the cards start talking to you. Then you start noticing the weird stuff around the cabin you're stuck in. Then the mysterious opponent starts putting on masks, the only time you see its face, and the masks are simultaneously comical and kind of horrifying. Then you die the first time.
I would like to have more to say about this game but I didn't get to spend as much time with it as I'd hoped before May 31st came faster than I'd anticipated. But it's as good as the reviews say.
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Comment on What in your opinion is the greatest guitar solo? in ~music
deathinactthree LinkFor me, the riff and solo opening to Dinosaur Jr's "Out There" and no one else is even in the parking lot. It--like most of J. Mascis' guitar work, really--is kind of unconventional for a hard...For me, the riff and solo opening to Dinosaur Jr's "Out There" and no one else is even in the parking lot.
It--like most of J. Mascis' guitar work, really--is kind of unconventional for a hard rock solo. It's kind of all over the place, all over the fretboard, and with so many bends it constantly feels like it's on the verge of going off the rails, but it completely swings. It's got a driving rhythm that gets me hype every time and makes me want to run through a wall.
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Comment on What is a non-problematic word that you avoid using? in ~talk
deathinactthree Link ParentYes, totally--which reminds me I also hate the word "craveable", which unfortunately my phone spellcheck recognizes as a word despite it being purely a marketing neologism.Yes, totally--which reminds me I also hate the word "craveable", which unfortunately my phone spellcheck recognizes as a word despite it being purely a marketing neologism.
Newpipe for Android and using uBlock Origin on Firefox-based browsers (doesn't work on Blink anymore) means I haven't seen a single YT ad in years.