hobbes64's recent activity

  1. Comment on 4 × 3 in ~games

    hobbes64
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    I’ve shared this with several people and I’ve been playing it every day since it came out. But Hank has warned that he’s not going to support this game for very long. Since you can make your own...

    I’ve shared this with several people and I’ve been playing it every day since it came out. But Hank has warned that he’s not going to support this game for very long. Since you can make your own levels and share them, it could last a while after he stops making them.

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of June 22 in ~society

    hobbes64
    Link Parent
    Ok. I'm mostly not following Trump's antics lately, because it's exhausting. But I've seen a few stories about this issue. The key points seem to be, in the order I was aware of them: He wanted to...

    Ok.

    I'm mostly not following Trump's antics lately, because it's exhausting.
    But I've seen a few stories about this issue. The key points seem to be, in the order I was aware of them:

    • He wanted to make it a tacky color
    • He awarded a no-bid contract to a corrupt crony who was overpaid. We can be sure that he's profiting personally from this in multiple ways
    • The job was probably not done competently since the contractor doesn't have experience working on monuments
    • When the job started having problems with algae, Trump trotted out his typical insults and lies about who was responsible
    • When the blue coating started separating and floating to the surface, Trump had people arrested and lied about how some of his political enemies where vandalizing the monument
    • Trump lied about having evidence of vandals
    • There are pictures of his motorcade driving through the reflecting pool when it was drained and before the coating could have cured. Driving any vehicle over it could have been harmful, but these are multiple armored heavy SUVs so they almost certainly are a cause for the coating issue.

    As I said, it's exhausting to be exposed to this much corruption and incompetence every day.

    12 votes

  3. Comment on We can fix the future, Star Trek shows us how in ~humanities

    hobbes64
    Link Parent
    Note: I haven't watched the video yet but I can comment about what I've seen in Star Trek. Some version of socialism is frequently presented as normal in the Star Trek universe. This would be...

    Note: I haven't watched the video yet but I can comment about what I've seen in Star Trek.

    Some version of socialism is frequently presented as normal in the Star Trek universe. This would be considered highly political in the US today.

    There's a specific episode of TNG called The Neutral Zone where the Enterprise finds some cryogenically frozen people who need to be taught about a post-scarcity society and how money doesn't matter etc.

    The thing that is highly political about it is that in the post-scarcity society, everyone benefits, unlike in our contemporary world where it's considered fine that there are both trillionaires and starving people.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Re-watched the Bourne Trilogy after several years, I understand now why it was so influential in ~movies

    hobbes64
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    I love the Bourne movies. Although you are talking about the direction and style, I love them for the plot. Actually, I'm not sure if I really like the presentation of them that much, but you are...

    I love the Bourne movies. Although you are talking about the direction and style, I love them for the plot.
    Actually, I'm not sure if I really like the presentation of them that much, but you are right about how it's always clear what is happening.

    Regarding the plot: They are basically superhero movies without the magic.
    It's like the difference between fantasy science fiction vs hard science fiction.

    A Bourne Movie -> A Spiderman Movie

    • is like *

    A Star Trek Movie -> A Star Wars Movie

    Some reason I always like a movie where someone is quietly a badass and maybe doesn't even know why. I'm sure it was a fantasy of mine when I was younger that I secretly had super powers but just forgot about them.

    5 votes

  5. Comment on My father died suddenly in ~life.men

    hobbes64
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    I think you are kind of ahead of the game on this. Certainly a lot more self aware than I was when my dad died, and you are thinking more about the feelings of other people than I did when I was...

    I think you are kind of ahead of the game on this. Certainly a lot more self aware than I was when my dad died, and you are thinking more about the feelings of other people than I did when I was younger.

    My dad has been gone for years, but just a few days ago I was thinking about him and I wrote a journal of some of the things that I had been thinking about. I think I still have to work through some of the trauma of him dying and my thoughts about him and how my personality and issues relate to growing up around him and how he died.

    He retired early because he got sick. He got better but then got a second illness and died a few months later. He was pretty young and this traumatized the family a lot.

    For whatever reason I didn't realize that he was an alcoholic until he got sick the first time and I saw some evaluation from a doctor that mentioned it.

    I have very complicated feelings about him. I think he was a good guy, but he had a lot of behaviors that I didn't like. When I was younger, I consciously tried to not be like him. As I get older, I can appreciate his good qualities and I realize that life is hard for all of us, and parenting is particularly difficult. But when I have certain feelings of anxiety or anger, I try to think about the cause and I think a lot of it is related to his personality and how he interacted with me.

    Here are some of his specific traits:

    • He had depression, and this was complicated I'm sure by his drinking
    • He lacked ambition. He worked and raised a family, but rarely wanted to do anything other than listen to baseball or watch TV.
    • He only spent time with me when I was very young. By the time I was in middle school we didn't do much together.
    • He was very religious and very dogmatic about it.
    • He had a quick temper
    • He had a lot of anxiety and would pace when he had something on his mind
    • He said some weird and depressing things to me when I was younger. This wasn't abusive things, just depressing things about life. I'm sure this is probably related to the fact that he lost his own father when he was very young.

    What you mentioned about your mother makes me feel kind of bad about my mother. Frankly I've never been close to my mother. When my father died I really didn't talk to her much about it, and I rarely visited her or anything. One of my brothers in law would go by and help her frequently but I didn't really. I still don't visit her that much. She has a much different relationship with my sisters, but I don't think they are really that close to her. But I'm confident that I was closer to my dad than my other siblings were.

    So anyway don't feel bad about yourself or think you are somehow grieving in some wrong way. People go through this stuff at different speeds and you have to give yourself time to heal and grow. As I said, life is hard, we all make mistakes, and hopefully we learn and change.

    3 votes

  6. Comment on ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ sequel in the works with Jim Carrey, Ron Howard in ~movies

    hobbes64
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    The last time I thought about this movie was when I tried to find out something about Taylor Momsen. She sang in a few songs from the second album from Third Secret. I like that band and she has a...

    The last time I thought about this movie was when I tried to find out something about Taylor Momsen. She sang in a few songs from the second album from Third Secret. I like that band and she has a very distinctive voice. Then I found out she was Cindy Lou Who in the movie and then had a rock career.

    The article doesn’t mention if she’ll be in the remake but of course not.

    Btw there is very little info about Third Secret online. They don’t seem to do any promotion but you’d think there would be more interest in a supergroup with members from Nirvana and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

    4 votes

  7. Comment on Casual viewing - Why Netflix looks like that ~30+ min read in ~movies

    hobbes64
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    Wow that’s deceptive.

    What has happened to that movie is that it has become On the Come Up, which just disappears into the ether, and the studios put up two billboards in LA because they know the creators live in LA and want some sort of vision that they are being marketed. Like with Amazon — if you drive through Culver City you will see billboards for Amazon movies everywhere. Why? Because the directors who come to the studio lot to take a meeting there to make a movie, they drive there and they’re like, ‘Oh they’re marketing my movie.’ But they’re not.”
    Last winter, while visiting Los Angeles, I went to see the signage for myself. Encircling the intersection of Venice and La Cienega Boulevards were eight towering billboards promoting the latest Amazon original movies and shows. Two advertised The Burial, a legal drama starring Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones. I hadn’t heard of it, nor had anyone else I talked to that week. I drove to more studios, down Sunset Boulevard past Netflix’s headquarters, toward Melrose Avenue and the Paramount lot. Every studio had token billboards for their latest pseudomovies, designed to be played but not watched.

    Wow that’s deceptive.

    8 votes

  8. Comment on Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix 2026 - Race Weekend Discussion in ~sports.motorsports

    hobbes64
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    Here's some fluff related to the race. There's a post on reddit about how Kim Kardashian took a towel that's meant for the race winner and wiped her own face with it. So then there's a comment...

    Here's some fluff related to the race.

    There's a post on reddit about how Kim Kardashian took a towel that's meant for the race winner and wiped her own face with it.
    So then there's a comment chain about how she's dating Lewis Hamilton and she should know better because of that. And how she dated some NBA players and their careers got worse. But Hamilton is doing better because the Ferrari curse is canceling out the Kardashian curse. Or whatever.

    But the funny part was the comment "10 second penalty to Hamilton for ignoring red flags".

    5 votes

  9. Comment on Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix 2026 - Race Weekend Discussion in ~sports.motorsports

    hobbes64
    Link Parent
    I already feel kind of ambivalent about watching F1 because it’s a rich person’s sport and not at all environmentally friendly. Although they make a lot of noise about carbon neutrality and hybrid...

    I already feel kind of ambivalent about watching F1 because it’s a rich person’s sport and not at all environmentally friendly. Although they make a lot of noise about carbon neutrality and hybrid cars, just all the traveling and shipping is extremely wasteful.

    When I watch Monaco and see all those huge yachts in the harbor and conspicuous consumption, it makes me a bit more ambivalent.

    But they’re never going to drop this race, there’s too much history and spectacle.

    3 votes

  10. Comment on Mighty Cuphead Adventure | Teaser trailer in ~games

    hobbes64
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    Based on the video, it looks like the graphics are more like PC Engine or SNES than NES/SMS level. So yes, 8-bit pixel but possibly tens or hundreds of colors on the screen. cool

    Based on the video, it looks like the graphics are more like PC Engine or SNES than NES/SMS level. So yes, 8-bit pixel but possibly tens or hundreds of colors on the screen.

    cool

    1 vote

  11. Comment on 100 years of television design in ~design

    hobbes64
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    When I was little we had a big RCA wooden box tv on the floor. My parents had bought it from a furniture store. There were about 5 channels and we had to get up off the couch to change them....

    When I was little we had a big RCA wooden box tv on the floor. My parents had bought it from a furniture store. There were about 5 channels and we had to get up off the couch to change them. Sometimes it would stop working properly. Everything would be dark or green or staticky. So a tv repairman would come to the house and move it away from the wall and replace tubes or something. After he left I would look into the open back of the tv and see the big picture tube and the other little glowing tubes and it was kind of magical.
    When watching my cartoons on channel 5, sometimes the picture would scramble and I could hear someone talking loudly. I found out that one of my neighbors had a CB radio with a big antenna.
    Other times the tv would go dark again but you could temporarily fix it by getting up and smacking the side.
    Once the tuner dial broke off so we changed channels with pliers that we left on the top of the set.

    When this tv stopped working my parents bought a smaller “portable” tv and set it on top of the now dead “furniture” TV. We had it like that for years.

    Later when home computers became popular, everyone had monitors on desks and they took up most of the desk because of the cathode ray tube. I remember seeing rows of desks in offices where these monitors dominated the room with all that unusable space. I eventually had one on my desk. It would get dark sometimes so I would smack it on the side and it would get brighter for a while.

    I think it’s interesting when people (especially retro gamers) get nostalgic for old TVs. Because CRTs kind of sucked. It’s such a luxury ow to just have a big slab of glass (or plastic) that takes up no unnecessary room and doesn’t need to be smacked and doesn’t get radio interference and doesn’t weigh 409 pounds.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on What do you think of robots in the military? in ~tech

    hobbes64
    Link Parent
    This reminds me of the Star Trek episode A Taste of Armageddon In the episode, there’s a virtual war that never ends. People are computed to be casualties and they walk into disintegration booths....

    This reminds me of the Star Trek episode A Taste of Armageddon

    In the episode, there’s a virtual war that never ends. People are computed to be casualties and they walk into disintegration booths.

    Captain Kirk breaks the simulation computer to force people to deal with the messiness of real war.

    My point is that robot war is a step on the way to virtual war and it also might just go on for years and years without resolution because the cost isn’t measured properly.

    Already the Ukraine war has gone on a lot longer due the the robots, as everyone has noticed. It seems better in this case but long term…

    2 votes

  13. Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of June 1 in ~society

    hobbes64
    Link Parent
    I’ve noticed a lot of things said by the admin are just unprofessional and offensive. They have no discernible strategic purpose. It’s important to note that there are most likely multiple...

    I’ve noticed a lot of things said by the admin are just unprofessional and offensive. They have no discernible strategic purpose.

    It’s important to note that there are most likely multiple purposes and causes so you shouldn’t assume just one:

    • Firehose of bullshit distractions from crimes, treason, grifting, and other things they actually care about
    • their base is full of sociopaths who love this shit
    • they participate in “vice signaling” which is like virtue signaling for assholes and this strengthens their group bond
    • they really are just fucking stupid cruel assholes and think this is great and funny
    8 votes

  14. Comment on Clanker: A word for the machine in ~tech

    hobbes64
    Link Parent
    Whenever I use the term I think about the inept robots in Star Wars The Phantom Menace. I don't think about parodying racial slurs.

    Whenever I use the term I think about the inept robots in Star Wars The Phantom Menace. I don't think about parodying racial slurs.

    9 votes

  15. Comment on Clanker: A word for the machine in ~tech

    hobbes64
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    I’ve been using the term clanker to describe claude and copilot and other AI at work. I find this useful for the same reason the blog author does. Also, a large amount of my current work is fixing...

    I’ve been using the term clanker to describe claude and copilot and other AI at work. I find this useful for the same reason the blog author does.

    Also, a large amount of my current work is fixing security vulnerabilities found by automatic scans that run on code checkin. I call this my “clanker boss” because a machine is assigning work to me.

    Btw there’s a very noticeable thing about how AI marketing is affecting the way people think. For decades there have been machines with sensors and algorithms or some kind of programming that are able to do useful work. This would range from a thermostat, to a washing machine (especially the kind that weighs the clothing to set the amount of water used), to an autopilot. All these things would be marketed as AI now but they are just using algorithms.

    10 votes

  16. Comment on Is AI profitable yet? in ~tech

    hobbes64
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    Well somebody is making money on AI, and not just in the stock market. Maxinomics- Americans are about to get a lot richer I watched this video yesterday on nebula. The point of it is that the...

    Well somebody is making money on AI, and not just in the stock market.

    Maxinomics- Americans are about to get a lot richer

    I watched this video yesterday on nebula. The point of it is that the American economy is stronger than most people think, and that the money being spent on AI and data centers is benefitting relatively small companies and workers in the center of the country. I think that’s the point anyway. The video is a little bit slippery about its point. Maybe because I was on guard the whole time thinking it might be propaganda about how great tariffs are or something. Because the video starts talking about how there’s very little trade coming in through ports but a lot of shipping happening internally.

    Here’s part of the synopsis from the video:

    There's a piece of economic data that almost nobody is paying attention to that is, right now, telling a story about the United States that most people on the coasts simply cannot feel.
    It starts with a weird question: why is it nearly impossible to book a flatbed truck?
    Not a refrigerated truck. Not a standard dry van. The flatbed specifically. No walls, no roof, cargo sitting in the open air getting rained on. The kind that only makes sense when your cargo physically cannot go inside a box

    3 votes

  17. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

  18. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    hobbes64
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    I agree with pretty much all of that. There’s a huge number of sociopaths among us and it can be shocking for those who have an intrinsic value system to accidentally discover this in friends and...

    I agree with pretty much all of that. There’s a huge number of sociopaths among us and it can be shocking for those who have an intrinsic value system to accidentally discover this in friends and family.

    I’ve thought a lot more about this in recent years as I witnessed millions of people vote for Trump multiple times. But I’m not exactly sure of the separation between sociopaths and deeply stupid people. Or the difference between sociopaths and authoritarian followers.

    Separate but related: The fundamental premise of worship is difficult for me to grasp. Fawning over and kissing up to any kind of being is very weird actually. People that are rapturously attending a church service or trump rally is just so foreign to me. I can’t imagine a God who would want that behavior from me. I’d prefer a god who valued honesty and compassion and sharing and reliability than valuing sycophancy and performance.

    6 votes

  19. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    hobbes64
    Link Parent
    Your crackpot theory is also interesting. I’ll have to think about it. Certainly there are some Christian leaders who believe in what they say, but I would assume they are just mentally ill and...

    Your crackpot theory is also interesting. I’ll have to think about it. Certainly there are some Christian leaders who believe in what they say, but I would assume they are just mentally ill and not having actual communication with angels or demons. But who knows, maybe supernatural stuff is true, I don’t claim to know all that’s possible.

    An addendum to my crackpot theory is that these atheist leaders hang out with the Epstein class billionaires and have wild rituals like in Eyes Wide Shut but way more horrifying and criminal.

    2 votes

  20. Comment on What are your personal crackpot conspiracy theories about the world right now? in ~talk

    hobbes64
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    After the 2016 election I saw some posts online where trump supporters were praising her. I think it was from facebook posts from some older republican women. And they were like “it’s so nice to...

    After the 2016 election I saw some posts online where trump supporters were praising her. I think it was from facebook posts from some older republican women. And they were like “it’s so nice to have someone with class and grace as First Lady again”.

    And of course, anyone who wasn’t a racist and a cult member would see through what that was about. The immediately previous first lady was an articulate lawyer who spoke with kindness and intelligence to all the citizens of the country. And she tried to get people to be kinder to each other and make sure children were taken care of with nutritious food.

    Their wonderful replacement was a scowling 3rd wife of a known con man who cheated on all his previous wives. This “elegant” person was a former nude model (not that I care, but elderly republicans usually do), and she barely spoke at all or showed any interest in any of the duties normally performed by a First Lady.

    26 votes