IsildursBane's recent activity

  1. Comment on Webcomic of the author's experience in an abusive school that was a part of the Troubled Teens Industry in ~life

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    I am reminded of the story the guy Joe hitch hiked from in his escape, where the driver told Joe something along the lines of just because someone had it worse doesn't mean you didn't have it bad

    I consider myself to have had a fairly abusive upbringing that haunts me still in myriad ways, but nothing I endured ever held a candle to what is portrayed here.

    I am reminded of the story the guy Joe hitch hiked from in his escape, where the driver told Joe something along the lines of just because someone had it worse doesn't mean you didn't have it bad

    4 votes

  2. Comment on Webcomic of the author's experience in an abusive school that was a part of the Troubled Teens Industry in ~life

    IsildursBane
    Link
    Trigger warning: This depicts a graphic account of one person's experience in a school designed to help teens with issues, but actually ends up just turning them out worse This is a very long...

    Trigger warning:

    This depicts a graphic account of one person's experience in a school designed to help teens with issues, but actually ends up just turning them out worse

    This is a very long read, but I found it deeply engaging. It holds similarities to the Stanford prison experiment, but with kids and runs for years, not just a couple of days. Not only does it discuss the experience of being at the school, but also the author's experience trying to move on from the experience.

    One of the things that I thought was really interesting was how the system was designed to make it unbelievable to outsiders. The abuse is so cartoonishly overkill, that surely the kids must be lying when they tell their parents. It also had the benefit of the kids being seen as problematic, so they lacked credibility when they tried warning others.

    The system also made it so the kids were worse off than when they entered, which made the situation even worse. The kids had severe trauma and ptsd from the experience, which lead them to drugs and alcohol and so they fulfilled the expectations that others around them had. Their coping skills were violence.

    7 votes

  4. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly - Season ending on Sunday August 30th! in ~games

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    I think with server close approaching, various people will be logging on to tour the server. Even a basic Hall of Heroes placed in TildesTown would be easy to get people to add to.

    I think with server close approaching, various people will be logging on to tour the server. Even a basic Hall of Heroes placed in TildesTown would be easy to get people to add to.

    4 votes

  5. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly - Season ending on Sunday August 30th! in ~games

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    Could you potentially build wooden scaffolding up the side of the pyramid to change the project from a finished pyramid to an in construction pyramid?

    to even complete the pyramid itself would take me another month, at least

    Could you potentially build wooden scaffolding up the side of the pyramid to change the project from a finished pyramid to an in construction pyramid?

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly - Season ending on Sunday August 30th! in ~games

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    That would be cool, and I would definitely give it a go if you do get it to that point I remember hearing at one point that someone on Hermitcraft mentioned base designs with no distinct border is...

    when I finally have the whole thing done I can just release it as its own world download

    That would be cool, and I would definitely give it a go if you do get it to that point

    That way I won't feel the pressure to get it all done again in one season and I can have a more chill experience when seasons are active. The rush to get it done made it start to feel more like a job than a hobby.

    I remember hearing at one point that someone on Hermitcraft mentioned base designs with no distinct border is the better approach, so that it is unclear at season end if a base is unfinished. I have been unintentionally using that approach for my projects the past two seasons, and it allows me to have for the most part the feeling of being finished when the season ends. Especially with S2, I had a lot of things I could have kept adding onto my Citadel if the season continued, but also it feels finished in the end state I got it to.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly - Season ending on Sunday August 30th! in ~games

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    There are a few sights that I think are worthwhile: As already mentioned @TaylorSwiftsPickles' Poland (-3700,-100 access it via overworld west transit line). The sheer scale that she was building...

    There are a few sights that I think are worthwhile:

    • As already mentioned @TaylorSwiftsPickles' Poland (-3700,-100 access it via overworld west transit line). The sheer scale that she was building at is impressive, and I strongly recommend running Distant Horizons while visiting to fully understand the scale of it. It is also only in phase 1, so the interiors or exterior details are not completed.

    • @GravySleeve's floating city The Horizon Engine (-2400, 1200 access via nether south line). There are minigames and interactive parts built into it, but I have not seen that. It is truly impressive the sheer block variation in that build, and a very cool and unique style.

    • @secret_online and @ethnolicbob's area east of town (300, -50 access via overworld east transit line or head straight east from the industrial district). They have been building in what has been described as wandering trader chic, and they nailed that style well. I also recall them building the mountain in a night at one point.

    • @j0hn1215's Egyptian empire (3800,1600 access via nether east line). Once again j0hn has been laying the groundwork for a truly amazing Egyptian empire build, but the season end has been announced before completion.

    • @mendanbar's city Pitch (2600, -4500 access via nether north line). Really cool ambient underground city, with great use of lighting.

    • @wes (and someone else I cannot remember) Japanese city (3700, -2700 access via nether east line). This group were self-sufficient, not using community resources and farms which makes the entire build even more impressive.

    • @Evie's oil platform(?) (-4000, 750 access via nether west line). Really dense detailed city build that is quite impressive.

    • @TangibleLight's end portal cathedral (-1400, 500 access via nether west line). Beautiful detailed underground cathedral centered on the end portal. Also has really cool use of skylights to help get some natural lighting deep underground.

    • TildesTown. Just take a walk around and appreciate the various houses built. There is also the zoo that @noox started on the southern edge of town as well.

    I am probably missing various other builds, and I am sorry for those who I have forgotten to include.

    11 votes

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

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    Unsure if that is quite the right solution. For standalone posts, tag filtering would solve this issue. To me, the bigger issue is in this thread specifically where the non-AI projects get drowned...

    comp.non ai subtopic where if people can post projects there with 0 AI involvement.

    Unsure if that is quite the right solution. For standalone posts, tag filtering would solve this issue. To me, the bigger issue is in this thread specifically where the non-AI projects get drowned out, but personally those are the more interesting projects to read about

    still use X here and there to check up on tech news and now I do it less and less because all I'm getting is a bunch of influencers trying a myraid of ways to wordsmith their feelings about the latest model. I could not care less.

    I find on tildes this is less of an issue since it isn't someone who is trying to build up an internet presence, but is just generally interested in the tech and want to discuss it.

    2 votes

  9. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly - Season ending on Sunday August 30th! in ~games

    IsildursBane
    Link
    It does seem like this season struggled a bit more to gain momentum, or maybe just life got in the way more than other seasons. Like @creesch commented, sad to see some of the bigger projects not...

    It does seem like this season struggled a bit more to gain momentum, or maybe just life got in the way more than other seasons. Like @creesch commented, sad to see some of the bigger projects not be completed.

    I have been making some decent work on my floating city project west of town. When I said floating city, some people thought sky city similar to @GravySleeve's project, but I meant floating as in on water. One of my sources of inspiration in building is I have been looking at concept art for Laketown from The Hobbit. I doubt I will fully finish this project, but I think I will be able to finish enough of the exteriors for it to still end up being a cool build.

    8 votes

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

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    I agree a lot with what you have shared here. I think I probably align relatively closely with you regarding AI usage, at least where it is currently at and how it is used. Over the past few...

    I agree a lot with what you have shared here. I think I probably align relatively closely with you regarding AI usage, at least where it is currently at and how it is used. Over the past few months, it does seem like Tildes is becoming more primarily a place to discuss AI, and is losing some of the other things that initially drew me to this site. Part of that is natural, since AI dominates the news right now, is changing a lot of tech oriented jobs, and tildes userbase tends to lean more techy. A lot of the intention behind my comment is meant to be being the change I want to see on tildes, rather than disengaging from it.

    3 votes

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

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    Yeah, this week is probably a poor example, since when I posted there was no AI project for this week. I think what I am referring to is the idea of the projects where AI is the subject. A couple...

    Yeah, this week is probably a poor example, since when I posted there was no AI project for this week. I think what I am referring to is the idea of the projects where AI is the subject. A couple examples I have seen commented here before:

    • "I tried [insert specific AI model] at work for the past few weeks. This is what I have found works well and what doesn't for my workflow"
    • "I compared several different AI models on a variety of tasks, here is how they compare."
    • "I am setting up a self-hosted AI model for my own use. Here is some in depth breakdown of the process and how I configured it."
    • "I am using AI to rewrite one of my existing projects in a different language."

    I think all of those comments/projects can be interesting. Especially when we are in a stage for AI that I will refer to as "throw everything against the wall to see what sticks" it helps to have people evaluate what is and isn't sticking. I just think that personally the projects that have AI as the subject can drown out some of the other projects in this thread, especially with the speed that AI can work. I am not calling for a ban on AI in this thread, but trying to think of ways that we can give non-AI projects room to exist

    1 vote

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

    IsildursBane
    Link
    Been working on my audio player for the past week, and have made some good progress. It started with Spotify no longer authenticating, so had to troubleshoot that. Turns out, http://localhost is...

    Been working on my audio player for the past week, and have made some good progress. It started with Spotify no longer authenticating, so had to troubleshoot that. Turns out, http://localhost is considered insecure for the redirect URI, and now Spotify requires something different but http://127.0.0.1 is considered totally acceptable. I understand that they are slightly different, but it does seem to be a weird change that Spotify rolled out recently.

    Once I got that working again, it kind of put me in the headspace to continue developing features I have been wanting to add. So I created a new page in the app to allow changing what git branch is currently being used. Previously, I had to SSH into the RPi to change branches, but could do a git pull from the app itself. Now, all the different branches are listed dynamically, with the ability to switch between branches. I then went down a rabbit hole trying to schedule the RPi to close the current instance and then relaunch it with the updated code. I managed to get it working at one point, but then I cleaned up all the things I tried but didn't work, and then it stopped working. I felt like after a few days of trying to get it to restart the program, it was no longer worth it and switched back to just restarting the RPi after updating the code.

    Being able to switch between branches through the UI will hopefully help with development for me. I can easily switch back to master and use the device normally, and then switch back to whatever branch I am currently working on. Since I forked this project, I don't have a good dev environment set up for my workflow, so I am trying to build out more tools to help me expand the feature set.

    Meta commentary on the weekly programming thread I have been hesitant to post this on this thread the past few days, and also have found myself reading this thread less frequently the past few months. My hesitance is due to AI coded projects becoming the majority of comments on this thread, which do not interest me. I understand for some people, AI is a great tool to use, but with my limited programming experience I need to still be getting the experience of writing code manually. I also find reading about someone trying to figure out a technical issue manually in this thread more interesting than someone who used AI to build a new feature. I am unsure of the solution, and this is just kind of my ramblings on the subject. Maybe, have the first thread of the month be AI-free? I don't think banning AI outright in these threads to be the solution, but maybe occasionally having dedicated AI-free posts could be worthwhile. Especially since non-AI assisted development can be slower, the AI-free threads do not need to be as frequent.
    4 votes

  13. Comment on Suggestion for a new label: "Misinformation" in ~tildes

    IsildursBane
    Link
    I think there is potential in this, although I have not seen a need. But that might be more of the difference in threads I hang out in compared to you, and also having a different level of...

    I think there is potential in this, although I have not seen a need. But that might be more of the difference in threads I hang out in compared to you, and also having a different level of sensitivity on various topics.

    One way that I could see this implemented well is as others have said in not having it be flagged as "misinformation" but instead "disputed." I think from there it should also require leaving a comment of explanation with sources, and that comment gets connected to the original comment (unsure on the exact UI of that).

    I think there should also be some kind of metrics tracked for how people are using it, which is in align with Tildes philosophy. Tildes keeps track of invite trees, in case a user only invites problematic users. Tildes also does a cool down on exemplary labels. Therefore, I think it would be worthwhile to have some metric on how reliable a specific user is applying this new label. This could be done through tracking who is frequently getting labelled, who is frequently labelling, a vote system to try and figure out which side is more correct in a dispute, or some other system. Regardless of the system, it can be abused so the tracking should be solid but rarely used like how the invite tree is rarely looked at.

    7 votes

  14. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games

    IsildursBane
    Link
    Back from vacation now so have been on the server a bit. I visited @TaylorSwiftsPickles Poland, and the progress has been immense. Especially when running distant horizons, the scale of this...

    Back from vacation now so have been on the server a bit. I visited @TaylorSwiftsPickles Poland, and the progress has been immense. Especially when running distant horizons, the scale of this project is intense, and Bluemap does not do it justice. It has also made me want to do some PvP in the city, but unsure how best to schedule an event with how unpredictable my schedule is.

    I have also started work on a new project on the edge of town. Before leaving I had the idea of making a small floating village above the lake west of town, so have started on that, but it will probably be slow progress as I figure out the build style

    4 votes

  15. Comment on Do you own/run a business? What is it, where is it, how do you get customers? in ~finance

    IsildursBane
    Link
    What do you do? I do freelance tech work for churches. It can be a variety of services ranging from A/V work for rental events, some minor IT services, small system design and installation, and...

    What do you do?

    I do freelance tech work for churches. It can be a variety of services ranging from A/V work for rental events, some minor IT services, small system design and installation, and training workshops for volunteers.

    Where are you based?

    A large city in the Canadian prairies.

    How do you find your customers?

    It has been entirely through word of mouth and connections. I rarely approach others, and instead most come to me. I have a handful of repeat client churches, especially with running A/V for events. Before doing the freelance work, I was on staff part time at a large church in the city. This church had some unhealthy dynamics which has lead to various staff members leaving and working at other churches, so that has helped grow my network with other churches.

    Can you live 100% from your business?

    Nope. this is my second year doing it, and it has helped fill the gaps as I have been searching for permanent work. It has been averaging out to about quarter-time work, although this year has been a bit more busy, so will probably average out higher than that.

    What do you like most about it?

    There tends to be a wide variety in the work I do, and I just have to be able to adapt quickly. There has been periods of time where my work has ranged from just cleaning up how a system is wired to programming lights for a dance recital.

    The other fun thing is seeing how different churches approach their tech. Church tech is an interesting space because it is normally professionally installed systems that then volunteers without formal training adapt to fit the needs of the church. So there is a mixture of following industry standards but also some personalization to try and solve problems. An example is one church I work at frequently has figured out a way to put their entire gear storage room on wheels so that they can roll out all of their equipment onto the stage for setup.

    What would you do differently?

    Not do freelance work. I personally do not like the unpredictable nature of it. Also, not a fan that a lot of the time I am working events, so working evenings and weekends.

    The other thing is trying to figure out a way to have the energy to cold call other churches, to try and get more work. When I am already dealing with the discouraging work of applying for jobs, and sending my resume into the void when there is a job posting, I just don't have the mental capacity to do cold calling.

    What bothers you the most about it?

    Probably the above section, where I do not enjoy the hours and the unpredictable nature. The other thing is just learning that not every opportunity pans out. It has taken me a while to adjust to the idea that when someone approaches me with a work opportunity, that it may end up falling through for a variety of reasons.

    How did you get the idea?

    I didn't. Just as I was searching for permanent work, I have just had various people reach out to me to do various jobs for them, and I have just capitalized on that.

    4 votes

  16. Comment on What creative projects have you been working on? in ~creative

    IsildursBane
    Link
    I have been on vacation for the past week and a half, with the first week being spent camping in the mountains. Especially on vacations, I leave my phone behind and carry my camera around instead....

    I have been on vacation for the past week and a half, with the first week being spent camping in the mountains. Especially on vacations, I leave my phone behind and carry my camera around instead. So now I am starting to sort through the pictures I have taken. One thing I have started to get pretty good at is taking pictures while riding my bike, so have some nice pictures from that which will be fun to edit.

    1 vote

  17. Comment on Critics slam Tim Hortons Harry Potter promotion as un-Canadian, anti-trans in ~food

    IsildursBane
    Link
    Something that shocks me about Timmies, that is present in this comment thread and also when talking to people in person is that most people agree it sucks now, and is a hollow shell of what it...

    Something that shocks me about Timmies, that is present in this comment thread and also when talking to people in person is that most people agree it sucks now, and is a hollow shell of what it once was. Most people tend to prefer McDonald's coffee (they did buy Timmies' old supplier). However, Timmies is still quite popular. When most people say it sucks now, who is still buying it where there are lines in the drive thru every weekday morning?

    2 votes

  18. Comment on Tildes Minecraft Weekly in ~games

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    With a fortune pick this might be one of the better options. Especially since quartz is always in random spots it might be the more engaging method

    With a fortune pick this might be one of the better options. Especially since quartz is always in random spots it might be the more engaging method

    1 vote

  19. Comment on Mojang has updated the system requirements for Minecraft: Java Edition, raising recommended system memory from 4GB to 16GB in ~games

    IsildursBane
    Link Parent
    It is a hard balance to run updates to give new features while also maintaining the original feel. I think there are a few distinct minecraft eras. I think anything after 1.16 has a different feel...

    It is a hard balance to run updates to give new features while also maintaining the original feel. I think there are a few distinct minecraft eras. I think anything after 1.16 has a different feel to the game than what I started playing with, since the combination of the nether overhaul and also the update with caves drastically changed the world.

    4 votes

  20. Comment on Mojang has updated the system requirements for Minecraft: Java Edition, raising recommended system memory from 4GB to 16GB in ~games

    IsildursBane
    Link
    I feel like this is a good thing. In general, the system requirements are probably out of date now with recent updates. Also, I recall conversations at some point where Mojang has been holding...

    I feel like this is a good thing. In general, the system requirements are probably out of date now with recent updates. Also, I recall conversations at some point where Mojang has been holding back features to make sure it still runs well on lower end devices. The timing to increase requirements is bad with high hardware prices, but it has been something that has been needed to be done for a while. Also, with Java, if your computer can not run newer updates, you can always stick with the earlier versions

    11 votes