Macha's recent activity
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Comment on What are some good YouTube channels/shows/series related to travel? in ~travel
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Comment on Breaking down my dislike of strategy games | Semi-Ramblomatic in ~games
Macha Link ParentIs it really that different to Fire Emblem? Especially if you play Fire Emblem with character death on. XCOM is WILDLY different from every other game he mentioned (which to be fair is annoying because no one seems to want to try and make what made the new xcom great, especially with Long war, but I digress).
Is it really that different to Fire Emblem? Especially if you play Fire Emblem with character death on
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Comment on What is happening outside the US? in ~talk
Macha Link ParentTwo parties arguably missing from that chart. The first is the social democrats who are basically labour splitters who quit over labour compromising too much when in government. They'll definitely...Two parties arguably missing from that chart.
The first is the social democrats who are basically labour splitters who quit over labour compromising too much when in government. They'll definitely come out of this election larger than Labour, and probably larger than the Greens too if the Greens get as much fallout from their time in government as Labour and the Greens did before, as a centre left party that got dominated by centre right partners. Currently they're tied with Labour (6 each) and 1 seat ahead of Solidarity-People Before Profit (which is an electoral alliance, not a single party).
The second are Aontu, who are a socially conservative economically left party. They were founded as basically SF-splitters who quit over the parties support of abortion, but they'll probably get a decent amount of votes as they've put an effort at being more respectable than the far right parties while still being more socially right wing that the mainstream parties. It's not clear that it will mean more seats, probably only their party founder will win their seat again, but they'll probably get more first preferences than prior elections.
Based on recent polls, the two centre-right parties are likely to increase their vote share, so will likely jettison the Greens from their coalition as they won't need them any more. The Greens haven't really succeeded in getting much left wing economic policy passed, so the people who voted for them for that are probably going to scatter amongst the other centre-left and left parties. They have actually done a decent job on environment and local transport though, so it may not be the total wipe out that e.g. Labour in 2016 or the Greens in 2011 had. The aforementioned Aontu and the far right parties are likely to get more votes than last time, but if the local elections are anything to go by, not the same increase that has happened in the rest of Europe. Sinn Fein, the largest left wing parties are likely to lose votes as they have had a bad year and their base is splintering between their left wing and nationalist factions.
So the most likely outcome is a Fine Gael and Fianna Fail centre-right coalition, with the opposition much more divided.
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Comment on Elections: ultimately, it’s going to be okay in ~society
Macha Link ParentI don't think republicans will take long about bypassing the filibuster, which will hopefully cause the dems to do likewise when they're next in power.I don't think republicans will take long about bypassing the filibuster, which will hopefully cause the dems to do likewise when they're next in power.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of November 4 in ~news
Macha Link ParentI'm nervous because it's hard to be sure what the outcome will be, but my gut feeling says Kamala has this, given signs like the early voter turnout of women and the last set of polls. I'm not an...I'm nervous because it's hard to be sure what the outcome will be, but my gut feeling says Kamala has this, given signs like the early voter turnout of women and the last set of polls.
I'm not an American, so my personal stake as a European is that trump will leave Ukraine out to dry, but I'm hoping for the sake of Americans I know as well that he doesn't get back in.
Brexit also seemed to have an inoculating effect on the worst of the ideas for the Brits also, so here's hoping Trumps first term proved the same way for Americans.
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Comment on Are Feeds - like RSS or Atom feeds - Really Worth It For A Personal Blog? in ~comp
Macha Link ParentI provide RSS feeds on my blog, but judging by substack etc. there are a lot of users who use the email feeds so I'd almost want a service that does the reverse. Provide it my RSS feeds and people...I provide RSS feeds on my blog, but judging by substack etc. there are a lot of users who use the email feeds so I'd almost want a service that does the reverse. Provide it my RSS feeds and people can sign up for it as an email newsletter if they want.
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Comment on Vivaldi 7.0 has been released in ~tech
Macha Link ParentThere used to be an ecosystem of Gecko based browsers but over time they all switched to WebKit and then chromium as Gecko is too tied with Firefox for that to be a pleasant experience.There used to be an ecosystem of Gecko based browsers but over time they all switched to WebKit and then chromium as Gecko is too tied with Firefox for that to be a pleasant experience.
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Comment on Passwords have problems, but passkeys have more in ~tech
Macha Link Parenthttps://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/issues/10407#issuecomment-1994299617 https://github.com/keepassxreboot/keepassxc/issues/10406 -
Comment on Passwords have problems, but passkeys have more in ~tech
Macha Link ParentBecause of two things - attestation and spec writers hesitancy to allowing secrets to be exported. Attestation means that a website can require specific vendors of passkeys. A good idea for a...Why is there no universally adopted passkey syncing service/protocol?
Because of two things - attestation and spec writers hesitancy to allowing secrets to be exported.
Attestation means that a website can require specific vendors of passkeys. A good idea for a corporate IT department supplying centrally managed hardware dongles, but not so good for the general user who might want something to change vendors and isn't organised enough to find and replace all their passkeys.
The second kind of goes in hand with the first, but keepassxc's run ins with the spec writers objecting to their ability to export passwords shows that the spec writers don't want the users to be able to take the secret out in a portable manner, lest they get phished into sending it to a bad guy. They'd rather a P2P protocol for specific trusted vendors which significantly limits new entrants and open source solutions. The attestation mechanism can then be used to lock out those that don't play ball with that vision.
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Comment on Passwords have problems, but passkeys have more in ~tech
Macha Link ParentSo high impact financial services, infrequently accessed? Seems like a great case for prioritising security over a frictionless login. I'm not sure e.g. Tildes deserves the same tradeoff. If every...literally all government services, banks, insurance
So high impact financial services, infrequently accessed? Seems like a great case for prioritising security over a frictionless login.
I'm not sure e.g. Tildes deserves the same tradeoff. If every site did this and you were doing it ten times a day, it would get more frustrating. Also would you remember to take care to transfer your passkeys for that app you use twice a month when switching phone brand?
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Comment on The disappearance of an internet domain in ~tech
Macha Link ParentNote that for all the exceptions (.eu, .uk, .su), they also have exceptions in ISO-3166-1 (the standard list of country codes), so I think Mariitius would have to petition ISO to give them an...Note that for all the exceptions (.eu, .uk, .su), they also have exceptions in ISO-3166-1 (the standard list of country codes), so I think Mariitius would have to petition ISO to give them an extra reservation. On the one hand, they have done it for France, the UK and Spain a few times, but on the other hand, these are usually based on long standing codes used in other standards bodies.
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Comment on The disappearance of an internet domain in ~tech
Macha Link ParentMy own country's TLD is relatively reliable, but they had some paperwork in the past to prove you were a citizen or otherwise connected to the country that made most registrars skip over...My own country's TLD is relatively reliable, but they had some paperwork in the past to prove you were a citizen or otherwise connected to the country that made most registrars skip over supporting them. Although that changed a couple of years ago, in terms of major registrar support there is basically Gandi. Which was fine while Gandi were a trustable company, but after their 100+% price hikes last year, I've moved all my other domains away from Gandi to Porkbun.
I do have one at my country's TLD though, but most of the registrars that support it other than Gandi are local businesses that may as well be operating out of a shed for how long term reliable they appear, along with a couple that exist to gouge IT departments of local non-tech companies.
Ironically, one of the few exceptions is my ISP, but if you'd told me 5 years ago I would be seriously considering transferring domains from Gandi to my ISP, I would have laughed.
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Comment on Israeli military announces ground invasion of Southern Lebanon in ~society
Macha Link ParentOh, I read that as them retreating to more defensible positions (or at least behind UNIFIL). If you're the Lebanese in this situation, would you have any faith in Israel being better at separating...Oh, I read that as them retreating to more defensible positions (or at least behind UNIFIL). If you're the Lebanese in this situation, would you have any faith in Israel being better at separating Lebanese and Hezbollah than they are at separating Palestinians and Hamas?
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Comment on You're running for office on a somewhat petty, yet univerally-understood single issue. What is it? in ~talk
Macha Link ParentI do wonder if US currency being the same size and broadly similar shades of yellow-green across denominations contributes to that. My local currency uses much more different sizes and colours to...You have to organize them and fold them into your wallet,
I do wonder if US currency being the same size and broadly similar shades of yellow-green across denominations contributes to that. My local currency uses much more different sizes and colours to differentiate currency so as long as they're not folded, there's no real issue quickly picking out the correct note.
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Comment on How do I sync my dotfiles between PC and laptop? in ~tech
Macha LinkI've been slowly migrating more to home-manager and nix but my old solution was to have a dotfiles repo and a shell script to symlink/mkdir as appropriate.I've been slowly migrating more to home-manager and nix but my old solution was to have a dotfiles repo and a shell script to symlink/mkdir as appropriate.
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Comment on Prison inmates in Finland are being employed as data labellers to improve accuracy of AI models in ~tech
Macha Link ParentSo in the first version of FFXIV that was released, there was the fatigue system to discourage grinding too much..your XP would start at 100% and reduce the longer you played, so you were getting...So in the first version of FFXIV that was released, there was the fatigue system to discourage grinding too much..your XP would start at 100% and reduce the longer you played, so you were getting less xp as play sessions get longer. It was very unpopular.
In the current version of FFXIV, there is the rested XP system, where XP starts at 200% and reduces the longer you play to a baseline that's now called 100%. It's framed as a bonus on login, but of course all the XP sources are balanced to consider that most players are getting 200% xp most of the time.
It's the same system, just reframed as "a bonus on a new day" rather than "a penalty for playing too long".
This is also how I basically see "they're not penalised for not doing it" vs "doing it looks good on their application for early release"
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Comment on Introducing Steam Families - now out of beta! in ~games
Macha Link ParentIt feels a little weirder for Steam to be restrictive here than Netflix. Like the case against Netflix sharing is basically that streaming services have shifted from a per movie copy billing...It feels a little weirder for Steam to be restrictive here than Netflix. Like the case against Netflix sharing is basically that streaming services have shifted from a per movie copy billing method to a per user and that can't work if theoretically only one user had to pay one subscription for many people to have all the movies.
But if you had bought all those movies physically, then you could share your movies such that every one of your movies was being watched by a different person simultaneously just by distributing the disks. No reasonable person would agree that only one person/location can use your dvd collection as a whole as you paid for each item individually.
Steam is still in the business of selling you individual copies of games, so it feels more like the dvd collection situation than the netflix situation with regards to different games in my collection being used simultaneously.
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Comment on Retrospective on the introduction of the Vanguard anti-cheat software to League of Legends in ~comp
Macha Link ParentYeah, I'm probably more cynical than most since I experienced EA stealing a copy of Red Alert 3 from me via their anti-cheat. I played a few private matches online around when I got it with some...Yeah, I'm probably more cynical than most since I experienced EA stealing a copy of Red Alert 3 from me via their anti-cheat. I played a few private matches online around when I got it with some friends, left the game for a year, and came back unable to log in to the online because my CD key was banned for cheating, despite never cheated or done anything I can think of to make anti-cheat uneasy.
Nowadays I do do things that could make anti-cheat unhappy, like... run Linux, or have debuggers installed because I'm a programmer now, or run discord which has an overlay that hooks into games to show who's talking.
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Comment on PS5 Pro technical presentation hosted by Mark Cerny - Out November 7th for $699.99 in ~games
Macha Link Parent30fps or less. The last game I played on my ps5 was FFXVI and that was all over the place on frame rate if you used quality settings.30fps or less. The last game I played on my ps5 was FFXVI and that was all over the place on frame rate if you used quality settings.
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Comment on Retrospective on the introduction of the Vanguard anti-cheat software to League of Legends in ~comp
Macha (edited )LinkI always feel a little doubtful of anti-cheat claims. Like "Look, we deployed our latest anti-cheat software and our stats show there's no cheaters anymore" makes me think "right, because if you...I always feel a little doubtful of anti-cheat claims.
Like "Look, we deployed our latest anti-cheat software and our stats show there's no cheaters anymore" makes me think "right, because if you knew they were cheaters you would ban them, but that doesn't prove there aren't cheaters you can't detect".
Or on the flip side, "we've no false positives, as determined by how many bans we've overturned" makes me think "right, because your customer support's first response is to confidently assert your correctness and say all bans are final".
Not purely a travel channel, but Abroad In Japan does regular enough travel series with Journey Across Japan. As the name suggests, it's mostly focused on Japan, but it's good for seeing some of the less well known parts.