mat's recent activity
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Comment on The "why does this movie exist" scene in ~movies
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Comment on The "why does this movie exist" scene in ~movies
mat LinkIn the specific case of Kick-Ass, the movie is adapted from a comic, which I haven't read but almost certainly has a more complex and involved story than the film. Mark Miller wrote the whole...In the specific case of Kick-Ass, the movie is adapted from a comic, which I haven't read but almost certainly has a more complex and involved story than the film. Mark Miller wrote the whole thing himself, no writer's room involved (I'm sure there was for the movie adaptation, as well as various script doctors and rewriters and so on).
Fun fact, Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl are both in the same universe as Kingsman!
The mechanics of how different writers create stories are many and varied. Some create characters and put them in situations and see what they do, some come up with situations and work backwards, some do a bit of each and so on and so on.
fwiw none of the handful of people I know who work in TV or movies as either producers or writers is involved with taking fun substances at work. Not to say it doesn't happen, of course!
If you enjoy spotting patterns in movie narratives, just wait until you find out about The Hero's Journey because you will see that everywhere
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Comment on Hacktivist deletes three white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference in ~tech
mat Link ParentThe article linked is not very in depth. Try this one and also watch the videos Martha Root put out. There's more information out there. A signal group is how you organise an existing, small,...The article linked is not very in depth. Try this one and also watch the videos Martha Root put out. There's more information out there.
A signal group is how you organise an existing, small, group of people, sure. A social network with thousands of users is a whole different thing. To put it in black hat terms - a signal group is C&C, the dating site is the botnet. Memetically compromising thousands of people to effect low-level societal influence is not that far off running a botnet tbh. Also I didn't say it was a well executed plan. Rather the opposite. Don't forget these people are largely absolute fucking idiots. They are not thinking this through. The owner of WhiteDate et al lives at home with her parents. There was a public-facing url on her website to download all user data. You know, morons.
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Comment on Hacktivist deletes three white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference in ~tech
mat Link ParentI believe the hacker in question is under the impression, apparently with some evidence, that these are more than just simple dating sites. It's an attempt to build a grassroots neo-Nazi network...I believe the hacker in question is under the impression, apparently with some evidence, that these are more than just simple dating sites. It's an attempt to build a grassroots neo-Nazi network which can be mobilised for... well, Nazi shit. Y'know, all that actual real-world harmful stuff they like to do.
Taking this network down and exposing it's members is worth celebrating. It is protecting people from harm.
I'm not sure what being on a different "level" would achieve. Just letting these chucklefucks carry on while we occupy the moral high ground has so far led to.. well.. look around you. There are fascist scum crawling all over the place these days.
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Comment on Hacktivist deletes three white supremacist websites live onstage during hacker conference in ~tech
mat LinkThere's a deeper dive into this, including some video from CCC hereThere's a deeper dive into this, including some video from CCC here
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Comment on The year of the 3D printed miniature (and other lies we tell ourselves) in ~hobbies
mat Link ParentMy Elegoo Mars 4 printer was under £200 new. Resin is maybe £10/litre if you buy in bulk and it goes a pretty long way. It took me less than an hour to set up and I've never had to touch it in the...$3k worth of hard-to-get miniatures out of $5k of equipment and supplies, plus dozens of hours learning to use the thing and dozens more actually printing, and hundreds of somebody's hours modeling or scanning to get actual printable models.
My Elegoo Mars 4 printer was under £200 new. Resin is maybe £10/litre if you buy in bulk and it goes a pretty long way. It took me less than an hour to set up and I've never had to touch it in the months since. The learning curve if you're printing someone else's models is very shallow, literally just a few clicks and you're going. Maybe spend half an hour reading if you really want but you don't need to.
3D modelling is a whole different ballgame, I will admit. Someone does have to put those hours in, although if you have one of the miniatures on hand photogrammetry is pretty damn good these days - you can "3D scan" with a smartphone and get a decent chunk of the way there. Yes, prints take time to run but it's not lost time, you hit print and then you can do something else for however long it takes. A few minutes hands on post-processing after printing and you're ready for paint.
I don't know how big a Warhammer army is but I'd be astonished if it cost more than a few hundred $currency to print and that's including the printer! Time costs maybe more than that, but not necessarily and almost certainly not into the thousands. There's a LOT of Warhammer models out there for free already.
Also the dangers of resin printing are somewhat overblown.
It is very important and reassuring that all of the studies we found recorded average VOC levels in resin printers that were well within the official safety levels prescribed by health organisations. This is why there is generally no big health concern surrounding resin printer fumes.
This is even less of an issue if you use water-washable resins, which are less nasty. Not as strong, but you don't need strength for miniatures.
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Comment on What's the coolest thrift store find you've ever scored? in ~talk
mat Link ParentI'm pretty sure I gave the bike to a friend, but it was a long time ago. Maybe they still have it and maybe their kids are riding it to this day! If I ever find myself near some kind of real life...I'm pretty sure I gave the bike to a friend, but it was a long time ago. Maybe they still have it and maybe their kids are riding it to this day!
If I ever find myself near some kind of real life I'll let you know. :)
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Comment on What's the coolest thrift store find you've ever scored? in ~talk
mat Link ParentI taught myself to juggle in my early teens after seeing someone do it on kid's TV, then to ride a unicycle a bit later because why not get a unicycle? Around that time there were some free street...I taught myself to juggle in my early teens after seeing someone do it on kid's TV, then to ride a unicycle a bit later because why not get a unicycle? Around that time there were some free street circus workshops in my town and it turned out that if you can juggle and ride a unicycle, you can hang out with the cool circus people all day and help with their workshop. Which later became a paid job for a couple of summers - I actually did run away from my first 'real' job in an office to join the circus - and has remained the best paid (by the hour, but lots of downtime between gigs) and most by far the most fun job I've ever had. Hard work though. Lots of 4 or 5am starts in the summer to haul ass halfway around the country and put up a very heavy small big top, then spend all day being fun in it before taking it all down again and driving home, or sleeping in the rickety caravan to do it all again the next day. Exhausting but amazing, although not quite as good a way to meet girls as teenage me hoped.
I always preferred walk-round street circus to big top stuff though, and we did plenty of that as well. I did mostly magic, clowning and a bit of juggling, but I can manage to squeeze a few minutes of entertaining out of just about any piece of circus gear even today. I can still walk a tightrope if I get the chance but I'd like to be a low one please.
Was a partner in running a circus business of my own very briefly. Did... OK. Had a good manager/promoter which helps a LOT. Oh, and I was the bronze medal winner of the three-ball gladiators at the 7 and 1/2th Manchester International Juggling Convention. Age 15, up against actual pros and the entire staff of the legendary Mushy Pea Juggling Company.
I almost went to circus school in Paris instead of studying some boring computer science junk at university in England and I'm still not sure I made the right choice there..
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Comment on What's the coolest thrift store find you've ever scored? in ~talk
mat Link ParentNot particularly, but I have a background in circus so some experience of balancing weird stuff. It was easier than a unicycle.Not particularly, but I have a background in circus so some experience of balancing weird stuff. It was easier than a unicycle.
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Comment on What's the coolest thrift store find you've ever scored? in ~talk
mat LinkI once got a mini bike for a fiver. Rode it around the office for a day or so because it was that kind of a job where you could ride a mini bike around. Made everyone laugh. Five pounds well spent.I once got a mini bike for a fiver. Rode it around the office for a day or so because it was that kind of a job where you could ride a mini bike around. Made everyone laugh.
Five pounds well spent.
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Comment on The Odyssey | Official trailer in ~movies
mat Link ParentI have not heard that music in maybe forty years and yet now here it is, playing in my brain as I hovered over that link. Thanks?I have not heard that music in maybe forty years and yet now here it is, playing in my brain as I hovered over that link.
Thanks?
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Comment on The Odyssey | Official trailer in ~movies
mat Link ParentThere is nothing new. There's only eight stories. But you are right. At least this isn't a reboot/rehash of a middling-quality IP from a few decades ago, which is even more annoying than...There is nothing new. There's only eight stories.
But you are right. At least this isn't a reboot/rehash of a middling-quality IP from a few decades ago, which is even more annoying than retellings of the classics, which have at least had centuries of refinement.
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Comment on $6 Michelin stock in sixty minutes in ~food
mat LinkI know he mentions this in the video but Chris Young is absolutely the real deal. He was at The Fat Duck when it was at it's very best and most experimental (he developed their Hot and Iced tea...I know he mentions this in the video but Chris Young is absolutely the real deal. He was at The Fat Duck when it was at it's very best and most experimental (he developed their Hot and Iced tea which remains one of the most incredible things that has ever been in my mouth); he created the seminal book series Modernist Cuisine with Nathan Myhrvold and he founded ChefSteps. He is one of the architects of modern cooking.
Basically when Chris Young says "this is how you do a food thing to the highest possible standard and in the most optimised way", this is how you do a food thing to the highest possible standard and in the most optimised way. I've made ice-clarified consomme as per this video and it's incredible.
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Comment on I can't describe it, but I know it when I see it in ~life
mat Link ParentIt's interesting you mention Paw Patrol as being appropriate, because I consider that far lower quality than, for example, the video my kid was watching this morning of a young man playing Goat...It's interesting you mention Paw Patrol as being appropriate, because I consider that far lower quality than, for example, the video my kid was watching this morning of a young man playing Goat Simulator 3. In that video the player (Sam Tabor) exhibited patience and persistence while trying to achieve a task, and then achieved it after some attempts. Kid, who loves playing Goat Simulator, learned not just some things they could do in the game, but also about how to approach challenges in gaming in a positive way. I believe there is something to be said for watching other people playing (video games or just with toys), watching is one way kids learn. Seeing other people do things doesn't just give them ideas for their own play, it builds confidence in them that just... doing things is OK.
Meanwhile every episode of Paw Patrol I've ever seen - and Kid did have a flurry of Paw Patrol when they were younger - is a literally nonsense narrative which exists almost entirely to sell toys to kids. The Paw Patrol don't get all new gear every season for fun (the Octonauts very rarely do, by comparison).
I'm with you on Bluey though. I'm gutted Kid has grown out of that, but they still talk about it sometimes. I am 100% watching the movie when it's made, Kid doesn't have to but I'm all in on Bluey. I can see the positive effect it's had on them and continues to do to this day (and me! Bluey made me a better dad, no question). But then I can also see the positive effect watching Youtuber Sam Pilgrim do stupid bike stunts has had too. "This looks scary, let's do it anyway!" has got Kid over the hump of doing so many things they weren't feeling confident about.
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Comment on I can't describe it, but I know it when I see it in ~life
mat LinkIn my experience Youtube has done a pretty good job of removing most of the really weird stuff. Especially if you have the parental controls turned on. My kid has a Youtube kids account which I...In my experience Youtube has done a pretty good job of removing most of the really weird stuff. Especially if you have the parental controls turned on.
My kid has a Youtube kids account which I control (not actually YouTube Kids the app, but a kid's account linked to my family group with content filters set to age 9 - although they are still only 7). I spent some time clicking "don't recommend channel" on the more brainrotty stuff and after a while it's become a pretty decent feed. We watch some most mornings while I chug tea and try to wake up before starting the day properly..
Occasionally Kid goes off on an explore and finds a bunch more low-effort content but to be honest, they're pretty good at filtering themselves now. They like a well structured story or an informative video with actual facts and tend to choose that stuff. Sure, they watch some junk too sometimes but so do I. Kid watching other kids playing with toys (or in my kid's case, they like to watch gaming videos) is not all that different to me watching adults playing with lathes or milling machines. It's a kind of trash but brains need zoneout stuff occasionally. I notice the more tired or worried about something Kid is, the trashier the stuff they choose is.
That said, "let's not watch this, it's brainrot" is an acceptable and understood reason for me to give to them to skip a video. Also "this is AI slop", along with some tips on how to spot AI slop.
Me and the kid have long since had the discussion about how some content is like chocolate - it's OK occasionally but if it's all you consume it's no good for you. They understood about how they need to put good food in their body long before they needed to understand the same about their brains, so it was an easy comparison to grasp.
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Comment on Can we maybe have an informal agreement to avoid posting articles that require you to sell your firstborn child to the devil just to read them? in ~tildes
mat Link ParentI think we can say for reasonably sure that aggressive psy-op style advertising (which is a polite way to say blatantly lying on hot-button issues) as deployed by the likes of Farage and Trump has...I think we can say for reasonably sure that aggressive psy-op style advertising (which is a polite way to say blatantly lying on hot-button issues) as deployed by the likes of Farage and Trump has influenced elections. However, that's not the same thing.
It was a fairly open secret when I worked in/around advertising that ultra-targetted ads are really not that useful - at least nowhere near as effective as the ad brokers would have you believe. It's much easier to just blanket bomb demographics/areas with one well-crafted campaign than tailor one ad for 37-43 year old men with beards who have previously liked headphones, yoghurt and garden tools, then another for 23-24 year old women who enjoy purple lipstick, hot sauce and CNC mill repair videos; etc etc.
The reason I will fight in the streets to keep the BBC is not because a free and independent press is vital to democracy, it's because they make radio I can listen to all day long without hearing a single advert. The news bit is important too I guess.
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Comment on Can we maybe have an informal agreement to avoid posting articles that require you to sell your firstborn child to the devil just to read them? in ~tildes
mat Link ParentIf a government wants you, they're getting you regardless of your cookie choices. It's almost impossible to avoid high-level targetted digital surveillance (which, to be clear, ad tracking is...I'm not sure this is worth bothering with unless you have a specific reason to believe a government might be trying to track you.
If a government wants you, they're getting you regardless of your cookie choices. It's almost impossible to avoid high-level targetted digital surveillance (which, to be clear, ad tracking is absolutely nothing like). Although a malicious regime could just as easily make up whatever evidence they want even if you never so much as power up your computer, let alone read a webpage.
Having once done all the paranoid "privacy" stuff at one time and now do almost exactly none of it, there has been basically zero negative changes in my everyday browsing experience and a few positives. I don't mind seeing adverts because that's how a lot of websites make money and without money they will no longer provide entertainment for me, so that seems like a fair exchange. Eyeballs for cash is an acceptable transaction for me.
If I'm seeing ads I might as well see ads for the kind of things I prefer to see. No booze, no gambling is nice to be able to choose. For a while I convinced the algorithms that I was interested in buying underwear, so I had pictures of beautiful people of various shapes, sizes, ages and genders all wearing tiny items of clothing adorning the web pages I visited. That was very much a positive on accepting cookies.
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Comment on Want to get a 3D printer for miniatures that work well with open source software in ~hobbies
mat Link"Toxic" is a bit strong to describe the fumes from resin printers. Technically that is true but they're not releasing VOCs in sufficient quantity to be significantly dangerous - outside of..."Toxic" is a bit strong to describe the fumes from resin printers. Technically that is true but they're not releasing VOCs in sufficient quantity to be significantly dangerous - outside of industrial print farms, with rooms full of the things running at high capacity all day every day. That's a world away from a little printer in the corner doing the occasional model.
My Elegoo Mars resin printer comes with an air filter built into it but even though I haven't changed that for like two years, there's still barely any smell when printing - and I do most of my printing in an enclosed space, on a shelf in a cupboard. I am careful to limit the time I have the cover off the printer but that's as much to do with limiting the amount of UV the resin is exposed to as anything else (that stuff is expensive, I don't want it curing from daylight!). The print goop is pretty nasty but as long as you wear gloves it's fine. You can even get water washable resins now, although I haven't tried those.
It is very important and reassuring that all of the studies we found recorded average VOC levels in resin printers that were well within the official safety levels prescribed by health organisations. This is why there is generally no big health concern surrounding resin printer fumes.
The thing is, compared to FDM the print resolution is so much higher, it's absolutely worth the small amount of danger, especially if you're printing miniatures. FDM is great for bigger stuff - although I'd still only use it for parts rather than models - but you're just not going to get decent results at small scale, even with heavy post-processing to clean up print lines.
Anyway to actually answer your question I've never had a problem printing from Linux and I've had various 3D printers around my house/workshop for perhaps the last 10 years now. There are plenty of both fully open source and linux-friendly closed source slicer options out there. Try a few and see what works for you, I currently use Chitubox.
If you can get a printer that supports OctoPrint that can make your life a bit easier and much more cool, but it's by no means necessary.
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Comment on Looking for a non-smart watch recommendation in ~tech
mat LinkI have only an anti-recommendation, which is anything made by Mio. I had one of their wrist mounted heart rate/step/etc monitors which also told the time and did very little else and it was great...I have only an anti-recommendation, which is anything made by Mio. I had one of their wrist mounted heart rate/step/etc monitors which also told the time and did very little else and it was great until one day they bricked it with a software update and now it's expensive junk in my drawer.
Avoid.
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Comment on New ‘Stargate’ TV series ordered at Amazon from ‘Blindspot’ creator Martin Gero in ~tv
mat Link ParentMartin Gero was at pains to stress how much fans re-watching the show actually did matter in the announcement video which just droppedI'd like to think the absurd amount of Stargate I've watched over the past few years is a major factor in this getting greenlit, lol.
Martin Gero was at pains to stress how much fans re-watching the show actually did matter in the announcement video which just dropped
Eh, the Hero's Journey is a little more involved but basically, yes. There's only eight stories anyway so y'know. Not much to be done.
btw if you liked Kick-Ass and you want a non-Hollywood action-buddy-love-musical-drama-comedy-thriller to try, check out RRR. It's three hours long and easily one of the best films I've seen this century.
I mostly prefer TV to movies these days. I like longer and more complicated stories, which TV can do in a way movies just don't have time for.