Rudism's recent activity
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Comment on What do you think about Destiny 2’s imminent death and games as a service? in ~games
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Comment on Last.fm is now independent in ~music
Rudism Link ParentThis news tickled my interest enough to dust off my 16-year-old account and throw them a year's Pro subscription. Whether that sticks or not will depend on what kind of direction they start moving...This news tickled my interest enough to dust off my 16-year-old account and throw them a year's Pro subscription. Whether that sticks or not will depend on what kind of direction they start moving in. I'm hoping they add back some social features like user groups and forums.
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Comment on Audible mandating authors transition to new royalty system or lose payments in ~books
Rudism Link ParentI'm a fellow happy non-bot libro.fm user. Another alternative I used previously and don't see mentioned as often anymore is Downpour. They also offer DRM-free downloads for (most) books. Couple...I'm a fellow happy non-bot libro.fm user. Another alternative I used previously and don't see mentioned as often anymore is Downpour. They also offer DRM-free downloads for (most) books. Couple down-sides that made me switch are that unused credits can expire (after a year, I think) and back when I was using them it was very easy to accidentally purchase abridged versions of books. But overall I think it is still useful as a complement for one-off purchases during sales and stuff.
And of course there's also Libby, which is free if you have a library card from a participating library. Getting audiobooks through Libby are DRM-protected (but in my opinion limited-time rentals is the one use case where DRM is justified), probably has a smaller selection depending on your library, and can have long wait times for new and popular books, but the price can't really be beat.
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Comment on The cost of safetyism - what we lost when we stopped letting kids leave the front yard in ~life
Rudism LinkThis is basically the only reason I was always nervous about giving my kids permission to do stuff like walk to the corner store by themselves (and this was when they were the same age as me when...No one wants to be reported to child protective services. And it happens at an astonishing rate.
This is basically the only reason I was always nervous about giving my kids permission to do stuff like walk to the corner store by themselves (and this was when they were the same age as me when I'd be off with my friends running around multiple neighborhoods from morning until sundown, and my parents would be lucky to catch sight of me only if I popped back home for food before running off again).
Recently I've noticed kids riding their bikes and scooters around the neighborhood a lot more, and I was thinking how nice it is to see kids actually outside enjoying their childhood... only to find a Nextdoor post in my inbox this morning from some nosy-ass (probably childless) neighbor crying about all the kids riding their "motorized toy vehicles" in the streets and how they're working to get the police involved before there's an accident. I mean, I get worrying about the kids if they're not wearing helmets or don't have reflectors, but a) you know this person doesn't actually give two shits about the kids, and b) why is the answer in this situation to 100% blame and criticize the kids and their parents while giving a pass to people driving too fast or not paying attention behind the wheel when driving through a neighborhood where kids might be out playing?
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Comment on AI is killing the cheap smartphone in ~comp
Rudism LinkI think it's possible that AI has killed cheap smartphones (at least for the immediate future) in another sense too. The cheap phones (and even some expensive ones) typically get abandoned by...I think it's possible that AI has killed cheap smartphones (at least for the immediate future) in another sense too. The cheap phones (and even some expensive ones) typically get abandoned by their manufacturers shortly after release, and don't receive any kind of long-term support or security patches. With the rate that AI is finding legitimate exploitable vulnerabilities in software and OSes right now, running older/cheaper smartphones that aren't receiving security updates will be like handing free candy out to all the cyber criminals.
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Comment on Google Search as you know it is over in ~tech
Rudism (edited )Link ParentGoogle is practically shoving the AI shit down people's throats, so it would be a lot more surprising to me if people weren't using them. I think the majority of users (my parents, for instance),...Google is practically shoving the AI shit down people's throats, so it would be a lot more surprising to me if people weren't using them.
I think the majority of users (my parents, for instance), who are not very tech-savvy, don't have a full grasp on how LLMs actually work to understand that the thing they're reading isn't any kind of authoritative answer to whatever question or prompt they just searched for. Since Google's basically presenting it as such, it makes total sense that those masses of people will just take it at face value.
The people who are relatively tech-savvy can fall anywhere on the spectrum between flavor-aid drinking AI tech bro to AI luddite, and at least half of those users will be embracing the AI features, leaving a very small segment of users who wouldn't use them (and some percentage of those users are likely not using Google at all anymore, so they wouldn't factor into the statistics to begin with).
edit: And I guess to actually answer your question, I'm sure Google has statistics around how many users sit at the top of the results where the AI overview is, and interacting with it by clicking the "show more" button or clicking references or asking follow up questions, versus scrolling past it to the actual search results and clicking one of those.
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Comment on Grief and guilt in ~life.pets
Rudism LinkI know from personal experience that the regret of waiting too long to end your pet's suffering is way worse than the grief and guilt associated with choosing to do it before it gets to that...I know from personal experience that the regret of waiting too long to end your pet's suffering is way worse than the grief and guilt associated with choosing to do it before it gets to that point. I can tell that you love your pets, and I just want you to know that I fully believe you made the right decision.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Rudism LinkI went on another hunt for exploration-focused, no-narrative, open-world games to play while listening to podcasts and landed on The Planet Crafter, which had a sale on GOG at the time I learned...I went on another hunt for exploration-focused, no-narrative, open-world games to play while listening to podcasts and landed on The Planet Crafter, which had a sale on GOG at the time I learned about it so I nabbed it with all its DLC. I'm probably like 60 hours deep a week later (quite a feat for me) and still enjoying it.
The premise is essentially that you're beholden to some (evil?) corporation that sees fit to punish you, and your punishment is to be dropped onto a barren, non-life-supporting planet with the job of harvesting resources and building machines that gradually terraform it into one suitable for colonization. It is very satisfying to start off with basically no supplies, and the ability to only go maybe a few hundred feet from the capsule you land in before having to trek back before your oxygen tank runs out, and take it all the way to a thriving life-filled planet with a blue sky, lakes, and forests. There are also tons of areas that slowly unlock as you go (melting ice, rocks that you can blast once you gain the ability to craft explosives), and wrecks of space ships that crashed into the planet which reveal new kinds of materials and sometimes hidden lore about the planet's history and your own back story.
The mechanics of terraforming under the hood are that different things you build and do cause various stats of the planet to increase at higher rates (oxygen, heat, pressure, biomass), and all of those combine together into a terraformation index score, which gradually moves the planet through its different phases (liquid water -> lakes -> breathable air -> and so on) as it rises. The gradual transformation through the different phases, like watching water appear and then slowly rise, watching ice mountains start melting and turning into waterfalls and rivers, is all very well executed and exciting to experience. The whole game is like a combo of the two genres that I find myself most drawn to, open-world exploration and incremental games. It also has base building and some automation aspects that you can really go nuts with (bots to farm materials, auto-crafting stations to convert those to other materials, and drones to move everything around). The whole thing is basically crack cocaine for me. I've fully terraformed the first planet and now on one of its moons doing the same thing and it still hasn't gotten old.
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Comment on Lifetime Plex Pass will cost $750 USD after July 1st in ~tv
Rudism Link ParentI gave Jellyfin a go a few years ago, but all my TVs are hooked up to Rokus, and while there is a Jellyfin client for Roku, it had so many subtitle bugs that foreign films and anime became...I gave Jellyfin a go a few years ago, but all my TVs are hooked up to Rokus, and while there is a Jellyfin client for Roku, it had so many subtitle bugs that foreign films and anime became completely unwatchable for me. Subtitles would sometimes start out OK when starting from the beginning of the movie or episode, but would slowly drift out of sync. And if you had to pause, ffwd or rewind, or stop and resume something later, forget it... subtitles would sometimes be 30-60 seconds early or late, completely at random, with no way to sync them back up again without starting the whole thing over from the beginning.
I'm not sure if any of that has been fixed since I bounced back to Plex. I bought my lifetime pass back when they were under $100 so I don't plan on trying it again until Plex does something annoying that affects me personally.
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Comment on What has changed as you've gotten older? in ~talk
Rudism Link ParentI was having some lower back pain the past couple years or so (I'm 45 for reference), and just recently ditched my old el-cheapo desk chair from Amazon for a remanufactured Steelcase Leap v2....I was having some lower back pain the past couple years or so (I'm 45 for reference), and just recently ditched my old el-cheapo desk chair from Amazon for a remanufactured Steelcase Leap v2. After just a few days I already felt like a new person. Lower back pain has completely vanished since the change. Take my anecdote for what it is, but I am now a believer that your chair can make all the difference, especially if you sit in it all day for work like I do.
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Comment on The banal horror of Jimmy Fallon in ~tv
Rudism LinkI don't have a strong opinion on Fallon specifically--the last show of this format I was able to stomach was Conan O'Brien's Late Show in the 90s/00s, but I will say that I absolutely love the...I don't have a strong opinion on Fallon specifically--the last show of this format I was able to stomach was Conan O'Brien's Late Show in the 90s/00s, but I will say that I absolutely love the writing in this article. The language in this passage really jumped out at me:
As Altman offers up the future of his own offspring to the black box of his company’s large language model, Fallon’s grin never wavers. It is the ultimate Gothic inversion: the living child is transformed into a data set to be optimized, while the host performs a pantomime of joy to mask the sound of a tomb clicking shut.
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Comment on How I feel about LLM (AI) writing in ~tech
Rudism Link ParentI think it's essentially become shorthand for anything generated wholly or in part by AI (regardless of perceived quality).I think it's essentially become shorthand for anything generated wholly or in part by AI (regardless of perceived quality).
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Comment on The boy that cried Mythos in ~comp
Rudism Link ParentIs it ironic? Can you not use AI or see value in it for certain things, while also being skeptical of it in other unrelated instances? Using an LLM means you're not allowed to be critical of the...The irony of this piece is that you can play count the LLM writing tropes in it. If you make it a drinking game you'll pass out before the end.
Is it ironic? Can you not use AI or see value in it for certain things, while also being skeptical of it in other unrelated instances? Using an LLM means you're not allowed to be critical of the companies that sell them or hype them up? To be clear, I have no idea if the author used AI to help write this (it doesn't come off that way to me personally, but people have told me I write like an AI too so maybe my ability to detect it just sucks), but this kind of ad hominem really rubs me the wrong way.
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Comment on Help - Steam Link inconsistent across different games in ~games
Rudism Link ParentI am also a convert to Sunshine/Moonlight due to many issues encountered with Steam Link (Linux host, clients on a combo of Linux and Android devices). I've only had one major problem with...I am also a convert to Sunshine/Moonlight due to many issues encountered with Steam Link (Linux host, clients on a combo of Linux and Android devices). I've only had one major problem with Sunshine (you need to jump through some hoops if you're running Wayland), but once I got that worked out it's been 100x more reliable and consistent compared to the constant struggles I had with Steam Link prior to the switch.
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Comment on What's something that you missed out on? in ~talk
Rudism Link ParentCrypto wallets are protected by private keys, which is just a blob of data. When you use an online wallet or a crypto exchange, that private key necessarily has to be stored by the app or exchange...Crypto wallets are protected by private keys, which is just a blob of data. When you use an online wallet or a crypto exchange, that private key necessarily has to be stored by the app or exchange in order to access and do anything with the funds, which means the private key is vulnerable to hackers. Once the hackers get that key, they control the funds in the wallet.
A cold wallet isn't technically any different from a hot wallet, it just means your private key is not stored anywhere online... the key is on a device that isn't accessible over the internet, like an unplugged hard drive or printed out on paper, making it completely inaccessible (to online hackers at least, obviously someone could still break through whatever physical security you have around whatever you're storing the key on to rob you and get it that way).
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Rudism Link ParentUpdate: I ended up returning it just shy of putting 2 hours into it. Dunno if it's because Linux or what, but I was getting occasional stutters and screen tearing (despite vsync being on) that...Update: I ended up returning it just shy of putting 2 hours into it. Dunno if it's because Linux or what, but I was getting occasional stutters and screen tearing (despite vsync being on) that were driving me crazy.
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Comment on Linux privilege escalation (CVE-2026-31431) in ~comp
Rudism Link ParentWhen you're writing markdown that gets converted to HTML, you can insert an en dash with -- and an em dash with ---. I also use them quite a bit in my writing—but now I second guess myself for...When you're writing markdown that gets converted to HTML, you can insert an en dash with
--and an em dash with---. I also use them quite a bit in my writing—but now I second guess myself for fear that I'll come off sounding like an AI. -
Comment on Looking for early users to try my app in ~tech
Rudism (edited )LinkIt's not something I'm in the target audience for, but I do have some recommendations: Don't limit searches and tags for free users. Artificial limitations like that will turn people off, and once...It's not something I'm in the target audience for, but I do have some recommendations:
- Don't limit searches and tags for free users. Artificial limitations like that will turn people off, and once they've written you off you've probably lost those users for ever instead of keeping them around to potentially entice them into upgrading in the future.
- Include syncing at the Pro tier. I think that's the main thing people will want to upgrade for, and those users will be your bread and butter (assuming the product ever gets traction). I'd also throw syncing to and using the mobile apps on this tier (and build the ability to subscribe via Google or Apple's in-store mechanisms at this tier as well, with a free trial period to get them hooked).
- Differentiate the expert tier on the 3rd party app integrations instead. I suspect those will be a bigger pain in the ass to maintain and support anyway, so it feels easier to justify why that should cost more.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Rudism LinkI picked up Assassin's Creed Odyssey + Seasons Pass on Steam since I've been eying that one as a potential mindless podcast-listening time-sink ever since it came out, and the price is finally...I picked up Assassin's Creed Odyssey + Seasons Pass on Steam since I've been eying that one as a potential mindless podcast-listening time-sink ever since it came out, and the price is finally right on sale for $20 right now. So far it's delivering what I wanted--neat looking open world to explore, simplistic side missions, no high-pressure story missions shoved down my throat. Unless they drop the ball somehow once I progress a bit further I could see myself putting a decent number of hours into it.
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Comment on Which covers did it better than (or put a fresh twist on) the original? in ~music
Rudism LinkI really like the cover of David Bowie's Modern Love by The Last Town Chorus.I really like the cover of David Bowie's Modern Love by The Last Town Chorus.
I've never played any Destiny games beyond an hour or two to see what all the fuss was about, or gotten into any live service games at all really (I'm a pretty strict single-player-only kind of person). But I do have extremely fond memories of Bungie. My first family computers back in the 90s were all Macs (first was a Mac Classic, followed by an LC 630, and finally a G4 Power Mac). Needless to say I was super jealous of all my PC-owning friends, because all the good games were either PC exclusives or took years for their Mac ports to come out.
Bungie was one of the few studios putting high quality games out for the Mac (either before a PC port or as Mac exclusives), one of the rare instances where (in my mind at least) my PC friends were a bit jealous of me. I bought big box copies of the whole Marathon trilogy as each game came out and sunk so much time into those. Felt kind of betrayed when they sold out to Microsoft, and as a result never really played any of the Halo games. And I have absolutely zero interest in the latest Marathon live service game, which makes me a little sad because I was so hyped about the Marathon franchise back in the day.
Sorry for the slightly off-topic response.